What the hero is (and isn't)
- Only heroes fight in Arenas; only captains explore Crypts.
- Only heroes may fight Rare monster squads; Common squads are captain-only work.
- The hero cannot gather resources on the map and cannot attack most Epic monsters—that's captain territory.
- Unlike captains, the hero has no star levels and cannot equip Artifacts—but gets six typed gear slots to a captain's three.
- Hero talent bonuses and the hero's unique bonus are always active account-wide; most captain bonuses only apply to marches that captain personally leads.
Levels & switching
Each hero level grants 3 talent points. Hero level is shared across your roster: switching heroes keeps your level, equipped items, and invested talents. Everyone starts with Garvel or Julia (no bonus); other heroes unlock with an Unlock Avatar item, and the first-week Hero Trial grants one free unlock. Switching is limited to roughly once per 20 hours—heroes are a commitment in a way captains aren't.
Hero level is a pacing stat, not a power stat—event difficulty scales with your top Guardsmen tier, not hero level. If you plan to buy value packs, note that some of the best are gated to accounts below Hero 20—pause and grab them before leveling past it.
Every hero and their unique bonus
| Hero | Unique bonus |
|---|---|
| Garvel | None—free starter. |
| Julia | None—free starter. |
| Alrick | Enemy marches to your city take at least 4 hours without speedups. |
| Ayrin | Marches have no time limit and can cross into other Kingdoms. |
| Thaddeus | +25% Leadership (bigger marches for hero and captains). |
| Matemhaim | +200% engineer strength & health; wall rebuild delay cut to 30 seconds. |
| Haemon | Clan bonuses are twice as effective in his city. |
| Meriones | Full hero equipment set stats ×1.5 in battle. |
| Faron | +900% bonus to delegates (Senate voting only). |
| Thelensia | Receives a gift from her lovers every 20 hours. |
| Svyatogor | +50% strength & health for troops marching with no captain. |
| Ryjong | March speed of troops, hero, and captains doubled. |
| Guan Yu | Wins initiative ties (strikes first) when fighting without allies. |
| Yamato | On a successful city scout, kills the target's hero (unrevivable for 20 minutes). |
| Nectarius | Bonus Sacred Potion production and storage capacity. |
Which hero to run
| Stage | Community consensus |
|---|---|
| New account | Nectarius or Thelensia—free income while you build. |
| Early PvP kingdoms | Ayrin or Alrick. |
| Mid-game | Haemon, Ayrin, Thaddeus, Alrick, or Meriones. |
| Late game | Thaddeus (strongest, needs a developed account), Ayrin, Meriones, Svyatogor. |
| Situational | Guan Yu, Yamato (needs a scout build with Proscope), Matemhaim (wall/engineer builds). |
| Avoid | Faron—Senate-only bonus, and Senate manipulation is banned in many kingdoms. |
Gear
The hero wears six pieces: helmet, chestpiece, boots, weapon, and two accessories. Gear is crafted at the Forge from crypt materials and comes in eight quality tiers: Poor → Common → Uncommon → Rare → Epic → Legendary → Ascendant → Godlike. Crafting quality is probabilistic and driven by material quality—use materials all of the same tier for the best odds of a high-quality result.
- Gear is set-themed—guardsmen-strength sets, gathering sets, engineer sets, crypt sets—and bonuses from every worn piece stack.
- Bonuses apply only where the wearer is. Gear on a hero sitting in the city does nothing for a captain's march, and vice versa.
- Equipment has durability and can break in combat—budget for repairs.
Talents
Talents come in sections unlocked by hero level (tier gates at 25, 65, 105, and 145), covering Battle Tactics (army strength, health, double-damage chance), Economy (production, gathering, construction and research speed), and Archeology (crypt efficiency and cost). Nodes typically run 20 levels; capstones are one point.
- Go deep, then backfill. Spend one-point bridges to reach the deepest node you can unlock, then max it—one maxed deep node beats ten shallow ones.
- Reset at tier thresholds (25 / 65 / 105 / 145) and re-bridge into the new tier.
- Talents support presets—veterans run two or three (a combat/VP build, a crypt build, a growth build) and swap by activity, leaving the growth preset on overnight.
Gems & enchantments
After the Academy research Gem and Enchantment Socketing, every equipment piece can carry a gem and an enchantment. Gems are stat-specific stones in ascending quality tiers—examples include Zephyrite (fortification strength), Argulite (fortification health), Jade (siege strength), and Alexandrite (siege health), with others for guardsmen strength, crypt efficiency, and build/research speed. They're combined and disenchanted in the Forge Workshop, and drop mainly from crypts—one more reason crypts are non-negotiable.