(Updated 27- February 2020)
Upgrading a hero in Empires & Puzzles is hard work and take a ton of time and costs a load of resources. Wouldn’t it be really frustrating when you go through all that work then realise that the hero was not worth all that effort?
The feeling is crap. I know that. I have been there before.
So I decided to rank up all heroes here in this guide so you see what heroes you should spend all your hard earned resources and precious time on in Empires and Puzzles.
To be honest, this list should really only be used for reference. For example, the best hero overall might not necessary be the best hero in your raid team, or titan team. Furthermore, you might not make use of the best hero all the time because the best hero might not be appropriate for the situation.
Therefore, the best heroes are typically the most VERSATILE hero. Heroes that be used in a multitude of situations.
Finally, the average chance of pulling a Legendary hero is about 1% and 1.3% for the current HOTM. To get a specific Legendary Hero will cost you quite a bit of money – the most important thing for most players is to learn how to maximise the effectiveness of the heroes that you have on hand, and how to raid effectively , attack titans effectively, and set up the best defence team with what you have.
*Heroes with available reviews, whether by myself, or others will be linked to the tables.
Best Red / Fire Heroes
| 5 STAR FIRE HEROES | Titan Team | Offense Team | Defense Team - Tank | Defense Team - Flank | Defense Team - Wing | Defense team - Overall | Tournament - Rush Attack | Tournament - Buff Booster | Tournament - Bloody Battle | Hero Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marjana | B | A | B | B | A | A | B | B | B | A |
| Ares | A | A | B | C | C | B | A | A | B | A |
| Gravemaker | B | A | A+ | A+ | A | A+ | B | B | A | A+ |
| Zimkitha | B | A | B | A | A | A | B | B | B | A |
| Santa Claus | A | A | A | B | C | A | A | A | A | A |
| Black Knight Hero review | A | A | A+ | A | B | A+ | A | A | A | A+ |
Best Blue / Ice Heroes
| 5 STAR ICE HEROES | Titan Team | Offense Team | Defense Team - Tank | Defense Team - Flank | Defense Team - Wing | Defense team - Overall | Tournament - Rush Attack | Tournament - Buff Booster | Tournament - Bloody Battle | Hero Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master Lepus | A | A | C | A | A | A | A | B | A+ | A |
| Alasie | A | A+ | B | B | A+ | A | B | B | A | A |
| Misandra | B | A | B | B | A+ | A | B | B | B | A |
| Finley Hero Review | B | A+ | B | A | A+ | A+ | B | A | A | A+ |
| Alice | A | A+ | B | B | A+ | A+ | A | B | A | A+ |
| Ariel | B | A+ | B | A | B | A | B | A | C | A |
| Frida | A | A | B | B | B | B | A+ | A | A | A |
| Vela | A | A | B | A | A | A | A | A | A+ | A |
| Fenrir | A | A+ | B | B | B | B | A | A | A+ | A |
Best Green / Nature Heroes
| 5 STAR GREEN HEROES | Titan Team | Offense Team | Defense Team - Tank | Defense Team - Flank | Defense Team - Wing | Defense team - Overall | Tournament - Rush Attack | Tournament - Buff Booster | Tournament - Bloody Battle | Hero Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberich | B | A+ | B | B | A | A | A | A | C | A |
| Lianna | B | A+ | B | A | A | A | B | B | A | A |
| Zeline | A | A+ | B | A+ | A | A+ | A | A | A | A+ |
| Evelyn | A | A | B | B | B | B | A+ | A | A | A |
| Mother North | B | A+ | B | B | A | A | A | B | D | A |
| Kingston Hero Review | A | A+ | B | A | A+ | A+ | A | A | A | A+ |
| Lianna Costume | A | A+ | B | B | A+ | A+ | B | B | A | A+ |
| Heimdall | A | A+ | A+ | B | A | A | A+ | A | B | A |
Best Yellow / Holy Heroes
| 5 STAR HOLY HEROES | Titan Team | Offense Team | Defense Team - Tank | Defense Team - Flank | Defense Team - Wing | Defense team - Overall | Tournament - Rush Attack | Tournament - Buff Booster | Tournament - Bloody Battle | Hero Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joon | A | A | B | B | A | A | B | B | B | A |
| Guinevere | B | C | A+ | B | C | A+ | A+ | B | C | A |
| Deliliah | B | A+ | A | A | C | A | A | B | C | A |
| Drake Fong | B | A | A | A+ | B | A | A | A | A | A |
| Poseidon | B | A+ | B | B | A | A | B | A | A | A |
| Vivica Costume | A | A | A | B | B | A | A+ | A | C | A |
| Joon Costume | A | A+ | B | B | A+ | A | B | A | A | A |
| White Rabbit Hero Review | A+ | A | B | B | B | B | B | A | B | A |
| Guardian Gazelle Hero Review | A | A+ | B | A | C | B | A | A | B | A+ |
Best Purple / Dark Heroes
| 5 STAR HOLY HEROES | Titan Team | Offense Team | Defense Team - Tank | Defense Team - Flank | Defense Team - Wing | Defense team - Overall | Tournament - Rush Attack | Tournament - Buff Booster | Tournament - Bloody Battle | Hero Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hel | B | A+ | A | B | B | B | A | A | A | A+ |
| Guardian Panther | A+ | A | B | B | B | B | B | A | B | A |
| Sartana | B | A | B | B | A | A | B | B | A | A |
| Kageburado | B | A | B | A | A | A | B | A | A | A |
| Kunchen | A+ | A+ | A+ | A | C | A+ | A+ | B | C | A+ |
| Ursena | A | A+ | A+ | A | B | A+ | A+ | A | A+ | A+ |
| Seshat | A | A+ | B | A+ | A | A+ | A | A | A | A+ |
| Jabberwock Hero Review | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | B | A+ | A |
Best overall 5 star (Legendary) hero award
#1 Gravemaker
Due to his great strength in both offensive and defensive positions.
#2 Alberich
Similarly, highly versatile in Offensive and defensive positions and against Titans. Alberich can save you in clutch positions and is a nightmare to fight against in Wars.
#3 Hel
What makes Hel so good is her ability to completely stop mana generation for your opponents. Her damage is really secondary. As obvious as it may seem, special skills form the backbone of any team composition, whether in offense or defense. Stopping your opponents from being able to generate mana is really what wins you the game.
#4, #5, #6
Zeline, Seshat, Finley (in no particular order)
The lines really start to get blur at these positions – all these heroes are pretty damn awesome at what they do.
The distinction here between them and the top 3 heroes is that they are good at what they do, excellent in certain situations. But the top 3 heroes are excellent in ALL situations.
Ranking heroes below #7 is meaningless to do so. Rankings at this point becomes a matter of extremely variable opinion.
Instead take a look at your own existing roster, and see which heroes would add the greatest impact/improvement to your roster and how they would affect your playstyle.
You can also refer to these guides to determine which heroes your roster is lacking to decide which heroes you would like to upgrade first
Titan Guide
Winning Raids strategy Guide
Raid Defence team Set up.
Best 4 star (Epic) heroes
The Tournament ratings are ratings based on a 4 star (Epic) hero cap. The rest of the grading are based in comparison to the rest of the 5 star heroes available in the total hero pool
The fact that some of these heroes are still able to get A grade in certain aspects of the game is what defines them to be the top 4 star (Epic) heroes in Empires and Puzzles.
| 4 STAR ALL HEROES | Titan Team | Offense Team | Defense Team - Tank | Defense Team - Flank | Defense Team - Wing | Defense team - Overall | Tournament - Rush Attack | Tournament - Buff Booster | Tournament - Bloody Battle | Hero Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boldtusk (RED) | A | A | B | B | C | B | A | A | C | A |
| Kiril (BLUE) | A | A | B | B | C | B | A | A+ | C | A |
| Grimm (BLUE) | A | A | B | B | C | B | A+ | A | A | A |
| Hansel (Green) | B | A | C | C | B | B | A | A | A | A |
| Buddy (Green) | A | A | B | B | B | B | A+ | A+ | A+ | A |
| Guardian Jackel (Yellow) | A+ | A | C | C | B | B | A | A | A | A |
| Tibertus (Purple) | A | A | B | B | C | B | A+ | A | A | A |
| Rigard (Purple) | B | A | C | B | C | B | B | B | D | A |
| Proteus (Purple) | A | A | B | B | C | B | A | A | A | A |
| Rigard Costume (Purple) | A | A | B | C | C | B | A | A | C | A |
| Tibertus Costume (Purple) | B | A | B | B | C | B | A+ | A | A | A |
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Thank you for this. I just joined a team that is so knowledgeable with the heros – now I can catch up. In your Feb 20 update something is wrong with the Best Purple / Dark Heros table. It isn’t there???
I truly appreciate this article post.Much thanks again. Keep writing.
Fake news, Telluria is the best.
Telluria is only effective when you have Vela in the wing and your opponent has stacked red heroes against you. Otherwise it’s easy to take her out.
Hi there I was looking through the list of the best 5 * heroes and noticed that it says “best purple/dark heroes” then it list all the holy or yellow heroes I believe it need to say “best yellow/holy heroes” when you come to the next list it says “best yellow/holy heroes” on the purple square it reads “5 star holy heroes” and it starts listing the dark heroes Hel,Guardian panther so on. I believe this needs to say “Best purple/dark heroes” and in the purple square “5 star dark heroes”. hope this helps. P.S. love all the info that was put together.
Thanks for that! will have it corrected!
A few heroes of note didnt make the cut. Athena is the most viscous defense down hero in the game(High initial reduction, hits 3 with it, increases every hit including tiles up to 65%). She also packs very decent stats, her only true “drawback” is she is average speed and not fast, but the defense down in all aspects of the game is still probably the most victory turning cast a hero has. It works in maps, titans, and wars. It also helps every hero on the team that shoots (which is usually 4 out of 5 for most) and stops enemies from shooting because they are dead.
Alas, if only she were fast native speed.
BUT, I still vote her as one of the best blues in the game. Shes been one of the most argued and complained about heroes, one of the few that got nerfed, then denerfed and then they settled on a middle number because her initial 10% per hit was simply making titans fall apart in 2 tickets (1 player hitting 200k per ticket was rumored in the beta) . But any hero that gets a nerf usually is pretty hard to turn away from even post nerf.
Id expect Telluria was only left off due to being too recent to make the list YET, though as has often been pointed out, her great defensive abilities are ONLY defensive, she doesnt work well against titans or on offense. One could argue that Wukong is the most dangerous hero in the game, because anyone can get him as a free drop fro TC20, and he can do ridiculous things when luck is on your side with the miss/hit rate. When you are hitting 80% plus, taking down titans is much easier, and enemies even 300 power above still can fall like flies to a decent cascade. (Of course when he misses 5 shots in a row, it depresses to tears). But still, since he can do so much damage on offense, and costs only cheap materials to max, Id say he is a keeper for all seasons.
I do love Athena. She is great against Titans and in offensive raids.. Athena was also the first blue 5* hero that I got..
However, she does not make the cut for the best heroes because she’s pretty much close to a C or B- on defense.
If we compare her to Alasie, Alasie is A on Defense, A on Offense and A against Titans.. as an example..
Granted. And Athena oddly seems to be one of the 8 or 10 heroes whose defense doesnt match her numbers?
I cant prove it persay, but despite very okay to above average defense base stat, she dies as quick as heroes that are 100 points lower base? Quite a few heroes Ive played with defy their numbers even without emblems. Certain heroes hit too hard for their base, certain defend too well. I definitely think shes squishier than her base defense stat, but again, I love her for her offense.
I didnt make an argument for Wilbur, though I debated it. Like Wu, hes a readily available accessible 4 star, cheap to level, and he can be a game changer. His complete and utter lack of offense, coupled with his special sometimes being a bit of a problem rather than a solution had me not give him a vote. There are times hitting all rather than just 1 costs you. That enemy has Ursena and has 200 hp left, and you fire your tops sniper and she doesnt die…it only hits 190…she shoots back and YOU die. BUT, his defense down is great on titans, and that hits all thing doesnt hurt at all on titans. MOST of the time its good in regular battles, just certain times it blows back on ya.
Wait.. wilbur not in the best 4 stars? i mean he gives extreme survivability and defence down in one go.. either way nice work!
Granted I really enjoy reading many of your reviews, I offer my input.
1) Onatel not included in Yellows.
Onatel is one of the best yellow tanks in game. Also extremely good on offense. Can be helpful in Titans. Consider her for the list.
2) Seshat is not an A+ hero. I agree with a low A assessment, but I would hate to see some go Seshat before say, Ursena.
3) I echo the sentiment that Athena should really be on this list. One of the best blue heroes easily. I challenge Misandra being on the list, very highly overrated. I would put King Arthur in place.
4) Boss Wolf, Freya good candidates to be added.
5) Jean-Francois not on list for reds. Might be 2nd best to GM at this point.
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for the inputs!
The difficulty in establishing best heroes are because of the way the meta changes when new heroes are released. To be honest, there is no definitive way to rate a best hero, or to declare that a specific hero is best in the game.
E.g. Onatel is great in Defense but there are definitely better choices in defense as compared to onatel – e.g. Drake & Joon can be used all around in defense anytime without consideration for defensive strategy, in positions as Tank, Flank and Wing. Onatel requires a bit of planning + only applicable in Tank and Flank. Wing Onatel is simply too slow.
In offensive raids – once Onatel gets going she’s awesome. I won’t deny that. But that’s if she gets going and you will want her to get going before your opponents mana is charged. Where as in comparison, Joon or Drake Fong can either snipe an enemy that is fully charged, or cause them to miss their specials. In this aspect, there is a slight edge that joon and drake already have over onatel.
Against titans, Onatel is helpful, but not a must have against titans, (neither is Joon or Drake). Onatel is a “Tile damage” hero against titans. There are other yellow heroes that are more suitable in that aspect.
That being said – It is rather tough to go the rest of the suggestions that you have made.
So I will quickly run through it.
Seshat is an A+ because it is extremely viable as tank, although a worse tank that ursena.
Seshat is simply better in offense.
Against titans both heroes are as good. Ursena might edge out because of it’s yellow reflect effects. However the main consideration is still tile damage for both heroes.
Anyway, I do agree that the list of best heroes might need to have some sort of movement soon, given how the meta has changed. I will look into it..
Hi been a while since I checked this thread, thanks for responding in detail!
I think I mentioned it before I critiqued but I am in no way complaining and appreciate the efforts and reviews you have put up for individual heroes. I find myself referring to them a bit more than say Anchors guide.
Also kind of inspiring me to consider my own reviews, but I don’t want to muddle the waters for people trying to decide who they should tier up appropriately.
Once again thanks.
I have Joon but how do you get Joon Costume? I’m fairly new to the game so trying to figure it out. Kinda want to know if I should or shouldn’t invest in him. Or would I be investing in the wrong Joon.
Joon costume is avaliable from the costume summon monthly.. it is on the 2nd monday of every month.. if i remember correctly.
Joon is a good hero. Level him up anyway.
As Athena said, Joon is a very good hero especially for newer players as he is one of the best yellow big hitters in the game, and hes got a costume available if you like that sort of thing. (Ive always been of the opinion that most of the costumes, except a couple of the healers, just trade overall value without changing it. Your hero doesnt get that much better, just chemistry changes but same overall power and use. Mostly I prefer the original version except in 1 or 2 cases like Rigard or melendor, and even they become susceptible to mana block and buff block by getting costumes)
Get Joon to level 4, youll have so much hitting power, youll be fine. The costume bump is OK, but anything over 425 or so is a serious thump and thats what a fast sniper does. Dont overthink “Oh higher attack makes him a better sniper who can 1 shot kill when neeed”. On paper its true. But ALL 400+ damage fast heroes can 1 shot killl most of the time when needed.
Keep in mind with ALL hero costumes, there is the costume bonus that is always there and always added but doesnt appear on the stats on the card. Fully levelled bonus is 5% for all 3 functional stats(ATK, DEF, MANA), 10% for HP. Its a noteworthy if not gamechanging difference. Joon is like better than 1/2 the Costumes where the basic change isnt necessarily helpful over regular levelled Joon. Myself I like making the enemy miss entirely more and waste an entire special with uncostumed Joon vs adding a smallish percentage of damage power comparatively.
BUT, thats when you look at the numbers on the surface. Until you add the unspoken percentages to all 4 stats. Though the numbers are not devatatingly different, they are now undeniably in favor of the costume version overall based on the stat bonuses.
There are really only 3 or 4 undeniably better heroes costume vs no. Hawkmoon, Magni, Azlar and a couple of others maybe all are simply much much better. The 3 healers all are on surface glance better, BUT in the case of all 3 they become Heal over time instead of instant, and are therefore susceptible to buff blocks such as sent by Malosi or Mist whereas the uncostumed version is instant healing which for the most part is always preferable as it isnt blockable by buff blocks and it heals the dying or weak NOW so a sniper doesnt wipe em out the next turn in many cases..
If you have a 2nd yellow you are dying to work on, stand with regular Joon as you wont notice a huge difference from his 5-10% increases, but adding levels to a good new yellow like say Gretel, Mist, or even Danzaburo may really expand your flexibility. Even Regular Joon is a beast, and he is the ONLY season 1 hero still over 5% useage in top 100 teams (floats from 5 to 10%). Of late seems mostly when I see him its the costumed version, but not always.
Like!! Thank you for publishing this awesome article.
Missing some ALL STARS
Would love this updated with Frigg, Odin, Bera, any of the ninjas (Garnet, Onyx, Cobalt), season 4 heroes. Would love to see the event heroes featured like Circus. It helps me plan when I see someone and then I look on how to get them. Saving gems for important upcoming heroes is important. Thank you for publishing this, but please update 🙂 it is a great resource but just needs a refresher.
I doubt any Circus heroes have much shot. Several are really really solid, even good heroes. But they almost all have weird kinks in their skills. Dependency, holes, randomness, specific targets only. It makes them too random and imperfect on defense and even often on offense to be “THE BEST”. At least in current meta.
Im sure a few recent s3 and s4 heroes will make the next update of this list. For sure Id expect Gefjon, Phineas Fogg, Frigg, Then the minion specialists have a good shot, and arguments can be made for half a dozen others,