Hero Wars skins, glyphs and artifacts: what to upgrade first

Most of the numbers below come from the two official help centers (support-hwa.nexters.com for Alliance, support-hwde.nexters.com for Dominion Era) and from official Hero Hub and community posts. We cross-checked them against current guide sites, and anything we could not confirm twice is left out. The two games share the same three upgrade tracks but use different caps, so each section tells you which version a number belongs to. If you are not sure which game you play, read our Alliance vs Dominion Era comparison first. Every other Hero Wars guide is linked from the Hero Wars hub.

The upgrade order in one list

A spending order beats a perfect build. Here is ours. It comes from the mechanics in both help centers, not from any single hero guide. It assumes you already have a main team of five. If you do not, the tier list and the best teams guide come first, because every resource below should land on heroes you will still use in six months.

1. Pick five heroes and stop spreading. Skin Stones, runes and artifact resources are slow to earn. Five heroes at a high level beat fifteen at a medium one in Arena, Guild War and the Tower.
2. Evolve each Artifact Weapon to 3 stars. Both help centers give the same activation odds for the team buff a weapon fires when its hero uses the first skill: 30% at 1 star, 60% at 2 stars, 100% from 3 stars. Reaching 100% is the cheapest big jump in the game.
3. Push the main stat. The Default skin and the Artifact Ring both raise the hero's primary stat (strength, agility or intelligence), and so does one glyph. Main stat feeds damage and survivability at the same time.
4. Unlock glyphs as rank allows, then level them evenly. In Alliance, all five glyphs at level 40 open the Class Rune, so even levels pay off there.
5. Add the secondary skins and the Book in the order your hero needs. This is hero specific: a mage wants magic penetration, a tank wants armor and health. Check a per-hero priority guide before you commit.
6. Let titans feed your heroes. Sparks of Power come from titan upgrades and go into the hero bonus called Spark of Power in Alliance and Gift of the Elements in Dominion Era.
7. Late game: Relics in Alliance, Ascension in Dominion Era. Both add new skills, and both cost a lot more than everything above.

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Skins and Skin Stones

Skins are the most misunderstood upgrade in Hero Wars. Both help centers state the key rule the same way: all skin bonuses stack no matter which skin is active. Equipping a skin only changes how the hero looks. You never choose between skins, you choose which one to level next.

• Default skin: every hero has one, and it boosts the main stat (strength, agility or intelligence).
• Other skins: each one boosts a single secondary stat, such as armor, health, physical attack, magic penetration or crit chance.
• Skin+ (Alliance): some skins can be upgraded again, which doubles their bonus. The Alliance help center says you need both the hero and the original skin to buy a Skin+, and that Skins+ come from special events and as a Heroic Chest grand prize.
• Cap: the Dominion Era help center lists 60 as the maximum hero skin level. AllClash's per-hero skin guides also treat 60 as the final level and cover both versions.

The two Alliance posters above show how Nexters announces new skins: the stat comes first, the art second. Read them that way. Armor penetration on a physical carry and magic penetration on a mage are high value. A crit skin on a hero that does not scale with crit is a low priority even if it looks great.

Which skin first

Our rule of thumb: Default skin first for most damage dealers, because the main stat is the broadest boost. Then the skin whose stat your hero's role leans on. Do not copy the glyph order into skins: AllClash warns in its Cleaver guide that leveling skins in glyph order leaves a hero lopsided. Olympus publishes per-hero priority videos for both versions (Adam, Byrna, Celeste, Cascade, Wodryn and others), and these are the best place to check a specific hero.

Where Skin Stones come from

Alliance: the help center says that since 8 June 2026 Skin Stones come from World Map Bosses, which replaced Outland Bosses. Outland Chests can still be opened with emeralds and can drop Skin Stones, Outland Coins or a grand prize (a unique skin or a Skin Shop Certificate). Season event groups and the daily Advent Calendar add Skin Stone Chests on top. Dominion Era: the recurring Guardians of Outland event pays Outland Coins and Skin Stones, Skin Stone Chests show up across events, and leftover Brawl Coins have been converted into Large Skin Stone Chests (600 coins per chest in March 2026).

Glyphs: five per hero

Every hero has five glyphs, and each one boosts a main or secondary stat. This is where the two versions split the most.

Alliance. Glyphs unlock with rank: the first two at Blue, the third at Violet, the fourth at Violet+1 and the fifth at Violet+2. You level them with Rune Stones or emeralds. Theria Games' glyph guide adds that the fifth glyph is always the hero's primary stat. The big extra is the Class Rune: once all five glyphs of a hero reach level 40, that hero can upgrade the Class Rune with Rune Spheres. Each upgrade improves a passive class ability shared by every hero of that class and raises that hero's glyph cap by 5, up to level 80. One hero can feed the class ability nine times. That is why even glyph levels matter in Alliance: a hero stuck at 40, 40, 40, 40, 38 gets nothing from the Class Rune.

Dominion Era. Glyphs also unlock through rank, but the cap is 50 and there is no Class Rune. The help center sets the steps: up to level 30 from the start, up to 40 once the hero reaches level 60, and levels 41 to 50 from hero level 100. You pay with runes or emeralds.

Artifacts: Weapon, Book and Ring

Each hero has three artifacts. Only the Weapon is unique to the hero. Books and Rings are shared by type, so fragments bought for one hero help every hero that uses the same item. The Weapon fires a team buff for nine seconds when its hero uses the first skill (Celeste is the exception at 4.5 seconds). The Book adds two secondary stats, and the Ring adds the main stat.

Leveling uses Artifact Essence for Weapons, Artifact Scrolls for Books and Artifact Metal for Rings. Evolution uses Chaos Cores plus that artifact's fragments, found in expeditions, the Artifact Chest and the Artifact Merchant on the Airship. Dominion also sells Chaos Cores in the Elemental Tournament Shop.

Artifact Chests and Absolute Artifact Chests

The Artifact Chest sits on the Airship in both games. The four free daily keys come from Valkyrie's gift and the daily quests to begin 1 expedition, begin 4 expeditions and level any artifact once. Each chest level you reach gives every guildmate a key and raises the rarity of resources inside. In Dominion Era, Flawless resources start at chest level 5 and Absolute resources at level 6. A batch of ten openings costs 800 emeralds there. Dominion also hands out Absolute Artifact Chests as event rewards: the new 28-day cycle lists them among Week 2 key rewards, and Mysterious Island generators have produced them during festivals. Save them for the red tier, levels 101 to 130, which only Dominion has.

Spark of Power and Gift of the Elements

This is one system with two names. Each hero has an extra bonus to all three main stats, bought with gold and Sparks of Power. At max it gives 720 to the primary stat and 360 to each of the other two, in both versions. The Alliance help center calls it Spark of Power. The Dominion Era help center calls it Gift of the Elements and places it in the Heart of Power. H-W.fun's breakdown confirms the 720 and 360 figures at level 30. Do not mix it up with the Alliance event also called Gift of the Elements, which is a separate event.

• Alliance: you get Sparks whenever you level up a titan.
• Dominion Era: any titan upgrade pays Sparks (levels, skins, artifacts), and the Titan Soul Shop sells them.

The practical takeaway is the same in both games: you rarely farm Sparks on purpose. They pile up while you build titans, so check the hero screen after every titan session and spend them on your main five. Our titans guide covers which titans to build in the first place.

Relics: the Alliance late-game layer

Relics are an Alliance system. The Alliance help center describes them as a hero upgrade that adds new skills and improves two secondary stats (health plus physical or magic attack, depending on how the hero's skills scale). Dominion Era's posts use the word "Relics" only for items inside Adventures, which are a different thing.

• Unlock: the hero needs level 50 and 4 evolution stars, plus 50 of that hero's own Relic Shards.
• Levels: the cap is 30. Level 1 adds a new active skill, level 10 upgrades the ultimate, level 20 upgrades another skill and level 30 adds a new passive.
• Gates: level 10 needs Blue rank and 6 stars, and level 20 needs Violet rank.
• Cost: 2,880 shards from unlock to level 30. You can work that out from the official cost table, and Alexandre Games' Luther and Cleaver relic guides give the same total. After the unlock, universal Relic Shards can stand in for the hero's own.

Luther and Nebula (above) are among the Alliance heroes with relics. Individual shards come from events, the Relic Pass and offers, so a relic is a long project. Only start one for a hero who is already at 6 stars and in your main team.

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Ascension and Ascension Seasons in Dominion Era

Ascension is Dominion Era's deepest hero upgrade, built on the Ascension Spire and resources like Star Mana, Eternal Seeds, Ascension Crystals and Insignias. We found no Ascension system in Alliance's help center or Hero Hub news. In August 2026 Dominion added Ascension Seasons, and the official FAQ of 31 August 2026 (post 4818) and the help center agree on the rules:

• Each season lasts 25 days and adds two new Ascension skills to one featured hero, on Branch II and Branch V.
• To take part you need the featured hero, team level 65 and Asgard unlocked. The help center adds that you must be in a guild.
• Both skills start at Grade 0 for free. Grades 1, 2 and 3 cost 200, 500 and 1,250 total units of the matching resource: Ascension Dust for the first skill, Ascension Shards for the second. Each grade also costs gold.
• Season Points come from familiar modes such as Arena, Grand Arena, Guild War and Clash of Worlds. Using the featured hero earns more.
• To keep a skill after the season, you develop its branch, buy the paid pass or buy a seasonal offer. Otherwise it goes inactive, but its grade is saved. Unused Dust and Shards are converted automatically.

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Resources and where they come from

Free codes and gift links often include Skin Stone Chests, artifact keys or runes, so check our Hero Wars promo codes page before you spend emeralds. For the rest of your account plan, see the best heroes for beginners and pets guide.

FAQ