Hero and Resource Management
- Focus on One Faction: At the start, it's best to choose one of the three main factions (League, Horde, or Nature) and focus your resources on that faction. This will allow you to build a powerful, cohesive team more quickly.
- Focus Your Resources: It's better to have one strong, fully-invested hero queue than several mediocre ones. Concentrate your gear, shards, and other resources on your main team to get the most power out of them.
- Soldiers are a Must: Don't neglect your soldiers! They are a significant part of your team's overall power and are often the difference between winning and losing a fight. Always make sure your heroes are accompanied by the maximum number of soldiers.
- Save Universal Legendary Shards: Universal Legendary Hero Shards are precious. Do not use them on Legendary heroes. Instead, save them to upgrade your Mythic heroes, who are much stronger in the long run.
- Use Meat for Your Main Queue: Be mindful of how you spend your meat resource. Focus on your main hero queue to ensure they have enough power to advance in the game. When you first start the game you'll need to get more heroes from Adventure mode or the Tavern. Blue/Purple heroes I wouldn't spend meat past level 110 or 120. It'll be very important to maximize your meat supply. See the meat requirement guide on this site.
- Read Hero Abilities: Don't just pick heroes based on rarity. Read their skills and passive abilities to build strong, synergistic teams. For example, some heroes gain damage from attacking 'burned' enemies, so pair them with heroes who can inflict that status effect. Also, pay close attention to Hero bonding for more bonuses.
- Gather Rubies: Rubies are a crucial bottleneck in the late game. Actively mine for rubies on the world map and assign your strongest heroes to the ruby mine back at your home base.
Faction Guide: Choosing Your Path
This guide is based on a deep analysis of community videos and will help you understand the core mechanics and strengths of each faction. Choosing your main faction early is one of the most important decisions you'll make!
The Counter System
Top Heroes operates on a simple but powerful counter system. Understanding this is key to winning your PvP battles:
- Nature counters Horde.
- Horde counters League.
- League counters Nature.
League Faction
League is a strong faction that focuses heavily on skill damage. It’s relatively easy to acquire the meta heroes early on, but they can be expensive to fully awaken.
- Meta Heroes: Adjudicator, Rose Princess, Paragon, Artificer. Other key heroes include Bard, Pyro, and Nun. Pyro is highlighted as a flagship DPS character.
- Performance: Good against Nature, but struggles against the high DPS of Horde teams. Does medium damage in PvE (World Bosses).
- Cost: Can be expensive to fully awaken, requiring up to 27 Soul Stones for a three-Legendary lineup.
Nature Faction
Nature is all about survivability and sustain. They use minions and summons to take damage, which allows them to stay in fights longer and makes them a very balanced faction in the counter system.
- Meta Heroes: Monk, Ne Zha, Tidecaller, Pixie, Forest Maiden. Tidecaller is widely considered the best hero in the game, functioning as a damage dealer, healer, and tank.
- Performance: Excels in PvP, easily defeating Horde teams and holding its own against League. In PvE, it's an even match against League but may fall slightly behind in pure skill damage.
- Cost: A middle-of-the-pack cost to awaken heroes, typically costing 18 Soul Stones for two Legendary heroes.
- Pro-Tip: The Nightfall Castle skin provides powerful buffs specifically for Nature heroes.
Horde Faction
Horde is the master of raw attack and high damage. This faction is unmatched in PvE and can destroy League teams even with a significant power disadvantage in PvP.
- Meta Heroes: Beastmaster, Desert Prince, Witch, Storm Maiden, Wukong. Wukong is the essential, high-damage dealer of the Horde meta.
- Performance: The best faction for PvE damage. Dominant against League in PvP, but gets easily defeated by Nature.
- Cost: One of the cheapest factions to max out because you only need to awaken one Legendary hero, costing 9 Soul Stones.
- Pro-Tip: The Blazing Fortress and Tower of Chaos castle skins provide powerful attack and crit rate bonuses for Horde heroes.
Horde Faction (Detailed)
Legendary Heroes
These are the heroes you'll likely start with. While they are useful in the early game, they will eventually be replaced by Mythic heroes.
- Wilderness Hunter: An early-game hero who will be replaced by Storm Maiden.
- Swordmaster: This hero's role will be replaced by Desert Prince.
- Shaman: This hero's role will be replaced Witch.
- Barbarian, Soulmancer, Warlock: These heroes have roles that continue into the mid-game, but keep an eye out for their Mythic replacements.
- HeadHunter: Available in S1 Adventure Mode, not a main hero but optional to collect.
Mythic Heroes
Mythic heroes start arriving in week six and are the long-term investment for your team. They will replace your legendary heroes based on their respective roles.
- Storm Maiden: Replaces Wilderness Hunter.
- Desert Prince: Replaces Swordmaster.
- Witch: Replaces Shaman.
Notes for Horde Heroes
- Horde currently has 5 Mythic heros so one of the following Legendary will complete the lineup.
- Barbarian: Is particularly good against the Nature faction.
- Soulmancer: Is a strong hero against both League and Horde factions.
- Warlock: Is a great hero to use for PvE damage rankings.
- Awakening priority Soulmancer or Barbarian to (4+1), Warlock would be second.
- Final Lineup Front: Beastmaster & Desert Prince, Middle: Wu Kong & (Barbarian, Warlock or Soulmancer) and Back: Storm Maiden & Witch
League Faction (Detailed)
Legendary Heroes
These are the heroes you'll likely start with. While they are useful in the early game, they will eventually be replaced by Mythic heroes.
- Astrologer: An early-game hero who will be replaced by Paragon.
- Secret Keeper: This hero's role will be taken over by Rose Princess.
- Bard: You will eventually replace this hero with Bishop.
- Pyromancer: Has a role that continue into the mid-game, but will be replaced by Artificer later in the game.
Mythic Heroes
Mythic heroes start arriving in week six and are the long-term investment for your team. They will replace your legendary heroes based on their respective roles.
- Paragon: Replaces Astrologer.
- Rose Princess: Replaces Secret Keeper.
- Bishop: Replaces Bard.
- Artificer: Replaces Pyro.
Notes for League Heroes
- Legendary awakening order is Pyro (2+1), Adjudicator (Max), Nun (2+1), Finish Pyro, Finish Nun, Bard.
- Some endgame players use Bard and Pyromancer over Bishop and Nun.
- Final Lineup: Front: Adjunicator & Rose Princess, Middle: Nun & Bard or Biship, Back: Artificer & Paragon
Nature Faction (Detailed)
Legendary Heroes
Nature only has two initial Mythic heroes, so you'll be relying on these legendary heroes for a while.
- Treeguard: An early-game hero who will be replaced by Monk.
- Druid: This hero's role will be taken over by Tidecaller.
- Windwalker, Stonemason and Sage: These heroes are useful in the early to mid-game, but keep an eye out for their Mythic replacements.
- Stonemason: Available in S1 Adventure Mode, not a main hero but optional to collect.
Mythic Heroes
Mythic heroes start arriving in season one and are the long-term investment for your team. They will replace your legendary heroes based on their respective roles.
- Monk: Replaces Treeguard.
- Tidecaller: Replaces Druid.
- Petalis: Replaces Sage.
- Ne Zha: Replaces Windwalker.
Notes for Nature Heroes
- The recommended legendary awakening order is Pixie (2+1), Forest Maiden (2+1) and finally Sage.
- Exclusive gear upgrade priority is Tidecaller and Ne Zha (if available) to +10 first.
- Focus on Tidecaller first, Pixie, Forest Maiden, Monk and Sage in that order.
- Final Lineup: Front: Ne Zha & Monk, Middle: Petalis & Tidecaller and Back: Pixie & Forest Maiden
Obtaining and Using Hero Shards
You can obtain hero shards through various in-game activities:
- Adventure Mode: Progressing through the main campaign.
- Daily Tasks & Bounties: Completing your daily goals.
- Events: Participating in special events often rewards hero shards.
- Tavern: Recruiting new heroes can yield shards.
- Plundering Carriages: A potentially lucrative method for gaining shards daily.
- Battlefield: Your guild's performance can earn you a significant amount of shards weekly.
Blue hero Shards
Blue shards are most common in the early game. Here's how to make the most of them:
Leveling Up: Your primary focus initially should be on using blue shards to level up and star your heroes to their maximum potential.
Trade Store: This is the most recommended use for your extra blue shards. You can exchange them for epic hero shards. The store allows for 10 purchases weekly, with each purchase costing 20 blue shards.
Hero Tower: After your blue heroes are maxed out, you can use their specific shards in the Hero Tower (unlocks at level 22) to boost faction stats. It's generally advised to prioritize the Trade Store exchange due to the high shard cost for minimal returns here.
Legendary & Mythic Hero Shards
The ultimate goal of shard management is to acquire and empower legendary and, eventually, mythic heroes.
Universal Shards: Be very selective with your universal legendary shards. Community wisdom suggests saving these for mythic heroes, as they are much harder to obtain. If you use them on a legendary hero, focus on a top-tier hero that will be a long-term part of your team, like Pyromancer.
Long-Term Planning: Identify a target team composition and focus your shard investments on those heroes. Don't spread your resources too thin across many heroes.
Mythic Focus: Once you are in a position to do so, prioritize investing your universal shards in mythic heroes like Rose Princess or Paragon, as they are the most powerful in the game.
Epic Hero Shards
Epic shards are more valuable and require a more strategic approach:
Prioritize Unique Traits
Before exchanging epic shards for legendary ones, focus on maxing out the unique traits of specific epic heroes that provide game-wide bonuses. The top priorities are:
- Brawler: 30% Tech Research Speed
- Knight: Training Speed Increase
- Ranger: Ruby Gathering Speed Increase
Strategic Exchanges
- Trade Store for Legendary Shards: Once you've maxed the essential epic hero traits, use their extra shards in the Trade Store to acquire shards for legendary heroes.
- Recruitment Tokens: You can also exchange extra shards from non-priority epic heroes for recruitment tokens.
- Maintain a Reserve: It's a good practice to keep a reserve of around 100 extra shards in case a new legendary hero you want becomes available for purchase.
Epic Hero Passives
After getting Epic Heroes to 2-star Platinum rank, you unlock their Passive Traits. The third Passive Trait is Universal and can be leveled up to Lv30 using more Epic Hero shards.
Brawler
30% Tech Research Speed
Knight
30% Soldier Training Speed
Ranger
30% Ruby Gathering Speed
Outlaw
30% Wood Gathering Speed
Rogue
30% Stone Gathering Speed
Minister
30% Soldier Healing Speed
Priestess
30% Soldier Healing Speed
Dancer
30% Soldier Healing Speed
Building Hero Queue Power
Improving your hero queue power is a multi-faceted process that involves strategic hero upgrades, smart gear management, and overall account progression. A core strategy is to focus your resources on a single faction to build a powerful main queue with faction bonuses.
1. Hero Upgrade Priority
- Focus on a Single Faction: This allows you to create a powerful main queue with faction bonuses.
- Prioritize Your Main Queue: Don't spread your resources too thin. Focus on maxing out your main team of heroes before moving on to others.
- Key Hero Priorities:
- Tanks First: Max out your main tank (like Prince) early. Their survival is key.
- Damage Dealers: Heroes like Wukong and Storm Maiden are great investments after your tank is solid.
- F2P Staples: Tidecaller and Monk are often high-priority upgrades for free-to-play players.
- Read Abilities: Pay close attention to hero abilities and passive skills to find powerful synergies.
2. Gear Upgrade Suggestions
- Epic > Legendary (at first): A fully upgraded Epic faction gear set (+10) is often stronger than a base-level Legendary piece.
- Upgrade Path: Get Epic gear to +10, then save shards for Legendary. A base Legendary piece is an instant upgrade from Epic +10.
- Keep Sets Leveled: Keep your four gear sets within the same upgrade tier (0-10, 10-20, etc.) to maintain stat bonuses.
- Faction Gear: Aim for gear with faction bonuses from the guild store for a significant power boost.
- Mythic Gear: This is an extremely long-term goal for after your Legendary gear is maxed out.
3. General Power Improvement Tips
- Research: Provides significant passive bonuses to your heroes and army.
- Buildings & Statues: Directly increase your power level and provide various benefits.
- Training Soldiers: Regularly train soldiers to keep your army strong.
- Join a Strong Guild: Access to valuable resources and rewards.
- Morale: Understand the morale system to maximize your damage output.