How do I get in to the top 500 for Hero Dual Survival? This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions I get in terms of what tips and tricks to use. Placing in the top 500 for Hero Dual Survival will allow you to get into Hero Dual Glory which is where you win medals to purchase Troop Chips. Troop chips are unique in that they cannot even be purchased in the Mall. The only way to win them is by placing well in Arena Hero Duel Survival and making it into Hero Duel Glory. So what are the best tactics for this difficult week long event? I will share some of the secrets I use for doing well and I will even give 2 hero lineup recommendations for defense.
The most important thing to remember is that this is a week long event. Doing well for 1 day usually is not going to suffice. It’s also important to understand that it is the final rankings that determine your placement not just placements throughout the week. The event lasts from after Sunday rest until the next Sunday reset. Depending on the strength of your heroes and how well you are able to use them together will determine how you need to be ranked on any given day of the week. My recommendation is to try to stay as close to rank 500 as possible based on your heroes strength and your skill at attacking. When you win a battle your points go up, and when you lose a battle your points go down. This is why its important to have a strong defense. You can also gain or lose rank if other players points change even if you haven’t won or lost a battle.
One of the biggest tips I can give you is to not worry too much about the might of your heroes. Levelling your heroes up is absolutely critical because having powerful heroes can make things easier for you. However, how those heroes work together using their rage skills is going to drastically change how the battle goes more so then the overall might of your heroes. Which leads me to my first recommendation for a hero lineup. Some of these heroes are difficult to obtain easily so not many players have them at a very high level. However even at lower levels this can be a very effective lineup. The lineup is:
Phoenix (or McCarty), Mantis, Ephraim, Lady M, Fox.
The main reason for this lineup is because of the way the skills of the heroes work together, not their overall strength. So the main skills we are looking at for these heroes is that Phoenix has a strong attack and causes burning damage. (Damage over time) Mantis steals rage from your enemies which prevents them from using their rage skills, Ephraim does damage to all enemies and has a chance to stun for 2 rounds. Lady M is not only a healer who prevents your heroes from taking debuffs (for 2 round after her rage skill is used) but she also prevents one of the enemies from gaining rage for 4 rounds which can be a big help. Fox is a great healer that also removes debuffs. This is why this is such a strong lineup. I also plan on covering more about each hero, their specific skills and which heroes they work well together with so make sure to bookmark this page and subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay up to date on new content as it comes out!
This also brings up another important tip for setting your hero lineups. The order (from left to right) that you place your heroes can make a big difference especially for defense. Because the battle is determined by the clearing of tiles, the most common hero to get hit with tiles is going to be in the middle position. Use this to your advantage. Your strongest hero, and the hero who whose rage skill you want to use most should be placed in the middle or to the right or left of the middle hero. Weaker heroes that you need to keep alive longer or that don’t have to use their skills often should go on the outside corners. There are some heroes whose skills affect “adjacent” heroes so it is important to put them in middle positions whenever possible to maximize the affect of their skills. Zephyr is a good example of this as his skill allows him and “adjacent” heroes to employ a counterattack. Adjacent means to the left and right, counterattack means that for damage taken a percentage of damage is returned to the person causing the damage. So if he is on a corner only 1 other hero will benefit from his skills. So make sure your heroes are placed correctly in your lineup to maximize the benefit of their skills.
Always read the heroes skills to make sure that they are placed in optimal positions especially if their skill includes wording such as ‘affects adjacent heroes’. The same goes for some heroes’ attacks. They may target individual enemies, all enemies, or 1 enemy and damage to adjacent enemies. In battle you can always tap on an enemy to target that enemy specifically and you can always switch it between each rage skill you use for your heroes. So make sure you are targeting enemies effectively!
Because of how critical using special skills can be (and in which order), I’ll cover this in a separate post but it is important to note now that using the auto-battle feature for the match 3 gameplay is rarely the most effective method of attacking. However for battles in which you are overpowered compared to the enemy this can be a quick way to get through a battle you know you are going to win. During auto-battle you may still select enemies to target directly and switch as often as you like but if your timing isn’t perfect then the rage skill might be used before you have time to adjust your target. This is one of the main reason I highly recommend not using auto-battle unless you are confident you will not lose.
Now that you have the basics for understanding potential lineups and how to use them effectively with an example line-up, I will now go into the week long tactics on how to play Arena, Hero-Duel Survival for the best odds of placing in the top 500 by the end of the week.
The most important thing to remember is that your rank at the end of the week is the only rank that matters. So whatever you are ranked when the event ends will determine your overall rank for the week. For this reason no matter what tactic you employ throughout the week, making sure you are in the top 500 of the last day, sometimes even the last hour of the event, is super critical. To place consistenetly, (unless you are much stronger than most of your competition) you will have to check back in to the event throughtout the last day and double check your rank within the last hour of the event to ensure you are within the top 500. If you do this, you will have the greatest chance for succcess.
During the week, the tactic I employ to give myself the greatest chance for success is to use only my free daily attempts and occasionally a ticket or two to make sure that I am as close to a 500 rank as possible. I do not concern myself with spending multiple attempt tickets to get as low of a rank as possible because this usually just puts you into a tougher bracket of opponents without any real benefit. I call certain areas of ranking “pockets”. Every player will fit into a different pocket comfortably. Some players have no trouble staying between 800-1200 rank, while others will be comfortable in the 300-400 rank. Wherever your pocket is you will only learn by playing and trying to find a comfortable rank for you that doesn’t require much more than your 3 free attempts to stay within. For the week stay within your pocket. The last few days are good days to do 1 or 2 extra attempts to try to get closer to, or below, rank 500. Then on Sunday before reset (before the event ends) make sure you have enough attempt tickets, and do everything you can to get into the top 500. If you can do this then you will have the greatest chance at remaining in the top 500.
The last tip is that your offensive and defensive lineups do not have to be the same! In many cases they should be different. This will allow you to focus on heroes for attacking that work well together that you can customize to your opponents lineup. Since you have less control over what happen during defense it is best to have a lineup that works well for that such as the one I previously mentioned. An excellent lineup for attacking that I use quite regularly is:
Phoenix, Fox, Atropos, Meyers, Ulrik.
It is worth mentioning that you can see in this attacking lineup there is 1 of each color type of hero. In this way all the tiles do damage. This is less important in defense lineups because they do not rely on tiles for their damage or their skills to be used. There are situations where you want to ‘stack’ multiple colors (same type of heroes) in the same lineup but I won’t go into that in this article.
For more information on why this is such a powerful lineup you can check out my YouTube video on this particular lineup!
Just remember it is a week long event with stiff competition. You will have to adjust your offense and defense to suit your needs based on what you are personally seeing in arena. Do not be afraid to experiment with different line-ups and different heroes to see not only how well they work together but how well they do against other peoples offenses and defenses. Constantly work on your heroes to get them to higher levels and make them stronger. It will take time and effort but with a consistent plan and timing you will eventually be able to get into the top 500 in arena! I wish you luck!
