Leveling up and Early Grinding Are the Key! Returners Adventure Hero Combinations

Seong Mo "Daram" Jeong, Junseok “Tonny” Bae

Jul 8, 2018

Adventure in Returners is one of the main modes that players visit for leveling up heroes, obtaining gear, and earning stage clear rewards.

The stage rewards in the early grinding phase, in particular, are quite useful, and a number of powerful heroes can only be obtained by going through certain stages. Players, therefore, tend to focus on progressing through Adventure during the early-mid game.

This article will cover some of the most suitable hero combinations for the early-mid and mid-late Adventure stages.

Use the 1-4 Battle Formation with at least one tank and support

The most favored formation for Adventure is 1-4 (1 in the front and 4 in the back). The hero at the front receives additional defense, and the ones in the backline receive additional offense. This makes a dungeon much easier to clear as killing enemies with stronger attacks is much more effective than having a solid defense. The dungeon clear time also affects how many stars you receive, thus you need at least 2 to 3 damage dealers.

Note that the formation should have at least one tank at the front and one support at the back. All allies and enemies in Returners have their preferred target, and a good amount of them primarily target the tank in Adventure stages, so it is better to keep the enemies occupied with a tank hero who has more defense and HP.

In addition, tanks usually have CC skills such as AoE taunts, stuns, or knockups that help to defend the ally heroes; these skills allow ally heroes to damage their targets much easier. This is the most basic and common strategy of clearing the Adventure stages.

Supports heal, buff, and defend ally heroes from the enemy’s CC or focused fire, and their ultimate skills can often turn the tide of a losing battle. The remaining three spots are supposed to be filled with damage dealers obviously, but some enemies have higher physical or magical attack resistance, so it would be safer to have both physical and magic attack heroes.

▲ The 1-4 formation is preferred for both Adventure and League, and don’t forget to balance out the combat strength and damage as well

1. Tanks - The unkillable King Arthur and backline assault tank Richard the Lionheart

King Arthur and Richard the Lionheart are suitable tanks for the 1-4 formation.

King Arthur is the very first tank hero that players receive at the start of the game; though he is an early hero, his stats and skill set are still very strong.

Charge launches enemies airborne, Legendary Excalibur stuns, and King’s Dignity increases the hero’s survivability while taunting enemies. Since tanks need to intercept the enemy while defending the ally heroes, King Arthur’s skill set makes him perfect for the role.

However, as you go through the mid-late game, your tank needs to start dealing more damage, so you’ll run into a wall if you only use King Arthur. Of course, King Arthur’s skill set can still come in handy in the Arena and League if you keep leveling him up.

▲ Arthur’s skill set cannot be matched by any other heroes

At the point where you start needing more damage from your tank, it would be good to switch to Richard the Lionheart of Siegfried. However, since Siegfried can only be obtained if you’ve played the game for a while, Richard the Lionheart is the more likely choice.

His skill set stands out among the tank skill sets because of its offensive nature. Courage increases his physical defense and attack and Dignity lowers the enemy’s physical and magical defenses while dealing a significant amount of damage. His ultimate skill is called Lionheart Sword, and it deals major magical damage while also restoring some HP.

The reason why Richard the Lionheart is good for a damage tank is because of his high physical damage and his Dignity skill, which inflicts AoE damage on the enemy backline. This skill also reduces the enemy’s physical and magical defenses, which is suitable for the dungeon clear strategy of “killing targets faster than ally heroes die”.

However, he doesn’t have any skill that allows him to approach the enemy quickly, nor does he have any CC skills, making him vulnerable to enemy CC skills and focused attacks. Although he is extremely good for the Raid, late Adventure stages, Arena, and League, where the number of CC skills is limited, his survivability is not as good as other tanks.

▲ Richard the Lionheart’s main skill, Dignity, deals massive AoE damage and applies a debuff at the same time

2. Support - Panacea and Siren for healing, Cleopatra and Zhuge Liang for damage and disruption

The role of the support class in Adventure mode is primarily to keep ally heroes alive and kicking, so healing is quite important. However, as mentioned in the tank part, a few dungeons in the mid-late game require significant damage, which means you’ll also need support heroes with damage and disruption skills.

Panacea or Siren can be obtained relatively earlier than other support heroes, and they have impeccable healing skills, making themselves two of top supports for Adventure stages. Apart from healing, Panacea also buffs ally heroes and Siren mutes the enemy team in a wide area. Thanks to these skills, they can also be used for other content aside from Adventure.

▲ Panacea’s Life Bomb heals within a small area, so it is important that team formation is maintained to make the most of the heal

▲ Siren’s Song of Silence is also suitable for the League and Arena

In the late Adventure stages, supports also need to focus on overwhelming the enemy team as quickly as possible. Even though both Panacea and Siren have a one-target healing skill, the ally damage dealers are often damaged at a faster rate than the supports can heal. When the Adventure stages reach this point, the most effective strategy would be to use support heroes that have damage skills and disruption skills.

Zhuge Liang and Cleopatra are good supports who fit these criteria and are often used for the late Adventure stages. Zhuge Liang’s Mind Control alienates a single enemy, and his Flame Shot and Eastern Winds are both damage-dealing skills. Cleopatra’s Ardent Words skill buffs an ally, and her ultimate skill called Sweet Talk damages and has a chance to captivate the enemy team within the target area.

The requirements needed to get them are quite tricky, so players usually can only obtain them when they get close to the late Adventure stages. When you finally have them on your team, they make mages unnecessary since they deal so much magic damage, and this makes them strong on both League and Adventure teams. The ranger-centric meta is actually due in part to the power of these damage-dealing supports.

▲ Zhuge Liang’s Mind Control has a 100% chance of confusing a target at skill level 9

▲ Cleopatra’s Ardent Words skill is useful for the late stages where every hit dodged counts towards your survival

3. Damage dealers - Prioritize Rangers, but don’t overlook good Fighters and Mages

Now for the damage dealers. While you do need one support and one tank on your team, the last three slots don’t need to be filled by one of each of the remaining three classes. The patches can change which damage dealers are stronger, so you need to have a flexible composition.

The current meta is skewed towards long-range rangers. The representative examples would be Jumong and Taejo. Although Kunoichi is still considered a good hero, her skill set forces her to jump into the enemy team, which can be quite risky. On the other hand, Jumong and Taejo have better performance in terms of survivability and formation maintenance for the Adventure stages.

However, both heroes can only be obtained in the mid-late game, so it is okay to use Robyn Hood, Jane the Kid, and Kunoichi in the early-mid Adventure stages since they can deal damage and have some good CC skills.

▲ Jumong’s Divine Intervention increases his physical attack damage and range

▲ Taejo is good for sniping the enemy support

▲ Jumong can be obtained after a player enters the Platinum League, and Taejo is acquired in the very late Adventure stages

When it comes to mages, Alice has been producing formidable results since her release. Little Red, who is recruited in the early game, is reliable enough, and Rasputina is often used in the late Adventure stages.

Alice has almost everything that one can expect from a mage, including CC, AoE damage, and single target damage. Little Red is a good addition thanks to all of her CC skills. Rangers tend to not have as many CC skills, so players often use fighters since they have a fair amount of CC. However, if you don’t have any good fighter heroes, these two mages can be a good source of CC and damage.

▲ Alice deals formidable magic damage with her single target and AoE skills

▲ Little Red is good in the early-mid game thanks to her CC skills

Although fighters are not as strong currently, Sun Wukong is considered an excellent hero in many of the game’s modes.

The reason why players do not favor fighters is that they rarely have any gap-closing skills, which leaves them quite vulnerable to the enemies’ concentrated attacks, AoE skills, and CC skills. Sun Wukong’s Clone skill allows her to avoid being focused, and Nimbus acts as a gap-closer that comes in handy in many situations.

Sun Wukong can only be obtained as a 30-day login reward, so until you are able to acquire her, Hong Gil-dong and Musashi can be used for the Adventure stages. Hong Gil-dong is a hybrid damage dealer with some strong CC skills and Musashi has a good gap-closer, so they are reliable heroes.