I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the best starting strategy. So i did a little testing over the past 6 months. Then extrapolated a little from my other experiences. Also realize that almost the entire guide excludes Light/Dark in any regard, especially for Fodder. Again realize that this is also my opinion on the matter, but i feel its at least a mildly informed one. As i don’t own all these heroes at E3, some ratings were from people that seemed decently informed as well. Might be helpful, might not, but its probably a good read for most new players. This is probably the last one i do until more heroes are added.

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Keep these heroes until you know better what you are doing:

The Best Start

The ideal best start is to build an excellent E3 and not an evenly starred up team. Most of the heroes on the list near the bottom will be 2 to 3 times better at E3, than 3-4 God Tier heroes at 10★ would be. Thus we want to focus on getting a hero to E3 to the exclusion of all else. Obviously we want an E3 hero that can do everything perfectly, but sadly that hero doesn’t exist outside of Aida (Light Hero). So as an early player, i believe we benefit more from a PvE standpoint. PvE is a fairly board term though. It means damage ranking for guild bosses, killing marauders efficiently, getting that Broken Spaces boss down for gold, Seal Land to 6 or 10, and Aspen to at least Hell 1.

To achieve this, its worth focusing all resources towards this end. Mostly, that means maximizing feathers from events, and streamlining the fodder process. This E3 can be yours in a few easy steps.

1. Pick a Good 10★ Fodder Hero
2. Streamline the fodder process by excluding all other good heroes.
3. Complete events specifically with Feathers in mind.
4. Pick a E3 Hero
5. Steal Underpants
6. ???
7. Profit

Picking a 10★ Fodder Hero

To make an E3 hero, we need a 10★ sacrifice. It then follows to build a 10★ first, and make it one that is useful enough to mildly carry the team for the early game, yet can still be destroyed to make the E3. To this end, picking a decent hero for this purpose can help. Most of the above heroes are above average in early game performances and would make a most helpful 10★. They also wouldn’t make bad 9★s. I find myself wanting to recommend or rank these heroes, but honestly they are all good and bad. At 10★ Karim would probably be the strongest, but as most things in life, it kinda depends. Depending on gear, tech, treasure stone, and artifact you have available some will be worse and some better. If you don’t plan to ever take Starlight or Vesa to E3, they are on par with Karim as a 10★ hero, but i think they make quite good higher units as well, so i didn’t include them. You may if u wish.

I would also like to add that picking a 10★ of the same faction as your E3 (if you picked an E3) can help when obtaining copies of that hero. You’ll have higher chances of getting more copies of that hero while using POs and Prophet Branches.

Streamline the Fodders

With this strat, the fodder process needs to be focused on building only 1 Non-Fodder Hero to E3. That means leaving all other God Tier Heroes collecting dust on a shelf and using those not mentioned at the top of this thread as fodder. If you can, keep the god tier heroes in Token form so they aren’t taking up space. If you can’t, take care with them. Goes without saying, but you don’t want to build the other God Tier Heroes either, even to 6★. You slow and prolong the process for each other God Tier hero you level. You need to focus on your hero of choice or it will cost you more time, which extracts an Opportunity Cost. If you have picked your 10★, start building it. If you haven’t picked your 10★, start building your 9★ heroes as they can still help with earning resources. If you haven’t picked your E3 hero, don’t rush it. You have some time. Also, don’t buy any hero with feathers until it means you will have 7 copies AND all your fodder built. Using feathers is the LAST thing you do. Using them before commits you to a hero, and if you do it early, could mean that you waste feathers. You don’t ever want to waste feathers. Wait until its a done deal to use them.

Lets start by breaking down Hero ★s. The basic unit is a 5★ building block. Having 2 copies of the same hero, with 4 other fodder 5★s makes a six star. At 6★ you then can go to the unit itself and upgrade it from there.

Looking at this we can see that we will need to get our E3 hero to 9★, three 9★s fodders, and a 10★ fodder. That’s 186x 5★s if i did the math right. That is alot of 5★s. So as you should have picked up, the overarching idea is to build an E3 as fast as possible. Since the fodder is needed in such numbers, wasting any is a bad idea. Most ideal steps.

• If you have picked your 10★ Fodder Hero, you should start assembling it and a 9★ in the 3 other factions.
  • Start by building three 6★s in each faction.
    • Obtain another copy of one of the above mentioned 6★.
      • Only Level that 6★ with the extra copy to 100, then promote it. Saves Gold.
  • Obtain nine 5★ fodders
  • Form the 9★.

• Start on two more 9★s once those are finished
• Anywhere after you build your 10★ feel free to start building your E3 to 9★

During the process of making the 10★ and three 9★s, you need to keep an eye on which E3 you plan to build if you didn’t know from the start. Generally even if you picked it, might be a good idea to not build it right away. Could be you pick up more copies of a different hero and because less copies are needed you build it instead.

Most of my progress goes like this. All month long, i eek out every scrap of 4★ random summon shards that i can get. Once Heroic Miracle comes around, i use all my Heart Summons from the summoning circle, followed by my Random 4★ shards to make as many 5★s as i can out of them. I also use the 3★ randoms and the 3★s that i bought each day from the Marketplace to help build them. Takes Eight 4★s and Four 3★s to make a 5★. This is the basis for my growth, 4★ shards and i do this only during Heroic Miracle Event. Once i have run out of the 4★ shards, i move on to Random Summon 5★ shards. From there i try to make three 6★s from each faction while trying to keep a spare Hero copy of one of the 6★s so i can make it 9★ later.

I really hope that helps clarify some things for the newer people. If its not on that god Tier Hero list above, feel free to fodder it without worry. During the process i have one more thing to add. Hero space is always tight for this. If you need to, sacrifice your 3★s to the altar to make space, fine, but never sacrifice a 4★, like EVER. ViP levels help a bit with Hero space. Recommend a card or 2 for that reason alone.

The importance of 4★ Heroes should not be underestimated. It is the basis for 65% of my growth. You build the shard numbers daily, in small amounts. By the end of the month, they add up to thousands. On top of that, with the monthly Fusion quest, the first 20 5★s you make reward you gold, which you will need. They should be picked up at every chance. Here is where to find them.

• Marketplace: 30x Shard for 1.5m Gold (pick up 3★s too)
• Seal Land: Smash daily for the most you can.
• Event Raid Hero Challenge: Spend gems for extra completes here. All that you can EVERYDAY.
• Tavern Quests (pretty much all 5★ quest that gives shards)

Obtaining Feathers Hero copies

One of the hardest things in the early game is to obtain 7 copies of one of the heroes we will discuss below. The idea situation would be to pick the hero on the list that you have the most copies of, as it will cost less feathers in the end. Because the only reliable way to obtain heroes is through the feather shop, we will focus all our resources towards this goal. How do we obtain Feathers? From event completions. You get a few each month from the monthly Tavern (5), Militant(5), Fusion(10), and Broken Spaces(15). There are also 3 repeatable events with feather rewards, Prophet Orbs (15), Heroic Summon (15), and Casino (5). Some of this will be out of your reach for awhile, like Broken Spaces. There are other random events that show up and have feathers. There have also been Special Cards for cash during special events that award Feathers. Do your best to obtain these feathers while keeping the goal in mind. As mentioned above though, you really need to be saving almost from the start for event completions. Getting the most feathers out of events is important because its our only reliable way to get the hero copies for people low on luck.

Prophet Orbs were another place with decent chance to provide a copy for your E3. You can focus them on the faction you want, and branch that faction as well giving pretty good odds of getting approximately 1 hero copy every 80 POs used. If you are planning ahead, you can double dip with POs, and get copies for your E3, and your 10★ hero if they are both of the same faction. If not, focus on the E3 and ignore the 10★ when it comes to POs. The last thing to add here is that using POs and PO branches on Fortress is not the best idea. Last numbers data mined showed Fortress at a decent disadvantage from the other factions. That may or may not have changed with all the game upgrades.

Picking the Hero

This is your first E3, once made it will be your only hero for a time. Because of this, it needs to be a solid hero for carrying your progress from that point on while you start on your next. It should be the focal point of your acnt growth after that, which means it should be highly geared towards as much PvE as one hero can be. No hero does it ALL at 100%. Thus why you will see a varied amount of opinions on which hero to pick. I used these categories. They are mostly heroes that focus on PvE as a whole. The idea of my criteria is the order in which i see them helping acnt growth the most.

• Guild Bosses very important for the simple reason that tech makes the biggest power difference for your heroes period. Ranking #1 each time means you pick up roughly 9k coins every boss downed. Versus the rabble that pick up like 5k. You also want to be able to rock Pray for Fire later on.
• Marauders are a fairly stable source of the gem income. I’m sure i will get flack here. Thing is, if you vet your friends list well, and don’t pick up any friends that crush Marauders, it is a huge source of gems. I have carefully picked 30 friends on my servers (Andriod #1, #2, #20 and #56) that have pitiful PvE teams. You also have to now watch their level compared to yours, and kick people that go away for more than 3 days. Doing so nets me around 4 kills a day. That’s 320 extra Gems a day. Or 2240 a week. Or 8960 a month. That is huge. You can argue that’s anecdotal and it does vary day to day for sure, but anyone can do this. There are too many people in this game with no clue, that play every day, and can’t kill their own Marauders. It makes me laugh all the way to the bank. This does take a small investment of time to establish and to maintain.
• Broken Spaces i have listed fairly high for new players especially. The gold from this event is a life line. With Grey Dwarf coming around like it does, the only real way to keep up is being able to kill the 2nd Gold fight. The first and second boss sets together give you roughly 150m extra gold each month. That is the primary benefit, but it also has the added benefit of Monster supplies. Dust is a non-factor due to the Fusion Monthly. The other part of this is its an easy 6 Feathers each month as well with a good team to clear all 2nd fights. Feathers are a high priority to me.
• Seal Land depending on your stage, is close to the best source of 4★ shards. As most of you know, these shards are the building block of the majority of ★ growth for you heroes. Making this every bit as important, especially later on. At Stage 10, this place is the most important place there is for acnt growth.
• Utility is huge in many respects and don’t think it needs an explanation. Its added things a hero does for a team that others don’t. That includes healing, survival, buffs, and debuffs.
• Aspen is useful, just not what it used to be. I think most people are stuck in the mindset of the past here. The Smash results every day are Ok, and the 60 Casino Coins for gold that you get each month are nice, but its not the progression boosting thing it used to be. As it stands, it still helps and is still worth doing. Just not the highest priority anymore.
• PvP is PvP. Its why alot of us play. Figuring out teams that work and strong hero builds and such is really fun, but unless you are top 10, it doesn’t provide a noticeable benefit to consistent acnt growth. Getting into that top 10 requires either absolute insane luck, or money. That’s just my opinion. I’m focusing on growth here, so its low on the list.
• Brave Trial is great for pet parts, and for light fodder later on. It also provides a small amount of gold. It is useful in a minimal way, and generally building only 1 good hero can take u pretty far. Money and hero copies over a long amount of time lessen its value to almost trivial.

With that criteria in mind, this is my ranking for E3s.

E3 Hero Breakdown

Horus

• Strengths:
  • For Guild bosses, Marauders, Broken Spaces he is top one or 2 hero.
  • He starts strong with high survivabilty and good damage, later on he’s downright one of the best.
  • If you run rainbow for PvP, he’s one of 2 choices for the shadow spot.
  • Provides a bleed for Wolf.
• Weak Points:
  • Probably Seal Land or PvP. Still does well but others do it better.

Sigmund

• Strengths:
  • Guild Bosses, Marauders, Broken Spaces, Utility.
  • His utility is very high because his superb survival, and his armor break debuff on enemies will increase the whole teams damage.
  • Only costs 50 Feathers.
  • Pray for Fire
• Weak Points:
  • PvP, better now that retaliations no longer give energy, but he just doesn’t do enough damage.
  • Seal Land. Fortress gets boned here IMO.

King Barton

• Strengths:
  • Seal Land. He can take you to 10 with a Kroos.
  • Smashes some Apsen to Hell.
  • PvP and BT. He’s a monster in PvP.
• Weak Points:
  • Marauders and Broken Spaces. Does less than Valk.
  • Guild Bosses, crap damage but stays alive most time.

Valkyrie

• Strengths:
  • One of the Top Heroes at Aspen, BT, and PvP.
  • Utility, The attack steal is very useful for certain PvE encounters.
• Weak Points:
  • Marauder, and Brokens Spaces all she does is survive doing a measly ~40m.
  • Has a slightly better than Marauder showing for guild bosses.

Skerei

• Strengths
  • Utility, like Valk the Attack steal is helpful in many situations and has a higher impact on Skereis damage than Valks.
  • Good at Marauders, Broken Spaces, PvP, and Aspen, but i wouldn’t say the top hero at any unless you have more than one Skerei. If you have more than one, probably the best PvE Unit.
• Weak Points:
  • Dies in Guild Bosses.
  • Seal Land, not great.

Barea

• Strengths:
  • Decently good at Marauders, Guild Bosses, and Broken Spaces if full AP build.
  • Great Armor steal Utility which lowers enemy armor while increasing his.
• Weak Points:
  • Not great in PvP, Aspen, or BT. Not terrible, but not great.

Vesa

• Strengths:
  • Great Healer/Damage combo unit. Can generally beat Valk in damage for Marauders, Broken Spaces, and Guild Bosses while also healing for large numbers.
  • PvP Depends alot on CC and if the match goes past round 10, but overall solid heals while also dishing respectable damage.
  • Aspen, Utility, BT, Marauders, Guild Bosses, Broken Spaces. She is useful everywhere. Berlain might be a bit better, but she’s light/dark. Because she heals and does decent damage her useful range makes her well worth it.
• Weak Points:
  • PvP Short round pvp at the E3 level is not her cup of tea.
  • Don’t use feathers on her.

Xia

• Strengths:
  • PvP, Marauders, Broken Spaces, Guild Bosses.
  • Utility, her attack reduce and power up if hit makes her a great addition to any team.
  • Provides a bleed for Wolf.
• Weak Points:
  • BT, Aspen, Seal Land.
  • The weakest starting hero of all listed here.

Opportunity Costs

Can’t ever ignore these, yet they really are a non-issue in this case IF YOU DO IT RIGHT. That means Focusing on a goal and shooting straight for it ignoring all others. An E3 is the single best thing to increase your progress and power in the game, so you need to get there as quickly and efficiently as possible. While it may seem as you don’t do much in the mean time for accomplishments, the power boost that one of these E3s provide will out strip any other method i have figured out so far. The E3 rank is such a game changer for so many heroes. Anything lost in the process will be made up upon completion, and generally speaking can be done in less than 4-5 months at worst. The heroes i picked are also decent heroes as they star up for the most part, and should give some menial progress even solo.