Today, I'm ranking all 14 free-to-play heroes in Heroes vs Hordes. From absolute dead weight to must-have MVPs.
You'll find free-to-play heroes scattered across Hero Clash, buried in Boss Brawl, or waiting patiently in the guild shop.
But here's the twist: those "free" heroes aren't truly free. They take months to grind or thousands of gems.
So I'm here to help you optimally choose which F2P heroes to invest in to save your time and gems, while also making HvH more fun to play.
But before I can rank all the heroes, you need to understand how I ranked them based on three important concepts: Early Game, Arena, and Globals.
The Early Game
The best F2P heroes excel in the early game. The early game consists of the first 100 chapters of normal mode when you first start playing. The best free-to-play heroes will help you progress through these chapters more easily.
Good early game heroes have innate kits that can clear tons of horde without relying on the rest of the roster.
Because you only really have guaranteed access to F2P heroes early, this was the biggest weight I gave in my ranking. Followed by their ability to progress through the Arena.
The Arena
The Arena unlocks after defeating Chapter 31 and offers you the chance to win Weapon Tokens for the forge. I have a much more detailed guide on the Arena, but know that for the purposes of this ranking, getting through the Arena earlier will help you get stronger faster.
The tokens you earn here unlock more powerful versions of your weapons, which are needed to progress further into the game.
Therefore, free-to-play heroes who can clear Arena earlier are better than others. But lucky all heroes are useful for Globals.
Globals
Every hero has 5 Global Abilities that make them, and every other hero, stronger. They mostly come from leveling up a hero with hero orbs to levels 50, 70, 90, and 120.
Hero level 50, 70, and 120 unlock boosts to every hero. Level 90 unlocks a boost to heroes in the same faction.
Another global comes from the weapon forge, which ties back to the Arena.
Lastly, heroes in the same faction boost each other, which is important to understand. Particularly early, getting several heroes in the same faction can really boost each other up, which weighs on the ranking.
However, the important thing to understand behind the scenes is that just because you unlock a hero does not mean you will gain immediate access to their globals. You will need to collect resources like hero orbs, hero shards, weapon tokens, and coins to unlock these abilities.
But this takes a lot of time, so if a hero is only good for globals, they are NOT helpful early in the game. Which we already said was the most important part of the ranking.
The heroes with good globals, but that you don't actively use, are called "Shelf Heroes" because they stay on the shelf
And that's where this first set of F2P heroes stays, firmly on the shelf.
#13-6 - Shelf Heroes
The majority of this first set of seven F2P heroes have excellent global abilities, but they won't help you until you can unlock those abilities, as we just discussed. So, grab them later in the game once you have the resources to unlock their abilities.
Unless, of course, you WANT to play with them for the thematics, in which case, go for it.
From worst to best, we got:
#14 - Spirit Shaman
#13 - Dark Ranger
#12 - Arcane Mage
#11 - Fire Wizard
#10 - Frost Wizard
#9 - Lionheart
#8 - Circuit Breaker
#7 - Crazy Tinkerer
#6 - Big Game Hunter
Quickly looking at important ones from this list, Arcane Mage has some of the best globals in the game and is your very first hero. That means you can start unlocking her globals without any investment besides coins and hero orbs. Do that after you have leveled up one of the heroes at the top of this list, but more on him later.
For now, know that Lionheart, Circuit Breaker, and Big Game Hunter have mediocre globals, but will take months to grind in their corresponding events. Big Game Hunter is worth saving for, but the hero clash tokens needed to unlock Lionheart and Circuit Breaker can be better spent on forge tokens early in the game. I have a guide on Hero Clash that explains my reasoning in detail.
You can, and should, put coins towards Crazy Tinkerer once you get Knight and Arcane Mage leveled. Coins are a relatively easy-to-come-by resource, even if 1,000,000 sounds like a lot. He's a fun hero to play with, good globals, so feel free to unlock him when Talents become about the same price.
The rest of the heroes on this list get unlocked via gems. While you don't want to spend Gems on any of these heroes early, you do want to spend gems on the next hero.
#5 - Future Adventure Heroes
The fifth-best free-to-play hero is any future Adventure Hero. You can unlock a new adventure hero once a month for 1,300 gems, the best deal in the game.
Future Adventure Heroes are a crap shoot. They might be strong standalone heroes. They might have excellent globals, like Trapper. Or they might be a complete waste, like Glacial Sentinel.
Historically, some of the strongest heroes in the game have come from the Adventure line, including Artificer and Clockwork Mage.
That said, more recent Adventure Heroes tend to fall somewhere between shelf heroes and fun-to-play options. They often come with strong global bonuses or the potential for a high power cap, especially after a solid lineup of more unique heroes.
So remember: always do your adventures. You never know exactly what you'll get, but it will definitely help you in the long term.
But this next guy can help you in the short run.
#4 - Paladin
Paladin is unlocked through guild events, so joining an active guild is key to earning his tokens quickly. As part of the Warrior faction, he synergizes with Knight and Blademaster, creating a trio that buffs each other. Especially helpful in the early game when faction synergy matters most.
His main value lies in his built-in knockback and periodic invulnerability. These traits let him control the battlefield and survive longer, allowing you to deal consistent damage while avoiding hits.
This makes Paladin particularly useful for clearing early Arena stages. While he's not the best Arena hero, his crowd control and survivability can help you finish stages earlier than other F2P options, pushing you faster into the mid-game where stronger upgrades unlock.
Paladin's utility, faction synergy, and Arena viability give him a solid place above many lower-tier heroes, even if he's not a top-tier pick.
#3 - Pirate Queen
The third-best, freely available hero is Pirate Queen.
She's very strong in the early game, but she falls off tremendously towards the end of the mid game.
Her kit revolves around Instant Kill in order to be effective - she's the only hero with it innately. That allows her to clear parts of the Arena earlier than other heroes. The Arena's tokens are a very valuable resource, making her very valuable if you can clear it.
But her problem is that she's quite binary - either you can kill horde fast enough or you can't. Her Flintlock projectiles need to bounce between horde. If they don't bounce fast enough, she can't clear it.
Because she's reliant on instant kill, she falls off whenever the mode has instant kill disabled, like Hard Mode.
That being said, she's a lot of fun to play, particularly in the early game. It's fun to watch her projectiles bounce all over the place and her crimson wheel spin.
But she doesn't spin as much as the next guy.
#2 - Blademaster
I have Blademaster as a second-best free-to-play hero.
He's a bit out of character because he's weak in the early game, but excels in the Arena.
So let me explain.
At level 100, his ultimate comes online, and so does the Blademaster's potential. He is invincible during the duration of his ultimate, which charges off of Critical Strike.
That mechanic makes him the first hero to reliably clear Arena. It also lets him push Hard Mode chapters without getting a forge, which is incredibly valuable. Most heroes require months of super token grinding to level up their weapon forge before they can clear the end of Hard Mode.
However, he's useless until he has his ultimate, which means you don't want to invest in him UNTIL you can get him up to level 100.
That prevents him from being the top-tier free-to-play hero in my book, which this next guy holds.
#1 - Knight
I have Knight as the overall best free-to-play hero.
As you grind and progress into the depths of Heroes vs Hordes, you can make him sufficiently strong to beat any single piece of content.
He's strongest in the early game because his base kit offers enough versatility between offense and defense to creatively beat chapters.
His big advantage comes from his weapon. The Sword can hit any number of horde within its area of effect, making it more efficient than Pirate Queen and Arcane Mage early, which rely on single projectiles.
Additionally, he has armor in his faction and leveling bonuses. This allows him to mix and match builds that other early game heroes do not have access to.
After the early game, the same versatility will help him in the late game. You need his 4-star forge to unlock enough disruption and damage, but then he can clear Arena, Nightmare More, and parts of Hard Mode Arena.
His weakest time comes in the mid-game, but that's when you can transition to Blademaster for a bit.
However, once you get his 4* forge running, the Knight turns into a lawnmower man powerful enough to cut down any Horde in his path.
Summary
And that's the set of the best free-to-play heroes in the game. Lucky for you, Knight is available right out of the gate.
You'll accumulate enough gems, coins, and event tokens over the course of several months to unlock the shelf heroes, but don't rush into them. You need those months to accumulate the resources to turn on their globals and make them a productive part of your roster of heroes.
And remember, always do your adventures!
