🤓 Hero Academy! FAQ, Links, Guides and Discussion

[Guvnor]

Hero Academy Master Thread (of sorts)

Intent of this thread is to provide some general information and answers to common questions about the Hero Academy, in addition to providing some links to other handy & useful threads.

Note: all information is currently based of Beta Content. Staff have indicated that there are NO changes to HA from the final beta build however, as with all beta content, there could be some changes that got overlooked

Official Release/ Announcements

Hero Academy was first teased in December 2018; however it would be another 500+ days before HA made its way into beta testing.
Celebrating 500 days since Hero Academy first teased
Eventually HA was released to the live game in Version 30 (June 2020).

Click for 2019 & 2020 Teasers

@EmpiresPuzzles

New Buildings

• In 2019 we’ll be adding several new buildings as well as upgrades to many of the existing ones
  
  
  
  Details shown in the screenshot are subject to change

@EmpiresPuzzles

Wait…there’s more!

• Hero Academy: We know you have been eagerly anticipating this, and we are sorry for the delay. Stronghold levels 24 and 25 as well as the Hero Academy will be added to the game during 2020.

Click for Hero Academy Discussion in Mar 2019 AMA with Tim & Kira

@Kerridoc

6. Trading between players is perhaps the most commonly requested feature addition to the game. You’ve previously expressed a desire to add something related to this to the game. Do you still have that in mind for the future, or will other things like the Alchemy Lab and Hero Academy take the place of trading?

Alchemy Lab and Hero Academy will do something about that. These are are parts of the Stronghold Upgrade. Because they are very doable. Trading has some things to solve, and we are super-busy with all the other things we want to do inside Empires & Puzzles. So because we wanted to get something this year that addresses some of these issues, that’s why we’re adding these buildings.

Alchemy Lab will enable conversion of “junk” (lower rarity items) or items so you can use lower-rarity items to try to get higher-rarity items. That’s the intended use of the Alchemy Lab. It’s not exactly trading, like people want to do, and the social aspect would be awesome, but if you have hundreds of thousands of unused items in your inventory, the Alchemy Lab will provide a use for them. It’s not trading, but it’s a step.

Same with Hero Academy, a surplus of heroes can be converted into new ones. Let’s see how that rolls out. I’m hoping that the Hero Academy would have something where some heroes could be traded or converted into new ones, but that needs to be tested in beta

The Alchemy Lab is more straightforward, and the design’s already mostly done. It’s just waiting to get coded up.

Is there any concern with the Hero Academy that if you’re converting lower to higher rarity that the F2P players might be left behind because they don’t have heroes to convert?

The Hero Academy will be F2P friendly. The Alchemy Lab works differently; we know that people have surplus items. In the Hero Academy, in the last phase of that you can try convert a hero of one rarity into a different hero of the same rarity. So if you have a surplus of a specific hero, say you don’t need your fifth or sixth of a particularly legendary hero, there would be some use for that. But this is a feature where we need to wait and see what happens in beta. Alchemy Lab is more straightforward.

With the direction you’re heading with the Hero Academy, even though the design isn’t finished and things are very uncertain, should people be considering holding dupes and increasing roster size, or is that premature?

I’m hoping there will be a legitimate use for duplicates. Too early to tell, will need to see what is released in beta and how the Hero Academy will be functioning.

But it might be the case that this feature won’t make it into the Hero Academy.

Too speculative at this point to stockpile heroes; we can put out some more information once we are further along.

Kira: Of course, all players have fed away good heroes that we wouldn’t have if this feature had been available so few players get any actual advantage. Of course, if you’re just starting after it’s in beta and you have an amazing pull, then you’ll know not to feed away good duplicates.

Tim: The costs in terms of food and time or whatever for the Hero Academy needs to be set. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of feedback in beta. Interesting challenge, but we want to do it.

Official V30 Update Announcment

@EmpiresPuzzles

Status

June 22, 2020 : We have now forced the update and new Stronghold level, updated Alchemy Lab & Hero Academy have been now enabled!
June 18, 2020 : We have now released the update for both iOS & Android. Please update your game!

Please note that Alchemy Lab will be disabled temporarily when you update your game, and will be available again once we enable the new buildings. All transmutations will be completed and resources for queued transmutations returned to players Inbox.

Updated Alchemy Lab, Hero Academy, and Stronghold Level 25 will be unlocked once we have fully released and forced the update.

Release Notes

• Hero Academy added:
  • Train and Retrain heroes and troops

After intense Beta Testing and much feedback, SGG staff announced that the, despite much player anticipation, the Hero Academy would NOT solve the problem of hero duplicates. Instead they hoped to have new, as yet undescribed, feature which would achieve this goal.

Click for notice from Staff regarding the outcome of HA vs. Duplicates

@KiraSG

I wanted to share this post here after initially posting on in our Beta Lounge:

This is the final version of Hero Academy for V30. I want to be transparent about our thinking behind the feature.

We have read all of your feedback and recognize that we need to figure out a way to improve the quality of life for players regarding duplicate Heroes. At the moment, there is no truly rewarding way for retiring Heroes and Hero Academy is not solving the issue. It is our opinion that the solution should not be the last tier of an Advanced building, something that a very small group of players would be able to benefit from. Instead, we would like to, at some point down the line find a better way to solve the problem so that it would be accessible to a wider range of players.

The reason we are releasing the Hero Academy now is that we sincerely believe it does provide real value to the players, despite not addressing this specific issue.

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Notable Features

Some notable features of the Hero Academy include:

• Training Troops
• Retraining 4* troops
• Creating Trainer Heroes
• Retraining 5* heroes for a CHANCE at Event, Atlantis or old HotM heroes.

Remaining levels are essentially alternatives to existing mechanisms in the game (mainly the training camp).

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Graphics!!!

All-in-One Graphic by @Grimtutor

Click to View

Credit @Grimtutor

Building Graphic & Training Graphic by @Zartanis

Click to View

Credit @Zartanis, Link Here: {Master - Zartanis' Guides} Building, Crafting, Event, Talent Grid Guides, etc

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Building Costs & Requirements

Hero Academy unlocks with Stronghold Level 25 but is a CONVERSION building rather than a new stand-alone one. You can convert a Forge, Farm, Mine or Training Camp to the Hero Academy.

NOTE: Only initial conversion costs iron. You can then convert the HA back & forth for free & it retains the level. Same as converting your barracks, Alchemy Lab or any other advanced building

Stronghold 25

Unlocks after completing the building of Stronghold Level 24

Level	Iron Cost	Time to Finish	Gems to Insta-Build
25	2,591k	12d 19h	6490

Hero Academy Build Costs

Note: Gem costs are approximate, working off ~20 gems / hr

Click for HA Building Costs & Times

Level	Title	Iron Cost	Time	Gems to Insta-Build
1	Train Common Heroes	2610k	10s	1
2	Train Common Troops	2626k	1d 8h	640
3	Train Uncommon Heroes	2644k	2d 0h	960
4	Train Uncommon Troops	2659k	2d 22h	1400
5	Train Rare Heroes	2671k	4d 2h	1960
6	Train Rare Troops	2686k	5d 13h	2660
7	Train Trainer Heroes	2700k	7d 9h	3540
8	Train Epic Heroes	2715k	9d 6h	4440
9	Retrain Epic Troops	2729k	11d 0h	5280
10	Retrain Legendary Heroes	2748k	12d 13h	6020

Hero Academy Research Costs

Note: Gem costs are approximate, working off ~20 gems / hr

Click for HA Research Costs & Times

Level	Title	Food Cost	Time	Gems to Insta-Research
1	Train Common Heroes	514k	1h 0m	20
2	Train Common Troops	716k	1d 0h	480
3	Train Uncommon Heroes	978k	1h 0m	20
4	Train Uncommon Troops	1277k	1d 0h	480
5	Train Rare Heroes	1459k	1d 0h	480
6	Train Rare Troops	1923k	1d 0h	480
7	Train Trainer Heroes	2225k	1d 0h	480
8	Train Epic Heroes	2927k	1d 0h	480
9	Retrain Epic Troops	3287k	7d 0h	3360
10	Retrain Legendary Heroes	3311k	14d 0h	6720

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Parallel Re/Trainings

A late addition to the Hero Academy was the ability to use up to two (2) levels of the HA simultaneously.

The Hero Academy MUST be level 2+ to unlock “simultaneous” re/trainings (unlike the Alchemy lab which is level 5 & 10).

NOTE: parallel re/trainings MUST be of two different recipes. You cannot do 2x HA10 in parallel.

Note 2: you cannot conduct 2 “research” actions in parallel

Note 3: if you are building/upgrading the HA, that is the ONLY action that can be undertaken

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HA Levels

Note: Gem costs are approximate, working off 25 gems/ hr (same as Training Camp)
Note 2: Any specific hero/troop appeared to have even odds with all other options.
Note 3: HA 9 & HA10 CANNOT be cued. Only a single Retraining can be input at a time
Note 4: HA9 & HA10 you cannot get out what you put in; will be something different

Level	Title	Resources	Recruits	Other Items	Time	Gem Skip	Possible Outcomes
1	Train Common Heroes	5,000 food	1 Recruit	2x Practice Sword, 2x Training Manual	1m 0s	1	Any 1* Hero
2	Train Common Troops	50,800 Iron	50 Recruits	3x Dagger	9h 0m	225	Any 1* Troop
3	Train Uncommon Heroes	11,000 Food	8 Recruits	3x Strong Rope	1m 0s	1	Any 2* Hero
4	Train Uncommon Troops	103k Iron	100 Recruits	5x Arcane Scripts	21h 0m	525	Any 2* Troop
5	Train Rare Heroes	100k Food	30 Recruits	1x Battle Manual, 1x Chainmail	9h 0m	225	Any S1 3* Hero
6	Train Rare Troops	151k Iron	150 Recruits	5x Tall boots, 5x Scabbard	2d 12h	1500	Any 3* Troop
7	Train Trainer Heroes	45k Food	30 Recruits	5x Wooden Shield, 5x Leather Armour, 5x Sharpening Stone	9h 0m	225	1,2,3 or 4* Trainer Hero. Odds unknown & undisclosed
8	Train Epic Heroes	200k Food	100 Recruits	3x Battle Manual, 3x Tall Boots, 3x Chainmail, 3x Scabbard	2d 12h	1500	Any S1 4* Hero
9	Retrain Epic Troops	1203k Iron	200 Recruits	1x 4* Troop	7d 0h	4200	Any OTHER 4* Troop (Mana or Crit)
10	Retrain Legendary Heroes	1288k Food	300 Recruits	1x 5* Hero	7d 0h	4200	S1 5* Hero OR a 5% chance for a Non-S1 5* Hero (see list below)

HA 10 Details

As the (possibly) most anticipated stage of the hero academy I’ll expand a little bit on this level.

The developers have (for the first time) stated the % odds of “training” a given hero. All Non-S1 heroes included in HA10 possible outcomes have a 5% chance of appearing.

This is a STATIC percentage with no Pity Counter (resulting in possible merciless RNG) nor does it change based on what you put INTO the hero academy.

Click for List of Non-S1 Heroes that COULD be an outcome of HA10

Possible Non-S1 heroes you COULD get as a result of using HA10:

• Atlantis Season 2 Heroes
  • Atomos
  • Ariel
  • Inari
  • Kageburado
  • Misandra
  • Mitsuko
  • Mok-Arr
  • Poseidon
  • Tarlak
  • Ursena
• Event Heroes (Old edition only; not latest 2 from each family)
  • Alice
  • Boss Wolf
  • Captain Kestral
  • Guardian Kong
  • Guardian Owl
  • Guardian Panther
  • Guinevere
  • King Arthur
  • Lady Locke
  • Morgan Le Fay
  • Queen of Hearts
  • Red Hood
  • Rumpelstiltskin
  • Sargasso
  • The Hatter
• Old Heroes of the Month
  • Long list but essentially is all HotM who are >12 months old
  • See this thread for a list: List of HOTM (Hero of the Month)
  • Or the beta-beat thread: 🧪 Early Information on Hero Academy [Part of The Beta Beat v30]

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Common Questions

Parallel Recipe use (can use up to 2 recipes simultaneously)

When you build HA level 2, you unlock the ability to run 2x Re/Trainings simultaneously. Note that the two recipes MUST be DIFFERENT.

Odds of getting {xyz hero} or Troop?

Based on beta testing, all outcomes have an even percentage chance unless otherwise stated.

For example, every 1* troop has even odds of appearing when you use HA2.

A special case is HA10 which stipulates that there is a separate 5% chance for a Non-S1 5* hero (so 95% chance for a S1 5* hero)
This translates to (as of release) a specific odds at 0.1% for a specific non-s1 5* hero (which will further dilute as additional Old HotM are added to the pool each month.

No Ability to Que additional re-trainings on HA10 or HA9?

This is by design unfortunately… It was raised many times in Beta but was not changed.
You MUST wait for the previous retraining to conclude before you can initiate another one…

Which means that you need a little bit of pre-planning to have a continuous use of HA9 or HA10

I suggest you start the re-training at a time when you can almost definitly be only so you can “re-que” as soon as possible. Also suggest that you have the resources ready to go when you log-out the time before you will start the next retraining.
E.g: I would start mine in the morning, every morning. So to ensure minimal delay I would ensure I have the food & recruits ready to go the night before.

I cannot CANCEL HA9 or HA10?

No, again this seems by design. When you initiate the retraining that hero/ troop is gone forever… or until you re-train them back again…?

There is an additional prompt which notifies you that you are using a levelled hero/ troop & to double check if that is the case.

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Quick Links

• Request thread for Improving the Hero Academy: [Master] Improve / Fix Hero Academy

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

• Version 30 Release Notes: Version 30 Release Notes & Status

• 🤺 Using Hero Academy as a Troop Training Camp

• Total cost to immediately max sh25, ha and rapidly retrain? - #17 by Guvnor (Answer in Post 17)

Archived Threads

• Hero Academy! Can we please have more information?
• Appeasing the SGG Hero Academy Gods