Heroes & battles
Which hero upgrade will help my squad?
Understand Top Lords hero levels, stars, skills, formations, recruitment and battle reports before investing.
A hero investment needs a job. Keep the front row alive, improve useful damage or reach a skill gate. Compare what you can actually field instead of assuming every new portrait starts fully developed.
Begin with levels and stars, then read skills and formations. Lord is presented separately as your player character and formation wildcard. Recruitment access, upgrade costs and battle performance remain separate questions.
Guides in this topic
Hero upgrades: levels, stars, skills and what to prioritize
EXP raises levels, shards raise stars, and Skill Medals improve covered skills. Plan each currency separately and stop at the next useful cap. Enough EXP doesn't bypass your Castle cap, and a new star doesn't pay the medal bill.
4 min readChoose your next hero investment by its job
Choose the next hero upgrade by the job your squad needs done. Fix a weak front row, a missed skill gate or a damage shortage before spreading materials over every portrait. Compare heroes at the investment you can actually afford.
3 min readHero skill upgrades: gates, star caps and medal costs
Identify the useful skill, check its hero-level gate and current star cap, then fund the next affordable levels. The first three covered regular UR skills use a medal curve; the fourth special skill is a fixed unlock rather than another thirty-level medal track.
4 min readHero skill priorities: Ragnar, Mulan and support examples
Match the next medal purchase to the fight. Ragnar’s front-row protection, Mulan’s rear-row pressure and Charles Martel’s ally support do different jobs. Compare the next useful level at its actual price rather than treating one upgrade order as permanent.
5 min read
Squad formation: front row, back row and Lord faction buffs
Build a usable front and back row, then check the faction bonus your available heroes produce. Lord can help match the formation bonus as a wildcard. That does not make every faction-restricted building, research or skill effect apply universally.
4 min read
Hero recruitment: ticket pools and when to spend
Check the probability panel for the exact ticket you will use. A visible hero is not automatically in that pool. Save for a reason you can name, such as a future eligible hero or a useful scoring window, without promising a pull count the rules cannot support.
3 min readWall of Honor: how to unlock it and spend spare shards
Raise the relevant faction building to 20 and reach five stars on an eligible hero. Honor then uses Hero Shards for a separate progression track, with faction-wide milestones at 50, 100, 150 and 200. Compare the next milestone with unfinished heroes before spending universal shards.
3 min readBattle reports: find out why the squad lost
Use battle reports to identify what failed, then change one expensive variable at a time. Compare similar fights. Power is a useful label for an account, but it is not a validated prediction of survival, damage or losses in a particular battle.
3 min read