Would've been nice if they were upfront with their ads, and it costs minimum $100 to be a playable level, $300 to be a leaderboard contender, around $1000 to be your server's top 10. Most servers have rules that no one follows, so if you do end up spending $100 and become an officer in your alliance, you'll spend most of your time writing emails to alliances for breaking NAP. It's basically an HR simulator with occasional battles. The puzzles give you less rewards than your daily freebies.