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Special Skill is the most powerful attack or ability that a hero can cast, after the hero's mana bar is full, depleting it completely. (It's just one Skill as called on the Hero Card, even if it combines several effects, so plural should be used only when talking in general, about more heroes; this is not always kept, especially with the colloquial shortening "Special/s".) 1* heroes have simple Special Skills with just one effect, whereas numerous 5* heroes combine four or more effects when their Special Skill is cast. While "normal attack" tile/troop damage is affected by elemental interactions, the Special Skill damage is not (unless specifically stated, like with Mok-Arr).

Leveling Up Special Skills[]

All Special Skills have 8 levels; one level-up is included in each Ascension. When leveling up a hero, there is a chance that their Special Skill will rise:

Condition / Heroes sacrificed Chance of Special Skill level upgrading
Other-element Hero +1% chance per star of sacrificed hero
Same-element Hero +2% chance per star of sacrificed hero
* Same-Named Hero +25% chance (for the non-costumed version of the hero)
Leveling Hero is Maxed,
but Special Skill is not
5x increase in above chances
(just 100 % for same-named hero, no further adding up possible like "200 % – two levels at once". Also does not apply for leveling maxed Costumes via same hero)

Advice prior to Update 1.8 was to level up 3* heroes one hero at a time until their Special Skill reached rank 4, then go by 10s to save on food costs while still insuring that their Special Skill got maxed along the way. This advice stopped beneficial due to the newly increased 4x increased chance at max level. Sacrificing 10 at a time saved food and still provided the best chances – also, sacrificing one hero at a time worsens the chance that the Special will not improve after the same number of heroes are used up (and, possibly, max power level reached, requiring to spend extra heroes on maxing the Special). After the ceiling on leveling max 10 at once was removed, it is possible in to get as close to 100% chance as roster allows.

General Overview[]

Some commoner heroes share the same Special Skill (for instance Sonya & Caedmon both have Piercing Strike, the below-mentioned Ramming Rush is shared by Isshtak with Karil). Then there are somewhat similar but slightly varied Special Skills of the same type: For instance, while Dawa and Isshtak share the same mana speed (Average) and the type of attack (damage to 3 targets), Isshtak's Special has a different name and does more damage:

Dawa Leaping Attack Deals 210% damage to the target and minor damage to nearby enemies
Isshtak, Karil Ramming Rush Deals 260% damage to the target and minor damage to nearby enemies

However, high-rarity heroes tent to have truly unique Specials, such as Red Hood or Wu Kong,

For a fuller list of Special Skill types and categories on this wiki, see the table at Hero Information#Specific Hero Categories page or Category:Heroes by Special Skill type (still not fully populated, many are visible only from Special:UncategorizedCategories or Special:WantedCategories).

Offensive[]

  1. Primary target damage: Snipers
  2. Primary target & minor damage to nearby enemies
  3. Attacks entire enemy party: AoE Attackers
  4. Debuffers reduce enemy defense, dispel beneficial effects from enemies, blind them, and more
  5. Buffers increase your own team's offensive capabilities

Defensive[]

Defensive Heroes provide various buffs to increase the defensive capabilities of your team. This listing is excluding Healers, although they do effectively serve the same function of mitigating damage.

  1. Defense Increase
  2. Riposte: reflects damage back to attacker
  3. Spirit Link: shares damage taken among all allied heroes

Charging Speed[]

The number of tiles needed to charge special skills before mana alteration is applied.

Special Skill Speed Number of tiles to charge
Very Fast 6.5
Fast 8
Average 10
Slayer (With full mana stack) 11 (6)
Slow 12
Very Slow 13.5
Tiered Special Skills Tier One Tier Two Tier Three
Ninja Family 5 10 15
Magic Family 5.6 12.3 -
Styx Family 6 9 12
Changing Tides - Defenders & Nightmares of Atlantis 8 10 (The speed alternates between 8 & 10, but once you use the 1st tier, all remaining charges use the 2nd tier skill effects.)

Note: Ghosting Tiles is when you send tiles through an open space without hitting an enemy, and each Ghosted Tile counts as two tiles for charging special skill purposes.

Uncommon Special Skills[]

Minions or Minion Heroes became much more common with the release of the Winter Family. Of particular note is Red Hood whose minions also serve as a mana reduction barrier.

Mana manipulators include both defensive mana reducers as well as offensive mana raisers.

Exceptionally Unique[]

Hero Effect
Merlin
Alfrike
Zocc
The target automatically casts a Mindless Attack on a random ally (when mana is full during 3 turns)
Red Hood Forest Friends: Minions block mana-reducing effects and provide healing
Proteus
Hel
Stops up to 3 enemy heroes from gaining mana
Wu Kong Gambler's Stance: Increases all allies' damage, reducing their accuracy
Tarlak Martial Prowess: Increases all allies' damage
Evelyn
Almur
Reduces enemy defenses against Nature icon Nature attacks
(both tiles and Specials; ditto below)
Guardian Falcon Reduces enemy defenses against Fire icon Fire attacks
Guardian Jackal Reduces enemy defenses against Holy icon Holy attacks
Guardian Panther Reduces enemy defenses against Dark icon Dark attacks
King Arthur
Frida
Reduces enemy defenses against Ice icon Ice attacks
Alberich
Mother North
Marie-Thérèse
Heimdall
Muggy
Can raise dead allies (in various forms)

The Hero of the Month may have a unique ability or not. Usually they simply have a powerful combination of more common abilities.

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