Heroes Charge Comprehensive Gameplay Guide

Heroes Charge Comprehensive Gameplay Guide by Agamerjes

This post will be a recap of common answers and general information. It is 100% opinion, based upon the current build of the game. While it is 100% opinion, everything posted here is based upon many hours of forum reading, google searching, and Youtube watching. So, it is informed opinions! Agree or disagree at your own risk…

– HEROES –

HC is a game of rock-paper-scissors. Every hero has strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, you can have the “worst” heroes in the game (looking at you deathgore!) and still progress in PvE and maintain an average rank in Arena. Yes, the forums are packed with “X team composition” or “Y is overpowered” and “best at 90”, but do not get discouraged. End game, specifically 90, take a long, long, long time to reach. Even if you are mid-70s, you have plenty of time to farm this or buy that. 80-90 alone is an extremely long grind from one level to the next.

That reassuring rant said, a common question I get is “what 10 heroes would you pick if you could only have 10?” Annoying question, because in a game with so many features, a catch-all team will never catch everything. Outland Portals alone require such specific heroes that you will never knock them all out, and still be viable elsewhere, with a 10 hero roster. So, I ignore Portals with this question and look for 10 heroes that anyone can farm/buy, from free-to-play folks to VIP 13, that will do well in “most” of the game.

Any team needs a couple solid, reliable tanks. When I think about tanks, I think long term, so I immediately think “90 viable” tanks. All my reading, watching, and debating has produced a short list of 90 tanks (no particular order): Admiral, Warchief, Panda, Ironhoof, & **. The fifth slot is marked ** because there is a debate between the value of warrior monk and psychopath. The difference between the two is so small, that it usually falls upon personal preference to break the tie. Anyways, any 2 of those 5(6) tanks will carry your team for the long haul. Personally, I would take Admiral for one slot due to the “girls only” trial at higher difficulties. *Honorable mention moment: Savage One does not show in the “top 5” list, but gets a mention for end game due to his armor reduction skill’s value in raid encounters.

Any Team needs reliable CC (crowd control) and AoE. Obvious go-to heroes are Old Curse and Vengeance Spirit. Solid CC and even stronger AoE attacks, these two are staples of many teams. Small note regarding scaling: OC suffers from a slight case of “glass cannon”, as he levels. That is, the higher he levels, the easier he becomes to kill. VS is his scaling opposite. The higher she levels, the stronger she becomes. If you stable both of these heroes, you’ll have AoE and CC throughout the entire game.

Chaplain and Mystic are support heroes. Chaplain is THE healer for PvE, crusade specifically. Her value in the upcoming hardmode crusade will be huge. Mystic’s ability to boost ally magic, regenerate ally energy, and blind enemies makes him a great all-around utility hero. Plus, hardmode crusade disables energy regeneration, so he will boost Chaplain’s heal frequency and strength.

Commando is a PvP staple from start to mid to late 80s. Her haste buff and opening stun are constantly seen in Arena and Grand Arena, and for good reason. These same skills make her also useful in PvE features.

Death Mage gets her own entry. This little lady is AoE damage perfection and should be one of, if not the most, used hero in your roster. She is awesome in purple robes.

Rounding out the list is dps. Already mentioned DM, but a good team needs a few more heavy hitters. For ease of acquisition and overall performance, I am listing Cloud Walker and Ember Blade. These two are high damage heroes that are easy to get for anyone and everyone. Can replace these two with your own personal preference, as long as you have 2 high, reliable damage heroes, you’ll be fine.

Recap of “10 heroes”: 2 tanks, OC, VS, Chaplain, Mystic, Commando, Death Mage, Ember Blade, and Cloud Walker.

– Campaign –

Campaign speaks for itself. Kill PvE mobs, get loot, move on. So, this section will be shorter than heroes.

3* all you can, both normal and in elite. 3* means you can use raid tickets, which are huge time savers. If you cannot 3* something, don’t waste a lot of stamina trying it. Go back, get some gear, spend some skill points, get a level or two and try again when you are stronger. Pay close attention to what gear your heroes need and be sure to farm that out, even if they cannot wear it for a level or two.

While there is no real rush to completing the campaign, when you join a guild you can start raiding certain chapters. You can only guild raid a chapter if you have completed the related normal missions. So, no rush… but don’t drag your feet.

In elites, soulstones drop…. which are one of the methods to recruit and/or improve heroes. While you can farm every SS out there, here is a short list of SSs to focus on:

Warchief – Easy to farm from multiple missions, reliable tank that will last you well into end game.
Chaplain – I already sang her praise. Get her to 3*s as soon as possible to get the most out of her. May consider 5* for hardmode crusade.
Admiral – Harder to farm her SSs, outside of bronze chest buys. Sooner you start pulling her SSs down, the better.
Vengeance Spirit – Already mentioned her, one of the AoE/CC go-to heroes.
Silencer – Tricky little fellow that shines anywhere he can shut down heavy incoming magic damage with his aoe silences.
Savage One – Again, the honorable raid mention.

– Ancient Temple –

Randomly unlocked via Campaign missions (normal, elite, or raid tickets), much like gob merchant or blackmarket. Temple is 3 encounters. You can fight 1 time, so make it count. You then can invite up to 5 guild members to assist with clearing the remaining encounters, again 1 try each. Invites appear in the whisper chat tab. Temples persist for 8 hours, plenty of time for all 6 to get a hit in. Inviter gets rewards. Invited get a “thank you”. Temple pops fairly frequently, so even if you get nothing from helping, you’ll get one soon enough and guildies will help you out in return.

Note – Encounters scale to the inviter. If you are 72, the mobs will be 72 as well. Fun for most, but be very careful if you are low level and that 83 guildie asks for help… you might not be very helpful. Not sure yet if rewards scale, need more information!

– Arena –

Your 5 best against their 5 best. Simple enough. Different team compositions have their strengths and weaknesses. There is no “perfect” team that will win 100%. Hell, on most servers every team in the top 20 are different. So, do some reading, look at your heroes, and experiment. You will lose some and win some.

The Shop is much like the GA one: Heroes before gear. Old Curse and Panda are in this shop and are your go-to buys. Death Knight is a crusade strong hero, but not that necessary these days. Spearman and Poisoned One, while respectable heroes, are niche heroes that are usually bought (or merc’ed out of a guild) for Portals. Ferryman is this shop’s version of Deathgore… he really needs some dev love. Update: Hidden Needle joins this shop’s ranks. Unfortunately, I have limited experience with her and seen very few vids of her in end game, so I will reserve from judging her value. I will point out her damage is mostly holy, which bypasses most defensive mechanics. As with GA shop, the order in which you unlock them, and buy further SSs for stars is often a personal choice. I like to unlock first, go around and get all the buys to 3*s, then go back around and 5* them. And again, after you get all the heroes you want, look at the gear options.

– Grand Arena –

Fairly straight forward. Build 3 teams, win 2/3 to rank up. That means you need 15 heroes, 3 groups of 5. When you first unlock GA, if you have 10 strong heroes to put into 2 strong teams, the third can be whatever you have left because the first 2 strong teams should have a fairly high win ratio. Of course, work up the third team as you progress, but if you only have 10 good heroes early on, you are in a good spot.

Small note: Some folks, myself included, focus on Grand Arena, over Arena. Depending on your roster, it can be easier to maintain a higher rank in GA, than Arena, and since the game rewards you based upon which has a higher rank, it can be a smart long term move to decide if you want a perfect 5 man Arena or 15 in GA.

The shop is fairly straight forward: Death Mage is Death Mage is Death Mage. She should be your first buy. Iron hoof is one of the “top 90” tanks, so worth a thought or two. Cloud Walker and Fallen Dominion are two dps heroes of close, if not the same, quality. Deathgore is one of, if not the worst, hero in the game to date. He is desperately awaiting any change to make him even remotely viable. Update: Most recent, Ember Blade has joined the shop’s roster. February’s log-in hero, EB does impressive damage and is strong right from buy at 1*. Though some consider him squishy and an unreliable gamble, I see him as a hero looking for the right team composition. The order in which you unlock them, and buy further SSs for stars is often a personal choice. I like to unlock first, go around and get all the buys to 3*s, then go back around and 5* them. The gear buys speak for themselves. If you are done buying the heroes you want, considering saving for gear you will need down the road.

– Trials/Rifts/Portals –

Lumped them together because these all serve the same purpose: Places to get gear and gold. Always run the highest difficulty you can clear for best reward for your effort.

First Note – The main drag of Trials is the Girls Only Trial, which can be a struggle for players trying to clear difficulty 5 and 6. This is because there is so few options for a “girls only” team that can survive high end PvE. This is why I strongly recommend the Admiral early on, a tank that is viable at 90 but also greatly makes this trial easier to complete.

Second Note – Portals are a pain. Their requirements are so different that it can be hard to keep necessary heroes at level, because they are often only needed for 1/2 portals (pilot!). This feature is the #1 reason I suggest you make sure you are in a guild with an active and diverse mercenary camp, where you can rent heroes you don’t have to finish out a portal.

– Booty Cave –

Defend or assault caves for exp pots, gold, and gems. What’s not to love?

Collect all the bread you can from your log, and spend all the bread you have all the time. Unused bread is unclaimed gems.
Defending caves is mostly using whatever heroes you got. No matter what team you use, you will get looted. So put together a few teams with high overall power and decent synergy and don’t sweat it that much.

Exp or Gold? Which do you need most, right now? Struggling to keep hero levels at/near team level or struggling to keep skill points up to date? Booty your cave accordingly.

– Crusade –

Kill 15 teams and win stuff. Early fights are easy. Later fights are harder. Energy levels persist between fights, so stock up on those ultimate skills early on and use them later on when you start to struggle. Since it is a gauntlet feature, heroes that die are dead for the day. This is why Chaplain, and any heroes that reduces or recovers lost health, is such a key component. She can, and will, keep heroes alive. Death Mage also shines in crusade, where her ultimate skill does tons of damage and, due to energy carrying over, can be casted time and time again, sometimes clearing entire teams by herself.

Hardmode Crusade – Same basic setup as “normal” crusade: 15 matches for rewards. Major differences are: 1. You must beat normal crusade before you can crack the seal on Hardmode. 2. Energy regeneration is disabled, which makes ultimate skill usage require far more thought. 3. In theory, enemy teams are harder, but I haven’t noticed that. Lack of energy regen does make them “appear” harder.

Gold and gear rewards as slightly better than normal version. As it stands, I see this as nothing more than a second crusade run, meaning twice the gold/gear generated a day. Team Composition and ultimate usage is slightly changed, but if you are 15/15 normal, hardmode will not be impossible.

The shop – Already mentioned Mystic and Commando. Vanguard is a solid hero, but his late game gear is expensive and might not be a great investment for everyone. Phoenix is great at 5*s, but requires a team to be built around him to truly shine. Rifleman is often considered a raid damage hero. Frost Mage is a great caster, but struggles in PvP, where weird RNG rules can handicap her overall value. Windmaster is a mid-range dps hero, but not worth spending coins on because she has so many elite missions to farm her SSs in. Pilot is primarily a niche hero, shining in Portals and Trials. As with other shops, the order in which you unlock them, and buy further SSs for stars is often a personal choice. I like to unlock first, go around and get all the buys to 3*s, then go back around and 5* them. Gear comment as well, once you got heroes you want, gear is never a bad decision.

– Merchant/Inventory –

Avoid spending gems on anything in shops. In general, you are better off spending gems on stamina recharges, the daily midas quest, and elite mission resets. Keep an eye out for purple and orange gear, even if you are level 10. That stuff will be very needed later on and the earlier you start stocking up, the better.

Use any/all experience items in your inventory (items tab)… never sell them, ever. If all your heroes are maxed out, stock them up. NEVER sell them. Once you get a feel for the game, and what items/gear you need, you can start selling off surplus gear and reels, but don’t go crazy and empty your inventory. A lot of end game gear requires lower level stuff to craft and if you get sell-crazy, you might find yourself refarming stuff you already had!

NEVER SELL EXP ITEMS!

– Guild –

A guild is a guild is a guild. If they are fairly active, raiding at a good pace, and have a nicely stocked mercenary camp, you should be fine.

The shop – Arcane Sapper is a PvP staple 70+. Succubus is a dps caster, great for early-mid game, but becomes squishy end game. Shallows Keeper is an ok tank, but you will likely get better before too long. Brute is a low grade tank, alright for starters, but not great for long term. Lunar Guardian is great early-mid game, but ages poorly, not that great for end game. Tuskan Storm is great for physical teams. Update: Disease Bringer joins the guild shop line-up. A widely beloved hero, that performs well in many of the game’s features, this dot/healer is marked to be a common member of teams in the upcoming hardmode crusade. DB and AS argue over “first buy” spot in my opinion, TS a solid third. Same comments about getting stars and gear as others shops.

– Other –

The harsh truth of HC is… you will not be #1 at anything without hundreds of $$ invested (well, might get most damage in guild raids!). Lets be honest, that is not exactly an uncommon thing in app games, really. So, set attainable goals and have fun because… this is a game after all, you know… a game, that thing we do to have fun?