AFK Journey has a lot of heroes, so once again, it’s time for another tier list. In this tier list, we’ll be going over all Epic and Elite heroes in AFK Journey, sorting them by who’s great and who’s bleh.
A Foreword
A short foreword before we begin:
- Heroes are assigned a letter grade based on their overall performance. The letter grades go from D to S, with S as the best and D as the worst.
- S-tier heroes are amazing. They boast superb performance and are almost always must-includes in a team.
- A-tier heroes are great. With solid kits, stats, and good (but not exceptional) performance, A-tiers are great picks if you don’t have the cream of the crop.
- B-tier heroes are okay. They’re not terribly bad, but there’s clear room for improvement in their kits.
- C-tier heroes are eh. There’s a lot they could do better. Replace ASAP.
- D-tier heroes are bleh. Best to avoid these entirely.
- If a hero shines in the early or late game or in specific game modes like Dream Realm, I’ll make a note of it in their pros and cons.
Finally, this AFK Journey tier list is subjective – it’s based off my own experience playing the game, and your own mileage will likely vary.
Now, on to the tier list!
Hero Tier List
| S | Odie, Hewynn, Rowan, Reinier, Vala, Smokey & Meerky, Thoran, Koko |
| A | Cecia, Lyca, Brutus, Igor, Antandra, Scarlita, Dionel, Temesia, Shakir, Eironn, Granny Dahnie, Bryon, Florabelle, Korin, Damian, Silvina |
| B | Lucius, Viperian, Arden, Parisa, Seth, Berial, Cassadee, Rhys, Carolina, Marilee, Kruger, Niru |
| C | Valen, Mirael, Walker, Satrana, Kafra |
| D | Fay, Lumont, Atalanta, Salazer |
S-Tier
Odie
A-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Mauler
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Excellent single-target DPS hero that shines in all game modes. Particularly powerful in Dream Realm due to his kit rewarding focus on one big target.
- Provides continuous DoTs that never fade and can ramp up the damage of those DoTs on his own.
- Free energy from killing poisoned enemies.
- Instant death effect from poison with enough investment.
Cons:
- Wholly single-target and offers nothing in the AOE department. In addition, Odie wants to focus down a single enemy with his poison, becoming less effective if he’s forced to attack multiple targets.
- Wants heavy investment to unlock his powerful passives.
Odie is a surprisingly effective A-level hero. If you read my AFK Journey beginner’s guide, I said there that rarity isn’t an instant indicator of quality, and Odie is a good example of that.
Normally, I don’t like DoT characters. I think they’re too slow for games like AFK Journey. Odie is a happy exception as his kit ensures that he not only remains relevant throughout a fight, but also spearhead the assault if needed. Corrosive Dart is an enduring DoT that also gives Odie free energy when poisoned foes die while Venom Surge allows Odie to amplify existing poison.
Odie’s Hero Focus concentrates on his attack speed, giving him faster poison application. The star of the show, though, is his Heart Crusher, which instantly kills foes that fall below a certain threshold – and said threshold is based on the damage based on his dots.
Hewynn
S-level
Role: Support
Faction: Wilder
Magic Damage
Pros:
- All she really does is heal, but she is very, very good at it.
- Tranquility makes her immune to CC for the first 6 seconds of a fight.
Cons:
- Can buff but requires heavy investment.
- Ultimate is not an emergency heal.
All Hewynn really does is heal, and she is very good at it. Healing Rain provides a continuous healing effect to all allies for its duration, Healing Wave is a decent, automatic emergency heal, Revitalize grants even more healing…you get the picture. Hewynn can also buff, but she’ll need heavy investment into rarity tiers, and let’s face it: she’s mainly here to keep your guys alive.
Rowan
S-level
Role: Support
Faction: Lightbearer
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Provides energy and burst heals.
Cons:
- Burst heal is unreliable as it’s position-based.
Sometimes it’s better to have others work for you, and that’s Rowan’s stance. Rowan is a very potent support who serves as a battery for his team via his Fatal Greed ultimate that grants his allies extra energy. His Smart Stall also provides large but unpredictable burst heals as it’s based on positioning, but really, it’s his energy generation capabilities that make Rowan so valuable.
Reinier
S-level
Role: Support
Faction: Hypogean
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Symmetry gimmick is easy to set up and provides excellent disruption.
- Very powerful off the bat, only requiring level investment to maximize his disruption skills.
- Golden Ratio grants energy and buffs to allies.
Cons:
- Dynamic Balance only affects one ally; as good as Reinier is, you’ll still want a dedicated healer.
Reinier is a support hero who relies greatly on the concept of symmetry. Dynamic Balance is his most potent skill as it immediately swaps the position of a symmetrical ally and enemy at the start of a battle.
This has a myriad of applications, like teleporting a disruptive or self-healing/shielding tank or warrior like Brutus into the enemy’s backline while pulling one of their mages or supports deep into your ranks. Thankfully, Reinier takes good care of his friends, as the teleported ally heals whenever the teleported foe takes damage – providing an astounding amount of healing ensuring that they stay alive.
Mutual Reflection, Reinier’s ultimate,is another powerful skill that always seals away an enemy (and Reinier himself, in some circumstances) for 10 seconds; depending on how many allies there are versus the number of enemies, this skill will work differently. The important thing to keep in mind is that it’s essentially a 10 second stun, and as Reinier’s Dynamic Balance kicks off as soon as the battle starts, losing him doesn’t affect your performance too much.
Finally, Golden Ratio deals damage, though the main reason you want Reinier to use it is that it gives him energy to cast Mutual Reflection faster. At level 4, this skill also buffs allies and grants them energy. Nifty.
For how powerful Reinier’s abilities are, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you need multiple copies of him. You’ll be glad to know that that’s not the case – none of his extra skills nor exclusive weapon enhance his capabilities (though his exclusive weapon does attach a nasty incoming damage penalty to the foe displaced by Dynamic Balance) – meaning that, unlike other Celestial or Hypogean heroes, raising him up isn’t as big of an issue as he just wants levels!
Vala
S-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Mode switching allows her to engage foes on her own terms.
- Quickly generates energy thanks to her mark skill.
- Auto-battle AI is smart with regards to switching her modes – it will only switch to Sword mode for the finishing below when her target is below 50% HP.
Cons:
- Staying in Skyblaster mode is easily countered by heroes that exploit positioning, such as Berial or Silvina.
Vala is one of those characters that have two distinct modes; in her case, it’s Sword (melee) and Skyblaster (ranged) mode. Each mode has a distinct use: Skyblaster mode is for weakening foes (and gains a damage bonus to foes above a certain HP threshold when upgraded) while Sword mode deals true damage to finish off the job.
And thanks to Notice Beforehand, Vala vastly amplifies her energy gain, giving her leeway to switch between modes more often. Despite sounding mechanically complex, using Vala is easy (given a little practice) and her adaptability allows her to engage foes on her own terms, making her a superb character.
As Vala is reliant on switching between her “safe” ranged mode and “dangerous” melee mode, heroes that exploit bad positioning can disrupt Skyblaster mode – notable foes to look out for are Berial, who capitalizes on isolated heroes and Silvina who can not only rush to attack Vala but also has a faction advantage against her!
Smokey & Meerky
S-level
Role: Support
Faction: Mauler
Magic Damage
Pros:
- All in one healer and buffer who does an excellent job in both fields.
Cons:
- Need protection to rank up Special Aroma’s bonuses.
- Small AOE on their support, greatly restricting their team-building options.
Smokey & Meerky are one of the best supports in AFK Journey in that they bring a fantastic amount of both heals and buffs via Special Aroma. Unlike other units, Smokey & Meerky don’t move during a battle, instead focusing entirely on channeling their healing and buffing aura. Allies within the aura continuously recover HP and gain ATK. Actively using Special Aroma increases its potency by ranking it up; the first upgrade boosts the AOE of the aroma by 1 tile, while the second upgrade grants a Haste buff.
The main issue with Smokey & Meerky is their inability to move. This vastly restricts their team options and will require careful positioning to maximize outside of ranged or mage teams.
Thoran
S-level
Role: Tank
Faction: Graveborn
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Sticky and hard to get rid of thanks to his resurrection.
- Lots of self-sustain.
- Damage amplification debuffs and decent multipliers lead to Thoran dealing surprising amounts of damage.
Cons:
- Not a “hard” tank; no defensive capabilities beyond resurrection and life drain.
- Resurrection counts as Thoran being dead while activating, meaning that Thoran will no longer block enemies and thus requires another frontliner to manage aggro.
Thoran is only nominally a tank; it’s better to think of him as a durable warrior. His resurrection ensures that he’s hard to get rid of, Soul Plunder gives him good self-sustain as well as a very dangerous debuff, and Soul Retaliation lets him counter and nuke. Note, too, that Soul Plunder inflicts a permanent debuff for the rest of the fight, making Thoran a priority to take down – a task made significantly harder by his self-sustaining capabilities.
However, note that while Thoran is undoubtedly very powerful, he lacks the tools that more traditional tanks have, such as shields and damage mitigation, meaning that he can be surprisingly squishy. His resurrection, too, is mechanically different as he’s considered dead while it’s casting, which means that he no longer factors into enemy AI for targeting purposes and can cause enemies to spill into your backrow. Solution: run him with another frontliner to keep aggro where it belongs.
Koko
A-level
Role: Support
Faction: Mauler
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Team-wide damage mitigation and healing.
Cons:
- Needs lots of investment to bring out the full potential of Full Energy.
- Late game unit.
Koko is an amazing support that provides both damage mitigation and healing. Her Full Energy skill provides a whopping 45% (base) damage reduction, with damage taken during that period only applied once Full Energy wears out. In the meantime, though, buffed allies will enjoy the extra life drain and ATK provided by Koko, allowing them to more easily weather the delayed damage. Fulfilling Feast is an emergency heal with good multipliers, and Patto, Smash! allows Koko to help push out more damage for your team.
Note that Koko is a late game unit – her damage reduction gimmick isn’t as valuable in the early game as shields or direct heals are. She also wants a lot of investment, specifically in leveling up her exclusive weapon since an upgraded Fluffy Shield not only reduces the damage taken at the end of Full Energy but also provides CC immunity to all allies.
A-Tier
Cecia
S-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Graveborn
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Ultimate summons a sturdy, versatile melee fighter that stuns on summon, has AOE abilities, and passive DEF penetration.
Cons:
- Reliant on Mr. Carlyle to do most of the heavy lifting.
- Not particularly relevant in a battle until Mr. Carlyle comes out, meaning you want to accelerate her energy gain.
- Doesn’t do much on her own.
No, you weren’t lucky on your first 10 pull – everybody gets Cecia. And for a good reason, too, as she’s a decent unit who boasts solid performance across the board.
Cecia’s claim to fame is her incredibly versatile summon, Mr. Carlyle. A free frontliner body by itself is already a great effect, but Mr. Carlyle also has a stun on entry, massive AOE abilities, and passive defense penetration. However, outside of Mr. Carlyle, Cecia doesn’t do much – her own damage is lackluster outside of a few passive boosts. Good Cecia use means that you’ll need to accelerate her energy gain to get Mr. Carlyle on the field ASAP – which means pairing her up with someone like Rowan.
Lyca
A-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Wilder
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Free.
- Great plug-and-play unit especially while you don’t have specialists yet.
Cons:
- As a generalist unit, she’ll be outmatched by specialists (buffers and DPS) as soon as you get them. She’ll drop off in relevance in the mid and late game as you pull better heroes.
Lyca seems to feature a lot when it comes to AFK Journey’s ads. Bunny girl design aside, she earns this spot as she’s a great early game unit who packs both damage and buffs. Lyca shines best in the early game when your collection of heroes is small as she brings a bit of everything. Her attack speed buff is also universally applicable, but she leans slightly more towards a physical-oriented team.
That said, Lyca suffers from the bane of all generalists in she struggles for relevance once you pull a dedicated DPS or buffer. While useful in the early game, don’t invest too much in her (especially not acorns) and know when to relegate her to the sidelines.
Brutus
S-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Wilder
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Disruptive frontliner with taunts and a one-time death prevention/invulnerability effect.
- Taunt also shreds Phys Def.
- Easy to use and solid performance.
Cons:
- Despite his tank-like kit, Brutus doesn’t have the survivability to be the main tank.
Brutus is a survivability warrior whose main claim to fame is his Indomitable passive, which prevents him from dying once per battle and granting him a brief period of invulnerability. Brutus also packs a taunt that has the nice side effect of reducing Phys Def, as well as a decent AOE in Whirlwind Wrath. All of this makes Brutus a nice, solid team filler who performs well in almost any aspect of the game.
However, Brutus lacks raw survivability. Outside of his death protection and invulnerability, he has nothing to help him survive but meager amounts of life drain(and that’s only if you invest heavily in him). This means that Brutus cannot be your main tank and should be run with at least one other frontliner.
It helps to think of Brutus as a shock support unit – he runs in, disrupts enemies with his taunt and more importantly shreds their Phys Def, does some AOE damage, harasses enemies a bit more with his invulnerability, then lets the rest of your team finish the job.
Igor
S-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Graveborn
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Incredibly sticky and stupidly hard to kill.
Cons:
- Virtually no offense.
Igor is notorious for his hilarious amounts of survivability. Igor works via his tombstones – at the start of a battle and any time an enemy loses 40% of their HP, Igor will summon a tombstone. Tombstones require 3 hits to break, and Igor will always stay on top of a tombstone. What really sets Igor apart is his Spectre Guard passive, which prevents him from dying when struck with a fatal blow, instead shattering the tombstone. During this time, Igor gains a short amount of invulnerability.
Sounds manageable, right? No, not really. Igor also packs a self-heal in Spectre Guard, which triggers when his Ghastly Explosion (tombstones deal damage in a one-hex AOE) OR his death prevention passive kicks in. Add in a dedicated healer to Igor’s team and…yeah, you get the picture.
There aren’t many battlefields where Igor’s sheer refusal to die comes in handy as his offense is nothing to write about. However, he’s an absolute nightmare to face in PVP defense and God help you if he somehow appears in Honor Duel, where he can force draws by running the timer down.
Antandra
A-level
Role: Tank
Faction: Mauler
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Simple but effective tank kit with a hard taunt, self-heal, shields.
- A-level, so easy to raise.
Cons:
- Survivability tied to her ultimate.
- Shield Formation requires another frontline ally.
Antandra is a very potent tank, especially considering that she’s an A-level hero. Shield Assault is an incredibly overloaded skill that gives Antandra everything she needs: a 2-hex taunt, damage reduction, CC immunity, high damage multipliers, AND a self-heal. But for how good Shield Assault is, it’s Antandra’s sole survivability trick; like Lucian, she’s vulnerable to being burst down before she can get it up.
Antandra also demands that you bring another frontliner to the field as her Shield Formation grants the ally closest to the frontlines a shield based off that ally’s max HP and Antandra’s ATK. Because of this, Antandra can be classified as a “support” tank who can take some hits, but exists more to make your main tank’s life easier.
Scarlita
S-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Celestial
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Defensive warrior who shields the team for 15 seconds before entering the fray.
- Powerful once she hits the field.
Cons:
- Celestial, so have fun building her up.
- Only throws shields for the first 15 seconds; consider carefully if you need the frontloaded survivability over another DPS or tank.
Scarlita has a very interesting kit that combines both offense and defense. The first thing to note is that she does nothing but be invulnerable, amass energy, and create shields for the first 15 seconds of a fight or if you have only have 2 heroes left apart from Scarlita. When she finally does descend, Scarlita’s offensive prowess shines, with powerful AOEs in Divine Quake and Valkyrie Spirit, as well as an initiation in Sanctified Verdict.
This kit means that for the first part of a fight, Scarlita has no DPS but vastly helps in keeping your team alive, making her a good counter against frontloaded damage teams – at the cost of effectively having one less DPS at the start of a battle. Because of her unique approach to combat, it may be more prudent to build a team around Scarlita than simply siding her in, and you’ll need to consider carefully if you can play around her unique mechanics.
One last thing about Scarlita is that she’s an S-level Celestial, so she’s markedly more difficult to raise.
Dionel
S-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Celestial
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Astounding amounts of damage via his Intoxication buff.
- Innate AOE on normal attack.
Cons:
- Requires a team to be built around him; optimal teams for Dionel (as of writing) are finicky or just don’t exist. This will likely change as we get more heroes.
- Late game unit as he wants as many buffs as often and as quickly as possible, which just isn’t doable in the early to mid game.
- Celestial.
Dionel is a good example of building tall – the more he gets buffed, the more stacks of Intoxication he gains, which, on top of whatever bonuses the buff gives him, also grants him a large ATK and attack speed bonus. Add his ability to reliably deal AOE damage whether via his AOE normal attacks or ultimate, and you have a marksman who is really, really good at killing.
While the payoff for Dionel is well worth it, he’s quite tricky to build at the moment as optimal buff teams for him don’t exist…yet. No doubt he’ll get better with time as we get more heroes. There’s also the little issue of him being a Celestial, meaning he’ll eat up considerably more resources than your other heroes, and considering that he wants those rarity boosts to improve and unlock his other skills, good luck.
Temesia
S-level
Role: Tank
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Great damage output despite being a tank; really, she’s more of a sturdy warrior.
Cons:
- Not a traditional tank thanks to her movement, which makes aggro management difficult.
- Mobility restricting CC effects are deadlier than usual on her.
Temesia is unique thanks to her horse. You’d think more people would bring horses to a fight, but you’d be wrong. Her mount is also central to her fighting style, as instead of standing on a single tile and smacking enemies, Temesia is constantly on the move, charging at foes with her normal attack and swinging her sword. The result is surprisingly effective as Temesia deals great amounts of damage.
Despite Temesia’s tank status, she’s really more of a highly mobile warrior with built-in survivability. You’ll probably want to run a more traditional tank with her as all her galloping around means that Temesia won’t hold aggro like normal tanks. Any form of mobility-decreasing CC is also especially deadly to Temesia as her survivability is greatly tied to her ability to weave in and out of enemy attacks.
Shakir
S-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Mauler
Physical Damage
Pros:
- A good generalist who brings both AOE damage and buffs for his team.
- His versatility grants him a slot on any team.
Cons:
- Must be in wolf form to buff.
- Needs his exclusive weapon if you want wolf form to last longer.
AFK Journey has a few bad generalist characters, like Fay and Atalanta, but it also has some good ones, like Shakir. Sure, he’s not the strongest damage dealer nor the best buffer, but his AOE is decent and the stats he buffs are highly valuable (Haste, incoming damage reduction). This means that versatility is Shakir’s greatest strength; while he always has a home in a Mauler-centric team, he’s universally useful enough that he’s always an option for other teams.
Note that Shakir’s buffs only last so long as he’s in his wolf form, so he works best with a source of energy gain like Rowan. If you don’t have anyone for that, another more expensive option is to go for his exclusive weapon which decreases the initial cost of his ultimate and makes it last longer.
Eironn
S-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Wilder
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Incredible grouper with his ultimate.
- Decent AOE damage.
- Fantastic enabler for a Wilder team.
Cons:
- Verdant Cyclone is clunky to use until you unlock his exclusive weapon.
Despite being a rogue, Eironn focuses on AOE attacks instead of the single-target bursts his class is usually associated with. His main damage tool is Ice Spike, a 3-tile AOE that also shreds a huge amount (40%!) of Magic Def, opening them up for his allies. And since Eironn is a Wilder character, he pairs well with Arden, who coincidentally will appreciate Eironn’s immobilization and Magic Def debuffs.
Eironn also has fantastic utility with his Verdant Cyclone ultimate, which pulls enemies to a tile, deals damage, then immobilizes them, thus setting up an AOE sweep. The problem with this skill is that because of its energy cost, it rarely goes online until the battle is well underway rather than at the beginning when it would be more useful. To remedy this, you’ll need to invest in Eironn until he unlocks his exclusive weapon, which causes the first Verdant Cyclone to not use energy at the cost of dealing reduced damage. Since the important part of the skill is the grouping, this exchange is more than fair.
Granny Dahnie
S-level
Role: Tank
Faction: Wilder
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Kit has both self-sustain and debuffs.
- Has a hard taunt that prioritizes saving the weakest ally.
Cons:
- Taunt only targets one enemy.
- Wants her exclusive weapon to gain big damage mitigation buff.
Granny Dahnie is a simple, versatile tank who packs both self-sustain and potent debuffs in her kit, allowing her to easily slot into any team that still doesn’t have a dedicated faction tank a
Threshold of Jade stuns enemies while draining their energy and healing Granny for the same amount of damage done – and she becomes Unaffected while this is up. Seed Cannon weakens foes that focus down on Granny by inflicting a major Haste debuff, and Angry Taunt helps Granny shield the weakest ally by taunting whoever’s focusing them down – while handy, do note that this is a single-target taunt.
If you’re going to use Granny Dahnie a lot, you’ll want her exclusive weapon as her Glimmerbloom Blessings gives her a ridiculous amount of damage mitigation and regeneration once her HP drops below half!
Bryon
S-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Wilder
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Fantastic single-target damage.
- Powerful normal attack passive.
Cons:
- Elona must be used judiciously; poor use of Bryon’s summon can leave him without Elona in a key moment during the battle.
- Current support for Magic Def shred is rare or expensive.
Unlike other characters, Bryon (and Elona, his falcon) use energy uniquely. Instead of building up energy during the fight, Bryon starts with 1000 energy, and can expend 300 energy to summon Elona to the field. Elona is a powerful companion – she can’t be hit and she ignores terrain while focusing on whoever Bryon is fighting.
However, Elona passively burns through Bryon’s energy while deployed, meaning that effective Bryon use requires you to know when to keep Elona out to maximize her buffs and when it’s better to keep summoning/resummoning her to take advantage of her on-summon burst damage.
The rest of Bryon’s kit helps him deal with single targets handily. Leafblade Gale is a powerful multi-hitting skill, while Shadow Flash greatly enhances his normal attacks and skills, effectively doubling Bryon’s DPS. As if that wasn’t enough, Bryon also gets a one-time death protection effect once his exclusive weapon is unlocked.
What really hinders Bryon right now is the lack of supports for a magic damage team. What few Magic Def shredders we have are either rare or expensive. At the very least, Bryon works with Eironn off the bat.
Florabelle
S-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Wilder
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Her exclusive weapon makes her an amazing support for summoner-type heroes like Cecia or Berial’s clones.
- Variety of summons potentially makes her a counter pick to position-based fighters like Silvina.
- Expendable bodies on the field are always nice to have.
Cons:
- Except for Smashy, her summons are squishy and really want the shield her exclusive weapon gives.
- Her kit revolves entirely around her summons.
As of writing, Florabelle is the newest hero in AFK Journey and is the first hero focused entirely on her summons. Florabelle’s main gimmick is the Salon Solitaire her three petalia that each have different stats but essentially have the same role of dealing damage: Smashy is a tough frontline fighter, Spiny is fragile but online as soon as the battle starts, and Swifty is even squishier but is ranged. Note that Florabelle’s entire kit is dedicated to supporting her summons (and to an extent, allied summons), meaning that she does no DPS outside of them.
The main issue with Florabelle’s kit is how squishy her summons are until you get her exclusive weapon. Overgrowth does help them stay alive a bit thanks to the bonus life drain, but until you get the shield that her exclusive weapon grants, it’s best to treat her petalia as expendable bodies – and there are a lot of applications for renewable bodies in the field, such as baiting position-based foes like Silvina. Still, you can and should rush to Florabelle’s exclusive if you’re going to use her a lot, as it also benefits her allies’ summons.
Korin
A-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Surprising amounts of damage thanks to his access to true damage via Vine Arms.
- Targeted shield really helps in the early and mid game.
Cons:
- Needs lots of ultimate use and energy regen on his team to keep Vine Arms active.
Korin is a versatile, no-nonsense character who’s got a simple yet effective kit. AOE damage? Check. Protects allies? Nice. Guaranteed crit on his 3rd skill? Cool. What really sets Korin apart from his peers, though, is his Vine Arms exclusive weapon skill which causes him to deal true damage for a short duration with follow-up attacks, leading Korin to deal a surprising amount of DPS you wouldn’t expect from an A-level. Of course, you need to raise him up, but as an A-level hero, that shouldn’t be too hard.
Damian
A-level
Role: Support
Faction: Wilder
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Decent early game healer who deals okay damage.
- Built-in energy generation.
- Exclusive weapon grants a respectable Haste buff.
Cons:
- Needs exclusive weapon to remain relevant in the late game.
- You’ll need practice and good presence of mind to know when to use each of Damian’s abilities.
The tinker Damian utilizes the power of his toy chariots to heal allies and pressure enemies. Uniquely, Damian himself isn’t present on the battlefield, instead building a toy chariot with his ultimate. His chariots are the core of his kit – his ultimate commands the current chariot to crash into an enemy for some sizeable damage and a blind debuff, while his Emergency Support causes his chariot to heal the weakest ally for a very large amount of health.
Damian can only have one chariot out at a time, and knowing when and where to use each of his abilities is key to playing him well – do you keep the chariots on the field to heal with Emergency Support, or do you crash them ASAP to help with the team’s DPS? Do you cycle through chariots quickly to trigger Emergency Support’s energy regen, or do you wait for it to heal? There are no 100% correct answers here; you’ll just have to practice with Damian and learn to read the battlefield better.
Admittedly, Damian’s multipliers aren’t the best. He does, however, carve out a niche for himself with a massively powerful Haste buff once you unlock his exclusive weapon.
Silvina
A-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Graveborn
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Excellent frontloaded burst damage.
Cons:
- Teleportation means that she’ll often get focused down even before your tanks or other frontliners can get to the same row Silvina is in.
- Really wants investment to unlock her Shield of Light.
Silvina’s got a simple but effective gameplan – teleport in, hopefully kill the target, then deal as much damage before dying. First Strike is her main tool; it teleports Silvina to the closest enemy target at the start of a fight, hitting it for some decent damage. In PVP formations, you can fiddle with this as First Strike’s targeting considers symmetry, meaning that in some cases, it’s possible to whisk Silvina away to the backline. Blade Vortex and Shadow Slayer, on the other hand, allow Silvina to continuously churn out DPS after her teleport.
While undoubtedly powerful, Silvina’s kit can cause complications for her. First off, she’s a rogue, a class that isn’t known for their survivability. Second, because of how the targeting AI in AFK Journey works, Silvina tends to immediately get focused down after her teleport – while she will get the nuke off, she’ll likely die before Blade Vortex and Shadow Slayer go online. Her best survivability tool, Shield of Light, is also locked behind her exclusive weapon, meaning you’ll need to heavily invest in rarity tiers to improve her DPS.
With all that said, Silvina has a very clear niche as a specialist unit (go ahead and count the number of times I mention Silvina in other heroes’ reviews). If your opponent has left weaknesses in their formation or has a support (hopefully a Lightbearer for that sweet 15% bonus damage) in a bad spot, Silvina is the go-to choice for rapidly picking them off and exploiting weak links in the enemy team.
B-Tier
Lucius
A-level
Role: Tank
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- You’re guaranteed to get him.
- Cheap tank that boasts solid performance – his shield is particularly noteworthy.
- Vanilla tank kit of shields, knockback/stun, heals, and attack debuffs.
Cons:
- Survivability comes from his ultimate, making him vulnerable to burst downs.
- Lack of S-level stats hurts him.
- Heal might not hit him, depending on enemy formation and if you have a second tank.
- Hero Focus gives him a healing boost.
You can’t really go wrong with classic tank kits, and that’s what Lucius brings to the table. With an ultimate that shields, a knockback effect that stuns with investment, heals, and ATK debuffs, Lucius is a solid choice for a cheap, early to midgame tank.
There are a few adjustments that could make him much better – such as his heal always healing himself, his Hero Focus boosting his healing instead of raw survivability, and the lack of S-level stats that hurts him in the long run – but he’s perfectly serviceable if you just need someone to stand in front and take the hits in the early game.
Viperian
A-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Graveborn
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Very powerful AOE.
- Life drain effects give him some measure self-sustain.
- Delays enemy ults,
Cons:
- Kit revolves entirely around his Darkvipers.
- Takes some time to set up as maximizing his ultimate requires all enemies to be infected with Darkviper.
- Requires careful HP management as he continuously loses HP but you don’t want his HP to drop too low as that will recall Darkvipers.
- HP-based mechanics can take focus away from his team’s tank.
I will admit to a certain bias for Viperian – I dig his design and the snake helps.
Viperian is a mechanically unusual mage in that he has an HP-focused playstyle. While on the field, Viperian constantly burns himself to infect enemies with his Darkviper status effect. Darkviper causes enemies to lose HP and drop energy when hit, giving Viperian some modicum of control over energy generation (less for enemies, more for his team).
When the time is right, Viperian will unleash his Spiritual Viper ultimate, a very respectable nuke that targets all infected enemies. With investment, Viperian can also use Crimson Waltz, a powerful spell that hits all foes. Finally, Viperian also has access to life drain via his Soul Ravager skill.
While strong, maximizing Viperian is tricky as he needs to both passively lose HP to infect foes but not lose too much HP to trigger his vipers to return to him (at 30% or below, he’ll recall Darkviper infections for an emergency heal). Because of his constant HP loss, Viperian can also take away attention from your frontliners, eating the emergency heals that should be reserved for them. That said, the payout is well worth it.
Arden
A-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Wilder
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Lots of setup required, but payoff is well worth it.
Cons:
- Strict requirements for team building.
- Late bloomer as he’s dependent on his team setting up multiple CCs, which are rare in the early levels.
We can’t talk about Arden without discussing his strict team requirements. Arden shines best in a team that can reliably and continuously inflict crowd control effects. This is due to his Force of Nature ultimate repeatedly striking foes under CC effects, vastly improving its damage output.
While, yes, Arden does have some CC in his kit, it’s not enough to maximize the damage of his ultimate, and early on, heroes don’t have access to their full repertoires, limiting the amount of CC effects they can inflict.
This means that Arden is strictly a late game unit as he needs his team to be built up and invested in so that they can proc the CCs he badly needs. But for all the setup that you need to go through to maximize Arden’s ultimate, the damage is very much well worth the effort!
Parisa
A-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Wilder
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Great for normal attack teams.
- Decently powerful nuke that gets stronger the longer a fight goes on.
- Has energy regeneration mechanics for herself.
Cons:
- Normal attack comps aren’t really a thing…yet.
Parisa is a decent mage whose main use comes from her Floral Inspiration buff, which boost both attack speed and normal attack damage both for herself and a nearby ally. As she’s one of the few (or perhaps the only) sources of normal attack damage buffs, Parisa is irreplaceable for normal attack compositions. The thing is, there aren’t many (if any) of those in AFK Journey, yet. Maybe time will be kind to Parisa.
Parisa also has a decent nuke that gets stronger the more enemies she marks, which is kind of similar to Viperian. She also has access to extra energy regeneration via Flower Power, though it requires packed enemy formations to maximize its efficiency.
Seth
A-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Mauler
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Classic assassin that targets the weakest enemy unit.
- Ramps up his offensive abilities the longer he can stay alive.
Cons:
- Needs to survive to ramp up his passive boosts.
Seth is your typical auto chess assassin in that he has a kit that revolves around finishing off weakened targets. What’s interesting about Seth is his Bloodlust stacks that come from his Hunter’s Instinct passive; essentially, he gets permanent, stacking bonuses whenever an enemy first hits a certain threshold. Maximizing Seth means keeping him alive long enough to trigger as many Bloodlust stacks as possible, ideally with a burst damage team.
Berial
S-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Hypogean
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Counters assassins and lone targets.
- Shadow Reflection is potentially devastating.
Cons:
- Low damage for a rogue.
- Easily countered by dense formations.
- Hypogean.
Berial’s kit revolves around the isolated status (a unit is considered isolated if it has no allies within a one-tile radius). Shadow Trick allows him to nuke down isolated enemies, while Shadow Reflection summons a weaker copy of Berial to harangue foes that stay away from their allies too long.
Because of how hard it is to force enemies into isolation (seriously, just pack your formation together and they’ll never be isolated), Berial’s main use is to counter other assassins who like to dive in or attack lone targets, such as Silvina. Note, too, that this is pretty much Berial’s sole niche as his damage multipliers are extremely lackluster for a rogue – and a Hypogean rogue at that.
Cassadee
S-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Lightbearer
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Consistent, decent, and easy AOE as well as single-target nuke/disable.
- Has access to follow-up attacks.
- Cute.
Cons:
- Magic Defense shred requires Supreme+.
Despite her S-level status, Cassadee is a simple, but effective mage. Running Tide, her ultimate, is just plain old AOE damage – but it’s a very big AOE, meaning that Cassadee will almost certainly get full mileage out of each ultimate. Undercurrent is her answer to single target threats, dealing decent damage as well as a short-lived stun. Finally, Cassadee’s Tidal Strength lets her cheat out quite a bit of damage as she gains magical follow-up attacks whenever the buffed ally performs a normal attack.
While Cassadee can form the core of a mage-focused team, you’ll need to get her all the way to Supreme+ to unlock the Magic Defense shred aspect of her ultimate. You could be spending those acorns on characters like Vala, just saying.
Rhys
S-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Mauler
Physical Damage
Pros:
- A ranged, weaker version of Temesia who keeps the mobility aspect.
- Defensive Stance protects him from CCs.
Cons:
- His damage isn’t particularly impressive.
Rhys is basically Temesia-lite, but using weaker ranged attacks instead Temesia’s powerful melee strikes. Stat and multiplier-wise, Rhys is nothing to write home about; really, it’s all about the extra mobility that makes him more disruptive. One thing that Rhys does have over Temesia, however, is his CC immunity from Defensive Stance, allowing him to keep up the harassment for longer – though he’s vulnerable until he triggers it.
Carolina
S-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Graveborn
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Combined CC+ AOE damage mage.
Cons:
- Heavy investment requires for constant CC effects.
- Damage is easily surpassed unless you take advantage of her CCs; Carolina requires a dedicated team to shine (Eironn – Arden).
Carolina is an okay mage. Her kit revolves around inflicting both AOE damage and CCs on the enemy. Her kit is honestly very vanilla, though I will say that she does a decent job at both of her roles.
Where Carolina shines is when placed with heroes that want CC effects, as she has easy and continuous access to the Frostbite status effect, especially when boosted to Supreme+. This in turn makes her an excellent partner for any team that leverages CC effects, like Eironn – Arden teams. Do note that you’ll need to get Carolina to Supreme+ if you want her to constantly be applying Frostbite, though!
Marilee
A-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Easy to fulfill her conditions for more damage.
- Very focused single-damage target DPS; shines in Dream Realm due to the length of engagements there. Deals true damage at max stacks.
- Good investment target for an A-tier.
Cons:
- Sucks at any other battle mode as she won’t have the time she needs to ramp up.
Marilee is a unit that has a very clear niche. Thanks to her ability to ramp up from Battlefield Learning and easy damage boost conditions from Hyperfocus, she can do amazing amounts of damage – especially in Dream Realm where the protracted battle means that she’ll have no trouble building up bonus damage from Battlefield Learning and quickly get the damage type switch (to TRUE damage!) quickly.
Conversely, Marilee is a terrible pick in any other battle as she doesn’t have the initial strength to make an impact nor the time and space she needs to get online. At least she’s an A-level, meaning that building her up is relatively easy.
Kruger
A-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Mauler
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Ridiculous amounts of Phys Def shred, easily enabling his allies.
Cons:
- Phys Def shreds are almost wholly single target, making him useless in any mode that isn’t Dream Realm.
As with Marilee, Kruger is a terrible unit outside of any mode that isn’t Dream Realm. What he does bring, however, is more than enough to warrant building at least one copy of Kruger as he has bar-none the best Phys Def shred in the game in both his Shatter Armor and Vulnerable status effects. While he’s otherwise plain awful, he is worth investing in as his enabling capabilities are amazing and will help his allies excel.
Niru
A-level
Role: Support
Faction: Graveborn
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Extends ally longevity by giving them a timed life when they die.
- Life drain heals allies instead of himself.
Cons:
- Melee support.
- Wants his exclusive weapon to streamline his ultimate.
Niru’s main gimmick is his ability to prevent allies from dying. While it’s not true death prevention, giving a key ally a few more seconds of life as a ghost keeps them useful for much longer. Niru also has some healing potential in his Spirit Devour, which damages an enemy and restores health to the weakest ally.
Niru, however, has a glaring weakness in that he’s a melee support. As with Satrana, Niru isn’t the healthiest of frontline combatants and will always run the risk of getting bodied due to the lower health and defense of his class. Niru also wants heavy investment to unlock his exclusive weapon, as it will allow him to immediately use his ultimate for free at the start of the battle.
C-Tier
Valen
A-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Free.
- Physical AOE DPS with solid early-game performance.
Cons:
- Falls off hard in the mid game; his pure DPS focus (and no survivability) means that if he can’t instagib enemies, he’ll quickly die – which will happen more and more often as you progress through AFK Journey.
- AOE abilities tied to the Invigoration status, which comes from his ultimate.
Valen is given for free to all players. He’s a decent early game warrior whose access to AOE DPS via his Thunder Swordwork (and accompanying AOE passives) allow him to make quick work of trash mobs. While this approach is great in the early game, Valen’s cracks start to show once you get into the midgame as his DPS will not only not be high enough to deal with foes, but his complete lack of survivability passives means he’ll get chunked more and more often.
You could make the case that “well, if Valen kills enemies quickly enough, he won’t need to worry about survivability, right?”. Technically true, but Valen just doesn’t have enough in his kit to power through foes, not to mention that there are heroes who can do better DPS than Valen for less investment.
Mirael
A-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Lightbearer
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Big multipliers on her ultimate.
- Decent AOE.
- Minor DoT.
Cons:
- Very average.
It’s hard to think of anything to say about Mirael other than she’s very average. Yeah, her Winged Flame hits for a very large amount of upfront damage, but the rest of her kit is decidedly meh. I guess if you’re lacking AOE damage in the early game, you could get her. She’s not bad, but she’s one of those characters that will quickly fall by the wayside.
Walker
A-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Lightbearer
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Micro stuns on most of his skills and normal attack crits.
Cons:
- Pathetic range for a marksman.
Walker has an interesting, if ineffective kit, that focuses on dealing minor stuns with his skill shots and crits. However, Walker’s pathetic attack range of two is his downfall as it makes him vulnerable to getting swept up in AOEs and CCs along with his team’s front guard. I guess nobody taught him the idea of cover.
Satrana
A-level
Role: Mage
Faction: Mauler
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Ignite Passions is a DoT that lasts the entire battle and more importantly reduces Vitality.
Cons:
- Melee mage; has a very hard time staying alive even with her damage reduction Hero Focus.
Satrana is a decent damage dealer whose Ignite Passions passive is a good counter against heal and shield-heavy teams while also pushing out a bit of DPS. However, this is overshadowed by Satrana being a melee mage, a class that isn’t exactly known for its survivability. Even with her Hero Focus unlocked (which gives damage reduction), Satrana has a tough time staying alive.
Kafra
A-level
Role: Warrior
Faction: Wilder
Physical Damage
Pros:
- High single-target damage.
- Provides additional healing for your frontliners.
- Mark provides a decent amount of passive Phys Def shred.
Cons:
- Entire kit revolves around maximizing Forest Mark which sometimes isn’t ideal.
- Maximizing healing means running an exclusively melee team – and you may not even get the full benefit of the heal due to positioning.
- There are less specialized heroes who can match or outperform Kafra.
Kafra’s kit revolves around maximizing the Forest Mark, a special status effect inflicted by Kafra’s ultimate. While the benefits provided by the mark are admittedly great (500% damage on Kafra’s ultimate that prioritizes the marked target, passive Phys Def reduction, and healing for Kafra and nearby allies when a marked target dies), Kafra himself (herself?) isn’t that amazing of a unit, and it’s not hard to find someone who can do a better, more consistent job.
D-Tier
Fay
A-level
Role: Support
Faction: Lightbearer
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Cheap healer.
- Minor buffs.
Cons:
- A bad generalist character who spreads herself too thinly.
Fay is a cheap healer who can output some minor buffs – and that’s being generous. Neither her heals nor her buffs are particularly potent, and unlike Lyca, Fay is an example of a bad generalist character in that she offers lackluster coverage in all the roles she’s attempting to fulfill.
She spreads herself too thinly with her assortment of low-impact buffs (debuffs too, if you really want to invest in her) and middling heals (especially compared to dedicated healers like Hewynn). Her emergency heal is a regen buff, for crying out loud.
Replace ASAP.
Lumont
S-level
Role: Tank
Faction: Mauler
Magic Damage
Pros:
- So much disruption.
Cons:
- So little survivability.
In my beginner’s guide to AFK Journey, I said that rarity usually but doesn’t always correlate to quality. Positively, that means that most A-level heroes are as good as, if not better than S-level ones. Negatively, it means that Lumont exists.
Hoo boy, where do we start. The thing with Lumont is that he packs so much disruption, with Lumont’s Charge displacing, gathering, and taunting foes for easy AOE bursts and War Stomp for AOE stuns. However, he only has a single survivability trick in Totem Ward. Totem Ward is NOT his ultimate meaning that you have to manually time his ultimates so that Totem Ward goes off after Lumont’s Charge unless you want him to instantly melt from all the enemies he gathered and taunted.
Let that sink in for a moment. Lumont is a tank who cannot tank, gathers all the aggro on himself, then instantly dies as he has only one way – which is autocast, mind you – to mitigate that aggro – so the optimal way to use him is to go full manual and hope that your timing is on point with Totem Ward.
Just put Lucian on your team, please.
Atalanta
S-level
Role: Marksman
Faction: Lightbearer
Magic Damage
Pros:
- Decent AOE options and crowd control.
Cons:
- No particular focus in her kit apart from AOE damage, making her inferior to any other option.
Yet another lousy S-level hero.
Atalanta’s kit seems to have little rhyme or reason applied to it. The only consistent thing that all her skills have is that they do an okay amount of AOE damage. But then you take a deeper look and they’ve all got these little debuffs and positioning-based gimmicks and…yeah. They could have just doubled down on her AOE damage – increase the hexes she hits, give her bigger multipliers in the middle of her AOEs, but no, they didn’t.
If they were going for another crappy generalist unit like Fay, they succeeded. There’s nothing Atalanta can do that other units can’t do better.
Salazer
A-level
Role: Rogue
Faction: Graveborn
Physical Damage
Pros:
- Has an eyepatch?
Cons:
- Forced focus on tank means that Salazer is doing nothing for most of the battle.
- Damage multipliers aren’t strong enough to deal meaningful damage to the tank.
Salazer wants to fight the enemy tank. Salazer’s kit is not strong enough to kill the enemy tank.
That’s it.
An Evolving Metagame
AFK Journey still has a lot of room to grow and evolve, and seeing how the devs play with the timeworn tropes of auto chess characters gives me confidence that the heroes to come will not only bring fresh, new ideas to the game, but also breathe new life into old characters.