The new mobile RPG Skylanders: Ring of Heroes is huge and complex. To help you keep track and have a successful start, we have compiled useful tips and tricks in this beginner guide in English.
What is Skylanders: Ring of Heroes (RoH) anyway? Anyone who has played mobile RPG titles like Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, or Idle Heroes will quickly find familiar mechanics in Skylanders: Ring of Heroes.
In Activision’s mobile version of the Skylanders series, you do not use physical collectible figures but summon your heroes as a Portal Master through a portal in the game.
These heroes can then be improved in various ways, allowing you to face tougher challenges. Skylanders: RoH includes both PvE and PvP elements. The large number of available heroes, countless resources, and the complex element system can quickly become overwhelming.
With our beginner guide, you won’t lose your nerves and get the most out of the early phase of the game.
The Menu and Interface of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
After successfully completing the tutorial and creating a character, you will land on the overview screen. This serves as a hub from where you can access all essential content from Skylanders: RoH:
- (1) – The airship takes you to the campaign of Skylanders: RoH. Here you can choose from ten different worlds with three difficulty levels and collect experience and resources
- (2) – The large building is basically the barracks and takes you to the character overview
- (3) – Once you have completed Level 5-1 on Easy in Adventure Mode, you can enter the arena and challenge other players and friends. In the Arena Shop, you can even buy Soul Stones!
- (4) – Once you have the option to create a guild or join one, you can access it via the tower.
- (5) – On the large area, you can place buildings that produce gold, potions, energy, and even jewels.
- (6) – Always keep an eye on ongoing events and the corresponding rewards.
- (7) – The summoning portal, where you can get Soul Stones for your heroes.
The Heroes and Elements of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
That’s why the heroes in Skylanders: RoH are so important: The summonable characters are the focal point of the game. Improving and equipping the heroes will definitely occupy you the most, hence the system is very complex.
All heroes come with a star indicator that indicates how rare and strong a hero is. Skylanders with only one star are significantly more common and weaker than heroes with 5 stars. But not only the stars influence your decision about which heroes to include in your team, but also the element.
The Elements of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
What does a hero’s element do? The element indicates which elements your hero has strengths and weaknesses against. A strength in an element means that you deal significantly more damage, while you take more damage if you are weak against the opposing element.
Here are the strengths and weaknesses of each element: There are a total of ten elements in Skylanders: RoH, each displaying the following strengths and weaknesses:
- Life – Strong against Water and Technology / weak against Air and Ghosts
- Water – Strong against Fire and Magic / weak against Life and Earth
- Fire – Strong against Air and Ghosts / weak against Water and Technology
- Air – Strong against Life and Earth / weak against Fire and Magic
- Ghosts – Strong against Life and Earth / weak against Fire and Magic
- Earth – Strong against Water and Technology / weak against Air and Ghosts
- Technology – Strong against Fire and Magic / weak against Life and Earth
- Magic – Strong against Air and Ghosts / weak against Water and Technology
- Light – Strong against Darkness / no weakness
- Darkness – Strong against Light / no weakness
You can also see the relationships in the following graphic:
Since you can only have three heroes in your team, you will never be prepared against all elements at once. Accordingly, you need to form specialized teams to cover as many elements as possible.
The Character Screen
On the hero screen, you can make various upgrades and strengthen your Skylanders. You have different options available, which we will introduce below:
- (1) – The overall strength of your hero
- (2) – The hero selection
- (3) – Stats: The basic statistics such as attack, HP, defense, and resistances
- (4) – Skills: The active and passive skills of your hero
- (5) – Upgrade: Upgrade your hero using resources
- (6) – Evolve: Raise your character to the next star level
- (7) – Awaken: Bring your hero to a new development stage
- (8) – Rune: Equip your hero with runes to improve certain statistics
Especially upgrading, evolving, and awakening are essential for strengthening your heroes. For this, you will need plenty of resources that you can find in various places in the game. However, the skills that you use in battle can also be enhanced.
What exactly do the runes do? Runes are equipment items that enhance specific parameters of your hero. Runes come in various forms, each influencing different character attributes once you have equipped a certain number of them (so-called set bonuses).
Depending on the character role, you can distribute the following types of runes across up to six slots:
- Energy – Increases HP by 10% with 2 equipped runes
- Protection – Increases defense by 10% with 2 equipped runes
- Strike – Increases attack by 25% with 4 equipped runes
- Resistance – Increases effect resistance by 10% with 2 equipped runes
- Focus – The focus rune provides 10% more accuracy on effects with a 2-set
- Fury – If you equip 4 fury runes simultaneously, your critical damage increases by 30%
- Hope – With 4 equipped hope runes, block damage decreases by 20%
- Hit – Increases hit accuracy by 5% with 2 runes
- Dodge – With 2 equipped dodge runes, you dodge 5% more attacks
Many runes already provide an effect once you have equipped just 2 of them. Thus, even with six available slots, you can combine multiple rune effects.
The Combat System of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
In Skylanders: RoH, you send your heroes into battle to collect experience points and resources. The combat system is both familiar and refreshingly new due to the mana system. Mastering the combat system can give you a significant advantage in battles. However, the battle itself is only the second step. First, let’s take a look at how you prepare your heroes for battle.
Tips for Battle Preparation
This is how you prepare for battles: Every time you start a mission or enter a dungeon, you need to select the heroes you want to send into battle. The game remembers the selection, so if needed, you only have to swap out a few positions.
Up to three heroes can actively participate in the combat. In the first position, you should always use the hero from whose leader skills you want to benefit. However, keep in mind that not every hero possesses a leader skill. Leader abilities can be very powerful and helpful. For example, the character Knight Mare has a leader ability that heals the entire team when an enemy is defeated. Practical!
Fill the remaining two slots with the heroes you also want to send into battle. Below, you usually have the option (in most cases) to choose two spectators who do not participate in the combat but still earn experience points. However, you must live with the fact that the spectators will receive less EXP than the active combatants (about 30%).
What is the companion slot at the bottom right? Not only can you send in Skylanders to battle, but also one of the 10 available villains in the game, who will assist you in various ways during the battle. The Broccoli Guy heals you during battles and is particularly useful in the early game.
However, keep in mind that the villains do not level up through experience points but exclusively through blue potions that you can find everywhere. Once you have assigned all necessary roles, you can get started!
Tips for Battles
As the battle screen may seem quite chaotic at first, let’s take a closer look at the individual elements.
- (1) – The element, level, health points (green bar), stun indicator (yellow/orange), and the number of hits before you become stunned (number on the right). The displays are identical for you and your opponents.
- (2) – The combat duration. To achieve 3 stars in your adventures, you often need to complete battles within a specific time
- (3) – The round counter indicates how many rounds you need to complete and your current position.
- (4) – From left to right: Target options (attack weak element or hardest opponent), auto-battle, battle speed (normal or x2), pause, and chat
- (5) – Your Portal Master character and the companion villain. Usually, you need to wait a few seconds before you can summon your companion. On MeinMMO, you can find a selection of the best companions in the game!
- (6) – The skills of your characters. Each hero uses two skills in battle, which come with different effects
- (7) – The mana points indicate which skills you can use. Each attack consumes mana points, which regenerate over time.
How does the mana system work? The mana system is particularly impactful. Instead of using a speed bar as in comparable games, you allocate mana points that recharge over time. Each skill consumes a different amount of mana points, so keep an eye on your supply at all times.
Defeated opponents allow mana points to regenerate faster, so always focus on one opponent (just tap). This shows the significant difference between manual fighting and auto fighting. The computer uses all your mana points as soon as they’re available. This can be a disadvantage in some battles.
Only use the auto-battle function if you are sure you can defeat the opponent this way.
How do I knock out opponents? In Skylanders: RoH, you can stun opponents to incapacitate them for a short time. This mechanic is essential, especially in boss battles, and should always be used when the opportunity arises.
You can tell how many hits it takes to stun an opponent by the number next to the health bar. Note that attacks that hit multiple times also reduce the number of hits required to stun an opponent significantly. Use this to your advantage!
In what order should skills be used? Start the fight, if possible, with a buff for your team (for example, raise attack) or a debuff for the opponent’s team (lower defense), provided your heroes are capable of this. You have to be highly situational and memorize your characters’ skill set. Additionally, consider the following tips:
- Always focus on one opponent
- Use cheap, light attacks on opponents who are close to defeat
- Use strong and costly attacks to deal damage to opponents with a lot of health
- Check if an opponent can be knocked out. You should always do this, as it interrupts the opponent’s attack and they cannot act for a short time
Those who have mastered the skill system can even win fights that seem hopeless. Deploy your heroes and skills purposefully, stun your opponents, and keep an eye on your mana points, and you will be victorious.
What happens after a fight? Once all enemies or you yourself are defeated, the battle ends, and a battle summary is displayed. Here you get to know,
- which items you have won,
- how many experience points your heroes have collected,
- how many EXP you have received as a Portal Master, and
- a selection of options for how you want to proceed after the fight
The Resources and Currencies of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
Skylanders: RoH does not skimp on materials, resources, and upgrade components. It is quite difficult to keep track of everything. We will show you what resources are available and where you can find them. Additionally, we provide tips on which materials you should focus on at the start.
Currencies in Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
Currencies are used to purchase items in the game, whether buildings, soul stones for heroes, or upgrading runes. There are two main currencies: jewels and gold. Jewels are the real-money currency, with which you can summon new heroes or refresh your energy. Jewels are by far the most important and valuable resource. Therefore, you should handle this currency with care.
What can I do with gold? Gold is the second most important currency, primarily earned in missions and dungeons. With gold
- you buy and upgrade buildings,
- you can create a guild,
- you upgrade runes, and
- you upgrade your heroes
Prepare to spend large amounts of gold. To get as much gold as possible, complete the maximum number of runs in the Golden Cave daily. The tougher the opponents, the higher the gold yield. Adventure missions also yield a lot of gold.
What do guild points and arena medals bring? Once you join a guild, you can earn guild points by gifting soul stones to other members or participating in particularly difficult and lengthy battles (so-called raids).
In the guild shop, you can invest these points in new heroes (via scrolls) or in special elemental statues that increase the effectiveness of your heroes of a certain element.
If you are successful in the arena, you earn arena medals and can go on a shopping spree in the corresponding shop. Here, you’ll find soul stones for heroes (even very rare ones) and omnipotent stones that allow you to directly create soul stones for heroes.
Resources in Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
In addition to the two main currencies, there are a variety of resources needed for various purposes. Most materials are characterized by being found only in specific locations in the game and serving a special purpose.
The following resources are currently available in Skylanders: Ring of Heroes:
- Soul Stones: These are needed to awaken and further develop heroes. Typically, you obtain soul stones using jewels in the summoning portal. However, you can also find them for specific heroes in adventure missions.
- Wish Stones: With wish stones, you can perform summons (of lower quality). You receive wish stones from friends or upon completing missions.
- Upgrade Elixirs: You can use awakening elixirs to upgrade your heroes (to a maximum of +5). You can obtain these elixirs in the distorted dimension.
- Upgrade Stones: You can use awakening stones to enhance your heroes’ skills. You can find these in the wish tower.
- Element Essences: These essences are important for awakening heroes and improving skills. You can also find this resource in the distorted dimension.
- Omnipotent Stone: With the omnipotent stone, which comes in various rarities, you can directly create soul stones for your heroes. You can find omnipotent stones in the wonder tower.
- Red Potions: With red potions, you can grant your heroes experience points, allowing them to level up. At least in theory. In practice, the potions are useless, providing very few experience points. Just keep them; they may become useful in the future.
- Blue Potions: You can use blue potions to enhance your villains that accompany you in battles. You frequently receive these potions after a fight.
What are the most important resources at the start? At the beginning, you will need large amounts of upgrade elixirs and element essences to bring your heroes to the next star level. Additionally, check where you can find the soul stones for your heroes; these are also crucial for improving your units.
Advanced Tips and Tricks in Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
You have now internalized the basic mechanics and taken your first steps in the world of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes. It is time for some advanced tactics to ensure that you operate as efficiently as possible and waste as few resources as possible.
Tips for a Good Starter Team
Skylanders: RoH features dozens of heroes with different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. But which heroes are good, and what should you focus on at the start? If you were lucky enough to get a hero with five stars right from the start, it may seem great at first glance.
What is the problem with strong 5-star units? A 5-star unit may seem strong and push you forward at first. However, you will realize that these characters do not necessarily help you in the medium term. Why is that? To further develop heroes, you need fitting soul stones. Especially for characters with 5 stars, these are hellishly rare.
If you do not want to invest large sums of real money (we’re not talking about a few euros, but four-digit amounts), you will not be able to further develop the rarest figures for a long time. Therefore, at the start, focus on heroes that have a lower base star rating and continuously develop them. Fortunately, the game nudges you in the right direction.
Which team is the easiest to upgrade? You will quickly notice that the game throws large amounts of soul stones for the heroes
- Hot Dog
- Blades
- Stealth Elf
at your feet. Although these are relatively weak at the start, you can make quick progress with the soul stones. Particularly, Stealth Elf can be developed into a strong unit. Follow the training missions, which will yield more than 400 soul stones in total. Hot Dog is especially interesting for Part 2 of the training missions because he is a hero of the fire element.
Moreover, you will receive Part 2 of the training with the 4-star base unit Enigma, which will certainly strengthen your team.
Which good heroes can be farmed early? If you want to secure two fantastic heroes early on, you need to reach the normal mode of adventure missions. These will be gradually unlocked as you complete the respective worlds on easy difficulty.
- Boomer – Boomer is a tech unit and deals high explosion damage, even to all enemies. The unit’s starting value is 3 stars. You can farm the soul stones for Boomer in World 6 in stages 6.1 – 6.6 on normal difficulty.
- Ka-Boom – This fire unit starts with only 2 stars but can be developed into a very strong hero. You can farm the soul stones for Ka-Boom in the fire world 3 in stages 3.1 – 3.6. Ka-Boom becomes significantly stronger than Hot Dog and should replace him.
Always remember: Every hero in Skylanders: Ring of Heroes can be raised to 6 stars and awakened. This is particularly worthwhile for Boomer and Ka-Boom. The fact that you can farm the soul stones for these two units is a significant advantage.
Which companion should I take along? You can choose from a total of 10 villains, each with different elements. Early on, you quickly receive the Broccoli Guy, who happens to be the best of the available companions. The Broccoli Guy automatically heals the most heavily injured hero and increases their defense.
These abilities make him the best companion, not only at the beginning but also in the long term. You can obtain soul stones for the grumpy vegetable in World 2 on all difficulty levels in stages 2.1 – 2.6.
Definitely follow the training, not the missions
What is the training? You can access training missions directly from the main screen (on the left side), and they serve as both a narrative thread and a tutorial.
The training is divided into parts. In each part, you must overcome challenges to snag rewards. Part 1 is all about the easier adventure missions, upgrading runes, and using potions. As rewards, you will receive jewels and a large number of soul stones for Stealth Elf.
In Part 2, you must use a hero of the fire element. So make sure your Hot Dog or Ka-Boom has been developed accordingly.
Why not play the adventure missions first? Parts of the training require you to play story missions. If you start these first, you will have to repeat them in training. Since the training is chronologically structured, you should rather follow the training itself; you will have to tackle the adventure missions eventually anyway.
This is how you properly use your jewels
With jewels, you can summon new heroes or buy gold, energy, and gears that are needed for the arena. Most players tend to invest jewels in summons. However, upon closer inspection, this is the most senseless and expensive way to invest.
Why shouldn’t you use jewels for normal summons? Because of the randomness. The sheer number of heroes in Skylanders: RoH will make it highly likely that you will not get the soul stones you need. It is simply inefficient. Instead, focus on collecting heroes for whom you have other ways to potentially get soul stones.
Events are an exception. Events often provide discounts on summons or allow you to summon heroes of a specific element, significantly increasing the chances of obtaining a hero you truly want. Therefore, conserve as many jewels as possible and wait for an event that grants you the soul stones you want.
What else should you use your jewels for? Energy, energy, and more energy. You will constantly be wandering around in dungeons and missions to collect soul stones, resources, and experience. Sooner or later, you will run out of energy here. Therefore, if you invest jewels at all, do so in energy refills.
This approach requires discipline and patience but will pay off for you in the long term. Resist the urge to use the normal summoning portal; it will pay off.
Use the auto-battle feature
Once you have completed a mission with three stars, you can use the auto-battle feature. With this mechanic, you can automate a specific mission to run up to ten times in a row. The battle speed is not only doubled but even tripled.
This feature is priceless, especially when you need to farm specific materials or soul stones. Just start the function and check back in 15 minutes to collect your loot.
What must I do to complete a mission with 3 stars? To receive full points, the following three conditions must be met:
- The mission must be successfully completed (1 star),
- No team member may die. This does not apply to the companion (1 star), and
- You must complete the mission within a certain time. The harder the mission, the faster you must be. The time limit ranges from 3 to 5 minutes
Join a guild as early as possible
What benefits do guilds offer? In guilds, you meet like-minded players with whom you can tackle tough boss battles that yield excellent rewards. But that’s not all. You can ask your guild members to gift you soul stones of a specific unit and can also gift soul stones you don’t need yourself.
In the guild shop, you can purchase elemental statues that you can place and improve on your island. These statues bolster the attacks of the units of the corresponding element.
Make sure to take advantage of these rewards and investment opportunities as soon as you are allowed to join a guild.
Keep an eye out for events
Events are designed to keep Skylanders: Ring of Heroes fresh and provide new challenges. These events are structured in such a way that every player can receive rewards from an event, regardless of their level.
By completing challenges, you can earn resources, soul stones, and even free summons.
However, rewards don’t just go into your inventory; you must actively claim them. Tap on the thick fellow wandering around your island with the event speech bubble to see all active events at a glance and to collect your rewards.
Is it wise to invest all rewards immediately? Here, you must weigh your options carefully. Does the event provide units or resources you desperately need? If so, you can indeed reinvest your rewards right away. In most cases, however, you should hold onto tickets for free summons. Sooner or later, an event will come along where you can invest all your savings and (hopefully) be rewarded for your patience.
Complete daily and weekly missions
What role do these recurring missions play? Daily missions consist of various disciplines that only take a little time but reward you with 80 jewels. While it may not seem like much, it adds up to 2400 jewels over the course of the month.
The same goes for the weekly missions. These bring 250 jewels every week, allowing you to earn 3400 jewels through a few tasks per month. Not bad, right?
Do you have any other useful tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments!
