Unit

centerFor complete list and recruitment methods please visit Units page.
Units represent the backbone of a player's formation (army).
Most of the game revolves around collecting and developing units, which are then deployed in various Formations, together with a specific Hero, to battle through the game content (be it PvP or PvE).
Units have the most dense and complex functionality associated with them, so it's one of the most difficult concepts to master in Era of Chaos.
=Rarity=
Currently, units come in four (unofficially five) rarities: R, SR, (SR+), SSR and UR.
This rarity should give a good idea to the player on how available these units are, and subsequently how easy it is to upgrade them.
Read more about unit rarity here
=Recruitment=
There are two ways in which a unit can be recruited. The player can either directly obtain it as a full unit, or accumulate a certain number of Unit Tokens in order to unlock the unit.
Every recruited unit always starts with a specific rank.
See below for the number of required tokens and starting rank for each type of unit:
Unit Rarity	Tokens Required	Starting Rank
R 	10 	★
SR 	30 	★★
SR+ 	80 	★★★
SSR 	80 	★★★
UR 	80 	★★★
==Where to Obtain==
Full units are commonly available via the Altars, Main Story rewards, during events, VIP progression, through Unit Souls, or as special prizes.
Note that SR+ units in particular are, at this point, only available for paying players (and not purchasable with Diamonds).
Tokens are most commonly obtained in the Barracks, Underground, Archery Expert, Marketplace, Wishing Fountain and specific events. Please note that it is impossible for players to obtain specific tokens in the Barracks and Wishing Fountain before the unit has been recruited first.
Each unit's wiki page will list all possible recruitment sources for that unit.
==Extra Copies==
It is impossible to recruit (and use) multiple copies of the same unit. If a player has already recruited a unit, obtaining new full copies of the unit will automatically be converted into the equivalent number of tokens that would normally be required to recruit the unit.
For example, should a player obtain a Naga copy in the Gold Altar while that player already has Naga recruited, the new copy will be automatically converted to 80 Naga tokens. 
Note that certain PvE Formations can and will overcome this restriction. This is a way of making the game more interesting and compensate for the fact that the AI in PvE will always play a defense role (which is generally at disadvantage). It also compensates for the AI being generally less strategic than the human player.
=Rank=
As previously mentioned, every recruited unit begins with a specific rank varying from ★ to ★★★ depending on its rarity.
However, all units have the same rank cap at ★★★★★★ (6 stars) and follow the same ranking costs.
This means that even though an R unit may only start at ★, it will usually be faster to get to upper ranks due to the higher availability of unit tokens.
==Rank Nodes==
Unit ranks are upgraded in steps (or nodes), with a total of 10 nodes per rank.
Unlocking nodes requires a specific number of tokens of the unit.
Current Rank	Tokens Per Node	Total Tokens
★ 	2 	20
★★ 	5 	50
★★★ 	10 	100
★★★★ 	15 	150
★★★★★ 	20 	200
Unlocking each individual node adds a flat +ATK or +HP bonus to the unit.
Once all nodes are unlocked, the unit upgrades to the next rank and the nodes reset.
=Stats=
There are a variety of unit stats in the game that add a lot of complexity to the mechanics.
While some of the underlying mechanics are quite straightforward, others are much more complex and hard to pinpoint.
For starters please refer to the dedicated page.
=Classification=
==Role==
Each unit has a specific role assigned to it, out of a pool of five: Defense, Offense, Caster, Charge and Ranged.
Roles help diversify your army and is the game's attempt to give each unit an array of strength, weaknesses and combat style.
For example, Defense units are supposed to be the frontline of your army that keep the opposition at bay, while Ranged units would remain in the back line and deal damage from afar.
The first consequence of a unit's role is its possible placement on the battlefield. For example, Ranged units can never be placed in the first two rows, while Defense units can never occupy a slot in the last two rows. As usual, PvE formations may ignore these restrictions.
Unit Role	Possible Row Placement
Defense 	First two
Offense 	First two (with the exception of Devil,Berserker,Grim Rider and Rakshasa)
Ranged 	Last two
Caster 	Last two
Charge 	Any
Secondly, units of each role possess with a Talent Ability - this defines the "rock-paper-scissors" aspect of roles. These abilities can be further enhanced by increasing a unit's Talent.
* Defense units absorb damage and heavily counter Charge units.
* Charge units go for the backline and counter Ranged and Caster units.
* Ranged units deal heavy damage from distance and heavily counter Offense units.
* Caster units deal lesser damage than Ranged units but are more resistant to magic
* Offense units lower target defense so are best placed against enemy Defenders.
Finally, remember that unit placement is very important. The weaknesses mentioned above can be overcome with a proper team composition:
* Always keep Ranged units as far as possible from your opponents, protected by Defenders. If you expect AoE Spell Damage from the opponent, don't group them together.
* Place Offensive units behind your Defenders to avoid getting them sniped.
* Place Chargers across an enemy empty line, so they may go for the enemy backline. Don't forget about opponents' Cloak of the Undead King skeletons that will generate an extra defender.
* In return if you expect opposing Chargers, make sure you defend all lines.
* Take note of your Casters' abilities and place them accordingly in the backline.
==Faction==
Each unit belongs to a Faction - such as Castle, Inferno, Conflux, Necropolis etc. This is not only part of the Heroes of Might and Magic lore, but also an important unit characteristic in Era of Chaos.
At first glance the Faction does not have any immediate impact on units' capabilities. And in a vacuum, here are the only special characteristics of a unit of a particular faction:
* Faction Specific Skills, available in Red tier
* Holy Emblem Types, with two emblems per unit allowing only Faction specific types.
However, there are a couple of synergies that are centered around Factions and not so obvious at first glance:
* Roster bonuses are most efficient in Faction-focused Formations
* Specific heroes are strongly biased toward a faction due to their particular abilities or spells. For example, Sandro's 3rd skill with grant immunity to Low Morale for all player-owned Necropolis units among other bonuses.
* Specific spells also take faction into account (though that's more specific). For example, Darkest Hours only restores the HP of friendly Necropolis units, while it also damages only non-Necropolis enemy units.
* Specific Unit Skills may synergize directly or indirectly with units from their own Formation. For example, Monk will inflict High Morale on friendly units at the beginning of combat, while Swordsman's damage reduction is further boosted while under High Morale. 
Finally, Kingdom Championship specific Arenas allow only units and heroes of particular factions in the formations.
==Roster==
Unit Roster is another feature that lets players improve the stats of their units, specifically their ATK and HP. Separate Rosters exist for each faction and role.
For more on rosters, see the roster page.
=Upgrading=
Besides the Rank, units can be upgraded in two major directions: level and tier.
This will not only improve the stats of the unit, but also unlock skills and improve Roster score.
While you can read each component of upgrading a unit in detail below, here is the upgrade sequence:
* Player Level must first be increased by obtaining Player XP
* Unit Level must then be increased by spending Unit XP
* Unit Equipments can then be leveled up by spending Gold
* At threshold levels, Unit Equipment tier can then be increased by spending various Materials (including Books)
* Unit Tier can be increased by spending Gold
* Starting with Player Level 88, Transcendence Level of the unit can also be upgraded
You can read more about upgrading an unit here
=Skills=
Every unit has a set of 4 skills specific to them, plus two Faction-specific skills. They are the most distinguishing characteristic of each unit as it defines specific actions or bonuses in combat for that unit.
The Unit Skills system unlocks at Player Level 34. It should be noted that until then, all units still possess their Ultimate skill at level 1, but this won't be visible in the user interface.
You can read more about the unit skills here
=Talents=
Unlocked at Player Level 38, Unit Talents are another means of making your units more powerful.
Read more about talents here
=Awakening=
Unit Awakening is a further powerful means of enhancing units once they reach Orange tier (at around level 62-64).
This is inspired from unit upgrade in the original Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
Upon awakening, a unit will morph, changing its appearance and name while also gaining supplementary stats and access to extra Awakening Abilities.
Not every unit can be Awakened - as the game continues to evolve, more Awakening will be added in the future. Please check in the specific Units pages whether a unit can be Awakened or not. 
Read more about unit awakening here
=Star Soul=
Star Soul functionality introduces the possibility to further upgrade a unit's awakening into Super Awakening (colloquially "second awakening") together with the possibility of Altered Awakening (or "class change").
Read more about unit Star Soul here. 
=Skins=
Units can have a number of skins available to them. Each skin comes with a specific appearance of the unit in combat. 
Only one skin may be active at a time for a unit. The choice, however, has purely cosmetic impact and does not influence the unit's stats in any way.
Every unit starts with a default skin. On Awakening, a second skin will also always be unlocked. Unlocking either of these skins is only for cosmetic purposes and provides not advantages.
There are additional unit skins that may be obtained throughout the game. Some are obtainable only for a limited time via particular events, while others are available by purchasing Premium Edition Premium Cards.
Special skins usually provide an additional stat bonus to the unit. However, this bonus is automatically applied when the skin is unlocked, and does not require actually using the skin itself.
=Hero Bonuses=
As previously mentioned, units can benefit from Hero Specialty. You can find this in the unit's User Interface under "Relevance", or by navigating to the specific unit page.
There are two categories of abilities.
==Local Ability==
A hero's local ability is active as long as the hero is currently in the formation. If the hero is not available in the current battle, the bonus will not apply. Therefore such abilities for secondary heroes (you own in the collection but don't actually use in battle) are insignificant and can be ignored.
==Global Ability==
Every hero also has a global ability that is available even if the hero is not present. Think of them as passive abilities your units can benefit from simply by collecting and ranking up particular heroes. They are usually less powerful than the local abilities but due to their nature can be stacked.
Most often this is the hero's third ability, so it requires the hero to be at a rank of ★★★ (though some heroes' global ability is enabled only at ★★).
Familiarize yourself with the global abilities as even small bonuses can add up.
=Holy Emblems=
Units can even further be augmented with the introduction of Holy Emblems. Up to 6 emblems can be attached to a unit.
They will increase various stats to your units which can lead to a significant increase in Power.
Most importantly, multiple copies of the same Emblem will activate Set bonuses that can grant unique bonuses and abilities.
There are 8 categories of emblems, and each Unit Faction (except for Conflux) has an affinity for 2 of them.
While the unit can be equipped with 4 emblems of any category, the last 2 require a Faction affinity.
 	Order 	Neutral 	Chaos
Goodness	Castle 	Rampart 	Tower
Neutral 	Stronghold	ConfluxNeutral	Fortress
Evil 	Necropolis	DungeonCove 	Inferno
 
For more information, please check here.
Category:Units