Starting from Season 1 (S1), you can use the Hero Contract, which allows you to upgrade a lower-quality hero to a higher quality by using another hero. But there are some rules to follow.
First, to access the Hero Contract menu, go to your base, tap your Alliance Hall, and tap the Hero Contract icon.
There, you will see two placeholders for heroes: the first one is for the Veteran, a hero you will be using to upgrade another hero – the Rookie. The second slot is locked and costs $100 to unlock.
Here are the Hero Contract rules:
- Only Legendary (golden) level 60+ Advanced Elite (5-skill) heroes can be used as Veterans.
- The Rookie hero must be two levels below the Veteran in terms of quality.
- If your Veteran is Legendary (golden), the Rookie must be Epic (orange) or lower.
- The Rookie cannot reach the same quality as the Veteran – it will always be one level below, hence the previous rule.
- To ascend your Rookie with shards, you must terminate the contract first.
- The level of your Rookie hero is kept after you break the contract, even if it is higher than the cap level of the hero’s quality after the contract termination.
- Each time you want to establish the contract, it will cost you 100 diamonds.
- Sadly, the contract does not apply to First-Gen and Spacetime Traveler Heroes.
Recommendations for using the Hero Contract:
- Kelly and Kobayakawa are the best heroes for the Veteran role during the first seasons. These are the only five-skill heroes with a higher drop rate and can be exchanged for 20 gold vouchers in the Exchange Shop. Therefore, they can be maxed much sooner than the other five-skill heroes.
- Use the contract on the strongest hero in your main lineup if possible. For example, if you’re running a watchers lineup with Kelly and Galande, use it on Galande. Or, if you’re running a lineup with Elaine, she would be the perfect Rookie.
- That said, try to maximize the value you get. Use it on heroes who gain three or at least two quality levels from the contract.
- If you have an Elite (purple) Quinn, you can use the contract on her to unlock her fifth skill and benefit from the m-coin bonus. This option is perfect for those who don’t spend much on the game.
- The second slot costs a lot, but it is okay if you look at the cost of one Advanced Elite hero. One five-skill hero or one selectable card for such heroes will usually cost $100. The contract allows you to bring any three-star Legendary hero to the two-star Myth level if you have a three-star Myth-level five-skill hero. That’s equivalent to four Elite shards of the Rookie hero and two Legendary shards of other heroes. But again, $100 is a top-tier AAA game on Steam, so consider this carefully.