Ascending vs Leveling up Heroes

Ascending vs. Leveling Up: A Beginner's Guide to Powering Up Heroes

Leveling up = feeding your hero to make them stronger

Leveling up raises a hero's level by training them with other heroes. You pick the hero you want to improve, then choose other heroes to feed into them — the fodder is consumed, and your hero gains experience and climbs in level. Higher level means better Attack, Defense, and Health, plus a higher chance to raise their Special Skill.

Key beginner points:

- Leveling costs Food and uses other heroes as feeders — no rare materials needed.

- Feeding same-color heroes gives bonus experience, so it's the most efficient way to level.

- Trainer Heroes are special feeders that give a larger amount of experience.

- A hero can only level up to the cap of their current ascension tier. Once they hit that cap, leveling stops — and that's where ascension comes in.

Ascending = unlocking the next tier of power

Ascension is the big upgrade. The game describes it directly: "Only by Ascending can your Heroes reach their true potential." Ascending raises the hero's maximum level (their tier), unlocks a new batch of levels to reach, boosts their stats, and improves their Special Skill.

The crucial difference: ascension does not use heroes as food. Instead, it requires special Ascension Materials. Most heroes go through four ascension tiers, with each tier needing more (and rarer) materials than the last.

So the process is: level up → hit the cap → ascend to raise the cap → level up again, and repeat.

Understanding Ascension Materials

Ascension Materials come in two qualities and are tied to your hero's element (color):

- Rare (3-star) materials — needed for the earlier ascensions. Reasonably common.

- Epic (4-star) materials — needed for the final ascension. These are harder to get (items like the Damascus Blade, Tome of Tactics, Mystic Rings, Royal Tabard, Warm Cape, and similar).

- Most materials are color-specific — a Fire hero needs Fire (red) materials, an Ice hero needs Ice (blue) materials, and so on.

Where to get Ascension Materials

There's no single source — you gather them from all over the game:

- Story Map and Quest stages — the main steady source; specific stages drop specific materials.

- Daily wanted missions - defeating 40 PvP enemies and 100 PvE enemies

- Titan loot and Alliance War chests — being in an active alliance is one of the best long-term material sources.

- Class Trials and other Quests — the rotating Trials reward materials.

- Events — Challenge Events and similar often pay out Epic materials.

- The Alchemy Lab — combine Alkashards there for a chance at Epic Ascension Materials.

- The shop — Daily Deals and special offers regularly sell Ascension Materials directly.

- Ascension Summon — a special portal (using Ascension Crystals) that summons materials, tomes, and trainers.

A handy shortcut: a Tome of Ascension lets you ascend a hero without spending the usual materials — save these for an expensive hero you can't otherwise finish.

Beginner takeaways

1. Level with same-color feeders and Trainers; spend Food freely on heroes you'll keep.

2. Don't over-invest in heroes you'll replace — ascension materials (especially Epic ones) are scarce, so save them for keepers.

3. Hoard materials with a plan. Decide which hero you're taking to the final tier before you spend your hard-won Epic mats.

4. Join an active alliance — titan and war loot massively speeds up your material collection.