Legendary Heroes Unchained (LHU) is ramping up as it nears its version 3.0 launch, which will introduce Epochs 1 through 4, guilds, artifacts, and new features. If you are keen on giving the game a try, you're in luck, as today's GAM3S.GG guide will cover the beginner basics of Legendary Heroes Unchained. But before we dive in, let's start with a quick overview of the game:

Legendary Heroes Unchained is an RPG card strategy game involving card collecting, fusing, dungeon runs, guilds, and more. Players can collect, upgrade, and strategize with NFT heroes, explore dynamic dungeons, and engage in guild-based gameplay while shaping the evolving ecosystem through multiple Epochs.

Getting Started

Unlike other card/strategy games, Legendary Heroes Unchained is easily accessible as it can be played on browsers. Head over to their website and sign in to the game by connecting your Web3 wallet (the game is on the Base blockchain). Once you get started, you will be brought to the home screen.

Hero System

In Legendary Heroes Unchained (LHU), heroes are central to gameplay, each uniquely designed as an NFT (with the exception of "Starter Heroes," which are not NFTs) and defined by specific, permanent traits such as rarity, affinity, and role. These traits play a crucial role in shaping a hero’s effectiveness, abilities, and tactical use in combat. Heroes are organized into different rarity tiers, from Starter to Legendary, which dictate their maximum potential strength and scarcity.

Essential attributes like strength, magic, and dexterity are key to determining how heroes perform in battle, defend against threats, and impact the team's overall strategy. Players can deploy these heroes in various game modes, where roles such as attacker, tank, healer, and support help define their contribution and purpose on the battlefield. Heroes in LHU are not just static assets, they are designed to evolve. Players can level up their heroes through dungeon runes and PvP battles, enhancing their stats and unlocking new skills. The game’s unique Hero Fusion system allows players to merge heroes, upgrading abilities and creating custom builds to better suit different gameplay approaches.

Each hero's progress, including stat improvements and skill changes, is permanently recorded on-chain, reinforcing their value and uniqueness. There are several ways to obtain heroes in LHU. You have free starter heroes as a beginner, purchase packs containing specific heroes with varying probabilities, buy or sell heroes on the NFT marketplace, and even win heroes through leaderboard prizes.

Dungeons

One of the core gameplay loops of LHU is dynamic dungeon runs. These are PVE stages where players are brought into battle. Before entering the dungeon, you will choose five of your heroes to bring along. Make sure to spread out your affinities and create a team with a variety of roles.

Each step in the roguelike setup presents the player with choices that often lead to skirmishes, treasure discoveries, merchant shops, and other random events. As your collection of heroes increases in power, you will gain access to more challenging dungeons with even greater rewards.

The Battle System

Unlike other card games where players take turns with their entire team, LHU's battle sequence and attack order are based on each hero's "dexterity" stat. You can see the turn order of heroes displayed at the bottom of the battle screen. When it's a hero's turn, you have options to attack, and you must first select which enemy unit to target (some abilities can target all enemy units). Heroes usually have a basic attack, Battle Skill 1, Battle Skill 2, and ultimate abilities.

With the introduction of abilities comes the concept of mana points (the violet bar under the hero's HP bar). Most skills require mana to cast, so timing is crucial. When a hero successfully eliminates an enemy, they gain 10 MP. Hero abilities vary and can include effects like taunts, splash damage, ally buffs, enemy debuffs, dodge rate increases, critical rate boosts, and more, adding layers of complexity to the gameplay. Ultimate abilities are powerful but come with high mana costs, so they are usually reserved for boss fights or critical encounters.

Dungeon Energy and Items

Now that you understand how the battle system in LHU works, let's discuss the intricacies of dungeon runs. This involves "dungeon energy," a crucial resource used for specific dungeon-related actions (such as fleeing from a fight), so manage this resource wisely. As you venture through the dungeon, you will earn item rewards to improve your run. These items include revive feathers (revives a fallen hero to a specific amount of HP), HP potions, XP potions, etc.

You can also often obtain in-game currency called coins, which is used for various actions such as leveling up heroes. Speaking of leveling up, heroes gain XP for every battle. A helpful tip is that newly leveled-up heroes have their HP fully restored, which can be advantageous during tough battles. Another important element in dungeon runs is the possibility of obtaining "artifacts." These are non-consumable items of varying rarity that provide effects throughout your run. You can only have a limited number of active artifacts at a time.

Every dungeon run comes with rewards, tied to dungeon event progress rewards and leaderboard standings. These can include in-game and guild currency, dungeon energy, and even NFT Heroes if you reach the top of the rankings.

Guild System

As guilds were mentioned, let's briefly discuss LHU's Guild system. If you are already familiar with guild systems in other games, LHU's system will feel familiar. It allows players to join a guild and support each other by contributing guild currency (Guild Guardian Currency) for further improvements in dungeon runs, such as XP boosts, HP regeneration, and Mana regeneration.

Portal (PvP) 

Portal is LHU's take on PvP, although it isn't real-time PvP just yet. Players can form up to three "scouting" teams and one combat team. The scouting teams are essentially sent out for a set amount of time to gather rewards.

On the other hand, the combat team you form is used to battle against other players' teams, with rewards granted to the victor.

And that concludes our Legendary Heroes Unchained beginner’s guide. We hope this helps you kickstart your adventure and thrive in the LHU universe! Now, step into the world of Korelis, harness your heroes' power, and become legendary.