A Character's strength comes from several separate tracks rather than one gacha rarity roll. Understanding how they interact — and which modes restrict who you can squad together — saves a lot of wasted material early on.
The power tracks
Level raises a Character's core stats and is the most straightforward track — standard XP farming and campaign clears cover it.
Base Rarity is the tier a Character is first recruited at (Common through Legendary, occasionally Epic or higher for certain named heroes) — it's a fixed fact about that specific Character, not something you choose.
Ascension is the separate system that lets every Character climb from their Base Rarity all the way up to Mythic, using shards specific to that Character plus, at the Legendary step, Alliance-wide Legendary orbs. Each Ascension step is a real power jump — roughly a 20% ability-power increase per rarity tier.
| Track | What it raises | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Level | Core stats (Health, Damage, etc.) | XP from battles and campaign clears |
| Ascension | Rarity tier (Common → Mythic), unlocks higher Rank caps | Character-specific shards + Alliance Legendary/Mythic orbs at the top tiers |
| Rank | Further Health/Armour/Damage scaling on top of a Character's current Rarity (Stone → Iron → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Diamond → Adamantine, 21 sub-steps in all) | Rank-up material, capped by current Rarity, not by that Character's starting Base Rarity — a Common-base Character who fully Ascends to Mythic can reach Adamantine the same as any Legendary |
| Gear / Equipment | Combat stat bonuses per slot | Battle rewards and dedicated gear content |
A note on Legendary Character Events
A specific set of named Characters — mostly faction leaders and named heroes — are only available through time-limited Legendary Character Events, using event-specific shards rather than the normal shard sources. Missing one of these events generally means waiting for its rerun rather than farming the Character normally.
Everyone else, including most Epic and Rare Characters, is earned through ordinary campaign/shard-source grinding and the Requisition Drops gacha — there's no permanent lockout.
Squad building: what each mode actually allows
This is the single most common beginner mistake — building a squad that's illegal for the mode you want to use it in. The restriction depends entirely on the mode:
- Arena and Tournament Arena — any Faction, any Alliance, mixed freely. Build purely on power here.
- Onslaught and Salvage Run — every Character must share an Alliance (Imperial, Xenos or Chaos), but Factions inside that Alliance can mix freely.
- Campaign missions (Indomitus Campaign, Fall of Cadia, etc.) — generally locked to a single Faction, sometimes loosened to a shared Alliance.
- Guild Raid — no Alliance restriction, but there IS a per-boss Faction lock-out (you cannot deploy a Character from a boss's own Faction) — see the endgame guide's boss table. Otherwise it's scored on sustained damage, so bring your hardest hitters that are clean of that boss's lock-out.
- Faction War specifically rewards fielding characters from Factions you've invested in — extra points for having 3-4 Characters from one Faction, more for having all of them.
Investment order
Spreading material thin across many half-built Characters is the most common way to stall out. A tighter approach clears more content, faster.
- Pick one Alliance to build your first real squad around — Onslaught/Salvage Run's shared-Alliance rule makes this the most flexible early target (see Best Teams).
- Ascend and rank up your planned 5 before starting a second squad; a fully-built Epic squad usually outperforms five different half-built Legendaries.
- Only branch into a second Alliance or a single-Faction Campaign squad once your first core can comfortably clear its content.
- Keep an eye on the tier list for which of your unlocked Characters are worth prioritizing first within that squad.