In Returners, you will be able to summon all heroes eventually if you keep on playing the game. However, this does not mean that you can summon any heroes that you want with no restrictions. In order to summon a hero, you have to reach a certain tier in the League, get a certain amount of Adventure Stars, complete an Achievement, or collect certain items.

It takes some time to meet these requirements, so your hero choice will be very limited in early game. It is possible to summon heroes without meeting the requirements - except for the heroes that you have to be in Diamond tier to get - but it is not recommended to spend Bluestones on heroes because they’re better spent on gear.

Who are the heroes that you can get in the early game and will help you with progression, and what are their traits? Here is a list of early heroes that will help you advance through the game.

■ Skills are the key: Knowing what Heroes should you be leveling up

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether a hero is good or not. The hero’s skillset, the sum of the hero’s stats, the stats that the hero gains as he/she levels up, their synergy with other heroes, and preferred targets; these are all factors that should be taken into account.

However, it can be hard for a new player to understand all these factors and choose a hero, and opinions may be different for each player. So during the early game, it is the best to choose heroes based on their skills.

Even with heroes in the same class, they can be quite different. For example, King Arthur is a tank with high defense that interrupts enemy movement with knockup and stun abilities. In contrast, Joan of Arc is a tank that buffs allies; she has lower defensive abilities compared to other tank heroes, but can boost her allies’ attack and defense.

In PvP, tanks that have CC skills or can taunt enemies are usually preferred. In Adventure, tanks with high survivability and supports that can heal allies are frequently used. Lastly, in Raids, heroes that are capable of dealing burst damage and supports that can buff DPS heroes are best.

■ Tanks: King Arthur is a good tank in almost every area

The tanks that can be summoned early game are Arthur, Rollo, David and Goliath, and Joan of Arc. Among them, Arthur and Joan of Arc can be good main tanks.

Arthur is a tank with skills that knockup enemies. Arthur can interrupt enemy movements with his attacks, and his Ultimate will increase his HP and Defense while taunting nearby enemies.

Because of his skill mechanics, Arthur is a good hero in the League, Arena, and Adventure. Arthur can interrupt keep enemies occupied and protect allies at the same time. However, one of his weaknesses is that his base attack is very low. It is highly recommended to use high DPS characters when using Arthur as a tank.

Joan of Arc is almost only used in raids during the early game. Joan of Arc can buff allies’ attack abilities with her Ultimate. She is not used in the League in Diamond or below tiers, so during early game you should level her up with Exploration.

■ Fighters: Hong Gil-dong for CC, Sun Wukong for PHY defense debuff, and Hercules for burst damage

Hong Gil-dong is acquirable during the tutorial, and Hercules and Sun Wukong are given to you via attendance rewards.

Hong Gil-dong is a Fighter that can stun and knockup with his normal skills and can pull enemies with his ultimate skill. He is a good hero in both PvE and PvP. Although he is in the Fighter class, his ultimate deals magic damage. It is important that Hong Gil-dong use his skills as many times as possible, so his builds should prioritize cooldown reduction.

It takes about a month to get Sun Wukong from attendance rewards, but she is a must-have hero. Sun Wukong can summon clones to attack with her, and her Nimbus skill can decrease enemies’ melee defense, helping other heroes to deal more damage. This skill is especially helpful in Raids where PHY DPS heroes like Jumong, Taejo, and Hercules are frequently used.

Hercules is the Fighter hero with the greatest potential. His damage is more based on basic attacks than skills because he can deal burst damage with the critical hit, critical damage, movement speed, and resistance buff from his ultimate skill. Hercules should go for the Black Dragon Gear set for more damage. It might take some time to get the right gear for him, but once he has the gear he will be one of the best Fighters. It is important to keep on playing and leveling him up.

Other Fighter heroes that are available early game are Theseus and Kumiho. Theseus can Stun with both of his normal skills, so he is used more in the League or in the Arena rather than in Adventure. Kumiho is not used often after her skill changed to a magic defense debuff, so you should level her up through Exploration.

■ Rangers: the main DPSs of the team

Rangers have been the main DPS heroes in Returners. The Rangers that are available early game are Robyn Hood, William Tell, Hartmann, Nobunaga, and Kunoichi; of them, Robyn Hood and Kunoichi are the best heroes to use.

Robyn Hood can deal burst damage to a single enemy, inflict a movement speed debuff on enemies, and push away nearby enemies. Her skill mechanics are great, but her skill cooldowns are long and she has low survivability against a team that has a tank that targets Rangers.

Kunoichi is obtainable via the new player attendance rewards. She has powerful AoE skills, and she can quickly eliminate an enemy Ranger as her preferred target is Rangers. This makes her a great hero in Adventure, League, and Arena. However, Kunoichi approaches the target when she uses Shadow Walk, which might be a dangerous move during raids. Kunoichi will be one of the best Rangers until you get Taejo or Jumong.

William Tell can ignore defense, but his preferred target is tank/fighters so he cannot deal high damage to the enemy team unless he has some mid to end game gear. Hartmann is an AoE Ranger, but it is hard to deal significant damage with him in the endgame. Lastly, Nobunaga is not used often because he has low survivability and cannot deal burst damage, even though he has a skill that dashes towards enemies.

■ Mage: Powerful CC attacks and AoE

Mage heroes are the main DPS characters alongside Rangers. There are two types of damage in Returners: physical and magic, so Rangers should be used for physical damage and Mages should be used for magic damage. Also, most Mage heroes have crowd control skills.

Mages that are obtainable in the early game are Little Red, Yuki Onna, Dracula, Cheoyong, and Aladdin; of these, the recommended Mages are Little Red and Dracula.

Little Red is a single target Mage that has powerful stun and captivation skills. Her first skill, Eat This, has a short cooldown and can stun enemies. If you can reduce the cooldown, you can continuously stun enemies. However, the fact that Little Red is a single target Mage and her ultimate has a long animation can reduce the overall damage output.

Dracula is a Mage that has high survivability. Dracula can drain HP, deal some damage to enemies, and has a skill that ignores the enemy’s defense. Dracula can also decrease the enemies’ magic defense and help other Mage and Support heroes deal more damage. However, his skills tend to have long cooldowns, so it is important that he keeps draining HP and survives. Dracula himself cannot deal large damage, so you should have another Mage in your team.

Yuki Onna can deal more damage than Little Red can with her AoE attacks, but her ultimate might be dangerous as she dashes towards the enemies. Cheoyong is not used much as he can only inflict Terror, which is not a good CC, and cannot deal much damage either.

■ Supports: Heals and Buffs for allies

Support heroes have different functions depending on their skills. Siren and Panacea are healers, Cassandra has cooldown reduction abilities, and Zhuge Liang and Cleopatra buff allies while harassing enemies.

There aren’t many Support heroes that can be summoned early game; the popular Support heroes are available late game. Support heroes that are available early game include Maid Victoria, Panacea, Han Seok-bong, Cassandra, and Siren. Among these heroes, everyone except for Maid Victoria is used fairly often.

Panacea is given to you during the tutorial, and will be a good Support during the early game. Panacea has two healing skills and a buff skill, and is especially powerful in Adventure stages. However, if you have Siren there is no benefit to using Panacea.

Siren is also a hero that focuses on healing. Unlike Panacea’s AoE heal ult, Siren’s ultimate will heal all allies. One of her normal skills deals damage and also silences enemies, so she is used in both PvP and PvE. However, in order to summon Siren with Gold you have to have 100 wins in the League.

Cassandra is a hero specialized for Raid. If you use her with Jumong or Taejo, your team’s DPS will greatly increase. She is not used much in other content, but is an S tier hero in Raid. Damage is not important for Cassandra, but cooldown reduction is essential.

Han Seok-bong is a buff hero similar to Cassandra, and Maid Victoria is not used during early game.

■ Heroes that worth spending Bluestones

You will eventually be able to summon all heroes with Gold, but it takes some time to meet the requirements for some heroes and there are some heroes that are worth spending Bluestones on.

The heroes that you should consider summoning with Bluestones are Jumong, Taejo, Siren, Cassandra, Alexander, and Alice.

Jumong is a Ranger that has the highest damage output. His ultimate skill will buff his damage, range, and attack speed, greatly increasing his overall DPS. Also, Jumong’s evasion/attack skill gives a nice boost to his survivability. If you have Cassandra in your team then Jumong’s DPS will increase even more.

Taejo is specialized in eliminating enemy Supports. He has lower DPS than Jumong, but he can deal 1.5 times more damage to Supports and has a skill that ignores defense. He is frequently used in the late game League. He is one of the most-selected hero near the late game phase, so summoning him with Bluestones and leveling him up would be a good choice.

Alexander is a powerful hero in the League and in the Arena, just like Arthur. Alexander can quickly taunt enemies with his normal skill, dash towards the enemies to stun them, and buff his allies’ attack speed. If you use him with Siren and powerful DPS heroes like Jumong, Taejo, or Dr. Jekyll, you can maximize your DPS while nullifying enemy attacks.

Alice is a powerful AoE mage that can nullify an enemy with her transformation skill as well. She is not used very much towards the late game because Nikola Tesla and Rasputina are more popular choices. However, Rasputina is not viable until she is equipped with some nice gear and Dr. Jekyll and Nikola Tesla are not available until you join Diamond tier in the League; even if you have 3,000 Bluestones, you cannot purchase them until that point. Thus, Alice will be a great choice if you need a powerful Mage before you get those two.

Siren and Cassandra are also worth spending some Bluestones, but since it’s not that hard to meet their requirements, it’s recommended that you wait till you can buy them with gold. You also don’t have a dire need for them early on, since Panacea can take Siren’s place for a while and Cassandra needs to be paired with more late-game heroes in raids to really shine.