Today, I'm going to rank all of the Weekly Special Events in Heroes vs. Hordes from pure money grabs to the best barnstorming bargains.
There are clearly more player-friendly events than others. But the best way to win is simpler than you think.
While some of the events will offer you better shots at getting a hero or weapon, you don't HAVE to open your wallet in order to get heroes.
The best way to take advantage of the special events is to always participate. Over the course of the last year, I've gotten half a dozen or so free-to-play heroes and weapons from just never missing a spin.
So with that in mind, I'm going to cover:
- Ranking each event in terms of expected value
- The mechanics for each event
- What resources I prioritize with event tokens
- And for those looking to use their wallet, how to make the call to spend gems or money to claim the main prize
Ok, before we jump into the events, we need to set a baseline value for what a hero is worth.
What's a Hero Worth?
Let me start off by saying that you're not gonna beat the 1,300 gems it costs to get the adventure hero in any special event. But you can definitely beat the 17,000 gems it takes to guarantee a hero in the lucky draw.
Ideally, you want to grab a hero from an event for under 8,500 gems, or half the price of a lucky draw. But I've gotten them for as low as 3,000 gems.
On the real money side, you can get select heroes for $50 from events like Boss Brawl or $75 from bi-monthly stores. Or you could pay ~$30 in daily gems over 3 months to get an event hero.
The lucky spin ranks as the worst event type for F2P players in my book. It's a one-ticket-a-day event that involves spinning a wheel. The wheel usually combines some combination of heroes and weapons, with a variant that offers tokens. My big grief here is just in the event mechanics. One spin a day without quests is just boring. I'd honestly almost prefer no event. The better version of the Lucky Spin has heroes or weapons on all four corners. The worst version replaces heroes with exchange tokens. As a free-to-play player, you're going to stick to that one spin a day for all variables. I managed to hit Assassin last year at this event, right when I started playing. However, if you want to spend real cash, you can think about it when the event features four heroes on the four corners. I spent my first $100 in the game and was able to collect four heroes, which I came to find out is optimal. That netted me each hero for $25. It took me getting pretty lucky with a 1 in 60 chance of that happening, but the odds with pity made me pull the trigger. Pity refers to the bar below the board that rewards you purely for completing spins. The idea is that if you are really unlucky after a lot of spins, you get a consolation prize. These will be important in other events, but they are less important here, as you'd have to spend at least $100 to hit it. Fortunately, your rewards only get better from here. And then there's Lucky Draw. Lucky Draw is different in that it happens every week with a rotating hero from each faction. The weekly event requires you to spend gems in order to spin a wheel. The odds of getting the hero are incredibly low, even as you knock off other items from the board. So you should plan on spending 17,000 gems to get a hero. The key to Lucky Draw is the self-control to spin once and forget about ever getting the hero. Your EV from that is actually pretty positive over the long term. So spin that once each time, but spin this next wheel as often as you can for free. Next, we have the Mega Lucky Wheel. The Mega Lucky Wheel combines some combination of heroes, weapons, and tokens for an exchange. There can be a pity system that awards resources. You obtain tickets to spin the wheel via eight daily quests. This is better than a Lucky Spin because it has quests associated with it, giving you a sense of mini-purpose each day. You get to do 56 to 64 quests over the course of seven days. If there are no tokens, the expected value of your resource haul will be low. It will basically come down to whether or not you hit the main items on the wheel, which will typically happen ~25-30% of the time. Over the last year, I've hit Werebeast, Energy Mage, Warlord, Rocket Pilot, and Scrap Hammer via just the free spins. I've not been as lucky on the next event. Darts is are a fun crap shoot. They're nice because they offer daily quests in exchange for darts to throw at a board, but each dart has a low shot of actually hitting what you want. You're fishing for a special square that collects all resources on the board and resets it. Getting that about 9 times should unlock the main event prize. The problem is the odds. Each dart only has a 4% (1 in 25) chance of hitting the special square. With each board containing 500 tokens, you need to hit something like 9 to get a hero. There is a mini pity system that offers more darts based on the number of special squares you've hit, but not enough to guarantee the main prize. That puts your odds of getting a hero for free somewhere in the 1 in 5000 or worse range, making this event good for F2P just for the free resources. You can think about spending money on darts if you've got lucky and are close to a hero, but it's probably better to wait until the last day and use the webstore to buy the necessary tokens for the hero. If you can grab one for under $25 and have the resources, go for it. This next event is a combination of luck plus running around, actually doing something. Lucky Wheel is a mix of grind and gamble—and it's actually a good time. Unlike other passive events, this one has you running around the battlefield, hunting down containers to smash open for event currency. In the most recent version, it was Easter-themed: you broke open eggs, collected them, and used them to spin the wheel. You usually get one free spin per day, and then need about 25 event resources (like eggs) per additional spin. Each spin has a chance to give you a hero, a weapon, or just a pile of resources. As expected, most spins give the latter. Costs increase exponentially the more you spin, so it's not something you'll spam unless you're spending. There are rare drops. Golden versions of the event item, which grant free spins. But they're extremely rare, with maybe a 1 in 1,000 chance. So while technically possible, you shouldn't count on them. There are no exchange tokens or pity systems here. It's pure RNG. But what makes Lucky Wheel stand out is that it's active. You're not just letting the game run idle; you're exploring, smashing stuff, and engaging with the map. That makes it one of the more enjoyable events for me. It's quest-based too, so you'll earn a decent number of spins just by participating. The odds of getting the hero still aren't great, but the grind feels worthwhile. At least you're having fun while doing it. Or you can wait for the next event to see if you get lucky before spending. Similar to Darts, the Dice Dash event offers a chance to check your progress and decide whether to invest gems or money towards the end. This event revolves around completing daily quests to earn dice. You'll use these dice to move around a game board, collecting resources and tokens along the way. The tokens in this event are your key to unlocking heroes and valuable resources in the exchange shop. But any event with daily quests will net you a solid amount of resources, even if you don't get lucky enough for the hero. In a previous Dice Dash event, I tracked all of my earnings, which included super tokens, hero shards, gold keys, and a substantial amount of energy. Even without coming close to obtaining the featured hero, I accumulated resources, making completing the daily quests totally worth it. For those aiming for the hero, you can use a helpful calculator created by SpiderPig to estimate the number of spins and gems required to reach the hero. However, it's worth noting that there is a ton of variance in the simulations, so it's better to wait for more predictable events to spend on rolls. For those spending, again, use the webstore to grab the required tokens needed for the hero. You should be able to beat the $50 minimum for a hero, although a lot will depend on luck. But if you want to remove luck, wait for this next event. Next up, I have the Wheel of Fortune. This event combines a wheel with two big items, daily quests, tokens, and a pity system that rewards you with more tokens. This event marks the first time you can pretty definitively get a hero for 7200 to 8800 gems, depending on how many free spins you get. The key is the pity system that rewards more tokens. If you complete the 56-64 free spins and have gotten lucky on tokens, you can complete the spins up to 100 times for a hero. If you stayed up til midnight, those 36 spins will cost 7200 gems. If you got some sleep and didn't finish those final eight quests, then 44 spins cost 8800 gems. That's half the price of a lucky draw hero, a solid deal in my book. We just had a Wheel of Fortune that featured Assassin and Dark Paladin. I had enough tokens that I could have spent $20 in the webstore to finish off the required tokens, again, a very good deal. If you don't like to gamble, the Mining and Farming events offer a more predictable path to rewards. Here, completing daily quests grants you pickaxes and pitchforks, your tools for delving deep into a mine or cultivating a field. As you dig, you'll unearth resources from chests and satchels, with the primary objective being the efficient collection of tokens. Based on my experience from the last four iterations of this event, it's possible to secure the featured weapon or hero for a consistent cost of approximately 3,000 to 4,500 gems, arguably the best deal available for acquiring heroes and weapons outside of the last event. The key to success lies in employing an efficient strategy for mining tokens as you progress. You want to dig deep for the depth rewards while ignoring low-value tokens along the way. Like always, you can also use the webstore for either resources or tokens. This event is one of the few where it might make sense to buy more pick axes/pitch forks. You can potentially get multiple heroes out of the deal depending on your luck. But with the last event, you don't need luck. The "Boss Busting" event, more commonly known as a "Grind Event," represents a format where dedicated effort directly translates to rewards. In this event type, players earn collectible tokens by defeating bosses and elite enemies. Theoretically, the number of tokens you can acquire is limitless, bound only by your daily energy reserves. These tokens can then be exchanged for heroes, weapons, and various resources. However, these events have become increasingly rare, with the last notable instance occurring around Christmas with the "Nutcracker" theme. Achieving the featured hero in these grind events demanded a significant commitment, essentially requiring players to maximize their daily energy expenditure and potentially supplement it further. Despite the demanding nature, the guarantee of obtaining the hero through sheer perseverance made these events a fan favorite. But obviously on Swift's side, they're not making any money on guaranteed work from players. So it's understandable that they don't run this one as often as we all would like. Although they could at least do it for some shitty heroes, you know?
#9 The Lucky Spin
#8 - Lucky Draw
#7 - Mega Lucky Wheel
#6 Darts
#5 - Lucky Wheel
#4 Dice Dash: Rolling for Resources
#3 Wheel of Fortune
#2 - Mining and Farming: A Strategic Approach to Rewards
#1 - The Grind Event: Earning Rewards Through Effort
Summary
Even if you don't always snag the main event prize, consistently completing quests will get you substantial resources over the course of the year.
From my own experience as a high-level HVH player, doing every single quest across some 70 events in a year netted me several free-to-play heroes. Bunni, Assassin, Energy Mage, Warlord, and Scrap Hammer. That works out to about one new hero every two months!
Beyond the heroes, the sheer volume of additional resources you accumulate is immense. While these "silent" gains might not feel as exciting as getting the featured item, they are incredibly substantial. So, don't feel bad if you don't always get the hero; you're still building your account with vital resources. HVH is a grind, but every bit of effort counts, especially in these events.
