@voltronpig Main way to get higher scores is by Promoting members using Spark you earn from Spark Runs. You promote with the rank icon in profile of each TF. The promotion does NOT increase their power at all, it multiplies their score in Spark Runs and Events. And promotion bonus is x4 if that TF is in featured squad from Event that week.
Side note: your goal should be to have two promoted members of each squad. Typically your primary is TF with higher Spark Run rating. Your secondary is either another from squad with high SR rating or TF with a sharpshooter weapon if primary isn’t. Ex. Ultimate Megatron is best in his squad. Goldbite Grimlock isn’t great but he’s my secondary in case there’s a missile day during events.
Second way, yes, is to add extra runs with gems. I typically do the first refresh most days for 10 gems. But you can wait and see and decide if it’s worth it. If it will help you get one of the bigger rewards that’s day, it’s worth it.
You can Overpower a couple different ways. Main way is using tokens during that squad’s event week with token. Sometimes a TF from a different squad is in token exchange for an event also, so keep your eyes open for that in case it’s an important TF you’re missing or need to promote. Second way to overpower is random from a Gold Crate. Does not happen very often.
I don’t recommend buying gold crates with gems btw. Save your gems for adding a second or third TF in the 3 challenges, topping up runs during events, unlocking Jungle Run & Devastator, and unlocking the other Combiners.
If you haven’t noticed, once per day you get a free crate for watching a video, usually Steel but sometimes Gold, when you open and close the crate store. It’s glitchy, so sometimes you might need to open & close the crate store 5, 10, even 20 times, but that free crate is always there once per day.