Summoning Portal Types and How to Choose
Summoning Portal Types and How to Choose
Empires & Puzzles has many summon "gates," and they fall into different categories. Here is the full landscape, followed by how to decide which to pull from.
Core / always-available portals
- Epic Hero Summon — the classic pool, with a guaranteed Rare, Epic, or Legendary Hero and a daily Featured Legendary Hero. This is the default portal and the main place the current Hero of the Month can appear as a bonus draw.
- Daily Summon — a cheap pull giving a random Hero or Troop up to Rare rarity; good value for an everyday low-cost roll.
- Elemental Summon — the Epic pool narrowed to a single element, with a Featured Legendary Hero, for when you want to target a color.
Season (storyline) portals
These rotate on a schedule based on the season that currently has discounted energy costs, and have an increased chance for Legendary heroes, and can be pulled with gems or with coins you earn from that season's map stages (a very free-to-play-friendly route).
- Atlantis Summon (Season II) — 100 Atlantis Coins per summon.
- Valhalla Summon (Season III) — 100 Valhalla Coins per summon
- Underwild Summon (Season IV) — 100 Underwild Coins per summon
- Dunes Summon (Season V) — 100 Dunes Coins per summon
- Untold Tales Summon (and Untold Tales II) — 100 Untold Tales Coins per summon
These also grant a bonus chest (ascension materials and more) every set number of summons.
Challenge event portals (recurring events)
- Event Summon (Challenge Events) — features that event's family heroes, a Festival Bonus Chest, and a chance for a bonus Legendary event hero.
- Tower Summon — increasingly difficult levels as you rise in the tower but with larger rewards as you progress. 100 Tower Tokens per summon
- Costume Summon - PvP style levels with 5v5 teams of heroes. Earn costume keys by beating the levels. 5 costume keys gives a free summon.
Seasonal (holiday) portals
- Seasonal Summon — the holiday hero pool (such as Spring or Winter heroes).
- Premium seasonal versions like the Sanguine Summon (Halloween), Sunbay Summon (Beach Party), and Fortune Summon (Lunar New Year) have special events where the stages drop seasonal currency that can be redeemed for their summoning portals.
Limited / special legendary portals
These rotate in and out and usually focus on recent or premium Legendary heroes:
- Covenant Summon — 6 Legendary heroes, no Classic Legendaries.
- Black Friday Summon, Solstice Summon, and Harvest Summon — recent heroes and costumes from all events plus past Heroes of the Month, with Classic heroes excluded; often debut brand-new event heroes.
- Super Elemental Summon — a huge selection of one element's non-Classic heroes; gems or Super Elemental Coins from the Contest of Elements.
- Temple Summon and Shadow Summon — value-focused portals that give an extra free Legendary or bonus draws per Legendary summoned featuring only heroes from certain families
- Instant Power (Ascension) Summon — heroes arrive already ascended.
Non-hero portals
- Epic, Legendary, and Tower Troop Summons — for Troops rather than heroes.
- Ascension Summon — ascension materials, emblems, tomes, and trainer heroes; pulled only with Ascension Crystals.
- Aether Summon — aethers and trainer heroes; pulled only with Aether Crystals
Dragon portals (Dragon mode)
- Legendary Dragon Summon, Ancient Dragon Summon, Elemental Dragon Summon, and the cheaper Silver Summon — the dragon equivalents of the hero portals. These are available upon the player reaching level 20 and unlocking Dragonspire
Mechanics that apply across portals
- Fated Summon — fill a bar (it rises with every non-Legendary summon) to claim a Legendary hero of your choice; a built-in pity system. Daily and Mystic summons do not count toward it.
- Hero of the Month — appears as a chance bonus draw from select portals (Epic Hero, Elemental, and various limited-duration summons).
Why a player would prefer one portal over another
- You're chasing a specific hero type. Want a particular element? Use Elemental or Super Elemental. A season hero? Use that season portal. An event hero, costume, or troop? Use the matching Event, Costume, or Troop portal. Smaller, focused pools give better odds at your target than the broad Epic Hero Summon.
- What currency you have. Season and event portals can be pulled with coins earned from playing their stages, making them the most free-to-play-friendly — you can summon without spending gems. Daily Summon is the cheapest everyday option, while premium limited portals generally want gems.
- Odds and bonus value. Season portals advertise an increased Legendary chance, and several portals layer on extra value — bonus chests, extra draws (Shadow, Harvest), or a free second Legendary (Temple). The odds table is available in the upper left corner info button.
- Chasing the Hero of the Month. If the current Hero of the Month is your goal, pull from portals that include it as a bonus draw (Epic Hero, Elemental, and limited-time summons).
- Instant usability. Instant Power gives already-ascended heroes — good when you want a hero ready to fight immediately rather than spending time leveling.
- Pity and guarantees. If you specifically need a chooseable Legendary, work toward the Fated Summon bar, which guarantees a hero of your choice eventually.