Hero Information

**Heroes** form teams which the player commands in Battles, constituting the RPG part of Empires & Puzzles.  A full team consists of 5 heroes.  Hero Rarity, meaning also quality, is denoted by the number of stars (displayed beneath their name on the Card), from 1\*/Common up to 5\*/Legendary (see table below; heroes above 3\*/Rare are called "high rarity" in-game).  Heroes' battle statistics and special skills may be upgraded by Leveling Up and Ascension.

## Understand The Hero Card

    Every Hero trained or summoned has their information displayed in their Hero Card. While all info changes or shifts between Heroes, some of the essential, common traits are as followed:

* **Team Cost** - (top left): A simple numerical measure of each Hero's rarity+ascension combination; generally considered obsolete, without importance for gameplay (see page for details).
* **Hero Class** - Establishes what a Hero's Talents upon their completed leveling and ascension and the use of Class Emblems to unlock these talents. (ex: Nightshade's Ranger class gives her the talent to "Pierce.")
* **Family** - An indication of a Hero's origin; Families give minor peaks in Battle, becoming active when 2 or more Heroes of that Family are placed in a Team together. Some Heroes' "Family" are listed as Realm.
* **Leveling and Ascension** - All heroes begin at level 1.  When leveling (see below), the hero's Attack, Defense, and Health will increase with each new level.  They also have a chance to upgrade their Special Skill.
* **Special Skill** - Special Skill is each hero's most powerful attack, cast in Battle by tapping the hero once the mana bar is full and the portrait begins to flash.  In the example card, Nightshade's Special Skill is called "Focused Shot"; the description is always underneath the title.  Most Heroes' special skill is unique (some do share it, like Sonya and Caedmon, or Melendor and Sabina) and will not vary with new copies of the same hero, though it is changed with Costumes.  It may be upgraded as the hero levels up with a maximum rank of 8/8.
	+ **Mana Speed** determines how quickly the hero's mana bar fills up during battle.  The faster it is, the fewer matched tiles are required.

Other things of note with Hero Cards, some Heroes have other unique attributes that are included to their own. This includes, but is limited to, passives in the lower left corner and costume bonus under the Family icon should a player has at least one costume for that Hero.

## Level Up and Ascension

Leveling up occurs in the *Hero Roster* interface, accessible via the *Heroes* button in the main screen bottom menu. Upon selecting a specific hero you may choose "Level Up" on the bottom left of the hero card (see the picture with Olaf example); or vice versa, in the Roster select *LEVEL UP* bottom left and then "Choose a Hero to level up".  Then you must select which heroes you wish to use up ("feed") in order to level up that hero.  Heroes of the same element as the chosen provide 20% experience more than non-matching ones (see table in the detailed article).

Consequences of Leveling:

* Increased Attack, Defense, and Health
* Each Star of a same-color hero consumed gives a 2% chance to increase the Special Skills.  Each Star of an off-color hero will provide a 1% chance.

By contrast, Ascension will always upgrade the hero's Special Skill, as well as increasing their stats.  It also increases the hero's maximum level possible by an additional 10 and resets the hero's level to 1 while maintaining the new power levels. One can Ascend only after attaining the maximum level for the previous Ascension (although the *ASCEND* button on the hero card works to show the ascension requirements and results; only the folow-up button *ASCEND!* is greyed out).

Max Levels, Ascensions, and Team Costs
 2\* / Uncommon
 3\* / Rare
 4\* / Epic
 5\* / Legendary

Once heroes attain their maximum level and have their Special Skills maxed, they may improve further within their Hero Class via the Talent Grid, a distinct system that utilizes Class Emblems for talent and stat gains.

### Limit Break

June 2021 introduced the Mirages of Omega event providing Aethers used for Limit-breaking, which allows heroes to move beyond the maximum level and add 5 more levels to expand their stats even higher. A 3-star hero can now max out at 3.55 (shorthand for Ascension and Level), a 4\* at 4.75 and a 5\*at 4.85. The event offers levels of battle to earn Aethers that are needed to break the max barrier and come in 3 different rarities.

Limit-breaking by itself increases all basic stats (before applying the Talent Grid bonuses) by 2.9–5 %. It also unlocks the additional 5 levels which can be attained, again improving stats. Unlike normal leveling, there is a much higher cost in both food, experience as well as iron and each level also requires some ascension materials, especially in the last one. Limit-broken heroes are indicated by having their first ascension chevron violet instead of golden.

For more, see: Quests#Mirages of Omega (Limit Breaker) Quest and https://forum.smallgiantgames.com/t/master-discussion-mirages-of-omega-limit-breaker-quest-guide-sharing-discussion/242369

## Obtaining Heroes

The most common methods for obtaining heroes are:

1. Training Camp
2. Various Summons (Daily, Seasonal, Event, etc)
3. Map stage rewards (only 1\* and 2\*; other events and quests can also bring Trainer Heroes)

### 3\* Heroes

1. The most reliable way to obtain 3\* heroes is via the Training Camp levels 12 or 13.
2. There is a 3.3% chance to get a 3\* hero from the Daily Summons.
3. At least a 3\* hero is also guaranteed with any Epic, Elemental, Seasonal or Event Summons (you may get a 4\* or 5\* there instead).
4. There may also be opportunities to purchase heroes for Gems in the Shop.
5. Hero Academy stage 5 provides guaranteed 3\* heroes, Season 1 and a few selected newer.

### 4\* Heroes

1. As with 3\*, the Training Camp is the most reliable method.
	* TC13 has a 5% chance
	* TC20 has a 20% chance
2. Epic, Elemental, Seasonal, and Atlantis Summons also have a chance to award a 4\* hero (varying %, see the relevant page)
3. Hero Academy stage 8 produces guaranteed 4\* hero, with some non-Season 1 ones

### 5\* Heroes

There is no easy free-to-play way to obtain 5\* heroes.  The most available is the Training Camp Level 20, but even that is not truly reliable as it only provides a 5% chance of a 5\* and only provides "Classic", Season 1 heroes.
5\* heroes can be retrained in the Hero Academy on level 10 that guarantees a different 5\* hero with the odds being 95% of a "Classic", Season 1, 5\* hero and 5% selected Event Heroes and Heroes of the Month released longer than 1 year. There is also a 5% chance to receive the costume of a retrained hero that has one. Finally, there is a Soul Exchange about every three months.

Gems and tokens can also give access to summons draws that give a small chance of a 5\* hero.

1. Epic, Elemental, Seasonal, and Event Summons have a chance to award a 5\* hero.
	* Each of these summons also has a chance to award the Hero of the Month in addition
2. An Atlantis Summon also has 2 of the previous Heroes of the Month as a part of its reward pool in addition to the chance for the bonus summon of the current HotM.  The two previous HotM are chosen seemingly at random each time.

As gems facilitate the main route for accessing high-level summons getting, paying players are given a considerable advantage over free to play players due to the superior heroes that the paying players are more able to access.

### Families and Origin

*Main articles: Family, Realm*
Across *Empires & Puzzles*, Heroes can originate from specific Events that have unique Families. These families provide certain bonuses that are given to the team or other Heroes that share one another's family. These can range from small stat increases to passive abilities.

Heroes belonging to The Realms of Valhalla have an adjacent trait with similarities to Hero Families, in that their abilities are conditionally active when one or more Heroes of that Realm are below 20% of their base max health or activated upon death of themselves in the midst of battle.

## Stats & Averages by Star

*The table was made by analysis of the statistics presented/linked in a forum thread by FunkyMoneky.*

Most average 3\* hero: Bane; most average 4\*: Sumitomo or Tiburtus; most average 5\*: Red Hood or Aeron.

## Specific Hero Categories

Follows a listing of Hero categories on this wiki; it is NOT complete by far due to the proliferation of subcategories especially in the "Special Skills type" group. Still, many should be accessible from the umbrella/root Category:Heroes, but see also Special:UncategorizedCategories and Special:WantedCategories.

+++ Boosted Health can exceed Max HP and is added as temporary HP by hero, costume or passive.

\* Note: Only 4- and 5-star Heroes are included in the "TC20 Heroes" since those are the only heroes of particular interest from Training Camp level 20.