Costumes

**Costume** is similar to a template for an alternative skin of a Hero (of the *higher rarity* – unlike Emblems but like Limit Breaking, there are no Costumes for 1\* and 2\* feeders!). The Hero can "**equip**" the Costume in the Hero Card to change stats, Special Skill set, Class, and of course appearance. Ascended Costumes also permanently increase their Hero's stats, even when they aren't used.

Costumes were introduced in Version 24 (November 2019) to make Season 1 Heroes more competitive; in Version 50 (August 2022) followed additional, "secondary" Costumes for some 4\* and 5\* S1 Heroes (these are summoned in a "2-for-1-pack", both together).

Costumes can be summoned (together with their Heroes) every other month through the **Costume Chamber** using **Costume Keys** – or Gems, of course; however it is worth noting that Costume Keys are awarded so often in Chest loot etc. that even an idle player will come to the Chamber with enough Keys for at least 2–3 Summons. Also, Hero Academy sometimes produces a Hero together with the Costume.

Heroes wearing a Costume have their Special Skill and Class changed, enabling them to be used more flexibly and frequently. E.g. Costumed Sonya changes from Paladin to Druid, and can be used in the latter's Class Quests. However, the costumed Hero inherits the Talent Path from the original Hero and can/need not be trained separately with the new class's Emblems (i. e. Sonya uses only the original Paladin emblems, which give the same bonus also to the costumed Druid form). Emblem effects are furthermore only applied to the Costume after it is fully maxed (levels and skills), just like when a "naked" Hero of such a Class could start the talent path.

In the Museum, each Costume has its own slot as a separate Hero form, included in the displayed "Heroes in Museum" total. (In the past there were various approaches to whether Costumes were counted in various "Hero Roster Mastery" limited-repetition events like the Tavern of Legends, but they are generally not recognised and get removed from the available roster together with the main form.)

## Leveling

The Costume needs to be leveled and ascended from the humble beginnings separately from the original Hero. Leveling works like with Hero, but faster: off-color feeders provide 2x as much experience when fed to costumes, same-color thrice the basic off-color rate, i. e. 2,5x the 120% XP they give to Heroes themselves. Costumes can also be leveled using spare copies of (other) Costumes, which brings a *lot* of XP as well as percentage for raising Special Skill level when using the same kind of Costume. However, a Costume cannot be ascended past the ascension level of its Hero; this requires lengthy leveling of both, even (or especially) if the Costumed version is preferable to the basic Hero.

If the player has more than one copy of a particular Hero, the situation gets complicated: Receiving just a single appropriate Costume allows all those Heroes to start leveling their *own* Costumes, but this means that each such Hero's progress through the Costume's leveling is separate, as are the bonuses it brings. (Here the costumed metaphor, of siblings borrowing/sharing clothes, breaks down completely – a sewing pattern might be a better one.)

Also, as long as a Costumed (or not) Hero is active in a War or Raid tournament defence, s/he is bound to that appearance (a second such Hero could of course un/equip otherwise). Similary, un/equipping a Costume affects the Hero in *all* teams and contexts; this often brings unpleasant surprises after the player switches to a weaker form for a Class Quest, but forgets to change the Hero back before a Raid.

## Costume Bonus

After a Costume is ascended, it starts providing additional percentage bonus to the stats of both the original Hero and the costumed form itself. The maximum bonus (for Season 1 Heroes only!) of 5% Attack, 5% Defence, 10% Health, 5% Mana Generation is applied when the Costume is fully ascended and leveled as well as its Special Skill brought to 8/8. Until then every ascension level grants smaller, incremental bonuses. The Hero Card always shows the bonus under a small icon of a mask – gray when a Costume is available but not yet giving any bonus, golden for all ascensions above that; for two-Costumed Heroes, the mask has a small "2x" overlaid and after both are fully maxed, it becomes sequined and serrated.

Costume Bonus: Attack / Defence / Health / Mana Generation, in %
 4\* and 5\*
 Non-S1 (most)
 Morlovia, Santa

For Heroes with two Costumes, bonuses from both combine though don't really add up as that would make them too powerful especially regarding mana where 5 % remains the ceiling. For example, a 5\* Hero with one Costume fully maxed and second just brought to Ascension 2 has 6 / 6 / 11 / 5; so the second Costume's contribution is just 1 / 1 / 1 (/ 0) continuing even with each further ascension step until 8 / 8 / 13 / 5 just before the completion (beta reported maintaining the basic first-costume increments of 1 / 1 / 2 being maintained here but this seems to have been nerfed). A 4\* Hero with Costumes at 2nd and 3rd Ascension has 3 / 3 / 6 / 3, jumping however to 5 / 5 / 10 / 5 when the second Ascends to the 4th (so perhaps it is the *number* of ascension steps of both Costumes that is summed for the final result?).

## List

Costumes are available for the following Heroes, with secondary and teritary denoted *(2)* and *(3)* respectively. *All* Classic Heroes have now a Costume available, although they were introduced gradually.

A comprehensive overview on the stats of the original and costumed heroes is available on the forum.

History of how Costumes were added until May 2022 is available at an old version of this page.

## Forum Links

* "Costume" Forum Tag
	+ Costume Bonus Master Thread (final bonuses for various groups)
	+ "Early Information on Round 2 of Secondary Season 1 Hero Costumes" Beta Thread (tables of bonus progress on lower ascensions; claimed somewhat different % in beta)