Shop Titans: Heroes — Which to Hire, Retire, and Avoid (UPDATED)

One of the most frequently discussed topics between players of all levels is that of heroes. There are so many aspects to consider when it comes to deciding what heroes to hire, retire, or flat-out completely avoid. Due to the complexity of the subject and the fact that I’ve tried to address it from a beginner and an advanced player standpoint, this post may be lengthy. My apologies.

[Basic Details for the Brand New Players: Heroes are the characters you hire to go on quests for you. You unlock different quest areas as you progress. Each quest area offers different components that you use to craft items in your shop. There are three hero classes: fighter, rogue, and spellcaster. Currently, there are a total of 18 different hero types (6 types per class). As you level up, you gain the ability to hire higher level heroes.]

Things to Consider: Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, Threat Rating, HP, Attack, Defense, Evasion, Element.

Critical Hit Chance: The chance (in percentile) that a particular hero type will land a critically damaging hit on an enemy/boss. Critical Hit Damage is how much more damaging that hero’s critical hit will be in comparison to his or her “regular” hit.

Threat Rating: A higher threat rating means greater chance of being targeted and attacked.

HP: This number tells you a hero’s base health power/sustainability. HP increases as a hero levels up, with certain types/tiers/qualities of gear, or if you use HP seeds.

Attack and Defense: These numbers tell you a hero’s base attack power and defense ability. Both attack and defense increase as a hero levels up, with certain types/tires/qualities of gear, or if you use ATK/DEF seeds.

Evasion: This number (expressed as a percentage) is a hero’s ability to dodge damage. An accurate comparison would obviously be dodge ball — some kids run faster. Some have better reaction times. Some can duck and jump. Those kids have evasion skills (and are likely one of the last players remaining on their teams).

Your First Heroes

Your first heroes choices are Solider (Fighter class), Thief (Rogue class), and Mage (Spellcaster class).

My personal recommendation:

1. Thief: DEFINITELY HIRE! Thief is the best bet out of the three. (Highest Critical Hit chance and the only one out of the three with Evasion (30%). Thief’s Evasion skill negates the risk associated with Thief’s moderate Threat Rating (40).
2. Mage: Hire to (possibly temporarily) support thief/thieves on quests. Thieves and Mages have approximately the same HP (thief-22, mage-20) and the exact same Defense (10). However, Mages shine where Thieves are lacking: Attack Power. (Mages have a starting attack power of 24, whereas Thieves only have a starting power of 10.)
3. Soldier: Avoid.

Reasoning: All three choices deal 2x Critical Hit Damage — however, only the Thief has a higher Critical Hit Chance (20% as opposed to the 5% offered by the Solider and the Mage). Critical hits provide an overall better chance to succeed on a quest. CH also provides support to any weaker heroes that may be on the same quest.

LINEUP AT THIS POINT (Player Level 1–14): 1 Thief, 1 Mage. If you can have more than 2 heroes at an time between levels 1 and 14, then I would suggest 2 Thieves and 1 Mage.

Level 10–15 Heroes

At level 10, you unlock the capability of hiring a Barbarian (Fighter class). At level 12, you unlock Cleric (Spellcaster class). At level 15, you unlock Monk (Rogue class). For comparison’s sake, I’m grouping these three together, despite the different level requirements.

1. Barbarian: AVOID.
2. Monk: HIRE.
3. Cleric: AVOID.

Reasoning: Barbarians have an extremely high Threat Rating (120) but minimal Critical Hit Chance (5%). That means that a Barbarian has a high chance of being targeted by an enemy, but a very low chance of landing a blow that causes critical damage to that enemy. In addition, the Barbarian has 0% Evasion. The only attractive thing about a Barbarian is the starting HP of 35. You can easily increase the HP of a Thief or Monk with seeds or by leveling them up.

Monks may seem useless due to their empty hands, but they’re actually pretty sufficient. They have a higher Critical Hit Chance (20%), and they are 1 of only 2 hero types that deals 3x Critical Hit Damage. Despite the fact that Monk has a moderately high Threat Rating (40) equivalent to that of a Thief, there’s also another thing which Monks and Thieves have in common: Evasion (30%).

Clergics have a very low Critical Hit Chance (5%), low HP (20), and zero Evasion. However, they have a very low Threat Rating (10) and moderate Attack power (25). Clergics are far too similar to Mages. For this reason, I reccomend keeping your Mage and skipping Clergic all together.

LINEUP AT THIS POINT (Player level 15–20): 1 (or 2) Thief, 1 Mage, 1 Monk.

Seed Suggestion: Monk would benefit from both Attack and Defense seeds, but I’d prioritize Defense equally to both Thief and Monk. All 3 hero types need Health seeds. I’d still only give Attack seeds to Mage (unless he has reached a high enough level to where he’s strong enough without more seeds).

Level 20–25 Heroes

At level 20, you’ll unlock Knight (Fighter class). Level 22 unlocks Druid (Spellcaster class). Level 25 unlocks Musketeer (Rogue class).

1. Knight: AVOID.
2. Musketeer: HIRE!
3. Druid: AVOID.

Reasoning: Out of the three, Musketeer is the only one with a higher Critical Hit Chance (30% compared to the 5% of the Knight and the Druid) as well as Evasion (30% compared to ZERO for the other guys). Knight has an extremely high Threat Rating (90), whereas Musketeer has a moderate 40 (counteracted by Evasion) and Druid has a low 10. Druid’s only appealing feature is his higher attack power (30), but your Mage should definitely have a higher attack power than 30 at this point (especially since he started out with 24 anyway).

LINEUP AT THIS POINT (25–30):

Thief (or two)

Mage

Monk

Musketeer

(I would only retire a hero at this point if absolutely necessary AND if you had at least 2 heroes of any of the 4 classes listed above. Currently, you need at least 1 of each of the 4. If that isn’t possible, retire the Monk and keep the Thief, Mage, and Musketeer.)

Level 30–35 Heroes

At level 30, you unlock the Ranger (Fighter class). At level 32, you can hire a Sorcerer (Spellcaster class. At level 35, Wanderer (Rogue class) becomes available.

1. Ranger: 50/50. Ranger is not a necessity, but he has good qualities.
2. Wanderer: HIRE!
3. Sorcerer: Hire 1 or none. (though I definitely do not feel as strongly about Sorcerers as everyone else does).

Reasoning: Ranger lacks in many areas, but I do like the fact that Ranger has Evasion (20%) to counteract his high Threat Rating (90). Ranger also has decent HP (33) and a decent Defense amount . However, his Critical Hit Chance (5%) and Attack (15) are extremely lacking.

Wanderer has a high Critical Hit Chance (20%) and a whopping 40% Evasion that counteracts his moderate Threat Rating of 40. From personal experience, Wanderers are not afraid of much, and all other hero types LOVE (green face) go questing with the Wanderer.

Sorcerer: I really think everyone loves Sorcerers solely because they have high attack ratings (and therefore overall power ratings) at earlier levels. However, Sorcerers are not the bravest (they never green face solo), and they do have a tendency to die despite their huge numbers. I personally have 2 sorcerers, but I think 1 is sufficient and most players will retire sorcerers once they reach t5. Out of all of my heroes, Sorcerers are the ones who die.

LINEUP AT THIS POINT: 1 Thief, 1 Mage OR retire and replace with Sorcerer, 1 Musketeer, 1 Wanderer, and possibly still a Monk.

Level 45+ Heroes

Samauri (Fighter class) is unlocked at level 45. Spellblade (Spellcaster class) is level 48, and Ninja (Rogue class) is level 50.

1. Samurai: HIRE (2 eventually)
2. Spellblade: Could avoid or could hire 1.
3. Ninja: HIRE and get as many as you can!

Reasoning: Samurai offers high base HP and medicore Attack and Defense. Even though minimum, his Evasion skill is 10%. That low percentage doesn’t completely counteract the moderately high Threat Rating of 90, but it certainly helps.

If you get a Spellblade, they quest similarly to Sorcerers until they get their level 23 skill. Even then, they seem to only fair better than Sorcerers if the Spellblade’s skills are fitting and aligned properly. Spellblades also fair better with high quality and tier gear.Spellblades are pretty codependent, but they don’t mind going on a hard quest as long as they are with a Champion or a hero with evasion such as the Wanderer or the Ninja. The main Spellblade appeal is their ability to use different types of gear and all types of elements for upgrading skills.

Ninjas are the solo artists with the greenest faces. If your Ninja isn’t powerful enough to green face, he loves being accompanied by a Wanderer or a Champion.

LINEUP AT THIS POINT:

1. Thief (1 or 2)
2. Mage (Retired unless you have enough slots to keep him)
3. Monk (Retired unless you have enough slots to keep him)
4. Musketeer
5. Ranger (possibly)
6. Wanderer
7. Samurai (2)
8. Spellblade
9. Ninja (AS MANY AS POSSIBLE)

Level 53+ Heroes

The Berserker (Fighter class), Geomancer (Spellcaster class), and Dancer (Rogue class) are all unlocked at level 53.

1. Berserker: HIRE 1, but not necessary. See reasoning below.
2. Geomancer: HIRE 1–2.
3. Dancer: HIRE 1, but not necessary. See reasoning below.

Reasoning: There are not enough differences between Samurai and Berserker to justify retiring Samurai for Berserker. Though the Berserker has slightly higher base HP (+10), Attack (+5), and Defense (+5) than the Samurai, the Samurai has something that the Berserker lacks: A base Evasion of 10%. However, both have attractive innate skills. If you have a slot available, try the Berserker out. However, I do not suggest retiring any Samurai to do so.

The Geomancer is an upgrade for the Spellcaster class overall. This hero has a base Attack rating that is 20 points higher than the Spellblade. If you have an unbalanced Spellblade, you could replace him with a Geomancer. If you have any Sorcerers, I’d definitely replace them with the Geomancer. The only thing I question about this hero is his innate skill. It’s vague and leaves players guessing at what benefit it actually provides.

Once again, I do not see enough differences between Dancer and Ninja to justify retiring a Ninja. Though the Dancer has slightly higher base HP (+5), Attack (+10), and Defense (+5), he does not have the 20% bonus to Evasion and Critical Hit Chance like the Ninja. The Dancer is, however, guaranteed a Critical Hit after dodging an attack. If you still have Thiefs at this point, you should retire them for the Dancer.

FINAL LINEUP:

1. Musketeer
2. Wanderer
3. Spellblade
4. Samurai (2)
5. Geomancer (1–2)
6. Ninja (4 or more if you have the slots)
7. Dancer (1–2)
8. Berserker

Seed Suggestions:

1. HEALTH SEEDS: Priority goes to the Spellcaster Class.

2. ATTACK SEEDS: Priority goes to Fighter Class, then Rogue.

3. DEFENSE SEEDS: Priority goes to Spellcaster Class, then Rogue.