Tima's "Unofficial" Official Guide to Speed Levelling

Hi Guys!

I spent some time recently putting together feedback for several of my teammates in regard to their hero lineups. The thing that stood out in all three cases was the different levels of all of the heroes; what happens is you start with one lineup, begin levelling them, then get new heroes, put them in the lineup instead, begin levelling them, then get new heroes, etc., etc.

So, we end up with a situation where you have many mid-level heroes over time. Then, you reach a point where the 4 and 5* heroes are so few and far between that you begin to focus on one or two teams at a time.

Now, with your semi-fixed lineup, you begin levelling your “A Team” or your “War Teams,” or both, but you are levelling each hero a little at a time.

I played that way for months myself, and the progression was very slow. At this point, through various tips and insights from other players, details I have read in the forums, and from my own experience, I am here to tell you that there is a faster way!

I decided to put together a little guide here in regard to “Speed Levelling” your heroes - bear in mind that the method discussed is not necessarily better or worse, and should be highly dependent on your priorities.

Early on in your progression in the game, this can help you to get that shiny new 4* hero up to speed, ramp up your “A Team” to get past the hurdles on the world map, or build up your “War Teams” for better contribution in Alliance Wars.

However; later in the game, when your teams are more refined, there is a different approach to “Power level” a new HoTM or Event Hero.

And it is very important that you are not levelling your heroes indiscriminately - choosing which heroes to work on can be more instrumental to your success (short and long term) than levelling quickly - so please, if you are unsure where you stand or where you want to go, reach out to me, I would be happy to help!

Tima’s Unofficial Official “Guide” to Speed Levelling, or Something


Regardless of how you choose to level your heroes, you need a constant supply of Feeders and Food. To accomplish this, you need to build more Farms and Training Camps.

As soon as you have your first Training Camp(TC) to level 4, build your second Training camp. As soon as you have it to level 11, build your third - at a minimum by the “mid-stage” of the game you should be running all 3 TC’s constantly.

TC 4 should be using the “Low Cost” training until you have completed TC 11. At that point, move all of your recruits from TC 4 and begin using the “Extra Low Cost” in TC11.

Now, while building your third training camp up, begin using the first two options “Common” or “Uncommon” in TC 4. Which one you use depends on the resources you have available(You need backpacks for “Uncommon” and wooden swords for “Common”)

Then, continue upgrading your Stronghold and your 3rd Training camp. The goal is to get your Stronghold to level 20 and your third TC to 11 as quickly as you can. Once you have your level 20 stronghold finished, guess what? Build another TC. :slight_smile: This one will take some time, but we want to work up to TC 20 so you can begin the “Legendary” training for your chance at 5* heroes(As I type this, my TC 20 has given me 3 5* heroes to date, and I’ve only had it running for about six weeks!)

While waiting for TC20 to complete (this takes a lot of time and resources,) keep the other three running “Extra Low Cost,” “Common,” and “Uncommon”. If you are still working with mainly 2 and 3* heroes, you may want to upgrade one of your TC11’s to level 13 - this will give you access to “Elite” training with a chance for 4* heroes. Finally, once TC20 is finished, use it for “Legendary” as often as you can afford.

This training regimen will ensure that you have a constant supply of “Feeder” heroes to level your “A Team” and your “War Teams”

Now, in the beginning, you may need to keep some of your 2* heroes to help get your 30 heroes for the Alliance War, but otherwise, 1* and 2* heroes are food - don’t level them up.

As you pull 3, 4, and 5* heroes, you will rotate the lower level heroes out of your War Teams, and they will become food.

That said, whether you choose to work on your “A Team” or one of your “War Teams,” the method is the same:

You should almost ALWAYS use 10 feeders at once when levelling your hero.

Each time you level up, whether you use 1 hero or 10, the cost for training goes up by 100 food per/feeder. It costs 21,000 food to feed 10 1* hero to your 3* hero the first time you level up; but the next time you feed that same hero, it will cost 22,000. By the time you reach level 50, you are spending 100,000+ food each time you feed a hero.

(The only exception to the “Rule of 10” would be in the higher ascension tiers, specifically in the higher levels where it takes more than 10 heroes to level up a character. In this case, you may use any number of feeders in multiple “small batches” until just before your character is ready to reach the next level - but make sure you stop before they level up, and once again feed them 10 at a time.)

Overall, by only using 10 heroes each time you level, you minimize this “increasing cost” factor to the best of your ability.

Second, try not to use any trainer heroes you get with 3* heroes specifcially, and ALWAYS feed them 10 heroes of the SAME COLOR - this will ensure that you get the best % chance to increase your heroes special ability, and the most overall chances at getting the increase.

It is very common to get a 3* hero to max level only to have their special ability stuck at 5/8 - while this doesn’t guarantee you will max their special, it will give you the best chance.

Third - for any 4* or 5* hero you are working on, only level ONE HERO at a time until they are maxed, or until you hit a wall waiting for ascension materials. In this case, color does not matter, as you will definitely max their special before you finish reaching max level.

There is an experience bonus for using feeders of the same color, so it is arguably more efficient to use the same color. However; it will be slower, and in my opinion the return on that investment does not justify the time you will spend levelling your stronger heroes to max.

If you were to only use the same color feeders for each 4 or 5* hero, on average you will take 5x longer to level up each hero(really rough average, but the point stands) :slight_smile: Not only would it take longer to level up your team, but you’re overall Team Strength will increase more slowly as well, causing delays in your progression on the map levels and reducing effectiveness against Titans.

Now that we know how to speed level a given hero, the next question becomes … who should I level first? lol, I think that’s a topic for another time. :slight_smile:

Again, I want to emphasize that there isn’t necessarily a right or a wrong way to level up, and you should assess your priorities in the game before deciding to follow any of the guidelines laid out above.

I hope this information is helpful, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or would like to provide feedback, and most importantly … Have Fun!

:slight_smile: Tima


p.s. - Many thanks to everyone who helped me to refine this guide - @kerridoc, @badassninjadad, @onemilionyearsoldorc, and @socialpariah - you guys are rockstars! <3

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Raising five heroes at the same time increases by x4,35 the time you take in each of them separately.

But raising five heroes at the same time decreases the total time by 15%.

In the short term it may be better not to consider the color, but in the long term it is always faster to feed each hero only with his color.

And I think this is a long term game.

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Yeah, my “5x” figure was just observational, not any actual math involved. :slight_smile:

While I don’t disagree with this in principle, you’re relying on the assumption that one would draw equally across all five colors. In practice, this is not always the case. There were plenty of occasions where I was attempting to level up all 5 of my “A Team” heroes, but couldn’t pull the proper colors to level them equally. I often pulled 3 or 4 Red heroes for every 1 blue, as an example(and of course Hawkmoon was already at Level 3.50, meanwhile Graymane was stuck at 2.36).

That said, my “Guide” is really for someone who has just pulled a new hero (maybe 4 or 5*) and wants to bring them up to speed quickly, and as noted in the “Final Version” is very much based on individual priorities.

It is certainly more efficient, the XP gained from single-color feeders is undeniably a better value - but from my experience I don’t believe it is faster, simply because it takes so long to acquire 100+ feeders of the same color to “efficiently” max ones target hero.

That is 100% accurate, and I think planning early and thinking long-term will help players enjoy the game more; but with so many members of my team feeling frustration from a lack of progress, being mindful of ones short-term enjoyment is also something that should be considered. :slight_smile:

Thank you so much for your feedback, I sincerely appreciate it!

:slight_smile: Tima

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Additionally, I discussed this at some length with several others in my “Rough Draft” thread, I didn’t just arbitrarily assume that this method was faster, or meant for everyone. :slight_smile:

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While I agree in general with your post,

this part makes the assumption that at any given time a player has 5 heros, of different colour, to work on.

I summon very rarely, and only then to try and increase an element I consider myself weak in (currently dark).

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Life after TC20 - I am a dedicated cheap2play player (2nd builder only). The long haul to TC20 (105 days) was all about iron optimization. I have 1 5* and 4 4*. So TC20 is critical to my advancement. So while in this waiting mode I did some math. I was surprised that the “penalty” for off-Color training was only 16%. So I agree that in general focusing on a single hero provides the best approach to improve results for Titan, AW and most importantly challenge events. I was also somewhat surprised that using leveled hero’s as feeders only return 10% of experience added. (I don’t know why but I had expected both of them to be about 50%).

So I’m now in “banking” mode. I don’t plan to feed anything other than farmmed and daily summoned heroes until my next epic or legendary.

I’m not collecting finished heroes from my TC11s. I’m just letting them stack up. I’m not spending swords (TC1), backpacks (TC2) or rugged clothes (TC19). The TCs can processes all of these materials much faster than they can be farmed.

On the day that a worthwhile hero drops, I will collect the TC11s and convert them to TC1 and TC2 process all my stored swords and backpacks and switch them back. Depending on how long that takes, I many be able to level all the way to an ascension wall in a week or less.

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This was awesome especially as a new player (almost two weeks in). I wish I read this a week ago! Going to turn my focus all on Stronghold 20 and TC 20! Would you level a Sabina to Asc 3 skill 7 or a Joonto Asc 2 skill 3?? Thanks!

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Hello! :slight_smile:

I love the “Banker” approach, and at this point I am constantly running out of backpacks (plenty of Practice Swords, however) - out of curiosity, which levels are you farming consistently?

This sounds like a good plan, and I commend you for your patience and planning! :smile:

I’m sure you’re aware, but once TC11 is finished “Training” a hero, while you can collect the hero as a feeder, you cannot reclaim the resources - you can only reclaim the resources from heroes that are still in “Training,” as it were. The thing to watch out for here is that you must have room to store the recruits and food from TC11 while transferring them over to TC1/TC2.

And that is brilliant! Definitely in the spirit of my “Speed-Levelling” guide!

By saving your Trainer Hero’s and “unfarmables,” you should be able to easily and quickly power-level your next worthwhile drop - the only area you may run into delay will be with food, so you may want to concentrate on upgrading your food storage, if you hadn’t already. :slight_smile:

Thanks for sharing your insights!!
:slight_smile: Tima

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Hello! :slight_smile:

Thank you for the feedback, it’s much appreciated!

This depends on your priorities right now.

Sabina is a competent healer, reasonable on offense, and her special “Fog of the Fallen” - Removes Enemy Buffs, which is useful on offense and defense.

On the other hand, Joon is an excellent offensive “Sniper” - and his “Fast” special skill makes him a real asset on either offense or defense.

Do you already have a strong 4* Healer(Rigard/Melendor)? If not, I would probably focus on Sabina. :slight_smile: But ramp up Joon as soon as she’s finished!

Hope it helps!
:Tima

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Thanks for the advice. I just got Rigard actually. But he has not been leveled at all. Also got Tiburtus (sp)

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Rigard is the superior healer to Sabina, so I would focus your resources on him over her, he is one of the only “Cleansers” in the game that can remove status effects from your team. :smile:

Tiburtus is solid, but again, who you work on first is based on your goals/priorities - but I will say with confidence that with the heroes you have to choose from, in time you will be a beast! :wink:

Have Fun!
:slight_smile: Tima

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I’d go all in on Rigard if I had those choices as he’s easily the best 4* healer.
Tib is good on Titan and raid attack with his defence drop, Joon, although a beast when maxed, will be hopeless unless you can get him to minimum 3-70, and Sabina is competent but a war team filler imo.
All are very good when maxed (an excellent bench in the making!!) but Rigard will serve you best across the most situations.

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Ugh…I leveled Sabina up…Will start working on Rigard! Thanks all!!

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Also got Obakan to drop last night. Any good? 7DD gave him a B. Should I level Rigard first then Obi?

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I dispute that…would you take Rigard over Boldtusk or Kiril? Both are healers. BT is usually considered as the best 4* hero (along with Wu).

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They all have their place, and I’m lucky enough to have all three(pulled Rigard last) - but being honest, if I could only keep 1 of them and didn’t already have Vivica - yes, I would pick Rigard over both Boldtusk and Kiril, personally.

Thankfully, this isn’t a situation where you must choose only one! :slight_smile:

:)Tima

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Congrats on pulling Obikan - he’ll be a nice addition to your bench. :slight_smile: It’s a tough call, though, who to level first.

Again, depends on your priorities - do you need a purple Hitter more than Healer? Obikan should be a monster on offense, and his “Cleave and Counter” is an excellent defensive special - so if you need to beef up your attack team for the higher provinces on the World Map , or Hard Season 2 levels, then sure, Obi makes sense, and your defense will benefit as well. :slight_smile:

Rigard, though, will serve you well in a broad variety of situations, and will definitely help your Raid and War defense more than Sabina would.

I don’t have Obikan, so I can’t speak from first hand experience here as to his offensive abilities, and would defer to others for more insight, but I will again point out that you have a nice selection there, and once you have these guys levelled - beast mode! :wink:

:)Tima

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I have level 1 Boldtusk and Kiril also…You would still pick Rigard first?? I don’t have a purple hitter outside of Obakan…Thanks again for all the advice and opinions!

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Depends on what other healers you have, both in general and in purple. Rigard is the most useful 4* healer for surviving and completing all of the Provinces in Season 1. There are no other 4* healers that will remove status ailments from your team.

That said, you probably could learn to “play through the pain” as it were if you have Melandor, Sabina, Boldtusk, Kiril or any 5* healer. Rigard should be on your list of purple heroes to level up one day, if only because you’ll need him for alliance wars.

You may also need to consider if you have enough rare ascension materials to level Obakan up to the point where he’s really useful (i.e. Tier 4). Ascending Obakan to Tier 3 takes the same materials as ascending Rigard to Tier 4. And ascending Obakan to Tier 4 takes even more materials.

Obakan at 3-70: Attack 640, Def 536, HP 1117
Rigard at 4-70: Attack 595, Def 673, HP 1166

By the numbers Rigard would be a better tank than Obakan. But then again, Obakan is in no way considered to be a good tank. He’s a sniper, a decent fast hitter with a gimmick SS that deals revenge damage. But he’s got to be maxed out before those qualities really come through.

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BT isn’t a healer imo. He’s an attack buffer first and foremost, with minor healing thrown in for some reason. He’s excellent for what he offers, but he’s no Rigard when it comes to keeping heros alive.

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