Know Your Hero’s Secrets

Secrets Your Heroes Keep

Heroes are the foundation of our Empires. Because of this, it’s essential to learn when and how to use them. So I’m writing this for all players, experienced or not. Learn the ways you can make growing your Empire easier and less costly.

Leveling Up Your Hero

Some of the easiest ways to level up a new hero are to hit monsters, complete Quests (Hero, Guild, and VIP), or to use the hero exp items in your inventory. As you level, it isn’t quite so easy, and you may have to rely on building, construction, or even drop from your guild so you can get some friendly attacks. Neutral Cities are also an easy, no-risk way to get a lot of Hero exp, and sometimes they will even give BILLIONS of exp with every hit.

The Moogle Market is a good place to find Hero exp on the cheap. You can also get valuable Hero Medals in the Market for when you get medal-locked. Don’t forget to check out events as they have also been good at giving a bunch of exp!

Skills Tree

Whenever you level up a hero, you will gain AP (ability points), which are points that you can use to level up skills in their Hero Skills Tree. The same goes for Mastery Points, which you will use in their Mastery Skills Tree.

• Bonus Tip: Don’t have enough Skills Points when new hero levels are released? Remove skills from the top of the Skills Trees to have enough skills points to level the skills at the bottom. Certainly, you would prefer a 200M% Dark Troop attack over.5% Dark Troop attack, right?

Hero Skills

Hero Skills only apply when that hero is active. You can’t use Ignis’ research abilities if you have Aranea active, for example. As a result, it is best to become familiar with all your heroes’ abilities when doing certain actions.

Mastery Skills

Mastery Skills are favorable since they apply no matter which hero you have active. So, Noctis’ level 8 monster skill applies to every hero as soon as you unlock that ability. Mastery Points are less common, so use them wisely!

When the Dark World is released, you will find an extra slot at the bottom of each hero’s Mastery Tree. So make sure you check them out and add points to it for an extra Dark World boost!

Resetting Skills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find Hero and Mastery Skill Resets in packs events, and sometimes in the Moogle Market. When you use one, it resets all your skills in that tree to 0. As a result, you can change what your hero’s abilities are to suit your needs. Most players probably had Noctis’ production ability skilled for the early game boosts. Because of this, there wouldn’t be enough points for the combat bonuses needed later on. Use a skill reset to wipe the board clean and you’re ready for action!

When leveling up your heroes, make sure to check their Skills Trees for the MP increases they might have. Because you might end up missing out on thousands of MP while hitting a realm boss! So, be diligent and level up wisely.

Gear

One of the first things we learned in FFXV: ANE was how to equip gear onto our heroes. Look at the different boosts each gear set has. Then, pay attention to the individual pieces in each gear to see if it has a special use. Because sometimes choosing different pieces might work out better for you than sticking to a complete set.

Gear Presets

Starting at VIP 65 you start unlocking gear presets for your heroes. Almost everyone has a monster gear preset for every hero. Mine is #1 on the list! Here are some useful presets, along with which hero they would be good for:

• Monster Gear
  • Max MP
  • Regeneration
  • Check out this article on Mastering your Hero MP
• Offensive Attack Gear
  • Rally
  • Solo
  • Troop types
• Defensive Gear
  • HP
  • Attack
  • Bait or TRAP
• Research Gear (Ignis)
• Build Gear (Cindy)
• Guild Adventure Hall Gear (Noctis, Luna, Prompto)

Getting to Know Your Heroes

Each hero has special uses. Because of this, you will want to be sure to use a particular hero for certain tasks. You should note that some abilities are better in the early game or Pre-Dark World due to their stats.

For example, Noctis has troop training time reduction, but when you properly skill Gladio, you would be better off using him to train troops. Same with Ignis and his research skills. King Noctis becomes the hands-down winner in the Dark World with his Dark Research time reduction.

Updated

With the introduction of new heroes, we uncover new secrets. Even our old friends have revealed new tricks in their skills. The Dark World is a mysterious place and every little tip and trick is useful in navigating this strange territory. I will add new secrets to every hero and leave the original tips listed. Since Luna’s double gift skills will always be relevant to us. Also, the younger realms can still benefit from learning how to increase their loyalty with Ignis’ double loyalty skill. Remember the good old days of loyalty blitzes? Did you know to have Ignis active to get your double (triple with the Oracle boost) once a day? Only five days of that to get a teleport! Even more to bubble for a whole 24 hours. Sometimes I wish I knew then what I know now. If you know of any other secrets that these heroes aren’t telling me, please send me a message and I will update this. But for now, this is what our generous heroes have told me:

Noctis Lucis Caelum

Specialty: Economy boosts, all-around combat

• March Size Increase
  • Great when filling a guildmate’s rally
  • Use when setting a fake rally to save more troops
• Extra March Slot
  • For even more resource trading
  • One extra in his Hero Skills and another in his Mastery Skills
• Monster Attack
• Research, Building, and Training
  • If you don’t have Ignis, Cindy, or Gladio
• Hits just as hard as Veteran Prompto with his new Dark Dungeon Bonus skill
• Increases drops from Noctis Tiles when you unlock his Mastery Skill.
• Guild Adventure Hall
  • Noctis’ Link Strike is deadly when used with other guildmate’s Noctis abilities

Pro-Life Tip: If you’re running out of RSS and your needs are under your empire capacity, keep Noctis as your active hero to increase your RSS buildings’ productivity. 

BONUS Tip: Use the 24 Hour (RSS BUILDING) Boost to increase your production by 25%. These can be found in the Guild Store and purchased with 50,000 Loyalty. Stack the 24 Hour (SPECIFIC RSS) Boost for an additional 25% production, which can also be found in the Guild Store and can cost anywhere from 7,300 to 15,000 Loyalty depending on RSS type. These only go up to T4 RSS.

Prompto Argentum

Specialty: Attack and mobility

• Resource trade speed is increased from his march speed and return march speed skills
• Fast march speed
  • Combine with Winged Assassin’s Gear to zoom to your opponents! (You can switch to your attack gear before you hit your opponent.)

• We haven’t seen any new secrets for dear Prompto since the Dark World dropped. Stay tuned for a change in status!

• Guild Adventure Hall
  • Concussive Shot is the hardest hitting attack in the Adventure Hall, for now
• Rally time decrease
  • Go to the rally screen and hit attack to send your rally before the set time.
  • VIP 134 reduces your rally time even more!

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret

Specialty: Mage troops and defense

• Double Luna gifts
  • When you unlock her double gift mastery, you can get quadruple gifts:
    • Start game with any hero besides Luna active
    • Switch to Luna
    • Collect Gift
    • ENJOY your four times Luna’s Gift!
    • Tip: Check your email to see the quadruple gift amount
• Unlocks Offer of the Hexatheon in her Mastery Skills tree. This gives you a daily Luna Gift that has nice loot inside them. 
  • Unlock Veteran Gladio’s skill for the Hexatheon to get t3 Dark RSS added to this chest.
  • Bonus tip: Use the Luna Gift trick to get 4 of these chests every day!
• Guild Adventure Hall
  • The only hero whose special ability heals yourself or other players in the hall
    • This changes with the release of Gentiana!

Ignis Scientia

Specialty: Research, traps, siege, and airships

• Double loyalty
  • Combined with Double Loyalty from the Oracle Temple or a pack, you get TRIPLE loyalty!!
  • Use Ignis when running loyalty blitzes to maximize loyalty gained
    • Loyalty blitz is when you and your guild deconstruct buildings and click on “Guild Help”. Cancel the deconstruction when people have helped. Then do it again. This helps max your loyalty bar every day or give points towards events.
  • Collect Guild Quests with Ignis active for double Loyalty
  • Open Loyalty packs in your items with Ignis and get double!
• Research
  • Basic to Divine research time reduction
  • Resource cost efficiency up to 55%, does not reduce cost by 55% but makes it more “efficient”.
  • Royal to divine research tome cost reduction
  • Combine these boosts with Oracle or pack purchase boosts to save even more
• Trap capacity
  • Build traps with Ignis active and they remain even when you switch to another hero. Until they are destroyed, then it will go back to your basic amount.
• Has really good Dark troop capacity boosts. 1T for Dark Mercenaries!

Aranea Highwind

Specialty: Cavalry troops and mercenaries

• Decreases cost of training mercenaries by up to 44%. That’s almost like getting twice the troops for the cost!
• Good for using Dragoon types against Imperial Fortresses in the early game stage.
• She is still relevant with training Dark Mercenaries since her Mercenary troop training cost reduction applies to Dark Mercs. YAY!

Gladiolus Amicitia

Specialty: Warrior troops and training

• Increased troop training speed and larger training queue.
  • Works even with Dark Troops
• Gather march size and troop load
  • Makes those resource gathering events so much quicker
• Steal enemy HP and Attack
  • Takes a percentage of your enemy’s HP and Attack and adds it to your stats
• No new secrets for the OG Gladio in the Dark World. But I still have hope (along with an instant level 350 Gladiolus token I would love to use).

Ravus Nox Fleuret

Specialty: Magitek troops, attack, and Imperial Fortress Assault

• Expansion production
  • Increase your expansion’s production by up to 462%
    • All you need to do is activate Ravus when you collect from your expansions and the boost will remain active, even when switching heroes.
    • Increase your Ice well boost by collecting with Shiva!
• Expansion cost reduction
  • Lower the expansion blueprint cost of building your expansions by up to 56%
• Prisoner boosts
  • Increase attack with multiple, high-level heroes
    • TIP: Use farm heroes or borrow guildmate’s heroes to increase your prisoner count!
• Decreases Dark Expansion build time and blueprint costs. This is a Mastery Skill, so you don’t have to have him as your active hero as you did with his previous expansion skill.
  • Bonus tip: Have him in the Order of Heroes to increase this skill.

Cindy Aurum

Specialty: Construction, gear, and trap transportation

• MP Recovery up to 110%
  • Helpful when you need to regenerate MP quickly.
  • Use with accessories that have MP regeneration since her Accessory All Stat boost increases that too!
• Leveling Buildings
  • She is the best option to level buildings quickly. Even in the Dark World.
    • Her Accessory stat boosts help increase the Delegator and Dark Delegator gear stats.
• Trap transportation abilities
  • Add traps to your offensive marches or the Crystal!
• Increases expansion blueprint efficiency for Dark, Exalted, Royal, and Basic expansion blueprints. This is a Mastery Skill. Efficiency means that you use blueprints more efficiently, and is not a direct reduction. For example, 100% Dark expansion blueprint efficiency means you use 50% less. Maths…
• Increases expansion speed for level 1, level 2, and Dark speeds. This is similar to efficiency. 100% speed means you build them 100% faster, so that’s not a 100% reduction in time. It is a 50% reduction. Like if you were driving 100% faster, you would get there in half the time. 

Iris Amicitia

Specialty: City Defense and hero support

• Triple MP when unlocked
• Can hit level 9 monsters at hero level 317
• Slows marches headed towards your empire. Test your quick reflexes by having her active and switching to your defensive hero before your attacker speeds in their march! Note: This only applies if your enemy has any Pre-Dark Troops in their march.

 

King Noctis

Specialty: Dark Troops and resource production

• Can hit level 9 monsters at hero level 65
• Dark training time reduction
  • Although Gladio has a better reduction on even Dark Troops
• Dark research speed
  • Start research with King Noctis active to reap these benefits
• Mastery Skill to increase Astral march capacity.
• Best all-around hero in the Dark World for research, building, training, etc.

Ardyn

Specialty: Dark Bonuses and troop attack

• Combat boosts are a lot better than King Noctis but not as good as King Regis
• Bonuses for Disputed Realm combat in his Hero Skills tree

 

 

King Regis

Specialty: Hero Support and Order of Heroes bonuses

• Can hit level 9 monsters at hero level 53
• Best combat hero as of June 2019
• Will hit the hardest when his Dungeon Dark Bonus skill is maxed at 2.5M% and you have his third ability unlocked that deals 4250 damage. Veteran Prompto and Noctis only deal 4000 damage with their 2.5M% skill.
• Lucky Loot from Neutral Empires increases your chance at good drops when attacking Neutral Empires. These are Mastery Skills, but you still need to level him up to have enough Skill Points to get these maxed along with his other Neutral Empire skills.

Gentiana

• Great healer in the Guild Adventure Hall. So, she is great to use if you already have some heavy hitters, but have some players that need to be healed.
• Her Mastery Skill for Dark Troop Capacity is the bee’s knees when she’s first released. 
• She also has a Mastery Skill for Dark Troop Queue that makes training Dark Troops a breeze.
• The very bottom of her Mastery Skills Tree has a lot of Limit Breaks, mostly used for the Guild Adventure Hall. Using Enchantment materials, these boosts last for 90 days!

 

Veteran Prompto

• One of the best Guild Adventure Hall hitters.
• Has a Mastery Skill to increase Dark March speed and Dark Rally March speed.
• Unlocks Dark Monster attack at level 40.

 

 

 

 

Veteran Gladio

• The best hero for combat as of 9/2019. Due to the billions of percentage of stats increases.
• His Mastery Skills have nodes to reduce T3 RSS needed for construction.
• At level 70, you can unlock a skill to get t3 RSS from Luna’s Offering of the Hexatheon Rewards chest.
• Unlocks Dark Monster attack at level 40.
• Does NOT have Guild Adventure Hall special abilities as of 9/2019. When he does, he should hit as hard as Veteran Prompto and Noctis due to the 2.5M% Dungeon Physical Damage Bonus!
• Great defensive hero for Traps. While offensive attackers might move on to the next hero when there are new levels released, the Dark Earth Troops’ and Dark Mercenary Troops’ boosts should be good for a while.

 

Order of Heroes

Each hero, when placed in the Order of Heroes, has a different boost. Even more than the boost that is already offered by that Order. Adding your inactive heroes to an Order comes in handy. But remember that even while in an Order, they do not regenerate MP.

Updated:

Some of our favorite heroes have received updated boosts for placing them in the Order of Heroes! As a result, you might find it necessary to do the same hero swapping that we used to do when the Order of Heroes was first released. Every little bit of a stats increase really helps cement your victory against your enemies. Remember that Order boosts vary depending on your hero’s level. Due to this, I haven’t included the amount of the boost. So be sure to check out all your newly leveled heroes for the exact stats increase to determine which ones you want to include in the Order of Heroes. The nice thing about having the original Orders along with the Elemental and Dark Orders is that we have more than enough to put in every hero that isn’t active at the time. I think we need more heroes now. Veteran Cindy, anyone? 

Each stat boost is increased with hero level, so a level 150 Luna will give more City Defense HP than a level 22 Luna. So, here are their individual boosts:

Noctis:

• Upkeep efficiency for Food, Wheat, and Corn
• Dark Juggernaut attack
• Dark Juggernaut HP
• Dark Juggernaut armor

Prompto:

• City Assault Attack Bonus

Luna:

• City Defense HP Bonus
• Dark Ice Troop attack
• Dark Ice Troop HP
• Dark Ice Troop armor

Ignis:

• Basic and Royal Research Speed
• Dark Airship attack
• Dark Fire Troop attack

Aranea:

• War Spoils
• Dark Guardian Cripple HP

Gladio:

• Troop Load

Ravus:

•  Mercenary Magitek Attack Bonus
• Dark Troop attack with hero
• Dark Troop HP with hero
• Dark Troop armor with hero
• Dark Empire Expansion Blueprint Cost Efficiency
• Dark Empire Expansion Construction Speed

Cindy:

• Trap Attack
• Dark Trap attack

Iris:

• City Defense HP Bonus

King Noctis:

• Upkeep Efficiency for Food and Wheat
• Dark Crystal Defense HP
• Dark Guardian HP
• Dark Ice Troop attack

Ardyn:

• Upkeep Efficiency for Food and Wheat
• Dark Warrior Armor Piercing
• Dark Warrior Attack Resistance
• Dark Warrior Cripple HP

King Regis:

• Dark Troop Attack, HP, and Armor with Hero
• Dark Troop attack with hero
• Dark Troop HP with hero 
• Dark Troop armor with hero

Gentiana:

• Dark Elemental Troop attack with hero
• Dark Elemental Troop HP with hero
• Dark Elemental Troop armor with hero

Veteran Prompto:

• Dark Juggernaut attack
• Dark Juggernaut HP
• Dark Juggernaut armor

Veteran Gladio:

• Dark Earth Troop attack
• Dark Earth Troop HP
• Dark Earth Troop armor

Power of Kings and Power of Queens

Most of the heroes now have a new, persistent Skill Tree: Power of Kings for the boys and Power of Queens for the girls. Since they are persistent, all you need to do is set it and forget it. The boosts will apply no matter which hero is active and they are like having a second Mastery Skills Tree.

The Power of Kings skills are all the same for each hero until you hit the Advanced Power of Kings. By then, each hero will have their own special skills that you will want to check through to make sure you get the most for the medals that you have.

The Power of Queens skill also starts off the same way but varies slightly at the end. 

More Info:

Check out Aly’s article to learn more.

The Order of Heroes is a great way to keep your unused heroes relevant to your game-play. Use the new hero for combat and as many other heroes can be placed in Orders to enhance your strength.

Lastly, there are Orders that you will want to keep a hero in at all times. Like the Order of Kings to get an extra march slot, or the Dark Order of the Hunt for the Guild Adventure Hall boosts. So, if you see a guildmate using stamina when running Halls, just give them a gentle reminder to add a hero in that Order.

Tell Me All Your Secrets

What new and exciting secrets have you discovered from your heroes? Please don’t keep it to yourself and come join us on Discord or Line and share with me. Be sure to @tylianna so I see your message loud and clear.

I hope this gave you some knowledge that you didn’t have before. Maybe you’re new to the game and half of this doesn’t even apply. Or perhaps you’re a seasoned pro who could have written this in your sleep! No matter what, if this helped you in any way, please let me know on Line or Discord!

What to Read Next?

If you’re needing more secrets for this game, there are a few more articles that you may enjoy!

• Dark World Hero Secrets starts with the first Dark World hero King Noctis and is updated to include the most recent hero releases.
• Secrets of Astrals, Mounts, and Kings (of Lucis) will help you unlock the hidden potential of these features.
• Whether you’re new, seasoned, or coming back for a second (or third?) round, the Returning Players Guide to FFXV: ANE will have some tips you’re sure to enjoy.

Coming Soon

Hopefully Kingsglaive Gladio :,)