Most players do better focusing everything into one strong main squad rather than splitting resources evenly across three or four. Secondary squads naturally pick up strength as you play normally — they don’t need dedicated investment early on.
Rarity tiers
- UR (Ultra Rare, gold) — the long-term goal for every slot in your main squad.
- SSR (Super Super Rare, purple) — solid early on and useful against monsters, but generally outclassed by UR heroes even at a lower star level. Treat as a bridge while you collect UR heroes, not an end goal.
- SR (Super Rare, blue) — not worth investing resources into for a serious squad.
Position and faction
Every hero screen shows two badges under the hero’s name: a position icon and a faction icon.
Position describes their battlefield job:
- Frontline (shield icon) — tanks that absorb damage at the front of the formation.
- Backline (pistol icon) — attackers and other ranged roles that stay behind the frontline.
- Support — not yet seen on any confirmed hero; presumably exists as a third position.
A typical squad runs two Frontline heroes up front and three Backline heroes behind them.
Faction is one of three: Warrior (lion emblem), Tactical (eagle emblem), or Assault (wolf emblem). Grouping heroes from the same faction together grants the whole squad a stacking bonus to HP, attack, and defense — the more heroes from one faction you run together, the bigger the bonus, topping out when all five heroes share a faction. Early on, don’t worry about this too much: prioritize your strongest heroes in the correct positions first, then start sorting by faction as your roster grows.
Leveling
Every hero has 150 possible levels, but the level you can actually reach is capped by your Base level, not by EXP — see Hero Levels for the exact breakpoints and EXP costs.
How to read a skill before upgrading it
Don’t assume every skill upgrade is equally valuable — skill upgrades generally can’t be reset or recycled, so it’s worth reading carefully first. Look at who the skill actually affects, the percentage increase, duration, cooldown, and whether it hits one hero, one row, or the whole squad.
The wording matters more than the raw numbers suggest at a glance. A skill going from 24.9% → 25.2% that protects the entire squad can be worth more than one going from 16.0% → 16.1% that only protects the front row — the small percentage gain isn’t the whole story once you factor in scope. As a rule of thumb:
- “Increases Crit Rate” (with no other qualifier) usually applies only to that hero.
- “All allies,” “front-row allies,” “rear-row allies,” or “squad” means it’s team-wide or position-based, which is generally worth more.
Gear
Gear comes in tiers (roughly Green/Blue/Purple/Legendary/Mythic) and in role-specific types — defensive pieces for tanks, damage pieces for attackers. Mythic is the tier above Legendary; see Mythic Gear for its full level-by-level upgrade cost table, and the Gear Craft Guide for dismantle rules and the priority order for upgrading each slot. Two habits matter more than most others here:
- Only gear up your main squad. Heroes on secondary squads doing resource-gathering or rally duty don’t need upgraded gear — it’s a common early mistake to spread gear investment across squads that don’t need it.
- Match gear to role. Your best defensive gear belongs on your tanks; your best damage gear belongs on your attackers, regardless of what happens to drop first. Frontline: Helmet first, then Vest. Backline: Rifle first, then Scope.
Reviewing your own battle reports (or asking an experienced alliance member to look them over) is one of the more reliable ways to spot which heroes and gear choices are actually underperforming.