Hero Gear
Which piece to upgrade, and in what order? The calculator first checks whether your XP would be better placed by reforging some pieces (phase 0), then gives you a step-by-step plan up to red +100.
1Import your battle report
A battle report against the Baron is enough: your stats and troops fill in on their own.
❓ Which screenshots to take?
A battle report against the Baron is enough. Two areas are read: ① your troop tiers, on the left under the icons, and ② your 12 stats, in the left column. Your profile screen doesn't show all your bonuses: only the battle report does.
Your 12 stats · check or correct
Your troopsT10
2Your pieces
Copy what each piece shows: its level (0 to 100), its mastery and, for a red piece, the “+” shown on its icon (red +20 → 20). Leave “Red” empty while the piece isn't red. A red +20 piece is already imbued and has its bonus. An empty box counts as 0.
3Your plan
Import your screenshot, enter your pieces' levels, then tap “Calculate my plan”.
If a phase 0 shows up, start with it: reforge the pieces shown (free, once per day per piece: all the XP comes back and mastery stays), then level up as shown with that XP. Once your pieces are updated in your profile, phase 0 disappears.
Then do the phases in order. When a phase has level or mastery upgrades, do them first with your XP and Forgehammers: they pay off right away and prepare the piece. The red step uses your Mithril and Mythic gear. While you wait for Mithril, nothing stops you from moving on to the next phase's levels. Recalculate after each phase or when your stats change.
The Lab can be wrong. Its calculations rely on an engine rebuilt from real battle reports, not on the game's formulas. Always compare with your own reports.
100% Expedition advice: duels, rallies, garrisons. Conquest and Arena are not taken into account. The +40 and +80 tiers only help in Conquest.
How it's calculated
- Phase 0: a reforge returns 100% of the XP of a piece that isn't red yet (mastery kept, one free reforge per piece per day). The calculator tries every combination of pieces to reforge, gives the XP back level by level to the piece that brings the most strength per XP, replays the best options in the engine and only keeps a phase 0 if it brings at least 0.1%. A piece the plan would bring back to level 100 in its first two phases isn't reforged.
- The plan: it starts from your pieces after phase 0 (or from your current pieces if there is none, or if you calculate without reforges). Every step counts: each 10-level chunk (XP), each mastery point (Forgehammers, from level 20, as in game) and each red milestone (+20, +60, +100). At each round, the calculator takes the step that brings the most strength for its cost, with your stats at that point; when it's a red milestone, it replays the best 4 in the battle engine. Stat weights are measured again as soon as a stat has moved by more than 20 points. The plan stops after 13 red milestones, and steps are grouped into phases.
- Strength gain: the biggest army as strong as you that you still beat, against the server's 4 common compositions, in a duel and without heroes, over your best ratios (as on the Stats & composition page). A phase's gain adds to the previous phases'; the total at the end of the plan includes phase 0.
- Cost of a step: the game doesn't hand out the same amounts of Mithril, Mythic gear, Forgehammers and XP. To compare them, each resource is counted as a share of what it takes to bring the 4 main pieces to red +100 (600 Mithril, 200 Mythic gear, 4,800 Forgehammers, 2.3 million XP), and these shares add up. A piece that is still low therefore costs more: it first has to be brought back to level 100 and mastery 10.
- Piece stat: (15 + 0.35 × level) × (1 + 0.1 × mastery) up to level 100; then base 50 + 0.5 per red level (+1, +2…), with the same mastery bonus.
- Costs: XP from the enhancement tables, level by level (from 80 to 100, each level costs 50 XP more than the previous one: 1,400 at level 80, 2,400 at level 100; checked in game on the reforge screen); mastery n: 10 × n Forgehammers, and n − 10 Mythic gear above 10; turning red: 2 Mythic gear; milestones +20 to +100: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 Mithril and 3, 5, 5, 10, 10 Mythic gear. Going from +20 to +60 goes through +40 (Conquest): its cost is counted.
The stat formulas are confirmed in game: a milestone bonus comes from each piece, and mastery multiplies the whole stat, red levels included. Costs come from tables published by the community.
Understand
How Hero Gear works
How a piece progresses
- Level 0 → 100 with gear XP.
- Mastery 1 → 10 with Forgehammers (10 × n for mastery n), from level 20.
- Reforge, as long as the piece isn't red: it goes back to level 0 and returns all its XP, its mastery stays. One free reforge per piece per day: enough to move your XP to a better piece.
- Turning red at level 100 and mastery 10: 2 Mythic gear. It's final: no more reforging.
- Red +1 → +19 with XP.
- Red +20: the imbuement, with 10 Mithril and 3 Mythic gear (mastery 11). It adds an Attack or Defense bonus.
- Then +40, +60, +80, +100: 20, 30, 40, 50 Mithril. +40 and +80 only give a Conquest bonus, with no effect on troop battles.
Two pairs that cross
| Piece | Stat | Bonus +20 · +60 · +100 |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | Lethality | Attack · Defense · Attack |
| Chest | Health | Attack · Defense · Attack |
| Gloves | Health | Defense · Attack · Defense |
| Boots | Lethality | Defense · Attack · Defense |
The Archer Helmet (Lethality + Attack) and the Infantry Gloves (Health + Defense) are the pieces where everything points the same way: they open the plan. The Archer Boots and the Infantry Chest catch up at +60.
Archers and infantry first
Archers deal most of the damage: their Lethality and Attack matter most. Infantry, in front, takes the hits: its Health and Defense matter most. Cavalry hits hard but is almost never hit: its Health and Defense are useless.
A strong cavalry hero inflates your cavalry stats and can push it ahead on the Stats page. Heroes change, gear stays: the plan was checked with such a hero, and cavalry stays at the end of the list.
Several +20s before going higher
A +20 costs 10 Mithril and brings 2 to 4% strength. Going from +20 to +60 costs 50 Mithril for about 7%. As long as another useful piece can take its +20, that's where your Mithril pays most. And never stop between +40 and +59: +40 doesn't help in troop battles.