Hero Clash: Best Regular S Heroes to Upgrade and Keep

Keep and upgrade regular S heroes that provide team utility—specifically Fagon, Nicole, and Mafalda—while reserving pure damage dealers as awakening fodder for your primary S+ carries. Because regular S heroes drop frequently from friendship summons, faction recruitment, and standard summon scrolls, building key support units allows you to reach Mythic and Eternal tiers much faster than relying exclusively on rare S+ duplicates.

Focus your regular S promotions on heroes whose kits provide mechanics that do not rely strictly on base damage scaling: percentage-based buffs, team shields, damage sharing, crowd control, and debuff cleansing.

Core Regular S Heroes to Prioritize

Fagon (Defensive Frontline Anchor)

Fagon functions as a primary defensive shield and damage absorber, often outperforming base-copy S+ tanks in early- and mid-game campaign progression.

• Soul Bond: Fagon links with the ally taking the highest incoming burst damage, redirecting a substantial portion of that damage to himself to protect vulnerable backline carries in round one.
• Innate Mitigation: While his shields are active, Fagon gains personal damage reduction to survive focused fire.
• Investment Benchmark: Effective even at Legend or Mythic tier because his primary value stems from damage distribution rather than raw stats.
• Positioning: Place Fagon in frontline slots 1 or 2 to absorb direct attacks while maintaining his ally bond.

Nicole (Speed and Attack Enabler)

Nicole acts as an offensive buffer designed to accelerate your team's turn order and increase outgoing burst damage.

• Turn Order Momentum: Nicole increases team speed and provides flat and percentage attack buffs to your highest-damage dealer, allowing your carry to fire their ultimate before enemy threats take action.
• Secondary Control: Provides supplemental crowd control starting in round two to interrupt remaining enemy units.
• Positioning and Runes: Position Nicole in backline slots 4, 5, or 6. Equip her with speed gear and energy generation runes so her primary buffs activate on turn one.

Mafalda (Sustain and Debuff Removal)

Mafalda serves as a dedicated recovery support for campaign stages, guild trials, and boss encounters featuring heavy ongoing damage.

• Continuous Healing: Deploys healing cycles that restore missing health percentages across multiple rounds rather than relying solely on single-turn burst heals.
• Debuff Cleansing: Removes dangerous damage-over-time effects and control debuffs, including bleed and poison, preventing squishy allies from collapsing between actions.
• Build Focus: Equip Mafalda with damage reduction and maximum health runes to keep her alive through enemy area-of-effect skills.

Situational Faction Trial Specialists

Faction trials require mono-faction teams, preventing you from relying solely on your primary campaign squad. Retain at least one copy of these specialized regular S heroes at Legend tier before deciding whether to use extra duplicates as awakening material.

Fodder Rules and Promotion Strategy

To protect foundational supports while advancing your main team, apply these inventory management rules:

1. Lock Core Supports Immediately: Lock all copies of Fagon, Nicole, and Mafalda as soon as they drop to prevent accidental consumption during bulk awakenings.
2. Convert Pure Stat Attackers to Fodder: Regular S heroes that offer only raw single-target or area damage without crowd control or utility cannot match S+ carries like Alvarez or Natalie. Designate these units as food for your main carries.
3. Avoid Splitting Faction Resources: Focus duplicate promotions on one hero per faction at a time. Spreading fodder across multiple units simultaneously strands multiple heroes at lower tiers.
4. Transition Surpluses at Eternal: Once your essential regular S heroes hit Eternal tier and fulfill campaign and trial requirements, divert subsequent S copies into awakening requirements for your primary S+ roster.