Official Game Guide

Hero’s Ark

A browser-based fantasy MMORPG combining turn-based, stat-driven combat with a persistent grid world and a real-time kingdom economy. Forge a hero from 6 races and 7 classes, explore a 25×25 tile world, then claim and defend a kingdom.

6 Races7 Classes 25×25 Grid WorldKingdom Economy & Warfare Quests & AchievementsGuilds & World Chat

Two Layers, One World

Hero’s Ark is played on two layers. The Hero layer is a turn-based, stat-driven RPG: you walk a 25×25 tile map, trigger random encounters, fight monsters in turn-based combat, craft gear, and grow a single character through five attributes. The Kingdom layer is a persistent-economy strategy game: claim a kingdom plot, build production buildings that accrue resources in real time (even while you're offline, up to 24 hours), train troops, and send generals to raid rival kingdoms.

The two layers meet at the tax line: every monster you kill on someone's claimed land pays a cut of its gold to that kingdom's treasury (or the capital's, at the center of the map), and that treasury funds the buildings and troops that make the kingdom layer work.

⚔️ The Hero Layer

Turn-based combat resolved by five attributes (STR/DEX/INT/VIT/LUK), five crafting professions, and a class-and-ability system with resource bars, level-gated abilities, and one permanent specialization choice.

🏰 The Kingdom Layer

Claim a plot for 500 gold, build up to eleven building types, gather six resource types, train troops, and send Generals to raid rival holdings for gold and territory.

🗺️ A Persistent World

Ten 25×25 zones (Aldenmoor Heartlands through Dragonspine Sanctum), each with 24 kingdom plots and one capital, scaled for character levels 1 through 100.

📜 Quests & Achievements

Three diary-page quest lines told in any discovery order, three instanced dungeons, and nine achievements rewarding Diamonds and a Unique respec item.

How To Use This Guide

New players should read Getting Started and Character Creation, then skim Attributes and Combat before picking a race and class. Once your hero can hold its own, the Kingdom chapters open up the economy and warfare layer. Use the search box in the sidebar to jump straight to any term.

First-Time Path

Race → Professions → Class → level up through your zone's monsters → claim a kingdom once you can afford the 500 gold → join a guild. The guide is ordered to follow roughly that arc.

Getting Oriented

Getting Started

Everything a new arrival needs in their first hour.

Your First Session

1

Create an account

Sign up with email and password, confirm your email, then claim a username. See Character Creation for the hero-creation walkthrough that follows.

2

Create your hero

Pick one of 3 character slots, choose a race, exactly 2 starting crafting professions, and a class. Your race and class are permanent (there is no race or class change), but you can later teach a hero additional professions through the Diamond Store, and the Potion of Forgotten Self — a rare achievement reward — lets you respec your attribute points.

3

Fight your first monsters

Moving into a tile can trigger a random encounter. Combat is turn-based: attack, use a class ability (which spends your resource bar — Rage, Energy, Focus, Mana, or Holy Power depending on class), or flee. See Combat.

4

Level up and gear up

Kills grant gold and XP. Every level grants 3 free attribute points and, at levels 15/30/45/60/75, a new class ability. Use your two crafting professions to make weapons, armor, and consumables from monster drops and gathered materials.

5

Claim a kingdom and join a guild

Once you have 500 gold, claim any unclaimed kingdom plot to open the whole economy/warfare layer (see Kingdoms). Guilds are simple to create or join from World Chat and share a private chat channel and bank.

The Golden Rules

Kingdom time never stops

Resource production accrues in real time, up to a 24-hour cap since your last collection. Troops, once trained, sit ready to defend or attack whether you're online or not.

Everything is stat-driven

Combat has no reflex component. Outcomes are decided by your STR/DEX/INT/VIT/LUK, your gear, your class abilities, and the monster's level and tier (mob, elite, or boss).

Choices are permanent

Race, professions, and class are locked in at character creation. Specializations unlock at level 15 and, once chosen, cannot currently be changed either.

Where you fight matters economically

Every monster kill is taxed by whoever owns the kingdom plot (or capital) you're standing on — up to 20% for a regular kingdom, up to 50% inside the capital block.

Your Hero

Character Creation

You get 3 character slots per account. Creating a hero is a single, permanent decision across four fields.

The Four Choices

1 · Slot

Pick one of your 3 character slots. Each slot holds one hero with its own level, gear, gold, and kingdom holdings.

2 · Race

Sets your five starting attribute values. See Races for the full comparison — this cannot be changed later.

3 · Two Professions

Choose exactly 2 of the 5 crafting professions (Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Jeweler, Chef, Alchemist). Both start at profession level 1. See Equipment & Crafting.

4 · Class

Sets your resource bar, armor type, and ability kit. See Classes. Also permanent — there is no in-game class change.

Starting Condition

Every new hero begins at level 1 with 60 gold, empty equipment slots, and spawns at a fixed point inside their home zone's capital block. Your starting attributes come entirely from your race choice — there is no free-allocation pool at creation; your first discretionary attribute points arrive with your first level-up (3 points per level thereafter).

Choosing well

Match your race's strongest attribute to your class's stat priority (see each class's entry in Classes) for the smoothest early game — a Dwarf or Orc Warrior and a Gnome or Elf Mage are both strong, low-friction starts. Nothing here is a trap, though: attribute points from leveling quickly outweigh the racial head start.

Your Hero

Attributes & Derived Stats

Hero’s Ark uses five core attributes. Every character starts at a base of 10 in each, modified by race, and gains 3 free points per level to allocate however you like — there is no cap or softcap on any single attribute.

Attribute	Abbrev.	What it drives
Strength	STR	Physical Attack power
Dexterity	DEX	A share of Critical Hit chance
Intelligence	INT	Magic power (spell/ability scaling)
Vitality	VIT	Defense and Max HP
Luck	LUK	The larger share of Critical Hit chance

Derived Formulas

All formulas use your effective attribute — base 10 + race modifier + allocated points + equipment bonuses — and your character level.

Derived Stat	Formula
Attack (ATK)	STR × 2
Defense (DEF)	round(VIT × 0.8)
Magic Power (MAG)	INT × 2
Critical Chance	LUK × 0.6 + DEX × 0.2, capped at 40%
Max HP	40 + VIT × 6 + Level × 8
Max Resource (classed)	50 + Level

A note on build diversity

Monster Attack scales roughly 1.7–1.9 per level (faster for elites/bosses), while a spread-out build's Defense only rises about a quarter as fast. In practice this rewards leaning into a primary attribute — pure defense-stacking can trivialize incoming damage but deals almost none in return, and an even 5-way split falls behind at high levels. Check each class's stat priority in Classes before allocating.

Where Points Come From

Race: a fixed modifier per attribute, applied once at creation (see Races).
Leveling: +3 unspent points every level, allocated one attribute at a time, permanently.
Equipment: weapon/armor/accessory items can carry flat attribute or ATK/DEF/MAG bonuses on top of your base stats.

Your Hero

Combat System

Combat is turn-based and triggered by random encounters as you move, by attacking dungeon monsters, roaming World Bosses, or rival kingdoms. Every fight is you versus one monster (or, for kingdom warfare, army versus army — see Armies & Warfare).

Damage

Each side's hit is resolved the same way:

Your damage

max(1, your ATK − monster DEF + random(−2, 2))

Monster's damage

max(1, monster ATK − your DEF + random(−2, 2))

A fight ends when one side's HP reaches 0, or you flee. There is no accuracy/miss roll outside of Critical Hits and class control abilities — every attack that isn't dodged by an ability effect connects.

Monster Tiers

Every monster belongs to one of three tiers, which multiply its base HP/ATK/DEF (computed from its level):

Tier	HP ×	ATK ×	DEF ×
Mob	1.00	1.00	1.00
Elite	1.15	1.10	1.30
Boss	1.45	1.20	1.30

Your Resource Bar

Once you've chosen a class, you fight with a resource bar that fuels your abilities: Mana (Cleric, Mage, Necromancer), Focus (Ranger), Energy (Rogue), or a bar that builds as you fight rather than regenerating — Rage (Warrior) and Holy Power (Paladin). Abilities cost 15–50 resource and unlock at specific levels (1, 15, 30, 45, 60, and a level-75 capstone) — see each class's ability list in Classes.

Fleeing and Defeat

You can attempt to flee most fights. If your HP reaches 0, you're returned to your zone's capital with your HP restored to half of max and lose a portion of your carried gold — a setback, not a full loot-drop.

Your Hero

Leveling & Progression

There is no fixed level cap, but the world's ten zones are tuned for characters roughly level 1 through 100.

Experience

Every kill grants a fixed amount of XP (set per monster). When your XP meets the threshold for your current level, you level up — potentially several times off one big kill. Each level:

Grants +3 attribute points to allocate.
Raises the XP threshold for the next level by 28% (xp_next = round(xp_next × 1.28)).
Recalculates your Max HP and, if classed, Max Resource — and fully restores both.

Zone Difficulty Curve

Each of the 10 zones hosts monsters spanning one 10-level band, so the world doubles as a level guide:

Zone	Monster Levels
1 — Aldenmoor Heartlands	1–10
2 — Thornwood Reaches	11–20
3 — Ashen Vale	21–30
4 — Mirefen Lowlands	31–40
5 — Frostpeak Highlands	41–50
6 — Sunscorch Wastes	51–60
7 — Gloomdeep Hollow	61–70
8 — Stormbreak Coast	71–80
9 — Shadowfell Marches	81–90
10 — Dragonspine Sanctum	91–100

Ability & Specialization Milestones

Level	Unlock
1	Your class's first two core abilities
15	Third ability, and your one permanent Specialization choice (one of 3 per class)
30	Fourth ability
45	Fifth ability
60	Sixth ability
75	Capstone ability — your class's strongest tool

Respeccing exists, but it's not something you craft

A Potion of Forgotten Self (Unique rarity) resets and refunds every stat point you've spent, letting you reallocate from scratch. It isn't purchasable or craftable — it's earned as a reward, currently from two of the Achievements in the next chapter. Race, class, and specialization are still permanent either way.

A note on reaching level 100

The XP curve compounds 28% every level with no ceiling, while monster XP only grows in step with the zone you're fighting in. The two pull apart fast: levels 1–50 are a reasonable few weeks of play, but the curve gets brutal well before level 100 — each late level can require more XP than everything before it combined. Treat "level 100" as a long-term aspiration for a very dedicated (or very patient) player rather than a realistic milestone, not a typo in this guide.

Your Hero

Equipment & Crafting

Every hero has three equipment slots — Weapon, Armor, and Accessory — filled with items crafted by your two chosen professions or dropped by monsters.

The Five Professions

You choose exactly 2 at character creation, both starting at profession level 1. Profession levels rise by crafting, unlocking higher-tier recipes.

Profession	Produces
Weaponsmith	Weapons — flat ATK/MAG, scaling from a Rusty Shortsword (level 1) up through Mithril-tier gear
Armorsmith	Armor — flat DEF plus a secondary attribute, from a Padded Vest up through Mithril Plate
Jeweler	Accessories — rings and amulets carrying secondary attributes and crit-relevant bonuses
Chef	Cooked meals — temporary combat buffs
Alchemist	Potions — healing and power-buff consumables

Materials

Recipes consume gathered/dropped materials — ore, wood, herb, gem, and meat — plus profession-specific components (like sharpening_stone or smiths_hammer) earned from monster drops. Each zone also offers a themed set of level-10/20/30/40/50 recipes named after that zone (e.g. an "Aldenmoor Blade" at level 10, a "Thornwood Blade" at level 20), scaled to match the zone's monster levels from Progression.

Crafting XP

Every successful craft grants profession XP toward your next profession level, gating access to that profession's higher-tier recipes — independent of your character level.

Rarity

Most crafted and dropped gear has no rarity tag at all — it's just judged on its stats. A small number of items instead carry a Unique rarity: one-of-a-kind effects that can't be crafted or bought, only earned. The Potion of Forgotten Self (see Progression and Achievements) is the first of these.

Your Hero

The 6 Races

Race is your one permanent choice, made at character creation. Each sets a modifier on all five attributes, applied over a base of 10. Green is a bonus, red a penalty.

At a Glance

Race	STR	DEX	INT	VIT	LUK	Archetype
Human	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	Versatile generalist
Elf	0	+6	+6	−4	0	Frail spellcaster/archer
Dwarf	+4	−3	0	+5	0	Stout warrior/miner
Orc	+7	0	−5	+3	0	Brutal muscle
Halfling	−4	+5	0	0	+5	Nimble and lucky
Gnome	−4	0	+6	0	+3	Brilliant tinkerer

Net totals

Human nets +5 across all five attributes with no downside anywhere. Every other race nets +5 to +8 but concentrates its bonus in one or two attributes at the cost of a debuff elsewhere — pick a specialist race to lean hard into one build, or Human to keep every attribute usable.

Race Compendium

Human

Adaptable and balanced in every discipline. No great specialty, no dead attribute either.

STR+1DEX+1INT+1VIT+1LUK+1

Plays well as: Any class

Elf

Graceful spellcasters and archers, but frail of body.

DEX+6INT+6VIT−4

Plays well as: Mage Necromancer Ranger

Dwarf

Stout miners and warriors, slow of foot.

STR+4VIT+5DEX−3

Plays well as: Warrior Paladin

Orc

Brutal muscle bought at the cost of cunning.

STR+7VIT+3INT−5

Plays well as: Warrior Paladin

Halfling

Nimble and fortunate, but lacking in raw power.

DEX+5LUK+5STR−4

Plays well as: Rogue Ranger

Gnome

Brilliant tinkerers and alchemists, physically weak.

INT+6LUK+3STR−4

Plays well as: Mage Necromancer

Your Hero

The 7 Classes

Class is chosen once at character creation and sets your resource bar, armor type, and ability kit. At level 15 you also choose one of 3 permanent Specializations for your class.

Class	Resource	Armor	Stat Priority	Role
Warrior	Rage (builds on attack)	Plate	STR > VIT > DEX	Tank / Melee
Paladin	Holy Power (builds on attack)	Plate	STR > INT > LUK	Tank / Off-heal
Cleric	Mana (regenerates)	Cloth/Mail	INT > VIT > LUK	Healer / Support
Mage	Mana (regenerates)	Cloth	INT > VIT > LUK	Magic / Control
Necromancer	Mana (regenerates)	Cloth	INT > LUK > VIT	Magic / Summoner
Ranger	Focus (regenerates)	Leather/Mail	DEX > INT > VIT	Ranged / Pet
Rogue	Energy (regenerates)	Leather	DEX > VIT > STR	Melee / Control

Class Compendium

Every class has two abilities from level 1 and unlocks one more at levels 15, 30, 45, 60, and a level-75 capstone. Each entry below lists its unlock level, its resource cost, its effect type, and its power — the coefficient applied to that class’s scaling attribute (e.g. ×1.4 INT means the effect scales with 1.4× your Intelligence). Buffs, debuffs, and control effects have no direct magnitude and are described in the Effect column.

Warrior

The unbreakable line and the falling axe. Warriors build Rage by striking and being struck, then spend it on devastating maneuvers.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Cleave	1	15	Damage	×1.3 STR	Strike the enemy for physical damage.
Rend	1	15	DoT	×0.6 STR	Apply a stacking Bleed that gnaws at the enemy.
Taunt	15	20	Buff	—	Brace for the enemy's fury, raising your mitigation this fight.
Shield Wall	30	25	Shield	×2 STR	Raise your shield, absorbing a wave of incoming damage.
Battle Shout	45	30	Buff	—	Bellow a war cry, raising your attack for the rest of the fight.
Execute	60	35	Damage	×2.5 STR	Massive bonus damage against a badly wounded foe.
Unbreakable	75 capstone	50	Shield	×5 STR	Become immune to being felled outright for the rest of the fight.

Specializations (lvl 15): Guardian shield-and-board tank — taunts, Shield Wall, damage sharing. Warlord a commander whose shouts buff the whole party. Berserker two-hander DPS that grows stronger while wounded.

Paladin

Holy warriors who blend the Warrior's steel with the Cleric's light. Durable, self-sufficient, and superb in a fight.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Judgment	1	15	Damage	×1.3 STR	A Holy strike that builds Holy Power.
Consecration	1	15	Damage	×1 STR	Sanctify the ground beneath the enemy.
Lay on Hands	15	25	Heal	×1.8 STR	A large emergency heal.
Aura	30	20	Buff	—	A persistent aura that strengthens you.
Guardian	45	25	Shield	×2.2 STR	Brace to intercept the next blows.
Divine Storm	60	30	Damage	×1.7 STR	AoE Holy damage that also heals you.
Avenging Wrath	75 capstone	50	Buff	—	Wings unfurl; your damage and healing surge for the rest of the fight.

Specializations (lvl 15): Protector immovable tank with self-healing. Herald auras and blessings that empower the party. Crusader two-handed Holy DPS.

Cleric

The light that keeps a party alive. Clerics heal, shield, buff, and smite — no serious group leaves home without one.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Heal	1	15	Heal	×1.5 INT	A strong single-target restoration.
Renew	1	15	Heal	×0.9 INT	A gentle restoration that mends your wounds.
Sanctuary	15	20	Shield	×2 INT	Raise a bubble that absorbs incoming damage.
Bless	30	20	Buff	—	Bless yourself, raising your attributes for the fight.
Smite	45	20	Damage	×1.3 INT	Holy damage, with bonus power against the undead.
Divine Shield	60	30	Shield	×3 INT	Become briefly immune to harm.
Resurrection	75 capstone	50	Heal	×3 INT	A massive restoration, pulling you back from the brink.

Specializations (lvl 15): Templar Holy-damage battle-priest on the front line. Warden preemptive shields, wards, and damage prevention. Oracle pure, powerful healing and resurrection.

Mage

Raw elemental annihilation. Mages trade fragility for the highest burst damage and battlefield control in the game.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Firebolt	1	15	Damage	×1.4 INT	A reliable single-target elemental nuke.
Fireball	1	15	Damage	×1.2 INT	A blazing explosion that also sears with Burn.
Frost Nova	15	20	Control	—	Freeze the enemy in place.
Arcane Missiles	30	25	Damage	×1.6 INT	A rapid multi-hit barrage that partially ignores resistance.
Blink	45	20	Buff	—	Instantly reposition, avoiding the enemy's next attack.
Polymorph	60	30	Control	—	Transform the enemy, removing it from the fight briefly.
Meteor	75 capstone	50	Damage	×3 INT	A delayed cataclysm of fire and stone.

Specializations (lvl 15): Pyromancer fire burst and Burn stacking. Arcanist raw arcane damage, teleportation, polymorph. Cryomancer frost control — slows, freezes, shatter combos.

Necromancer

Masters of death magic who fight through wasting curses and stolen life.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Raise Undead	1	15	Buff	—	Spend Souls to summon skeletal minions to fight for you.
Corruption	1	15	DoT	×0.7 INT	A heavy Necrotic damage-over-time.
Life Drain	15	20	Damage	×1.2 INT	Deal Necrotic damage and heal yourself for a portion.
Curse of Weakness	30	20	Debuff	—	Lower the target's attributes.
Bone Armor	45	25	Shield	×2.3 INT	A Necrotic shield that absorbs damage.
Summon Wraith	60	30	Buff	—	Summon a powerful spectral servant.
Army of the Dead	75 capstone	50	Damage	×3 INT	Raise a battalion of undead for a devastating assault.

Specializations (lvl 15): Soulbinder curses and life-drain that cripple foes while healing. Bonelord commands a growing horde of undead minions. Plaguecaster stacks lethal damage-over-time effects.

Ranger

The patient hunter and a loyal beast at their side. Rangers control the fight with Focus-fueled shots and traps.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Aimed Shot	1	15	Damage	×1.5 DEX	A slow, heavy-hitting precision shot.
Multishot	1	15	Damage	×1.1 DEX	A quick flurry of arrows.
Hunter's Mark	15	20	Debuff	—	Mark the enemy, making it take extra damage from all sources.
Beast Companion	30	25	Buff	—	Summon your animal companion to fight at your side.
Snare Trap	45	25	Control	—	Root the enemy in place, damaging and delaying it.
Camouflage	60	30	Buff	—	Blend into the surroundings, becoming much harder to hit.
Rain of Arrows	75 capstone	50	Damage	×2.6 DEX	A multi-round volley that blankets the enemy.

Specializations (lvl 15): Trapper zones the battlefield with snares and explosives. Beastmaster fights through a powerful animal companion. Marksman long-range single-target precision.

Rogue

Death from the shadows. Rogues spend Energy on precise, brutal strikes and vanish before the counter lands.

Ability	Lvl	Cost	Type	Power	Effect
Stealth	1	15	Buff	—	Vanish and strike from the shadows, guaranteeing your next blow lands true.
Backstab	1	15	Damage	×1.4 DEX	Heavy damage from a hidden angle.
Poison Blade	15	20	DoT	×0.5 DEX	Coat your blade in poison, sickening the enemy over time.
Eviscerate	30	25	Damage	×1.8 DEX	A brutal finishing strike.
Smoke Bomb	45	25	Buff	—	Vanish in a cloud of smoke, becoming much harder to hit.
Vanish	60	30	Shield	×2.5 DEX	Slip away and re-enter the fight from an advantageous position.
Shadowstep Assault	75 capstone	50	Damage	×2.8 DEX	Teleport behind the enemy and unleash a full combo.

Specializations (lvl 15): Assassin single-target burst and openers from stealth. Outlaw dual-wield sustained and cleave damage. Nightblade poisons, control, and sabotage.

The World

World Map & Regions

The world is 10 separate 25×25 tile zones, each scaled to a 10-level band of monsters (see Progression).

Zone	Name
1	Aldenmoor Heartlands
2	Thornwood Reaches
3	Ashen Vale
4	Mirefen Lowlands
5	Frostpeak Highlands
6	Sunscorch Wastes
7	Gloomdeep Hollow
8	Stormbreak Coast
9	Shadowfell Marches
10	Dragonspine Sanctum

Reading a Zone

Each 25×25 zone is carved into 5×5 blocks. The center block (block 2,2) is always the Capital — the zone's single highest-value, highest-tax holding, and where every new hero in that zone spawns. The other 24 blocks are ordinary Kingdom plots, free to claim until a player takes them. Tiles are also marked Wall (impassable), Travel (safe waypoints), or Dungeon entrances.

Movement

You move 1 tile per step (2 with a level-1+ mount, more at higher mount levels), and moving can trigger a random encounter unless you're on a Kingdom, Capital, or Travel tile. A tiny chance on every move also spawns a roaming World Boss somewhere on the zone. Every step (and mount-hop) also spends 1 of your 100 Haste Energy, which refills fully 100 seconds after the first point of a burst is spent — a light throttle against rapid-fire input that normal exploring never exhausts.

The World

Adventuring & PvE

Three sources of PvE combat exist beyond ordinary wandering encounters: random field monsters, instanced Dungeons, and roaming World Bosses. Exploring also turns up hand-placed Quests.

Random Encounters

Moving onto an unsafe tile can trigger a fight against one of that zone's field monsters (Mob, Elite, or Boss tier — see Combat). Kingdom, Capital, and Travel tiles never trigger encounters.

Dungeons

Dungeon entrances lead to an instanced layout with their own monster roster, separate from the open zone. Entering marks your return point, so you can step back out to exactly where you left the overworld. Three exist so far, each stocked entirely with Veteran and Blessed variants of that zone's own monsters:

Dungeon	Zone	Layout
Heart of The Lands	Aldenmoor Heartlands	14×24, entrance near the top
The Thorned Hollow	Thornwood Reaches	14×24, entrance near the top
The Ashen Crucible	Ashen Vale	14×24, entrance near the top-right

Killing your first monster inside starts a 60-minute clock; if it runs out before you clear every monster, you're sent back to the entrance. Clearing a dungeon (and clearing it fast) is rewarded — see Achievements.

World Bosses

Every player movement has a tiny chance (about 1 in 100,000) to spawn a World Boss somewhere on that zone, if none is already active. A World Boss is built from the zone's toughest regular monster, scaled up dramatically: 5× its normal HP, and roughly 2× its normal Attack/Defense multiplier — with gold and XP rewards to match (10× normal). It despawns automatically after 30 minutes if not defeated.

Blessed Monsters & Unique Jewels

A Blessed monster variant (marked ✨ on the map) turns up among a zone's field monsters and fills the dungeons alongside Veterans. Every Blessed kill makes three independent 1-in-1,000 rolls, one for each of the game's Unique Jewels. Any that drop are delivered to your mailbox and announced in Global chat, and each grants a small permanent boost when claimed:

Jewel	Permanent effect on claim
Jewel of Chaos	+1 to a random attribute
Jewel of Blessing	+1 to Attack, Defense, or Magic
Jewel of Life	+1% Experience (stacks with every Jewel of Life you claim)

The Living World

Towns, Services & Trade

Beyond monsters and kingdoms, every non-dungeon zone has a handful of fixed service tiles clustered near its center, plus an account-wide Diamond economy that spans all your heroes.

Service Tiles

Tile	What it does
🏦 Realm Bank	Opens your three vaults (see below).
🏪 Player Market	Buy and sell gear and materials with other heroes.
🛏️ Wayside Inn	Rest to fully restore HP and resource, and pick up a Double-XP buff.
🌀 Travel Point	Step on one to fast-travel to another travel point on the same zone.

The Realm Bank

The Realm Bank holds three separate vaults, each with its own slot count:

Personal vault — this hero's own storage (10 slots to start), identical on every map you visit.
Account bank — 5 slots to start, shared by all the heroes on your account, so it's the way to pass gear between your own characters.
Guild bank — a 25-slot item vault plus shared gold and resources, gated by your guild rank's permissions (see Guilds).

Personal, resource-bag, and account-bank slot counts can each be expanded up to 50 through the Diamond Store.

The Player Market

At the 🏪 tile you can list any item or material from your bags for sale, priced in gold or Diamonds. Listed goods are held in escrow — you can cancel a listing any time to get them back — and you can keep up to 10 active listings at once. Gold changes hands between heroes; Diamonds, being account-wide, move between accounts.

Auto-Battle

Outside dungeons you can hand grinding off to Auto-Battle, which spends Auto Tokens to fight for you. Each hero holds up to 100 tokens, refilling over time, and can optionally auto-use consumables. A hero's token capacity can be raised permanently through the Diamond Store.

The Diamond Store

Diamonds (💎) are an account-wide premium currency shared across all your heroes. You earn them from achievements (100 apiece) or buy them directly. They're spent on permanent, account-friendly conveniences — never on raw combat power:

Purchase	Effect
Teach a profession	Add a crafting profession beyond your starting two
Gathering tool	Permanently doubles one material harvested from resource nodes (ore, wood, gems, or herbs)
Bag / resource-bag slot	+1 inventory slot, up to 50 each
Personal / account bank slot	+1 vault slot, up to 50 each
Auto-battle capacity	+100 auto-battle cap (and 100 tokens immediately)

The World

Quests

Quests currently take the form of Diary Pages — journal entries hidden around a zone that unlock a short piece of story and an XP reward once you track them all down.

How Diary Pages Work

1

Find a page

A 📜 marker appears on the map at each page's fixed location. Stand on or next to it and read it — this doesn't cost anything and can be done in any order.

2

Check your Quest Log

Reading a page adds it to your Quest Log immediately, sorted by story order regardless of which order you actually found them in.

3

Complete it from the Quest Log

Unlike most quest systems, you don't turn a diary page in back at its location — you complete it from the Quest Log screen itself, anywhere, anytime, for a one-time XP reward.

Some pages ask more of you

Many pages carry an extra requirement you have to satisfy after finding them before the Quest Log will let you complete them. Across the diary lines these include: killing a number of monsters (any kind), gathering resource nodes, digging for treasure, crafting items, posting in chat, finding a number of story pages that drop from that zone's monsters, clearing a specific dungeon, or traveling to the next region. The Quest Log shows a live progress count for whichever requirement a page uses.

Three diary lines exist today — one each in the first three zones. Each is 10 pages, read in Quest Log order rather than the order you stumble across them, and each caps off with an achievement for finishing the set.

Aldenmoor Heartlands: A Stranger's Journal

Ten pages scattered across Aldenmoor Heartlands tell the story of a mage who wakes with no memory of who he is, and studies the zone's monsters — the only other living things around — to try to find out. His path runs from waking up, to raising Heart of The Lands as a controlled place to study them, to finding the crossing west into Thornwood Reaches. Completing all ten is worth 975 XP and unlocks Light Reading.

Page	Title	XP	Requirement
1	First Light, No Name	40	Kill 10 monsters
2	The Only Voices	50	Post in chat
3	A Language I Almost Know	60	Find 5 diary pages
4	Notes on the Slimes	70	Kill 10 monsters
5	The Mountains Remember	85	Gather 10 resources
6	Old Stones	100	Dig for treasure 3×
7	A Working Theory	115	Craft 1 item
8	Digging the First Stone	130	Gather 10 resources
9	What the Dungeon Showed Me	150	Clear Heart of The Lands
10	The Way West	175	Travel to Thornwood Reaches

Thornwood Reaches: The Wellkeeper's Pages

The second set, ten shredded pages found across Thornwood Reaches, follows a darker thread beneath the green — the orcish wellkeepers, the things that do not bleed, and the script written beneath the skin — before pointing on toward Ashen Vale. Completing all ten is worth 3,280 XP and unlocks More Strange Pages.

Page	Title	XP	Requirement
1	Something in the Belly of the Beast	200	Find 5 diary pages
2	A Word Passed Mouth to Mouth	220	Post in chat
3	The Weight of Green	240	Gather 15 resources
4	The Ones That Do Not Bleed	265	Kill 10 monsters
5	A Thing Made, Not Born	295	Craft 1 item
6	Old Mouths in the Earth	330	Dig for treasure 4×
7	An Offering of Stone	370	Gather 15 resources
8	The Morning After	410	Kill 15 monsters
9	The Script Beneath the Skin	450	Clear The Thorned Hollow
10	Whoever Writes the Peons	500	Travel to Ashen Vale

Ashen Vale: A Chapter on War

The third set turns to open conquest — marshaling a host, breaking a vanguard, raising siege towers, and taking a throne — across ten pages in Ashen Vale. Completing all ten is worth 5,005 XP and unlocks A Chapter on War.

Page	Title	XP	Requirement
1	The Banners Rise	300	Post in chat
2	Marshaling the Host	330	Kill 15 monsters
3	Steel and Fire	365	Craft 1 item
4	Provisioning the Siege	405	Gather 20 resources
5	Break Their Vanguard	450	Kill 10 monsters
6	Spoils in the Ash	500	Dig for treasure 5×
7	The Endless Assault	555	Kill 25 monsters
8	Raise the Siege Towers	615	Gather 20 resources
9	The Last Redoubt	685	Clear The Ashen Crucible
10	The Spoils of a Conquered Throne	800	Travel to Mirefen Lowlands

The World

Achievements

Nine achievements exist today, covering the three dungeons (a normal clear and a fast clear each) and the three diary lines. Each is one-time per character, and posts a Global chat announcement the moment you earn it.

Achievement	How	Reward
Is Killing These Really Research?	Clear every monster in Heart of The Lands before its 60-minute timer runs out	100 Diamonds
Research? Maybe. Fun? Absolutely.	Clear Heart of The Lands with at least 45 minutes still left on the clock	1x Potion of Forgotten Self
The Thorns Bite Back	Clear every monster in The Thorned Hollow before its timer runs out	100 Diamonds
Thornwood Doesn't Scare Me	Clear The Thorned Hollow with at least 45 minutes still left	1x Potion of Forgotten Self
Into the Crucible	Clear every monster in The Ashen Crucible before its timer runs out	100 Diamonds
Forged in Under an Hour	Clear The Ashen Crucible with at least 45 minutes still left	1x Potion of Forgotten Self
Light Reading	Complete all 10 Aldenmoor Heartlands diary quests	100 Diamonds
More Strange Pages	Complete all 10 Thornwood Reaches diary quests	100 Diamonds
A Chapter on War	Complete all 10 Ashen Vale diary quests	100 Diamonds

Both dungeon achievements can fire at once

Clearing a dungeon fast satisfies both its achievements in the same kill — you'll get two unlock notices and both rewards together, not one or the other.

The Kingdom Layer

Kingdoms

Each zone has 24 unclaimed Kingdom plots plus one Capital at its center. Claiming a plot opens the full economy and warfare layer.

Claiming

Any unclaimed Kingdom plot can be claimed by a character with at least 500 gold, which is spent immediately on claim. Claiming also provisions your first Generals (see Armies & Warfare). A plot stays yours until another player's army defeats your defenders down to 0 troops, at which point it falls back to unclaimed with a reduced starting garrison.

Buildings

Each holding can build and upgrade the following, at a flat cost of (next level + 1) × 100 gold per level regardless of building type:

Building	Effect
Resource Depot	Boosts the holding's general resource storage
Barracks	Increases troop attack power
Housing	Increases troop capacity (troop cap = Housing level × 50)
Walls	Increases defense against incoming attacks
Stable	Level 2+ opens a mount shop for visiting heroes (max mount sold = Stable level − 1)
Cattle Field	Produces Meat over time
Gold Mine	Pays Gold directly into the holding's treasury
Iron Mine	Produces Ore over time
Gem Mine	Produces Gems over time (slow)
Lumber Yard	Produces Wood over time
Herb Field	Produces Herbs over time

Gold Mine's rate scales with your zone

Gold Mine pays round(0.15 × that zone's average monster gold value) × level × hours straight into the treasury, capped at 24 hours of accrual like every other production building. It's meant to feel like a modest, guaranteed trickle rather than a replacement for taxing kills — a well-trafficked kingdom's tax income will still outpace it, but a quiet one gets a real passive floor. Iron Mine is a separate building producing Ore, not a duplicate of Gold Mine.

The Kingdom Layer

Resources & Economy

Two currencies drive the kingdom layer: personal Gold (carried by your hero) and each holding's Treasury and Resource stockpile.

Resource Types

Production buildings accrue ore, wood, herb, gem, and meat at a flat rate of 2 per building level per hour, capped at 24 hours of unclaimed accrual — so there's no benefit to checking in more than once a day, but no penalty for checking in less either. Collecting moves accrued resources into the holding's stockpile.

Gold & Taxation

Every monster kill on claimed land pays a cut of its gold reward to the holding's treasury, up to a rate the owner sets:

Holding	Max Tax Rate
Ordinary Kingdom	20%
Capital	50%

Because every new hero spawns inside their zone's Capital block, a Capital owner taxing at the maximum rate collects up to half of every new player's earliest kills.

Deposits & Withdrawals

A holding's owner (and any guild member with the right permission — see Guilds) can move resources and gold between their personal inventory and the kingdom stockpile via deposit/withdraw actions, which also power the Barracks/Housing/Walls/Building upgrade costs in Kingdoms.

The Kingdom Layer

Armies & Warfare

Kingdom-vs-kingdom combat is asynchronous: you send troops under a General to raid a rival holding on your own zone, and the outcome resolves immediately based on both sides' strength.

Training Troops

Troops cost 10 gold each to train, capped by your Housing level (max troops = Housing level × 50).

Generals

Claiming a holding provisions your Generals, each with a Rank (increases with victories, granting +3% attack power per rank) and one of three specializations:

Specialization	Effect
Siege	+25% attack power when the target has Walls
Vanguard	+10% attack power, unconditionally
Raider	+15% troop survival rate regardless of outcome

Resolving an Attack

You choose a holding to send troops from, a General, and a unit count (up to your available, non-cooldown troops). Both sides' power is randomized ±15% and compared:

Attack Power = units × attacker's troop ATK × (1 + Rank×0.03) × specialization multiplier × random(0.85–1.15)
Defense Power = defender's available troops × defender's troop DEF × random(0.85–1.15) + defender's Walls level × 5

If Attack Power exceeds Defense Power, you win: survivors return between 55–95% of sent units (better with a bigger margin), you plunder some of the defender's treasury (50 gold + 3 gold/unit sent, capped by what they have), and the defender loses 20–40% of their troops. If the defender is reduced to 0 troops, their holding is sacked — it falls back to unclaimed. If you lose, survivors drop to 10–60% of sent units, and a loss so lopsided that your Attack Power is under half the defense counts as a Rout.

Cooldowns

A General and the troops they led become unavailable for 8 hours after any attack, or 48 hours if the attack was routed.

Community

Guilds & Communication

Guilds are simple, permission-based player groups with a shared bank and chat channel. The guild bank — a 25-slot item vault plus shared gold and resources — lives at the Realm Bank.

Guild Basics

Any player can create a guild or join/leave an existing one. Guilds have ranks, each independently configurable with these permissions:

Permission	Grants
Can Deposit	Add resources/gold to the guild bank
Can Withdraw	Take resources/gold from the guild bank
Can Promote	Move other members between ranks
Can Kick	Remove members from the guild
Can View Log	Read the guild bank's transaction log

World Chat

Five channels are always available:

Global — everyone on your zone
Trade — buy/sell discussion
Region — local to your area
Guild — your guild only
Party — your current party only

A sixth, read-only System Announcement channel carries admin messages in a distinct gold-bordered style with a realtime toast notification — players cannot post to it.

Community

Player vs. Player

Hero’s Ark does not currently have live, duel-style PvP. Player conflict happens entirely through the asynchronous kingdom-warfare system described in Armies & Warfare — sending troops to raid, plunder, and potentially sack a rival's claimed holding.

What this means in practice

You are never at risk of losing your hero's own gold or gear to another player directly. The stakes are entirely at the kingdom level: your treasury can be plundered, your troops can be lost in a failed defense, and a fully-defeated holding falls back to unclaimed for anyone to take. There is currently no seasonal reset, ranked ladder, or title/throne system beyond simply holding territory.

Reference

Glossary

Quick definitions of the terms used throughout Hero’s Ark and this guide.

Term	Meaning
Attribute	One of the five primary stats: STR, DEX, INT, VIT, LUK.
Capital	The center 5×5 block of each zone; the single highest-tax holding, where new heroes spawn.
Capstone	A class's strongest ability, unlocked at level 75.
Derived Stat	A value calculated from attributes and level (ATK, DEF, MAG, Crit Chance, Max HP).
Encounter	A random monster fight triggered by moving onto an unsafe tile.
General	A named leader assigned to a kingdom's troops for an attack, with a Rank and a specialization.
Kingdom	One of 24 claimable land plots per zone (outside the Capital block).
Plunder	Gold taken from a defeated defender's treasury after a successful attack.
Profession	One of 5 crafting disciplines (Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Jeweler, Chef, Alchemist); each hero picks 2.
Rout	A defeat so lopsided the attacker's power was under half the defender's — triggers a 48-hour General cooldown instead of 8.
Sacked	What happens to a holding reduced to 0 troops — it falls back to unclaimed.
Specialization	A permanent, class-specific sub-path chosen at level 15 (one of 3 per class).
Tier (monster)	Mob, Elite, or Boss — multiplies a monster's base HP/ATK/DEF.
World Boss	A rare, powerful roaming monster (5× HP) that despawns after 30 minutes if not defeated.
Auto-Battle	Hands-free grinding outside dungeons, powered by Auto Tokens (100 per hero, refilling over time).
Blessed Monster	A ✨ monster variant with a small chance to drop one of the three Unique Jewels.
Diamond	Account-wide premium currency (💎), earned from achievements or bought, spent in the Diamond Store.
Realm Bank	The 🏦 service tile hosting your personal, account-wide, and guild vaults.
Unique Jewel	Jewel of Chaos, Blessing, or Life — a rare Blessed drop granting a permanent boost.
Zone	One of 10 self-contained 25×25 tile maps, each spanning a 10-level band of monsters.

Reference

About This Guide

A complete, self-contained reference for Hero’s Ark, ready to drop into a guide site.

What's Inside

A Note On Accuracy

This edition of the guide was reconciled directly against the live game client and database (mechanics, formulas, and content current as of July 2026) rather than an independent design document. Where a live behavior is a genuine rough edge rather than a deliberate design choice — such as the leveling curve's late-game wall noted in Progression — it's called out rather than smoothed over, so the guide always matches what you'll actually experience in game.

Building the Guide Site

This document is a single self-contained HTML file — no build step, no external assets, no dependencies. Host it as index.html on any static host (GitHub Pages, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, S3) and it works as-is. Each chapter is a <section class="page"> with an id, so a static-site generator or CMS can split them into separate pages later, and the sidebar plus in-page search are already wired up.

↑ Back to the top