Dragon Champions is the latest title to come from AppQuantum and is one of the most exciting RPGs of the year. AppQuantum is also known for the hit idle game, Idle Evil Clicker, which put a unique spin on the clicker genre through its theme and gameplay. This time around, the company brings us Dragon Champions, a new hero battle RPG that features excellent tactical gameplay and an engaging campaign for players to delve into.
Dragon Champions combines various popular genres and mechanics to create a role-playing game that adds to the genre and allows for truly unique gameplay experience. Featuring three masterfully-crafted campaigns, Dragon Champions tells a story that is both compelling and entertaining, with plenty of fantasy and pop-culture references to keep the mood light but the players engaged.
For the more competitive player, Dragon Champions also pits players against players from around the world in its Hero PvP Arena, with a Global Ranking system to help players see how they fare against other heroes. Dragon Champions also features a wide variety of heroes to choose from – over 50 all-in-all, with more to come, split across seven player races and across a variety of rarities and power levels.
In this epic hero battle RPG, players are thrown into the thick of combat right away, and for some, it could get a little overwhelming. So we’ve come up with a Dragon Champions beginner’s guide, including tips, cheats and strategies, to help players get started on the right foot!
1. Combat Basics
One of the first things you’ll want to wrap your head around when playing Dragon Champions is the manner of combat the game offers. Dragon Champions is a turn-based hero combat RPG, currently with over 50+ heroes available to recruit to your party. Each of these heroes has its own particular strengths and weaknesses, as denoted by their Tags, which are always visible from the Hero information panel.
Some heroes have only a few tags to denote their faction and role in the game, while some heroes can have as many as six tags, to denote their various traits, roles, abilities, and affinities.
Hero Tags are especially useful because of the way they interact with skills and abilities. For example, some skills deal bonus damage to a certain race, while other abilities increase in power depending on how many allies/enemies of a certain type or Tag are present in combat. To help you better understand how these Tags work, we’ve listed the most common Hero Tags and what they represent.
2. Main Factions
There are two main factions in the game – the Order and the Clans. If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft, these two factions are similar to the Alliance and the Horde. On the Order side, you have mostly Humans and Elves, as well as other races following the theme of justice and order. On the side of the Clans, you have other popular races such as Orcs, Trolls, and Goblins, as well as a handful of other types of Heroes as well.
All of the Heroes in the game belong to either the Order or the Clans, and this is important to note as the first two campaigns available to players – the Dawn of the Order Campaign, and the Rage of the Clans Campaign, only allow Heroes of a specific faction. That said, other gameplay activities like Events and the Arena give players the freedom to mix and match Heroes from either faction.
3. Hero Races
Heroes are also classified into one of the seven races available in Dragon Champions. These race tags represent which race or civilization the Hero belongs to. Race tags are very important because of the way many of Hero skills work and play off of either synergizing with a particular race, or having a particular race as their favored enemy to whom they deal bonus damage in combat. The races are:
– Human
– Elf
– Panda
– Orc
– Goblin
– Pride
– Demon
4. Hero Classes
Each Hero also has at least one Class tag, which is a rough identifier for their abilities and roles. Dragon Champions offers a very varied style of combat and Hero selection, so many Heroes can have multiple Class tags to denote their affinity to a certain role. The most common Class tags you’ll come across are:
Healer
With a blend of magical attacks and defenses, Healers are a staple to any effective Hero squad. Healers are called such because of their access to healing abilities – sometimes potent single-target heals and buffs, but often with AoE healing capabilities. One of the first heroes you receive in-game, Alyria, is a Healer.
Defender
Higher stacks of armor and health make some Heroes ideal defenders. Defenders are often granted higher toughness through stats, but also have access to defense abilities and buffs to increase party survivability. Another common ability for Defenders is Taunt, which forces enemies to make them the target of their attacks. Darian, one of the starter Heroes, is a Defender.
Ranger
Thanks to naturally high power stats, Rangers often take on dedicated DPS roles. However, their squishiness and typical lack of defensive options make them ideal for backline attacking from range to take advantage of allied Defenders to take the brunt of the damage for them. Fao, a Panda Hero that players get to unlock very early on is a Ranger.
Fighter
Fighters in RPGs have always been regarded as the best all-around class. In Dragon Champions, this rings true. Fighters typically have a good set of stats, more often focusing on a blend of damage and survivability instead of favoring one over the other. Fighters are capable of dealing with competitive damage without having to worry too much about health and defense thanks to their stats. The starter hero Sharp is an example of a Fighter.
Mage
Akin to healers, Mages typically come with higher magical abilities and lower defenses. However, unlike Healers who spend most of their magical prowess aiding their allies, Mages focus their powers on dealing damage and debuffs to enemies through the use of powerful spells. Kaggie, the Crow-like spellcaster that players get to unlock early on, is an example of a Mage.
Rogue
The typical Rogue is a Hero that focuses supremely on dealing high-damage attacks, but almost always forgoes personal defense. Squishier than most heroes, Rogues are almost always equipped with high-power single-target abilities that make them excellent assassins, and ideal for taking out high-value targets such as enemy healers and mages. Voiran the Trickster is a Rogue.
5. Be Familiar With Specializations
Some heroes have special tags that set them apart from the rest. Although these Tags more of than not function as a means to separate which Heroes can be used for certain events and in-game activities, most of them have some impact on how the Hero is played, and nearly all of them show how Heroes react to each other in the lore and history of the Dragon Champions world. The most important Specialization to know about is:
Leader
Once a Hero with the Leader tag attains enough power and experience – usually through Gear Level – they unlock special Leadership abilities that allow them to give bonuses to their party members as long as they’re in the leadership slot of the party.
There are other special tags, too, and these often denote a Hero’s specialist role in certain party compositions.
– Dragon Slayer
– Traveler
– Tactician
– Warrior
– Gladiator
Now that you know the different tags available to Heroes in Dragon Champions, its important to play the game and figure out how these tags interact with each other, and which Heroes (and which skills) are best used to take advantage of the variety.
Once you’ve mastered accruing advantage in Dragon Champions combat, you’ll be set for whatever the game has to throw at you – whether it’s PvE or PvP. However, to help bridge that gap, here are a few tips and tricks to help you level up your game and progress faster in Dragon Champions.
6. Unlocking And Upgrading Your Heroes
In Dragon Champions, there are over 50+ heroes for players to recruit to their adventuring parties, but even with the same heroes, power levels could differ substantially. That’s because of the way Hero upgrades work. While a Level 2 Alyria won’t have much of an advantage over a Level 1 Alyria, it’s easy to see that level advantage adds up, and even identical team compositions could result in a landslide victory for one side or the other.
Dragon Champions tracks players’ progression through the Power Level system. Power increases each time you unlock a Hero or upgrade a Hero, but each Hero has it’s own Power Level, as denoted by the number below each hero’s portrait in-game. Hero Power is increased in four ways:
Leveling Up
One of the most straightforward ways to increase Hero Power (and of course, effectiveness in battle) is to level them up with XP Tomes which players are rewarded with just for playing the game. XP Tomes are rewarded for Campaign and Story missions as well as other special events and can be used to increase a Hero’s level up to a certain maximum, which is the player’s level. Leveling up a Hero increases their stats by a solid margin, so higher-level heroes not only hit harder, but they also have higher health and increased defenses, too.
Equipping Gear
In Dragon Champions, Heroes can be equipped with a variety of Gear. Gear is acquired by playing the game, often through a series of Campaign levels, and can be assigned to specific Heroes to increase a variety of stats. While the stat bonuses from Gear are usually minor (especially at lower levels) the main purpose of equipping Gear is to raise your Heroes’ Gear level. Higher Gear levels give Heroes access to more skills and abilities, increasing their combat effectiveness significantly.
Equipping Runes
Unlocked at Level 15 (which isn’t that far off, especially if you use the auto-battle feature to quickly farm experience) Runes are another type of equippable item that adds a ton of bonuses and extra utility for your Heroes. Runes increase Hero Power significantly, so make sure to have your Heroes decked out with Runes as often as you can.
Upgrading Skills
Arguably one of the most grindy aspects of Hero upgrading is Skill Upgrading. Upgrading skills in Dragon Champions requires the use of rare and hard-to-get crafting materials called Ability Scrolls. Although often difficult, upgrading Skills is also extremely beneficial and could change the way you play the game as you unlock unique effects that tie in with Hero abilities. Due to their rarity, make sure you spend your Ability Scrolls on worthwhile Heroes and Skills.
7. Open Your Free Chests
It goes without saying that you should open your free chests when you can, but allow us to go a bit further and say – you should open your free chests as soon as they are available. Free Chests are available every four hours, and you can stack up to two of them which means that you can get two free chests every eight hours just by logging in and opening them.
Even though they’re Free, the chests often are very generous the rewards they hand out, often giving players rare Gear, a bunch of Gold, or even Hero Shards and Ability Scrolls, so it’s always worth it to check them out.
8. Join An Active Guild
Although not strictly an MMORPG, Dragon Champions is an excellent RPG title that makes use of a few social gameplay elements to add content and playability. One of the systems implemented in Dragon Champions is the Guild System, which lets players join a Guild to unlock exclusive activities, events, and rewards.
Joining a Guild isn’t required to excel at Dragon Champions, but it costs nothing to join up and the rewards are often massive.
9. Use Your Energy Efficiently
At lower levels, most players find themselves with a surplus of Energy thanks to the quick progression through the early stages of the game. However, once players get to the nitty-gritty of Dragon Champions, they get the training wheels kicked right from under them. Energy, just like Gold and Scrolls and XP Tomes, is just another kind of Currency – one that you need to do missions and play the game. While Energy regenerates over time, its still important to see Energy as a resource and use it efficiently.
Don’t spend too much energy doing lower-level missions because the energy-reward ratio is usually much lower than it is at higher-levels. If you’re trying to farm for a certain item, make sure that you run the highest-level mission where that item is available as a drop. Higher-level missions may cost more energy to pursue, but the rewards scale much better. And if you’re using the Auto-Battle feature, running higher levels is also a great way to get more out of your Autobattle Tickets.
10. How To Use Dracoins
For free-to-play players who don’t plan on spending money on the game, a premium currency like Dracoins should be spent wisely. If you’re just starting out, the best place for your hard-earned Dracoins to go is to recharging your Energy so you can run more missions and progress further in the Campaign.
New players might want to save up for premium chests and other Dracoin-only purchasable items from the Shop, but our advice is to just get to the highest levels of the game as fast as possible, so you can start using your Energy much more efficiently. Once you’re at higher levels and have access to some of the most efficient and rewarding activities in the game, you’ll still have plenty of access to Dracoins to spend on Premium items.
11. Dragon Champions General Tips And Tricks
If you’re having trouble progressing through the game or find yourself losing too much in the PvP Arena, then here are a few Tips and Tricks to make the learning curve a little bit less steep, and to make your progression through the game that much smoother.
– You don’t always have to push the highest-level missions. You can repeat any of the campaign missions at any time to get gear and XP tomes to help prepare your heroes for more challenging high-level content.
– Play the different game modes. Dragon Champions has several campaigns, a PvP arena, challenges, events, and more – and the rewards you get from each of these game modes carry over to the all the others. If you’re stuck in the Campaign, try your luck and at any of the other game modes and reap the rewards as you see fit.
– Spend Your Gold! Often enough, there will be special deals available at the Market where players can spend Gold – not Dracoins – to purchase Gear, Runes, and even Heroes. Take advantage of these deals, especially if you’re one of the many players who feel like they’re hoarding way too much gold.
– Devote the most resources to your best heroes. In Dragon Champions, while the devs strive for balance, it’s just a matter of fact that some heroes are stronger than others, especially in certain team compositions and strategies. Figure out which Heroes you’ll be keeping in the long-run, and spend most of your resources towards getting them stronger.
And that’s everything you need to know to get started in Dragon Champions. We hope these tips and strategies serve you well! If you have discovered additional tips for the game, feel free to drop us a line in the comment area below!