Arcane Labyrinth

The **Arcane Labyrinth** is an area accessible from the Dark Forest after beating stage 2-4. Players can advance through the labyrinth to the final goal; to defeat the boss on the final, 3rd floor. It is refreshed every 48 hours, during which all tiles and rewards will be reset. Each floor of the labyrinth contains 9 rows of 2-3 hex tiles, plus 1 single tile at the top (the floor's boss).

Every enemy defeated will award players with XP, gold, labyrinth tokens, and a relic. For the floor bosses, players may also get diamonds and Heroic Merits that can be used in the Champions of Esperia event.

## Faq

 Why does the difficulty of my Labyrinth vary from other players?
 How often does the Labyrinth store get refreshed?
 Where can I acquire Dura's Tears?
 Why did Wrizz, in the new difficulty mode on the third floor of the labyrinth, disappear after I've failed once?
 What's the difference between the hard mode and normal mode on the third floor of the labyrinth?
1. All monsters on the third floor's hard mode are stronger than those in normal mode, so they drop more gold coins and give more experience than normal mode.
2. Because the level of the Boss determines the level of rewards given, the Bosses in hard mode are naturally stronger than those of normal mode, so hard mode generally gives better rewards.
 If I have more than one of the same relic, will its attributes and bonuses be stacked?
 Are the rewards for completing a Labyrinth floor randomized?
 Is there a storage limit for Labyrinth Tokens?

## Lore

Perhaps regarded as the most enigmatic place in Esperia, the Arcane Labyrinth has had many an adventurer step into it, only to never be seen or heard from again. The hope of obtaining the great treasures rumored to lay deep within has been the downfall of many adventurers. At its center lies a vortex that has radiated magical energies since the dawn of time.

The vortex's green brilliance has been said to have held people in a trance for a whole lifetime. Those lucky enough to have made it out reported finding themselves being followed and tormented by phantasms and other inexplicable creatures.

## Guide

* The Arcane Labyrinth will be refreshed every 48 hours. All monsters, buildings, and rewards will be reset.
* Players can explore their current and surrounding grids.
	+ Be careful when choosing your route because each time a player steps onto a new grid, the adjacent grids will be destroyed.
* If you're able to defeat the defenders of the labyrinth, you'll be rewarded with labyrinth tokens that can be used to purchase goods at the labyrinth store.
	+ Labyrinth tokens can be spent in the store for blue Soulstones, rare heroes, Hero's Essence, and elite heroes.
* Enemies within the Labyrinth may drop relices that can be collected. Each relic has unique properties.
	+ Relics can only be used within the Arcane Labyrinth.
* If the labyrinth is reset, all relics that you've acquired thus far will disappear.
* Arcane Labyrinth enemies are real players' Arena of Heroes formations which have been corrupted.

## Tiles

### Enemies

Most of the tiles you'll encounter in the labyrinth are enemies. They come in 3 levels:

* **Brown banner**:
Easier to dispatch, but they drop lower-tier relics: typically rare (blue) or epic (purple)
* **Red banner**:
Harder to dispatch, but drop epic (purple) or legendary (orange) relics
* **Boss**:
There is 1 boss at the top of each floor. Obviously, they are the hardest to dispatch, but they always drop legendary (orange) relics.
Also, the bosses on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor give you 50-100-200 diamonds when you defeat them.

### Abandoned Wagons

You can choose an extra hero to aid you in the labyrinth. You cannot use them outside the labyrinth, and like everything else, they are also reset every 48 hours.

Although it is random what heroes are in the wagons, their level and tier will be similar to your own heroes. (More precisely: they will match the level and tier of the average of your best 5 heroes.)

The first floor has 4 wagons, the second 3, and the third only 2.

### Fountain of Vitality

When you select this tile, you can heal all your alive heroes by 50% of their HP.

### Mystic

When you select this tile, the game randomly picks one of your fallen heroes and revives it. This can be a hero you own or one you got from a wagon.

When no hero died, the most hurt hero get's healed to full.

### The Roamer

This is a travelling salesman. You can buy his items with diamonds.
The first 3 items are always equippable gear, sold at full price, and the 4th can be any item or consumable (Hero's Essence, gear, etc.), and it is always 40% off.

## Relics

 *Main Article: Relics*

Every enemy you dispatch drops a relic.

These are powerful artifacts that strengthen your heroes.

Their effects are various: For example, they can

* Heal your heroes or provide them with energy at the end or beginning of a fight
* Increase their stats (critical rating, defense, dodge, life drain, etc.)
* Damage, weaken, or disable your opponents
* etc.

There are 3 tiers: rare (blue), epic (purple), and legendary (orange)
The higher rarity relics are generally more powerful, and there are some unique ones in the epic and legendary tiers.

Relics have an effect on all your heroes unless otherwise specified by the relic's description. (For example, some relics only boost the power of heroes of a certain faction or a certain type.)

## Strategy

There is no definite strategy for the labyrinth, but here are some pointers:

* It is extremely important to keep your team alive and in good health, because they don't heal automatically between the fights.
* Start with the following formation, if you can: 1 healer, 1 tank, and either 1 DPS & 2 CC or 2 DPS & 1 CC
For example, Nemora, Tasi, and Lucius is a great core team that you can enhance with your best DPS and another CC hero.

### Floors

* **On the first floor**:
Concentrate on gathering high-tier relics. Red banner enemies tend to be easier to defeat here.
It is tempting to go through all 4 wagons, to get 4 extra heroes, but try to weigh if you really need them. Usually, I only pick the wagons, if I can get a higher tier Shemira, Athalia, Lucius, Nemora, Tasi, Rosaline, or Brutus than I already have.
* **On the second floor:**
If you feel you have gathered good relics, and your team is strong enough, continue the relic gathering. Otherwise, this might be a good time to hit a few wagons and get a second set of heroes in case the first formation gets wiped out.
* **On the third floor:**
Try to survive :-)
If you got good relics, and you still have your initial formation, there is a good chance you'll make it to the top, and defeat the boss.

### General advice

* Activate your heroes ultimate abilities manually. Using the automatic option is often wasteful. *(For example, healing your team when they are in full HP)*
* Don't activate the ultimate abilities unless you have to. Typically I fire the shield, DPS area effects, and CC effects at the beginning of the fight, then let my heroes recover their energy while they finish off the weakened enemies with their normal abilities attacks. This way I'll start the next fight with full energy bars, and I can fire off the same combo again.
* If you see that your team is about to be wiped out, **pause the fight**, and restart or quit. Your heroes will be reset to the state (HP&energy) they had before the fight. Try to rearrange them, or swap out a few heroes to increase your faction advantage.
* If you cannot defeat an opponent, try to weaken them with your second best formation, and then finish them off with your best formation. *(Or the other way around)*
* Only enter Hard Mode if you got the best relics and extra heroes on the first 2 floors, or if you feel that you won't be able to defeat even the normal mode 3rd-floor boss (you have nothing to lose).
* Dura's Tears:
	+ If both your primary and secondary formation gets wiped out, consume a Dura's Tear potion to revive all fallen heroes, and set all your heroes' (revived or not) HP and energy bar to max.
	+ While this is a very strong potion, use it sparingly, as you only get 3 per week. So on average, you'll have 1 to use per labyrinth.
* *You only get Labyrinth Tokens when you defeat enemies. Only use the "Mystic", "Fountain of Vitality" or "Abandoned Wagons" when either have no other choice or when you actually need them. You can use them progress faster, but you will gain "less" rewards.*

### Relics

Some relics are stronger than others. Here are a few to look out for:

* **Deathly Embrace** (legendary): Kills enemies instantly (actually about in 1 second) if their HP falls lower than 15%. This relic circumvents immunities (e.g. Brutus) and helps you defeat enemies that regenerate health (e.g. Shemira, Nemora)
* **Spider Thread Gloves** (legendary): Disables enemies for 5 seconds at the beginning of the battle. This gives you some time to fire your heroes ultimate abilities in peace. Also, this prevents assassin heroes (such as Kaz and Silvina) to teleport behind your lines, and redirect area effects from the main force of the enemy.
* **Pendant of Force** (legendary): Lowers the enemies' HP by 35% at the beginning of the battle, and slowly gives them back in the first 10 seconds. Useful if you have a good burst DPS in your team (like Belinda), but if you cannot defeat at least 1-2 enemies in the 10s window, it becomes useless.
Combos very well with Deathly Embrace: Basically you only need to do 50% damage to enemy heroes in the first 10s to dispatch them.
* **Pendant of Betrayal** (legendary): If an enemy receives damage in the first 10 seconds of the battle, all other enemies also receive 15% of that damage. If you have a hero with a good area DPS ability (like Belinda), this relic makes them a beast.
* **Moonstone** and **Sunstone** (epic): One helps your heroes recover HP when their energy is above 50%, the other helps them recover energy when their HP is above 50%. If you have both, the energy & health recovery rate is doubled, but having only one is great too.
* **Firebinger** and **Icebringer** (epic): One gives your heroes a chance to decrease the attack ratings of enemies they damage, the other does the same but with defense ratings. If you have both, they also give attacks a chance to increase the attack/defense rating of your hero.
* **Poisonous Embrace** (epic): Gives normal attacks a chance to poison enemies. The poison effects are stacked, making this a useful relic for long battles. against resilient enemy heroes.
* **Praetorian Helmet** (legendary/epic/rare): decreases the damage your heroes receive by 25/15/10%. Increases survivability for your team, especially at the first battles (when you don't have other relics to boost you or hinder the enemies), and in boss battles.

Of course, this is not the full list of good relics, but the others are more or less self-explanatory, or their usefulness depends on what factions or what heroes you use.

## Hard Mode

In a recent update, the Labyrinth got a decision point at the end of the 2nd floor: You can continue to the 'normal' 3rd floor, or enter a 'Hard Mode' 3rd floor. You need to beat stage 9-24 in the campaign to get access to Hard Mode Labyrinth.

On this hard mode version there are some unusual tiles:

* **Dark Wagon - Corrupted Hero**: You have to defeat a high-level, high-tier playable hero. If you are successful, it will join you for the rest of the floor. Most of the time it is advised to skip the Dark Wagon tile as it offers little benefits for how hard it is.

* **Cave of Treasures - Wrizz**: You can take a swing at Wrizz, who we already know from Guild Hunts.
But be careful, because he is very strong (His strength is determined by the strength of your strongest character + 40~50 levels higher), and if you don't defeat him in one try, he will escape, and you cannot fight him again until the next reset.
On the plus side, if you do defeat him, you'll get one of these great rewards: 3000 guild coins, 10000 gladiator coins, 3000 labyrinth tokens. You are not able to pick which of 3 rewards you want, it is random.

## Trivia

* Arcane Labyrinth enemies are real players' Arena of Heroes formations which have been corrupted.