Nobody asked for this list, but I'm making it anyway. And honestly, that's going to be a theme.
These are the 10 worst heroes in Heroes vs. Hordes. Each one is bad because I say so. And when I say "because I say so," what I really mean is they suffer from at least one of these unforgivable flaws.
Some heroes I can't actually control, while others require ramping damage without the time needed to ramp.
Then there's directional damage. Look, I'm not here to aim or think. So, if there's an unconventional playstyle, you're pushed down the list.
But some of these made the list purely out of my spite for them. They have personally slighted me, so they get the list.
And last, some heroes are just so forgettable that I only remember they exist when I'm making a list like this.
But, lucky for us, most of these heroes are so bad the devs won't even feature them in events, so you won't accidentally spend money on them.
And when one of the lead devs challenges you to use one to beat a chapter… well, that's not exactly a glowing endorsement.
At the end of the day, these are the 10 worst because I get to make the list.
So let's start with #10—and hopefully, I offend someone along the way.
I want to like Crazy Tinkerer. Thematically, he's great—wild goggles, running in circles, dropping bombs everywhere. That sounds fun. The problem? The horde attacks from the sides, but he drops bombs below himself. So, for his weapons to actually hit anything, enemies have to be behind you… and most of the time, they're not.
This makes his playstyle weird. And while he's solid for early Nightmare mode and can be fun in Boss Brawl, the fact that you have to think about how to position him ruins it for me. He's like a little ball of unfortunate design. Sure, you can make him work, but I'd rather have a hero that just works—without any tinkering.
At least Crazy Tinker is memorable—which is more than I can say for this next guy.
I don't know anything about this guy. Do you remember when he came out? Because I sure don't. Do you remember why he came out? No clue. Does he fit any theme? Not really. Is he fun? Couldn't tell you. Does anyone talk about him? Nope.
Why does he exist? I have absolutely no idea.
And while I don't remember Scroll Sage, the next guy eats at me constantly.
This one is pure revenge. Necromancer personally slighted me when I first started playing, and I've never forgiven him. I have enough shards to get him to almost four stars—but I don't have him. Why? Because he was the first adventure hero, and I didn't do my adventures.
Now, every time I see him, I get mad. And sad. And annoyed. So, I'm putting him at #8 out of pure spite. And there's absolutely nothing he can do about it.
Necromancer made the list out of spite. This next one? Just pure disappointment.
When your whole vibe is "Frozen" to the point where I forget your name, you're already off to a rough start. Frost Queen suffers from the same problem as a lot of bad heroes—ramping damage that takes too long to be useful. On top of that, she leans way too hard into freezing enemies instead of actually killing them.
Sure, she has her uses. Her global buffs are solid. But at the end of the day, I don't want to stare at a Disney Movie while I'm trying to mow down hordes of enemies. I want a hero with attitude, not something with mom and dad issues.
We move from frost to fire.
Ah, Fire Mage. One of the first heroes you get that costs nothing but gems and technically does a lot of damage. Sounds great, right? Wrong. Because that damage only matters if you actually hit something—which you won't.
He shoots fire in one direction, and the area of effect is just small enough to be annoying. So you either spend the whole game awkwardly aiming like it's a precision shooter, or you accept that half your attacks will whiff completely. Who has time for that? I'm here to survive, not to practice my thumb coordination.
Sure, he's free-to-play friendly, and his global buffs are decent. But there are just better heroes out there—ones that actually hit things without demanding a full-time job in aiming.
What a disappointing adventure hero. Visually, he's a mess. His whole gimmick is running over these little rune things, but when you do… nothing happens. No satisfying effect, no big payoff—just a slight color change on your spinning attack, which doesn't do much damage anyway because it's too close to you.
And if you're playing in low-visibility mode? Forget it—his abilities might as well not even exist. The biggest issue is that he's just not rewarding to play. I'm sure he could be good, and his global buffs aren't the worst, but I don't know how to make him work. More importantly, I don't want to. If a hero isn't fun, why would I ever bother playing them again?
Runemaster didn't feel like he was doing anything—Dark Ranger somehow managed to make that worse.
I really wanted to like Dark Ranger. He's got a cool vibe, but at the end of the day, he's just kind of sad. Some of his skills don't even do damage; they just slow enemies down—except the slow isn't strong enough, and it's not reliable. You end up just following your pet around, trying to be useful.
Oh, and guess what? You have to aim. So, this guy combines the worst aspects of Fire Mage and Runemaster into one frustrating hero. He's memorable, but not in the way you'd want a hero to be. More like that one awkward guy at the party, you can't forget, but for all the wrong reasons.
Void Raven suffers from one of the most frustrating flaws—ramping damage. Her main damage skill relies on you hitting an enemy and then having to wait three seconds for the damage to actually kick in. By that time, the horde's already hitting you, and you're just running around, trying to keep them off. You'll spend more time kiting than actually doing damage.
Her ultimate doesn't help much, either. It's limited to the area around her so that it won't hit enemies on the edge of the screen. That means it does less damage compared to other heroes. She was my first grind event hero, so I'll always remember her for the crazy amount of time I spent on the couch grinding.
But honestly, all the visual effects feel underwhelming compared to other heroes. Nothing about her feels rewarding, and in a game like this, that's a problem.
Void Raven takes her sweet time. Arcane Mage? She takes way too long.
Arcane Mage is fine for the very first tutorial—no complaints there. But once you move past that, you really shouldn't bother with her. She does have some solid global buffs that make your other heroes stronger, but they don't make her strong enough. Even her level 140 skill tries to compensate for the fact that she can't hit more than one horde at a time. It feels like her whole kit exists to cover up her base weaknesses, and honestly, maybe they should just make her basic attack hit multiple enemies.
The real issue is her ramping damage—it takes forever. By the time she starts ramping up to anything useful, you've got better heroes who do it faster. Some of her skills don't even do damage at all, and while she's memorable, she's honestly just really boring. So, unless you're in the early stages of the game, she's just not worth your time.
Arcane Mage was slow, but at least you were doing something. Spirit Shaman? You're just along for the ride.
Spirit Shaman takes the worst parts of Necromancer and Runemaster and mashes them together into a hero that does no damage, gives you no control, and is a complete loss of agency. Her beasts do the fighting for you, but there's no way to make them attack what you actually want. Half the time, I don't even know what they're attacking. They wander off in random directions while you just stand there, hoping for the best.
And sure, you can make her work. I even beat the hardest level in the game with her. But it wasn't fun, and I had no idea what was going on most of the time. You basically just run up and down the screen while your beasts maybe do something useful. But what's the point of playing a game if you're not actually playing? The weird playstyle and total lack of control make her truly horrible—but at least she's memorable for being that bad.
And that's my list—the 10 worst heroes in Heroes vs. Hordes. I'm sure I've offended someone, and to that, I say: you're welcome.
Look, all of these heroes are technically usable. But they're also bad, and more importantly, they're not fun. And since games are meant to be fun, a hero that isn't fun is, by definition, a bad hero. My apologies to the devs who put in the hard work—when you've got over 50 heroes, there's bound to be a bottom 10. It's just the way of life.
But let's be real—no one is losing sleep over not playing Spirit Shaman. And who knows? Maybe this list will fade into obscurity just like Scroll Sage, and no one will remember it tomorrow anyway.
