Itās not ideal, but itās (provisionally) here at last, and it does more or less what we were expecting/hoping it would do, so itās a cautious 
from me. I certainly have a use for that epic troop retrainer.
Seems somewhat promising, and definitely better than expected. One should be able to āconvertā a troop and a hero at the same time, though. By the sound of it, there was no point in saving up an army of s1 dupe 5*. I bet Iāll be retraining the same dud for the rest of the games lifespan 
4 Likes
@zephyr1 and beta-testers: If you guys like this idea, please help me suggest it in the beta forums!
As HA currently is, it is extremely disappointing to ALL players, f2p or otherwise, given the low % chance (assuming it really is that low). However, this is understandable, given that SG doesnāt want to make HoTMs so easily obtainable for free.
SO the solution to this is:
Allow adding multiple 5 star heroes to training.
Assume that the current % for HoTM is 1.3%. So, for every 5 star hero you put into the HA, the chance is increased by 1.3%. So for example, if you put in 10 5 star heroes to use HA 10, then you have a 13% chance to obtain a HoTM.
HOWEVER, you will ONLY get a single hero back.
In this way, seasoned players with lots of dupes will have reason to hold all of those dupes, rather than HA only ever requiring a single dupe. A huge plus.
Secondly, in this way, itās acceptable to SG because it wonāt break the game by making HoTMs too easily obtainable.
For players afraid of ālosingā their useless 5-star dupes, they donāt have to use this feature; they can only put in 1 hero per time and not risk anything.
Itās totally win-win.
16 Likes
The long wait times are expected but still a bit annoying. For researching level 10 we probably need all the advanced food storages at max level too; the grind is real with this game 
The 1 to 1 ratio for 5* heroes is actually very generous, I expected worse. But I really wish they would give a better chance than 1,3% for hotms. Or they allow to feed two heroes at once for a better chance.
Still it looks promising overall and I am looking forward to the final version 
2 Likes
For level 10: why only one hero at the time? Whatās the point?! 
Underwhelming sums it up.
Some observations/thoughts:
- Would love to be able to āupgradeā star level, so 10 4* for a 5* for example.
- HotM for HotM and Event for Event. To trade Hatter in for Thorne or Richard V would be frustrating in the extreme especially as Event heroes are not available in the HA (the acquisition costs of event heroes are multiples of HotMs and essentially infinitely more expensive than S1 heroes).
- Troops - is this for 1 troop or a package of 10? This seems absurdly unbalanced.
- Avoiding duplicates: Perhaps by trading in 2 5* S1 heroes you are guaranteed not to draw a duplicate.
At least the lack of gem costs is a positive.
15 Likes
And no s2 or customes in thear its good but not so mush. The only good here itās to no gems and nothing more.
One. I similarly thought that perhaps given the costs Iād get more than one back from the training.
But nope.
5 Likes
will this Academy be an improvement to tc 2 or tc 1?
I mean those levels that dont requiere adventure packs and are faster than the old camps.
I think at best they will be a great leveling tool
1 Like
a shame but thank you.
Fingers crossed this is simply the first poor iteration of what will eventually be something excellent and useful.
2 Likes
I view it like TC20ā¦lots of investment to maybe get something good, but more likely not. Iāll take it since its just iron, hams and time, assuming the % chance for HoTM isnāt too horribly low.
I do wish they had given us an extra plot of land to put it on, so we wouldnāt have to convert a building. Thatās the biggest downside.
8 Likes
If you put in an ascended hero (say a 3-70 or 2-60 or fully ascended even) to HA10 will you get it at the same level or @ 1-1?
3 Likes
Have to admit, as excited as I am to finally have some concrete details on what this could look like, Iām having flashbacks to when we first learned about the Alchemy Lab and then got what we got.
Hereās to hoping we get a better result this time. That revisions to this in beta can produce something community is happier with and will use. Knowing that SG is also revisiting the Lab in the near future is encouraging at least.
4 Likes
I canāt wait to trade in my HoTM dupes for S1 dupesā¦itās gonna be sooo sweet
8 Likes
82 days is just crazyā¦ how many people have their third iron and food storage to level 10 already??
I donāt.
Just ran the numbers on that. 113 days. From conversion of third building to level 10. Oof.
Then 12ish days for SH24ā¦
And another 82days to get HA to level 10?!
Thatās a ton of time and resources.
19 Likes
IMO, these all seem like a waste of time and ham resource to meā¦ 2.3 million ham and 7 days to convert (re-train) a 5* to a random 5*, absurd! Relative to TC20, I see #8 being an enhanced āfood bankā
1 Like
My initial reaction is similar to everyone elseās: Looks somewhat useful, but I hope itāll be improved:
- The troop training is way too slow to make much of an impact.
- The fast 2* hero training is probably useful for some folks.
- The 3* and 4* hero training is completely worthless.
- I like the ability to train Trainer Heroes. Wish it cost less ham though, because the high ham cost defeats half the purpose of Trainer Heroes in the first place.
- The HotM % is WAY too low.
- My alt account is pleased thereās no gem cost.
ETA: Putting in a dupe HotM, and getting back anything other than a new HotM is hogwash. Putting in S2, S3, and Event heroes should return only HotMs too. Or they should at least DRASTICALLY improve the odds.
18 Likes
Has ANYONE pulled a HotM?
3 Likes
Then 7 days for one 5 star hero who may or may not be useful. Rinse repeat (which during initial beta reports means 2 years [100 pulls] without a HotM).
Not to mention the pool continues to be diluted in the two years of waiting for something to happen.
5 Likes
Yes, but it seems to be quite a rarity so far.
1 Like