Today, I'm diving into the status modifiers for all 12 game modes in Heroes vs Hordes. This has been one of my most requested articles of all time
I always put it off because, frankly, I thought it would be a bit boring.
Turns out… It is kind of boring. But, it's also super informative. Little details like cooldown caps and armor caps can make a huge difference in surviving certain game modes and clearing difficult content.
I've set this video up into 12 chapters, organized in the order you encounter the game modes. So, if you need the modifiers for a specific mode, feel free to skip ahead. It's a little sad that all of this information is just stuck in my brain, taking up space I could probably use for something more productive.
But that's my problem! You can just use this guide whenever you need a reference.
So let's jump into the most requested article of all time. Game mode modifiers!
Game Mode Modifiers Video Guide
Game Mode Modifiers Strategy
Normal Mode
This is the baseline game experience. The hidden caps are important for understanding your maximum potential, but there are no negative modifiers.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Instant Kill: Enabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled
Hard Mode
Hard Mode introduces a couple of new challenges while keeping the core stats the same as Normal Mode.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Instant Kill: Disabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled
- Additional Mechanics: Meteors fall from the sky.
Nightmare Mode
This is where the game begins to add significant limitations to test your builds. The modifiers change drastically once you reach a certain chapter.
Base Modifiers (Chapters 1-119)
- Cooldown Cap: 40%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Instant Kill: Disabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Disabled
- Horde Modifiers: Increased health, but slightly reduced damage.
- Additional Mechanics: Meteors fall from the sky.
- Disabled Tomes: Health Regeneration Tome, Movement Speed Tome.
- Stat Reductions: Base Health Regeneration and Evasion are significantly reduced.
Additional Modifiers (Chapter 120+)
- Movement Speed: Locked at 9.
Arena
The regular Arena allows you to reach your full power, but each floor has its own randomized rules. A key feature is how upgrades work.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Instant Kill: Enabled (unless disabled by a stage curse)
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled (unless disabled by a stage curse)
- Shop Mechanic: Each weapon/tome upgrade grants all 5/3 levels instantly.
- Additional Mechanics: Each floor has unique Blessings and Curses.
Hard Mode Arena
This mode combines the tough modifiers of Nightmare Mode with the structure of the Arena. It's considered a "stat check" for your damage at some level.
- Cooldown Cap: 40%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Movement Speed: Locked at 9.
- Disabled Tomes: Health Regeneration Tome, Movement Speed Tome.
- Stat Reductions: Base Health Regeneration and Evasion are reduced.
- Horde Modifiers: Significantly increased health.
- Shop Mechanic: Each weapon/tome upgrade grants all 5/3 levels instantly.
- Additional Mechanics: Each floor has unique Blessings and Curses.
Hero Clash
A unique mode where you stand still and fight waves. The modifiers are designed around this specific stationary gameplay.
- Cooldown Cap: 40%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Disabled Tomes: Health Regeneration Tome, Movement Speed Tome.
- Stat Reductions: Base Health Regeneration and Evasion are reduced.
- Unique Rules: You are given 3 starting upgrades automatically. You cannot move.
- Shop Mechanic: Each weapon/tome upgrade grants all 5/3 levels instantly.
Guild Event
This weekly event is similar to Normal Mode but with a mid-run difficulty spike and unique weekly rules.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled
- Instant Kill: Enabled for the first 3 minutes, then disabled when elites spawn.
- Shop Mechanic: Each weapon/tome upgrade grants all 5/3 levels instantly.
- Additional Mechanics: Has unique modifiers that change every week.
Boss Brawl
A weekly event focused entirely on single-target damage against one powerful boss.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Instant Kill: Disabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled
- Shop Mechanic: Upgrades only grant one level at a time.
Dragon's Tower
The ultimate endgame challenge with the most restrictive modifiers in the game. Survival is key, as damage and deaths are permanent.
- Cooldown Cap: 40%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Health Regeneration: Completely disabled (damage is permanent between floors).
- Movement Speed: Locked at 8.
- Disabled Tomes: Health Regeneration Tome, Movement Speed Tome.
- Evasion is significantly reduced (x.1).
- Instant Kill: Disabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Disabled
- Unique Rules: No starting upgrades. When a hero dies, they are unusable for the rest of the tower run.
- Shop Mechanic: Each weapon/tome upgrade grants all 5/3 levels instantly.
- Additional Mechanics: Each floor has its own unique scenario and modifiers.
Dungeon
The Dungeon has more limitations than I realized:
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Movement Speed: Locked at 9.
- Disabled Tomes: Health Regeneration Tome, Movement Speed Tome.
- Stat Reductions: Health Regeneration and Evasion are reduced.
- Instant Kill: Disabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Disabled
- Shop Mechanic: Upgrades only grant one level at a time.
Faction Wars
This mode is all about offense. Enemies are extremely deadly, making defensive stats almost useless.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90% (but enemies hit so hard it is largely ineffective).
- Instant Kill: Disabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled
- Enabled Tomes: Health Regeneration Tome and Movement Speed Tome are available.
- Shop Mechanic: Upgrades only grant one level at a time.
- Additional Mechanics: Each stage has its own modifiers.
Adventure
Adventure Mode has a unique scaling difficulty mechanic but otherwise features very few restrictions, allowing for build freedom.
- Cooldown Cap: 90%
- Armor Cap: 90%
- Instant Kill: Enabled
- Hero Invulnerability: Enabled
- Unique Mechanic: Difficulty scales with your progress in Normal/Hard Mode, stopping after Chapter 200 in both.
- Additional Mechanics: Each stage has its own Blessings and Curses.
