There are 3 main ways to train heroes in Returners. The most common way is to assign heroes to the Adventure team, complete stages, and gain exp. Another method is to send off non-assigned heroes to Explorations to gain exp, and the last one is to use exp books to gain exp instantly.

A maxed out hero can transcend to the next stage. A transcended hero becomes much stronger since they can upgrade skills to more advanced levels and access more rune slots. Strengthening your heroes is, therefore, one of the core elements in Returners along with acquiring and enhancing gear.

In order to more effectively strengthen your heroes, there are some elements you need to be aware of. An example would be the initial stat decrease of characters that have just been transcended; they are somewhat weaker than before because of this but can become much stronger.

◆ Heroes get a boost for 24 hours after being summoned! Use the 2x battle exp

Heroes receive double exp for 24 hours right after being summoned. Thus, it is important to run as many Adventure stages as possible right after summoning heroes.

The extra battle exp countdown begins right after a hero is summoned, so don’t summon more heroes than can fit on your adventure team; that would waste their double exp boost. Having a team of newly-summoned heroes can help them all level up quickly, but be aware that their combat power will likely be considerably low compared to your usual team.

◆ Use energy during the event time

One of the main difficulties of leveling heroes is the lack of energy. At first, your energy piles up since you level up quickly, so you gain extra energy faster than you can spend it. However, your own leveling rate slows down as you start to get around rank 30 to 40, at which point you’ll start using up all your energy multiple times before reaching the next rank.

This lack of energy means fewer stage runs and slower hero leveling. So once you hit this phase, you really need to be as efficient as possible with what little energy you have.

That is where event time comes in. Although it can vary depending on what type of event is happening at the time, event time provides boosts to gold earned, hero exp, and rank exp when you complete Adventure stages. This allows you to level up heroes much further.

◆ Non-assigned heroes should still be going to Exploration whenever possible

Normally, there are two teams: Adventure/Raid and League/Tournament, each one assigned with 5 heroes each. It is common to have a total of 8 to 10 heroes in the beginning even with duplicate heroes in both teams.

Because of that, it is also common to have non-assigned heroes sitting in the back doing nothing. This is why you need to use and train these heroes as much as possible by sending them off to Exploration.

It is generally recommended to raise 2 to 3 heroes of each class in Returners. Some heroes may be less efficient than sub-heroes at some stages, and there are other modes such as Specter Chase or Challenge Dungeon which require specific conditions to enter. It can become quite difficult to actually do everything if you only have a small number of heroes, no matter how strong they might be.

This won’t be as much of a problem if you keep your reserve heroes leveling up through Exploration. Since it doesn’t require a whole lot of direct management, it’s a fairly simple way to level up your heroes; all you need to do is choose a mission and then check the results later.

Note that each hero’s combat strength is also crucial to success. The monsters have different combat strength stats; high tier monsters which require a number of heroes to take down have high combat strength and are more difficult to defeat. If you fail an Exploration, then you get no rewards, so make sure to equip your reserve heroes with the proper gear as well.

◆ When do you need to transcend a hero?

Transcendence allows heroes to upgrade to the next rank. When heroes transcend, the limits on their skill levels, combat strength, and rune slots are extended, so they can become much more powerful than before.

Transcendence can be done when a hero reaches the maximum level of its current grade. It generally requires a significant amount of golds and time, and these costs increase as the hero levels up; 6-star transcendence takes a few days to be complete.

A hero who is in the process of transcending cannot earn additional exp since they’re already at max level. So avoid running Adventure stages with those heroes, and replace them with heroes who can still earn exp.

If the wait time feels too long and tedious for you, you can use Relics to transcend the hero immediately. However, Relics can only be obtained as special rewards by completing missions. Even though they can save a lot of time, they are scarcely earned, and since the cost increases dramatically at higher transcendence levels, it’s usually best to save your Relics.

Unless you are in a rush, it is better to train lower-lever heroes while the others are transcending. If you do want to use your Relics, however, it would be best to use them for popular heroes such as King Arthur, Jumong, Taejo, and Seiren who are consistently used even in the mid-late phase of the game.

If you are short on Relics, just use your gold for transcendence and wait for a bit. The required number of Relics decreases as the time passes by, so you can use them to cut off the last bit of wait time.

◆ Exp books are most efficient when used right after transcendence

The easiest way to level up heroes is exp books, which are obtained through various means including daily quests and Exploration; they allow you to instantly give your heroes experience.

Exp book can also be hard to come by, however, so they should be used at the right time. To maximize the effects of exp books, use them on a hero who just transcended. When a hero finishes its transcendence, stats are considerably decreased compared to the maximum level of the last grade, but they can be restored when the hero gets past level 10. So use your exp books on transcended heroes so that they don’t suffer from their decrease in combat strength.

This is the ideal way to increase exp since later levels require much more exp that the books don’t provide efficiently. If you really want, you could just level up transcended heroes by completing stages and getting Exploration rewards, since both modes are directly impacted by your heroes’ lowered combat strength, it can be a bit more of a hassle.

You can also use exp books on a hero who is about to transcend, or when you want to replace a hero with a better one who just isn’t as high a level yet.