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Hearthward Champion Guide
Every expedition in Hearthward is fought by a party of three champions, chosen from a roster of seven. Each hero fills a real-time combat role, carries a signature ultimate, and — once you unlock the Curator — can be refined and taught a second ultimate that reshapes how they play. This guide breaks down all seven, their kits at current values, and how to assemble a party that survives the deep.
The three roles
A balanced party usually wants one hero who can absorb punishment, one who deals the bulk of the damage, and one who keeps the other two alive or controls the enemy. Heroes aren't locked to a role — Aldric can tank or support, Thornwild can control or heal — but thinking in terms of front line, damage, and support is the fastest way to build a party that doesn't fall apart three fights into a run.
Ultimates charge as your heroes land attacks; you spend them manually, so timing matters. When an enemy winds up a heavy surge, brace to cut the damage — and pop your defensive ultimates on the same beat.
The Curator: refinements & second ultimates
The Curator is Hearthward's third vendor, unlocked mid-game. It spends Corrupted Scales (dropped by Aquatic and Molten bosses) to refine a hero's primary ultimate or teach them an entirely different second ultimate you can swap to between expeditions. Training takes real time — 24 hours for a refinement, 48 hours for a second ultimate — and only one hero trains at a time, so plan around who you'll want. Once the Curator is active, every hero in your party also radiates a free party-wide passive aura, and those stack — so committing to a composition is the whole point.
Branwen — Vanguard 🛡️
Role: front line. The wall the rest of the party hides behind. Highest HP and defenses in the roster, but little damage of his own — his job is to still be standing when everyone else is.
Bulwark (ultimate): for 2 seconds, enemies are forced to attack Branwen, his defenses are doubled, and he raises a shield worth 20% of his Max HP. Refined: lasts 4 seconds and the shield rises to 30% of Max HP.
Shockwave (second ultimate): stuns the focused enemy for 1 second, deals 10% of Branwen's Max HP to it, and slows every other enemy for 2 seconds — trading pure tanking for hard crowd control.
Party passive — Bulwark Aura: +25% Max HP to the whole party.
Kaelis — Blade ⚔️
Role: single-target damage. A fast, fragile swordsman who deletes priority targets.
Sever (ultimate): strikes the focused enemy for 3× a normal hit. Refined: strikes four times instead of once, spreading far more total damage into a single target.
Skewer (second ultimate): strikes every enemy for a normal hit and applies a heavy Bleed (15% of Attack per second) to all of them — and Kaelis himself deals +25% damage for 2 seconds afterward. Turns him from a single-target assassin into a whole-board threat with a personal burst window.
Party passive — Bladesong: +15% Attack to the whole party.
Syrene — Pyromancer 🔥
Role: area damage over time. Highest Magic Attack; she doesn't burst so much as set the whole board on fire.
Cinder Nova (ultimate): magic damage to all enemies plus a stacking Burn (10% of Magic Attack per second per stack). Refined: Burn builds to five stacks, then the next cast detonates them for a massive burst and re-ignites — a huge payoff in longer fights.
Freezing Field (second ultimate): magic damage to all enemies and slows them for 3 seconds — less sustained damage than Nova, but strong control against a fast, crowded board.
Party passive — Emberveil: +10% Magic Attack to the whole party.
Liora — Priestess 🙏
Role: healer. The clearest "keep everyone alive" pick, with the best Magic Defense in the roster.
Sanctuary (ultimate): heals the whole party for her Magic Attack and cleanses bleed, poison, and burn. Refined: cleanses two debuffs from every hero instead of one — invaluable against the status-heavy Molten Reaches.
Mirror Light (second ultimate): deals magic damage to the focused enemy and shields every ally for 75% of the damage dealt — a proactive, offense-into-defense option when you don't need raw healing.
Party passive — Graceflow: +25% healing received by the party, and fallen heroes revive at 50% HP.
Fenwick — Ranger 🏹
Role: sustained single-target carry. The fastest hero, highest base Accuracy and Critical — she out-attacks everyone.
Bullseye (ultimate): for 3 seconds, Fenwick gains +50% Critical and her crit-damage multiplier is tripled — her crits deal 4.5× damage instead of the usual 1.5×. Paired with her attack speed, it's the highest single-target damage window in the game. Refined: also applies a Bleed to the focused enemy.
Blood Scent (second ultimate): marks the focused enemy to take +30% damage from all sources for 6 seconds — a party-wide amplifier that makes everyone's damage hit harder, best used to melt a boss.
Party passive — Hawk's Mark: +10% Accuracy to the whole party.
Tip: any Critical above 100% converts into extra crit damage (1% → +0.01 to the multiplier), so stacking crit on Fenwick is never wasted.
Aldric — Paladin ⚜️
Role: flexible bruiser-support. High HP and defenses like a tank, but he heals and buffs too — a great glue hero.
Consecration (ultimate): grants the party +50% defenses for 4 seconds and heals the lowest-HP ally for his Magic Attack. Refined: also deals magic damage to all enemies, adding offense to a defensive cooldown.
Retribution (second ultimate): taunts every enemy onto Aldric for 3 seconds, reflects 50% of the damage he takes back as holy damage, and shields himself — a punishing, thorns-style tank turn.
Party passive — Aegis Oath: +10% Defense and Magic Defense to the whole party.
Thornwild — Druid 🌿
Role: control-support hybrid. Slows and damages while healing over time — she keeps fights slow and survivable.
Wildkin Bloom (ultimate): slows the focused enemy for 4 seconds and deals 0.75× Magic Attack, while Regrowth heals the lowest ally over 3 seconds. Refined: slows and damages two enemies (the focus plus one).
Venom Bloom (second ultimate): damages and Poisons every enemy, and heals the lowest ally over time — trading single-target control for board-wide damage-over-time and sustain. (Slows stack in Hearthward, with diminishing returns, so Thornwild layers well with other slowers.)
Party passive — Windstep: +10% Evasion to the whole party.
Building a party
A safe default is front line + damage + support: Branwen or Aldric to hold aggro, Fenwick or Kaelis to kill, and Liora or Thornwild to sustain. From there, lean into the Curator passives — three heroes whose auras reinforce your plan (all-in on Attack with Kaelis + Fenwick + a survivor, or a defensive wall with Branwen + Aldric + Liora) is far stronger than three unrelated picks.
Match your second ultimates to the fight: single-target ults (Sever, Bullseye) for bosses, board-wide ults (Skewer, Freezing Field, Venom Bloom) for crowded Molten encounters. And remember you can swap ultimates freely between expeditions from the hero card — no trip to the Curator needed.