A Beginner’s Guide to the Combat in Lord of Heroes
Note: While we’ll be talking about Lord of Heroes using BlueStacks 4, this game is already available on the new BlueStacks 5 with much better performance, less resource consumption, and more stability. Download the latest version of our Android emulator and give it a try!
Lord of Heroes is a spectacular gacha RPG that was released last year. While it does little to innovate upon the tried-and-true formula that has proliferated throughout the genre in the past few years, it excels marvelously in presentation, offering some of the best graphics and animations we’ve ever seen, especially when you play it on BlueStacks on a large monitor and the best graphical settings. There are few mobile games that we can say can match the presentation of console and PC titles, and Lord of Heroes is definitely one of them.
Visuals aside, this game is pretty standard in its gameplay, featuring a turn-based combat system as well as several mechanics that you’ll need to keep in mind in order to win. Moreover, in contrast to other games where the aim is to recruit powerful characters, the gacha system revolves around summoning and growing your collection of weapon, armor, and artifacts. In this sense, the progression in Lord of Heroes is a bit different than what you’d expect from a typical gacha RPG.
Nevertheless, there’s still a learning curve to tackle if you want to get good at this game, and that’s exactly what we’ll be addressing in this article. In this handy beginner’s guide, you’ll find everything you need to get started on the right track in Lord of Heroes—at least when it comes to the combat in the game.
The Different Unit Types
There are lots of units to recruit in Lords of Heroes, lots of which can be unlocked from the main story. On the flipside, there are many characters that you can obtain from contracts and by purchasing them with premium currency. This is important to learn as there is no gacha mechanic for recruiting heroes in this game. Instead, you can roll for unlocking special gear and equipment, which can significantly boost the performance of any character in the game.
Nevertheless, regardless of their origin, every hero in the game falls into one out of 5 categories, which in turn will determine their role in battle.
First off, the Guardians, are your standard tank characters. These units often have many defensive skills including taunts, self-buffs, and sometimes even self-healing to weather even the strongest attacks. It goes without saying that these are the characters that will be keeping the enemy’s attention and absorbing the most damage, which is great because they’re seldom the ones dealing the damage.
Warriors, on the other hand, feature a balance between attack and defense. They can weather tons of damage, as well as bring on the pain. However, they lack some of the defensive skills of Guardians and most of them require specific setups if you want to use them as dedicated tanks.
And then there are the Strikers, which are the strongest melee attackers in the game. What these characters lack in defense, they more than make up for in raw damage. However, they’re also tanky enough to stand in the frontlines with no issues, just don’t expect them to tank damage like a Warrior or Guardian.
The other two classes are usually suited for the back rows. Starting off with the Cleric, this class is the dedicated support of the team, being able to heal, buff, and provide a wide range of beneficial effects to the group. Some of them can also deal some damage, but this is far from their primary purpose. Snipers, on the other hand, are the strongest units in the game, bar none. They bring pure damage to the mix, and can even sometimes debuff the enemy with different effects, though they’re as frail as wet papier mache, so always keep them protected by your tanks.
A good team will always try to strike a balance between the different classes. Though there are definitely some meta characters and formations out there, you really don’t need to pay attention to this early on. Simply try to create a good combination, and you’ll be able to breeze through the story. Just make sure you bring at least a tank and a healer at all times.
Battle Flow and Elemental Matchups
Now, when it comes to fighting specifically, the battles in Lord of Heroes have a certain flow to them.
Battles happen in turns, with the order of the turns being determined by the gauge under the HP bar of every character. Every time someone takes an action, this bar will progressively fill up, and once full, the character in question will get their turn. This is important to know as some characters are faster than others and can fill their bars numerous times before the others get a single turn.
However, battles are not just about choosing the strongest attacks and launching them without consideration. In order to deal the most damage, you also need to consider the attacker and target’s elemental affinities.
Just like there are 5 different types, there are also 5 elements, with each character having one of them. The different elements are Fire, Earth, Water, Light, and Darkness, and they’re important because elements are strong against one, and weak against another. The way these matchups happen is the following:
- Fire is strong against Earth but weak against Water.
- Earth is strong against Water but weak against Fire.
- Water is strong against Fire but weak against Earth.
The last two elements, Light and Darkness, are outside this triangle since they’re only strong and weak to each other. Mastering this elemental matchup can give you the upper hand, especially when fighting against the toughest bosses.
Assists and Burst Skills
Two last things about the combat in Lord of Heroes that you should consider are the assist actions and the burst skills.
The former is a passive follow-up attack that any of your characters can perform after another unit attacks. This is completely random, though there’s a higher chance of an assist attack happening as the target is closer to full HP.
Meanwhile, the latter is your character’s burst skill. This skill can be used if you have enough charge in the spirit gauge, which you can charge by performing basic attacks. These attacks are often very powerful and vary per character. However, if you have enough of the spirit gauge, you can also chain several burst skills to increase their power even further. A good burst chain can take down even the toughest enemies in a single move.
With these three basic tips, you’re ready to create your team in Lord of Heroes and blaze through the main story. Alternatively, take a look at our tips and tricks guide (link to the tips and tricks guide) to find other useful tidbits of information that will help expedite your progress in this amazing gacha RPG.
