Hero Journey questions and answers
These are the published Hero Journey questions, with the answer under each one.
How are Journey score and stars earned?
Every run you finish gets a score from 0 to 100, win or lose. On runner levels the score is 30% health kept, 25% how strong your band and Hero are when they reach the camp, and 45% gate accuracy, meaning how often you took the rewarding lane. On boss levels it is 50% health kept and 50% gate accuracy on the approach. A loss earns 0 stars. A win earns at least 1 star, 2 stars from a score of 75 and 3 stars from a score of 90. Your best stars and best score on each level are kept, so a worse replay never lowers them.
How does a Journey level play?
On a runner level you steer your war band left and right across the lanes of the road. At each gate only one lane rewards you: it adds men, multiplies your band, hands you a weapon or adds a war drum. The other lanes are empty or hold a trap that costs you men. Weapons form a triangle. Blade beats Spear, Spear beats Mace and Mace beats Blade, and fighting an enemy your weapon beats multiplies your men's strength by 1.5. A carried weapon adds 25% to your band's strength and each war drum adds 10%, rounded down to whole men. Enemy waves cannot be dodged: your band and Hero fight each wave together. If your side is at least as strong, you beat the wave but may lose some men, fewer the bigger your edge. If the wave is stronger, it breaks through and takes 60% of your men, rounded up. You win by reaching the camp strong enough. A boss level has a short approach and then an automatic duel.
How does merging gear work?
Merging turns 2 copies of the same item at the same level into 1 copy of that item at the next level. The highest gear level is 10, and items at level 10 cannot be merged further. You need 2 copies in your bag: a copy you have equipped does not count, so unequip it first if you want to use it. Higher levels give more Journey power once the item is equipped. The Equipment screen disables the merge button while a Journey run is open.
How is Journey power calculated, and what does a level require?
Your Journey power is 60, plus 10 for every Hero level, plus the power of your equipped gear. Each equipped item gives its base power multiplied by 1.8 for every merge level above 1, rounded. To start a level your power must reach that level's requirement, which is 60 at level 1 and grows by about 9% per level. Some worlds scale the requirement, so the number can differ from the default; the level screens show your world's number. If your power is too low, the run does not start. The power is checked only when you start. Extra power above the requirement, up to double, makes your band stronger in that run, and it does not change the level itself.
How is the Hero Journey road laid out?
The Hero Journey is a road of 100 levels split into 10 chapters of 10 levels. Every 10th level is a boss duel, and all the other levels are runner levels. Each level can give up to 3 stars. The Journey is on in every world. You open it from the Journey medallion on the game screen or from the Journey card in the Hero's Mansion.
How long does a Journey run last, and what if I leave it?
You can have only one Journey run open at a time, and you have 10 minutes to finish it. If you start a new run while one is still open, the open run is closed first: it pays no rewards and costs the level's full health budget, the most any run can cost. A run that you leave unfinished is closed the same way once its 10 minutes have passed, the next time the game checks your Journey or you start a run. A result sent after the 10 minutes is refused and costs the same. Game updates can change this: a run started before an update that changed the levels is closed with no health cost, and while an update is still rolling out, a new start can be refused until it completes. Abandoning a run is never cheaper than playing it out.
How much Hero health does a Journey run cost?
The cost depends on how well the run goes. A flawless run costs no health. Every trap you run into, every enemy wave that breaks through your band and every boss blow your Hero takes adds an equal share of the level's health budget to the cost, and the total is rounded down. No run costs more than the full budget: 3% of your Hero's maximum health in chapter 1, rising evenly to 15% in chapter 10, and 1.5 times as much on boss levels, rounded to a whole number. Some worlds raise or lower this cost, and a world can switch it off. A run you leave unfinished is normally charged the full budget. Your Hero never drops below 1 health and the Journey never puts it into a coma, but a Hero left at half health or lower becomes wounded and has to recover before the next run. A Hero that is already in a coma is not charged.
What do Journey stars reward?
Each star on a level pays its reward once, the first time you reach it. Star 1 pays resources, star 2 pays resources and Smart Time, and star 3 pays resources and the gear drops for that level. Before world settings are applied, star 2 pays more resources than star 1, and star 3 pays twice as many as star 1. Resource amounts are multiplied by your world's speed, and on some worlds by an extra reward setting that can raise or lower them, and each resource is then rounded up to a multiple of 100, so the amounts you receive do not always keep those proportions. Smart Time amounts are the same on every world. If one run reaches several new stars, you receive all of their rewards together, and later replays pay only for stars you have not reached before. Resources and Smart Time are delivered to your Reward Bank, and gear goes straight to your Journey bag as level 1 pieces. A defeat earns no star, so it pays no new star reward. If a Reward Bank delivery fails, it is retried the next time you finish that level. Hero XP and chapter Gold are paid separately.
What equipment can my Hero wear?
Your Hero has 6 equipment slots: Weapon, Shield, Armor, Helmet, Boots and Charm. Each slot holds one item, and every item belongs to a fixed slot. Equipping an item takes one copy from your bag and sends the item that was in that slot back to the bag. Removing an item returns it to the bag. You can only equip copies you own, and you cannot equip or remove gear while a Hero Journey run is open. Gear only raises your Journey power. It does not change the Hero's bonus in village battles, HP or other stats. You manage gear in the Equipment tab of the Hero's Mansion.
When can my Hero enter the Journey?
Your Hero must not be on the march; it can enter from wherever it is stationed. It must not be in a coma, and its health must be above half of its maximum. A Hero at exactly half health or lower has to recover first. Before the check, the game ends a coma whose time is up and counts the health your Hero has regenerated since it was last updated. If starting closes a run you left open, that run's health cost is charged first, and regeneration not yet counted by then can be lost. The level screen shows which condition is blocking your Hero, and it can take a little while to notice that your Hero has recovered.
Which Journey levels can I enter?
You can enter a level only after winning the level before it. Level 1 needs no earlier win, and you can replay levels you have already won. Each chapter also asks for a minimum Hero level: chapter 2 needs level 5, chapter 3 needs 10, chapter 4 needs 16, chapter 5 needs 23, chapter 6 needs 31, chapter 7 needs 40, chapter 8 needs 50, chapter 9 needs 61 and chapter 10 needs 73. Your Hero level grows with experience from battles and from Journey stars. A level shows as locked until both conditions are met, and also while your power is below what the level requires.