Hero Growth Path

Depth Over Breadth

Focus on a tight squad of 3-5 core heroes rather than spreading Shards and EXP thin across your whole roster. A fully-built 5-hero squad clears content that a dozen half-built heroes can't touch. This applies at every stage — pick your main troop type first (see Troops), then commit your resources to the 5 heroes who'll actually fill that squad.

Level (Hero EXP)

Raise base level first — it's the cheapest, steadiest source of stat growth. Farm EXP through daily tasks, the Honorable Campaign in the Alert Tower (heroes below level 100 get a free chance to level up in every battle there), and the Alliance Exercise event. Remember your level cap rises with your Headquarters level — exactly 5 levels per HQ level, so an HQ push often unlocks headroom for heroes who've hit their current ceiling.

For the biggest combat-power gain per HQ level: upgrade your HQ, immediately level your main squad's heroes up to the new cap, then push toward the next HQ level rather than spending Hero EXP on secondary squads too early. See Upgrade Costs & Scaling for the full HQ-to-level-cap table.

Star / Tier Promotion (Shards)

This is where the bigger power jumps happen, and where new skills unlock. Use a mix of hero-specific Shards (farmed from campaign missions, duplicate summons, and events) and Universal Shards (rarer — save these for your highest-priority heroes rather than spending them on whoever's convenient).

Skills

Skills unlock progressively as star tier rises. Prioritize whichever skill matters most for that hero's role — Tactical and Passive skills for Defense heroes, raw damage skills for Attack heroes, the ally-buffing skill for Support heroes. See the Skill Structure section on the Heroes page for how the 4-skill system works.

Exclusive Weapon (UR heroes only, at 5 stars)

Once a UR hero hits 5 stars, getting their Exclusive Weapon to level 20 is the next milestone — it's both a real power increase and, as of Season 6, a hard prerequisite for Awakening. Level 30 gives a small extra bonus but isn't worth prioritizing over spreading level-20 across more heroes first, according to community guidance.

Awakening (where eligible)

Currently limited to Kimberly, DVA, and Tesla. Once a hero is both 5-star and Exclusive Weapon level 20+, Awakening becomes available. The common advice here is to fully commit to one awakened hero per season rather than splitting Awakening Shards across all three — but it's worth getting future Awakening candidates (like Murphy or Marshall, if they're announced for a later season) to Exclusive Weapon level 20 in advance, so you're not caught flat-footed when their turn comes.

• Hero EXP — daily tasks, Honorable Campaign (Alert Tower), Alliance Exercise.
• Hero-specific Shards — campaign missions, duplicate summons, event drops, Hero Wish tickets.
• Universal Shards — rarer; mainly from higher-value chests and milestone rewards. Reserve these for your core squad.
• Awakening Shards — entirely free-to-play: the Hero Awakening Trial (once a hero has an Awakened form) and Global Expedition (opens weeks 1, 3, and 5 of an Awakening season).

The Level Exchange / Star Swap Trick

From Season 3 onward, Level Exchange vouchers let you swap star rank 1:1 between two heroes. Since some UR heroes have much rarer shards than others, a common strategy is to level up an SSR hero with easy-to-farm shards, then use a voucher to transfer that star rank onto a UR hero whose own shards are painfully slow to collect — effectively fast-tracking the UR hero using cheaper materials. This is especially useful for UR heroes promoted from SSR heroes, since their post-promotion shard requirements often revert to the cheaper SSR-tier shards.

Reclaim From Abandoned Heroes

If an SR hero has fallen out of your squad for good, dismantle their equipped gear rather than leaving it idle — it converts into materials usable elsewhere. Since SR heroes aren't viable long-term investments to begin with, there's little reason to keep resources tied up in them once your squad has moved on.