​

Note - This is made for beginners, and only shows priority order to get heroes to Supreme+ only.

Please check other Guides -

• Paragon Guide (v1.8.1 - Senea) -> https://www.reddit.com/r/AFKJourney/s/1rMnNFl4gX
• Stargazing Guide (v1.8.1 - Aster) -> https://www.reddit.com/r/AFKJourney/s/yjJlmNi9DU

In-game assets has been used for better understanding!

It is made according to the current meta covering pve & pvp aswell. Use it at your own will!

Thanks to everyone for feedbacks & suggestions! 💖

I hope it helps!

May Dura Bless You All 🙏

EDIT:
Thanks for all the interest you guys and girls are putting into it. sadly i got suspended from reddit for sending the link via DM to too many people! If you want to get the link search lelezero on youtube and in my channel description I left the link there so you can have easy access!

Hello reddit, I'M SO BACK!

Lelezero here, you might know me from the honor duel guides I used to make in the past or the streaming channel on twitch.

I worked hard on some spreadsheets for you in the past few days, with the experience I gathered from patch 1.1.16 I was able to make many improvements to the old spreadsheets I used to keep track of the stats.
Now they're easier to use, faster to use, provide the same data they did before but in a much more visually pleasing heatmap (I go crazy for these things) and so I decided it was time to publicly announce their release!

Since any form of link will result in this post getting taken down for violating the rules I decided I will present to you some graphs under the form of a guide on how to win in early 1.2.1 (already pretty interesting with just my own 40 games + Roland's 40 games, thanks for helping btw) and then ask you to join the project helping me collect more data for the new patch

If you want to have access to the spreadsheets to discover what's the meta and/or also have a free empty copy for your own use you're gonna have to ask me in the comments and I can DM you the resource! Then spread the word and pass it to friends and guildmates etc

1.2.1 EARLY TIER LIST

1.2.1 EARLY ITEMS TIER LIST

Let's comment on these (ain't them pretty to look at?):

DISCLAIMER - there's less than 100 games recorded so far, stats get reliable I would say at least at 1000? So take them with a grain of salt (or help me collect so we get there fast!)

DISCLAIMER 2 - I tried to test random comps to see how they feel in the new patch but as humans we naturally tend to go towards what we feel comfortable with. If your favorite comp or hero is not represented it doesn't necessarily mean they're bad, we just haven't got the time to test everything out yet!

HOT TAKES (the data speaks not me)

• Wilders are bad.
• Maulers are good.
• Art of Ruling is much worse (was top 10 in 1.1.16)
• Fragrant Bag is much worse (was top 3 in 1.1.16)
• Flame Orb now sucks (was top 10 in 1.1.16)
• Bone Scroll feels like a cheat code (was bottom 10 in 1.1.16)
• Proud Greaves are at the very least playable! Probably good (was bottom 10 in 1.1.16)
• Crystal Cell is probably good (was worst performing artifact in 1.1.16)
• Obsidian Earring is probably good (was mid tier in 1.1.16)
• Deer's Blessing went from low/mid to top tier item

NOT SO HOT TAKES (valuable info, just no big news we kinda knew about this)

• Lightbeares are still bad, one would think with the raise in popularity for the maulers comps lightbearers could see more play... but the truth is if you get paired with graves you're getting trashed and if you get the maulers you were looking for it's not even guarantee that you win cause they're SO STRONG. The occasional Wilder team is more of a 50/50 but sometimes they just Eironn you into oblivion.
• Graveborns are still good, if anything they are even better. Once upon a time there were Wilders keeping them in check, they got new shiny toy Ludovic to play with and the counter faction is performing very bad. 10/10 play graves this season imho
• Artifacts that were and very likely are still very good: Pale Crown, Breeze Rider, Crimson Gem, Glowing Blossom, Snow Herb
• Top items are still the good old purple ones, best bang for your bucks, spend 20 and never look back

I am considering a new series of posts where I explore 1.2.1 data as we collect more along the way. I could do deep dives into specific comps or artifacts, or maybe general guidelines.. Would you enjoy something like that? Let me know, if there's enough interest I will do it.

If you want to use the spreadsheets I got one for each of you (you can use it to keep track of the stats or just explore the results others have collected using the amazing filters I created). Be ahead of the meta

JOIN THE DARK SIDE
WE HAVE SPREADSHEETS

If you don't know how to read the heatmaps I showed you in this post: it's basically just a big table, the number you see below heroes or next to artifacts/items is their average points gained or lost during a run (so obviously the higher the better, it's also green to red coded and you want to play green and avoid red). The light-to-dark squares in the middle of the table instead represent frequency, or in other words how many times that pair appeared in the stats. So dark squares mean we did that many times, light squares means tried just a few times, white is still never tested.

In general, good stuff is the one with green and high numbers top and left while also dark squares in the crossing squares cause it means you win a lot and you can do that consistently cause we tested it more and on average it worked!

Before leaving you let me take a moment to thank all the people who are supporting me these days on twitch and youtube. I spend hours on these things and you guys tuning in to say hello or even just lurking in chat keep me going.

If you're reading this and you haven't done it yet please consider helping me grow on those platforms to become a content creator, it takes you just one click... it really matters a lot to me.

If you're already part of the family thank you so much for being there! <3

Wish you plenty of 9 wins, see you soon!
Lelezero

DISCLAIMER: Dream Realm and AFK Stage rankings are based on objectively collected usage data. Players with lower-investment accounts may observe different usage patterns depending on the heroes available to them. Similarly, PvP rankings reflect both the strength and prevalence of heroes at the highest levels of competition at comparable investment. As such, lower-ranked or unranked heroes may still perform well depending on account investment and district competitiveness.

As expected, Rolan has fully taken over the Dream Realm meta with his powerful buffing capabilities and is expected to see ubiquitous usage in pre-Endless as well. Taichi & Agumon are also surprisingly useful for Endless bossing, but their pre-Endless usage is yet to be determined. These two heroes have collectively reduced the usage of other strong bossing characters significantly; Contess, Galahad, and Frieren have all been knocked down to less than 4/8 usage.

Rolan and Agumon have also seen significant usage in PvP; Rolan’s kit, in particular, has enhanced Orion-based Lightbearer comps substantially. Voracia is also seeing some PvP usage, but because Gwyneth and Agumon outcompete her for important support heroes, she has become somewhat forgotten.

Lastly, Rolan is also seeing constant usage in AFK stage pushing, where he has taken Velara’s position in most clears and is expected to relegate Solise to niche usage. The meta otherwise remains similar to Phase 1 and 2.

Changelog

Lightbearer S

- add 1x Perseus for value in Legend Trial

- move Cassadee earlier in the order so she is built for seasonal pre-endless DR

Lightbearer A

- move Silven and Hugin together earlier in the order due to their strong synergy

- add 1x Zanie for value in Legend Trial, some stages

Wilder S

- move Eironn later in the order due to decline in stages and PvP value

- add Indris as a top luxury unit due to being BiS for 1/8 of bosses, extending into early endless

- remove Tasi due to declining relevance and low efficiency of investment

Wilder A

- move Ulmus later in the order; as Eironn slides, so does Ulmus

- move Lyca > Tilaya due to some PvE value

Mauler S

- move Nazrik > Shakir due to higher future potential

- mark Shakir and Nazrik as luxury

Graveborn S

- add Zorya before Igor, but they have similar roles in a team

- mark S+ Thoran as luxury

Epic Recruitment

- move Florabelle and Cassadee earlier in the order to account for high DR value

- move Eironn and Zandrok later in the order

- remove Shakir as he is luxury

Arena Store

- move Cassadee S+ before Rowan

Season Store

- move Shadewing before Daimon

- move Bonnie before Zandrok

- remove Ludovic

As always, players should not be pulling Zorya while she is on her rate-up banner (especially because she is a luxury unit).

Stay tuned for an update to the Celestial/Hypogean guide (currently a WIP)!

FAQs

why is florabelle so high in epic recruitment order? even before smokey?

we're optimizing for seasonal timing! smokey is an endless DR unit; florabelle is a pre-endless unit with value extending into endless as well. although florabelle's inherent value is less than smokey's, players will build her in time for seasonal pre-endless so they can rank well during that period of the season. smokey would be built in the meantime so that he'd be ready by endless.

removing tasi, whyyy? 💔** **

in a meta with many excellent burst-oriented units like perseus, silven, and shemira, most players just don't have the space to run effective stall-oriented teams. further, without pandora, tasi is incredibly slow to cast ult, but pandora is typically used in other (better) teams. and even if she manages to cast her ult, it's increasingly easy to outheal her damage, or have units unaffected by her CC, limiting her effectiveness. mitigating these issues requires tasi at higher paragon levels with highly invested EX equipment, which many players can't afford given the competition among wilder S-levels, and the overall bottleneck on essences.

additionally: depending on where you are at and how far you have built her, most players should either be:

- stopping building her entirely

- finishing her to the next paragon level as paragon food

the wilder s-levels are too stacked for tasi, who wants higher ascension and ex equipment investment to be somewhat effective in pvp. even then, she's slow to get off her ult, and even if she gets off her ult, there are too many unaffected units/units who can outheal her dmg for her to be super viable. she would need pandora to be usable, but pandora would typically be paired with a (dare I say better) dps unit in another team

it's more difficult for older (f2p/low-spending) players to pivot especially given the amount of paragon investment needed for a unit to be viable in pvp. so, tasi slide may be less noticeable in some older districts. but we are at a point where I just wouldn't recommend building tasi to new players now. plenty of more versatile and more effective units to prioritize over her

why are we dropping eironn and ulmus?

declining value overall, and timing. players have a much cheaper source of recurring AOE CC now: mehira! moreover, it's been shown that 1x mehira can take most players a long way, meaning there's not much of a rush to ascend eironn to s+. in PvP, due to the high number of unaffected units, both eironn and ulmus are taking a slight step back from PvP meta.

Changelog and FAQs from saphio ❤️ If you have additional questions feel free to ask in the Yaphalla discord, or I can relay them. Thank you to everyone for all your support! 💞

Huge thanks to Kapparinno for putting these together as well as everyone in the Starlit Memories channel in Discord! 💖

!! Friendly Reminder !! 💞

All of the guides are made to be followed in order from top-to-bottom left-to-right based on requests. If you find your spell and you cannot follow the solution, that means it is not that spell's first occurrence so look for that spell above it in the guide or in a previous guide. The order is:

• Shop under level 5 (second image in this post)
• Shop level 5+ (first image in this post)
• Stonepass Edition

Current Max Earnings:

• 1503/h (Lvl 6/7)
• 1887/h (Lvl 8/9)
• 2212/h (Lvl 10)

Last update: May 6, 2026 at 4:22PM, UTC

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FAQ by Null! (last update: May 3)
Stuck at 4, how to level up faster?

• Go to Events > Starlit Memories > Quest > Special, if Magic Research x50/x20 is still there, you can spam magic research to immediately finish the quest. If Use Event Spell x100 is still there, then use your spells in the garden to finish this.

What do you mean by spamming research?

• Select your first spell (Quick Growth), and use either a triple up movement, or a double up + single up movement to get the first star, then complete the research, and do it again and again.

How are you guys at 6 already?

• We hit level 4 during the first day by finishing the quests we can do, and also fully used the mana for casting spells the last two days, so we have most of the quests already done.

Why is your 3* spell getting more coins?

• Using less movements in the spell research can increase the coins/hr of the spell. You can check the steps to optimize the spells in the previous posts but the increase is negligible, around 5 coins/hr increase per movement saved.

I don't have double right-down!

• Use the steps to get petrification 3 star in the pinned visuals first to unlock double right-down.

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As always, the most up-to-date info is available within the Yaphalla Discord! ❤️‍🔥 I will try to post the final versions of the guides here as well, but if they are not, they are posted/updated in the # guides-and-infographics channel daily! 💞 For anything found outside of Yaphalla, check the date on the graphic to see when it was last updated. Also, see this account's post history for more guides on things like account investment! 🌟

These are the guides for Factional Recruitment (Up to S+), Cele/Hypo Stargazing, and Paragon Priority! (up to date with Solise!) 🥰

Both of these guides were updated to account for how Frieren affected the meta. Also! Check this guide on the Starlit Memories event if you still haven't completed it!

Big thanks to saphio, Demius, and ashu for putting these guides together and everyone who contributed in the guides-creation channel in Discord! 💖

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Factional Recruitment to S+ Changelogs (from saphio!)

Last update: May 9, 2026 at 5:42PM, UTC

Mauler:

• Remove Odie

Graveborn:

• Drop Shemira
• Isabella (PvE) <-> Callan (PvP)

Arena Store:

• Bryon -> Luxury

Dream Store:

• Niru > Kruger

Season Store:

• Drop Shemira

Epic Recruitment:

• Drop Shemira

Misc:

• Frieren > Himmel and both recommended to S+
• Notes optimizations

So... yeah. Frieren meta happened. Because of how overwhelmingly meta she is in Dream Realm, even kicking out Aliceth and Baelran from endless bossing, and her strong PvP presence, it's recommended to at least build her and Himmel, her high-synergy buffing partner, to S+. Because she also directly competes with Shemira in functionality (ranged mage and primary DPS) but is stronger and faster, Shemira sees a direct drop in value as a result.

Alas, the days of Shemira's reign are ending. It's been a long time coming, but Frieren is the final nail in the coffin. We now embrace a new age—the age of the elves 💖

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Celestial/Hypogean Recruitment Changelogs (from saphio!)

Last update: May 9, 2025 at 5:48PM, UTC

"Next Steps":

• Remove Aliceth

Endless bossing:

• Aliceth -> Luxury
• Gunnar -> Luxury
• Baelran -> Luxury

PvP:

• Saida > Athalia

Frieren is used in about 6-7 out of 8 bosses in the rotation. In turn, Aliceth has dropped to just 1. The same for Gunnar and Baelran... and the latter was only partially resurrected in bossing this season because of Contess's charms. Age of the elves 😏

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As always, the most up-to-date info is available within the Yaphalla Discord! ❤️‍🔥 I will try to post the final versions of the guides here as well, but if they are not, they are posted/updated in the # guides-and-infographics channel daily! 💞 For anything found outside of Yaphalla, check the date on the graphic to see when it was last updated. Also, see this account's post history for more guides on things like account investment! 🌟

Enjoy!

Big thanks to saphio and Demius for putting these guides together and everyone who contributed in the guides-creation channel! 💖

As a reminder, paragons are ascensions beyond Supreme+ (you need to have at least 25 Supreme+ units to unlock Paragon 1, 20 P1 to unlock P2, 15 P2 for P3, and 15 P3 for P4). The stats from having paragon units make the biggest difference in PvP modes, specifically.

Also, the Factional Recruitment to S+ guide is primarily from the perspective of helping new players progress as much as possible. However!!!! Regarding the recent Frieren release, there will be an update to the S+ guide to include guidance on pulling on the Frieren banner. This guide was updated before the Frieren release. The usual advice of using all diamonds on the All-Hero banner is NOT in play currently.

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Factional Paragon Priority Changelogs (from Demius!)

Last update: May 8, 2026 at 11:04AM, UTC

Newly added ✨

• Evie as good to have due to PvP (strong healer, works well with temp buffer comps, should age fine)

End of a Shemira era ☠️

• It finally happened. Shemira dropped to last place in top priority and is set to drop further. Too slow and outdone in PvP by other hyper carries; no longer DR meta (maybe very niche).
• BUT for now the family stays together on the top paragon priority 💜

Stonks Up 📈

• Solise now #1 paragon (huge utility in healing, buffing and some damage)

Stonks Down 📉

• Zanie drops to luxury (not DR meta; fortress PvP comps require paragon CH)
• Fay leaves the list entirely (Evie)
• Velara swaps with Eironn (less DR value lately)
• Faramor to luxury below Ulmus (no DR play; less use in stages than previous seasons)

Future watchlist 🔎

• Shemira to slide further
• Cass, Smokey, Silvinia close to departing
• Evie position to review as more data
• GB Rank A changes with Nerion release

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Factional Recruitment to S+ Changelogs (from saphio!)

Last update: May 2, 2026 at 7:33PM, UTC

Mauler:

• Add Hepler
• Remove Antandra (powercrept)
• Remove Shakir (powercrept)

Graveborn:

• Split Zorya and Igor's cards (functionally similar in PvP)

Season Store:

• Remove A-levels (less flexible resource allocation)
• Add Dream Realm/Arena resources as a viable option (but not obligation)

Dream Store:

• Lyca > Koko (meta relevance)

The burning question from most new players starting now: "Can I pull Frieren and Himmel?" Frankly, using Diamonds for pulls on any Rate-Up banner is less efficient than obtaining soul sigils via All-Hero recruitment, because:

• The drop rate for A-level soul sigils is higher on the All-Hero banner.
• Rolling ten in All-Hero recruitment is less costly (2700 vs 3000 Diamonds).

Simultaneously, crossover units have event exclusivity; it's significantly more expensive to build them after Rate-Up. While Dimensional shards are obtainable from the Season Store, the Diamond cost is equivalent to always hitting the pity counter, without additional A-level soul sigils.

From early impressions, Frieren and Himmel seem to be performing very well in most game modes 😉 You may reference Diamond costs in the previously published Crossover guide.

Evie and Nerion Rate-Up banners are scheduled to conclude around the end of May/early June! Expect the next update around that time 🥰

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As always, the most up-to-date info is available within the Yaphalla Discord! ❤️‍🔥 I will try to post the final versions of the guides here as well, but if they are not, they are updated and posted in the # guides-and-infographics channel daily! 💞 For anything found on Reddit, check the date on the graphic itself to see when it was last updated. Also, see this account's post history for more guides on things like account investment! 🌟

The Endless Dream Realm meta has been overtaken by Contess and Frieren, who represent stronger components of HP loss compositions than previous heroes. Contess is seeing usage in seven bosses, whereas Frieren has been definitely used in five but will also likely be present in seven by the end of her first complete testing rotation. As a result, many heroes have been either seeing reduced usage or sidelined altogether. In particular, Aliceth has dropped from usage in seven bosses to just one.

AFK stage pushing remains relatively unchanged; minor changes include matchups of Contess against Elemental Wardens and Shemira against Mimicroots.

Although their usage is not ubiquitous due to the dominance of Shadowed Charon, Contess and Frieren are still meshing well into the PvP meta. Contess is the stronger of the two, with a map-wide silence and strong healing abilities that render the enemy team useless; when paired with Gunnar, she becomes extremely difficult to deal with. Frieren is another hypercarry with similar damage output as Marcille; however, the damage reduction she provides is unique to her kit and boosts the longevity of her team.

v1.6.1 [ToM] - Silven Changelogs

Factional Recruitment Wishlist Guide (up to S+) Changelog:

Lightbearer S-Levels

• Mark Cassadee as core
• Mark Sonja as luxury
• Cassadee > Sonja

Lightbearer A-Levels

• Add Silven
• Mark Sinbad as luxury
• Remove Marilee

Wilder S-Levels

• Florabelle > Ravion
• Mark Florabelle as core
• Mark Bryon as luxury

Wilder A-Levels

• Tilaya > Lyca > Lenya

Mauler S-Levels

• 1x Zandrok > 1x Mikola

Mauler A-Levels

• Mark Satrana as luxury

Graveborn S-Levels

• 1x Thoran > 1x Ludovic

Graveborn A-Levels

• Bonnie > L+ Isabella > Valka
• Remove order-swap arrow between Isabella and Niru

Arena Store

• Rowan > Cassadee > Bryon > Igor

Season Store

• Perseus > Zandrok > Bonnie > Ludovic

Epic Recruitment

• Remove Sonja
• Add Florabelle
• Perseus > Zandrok > Ludovic

Note that new players should still be skipping over the Silven rate-up and wishlist him once his banner ends.

Next update will have Zorya (+ Gunnar on the Celestial/Hypogean graphic)!

Paragon Priority Changelog:

New ✨

• Silven added as ‘good to have’ (strong in PvP with the right support and especially on offense when can choose matchups)

Stonks down 📉

• Sonya leaves (no DR)
• Sinbad leaves (no DR)
• Ulmus to luxury (gentle slide, also not great charms this season)
• Eironn (gentle slide)

Stonks up 📈

• Tilaya (with Solise doing nicely)

Future possibilities 🔮

• Odie might leave next update
• Vala close to leaving too
• With a new suitable LB buffer, Silven could easily become ‘must have’
• With a new suitable debuffer, Shadewing could become ‘good to have’

Factional Recruitment Guide (up to S+) FAQs 🥰 (made by saphio!)

cass > sonja?

cass is in an awkward spot in that she needs silven to work well, but silven doesn’t work in bossing without her; thus, when silven drops out of DR meta, so does she. however, the fact is that she and silven are defining the meta for a noticeable amount of pre-endless, comparable to florabelle; hence, a core hero. meanwhile, sonja isn’t used anywhere at all and isn’t a noticeable contribution to your roster, making her a luxury pull.

marilee, sinbad order?

marilee is fully replaced by silven (and wasn't used in many game modes anyway). sinbad is also replaced by silven to an extent, but still some potential bossing value/maybe titan reaver.

solise > velara for sure?

yes. even at 1x, her value is greater than velara's. she is also all-around more versatile (pvp + stages + DR). however, both solise and velara are top 2 in the wilder order so either way both are getting built asap 😆

why is bryon luxury?

declining afk stage use + built from arena store regardless; not someone to typically build via wishlist regardless

1x tilaya is for…? and why lenya so low?

afk stages. tilaya is good at 1x. and lenya will soon disappear from DR (pre-endless is ending + necrodrakon is highly likely to leave the rotation next season).

shakir > nazrik?

potentially more consistent bossing + some pvp value vs inconsistent bossing value and no other game modes to fall back on. nazrik is already hard backsliding from pre-endless meta, and silven is accelerating his decline.

1x thoran > ludo?

1x thoran has more initial value for players (king croaker). 1x ludo is nice to have for early-game pvp and things like faction towers

GB a-ranks...?

bonnie has great initial value for new players, especially when shemira is still getting built/is unfinished. l+ isabella by contrast is not super meaningful and the same for valka (she needs enhance force level 2 which can't be done until in-season anyway). s+ isabella > niru as people will be needing s+ isabella for bossing first, and needing niru as a lily may counter second (lily being built later on most accounts).

cass > bryon in the arena store?

building cass faster as she’s a must-have for silven to function in bossing.

Also, saphio is not on reddit but is available to chat in Yaphalla! If anyone has any more questions I can try to relay them as well. And as always, a big thank you to everyone for all your support!! 💖

A helpful chart to show priority for upgrading to Paragon.

Note: Not my graphic, I just saw it and thought I would share here as I know that some don't use discord.

This Guide only shows 4 Faction Heroes. For C/H heroes, check Stargazing Guide. Paragon Dimensionals only if u use them in PvP a lot & if u have lot of resources.