Hero layouts

How formation slots decide who falls and who casts, and the Crit, DoT, Pursuit, and Execute builds.

Guide by Autumn (Ice, S12), shared on DiscordAugust 2026 · Execute added in September

Where a hero stands decides when they fall and when their skill fires. This guide covers how the formation board works, how to place heroes, and the builds players run right now.

The formation board

Backline

  1. 24
  2. 22
  3. 20
  4. 18
  5. 17
  6. 19
  7. 21
  8. 23
  9. 25

Middle

  1. 15
  2. 13
  3. 11
  4. 9
  5. 8
  6. 10
  7. 12
  8. 14
  9. 16

Frontline

  1. 6
  2. 4
  3. 2
  4. 1
  5. 3
  6. 5
  7. 7
Slots as the Formation screen numbers them. The frontline is the right-hand column.

How the formation works

Low numbers last longest

Slot 1 is the last hero to fall and slot 25 the first. The frontline and the middle of each column hold on longest, so that is where your most invested heroes belong.

The lowest number casts

When several heroes could use a skill in the same turn, the one on the lowest number goes first.

Command sets the pace

Command value decides who acts first. Higher rarities have more of it and gain more per level, so level a lower-rarity hero if you want them to trigger more often.

Every hero alive adds damage

The more heroes are still standing, the more damage the formation deals. Grenade gives some skill damage back as heroes fall, but unless it is high-star, not losing them is worth more.

Quick Deploy sorts by rarity

Quick Deploy used to produce a usable formation. It now orders heroes by rarity, which puts low-star UR+ heroes in the frontline, so set your formation by hand.

Forced triggers

SSR Nidhogg (Cryptid) makes the entire frontline trigger. Boat (Collection) makes the lowest-numbered hero with a skill ready cast it on turns 4, 8, 12, and so on, with four times the damage.

Placement tips

  • Drag a hero onto another slot to swap the two; tap a hero to remove them.
  • Stack heroes of the same damage type: Crit, DoT, or Pursuit.
  • Keep a few healers and shielders so the formation lasts. Put DoT healers and shielders on low numbers, because their effect needs time to build up.
  • If a DoT hero and a Pursuit hero deal about the same damage, give the DoT hero the lower number.
  • Unless a hero is heavily invested, the higher their skill activation chance, the lower their number should be.
  • Some utility is worth a forward slot too, for example Hermes.

There is no single correct formation. Build yours around the heroes you have invested in, then add healers, shielders, and utility.

Builds

Pick the build that matches the heroes you have invested in.

Pure Crit

Most recommended

Front-load overwhelming critical hits and end the fight early; there is little left to do afterwards. The key heroes have common shard sources, which makes them the easiest to invest in.

Key heroes

  • Joan of ArcUR minimum
  • Achilles

Important heroes

  • Tutankhamen
  • Blackbeard
  • Spartacus
  • Newton
  • Charles Darwin
  • Bjorn
  • Lagertha
  • Guan Yu

Other heroes

  • Saladin
  • Drake
  • Catherine de Medici

Best collection

  • Holy Hand Grenade (Collection)

Pros

  • Very, very strong upfront damage.
  • Needs the least utility to perform well, although utility still helps.
  • Easy to build early: the key heroes are available from day one.
  • Easy to invest in, and it carries you well into the late game.

Cons

  • It is an alpha strike: if the opening burst does not kill, you are in trouble.
  • Reaches full strength only with Achilles’ item, which is expensive; without it the build is about 60–70 % as effective.
  • Needs the most heroes to reach its highest damage.

Bjorn is excellent here but expensive to star. If you can focus on him, he moves up to key hero.

Battle utility

Not a build of its own: these utility heroes fit into any formation, including up front. Every pick is a trade-off.

Healers

  • Odysseus
  • Queen Victoria
  • Pompey
  • Franklin
  • Confucius
  • Wallace
  • Noah
  • Blackbeard
  • William Shakespeare
  • Eleanor of Aquitaine
  • Victor Hugo
  • Cervantes

Shielders

  • Da Vinci
  • Pompey
  • Queen Victoria
  • Michelangelo

Buffers

ATK buff

  • Prometheus
  • Da Vinci
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Anne Bonny
  • Adam

Damage reduction

  • Socrates
  • Marco Polo
  • King Arthur

Death immunity

  • Tesla

Debuff removal or immunity

  • Dante
  • Thomas Edison
  • Heracleswith item

Dodge

  • Hermes

Shield break

  • Merlin

Debuffers

Enemy buff removal

  • Tutankhamen
  • Beethoven
  • Homer
  • RagnarEnlightenment Age and later
  • Hatshepsut
  • Heracles

Enemy ATK or skill damage down

  • Charles the Great
  • Chaucer
  • Mary Shelley
  • James Watt

Enemy damage taken up

  • Gilgamesh
  • Hypatia
  • Dido
  • Beethoven

Delay or seal

  • Hammurabi
  • Cleopatra

Enemy skill steal

  • Cleopatrawith item

Heal block or reduction

  • Livia
  • Spartacus

Collection denial

  • Morgana

Execute

  • Lu Bu
  • Circe