Hero Academy Updates

[Shohoku79]

I had been running Hero Academy 10 since obtaining it a few years ago, with a few breaks in between, it's just a weekly thing to mostly pop in, see the vanilla 5* and most likely send him/her right back in the following week.  The breaks were when pick up time coincides with Soul Exchange, and I needed all the heroes (including the one being cooked) to make exchanges.

Since then there had been a few changes, and up until the latest change (that I recalled, before the old forum got the axe) was that the 5* heroes there had the list expanded (to include heroes from ### days back) and will include the released costumes if the costume rolls a yes.  Since that update, I haven't gotten anything new, not new non S1, and none of the S1 I got back came with any costumes.

So since we can't look at the little information "I" icon whenever all the functions are being used, I also don't get to look at these very often.  This past week after I picked up another costume-less S1, I decided to pause and check out the other levels and saw that the Rare and Epic trainings have also had similar (heroes from ### days back are also available at the all too familiar 5% rate).  I took a break from HA10 and decided to get the ball rolling a bit see if I can pick up a few Epics I missed.  Not going to hold my breath for any quick results because it's only 5% non vanilla, and the list is big.

Did HA9 (the Epic Troop retrain) get any updates, to include Specialized Epics (Ninja, Magic, Cyclops) as possible re-train results?  They are already in the Epic Troop portals.

Maybe as I see @ PlayForFun going about his usual forum topic/guide organizations, we might start seeing a guide for this several year old feature?

[Zeus]

I switched to producing common and uncommon troops instead and felt better for it. Feels a better investment. In saying that more recently i've been stock piling trainers in there instead of common troops. I can't answer in relation to your question, but just thought I could steer you away from spending a lot of resources on heroes that don't cut it in today's game for the most part..

[Shohoku79]

27 minutes ago, Zeus said:

spending a lot of resources on heroes that don't cut it in today's game for the most part..

Thank you for the feedback.

To that regard, most of them likely won't, but heroes last forever (even the some of the most sought after ones did not age well and will succumb to age and being replaced).  It all depends on playstyle, and when I started this game back in 2017, I've never played it to be competitive, but only the PvE parts and as a Collector of cards.  I also play for free, so I won't have most and best of the heroes,  I am putting my resources nowadays in fulfilling the collector's purpose in me as opposed to chasing cards (which will most likely end in disappointments from not getting him/her/it and those cards most likely end up being replaced in time).

[NevarMaor]

A month late  

I have run HA10 since I got it researched. I have gained a few old HOTM from it, but these days mainly I hope for S1 costumes. Just got Lianna's toon this week.

Since the Costume Chamber refuses to give me 5* costumes ... and WAY too many Carvers.

[Shohoku79]

1 hour ago, NevarMaor said:

A month late  

I have run HA10 since I got it researched. I have gained a few old HOTM from it, but these days mainly I hope for S1 costumes. Just got Lianna's toon this week.

Since the Costume Chamber refuses to give me 5* costumes ... and WAY too many Carvers.

Likewise, a few of my HoTM came this way, a very few.  And like you when I was running HA10, I had been hoping for S1 costumes to tag along when a non vanilla is not the result.  I have also acquired one or two S1 costumes that way, but few and far between with some duplicates (I got Quintus C2 - the Love Doctor this way, even before getting his C1, and duplicate Joon C1 costume).  However, I have been hitting a drought since when they announced the expansion of the roster, and the costume roll will start including all the costume sets that are eligible to be acquired), that I decided to take a bit of the aforementioned break.

Since starting on HA8, I have had a few non-vanilla 4* paying a visit, but they were all dupes and were fed.

They really need to reduce the wait time, cost and improve the functionality of HA (more simultaneous actions), because HA is not an entry level building, it takes a while to get there, and for it to be so throttled in power is absurd.

[NevarMaor]

1 hour ago, Shohoku79 said:

for it to be so throttled in power is absurd

Agreed. They did make one change, when you get a costume now you get all of them available. I got three with the toon Lianna, which is good since I was missing C2 as well. Unfortunately when I got toon Magni a while ago that was not the case. Still missing all the others for him.

[Shohoku79]

1 hour ago, NevarMaor said:

when you get a costume now you get all of them available. I got three with the toon Lianna

Right, that's what I was hoping for too during the drought, but haven't gotten any non-vanilla, non-vanillas with costume, or vanillas with costumes since that annoncement.

However, I believe this is still subjected to the released after ### days eligibility/stipulation.  Otherwise, you should have also gotten Glass Lianna and Stylish Lianna.

[NevarMaor]

Yeah I should have said "all of them available in HA10" which currently doesn't include glass or stylish. Can't be TOO generous.

[Dudeious Maximus]

I ain't had time but was going to look into the troop side of it.

I'm not expecting 5* as can be converted and best prob get for a while ....

Maybe lower times on 1,2,3  troops 

[Shohoku79]

29 minutes ago, Dudeious Maximus said:

I ain't had time but was going to look into the troop side of it.

I'm not expecting 5* as can be converted and best prob get for a while ....

Maybe lower times on 1,2,3  troops 

Thanks, I am hoping HA9 is also getting the revamp to include the 4* Epic Troops (Ninja, Cyclops, Magic) because they have already been made into the roster of Epic Troops Portal as possible results. 

I remembered when HA was first introduced a few years ago and some players actually pulled a Ninja Troop out of one of the HA9 result how "quickly" the devs quashed that feature (but allowing the players to keep that Troop).   Fast forward to when Dragon Spire was made and people were actually getting Ancient Dragons out of Hatchery 10 as the results, but this one actually allowed to happen for a few months before they took that away too.  I barely got to Hatchery 10, and ran it for few weeks, had never pulled any Ancient 5* from that portal, but I know someone in my alliance did.

Timing is key, Hero Academy is not an entry level building, but it is also not a new building.    HA9 is doing what it is supposed to do, taking a 4* Troop that the player owns and spits back another 4* Troop.  I don't think it is asking much for HA9 to spit out non-vanilla 4* as possible results as these troops are already possible results from portal and the retrain results are still RNG with the only sure thing being that it won't be the same troop you put in.

[Dudeious Maximus]

Yeah recall the ninja troops in ha9 was fixed in like a hour yeah all versions 4* definitely they should be added. Will put that on the list.

How many days is it to retrain 4* troop? Can't be arsed to look up ... 

Any other stuff folk would like to see changed? 

[NevarMaor]

35 minutes ago, Dudeious Maximus said:

How many days is it to retrain 4* troop?

Seven, same as HA10. If the other 4* were added I might even give it a try.

[Shohoku79]

22 minutes ago, Dudeious Maximus said:

How many days is it to retrain 4* troop? Can't be arsed to look up ... 

My current functions are locked up so I couldn't see, but I think it is somewhere around 5 or 6 days (if not matching the 7 day crawl from HA10).   This is also why I was trying to look for the "re-mounted" forum post about the Hero Academy information (that was part of the old forum) here, but I guess that is still being worked on to be added back in?

30 minutes ago, Dudeious Maximus said:

Any other stuff folk would like to see changed? 

You mean the usual beaten to death ones?

Let's see

- Shorten training time (7 days for a more often than not vanilla 5* flip is pretty long)
- Allow more (at least 3) simultaneous functions (again, for something that is supposed to be one of the last buildings in the stronghold, it shouldn't be so low powered).
- Allow queuing for retraining functions, which should also be able to show you the resources required.
- Allow the little information "I" help hint to be accessible mid session so players don't have to wait until when the function is freed up to access it.   Just so we could access the list of heroes available as possible results, and the aforementioned training times?

[NevarMaor]

I would like to see a general reduction, even a small one, in the resources HA requires. Considering the 5% odds for retraining a hero 6000 (300*20) recruits and 25,760,000 (1,288,000*20) ham on average per successful result is a bit steep. Especially for yesterday's (or last week's even) heroes. I also think the costs of training troops is pretty steep in HA2/4/6. A common 1* troop is 50 recruits, whereas a rare 3* hero is 'only' 30.

[Dudeious Maximus]

Thanks yeah needed the beaten to death ones as don't have access for the requests

Yeah the extra slot would be cool. 

Basically lower times, lower ham/iron, be able to see what the other  training has when slots are full,

[Dudeious Maximus]

Would asking for anything else 

HA11 HA12 etc 

Or that taking the piss, can ask but would trying to get a qol on whats mentioned above sorted first then maybe adding new stuff ? 

[Shohoku79]

55 minutes ago, Dudeious Maximus said:

HA11 HA12 etc 

Being a bit ambitious here are we?  You mean additional building levels to upgrade and use our iron?  While that would be kind of interesting and all, it would probably be a logistic nightmare for a bunch of existing players who has resources / recruits stored and queued up in the HA, because buildings of course cannot be upgraded when there are active sessions and unlike the TC, which you might be able to reallocate some of them from the TC you are trying to upgrade to others, there is only one HA so one will have to offload the resources into TCs instead.

But what else is there to do with the Hero Academy levels that would fit with Empires and Puzzles today?  Could we re-train 3* and 4* in hopes of getting someone different (e.g. HA10 but for Rares and Epics), maybe throw a 5* in there and the result would be someone different to come out with the possibility of being partially ascended, fully ascended, LB1, LB2 (like the Ascension Portal).

 

1 hour ago, Dudeious Maximus said:

qol on whats mentioned above sorted first then maybe adding new stuff ? 

Honestly, with how little QOL they seem to enjoy focusing on (not really), I'd like to see improvements rather than new stuff.

[Dudeious Maximus]

29 minutes ago, Shohoku79 said:

Being a bit ambitious here are we?  You mean additional building levels to upgrade and use our iron?  While that would be kind of interesting and all, it would probably be a logistic nightmare for a bunch of existing players who has resources / recruits stored and queued up in the HA, because buildings of course cannot be upgraded when there are active sessions and unlike the TC, which you might be able to reallocate some of them from the TC you are trying to upgrade to others, there is only one HA so one will have to offload the resources into TCs instead.

But what else is there to do with the Hero Academy levels that would fit with Empires and Puzzles today?  Could we re-train 3* and 4* in hopes of getting someone different (e.g. HA10 but for Rares and Epics), maybe throw a 5* in there and the result would be someone different to come out with the possibility of being partially ascended, fully ascended, LB1, LB2 (like the Ascension Portal).

 

Honestly, with how little QOL they seem to enjoy focusing on (not really), I'd like to see improvements rather than new stuff.

Yeah was my feelings too adding new stuff probably isn't going to happen realistically.(Thought id throw it out there)

Rather the basics get a revamp 

[Dudeious Maximus]

I did ask sgg staff  In chat what is happening for 2026. 

Had no response. 

Will see what the plans are! Sgg got to make some announcement. Ok toon S2,3 coming.

Well see what is happening then decide to put the ideas again to staff.

 

Last year Ironically I did ask about titans levels, basically said fed up with the  question can you either say yes or no.15-16* come about as they had them in the works.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Bruiser]

On 3/25/2026 at 12:23 PM, Shohoku79 said:

They really need to reduce the wait time, cost and improve the functionality of HA (more simultaneous actions), because HA is not an entry level building, it takes a while to get there, and for it to be so throttled in power is absurd.

Amen! I got just got my first non-Classic 5* hero from HA10. (It was Alucard, which I’m actually very happy with; he’ll be my choice for upcoming Visiting Costumer.) The cost, wait time, and odds of getting a non-classic hero are really in need of being updated. An extra queue would also be nice. You have to figure the cost of the training/re-training as well as the opportunity cost. Recruits don’t exactly grow on trees, so spending 300 a week on HA10 may mean you don’t have the recruits for other things. I think they could essentially halve the time and cost and double the odds for a non-Classic hero or a costume (I’d actually more than double the costume odds, make it like 20%) in HA10. HA8 isn’t too bad, maybe drop the time to 2 days and reduce the cost to 50 or 75 recruits, double the odds of a non-Classic and add a chance at getting a costume. Troop training should also have the costs reduced.

In a nutshell, speed up most of the tasks, reduce the costs and improve the odds of something good(better than vanilla).

[Dunial]

On 2/23/2026 at 9:30 AM, Zeus said:

I switched to producing common and uncommon troops instead and felt better for it. Feels a better investment. 

Agree with this. 5* troops are a level playing field. I’ve been running troop & trainers from HA for awhile 

[LopingM]

Yes same here, I have more than enough 5 stars to work on, and prefer to use the mats on leveling them than on HA10, so I run the rare troop and hero trainers