Every hero in the roster grows along one core power path: ascension (升星). As a hero climbs the star tiers, their stats multiply many times over, turning an early recruit into a frontline powerhouse. Ascension is the single most important lever for raising a hero's raw strength.
The Five Star Tiers
Each hero advances through five star tiers, displayed as 1★ through 5★. 5★ is the maximum — there is no 6★ tier or alternate upgrade track beyond it. Pushing a hero from 1★ to 5★ is the complete ascension journey, and it is where the bulk of a hero's power comes from.
- 1★ — the starting tier when a hero is first recruited
- 2★ / 3★ / 4★ — the climbing tiers, each a meaningful stat jump over the last
- 5★ — the maximum tier, the hero's full potential unlocked
How Ascension Works
Ascending a hero from one star to the next costs ascension exp. The amount of exp required rises with each star tier — pushing a hero into the higher tiers is progressively more demanding than the first step.
You supply that exp by feeding materials into the hero: shards and duplicate copies of heroes each contribute exp toward the next star. Once enough exp has accumulated for the current tier, the hero ascends and the requirement resets at a higher amount for the following tier.
This continues until the hero reaches 5★, which is the cap — at maximum the hero no longer has an ascension cost and cannot be pushed further. The exact exp totals per tier are being tuned, so treat the takeaway as the structure: rising cost per star, paid with shards and duplicates, capped at 5★.
Star Power: What Ascension Actually Buys
The stat payoff is dramatic. Taking Qin Shi Huang (a 5-quality hero) as a representative example, here is how his core stats climb across the full ascension track:
- 1★ — Health 735 / Attack 85 / Defense 101
- 2★ — Health 1470 / Attack 171 / Defense 203
- 3★ — Health 2940 / Attack 341 / Defense 406
- 4★ — Health 5145 / Attack 597 / Defense 710
- 5★ (max) — Health 7350 / Attack 853 / Defense 1014
From 1★ to 5★ that is roughly a 10× jump across Health, Attack, and Defense alike. A fully ascended hero is on the order of ten times stronger than the same hero at 1★ — which is why ascension is the core power path rather than an optional extra. (Other heroes follow their own per-star numbers; Qin Shi Huang is shown here as one concrete example of the scale.)
Hero Shards: Where the Fuel Comes From
The exp you feed into ascension comes primarily from hero shards (英雄碎片). The loop works like this:
- Recruit duplicates. When you recruit a hero you already own, the duplicate copy is the raw material.
- Shatter into shards. Duplicates can be broken down (分解) into red-quality hero shards.
- Feed for ascension exp. Those shards and duplicates are consumed to grant ascension exp, accumulating toward the hero's next star.
In short: duplicate → shard → fed for exp → star up. Recruiting is not wasted when you pull a hero you already have — the extra copies become the fuel that drives that hero toward 5★.