Hero roles and a practical party route
The full game is built around six recruitable heroes. Official demo updates named Barbarian, Archer, Shaman and Wizard. Long-form full-build videos add Pyromancer and Paladin, completing the six-character launch roster seen in pre-release access.| Hero | Practical role | What the footage shows |
|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | Frontline / ramping melee | Kill-based damage growth, rage/crit-style options, party buffs |
| Archer | Consistent ranged damage | Rapid ranged attacks and extra-arrow / area-style upgrades |
| Shaman | Support / debuff / utility | Marking enemies and support-oriented effects |
| Wizard | Spell damage | Lightning/fire-style spell interactions in current footage |
| Pyromancer | Burn / area damage | Fireballs, burning aura and chain/explosion effects |
| Paladin | Party support / holy damage | Party speed buffs, extra hammer hits and synergy effects |
The exact percentages and cooldowns change by upgrade level and build, so this page focuses on roles rather than freezing pre-release numbers into a launch guide.
Hero resets during a run
Day One patch: reset a hero to redo blessings. 3 resets per hero per playthrough at launch, refunds that hero’s guild tokens, only at level 4+. The September 12 Hero Blessings Update raised this: newly unlocked heroes now start with 6 Blessing Reset chances and already-unlocked heroes got +3. Use the larger pool to test party synergy instead of locking a bad blessing line for the rest of the save.
A stable first party
For a new save, a simple composition is:
- Barbarian to occupy the field and ramp damage;
- Archer or Wizard for reliable ranged coverage;
- Shaman or Paladin when support effects start multiplying the whole team;
- Pyromancer when enemy density makes area/burn damage more valuable than single-target pressure.
The right answer changes with party-slot count. Early on, you are choosing which role solves the current room. Later, cross-hero upgrades make synergy more important than a solo DPS readout.
Why synergy beats raw DPS later
The developer said the full game’s main mechanic is combining heroes through synergized upgrades. That matters because a support hero can look weak on its personal DPS line while increasing the output of every other unit.Examples visible in pre-release footage include:
- Barbarian effects that build damage during a looting session;
- Paladin effects that can improve attack/movement behavior for other heroes;
- Shaman marks that make targets easier to burst;
- ranged heroes benefiting from party-wide or role-targeted buffs;
- Pyromancer effects that scale with dense groups rather than one target.
Blessings
The Blessing system was expanded for the full game and is intended to open new party combinations. Demo v0.8.0 added Wizard alongside three new Blessings, while the release-plan post describes the launch build as having the complete Blessing system.
Hero Blessings Update (September 12, 2026) added 12 new Blessings, two per hero. The official post lists them under these hero names:
| Hero (official post) | New Blessings |
|---|---|
| Barbarian | Ancient Pillager, Hullbreaker |
| Ranger | Ranger’s Call, Rapid Reload |
| Shaman | Mythic Breath, Spirit Walk |
| Pyromancer | Cursed Fire, Hungry Flame |
| Paladin | Enlightened, Sacred Bounty |
| Crusader | First Command, Knight’s Legacy |
Name conflict worth knowing: this page previously described the ranged hero as Archer and a spell hero as Wizard, based on earlier demo material and videos. The official Blessing post names Ranger and Crusader instead. Rather than silently picking one, treat the official post as the newer source for those two hero names and re-check the in-game roster labels on your build. The Barbarian, Shaman, Pyromancer and Paladin names match across both.
More Blessing resets (same update): newly unlocked heroes now start with 6 Blessing Reset chances, and heroes you had already unlocked received +3. This replaces the old Day One figure of 3 resets, so budget experimentation around the larger pool.
Party size changed on September 17: the Ascension upgrade Reinforcement adds an extra party slot, so a fully ascended party holds 5 heroes instead of 4. The same update’s Ranger’s Welcome starts an ascended run with the Ranger already recruited plus 12 Guild Tokens, which is worth knowing before you spend early tokens on recruitment.
Balance changes in the same patch:
- Shaman Expedition Guild XP bonus: 0.01 → 0.02
- Paladin Expedition Room XP bonus: 0.01 → 0.025
- Barbarian Expedition Speed bonus: 10% → 12.5%
- Crusader Royal Guard: chance 15% → 20%, duration 5s → 6s
- Pyromancer Flamekeeper: required kills 78 → 72 → 36 (v1.1.3, September 26)
- Barbarian Talisman of Rage: interval 6s → 5s
- Shaman Spirit Chain: chance 35% → 40%
- Shaman Grave Pact: summoned skeletons 2 → 4
- Pyromancer Scorching Aura: damage +20%
The patch also fixed Steam achievements not triggering, optimized combat performance in large late-game rooms, and fixed wide-screen UI overflow. That last one matters if you played on an ultrawide monitor before September 12.
Because Blessing values are especially patch-sensitive, this page still does not publish a fake tier list. The table above is the official option list, not a ranking.
Hero upgrades and respec
The developer confirmed during playtest feedback that the full game would include a mechanic for resetting all upgrades on a hero. The method was deliberately kept secret at the time. If you are experimenting on launch day, that means hero investment should not be treated as permanently irreversible—but the exact reset cost or unlock should be checked in the live build before spending around it.
Common mistakes
Judging a support hero only by personal DPS. Shaman and Paladin-style effects can create value elsewhere in the party.Sending a core combat hero on an Expedition. Expedition assignment removes that hero from the active party.
Ignoring party slots. Unlocking another slot can outperform a small stat node because it adds an entire new source of damage and synergy.
Copying a demo tier list. Hero movement speed, attack speed, Skill Tree balance and Blessings were all adjusted during the demo cycle.