Wander Hero Guide: Tier List, Hints and Tips

A english guide to Wander-Hero, with tips and ratings of various cards, hero-girls, and starting abilities, as well as general hints and tips for getting ahead and navigating.

Wander Hero Guide: Tier List, Hints and Tips

ALWAYS ALWAYS re-roll perks until you get a ‘Godbless’ that will be useful to the MC. Reminds me of rolling stats in a Wizardry game lol.

You have a cloud of perks you pick three from. The Gold one is Godbless. YOU CAN get 2 Godbless in the same selection, if you’re super dedicated to rerolls, but a good synergistic Godbless and Miracle or Rare set is worth more than two mismatching Godblesses. You can see some of my thoughts about Godblesses and their relative tiers below the class examination (3rd section).

Picking Your Class

NOTE: The MC always has a pinball melee attack as their main (which is kind of odd on the Wizard and Archer). Every time you use this as the MC, you get a 0 cost Slide Card to move a little bit after. Keep in mind you moving with Slide can trigger some things like Wizard Apprentice attacking; but you should generally use your slide to get into cover or back away from a vulnerable spot.

Warrior MC

• You have 100 HP base, 3 DEF, and high Speed.
• [Jump Slash] is cool; basically, if you have Line of Sight to an enemy when an ally hits it with ANY attack, in your MC’s line of sight, you also jump at it and hit it foe 1/2 ATK. Hence, as a Warrior you want to get as many mercenaries out as possible to make use of this, as it can trigger infinite times in a turn. Jump Slash can get you killed though; most notably with bosses that have constant damage auras. These fights are horrible for the Warrior.
• [Wind Sword] is okay, you fire off low-ish damage piercing whirlwinds after playing two skills. It pays to have low cost skills for this. Despite the wording, it sadly does not use Tornado Slash as this attack, but I guess that would be broken. 😀
• Finally, [Swing Blade] is meh. When you start your move, a variable number of blades will spawn around your start position, and then shoot off some time during your movement. The targeting is very variable, as is the number of blades, so it’s not great and isn’t a priority to get.
• In most cases, Warrior play order is Mercs => Cards => Your Melee. This is because you want smash as many enemies as you can with Jump Slash before actually attacking yourself. If you’re in a bad position to jump slash or use your cards, of course, or want to focus on a specific enemy, then shuffle things around a bit.
• Notably one of the best items a Warrior can get is a [[Taijutsu Windblade]]. After you get it, you then always attack a triple-sized AoE area when bouncing around in melee, like a D&D Whirlwind Attack, which is an incredible boost to your AoE DPS. However, it’s pretty rare, so a Greatsword is a good alternative, for raw +ATK. If you’re going for a tank build, obviously consider a Shortsword + Shield instead.
• For Basic cards you get Bash/Punch which are garbage and should be removed at Libraries ASAP. Swap to another random or just remove. You 1x [Heavy Strike] which is okay, but not great action economy, and a [Power Up], which gives +3 ATK to other Attack Cards this turn, which is nice.
• After the Prologue, you get a [Tornado Slash], which is AMAZING; the card doesn’t say, but it does the stated attack (3×15!) continually on the route to the destination. Aim far, kills lots. It’s usually worth the 3 AP cost. You also get a [Sprint], which is meh, but okay as an opener.
• Overall, the Warrior is tough, with okay abilities, and a decent starter deck. But certain bosses will be very troublesome.

Archer MC

• You have 60 HP base, 2 DEF, and about 80% the Speed of the Warrior.
• [Sharpshooter] is a better version of the innate ability of Shortbowman mercenary: you shoot an arrow whenever an ally hits in LoS.
• Accuracy is a problem for it; since lots and lots of stages have -5 (degrees, presumably) AimError which is irritating, and it already has a 10 degree or so cone. Keep in mind that +Hit from perks Does NOT affect this. You want +ACU, which is a different stat. +Hit is for vs. Dodgy enemies. Though this is hard to fully tell as these terms are very muddy in the translation.
• Archer wants to mix together skills and melee. 0 and 1-Cost cards synergise best due to [Hidden Weapon], their second skill, which gives free Shuriken cards when you play 3 cards in a row. Don’t go out your way to get Shurikens, though, they’re fairly mediocre cards.
• Try to get Temple upgrades ASAP on your Archer MC because [Arrow Assault] is AMAZING; you constantly fire shots when bouncing around for your melee. This is probably the best tier 3 ability of all the classes, especially when you have a higher Shoot or Spread value.
• Their Play order is typically Your Melee => Mercs => Cards, because you want to see how much you can get out Arrow Assault before supporting your Mercs with shots, and then adding in supplementary fire from cards to polish off stragglers. Again, change this as needed for the situation.
• You want to have a mixed crew with other ranged attackers and some melee. You want to carry either a Shortbow or Longbow, and upgrade it as much as you can. Shortbow gives bonus arrows whenever you fire, which is great. Longbow gives a very good 30%+ Crit chance. Considering you fire quite a few arrows usually, the +crit is super nice to have.
• For Basic Cards, you get Bow Shot, which is, you guessed it, garbage. You also get a Bladestorm, which is a narrow cone with several daggers. It’s decent, but really not worth the 3 cost, and should probably get removed as well. You also get a Continue, which gives you an extra pinball for 2AP, which is great card.
• You get Final Shot after the prologue, which is for priority must die targets. It’s 10% buff per card played on its high base damage is nice, and the great 1-shot damage makes it worth 3. You also get an Insight, which is always a good card for deck cycling.
• Archer has quite a few rather poor common and uncommon cards; but some very good rares like Split Scatter and Shuriken (a different Shuriken to the one you get for free).
• Overall, the Archer probably has the best abilities, moderate endurance, and a good starter deck, but has some pretty bleh common/uncommon cards.

Mage MC

• You have 40 HP, 2 DEF, and about 65% the Speed of the Warrior. As you’re squishy, a HP perk (or a +10 HP starting boon) is a good idea.
• [Instant Fireball] is similar to Archer Sharpshooter, except it has has a small AoE but worse accuracy. It’s arguably better purely due to the AoE.
• [Power Surge] makes you gain ATK for every two non-attack cards you play. This includes mercenary cards and defences, just not attacks.
• [Skyfire Fall] is hilariously bad. It drops a random fireball nearby you after you finish your move. At 1/2 Magic. Yes… Power Surge could boost it a bit, and the AoE is okay, but the random targeting is not good. I’ve tried using a movement spam build and it still isn’t worth it. You’re not in a rush for the 3rd Temple upgrade for your Mage MC. Give it your girls.
• Mage Play Order is Cards => Mercs => Your Melee. Mage Cards are usually powerful attacks and nukes which you want to use to prune away choice targets (and buff Power Surge). After that, send Mercs on remaining targets (which you support), then move yourself.
• Naturally, you want the most MAG you can get on a staff.
• Basic Cards are the inevitably crap Magic Arrow. Corruption, which isn’t too useful early on, but might be ok for high DEF enemies later. Finally, Throw Bomb which, though cost 2, is pretty good if enemies are in a tight packed area. Easily your best starter.
• After Prologue, you get Shadow Beam. It doesn’t say so on the card, but this fires a Valefor laser, which is say, it sweeps a powerful beam in an Arc. It’s stronger the later you pull it out in battle (+1 ATK per enemy killed) so it can be great; but if you draw it in your starter hand its not worth the 3 cost. You also get a Potential, which is fine.
• Mage has some absolutely baller Uncommon cards (Acid Arrow, Fireball, and especially Drain Soul are of note). Their rares are typically high cost, high damage.
• Overall, the Mage has a middling ability set, is squishy, and has a decent starter deck. But probably gets the best cards later.

Godblesses Tier-List and Analysis

Good lord there’s alot, took me about several hours to test these. I may still be missing something, feel free to let me know if you spot something not here.

S-Tier+

• Energy Recovery:After taking your MC’s melee-pinball action, do it again. Basically, a free use of a Continue (2 cost) card, every turn. Your MC can do alot of damage with their pinball, so this is absolutely baller. Combo with a Speed boost for extra OP. SS-Tier.
• Avid Collector: Disables discarding unused cards. SS-Tier for everyone; that’s just more tactical options, permanently. EXCEPT, I’ve seen some curse cards that rely on them being auto-discarded, and when in hand suck away your AP. If this also prevents those going, that would be crippling.
• Brave Leadership: +1 ATK/MAG/MIN DMG on mercenary cards. That can be huge, since Mercs often provide alot of your firepower. S-Tier for all.
• Execution Time: When card that costs 2 or less kills an enemy; copy it and it gets -2 cost, up to 3 times. This applies multiple times to AoE killing cards like Throw Bomb; and to cards you’ve already got that cost 0 which is hilarious. SS Tier for a Mage, but still A-Tier for others.
• Paladin: Two layers of Holy Shield each round. From what I can tell, that’s flat out just ‘nope’ to the first two hits against you. Allows playing much more recklessly, so a decent S-Tier.
• Ancient Shield: Floating Shield spins around you, TRON style, and projectiles that hit it are destroyed. Some bosses have this ability and its pretty annoying. Does nothing to melee hits, but permanent, makes it still a good S-Tier.
• Berserker Charge: When MC is pinballing, they’re invulnerable and immune to status. For a Warrior, definite S-Tier, as it means you give zero fracks about enemies with thorns, gas clouds and counters. Keep in mind it won’t affect jump slash though. Less so for the others, probably A+ Tier, but they still get good use of it since they’re squishier by default.
• Cheating Level: Lol, it outright calls itself a cheat. 300% XP gain and +1 option when levelling is bonkers. Not only do you level insanely fast, but you also have a bigger chance to pick one of the good stats to level (see levelling, below). S-Tier.
• Mocking Face: Taunt Enemies on turn start, +1 Armour per 5 enemies. If you’re a Warrior and want to go full tank spec, this is your talent, since you’ll make enemies want to hit you much more than your squishy mercs, and even get free armour. S-Tier for that. But B-Tier for Archer/Mage.
• Lucky Lady: +300% Dodge for whole Team on first round. The first round, when lots of enemies are active, is always the most dangerous round, so vastly increasing dodge for it is great. Only issue is that you may not have many merc’s out on round 1. Still S-Tier, esp. for Archer/Mage.
• Special Forces Shooting: Fires Machine Gun (lol wtf) at enemies that approach near you, somewhat like a Rogue (Daggerman) Mercenary. The shots are quite inaccurate, mostly missing enemies not directly coming at you, but are very rapid, doing ALOT of collataral damage if there’s alot of moving targets, so it’s pretty great. S-Tier, and SS for an Archer (the shots ARE affected by +Spread/Shoot on Bows!).
• Brainwash: A random Companion Hero Girl in hand each turn is -3 AP to play. Um… sounds dodgy… But undeniably this is really handy, because that means you can load your girls up with a powerful armour AND a powerful weapon and still get them completely free. Around a low S-Tier.
• Card Trick: Up to 3 times a turn, playing a 0 cost card also draws a card. Talk about value!! This allows for free deck cycling which is always valuable. S-Tier.
• Survival Master: World Movement not affected by Terrain and can go 10 days without supplies. Not to underestimated, hills and forests and especially mountains REALLY slow your party down. Being able to go on 0 supplies means you get extra leeway for completing quests with complex dungeon layouts, and full clear more if your HP is up to spec, for more loot & XP. Makes Logistics Levelling useless though. Solid S-Tier.
• Soul of Heroes: Flat +35% ALL damage. Boring, but with some good supplement perks, I’d accept it as low S-Tier.
• Flame Warrior: First three hits your MC makes in a turn also leave a pool of napalm behind. Can be from any hit, but it support fire, jump slash, or cards. Enemies that move through the Napalm get 2 damage repeatedly, so they make excellent denial zones. Pretty fantastic for everyone. S-Tier.
• Lord of Bones: Free 0-Cost Skeleton Card every turn. Skeletons can’t move or attack, and only have 5 HP, but they have a moderate size hit-box, count as a card played, don’t disappear at turn end, and have 3 Thorns. Free disposable walls that attract fire? That’s great for survivability, and only gets better as battles drag out. S-Tier for sure.
• Very Cowardly: Converts your ATK stat into Block and Thorns. All of it! In my Warrior test, this gave 9 Block, 6 Thorns every turn in the prologue. Which is a lot, basically immortal at the start, so if you buff it with items, even better. Your normal pinball melee and support fire will proceed to be garbage with 0 ATK (lol). Cards with flat damage are still okay though. Very weird perk with a unique playstyle. If you want to go full defence build; I’d still argue Mocking Face is better with some supplementary perks, since with this, your Jump Slash won’t do much, but its still unique and certainly a low S-Tier.

Godbless A-Tier

• God / King of Battle Skills: King is a miracle, rather than Godbless, but +40%/+30% flat damage on skill cards are both really good. A-Tier.
• God / King of Defence: Since this only applies to Def cards, it’s not quite as good as Battle Skills. However, adding +4 DEF/+1 Armour will even apply to 0 cost defences, making the value of those soar through the roof. A-Tier.
• Kungfu/Magic Crystal/Demon Avatar/Giant’s Blood: +35% Phys DMG/+35% Mag DMG/+5 MAG/+5 ATK. Generally, the flat is overall better (with ATK for Warrior/Archer, and MAG for Mage) as that’s getting a strong weapon for free. The percentile is better for cards with high values though.
• Magic and Blade: +3 MAG and ATK. Overall, this ends up being same as a +5 or maybe +4 since whilst the other stat is used in your total attack value for melee, its weighted less. However, it gives you more card versatility, in theory.
• Guardian Field: Permanent 3 Armour. That’s very good, as Armour doesn’t reduce. Makes your MC give zero ♥♥♥♥♥ about low damage attacks. A-Tier.
• Bold: +150% Crit. I’m sorry, what? You actually notice crit quite alot even with like 30% chance from equips, so basically guaranteed crits is pretty darn nice.
• Magic Eye: +9 ACU. For Archer and Mage, this is A-Tier; gives pretty much perfect support fire accuracy. Obviously useless for Warrior.
• Ancient Vampire: +2 BS (Life Leech). Permanent leech 2 HP on hit is pretty amazing. I’d say it’s A+ for Warrior, since they’re guaranteed to hit with Jump Slash, whereas Mage and Archer can miss with support fire. Even so, still a strong pick. A-Tier.
• Brave Negotiation: +50% cash and +5% Reputation from Task bounties. That’s a ludicrous amount. It’s not helping you fight; but more cash is never bad. A-Tier.
• Blessing of Goddess Aqua:You can throw Axis Cult recruitment forms for critical damage. You personally seem to regenerate 20% HP a turn, which makes your hero pretty damn tanky. Sadly doesn’t apply to your mercs, so it’s not a top-tier godbless, but pretty good. And yes, it’s pretty clear that the reincarnation goddess silhouette in this game is the useless goddess Aqua from Konasuba. Eris-pads-her-chest tier. I mean A-Tier. XD
  
• Boss Killer: +100% (!) Damage from yourself vs. Bosses. Since the MC is usually the most damaging, and bosses are very threatening, this is never a bad pick. Also applies to cards. Very solid A-Tier for all.
• Sage of the Rune: -50% cost of enchanting items. No flaws on them. I’ve not heavily played with enchanting in the game, so this one is subject to change, but at the very least that’s a hell of a discount. Being half-price in souls alone is pretty great. A-Tier.
• Autofill: Fires +2 extra shots when you fire a shot. Obviously an A+ Tier on the Archer or Mage, as it applies to your base abilities and makes their accuracy less important. Though will also bias you to wanting more mercenaries for more support fire opportunities. F/Useless on Warrior ofc.
• Bone Knight: When you hit in melee, you also use a Spin attack. See I mention above the Taijutsu Windblade being great for Warrior above? Yeah, well this is a less good version of that. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. On the contrary, it’s pretty amazing on Archer especially, since they can’t normally use the Windblade. But a decent A-tier for all.
• All-Seeing Eye: You can see dungeon layouts in advance, and precise monster numbers for wandering groups, and also see upcoming draws. You can actually pay for part of this at Thieves Guilds if you find them, and it’s worth every penny. So, permanently having it is pretty awesome; also getting a precise view of your deck is even better (though there isn’t any Oracle draw-manipulation archetype in game as far as I can see). A-Tier.
• Smartphone: Skill Card range +160. I want my phone to help me punch further and cast spells! Obviously really good if you’re using cards at all. Probably best on the Warrior, oddly, since most Archer and Mage cards already have good range; but being able to skewer something from across the room is priceless. Though all can benefit.
• Villager A: Creates three purple balls around you at turn start. They follow you around and do magic damage to anyone crossing them (even if you run into the enemy). Damage range seems like 2-10, and they can activate 3-5 times before disappearing. Probably S-Tier for Warrior as they do follow along with Jump Slashes, but A-Tier anyway.
• Lightning Mastery: At turn start, you copy Anma’s ability, but in reverse, with Lightning that connects you to the closest ally. Though a bit hard to guarantee a good target, and has no effect on turn 1, this is obviously a great ability. Both of you can move, expanding the lightning around (which pierces obstacles) to slice enemies apart. A-Tier.
• Reborn: At turn start, one card costs -3 AP. I mean, no-one dislikes a free card every turn, but I believe this can affect 0-cost cards, and it’s random as heck. Ironically makes you want to avoid taking 0-costs, which is dubious since there’s some good ones. Even so… the potential still makes it a low A-Tier.
• Potion Master: Potions and Camping (in wild) has double effect. Direct massive savings if you buy potions. Potions are actually pretty rare to find to purchase beyond the freebies you get early. But nothing wrong with this. It’s a solid A-Tier.
• Black Wisdom: +320 Deploy Range/Charisma. Gives you A LOT of extra leeway with mercenary and girl deployment. A solid A-Tier.
• Blessing of the Wind: +35% Speed. That’s ALOT on the Warrior, so maybe an A+ for them. Pinball further and harder. A-Tier for Archer because longer Arrow Assault spam, C-Tier for Mage.
• Harem Wings: Has a hilarious name. +15% Speed per Companion Hero Girl in your deck. If you fill your deck with companion girls, it could be ludicrous, but finding 3+ heroines to beat Blessing of the Wind’s bonus might take a while. Still an A-Tier for Warrior/Archer. C-Tier for Mage.
• Scent of a Woman: Now, this one is a guess, since the description says ‘unknown’… but in testing I got absolutely excellent mercenary recruits constantly in Taverns (Knights, Foxgirls, Support Mages, etc.), and had 3 hero girls shortly after completing the three prologue quests! So it very likely increases chances of getting good recruits. This is very good, but early on you also really can’t keep loads of elites in your team at once (and it’s pricey!). Still a solid A-Tier.

Godbless B-Tier

• Best Partner: First Hero Girl you play stays 2 rounds. Text implies this resets every round, though of course you usually won’t have Hero Girls available each round anyway. As they’re reasonably strong, this is a good boon, but also means they’re open to damage twice. B-Tier.
• Boss Capture: Apparently your princess is in every castle. Each Boss kill gives you a new Girl Hero (lol). If you want to try for a meme build with only girls, go for it, but you’ll soon be out of AP. I guess if you have infinite patience you can see if you can roll Harem Wings with it. Also keep in mind that the new girls might well only have 0 or 1 perk (like Slave Market girls) and will still draw a salary from you. Due to all this, I can’t rank it above B-Tier.
• Assassin Skill: B-Tier. At the end of the enemy turn, you fire two arrows at the 2 lowest HP enemies you can see in LoS. They do about 15 damage. This is quite solid when first starting out, but considering the other stuff on offer, it’s only okay.
• Metal Cells: +35% Phys Damage Reduction. That’s a lot. But it’s overshadowed by other stuff, IMHO. B-Tier.
• Anti-Epidemic Expert: 30% chance to avoid status effects for the whole team is really good (no one like Paralysis on your Mercs) but is overshadowed by other better stuff. B-Tier.
• Half-Spider: At the end of melee move for MC, get a Jump card. Get a Slide card after playing it. Good for increasing your MC’s mobility a bit. Jump is already a good card, after all. That said, only getting after your move is a bit less good. Still, there’s literally no excuse to be out of cover with this perk.
• Home Time: Weirdly named. 35% less damage taken during player turn. This means less mercenaries killing themselves by running into enemies with thorns and beams and stuff. Not bad as such, but not amazing. Berserker Charge is better for the MC, though.
• Satellite Map: See the entire World Map after the initial quests. When I isekai, I bring my GPS satellite. It’s decent enough one-time info, though you’ll eventually learn it anyway. It’s not as handy as All-Seeing Eye, but still a decent B-Tier.
• Magic Beings: Heal 3 HP when hit by Magic, up to 10 times a turn. Not bad, though it’s quite uncommon to have magic attacks from monsters. Slightly increased value if you combo it with a perk giving MR, but blowing 2 perks on such a niche build isn’t great. B-Tier.
• Metal Cells: 35% PR- Physical Damage Reduction. Just less damage, forever. Decent, of course, if boring. B-Tier.
• Mouth Escape: At start of round, each enemy has 5% chance of being stunned. I imagine this as you letting a pair of wind-up chattering teeth loose (lol). I assume it should be translated as Vicious Mockery or such. Low chance means it can’t be relied on, but still pretty good. B-Tier.
• Loved by Envious: Free Shadow Stab counter-strike when enemies hits you. Seems to deal somewhere between 3-6 damage on testing, which is better than most applications of Thorns your MC can have. Okay for a tank-MC concept, but there are better picks for that too. B-Tier.
• Obsessed with Reading: When you gain offered a new skill, pick from 5 options, rather than 3. Sure you’ll get less chaff, but you actually want to pick Souls fairly often, rather than a new card. The rarity is also unaffected. Now, this ability is quite good when you kill a boss, since they have a high chance of dropping powerful rares. Not sure it’s worth taking over other godbless though. B-Tier.
• Summon Waifu: Start game with a Companion Hero Girl. I got Calarel with the test of this, pretty good. Not sure if it’s absolutely worth your Godbless, though, as you usually get one after the prologue. This implies it’s guaranteed to be a good tier waifu though, and it’ll make the prologue quite easy for you. B-Tier.
• Business Mind: Get gold from every town discovered so far. If you can somehow also roll Satellite Map I expect that combo to be hilarious, and who doesn’t like more cash? Even so, there are better picks overall. Solid B-Tier.
• Card Master: Copy first skill card played in turn, with -2 Cost. A worse version of Execution Time, as its only one card a turn, though this doesn’t require a kill and can apply to higher AP cost cards. If it applied to Merc’s, copying them, it would be amazing. But it doesn’t, so it’s B-Tier.
• trueName_bornParry4: Has a broken string reference (lol). However, it appears to increase your innate block by +6. This means if you don’t use AP, you’ll get 8-9 Block at turn end. Makes that an actually viable choice if in a sticky situation, esp with a Shield. B-Tier.
• Weakness PNT: +2 Penetration. This means when your MC moves, their melee attack will pass through 2 enemies rather than bouncing off them. Its not bad by any means, but again, it’s giving up better stuff.
• Black Knight: When you hit in melee, you also strike a small line zone through the enemy hit, in the direction of travel. It’s decent against close packed enemies. Arguably B+ for a warrior, though it doesn’t appear to apply to Jump Strike.
• Not a Human: Get 1 Life Leech, +2 STR, +1 MAG, +20 HP. All for one perk, there’s ALOT of value here, but with how general it is, it can’t be above B-Tier for me. This IS one I’d always accept as a second godbless with something else more unique, though.
• Male with Orc Face: +2 AP permanently. I have no idea why it’s called that… well +2 AP is a nice starting bonus; allowing you to hold off taking it for Levelups. But eventually you’ll catch it up, so it’s just a B-Tier for me.
• Life Harvester: +3 Minimum Damage. It’s fine, it exists. Very boring, but fine. B-Tier.
• Escape Mastery: Can use stage exits on first turn and can retreat without losses from world map fights. Can possibly get you out of some pickles if you need to get to a town, and/or have to escort a VIP through a very tough stage. More options is always nice, but a bit niche. B-Tier.

Godbless C-Tier

• Spirit of Frenzy: When you’re hit, get +10% SPD, +1 Shot until end of next turn. I mean, you don’t want to be hit. But you WILL be hit. The pure uncertain power level of this makes it C-Tier, but an okay pick for Archer. Mage SPD is too low, and they’re too squishy to benefit, really.
• Hit Intuition: Accuracy +35%. If this affected Angle it would be great, but that’s Magic Eye. As it stands, its kind of meh for a godbless pick. Just means you don’t care about dodgy enemies. C-Tier.
• Game Legacy: 10K Gold and 3 Enchanted Items at start. Considering you can get 3-6K from the prologue quests alone, and the items given are entirely random (and may not even be equippable) this isn’t very good. C-Tier.
• Weapon Master: Allows you to equip weapons not normally for your class. I’m sure it can enable some meme builds that I can’t think of, but typically you’ll want to use the weapon type of your class, as it will give you stats you want, rather than you being a Staff-wielding Warrior, etc. The main use I can think of it adding extra shots to a Mage because they can use a Shortbow. Still, a C-Tier. Feel free to correct me if there’s something I’m missing, though.
• Shelter of Goddess: If MC loses 50% HP in one turn, get Life Protection for that turn. Honestly, if that happens, you should probably just quit and reload the battle. C-Tier. If you’re doing an Ironman no-loading run, though, obviously alot better.
• Monster Hunter: Boss and Elite kills give extra crafting materials. They’re not usually all that expensive to buy. Mainly, this is a convenience perk. C-Tier.
• Slime Eater: Restore 15% of Max HP on killing enemy, once a turn. On a Warrior, you can consider this a B-Tier, since restoring 15+ HP a turn is quite substantial. Obviously combo with +HP items or other perks. Barely C-Tier on Archer, and worthless on Mage. Ancient Vampire and Blessing of Goddess Aqua also exist and are generally better.
• Goddesses First Warrior: +40 HP. “Only C-Tier to double Mage HP!?”, I hear you scream. Well, yes, because there’s just better things your godbless could be doing. The +30 HP Miracle or +20 HP Rare is a good secondary picks, but don’t waste this slot, basically. C-Tier.
• Ethereal: +15% Dodge. No one is going to dislike a flat 15% Dodge chance, but it’s a chance thing, and not worth your godbless. C-Tier.
• Slave Harem: Start with two slave girls. Slave girls are much worse than girls hired from taverns in nearly all cases. They’ll have just 1-2 abilities only, and likely start with none. Hero Girls from regular recruitment have 2-3 and better stats. You might get a super-lucky Rance level Slave, since their perks are random, but since it’s random, I’m inclined to put it at C-Tier. You will breeze through the prologue though, lol.
• Brave Careful: You get Mage’s [Skyfire Fall], but it goes off when you kill rather than at the end of movement. As that’s already a kind of meh ability, this also isn’t great, though arguably the trigger condition is better here, and it might be possible to cause chain reactions, so it gets a C-Tier.
• Farming:Your team becomes full of Gold Sellers. Get free food items from merc’s not currently in party. Food items mean party wide healing, albeit at really small quantities. Not bad, but is it worth your godbless? C-Tier.
  
• Element Realm / Revenge Link: You have 5 Phys/Mag Thorns permanently. If you can also pull King of Defence/Guardian Field, this combos nicely for a tank build, raising this to a B+. But alone, it’s not worth it and is a C-Tier, or even D-Tier for a Mage.

D-Tier

• Burst it!: Fires 1 Fireball at the end of turn at closest enemy. Seems to not actually be the Fireball card, as it’s pretty weak, only 3-5 damage or so. Inaccurate, and not very good honestly. D-Tier.
• Super Leader: +6% DMG for each Hero Companion Girl in deck. Honestly a bit bad, low bonus for a rare kind of card. D-Tier.
• Final Blow: Removes damage decay from peggle, but can’t move or draw cards after. If you bounced long enough to notice damage decay, you should probably be impressed at the bounce, lol. It seems quite gradual to me. In combo with that penalty, its a D-Tier.
• Black Heart Boss: Pay 50% less salary to mercs. It’s really not that expensive (if it is, you have too many mercs in your deck!!). D-Tier.
• Don’t Leave Me: Mercs don’t leave if you fail to pay them. Again, from what I’ve seen, salaries aren’t too high. D-Tier.
• Bond of Resonance: For each Hero girl in hand at turn start, hero has +1 ATK/MAG/Min DMG this turn. Considering you usually have 1-2 at best, and there are flat boosts that are better than this for your godbless, I can’t recommend this. D-Tier.
• Power of Sad: Mercs or girls dying gives you +1 ATK/MAG/Min DMG for the battle. Much sad, very death. Hilarious name, but not good. D-Tier.
• Transfer Magic: Randomly increase companion girl level, but lose 20% of MC HP. I see you there, making an FSN reference. Not a good perk though. It’s not like Temples are super rare to level up your girls. D-Tier.
• Treasure Map: Optionally open a Treasure Chest at Campsites. More loot, in theory, but Campsites already have many options you want, so it may not even get used often. D-Tier.
• Battle Aid: Heal a small amount of HP up to 3 times a turn when you discard. I suppose this does promote a specific synergy of the cards that discard for a bonus, but there aren’t many of them (Earthshock is all can recall). D-Tier.
• Brave Shield: Gain 1/2 Block even without AP. If you end your turn with AP left, you get your Block Value. If you have 0 AP, you get nothing. This means you still get half. This means 1 block. Bleh. Slightly better if you’re actually carrying a strong shield equip, but still D-Tier.

F-Tier

• Magic Phantom: For every AP left over at the end of turn, you get 1 free dodge of an attack. Wow, this is trash! You should never have AP left over at the end of turn where possible. Only protects you, and only once. A hugely worse version of Paladin. F-Tier.

Unknown

• Sprint Slashes: I’m not sure what activates this, as the description is unclear. It might be enemies being thrown into the air, which is niche if so. ??-Tier.
• Ancient Weapons: Not sure what activates it. Implies that excess AP at turn end gives you Arcane Ray cards, but it’s not that, nor is it using 0 AP cards or having 0 AP. Translation malfunction lol. ??-Tier.
• Good Management: Investment Industry Income +100%. I’m not sure what that is, honestly. But more cash, I guess? ??-Tier.
• Tax Right: Get Tax when entering a town for the first time. Entertaining, but I’m not sure of the impact.
• Way of Strong: If you hit, subsequent attacks that turn deal more damage (I think). This one’s got a hazy translation and effect, ??-Tier.

Hints and Tips

Starting Out

• You’ll get a random starting benefit from Aqua (pick from 3 chosen from several) on a new character. +10 HP or +1000 Souls are probably the best. HP is especially good for a Mage MC, that’s instantly a 25% HP boost. Open an Artifact chest is decent (be sure to equip it after the first fight), but may not be useful for your build. Potions gives 10x HP Potion 2 (which is 20% heal, not bad). Don’t take an enchanted item, its random and might be garbage.
• After the first battle, the answer you give to the scared spearman determines your starting Mercs. These mercs are experienced and start with both card abilities.
  Angry Choice (1) gives you 2 Spearmen, 2 Slingers.
  Cautious Choice (2) gives 2 Spearmen, 2 Slingers, and 2 Apprentice Mages.
  Sneaky Choice (3) gives 2 Guards and 2 Apprentices.
• You may think (2) is the obvious best pick since its more, but the 2 Mages aren’t very good and bloat your deck (see Merc Codex). I’d usually go with (1) personally. (3) is ok if you’re a Mage MC with no HP bonus for the two guards that might protect you (but you sacrifice power, this is the weakest set).
• After the prologue, always immediately pay to reveal all of the 4 starting merc shadows in the Tavern. There is an almost guaranteed hero companion girl among them, with a very high chance to be a unique SSR one. Not guaranteed, though. Regardless, you’ll want the manpower as this is all you get for the subsequent 2 sheriff quests.
• After the two Sheriff Quests (and access to world map) don’t immediately go after the next mainline quest; it’s pretty darn hard. Go exploring and completing local town bounties, and explore locales. Also, for the reward from the Hussar Knight, the gold is 10K, the items are 3x random (I’ve had 3 great magic items, and also 3 pieces of junk), and the craft materials are also random. Take whatever; the gold is reliable but items can be great.

Levelling

• Don’t forget to Level Up your MC. There is no reminder to do it, so check your Deck Screen every so often. You’ll be able to level from 0 => 1 after the prologue, and very likely to be able to hit Level 2 after the Sheriff’s starter Quests. 3 comes alot slower. You need souls = (New Level x 100).
• It should be fairly obvious, but Uniformity (Discipline), Command, and Action (Initiative) are the best choices for levelling, for more Mercenary Capacity, Better card Draw, and more AP respectively. All of these are going to flat out increase your combat potential. No best to worst, all A-Tier.
• If you’re set for those (or the RNG hates you and doesn’t give you one of them), I’d say Logistics > Collection >> Heal for support stats, in that order. The first means more time on quests and faster move. The second is more loot. The third is slow but constant free healing without wasting time.
• Aid and Trade are very, very low values for your precious levelup point. Just 5% more profit?! Even if you’re doing merchanting a bit, that’s trash! A 5% resurrect chance is also pretty worthless. If it were 20% for trade, and 10% for resurrect it would be worth considering. But it’s not, so avoid these, IMHO.

General Tips

• Equipping +ES items onto your MC appears to not actually raise any costs. Presumably since the MC is auto-deployed. The wording implies it might affect all the MC’s skills but it does not (which is good; that would be awful for action economy and would make most items a penalty). So give your MC a good weapon and armour.
• However, IT DOES apply to the deploy cost of Companion Hero Girls. So make sure you do not overload them with +ES equipment. Consider only +1 at most, as you don’t want to pay huge amounts of action points to play them (so this means either a great Weapon or Armour, usually, not both, unless you’re swimming in AP).
• Greenstone Pendant reduces ES cost by 1, so can be a good idea if you really want to stack an amazing armour and weapon on a girl, even if you’re wasting an equipment slot in the process.
• Artifacts are dropped from bosses, some elites, and some high-tier treasure chests (if you manage the unlock mini-game with all three rings). To equip them, go to the deck screen, click the small treasure icon in the top-right. I think you have 6 at once.
• On dungeon maps, it doesn’t cost extra supplies to not choose an adjacent space, so feel free to bounce around the map.
• Basic Hardtack supplies are added whenever you arrive at a town or village (for apparently 0 cost?). After doing a quest, don’t forget to click on the town you took the quest from after completing to restore your supplies (why this is not automatic, I don’t know).
• Food items can be used from inventory as a mass HP restore, though not much. Wine is the best with 10% all party restore.
• A Slender deck being best is common sense in any game like this; but its REALLY important here, since your Mercenaries and Companion Hero Girls ARE also in the deck.
• Hence, you should only take a card as a battle reward if you are dead sure that will help you out. 25 Souls is often more valuable, as you use these to level and to pay costs in event spaces (temples, libraries etc). Alot of cards seem kind of bad right now, but it is early access.
• Elite fights have a higher chance of Uncommon cards. Boss fights nearly always offer you a couple of Rare cards (sometimes all three are rares).
• Difference between Block and Armour? Armour never goes away, so is inherently more valuable. Block reduces with each hit, but can reach much higher values.
• If you have AP remaining or choose to not use your MC’s melee pinball, you’ll gain your Block value shown on your card at turn end. Usually, this isn’t worth it unless you’re carrying a great +Block Item, as it’s only 2-3 by default.
• Crit (CT) appears to be 0% by default (or at least very low). Can’t be sure due to hidden stat, but seems to be the case (crit is indicated by a star next to damage numbers). It can be 50-100% more damage, though, so it’s not bad.
• This isn’t Slay the Spire. Don’t feel like picking Card Upgrade at Campsites is mandatory. 20% all team healing is very valuable, and upgrades can be found at libraries too (for a Soul Cost). Upgrading low-rarity cards is also usually not all that worthwhile. Most Hero girls also have Campsite ability (which isn’t on their card, annoyingly).
• At Libraries, you’ll usually want to use them to remove cards that are poorly performing.
• At Temples, you nearly always want to pick the 150 souls option. The other options are rather detrimental to your run; but if you want, you can sacrifice a Tier 1 Apprentice Wizard or something. Temples are very essential as the only way to improve the MC’s or Girls cards, though.
• At Mercenary Site, you should either hold a contest (2 random mercs get +1 card ability), or choose to hire the merc there. He’ll always be Tier 2, and have all his abilities already unlocked, which is a decent deal for 800 gold.
• Mercs can gain their card abilities via battle experience (generally kills) as well as from the Merc event site. Most mercs have 2 abilities, one of which is unique, and one of which buffs their stats or other ability.
• Retreat from battles and failing quests IS VERY HARSH. Literally 50% of your stuff and mercenaries will be stripped! So do be careful if you’re not ready for a scrap when wondering the main world, and also be wary of stuff collection quests; you can easily fail these if you try to use Auto-collect. It’s also this reason why healing at campsites is a good option.
• Don’t hire too many mercenaries you can’t use. Even if they’re not in your deck, Mercs and Hero girls still draw a salary. On the other hand, idle mercs and girls heal a chunk after a successful quest, even if you have 0 Heal Stat, so having a handful to change out is still useful.

Companion Hero Girls Codex

Obviously I’ve not got every girl here, there are quite a lot, and I haven’t got them all.
Any Hero Girls with 2 or 1 abilities are randomly generated by the game and are not unique (and in fact, can use your portraits). Those hired from Slave Markets usually don’t have more than 1 ability, and have low stats compared to the unique “SSR” girls, and we’re only covering the SSR uniques here. But feel free to give me a screencap of girls you’ve got.

<<Anma the Laser Witch>> Was the first girl I got on my first warrior. She’s REALLY good in pair with melee, so it was a good combo. She makes a constant laser between the closest character she spawns next to, and it stays connected and firing at that character for the entire turn.
Even if that character moves, which allows cutting enemies up, literally, if played well. ALSO then fires a laser as her peggle which bounces off walls around 10 times, piercing through enemies. 11 base magic. Pretty crazy. Her extra abilities are just ok buffs, but who cares, her basic form is great. S-Tier.

<<Haalyn the Bard Girl>> Got her on my Archer test, she seems quite bad to begin with, and her text is cut off for her Final Ability. It just says “When”, lol. I mean, +2 ATK global buff would be good if she were permanent (like the Kitsune Bard mercenary), but since she only shows
up for one turn, it often means she’s staying in your hand for a while for you to have a good deployment phase. Also only fires a small arrow barrage.
It’s possible that last ability really makes up for her, as I didn’t test her for too long, let me know if you do. But weak early on. C-Tier.

<<Doreen the Punchy Dog Girl>> Seems to have high speed (it’s annoying its a hidden stat), so her melee pinball goes far and bounces alot, especially if you use her last in the turn after unlocking the “Fight” ability and give her +SPD shoes. Pretty good, if generic. A-Tier.

<<Gricoria the busty Vampire>> Fires a 45 degree Cone of Bats instead of pinballing. If placed right, can do absurd damage due to her gaining ATK per close enemy on play, so pretty good. Upgrading gains further ATK buffs from playing cards before her attack, gains HP Steal on those attacks, and if they happen to survive, will also be bleeding on turn start. Low range but whatever, just don’t play her in sub-optimal position.
Campfire ability gives all allies +1 Life Leech in next battle which is incredible for your generic mercenaries. S-Tier girl.

<<Valar the Paladin Girl>> Slow as a dead fish, but her melee range extends to the glowing circle and is ATK 12 base, and she’s basically immortal for the turn she’s out due to triple Holy Shields. If you can spawn her in a place where she can shuffle into a pile of enemies, or want a wall in front of something, she’s decent. Campfire Ability gives everyone 10% Physical Damage Reduction for the next battle, which is okay. B+ Tier.

<<Virfy, Unlimited Blade Works>> Fires blades everywhere when your melee guys are bouncing around, and also fires a massive burst of blades with her attack. Her accuracy is atrocious, but against clusters of foes she’s obscene. Very good synergy with the Warrior MC, but never bad as long as you have some melee on the team. Make sure to give her a Longbow or other +ATK item though, as her Base ATK is 2 (lol). A Tier.

<<Calarel, the 100-Arrow Elf Waifu>> Fires whenever allies hit, and whenever allies are hit, so basically a super support version of the Archer MC ability. If you have her in a turn, always prioritise cards first, of course, to buff her, then let her support away. With a good bow
equip and absolutely an angle/accuracy increase, I see her being very lethal. Obviously not a first turn play, ideally wait until she has several allies to support before playing her. A-Tier.

<<Allosa, the Fire Dancer>> Fires a Fireball that leaves napalm behind. Sadly, she’s really inaccurate, and her fireball also goes through some barriers, making it hard to aim. And there’s only one ball. If it does hit, not bad. The third tier ability gives her the Apprentice Wizard
ability, though obviously she does it with a napalm ball. This ability alone makes her more worthwhile as it can set half the stage on fire (lol).
But until you get it, she’s really weak. Oddly enough, probably better with a Mage MC as both can fling fireballs around and like playing cards.
Campfire ability just gives you 1K cash (from dancing and getting tips from your men, presumably, lol). C+ Tier, rising to B+ if upgraded fully.

<<Yoglyn, the Succubi>> Debuff central. Fires several black magic missiles. On entry, sleeps everything in a small AoE around her. If you can find a good space for her to go, that’s super good to just take some dangerous enemies out the fight for a short while. With upgrades, she also debuffs enemies with every card you play, and also makes allies give nasty debuffs on every hit. With a good turn from her, you can basically neutralise a good chunk of the enemy for a turn. Inevitably better the earlier you draw her, as a result. Her campfire ability also completely restores her and the MC’s HP to Max (via lewd handholding I’m sure, lol) which is amazing. S-Tier.

Mercenaries Codex

Again, I’ll update this as I find every single Merc, but I have a good chunk of them here so far.

1-Cost

I think the game refers to these as Militia in some cases.

• Spearman: Generic, but useful. When the MC (or Hero Girl) starts their pinball move nearby, he’ll also go bouncing off in a similar (but random) direction. He can still do a regular attack afterwards. Fast and sometimes causes amazing damage. Easily the best 1-cost mercenary. B+
• Guard (Shieldman): He’s really slow; but if you get both of his abilities, he gets 2 free block and also gives the closest ally 2 block on play and at turn start. Decent. C+
• Slinger (Stone Thrower): Whenever a ranged ally fires nearby, he also fires in exactly the same direction, and can still fire himself afterwards. Fires 3 stones. Pretty good if you have many ranged allies on the field, average accuracy, and decent damage. B-
• Wizard Apprentice: Starting Wizard. A bit crap. Fires 3 magic missiles at allies position when they stop after a melee pinball. Since you have little control over this (you usually want max-power melee dash) it’s not very controllable. But, if you have lots of controlled move cards, he can be okay then. Can still fire normally as well. Probably the worst 1-cost Merc, though. D+

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2-Cost

• Shortbowman: Costs 2. Supports any ally melee hits with good accuracy. Fires 3-4 shots. Very good, honestly. A-
• Longbowman: Costs 2. Counter-shoots whenever enemies fire shots. Can be very useful if there’s a lot of ranged enemies, but his normal attack is poor. C+
• Rogue (Daggerman): Costs 2. In my opinion, one of the best mercs. Whenever enemies move, he fires constantly at them. Also fires lots of times, triggering lots of support fire. A+
• Warhammer: Costs 2. Great damage on his melee, and will smash armoured enemies he hits. Sadly he doesn’t do any support. B
• Axe Warrior: Costs 2. Deals good damage with a high crit chance, good speed. No frills, but decent enough. B
• Swordmaster: Costs 2. Swings his sword in a whirlwind attack whenever an ally hits anything in his sight. Park him next to a tough enemy as your first action, and then attack everything else. Interesting and pretty good. B+
• Sentinel (Towershield): Costs 2. A wall. Very slow, low damage, but +2 free guard every turn. B-
• Guardian: Costs 2. Sits with his 2 thorns and slashes close enemies. I actually like him more than Sentinel. B
• Phalanx (Spear Inf): Costs 2. Sort of a mid-point between a shielder and attacker, but not actually great at either. Good ATK value, though rarely gets to use it well. C
• Bullet Mage: Costs 2. He attacks in a spread shot of 5 shots. He gets more MAG if he goes last in the round. Decent. B+
• Explosion Mage: Costs 2. Causes a multi-shot explosion on impact and does it again at stopping allies. One of the better mages, for sure. A
• Support Mage: Costs 2. At end of Turn, attack a random enemy. Also has +10 Accuracy; and fires like a mortar in a vertical arc, exploding at the end with an AoE. Will basically always do damage, so the best tier-2 mage by quite a margin. A+
• Blood Warlock: Costs 2. Applies a good debuff and decent damage. Pretty good. B+
• Curse Sorcerer: Costs 2. Not as good as Blood Warlock, but sets up for your others to attack. Decent. B
• Illusionist: Costs 2. Fires a Cone of Butterflies which have 50% chance to sleep enemy. His range is a bit short, no damage, but the chance to flat out disable a pile of enemies makes him decent. Also gives a small dodge bonus to the entire army. B

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3-Cost

• Lava Golem: Creates a Lava Zone every turn, and also applies hard counterattacks. 9 Base Defence. Very slow, but can do a lot if placed in a big swarm. B
• Knight: aka. Spearman+, he charges in the direction of any ally making a pinball move. Fast and powerful, so great. Not stated on his card, but he also ALWAYS pierces through enemies rather than bouncing off them. Tough as well. A+
• Elf Longbow: Shoots in ally move direction whenever they start a melee attack nearby. Has high ATK (13) but low shot count and likely to miss. Not sure if worth the 3-cost. C
• Elf Arcane Archer (Magicbow): When ally touches her when zooming past on a melee, fire an arrow in its movement direction. 15 ATK, but very niche and not likely to hit much. Dubious. D
• Foxgirl Bard: +1 ATK, +10% SPD, +1 ACU to all allies when on field. Fires a music note that has a big AoE explosion! Very good support kitsune! A

I will also eventually look at cards, maybe later.