🧪 Early Information on Hero Academy [Part of The Beta Beat v30]

Gameplay Help & Tactics
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NOTE: Please do not, under any circumstances, share IMAGES OR VIDEOS from Beta in this or any public Forum thread. Violations can cause players to lose their Beta accounts, or threads to be closed down.

This thread is to provide early insights and discussion on the new Hero Academy Building.

For information and discussion on the UPDATED Alchemy Lab, please see: 🧪 Early Information on "IMPROVED" Alchemy Lab [Part of The Beta Beat v30]

Don’t get too attached

Details from Beta, especially brand-new Beta content, don’t tend to be very reliable for actual release.

It’s incredibly common that features are changed during Beta testing, or sometimes even after testing but before release. That is, after all, the purpose of Beta testing.

So I wouldn’t get too attached to any of this — it’s not unheard of for entire portions of features to be removed or reworked, or for radical changes to functionality to be made.

:warning: Official Notice from Small Giant Staff:

:clipboard: Overview

The first version of Hero Academy has come to Beta.

Hero Academy is a new building, which unlocks with Stronghold 25. It allows 10 Levels of training methods, which cover a diverse mix of Heroes, Troops, and Trainer Heroes.

Only one copy of Hero Academy can be built, by converting an existing Forge, Farm, Mine, or Training Camp.

Levels 9 and 10 also allow exchanging existing 4* Troops and 5* Heroes, respectively, for new random ones.

In-Game Tooltip:

Hero Academy offers advanced training methods which can produce Troops, Heroes, Trainer Heroes and even Heroes of the Month and Event Heroes that are no longer available.

Unlike Alchemy Lab, only one operation can be run at a time, even when the building is at max Level 10.

Levels 9 and 10 do NOT allow queuing multiple retrainings — more on that below.

Lower levels do allow queuing multiple trainings, however, like a Training Camp.

:european_castle: Stronghold 25 Upgrade Costs
2591k Iron
12d 19h Wait Time

Stronghold 25 currently only unlocks Hero Academy.

:arrow_up: Hero Academy UPGRADE & RESEARCH Costs

These are the costs for building and researching Levels — NOT for operating them. For operation costs, scroll down to the next section.

Level Ability Upgrade Cost Upgrade Time Research Cost Research Time
1 Train COMMON Heroes 2610k
Iron		 10s 3148k 514k
Food		 1h 0m
2 Train COMMON Troops 2629k
Iron		 1d 8h 3167k 716k
Food		 1d 0h
3 Train UNCOMMON Heroes 2644k
Iron		 2d 0h 3179k 978k
Food		 1h 0m
4 Train UNCOMMON Troops 2659k
Iron		 2d 22h 3199k 1277k
Food		 1d 0h
5 Train RARE Heroes 2671k
Iron		 4d 2h 3218k 1459k
Food		 1d 0h
6 Train RARE Troops 2686k
Iron		 5d13h 3236k 1923k
Food		 1d 0h
7 Train Trainer Heroes 2700k
Iron		 7d 9h 3251k 2225k
Food		 1d 0h
8 Train EPIC Heroes 2715k
Iron		 9d 6h 3271k 2927k
Food		 1d 0h
9 Retrain your EPIC Troops 2729k
Iron		 11d 0h 3287k
Food		 7d 0h
10 Retrain your LEGENDARY Heroes 2748k
Iron		 12d 13h 3311k
Food		 14d 0h

:recycle: Hero Academy OPERATION Abilities & Costs

These are the costs for actually running Hero Academy Levels, once built and researched.

Level Ability Iron Food/Iron Recruits Other Costs Time
1 Train COMMON Heroes - 5000
Food		 1
Recruits		 2x Practice Sword, 2x Training Manual 1m 0s
2 Train COMMON Troops - 50800
Food Iron		 50
Recruits		 3x Dagger 1d 0h 18h 0m 9h 0m
3 Train UNCOMMON Heroes - 11000
Food		 4 10 8
Recruits		 3x Strong Rope 1m 0s
4 Train UNCOMMON Troops - 103k
Food Iron		 100
Recruits		 5x Arcane Scripts 2d 0h 1d 18h 21h 0m
5 Train RARE Heroes - 120k 100k
Food		 30
Recruits		 1x Battle Manual, 1x Chainmail Shirt 12h 0m 9h 0m
6 Train RARE Troops - 151k
Food Iron		 150
Recruits		 5x Tall Boots, 5x Scabbard 5d 0h 2d 12h
7 Train Trainer Heroes
NOTE: I have received 1*, 2*, 3*, and 4* Trainer Heroes at random; I don’t know what the percentage chance for each is		 - 60300 45000
Food		 30
Recruits		 5x Wooden Shield, 5x Leather Armor, 5x Sharpening Stone 12h 0m 9h 0m
8 Train EPIC Heroes - 305k 200k
Food		 150 100
Recruits		 3x Battle Manual, 3x Tall Boots, 3x Chainmail Shirt, 3x Scabbard 5d 0h 2d 12h
9 Train EPIC Troops from old Troops
Retrain your EPIC Troops		 - 1203k
Food Iron		 200
Recruits		 1x 4* Troop 7d 0h
10 Train LEGENDARY Heroes, including Heroes of the Month, from old Heroes
Retrain your LEGENDARY Heroes		 - 2318k 1718k 1288k
Food		 300
Recruits		 1x 5* Hero 7d 0h

:star2: More Details: Hero Academy Level 9 — Exchanging Epic 4* Troops for a New Random One

NOTE: as of the second Beta version of Hero Academy, Level 9 now requires 1203k Iron per retraining, instead of 1203k Food. The other Troop-related Levels now require Iron as well.

Level 9 allows selecting one of your existing 4* Troops, so long as it is not locked/favorited, and “retraining” it into another 4* Troop.

You are guaranteed to receive a different Troop than the one used for retraining.

There is no option to select the sort of Troop you’d like — it’s just random. So you’d likely need to repeat this process multiple times if you were in search of a particular element and type of 4* Troop.

Once started, retraining CANNOT be cancelled. There is a warning popup to confirm prior to starting.

You CANNOT queue multiple retrainings at once. You have to wait for one to finish before queuing another.

Training time can be skipped with gems. The cost is set to 1 for testing in Beta, so I don’t know the actual cost — but it should presumably match other weeklong skip costs in the game.

:dizzy: More Details: Hero Academy Level 10 – Exchanging Legendary 5* Heroes for a New Random One

Level 10 allows selecting one of your existing 5* Heroes, so long as it’s not locked/favorited, and “retraining” it into another 5* Hero.

You are guaranteed to receive a different Hero than the one used in retraining.

There is no option to select the particular 5* Hero you’d like — it’s just random.

In addition to Season 1 Legendary 5* Heroes, the following past HOTM additional Heroes are included in the pool, with “limited availability” of a 5% appearance rate:

  • Hel
  • Athena
  • Ares
  • Musashi
  • Alberich
  • Thoth-Amun
  • Perseus
  • Natalya
  • Zeline
  • Delilah
  • Aeron
  • Alasie
  • Gravemaker
  • Gregorian
  • Drake Fong
  • Khiona
  • Aegir
  • Zimkitha
  • Evelyn
  • Onatel
  • Kunchen
  • Frida
  • Anzogh
  • Margaret
  • Captain Kestrel
  • Lady Locke
  • Sargasso
  • Boss Wolf
  • Red Hood
  • Rumpelstitlskin
  • Guardian Panther
  • Guardian Owl
  • Guardian Kong
  • Guinevere
  • King Arthur
  • Morgan Le Fay
  • Tarlak
  • Mok-Arr
  • Misandra
  • Mitsuko
  • Inari
  • Kageburado
  • Atomos
  • Ariel
  • Poseidon
  • Ursena
  • Alice
  • The Hatter
  • Queen of Hearts

Akin to Training Camps not showing appearance rates, there’s no indication of the odds of receiving a past HOTM instead of a Season 1 Hero.

As of the second Beta, the “Limited Heroes” are listed in the tooltip as having a 5% Appearance Rate.

Once started, retraining CANNOT be cancelled. There is a warning popup to confirm prior to starting, which also reminds players that the Hero will be changed into another Legendary Hero.

You CANNOT queue multiple retrainings at once. You have to wait for one to finish before queuing another.

Training time can be skipped with gems. The cost is set to 1 for testing in Beta, so I don’t know the actual cost — but it should presumably match other weeklong skip costs in the game.

:link: Existing Threads Related to Hero Academy

For a full list of items currently in Beta testing, as well as their related threads, please see:

57 Likes
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So you’re saying my sacrifice of all heroes less than 5 star legendary heroes was not in vain since there is no trading of 4 star heroes for random 4 star heroes?

So…that means I’m the lynch pin who made this happen?

Thank you @zephyr1 for the accolades.

You are welcome community. We have appeased the HA gods.

24 Likes
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Sounds reasonable but what’s the point of levels 1 and 3?

5 Likes
4

That seems like a LOT of food to convert Khagan into Horghall. I get the need to have a random element, but since it’s random, takes 300 recruits, and 7 days already, why does it take close to a days worth of food too? Seems super expensive for the small chance of getting an improved hero.

21 Likes
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Just a small correction — 7 days.

Did you see 12 days somewhere?

6

Thank you for the information, zephyr.

I don’t think I’d use any of the 1-9 levels but I’m quite happy about level 10. Hopefully the odds for HotMs won’t be too low.

14 Likes
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My bad, I’ll fix it. Thanks!

1 Like
8

I presume it is just a resource sink if you need it.

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12 is the upgrade time, I guess he read that table

1 Like
10

Especially Level 3 - i was thinking that you could get uncommon heroes with rope instead of backpacks, but it takes 2 days to get 1 uncommon hero? That must be some sort of typo, maybe 2 hours? Otherwise, seems like a complete joke.

9 Likes
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That’s a fair point with such a time wall already built in, food shouldn’t be that high. Maybe to prevent several gem skips? I’d just remove the gem skips lol

1 Like
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Level 2 seems good for maxing troops.

2 Likes
14

Ah, got it — the building upgrade time, not the research or operation time.

Yes, must be what they were referring to. Thanks!

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No, that was my mistake, and I’ve fixed it. 2 days is for the Uncommon Troops.

Uncommon Heroes take 1 minute.

1 Like
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I know this isn’t requiring gems, like the AL, but I can’t help but think if released in it’s current form,it just feels like another bad new feature from SG. Designed to do nothing but make us waste absurd amounts of resources for very little benefit. Why can’t they EVER give something with fair and reasonable effort for the reward, compared to the original season 1 buildings/resource requirements?

10 Likes
17

I think it would depend on your priorities.

As FTP who has been keeping duplicates for years, I want to maximise my chance of getting HotM. Therefore, I wouldn’t spend 1 day on training troops.

9 Likes
18

I am pretty happy to see these numbers and would gladly accept these if this would be the way it is released.
Yes it costs a lot of resources but no gems! This is a very very welcome addition for f2p and c2p to catch up slowly. I will keep an eye on any update from @zephyr1 and hope this will not change too much

33 Likes
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Hi @zephyr1 I hv 1 question just to ensure did lvl 10 only produce legendary heroes ? It won’t act like a TC20 know ? Because I’m suffering from TC20 outcomes lol

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For someone who have only 2 undesirable heroes (Khagan and Quintus), troop training is better.

But 1 day for common troops is way to high, I guess.

4 Likes
21

Yes it is legendary for legendary.

Edit: @zephyr1 within the random chance, is it possible to get the same hero? I put in an Azlar I get out an Azlar or will it have something to ensure that all other heroes except the one being retrained are in the pool to pop up?

7 Likes