On this page
- The Campaign is the story mode: 12 chapters, each replayable on four difficulties - Normal, Hard, Brutal and Nightmare. Every stage costs energy.
- It is your main source of experience and silver, and the place where you learn the game. It is not a source of top-end gear; that comes from dungeons and other modes.
- A battle's experience is split between the champions in it. This is why a strong "farmer" and a few weak levelling champions work so well together.
- Brutal 12-3 is the stage almost every guide names for a first farmer. Nightmare pays more but takes more energy and more power.
- Stars add up to one-time rewards. Collect one star everywhere first, and come back for the harder stars later.
How the Campaign is laid out
The Campaign map has twelve chapters, and each chapter is a row of stages that end in a boss. You clear the stages in order. Once a stage is cleared, you can repeat it as often as you like, and the game can run the repeats for you with Multi-Battle.
Each chapter can be played on four difficulties. Higher difficulties have stronger enemies and pay more experience and silver per fight. The stage screen in your game always shows the current cost and the current reward, so treat the numbers below as a map, not a promise.
| Difficulty | Energy per stage | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | 4 | Your first playthrough and your first levels |
| Hard | 6 | Second pass once the team has some gear |
| Brutal | 8 | The usual farming difficulty for a mid-game account |
| Nightmare | 16 | The top rung; the best pay per fight, but hard to clear |
Experience and silver
The Campaign pays experience (XP) and silver. A battle's XP is divided equally between the champions who fought. A team of one maxed champion and three low-level ones gives the three low-level ones a full share each, and the maxed one gets nothing. Silver is not divided, so it is the same for any team.
Three things raise the pay: an XP boost item (it doubles the XP of a battle), the monthly Raid Card (about +20% silver and XP in the Campaign) and the Forge Pass boost (up to +50%, added together with the others). All three are optional purchases.
What a farmer is
A farmer is a champion who clears one specific stage alone, or with a couple of passengers, quickly and without dying. You put the farmer in the team with the champions you want to level, set Auto and Multi-Battle, and let it run.
- The classic target is Brutal 12-3. It is deep enough to pay well and cheap enough in energy to repeat all day. The rule of thumb is to farm the furthest stage on the highest difficulty your farmer clears on its own.
- Nightmare farming (for example 12-6) pays more per fight and takes more energy and a better farmer. It is a goal for later.
- What a farmer needs is an attack that hits every enemy in a wave, or a damage-over-time like Poison or HP Burn, plus enough survivability to last the fight. See the healers and the champions that fill turn meter so your damage dealer acts more often.
Waves are many weak enemies, so crowd-control matters less than raw area damage, healing and attack boosts. See Increase ATK and extra turns if you want a team that finishes waves fast.
Stars
Every stage can be cleared for up to three stars. One star is for winning. The extra stars come from conditions shown on the stage screen: a typical set is winning with no champion lost and winning with a very small team. The hardest of these is the three-star clear of the last Nightmare stages, where a short time limit is reported as well.
- Stars you already have are never paid twice; a second run that earns a new star only pays for the new one.
- Star totals unlock one-time rewards as you pass them.
When the Campaign stops being the answer
The Campaign gives XP and silver, but your account also needs gear, mastery scrolls, ascension potions and champions. Past the early game, move your energy and keys to the mode that pays for what you lack:
| You need | Go to |
|---|---|
| Gear and sets | Dungeons |
| Glyphs and Forge materials from factions | Faction Wars |
| Forge sets and the secret-room champions | Doom Tower |
| Daily gear, shards and tomes | Clan Boss |
| Relic materials | Chimera |
A simple plan
- Clear Normal as you go. The story teaches the buttons and gives your first gear.
- Build one farmer. Pick the champion you plan to rank up first; see the beginner roadmap.
- Move up one difficulty at a time as your team clears them without losing champions.
- Switch your energy to dungeons when you have a good level and your gear is the limit.
Next: Dungeons, where the gear comes from.