Campaigns are the form of play in Wildermyth. Campaigns come in one of two types; Normal and Legacy. Normal campaigns start you off with a band of fresh new heroes while Legacy campaigns will use one or more heroes in your Legacy to start you off with. When you first start the game your Legacy will be empty, so you won't be able to do Legacy campaigns. Overall, the difference between normal and legacy campaigns is mostly insignificant until you start filling your legacy with powerful heroes.

Campaigns also come in one of two genres; Story or Generic. Story campaigns are handcrafted scripted stories serving as the driving force of the game. Generic campaigns don't have a story and are mainly just a way to play the game without going through the same stories over and over.

Campaigns also come in one of two lengths; three chapter and five chapter. These are mostly self explanatory (or will be once you read the section on Chapters).

I would highly recommend starting with the "Age Of Ulstryx" campaign. It is a three-chapter Normal Story campaign that serves as a sort of extended introduction to Wildermyth as a whole.

When you start a campaign, you are presented with a few options.

- Main Enemy: Only changable during generic campaigns. This determines the enemy type that will make up most of the combats. During Story campaigns this is fixed and unchangable.
- Difficulty: The game has five difficulty settings, from Storyteller (easiest) to Walking Lunch (hardest), along with a custom setting. The custom setting (along with the "Customize Difficulty" button) allow you to independently change the overland and combat difficulties. I would not recommend using the custom difficulty your first campaign, nor would I recommend playing a difficulty above Adventurer.
- Carved In Stone: This is basically the "hardcore" mode for campaigns. By default the game keeps many previous saves available and allows you to load them at any time, reverting the campaign back to that point. Carved In Stone disables the ability to Load. Following along with what the game says, I would not activate this for your first campaign.

The next screen allows you to customize your party. Note that with the exception of Legacy campaigns all campaigns start with one Warrior, one Hunter, and one Mystic. See the Character Sheets section for more information.

You can also adjust starting calamities from here, though I would not recommend this unless you're looking for an even greater challenge. Note that legacy campaigns will recommend you start with a certain amount of calamities based on the legacy heroes you pick. You can always set this to zero (and probably should for your first few legacy campaigns).

Each campaign is divided into "Chapters"; either three or five depending on the campaign. You can expect each chapter to take anywhere from half an hour to two hours depending on how thorough and efficient you are.

The beginning of the first chapter typically puts you in an easy combat scenario with your three starter heroes, who have yet to gain their class abilities. After this fight you will be able to select an ability for each hero, and they will gain their class abilities.

At the end of a chapter, you will earn "years of peace" based on your performance in that chapter. Apart from aging your heroes, more years of peace doesn't typically do anything.

Between each chapter you will get several events;
- Gain Resources: All your held territories will generate their listed resources at the end of each chapter.
- Undermine the Enemy: Calamity cards will be removed from the deck based on the amount of Calamity cards in the deck, the chapter, and the difficulty. More Calamity cards in the deck means more Calamity cards will be removed, although these cards can be drawn again later.
- Downtime: You will be shown a series of short stories explaining what some heroes got up to during the years of peace. This is mostly aesthetic. You will also randomly receive free new recruits (although you won't be able to select their class) and see heroes retiring in this phase.
- Equipment Management: You can upgrade and replace equipment without the usual time requirements in this phase. See the Equipment section for more details.
- The Shadows Deepen: This is a generic reminder that all fights will draw one additional enemy card for the rest of the campaign.

All of these events happen between every chapter. In addition, you will be granted one last round of Resource Gain and Equipment Management before the final battle of the final chapter.

A sizable portion of the gameplay takes place on the Overland map. This is a map of connected territories that makes up the game world. This map is randomly generated and changes every campaign. The available map expands each chapter, opening new territories and threats.

Territories are unexplored by default. The first step is to send a party of heroes to scout the territory. Once the territory has been scouted you will either be able to build a station (if the tile is not occupied by enemies) or fight the enemies (if it is). Additionally, you will also be able to Patrol on infested tiles, removing the infestation.

Some tile borders are impassible. You can change this by assigning heroes to build a bridge (over a river) or carve a pass (through a mountain). Note that this only applies to tile borders. Mountain and Ocean tiles are always impassible. Also note that mountain passes take longer to make than bridges.

Different heroes have different labor skills based on their class. Warriors patrol faster, Hunters scout faster, and Mystics secure faster.

Defeating an Incursion or enemy force awards two Legacy points.

Some tiles will be infested. Infestations add to the strength of connected enemy forces (making them draw more cards), and can cause random forced combats for groups of one or two heroes sitting on or moving through the tile (though it's fairly uncommon). Infestations can be eliminated by patrolling the tile or defeating all nearby enemy forces. Infestations will slowly spread to adjacent tiles over time, though all the newly infested tiles will be cleared if the source is defeated. You need a minimum of three heroes to perform a patrol task.

It's usually not too vital to clear infestations, especially in the late game.

During overland activity you'll sometimes get opportunities. The higher the hero's relationship with others , the higher the chance for an opportunity to trigger. These are special events requiring two specific heroes and often involve navigating to a far off tile and engaging in combat. Successfully completing the combat will boost the retirement age of the hero the opportunity was for and grant them a bonus ability. If you don't want to pursue an opportunity you can either dismiss it by choosing not to pursue it in the story choices or you can simply wait for a better time, even through chapters.

There are three different kinds of relationships - friends, rivals, and lovers.

Each hero starts off with no relationship with other heroes. As heroes perform tasks together their relationships will "improve", increasing bonuses. Heroes become friends with other heroes by default once they have spent some time together. Heroes can sometimes enter rivalries or romances depending on factors like personality and age.

There is also a fourth mostly unlisted relationship type called "family" for children of other heroes, but it doesn't replace other relationships except for preventing the two from being lovers. Each hero can only be rivals with one other hero, and same for lovers.

Friendship grants a block bonus to both heroes when they are walling with each other. This bonus increases as the relationship level improves.

Rivalry causes one hero to gain a large stunt chance bonus when the other hero in the rivalry performs a stunt. This bonus lasts until the hero stunts (including between combats), but the hero cannot trigger the bonus for their rival while they still have the bonus (I.E. you can't pass the buff back and forth by chaining stunts).

Romance causes enemies who attack one hero to take additional damage from the other hero until the end of combat.

Higher relationships also affects the frequency of opportunities.

Some random events may give you the option to transform one of your heroes. If you do this, a limb will be replaced (based on the transformation. For example, the Flametouched transformation always starts with the right arm, and the Wolfish transformation always starts with the head) and the hero's stats may change, or they might gain a new ability. They also take on the "theme" of the transformation. Between chapters, you'll have the option to transform a randomly selected limb if there are limbs left on that hero to transform. Transformations also automatically replace any maimed limbs, both present and future. Some transformations might also give new options when the hero chooses to die in combat.

Transformed limbs cannot hold items or equip augments. Note that all heroes are apparently ambidextrous because the difference between wielding a weapon in the right hand or left hand is irrelevant. If a hero's arm is transformed while they are wielding a two-handed weapon, it will automatically be replaced by a one-handed weapon of the same type, element, and tier (a Hammer will become a Mace, a Bow will become a Crossbow, etc.) This also goes for maimed limbs.

Heroes can have multiple themes at once, though some are incompatible with each other, and others require certain parts to be available.

All tasks take time. As time passes, the Calamity and Incursion meters fill. Once those meters are full, bad things happen. Because of this it's important to maintain a decent pace through each chapter, although skipping tiles isn't necessary.

Calamities happen more often than Incursions. Each time the Calamity meter fills, four calamity cards will be randomly drawn. These cards can do anything from adding new enemies to the pool to giving existing enemies stat buffs and new abilities. When cards are drawn from the calamity meter filling, you can spend Legacy points to cancel them. The cost increases as the campaign progresses. It's usually worthwhile to cancel most if not all calamities for the enemy type that is the main threat of the campaign.

After each fight, win or lose, the enemy type you fought also gains one un-cancelable calamity card.

Incursions happen much less frequently, but also require more drastic action. Incursions appear from infested enemy tiles and make their way through the map. You can see their projected path overlayed on the map as a trail of footprints. You can hover over the next target territory to see how soon the incursion force will arrive.

Incursion forces are given power ratings much like enemy forces. When an Incursion force reaches a claimed tile they will destroy it, preventing it from producing resources until it is repaired. Every tile destroyed in this way reduces the incursion power rating by one. If the tile has defenses, the incursion destroys the defenses first, reducing the incursion power rating by one for each tier of defense destroyed.

Incursion forces will target towns. If all towns are destroyed, you lose the campaign.

Incursion forces can be disposed with in one of two ways; either waiting for the incursion force's power rating to reach zero, or the better and faster way; to meet the incursion force and defeat it. You can do this by gathering heroes on the incursion's next target tile, or by attacking the incursion force directly the same way you would a normal enemy territory. When defending, all heroes on the tile will participate in the attack (instead of the normal limit of five), along with a number of farmers based on the amount of heroes on the tile (more heroes = less farmers). Farmers are effectively level 0 heroes, and while they are typically well enough equipped they have no abilities. Defenses constructed on the tile will also provide benefits to the heroes during the defense mission - including a special "arrow volley" skill available to everyone, and conveniently placed cover.

Successfully defending against or intercepting an incursion force will instantly destroy it.

There are three total classes in the game; Warrior, Hunter, and Mystic. It may be more appropriate to call these "archetypes" instead though, because there is a wide range of builds and playstyles available to each, along with a substantial array of passive effects.

The frontliner class. Warriors typically find their place next to as many enemies as possible with a melee weapon in hand, although they can be built for ranged combat as well. Warriors will typically end up as tanks or otherwise controlling the enemy forces and keeping them away from your squishier heroes.

Warriors have high health and armor, and build defenses 100% faster.

Unique action: Guardian (replaces Wait): Immediately ends turn. The first enemy to enter melee range is immediately attacked by this hero.

Most warrior skills center around melee weapons, and won't function without them. Keep this in mind when building and equipping your warriors. Warriors always start with one random melee weapon.

The clever class. Hunters will either remain in the backline and pepper enemies with arrows, or move in close under stealth and get powerful flanking bonuses. Their toolkit revolves around keeping out of trouble and bringing the trouble to the enemies with a variety of tricks and traps.

Hunters have high speed and accuracy, and scout territories 100% faster.

Unique action: Silkstep (Long action). Leap two tiles (ignoring obstacles) and enter stealth. Remember that you can't use Silkstep on a turn in which that character has exited stealth

Most hunter skills center around medium to long range attacks and buffs. Remember that hunters are your fastest heroes, and also the best for getting flanking bonuses. Plan accordingly. All hunters start with a bow and dagger.

The creative class. Mystics are extremely versatile, but also extremely dependent on the environment. The right terrain or build can turn a mystic from dead weight to MVP very quickly. Their toolkit revolves around their unique Interfuse ability.

Mystics have high retirement age and potency, and secure sites 100% faster.

Unique action: Interfuse (quick action). Connect with a scenery object in range. Can make a number of attacks originating from the scenery based on the object. Interfusing lasts until the character moves out of range or manually withdraws (quick action). You can interfuse with two objects at once by default.

Mystics rely heavily on the terrain for their power. Most of their abilities buff or augment interfusion in some way, though some are more novel than others. Mystics work best against tight groups of enemies in scenery-dense environments, though even outside of those circumstances the utility they provide can be very helpful.

There's really no defined answer. A balance of all of them is usually best, but even then you don't need to. I once completed a campaign with three mystics and two hunters in the final battle, and zero warriors in the party. In general, it's good to have at least one of each because of the job bonuses, but you're better off choosing the class that's most likely to fill the role you're missing; Warrior for tank or frontline fighting, Mystic for utility, and Hunter for ranged DPR.

Combat is a bit more complicated than your standard grid-based game, but understanding the nuances of combat is important to keep your heroes alive.

Each hero has two action points and one quick action point. Each action available to the hero is either a quick action, normal action, or slow action. Slow actions consume all action points. Attacking is almost always a slow action. Normal actions consume one normal action point. Moving is almost always a normal action. Quick actions consume one quick action point. Interfusing is a quick action.

If the hero doesn't have a quick action point left, quick actions consume normal action points instead. If the hero has no normal action points left their turn ends even if their quick action point is still available. Keeping this in mind, it's possible to make two normal actions or three quick actions in a turn.

Some things to note;
- You can move then attack, but you can't attack then move in most cases.
- You can interfuse twice then use an interfusion attack
- You can move, use a quick action, then move again, but you can't move twice then use a quick action.
- Some actions have usage limits. You can see these in the top right corner of the action. Some limits are per turn while others are per combat.

When two heroes are cardinally adjacent to each other, they will wall. Walling reduces incoming damage by 1. Walling doesn't stack - it's either active or it isn't although heroes can wall with more than one other hero at a time. Enemies can't wall conventionally.

Whenever you attack an enemy, the angle of the attack is displayed at the base of the enemy's figure. Any attack at a greater than 90 degree angle from any previous attack in the turn (successful or otherwise) will have a 100% chance to hit. Daggers also deal double damage when flanking. Flanking is indicated by a different attack angle indicator.

If flanking is possible, set it up by attacking with your weaker heroes first. This means that your harder-hitting heroes will be the ones to get their guaranteed hits.

Enemies can and will get flanking bonuses, and will prioritize doing so if possible. Make sure your frontliners are in a position where they can be flanked as little as possible or they'll be ripped apart quickly.

Most numbers aren't expressed as a whole number. This can have several different effects on the resulting abilities that depend on that number. Numbers are almost always floored, meaning the decimal is just cut off and ignored. 2.1, 2.5, 2.7, and 2.99 all become 2 when floored.

Armor, Warding, and Health are just floored.

Bonus Damage, Potency, and Spell Damage are floored. Abilities that scale off of both are floored both before and after the calculation (so a character with 1.5 bonus damage and 2.5 potency will add 1 damage to 1/2(bonus damage + potency) scaling abilities).

Range affects tiles differently based on the number. An attack with a range of 1 can only affect tiles cardinally adjacent, while a range of 1.5 can affect tiles diagonally adjacent, and so on as the "circle" expands.

Speed is treated like range. Certain obstacles can also increase the movement required to enter a space. In addition, moving diagonally consumes 1.4 speed instead of 1. This means if you have 1 speed you can only move cardinally, but if you have 1.4 speed you can also move diagonally. If you take multiple move actions in a turn, the remainder of the previous move does not get added onto the next move.

All units have a block, dodge, and accuracy rating. Higher block and dodge makes a unit more likely to negate an attack, while higher accuracy makes that unit's attack more likely to hit. Block and dodge are functionally identical. As far as I'm aware, the only difference between having 50 block and 50 dodge and having 90 block and 10 dodge is the frequency at which the text says "blocked" instead of "dodged". Because of this, block and dodge are collectively referred to as "avoidance" by many members of the community.

A "Stunt" is effectively this game's name for a critical hit. Stunts have a base 15% chance to occur on any successful attack, and deal additional damage equal to the weapon's stunt damage stat. Note that interfusion attacks also use the stunt damage stat of the equipped weapon. Elemental weapons have unique effects when a stunt is performed.

You can enter stealth in a variety of ways. While in stealth, enemies will not directly target you and that unit cannot wall with other units - even if those units are also in stealth. Stealth remains until it is broken, which can happen by;

• An enemy attempting to move into the tile containing the unit
  
• An AoE attack also targets the unit's tile
  
• An enemy uses a search action that targets the unit's tile
  
• The stealthed unit makes an attack or uses a skill (other than move) in any way, successful or otherwise.

Attacks from Stealthed units ignore all armor and warding, but can still be blocked or dodged normally.

All units have an armor and warding stat. Both behave differently.

Armor reduces damage from all physical attacks by 1 per armor point. Armor persists until the effect granting it wears off (I.E. from Tinker or similar temporary skills) or until it is shredded. Some weapons and attacks have innate shred, but if an attack is completely negated by armor it will shred 1 additional armor. Shred is calculated after the attack's damage is resolved. Some weapons and attacks also have piercing. 1 armor is ignored per 1 point of piercing, applied before damage is dealt. Piercing only affects the attack it applies to. Shredded armor will be restored at the end of the battle.

Warding behaves differently. It effectively acts like temporary HP that protects from spell damage. All magical attacks (including those from hazards left on tiles and fire) must reduce the target's warding to zero first before dealing damage. Warding is restored to maximum at the start of the unit's turn.

When a piece of scenery you are adjacent to is between you and an attack, you gain a bonus to attack negation. If you don't block or dodge, there's a chance you'll "take cover" and the attack will damage the scenery instead. Enemies can also benefit from this.

You can click directly on an ally unit or on that unit's picture to switch to that unit. You don't need to take actions in the order the game gives you, nor do you need to take all of a unit's actions before moving on to the next one.

If you'd really like for one particular unit to go first or last, you can open the options menu and adjust the turn order from there. This only persists for the current battle though.

Any damage a hero sustains in combat doesn't just go away once the combat ends. Heroes will retain their current HP into the next combat if it happens too quickly. As time passes in the overworld heroes will slowly heal based on their recovery rate stat and a number of other factors; Healing is twice as fast while the hero is in a town, half as fast if the hero is on an unsecured territory, and half again as fast (0.25x) if the hero is travelling. A quiet jingle will play when a hero has recovered to full HP.

Equipment is vital to your hero's performance. Poor, low tier equipment can render a hero useless.

Equipment comes in three types: weapons, offhand, and armor. By default, all starting heroes will start with tier 0 equipment, with new units getting better starting equipment in later chapters.

Armor comes in two tiers and two types per class. A unit cannot equip armor from a different class. The two types of armor specialize in different things. For example, one Warrior armor gives a bonus to stunt chance and dodge while the other penalizes speed in exchange for massive armor boosts.

Offhand items come in distinct types, but only one tier. Offhand items have a variety of effects, but cannot be used if the hero does not have a free hand to hold them (E.G. they are using a two-handed weapon).

Weapons come in many distinct types and three tiers of each. Each weapon has a unique set of stats.

Swords have accuracy and block bonuses. They also come in two handed variants called Greatswords which deal slightly more damage. These are great "vanilla" weapons for when you just want raw reliability.
Dueling Swords have accuracy, stunt chance, and block boosts, but slightly less damage than swords. Better for those who like to gamble for stunts.
Axes have innate shred, making them ideal for usage in fights with tough enemies. They also come in two handed variants called Greataxes which have slightly more damage and more shred (but only at tier 2)
Maces knock back the enemy, keeping them away from your heroes. Great against enemies with multiple attacking actions. Also comes in two handed variants called Hammers, which deal slightly more damage and knockback.
SpearsHave longer range than other melee weapons, making them good for Guardian or anyone who prefers to keep enemies somewhat distant. Also comes in two-handed variants called Greatspears, which deal slightly more damage.
Bows are ranged weapons, however they cannot target any squares adjacent to the wielder. They have a very long range to make up for this. All bows are two-handed. Good for Hunters or others who like to fight from a distance.
Crossbows have a shorter range but don't have the "dead zone" that bows have. More versatile but less powerful.
Daggers have incredibly short range, but deal double damage (after armor) when flanking. Great for skirmishes in fairly open spaces where flanking is easy.
Staves have a decent range as well as spell damage and block boosts, but lower physical damage. Ideal for Mystics. All staves are two-handed.
Wands deal very low damage but have bonus warding and spell damage. Good for Mystics who want a one-handed weapon.

Higher tier weapons are strictly better than lower tiers. Each hero can equip one armor, two weapons, and one offhand item. This offhand item will apply to either or both weapons, as long as the weapon is one-handed. Transformed limbs cannot hold items. If an arm is transformed, you always lose the offhand slot, regardless of which arm or what it was transformed into.

Over the course of your campaign you may find and catch spirits that enchant your weapons. In order to catch a spirit you must move a hero adjacent to it. Spirits will only enchant weapons of the hero who catches it, so plan accordingly.

Once one of the four elemental infusions is applied to that weapon, you can freely craft that elemental weapon for anyone in any future campaign. The elemental infused variants of weapons deal slightly less stunt damage, but have an effect on stunt.

Water weapons refund an action point once per turn. This can be incredibly useful for chaining attacks or moving units out of trouble.
Nature weapons add temporary HP. This is good for squishier frontliners.
Stone weapons pin and shred in an AoE. This is great for keeping crowds under control.
Fire weapons deal AoE damage and light fires under nearby enemies. Great for boosting DPR.

There are also some weapons tagged as Artifact. These are unique items with special bonuses. They can be upgraded, but not re-crafted if replaced.

Legacy characters will keep the type and element (including artifact effects) of their weapons and armor when they are recruited into future campaigns, but the gear will downgrade to whatever tier is appropriate for the chapter they are recruited into.

There are five "factions" of enemies in Wildermyth. During any campaign you're likely to have most of your fights against one, while another is less common but still frequent, one is particularly rare, one only shows up in two or three fights, and the remaining one is labeled as "not present". Each enemy faction has different strengths and weaknesses to learn if you want to fight them most effectively.

Gorgons are the first enemy type you'll likely fight, and are the simplest and easiest. All Gorgons leave behind damaging effects on tiles when they die, as well as randomly as they move if they are not at full health. Because of this it's best to kill a Gorgon enemy in one hit, or allow it to move as little as possible after being damaged. The damaging effect fades after two turns and does magic damage, so an alternative is equipping your heroes with a little extra warding to offset a tile or two (though it still costs extra movement to move through).

Morthagi are another relatively simple enemy type. Morthagi gain bonuses for being adjacent to other Morthagi, much like Walling. These bonuses can range from extra block and dodge to bonus damage and armor. It's important to break up clumps of Morthagi whenever possible to minimize these bonuses. Control/knockback abilities are particularly effective at this, though just outright killing the linking enemies works too.

Thrixl mainly focus around Interfusion and magical stuff. Most Thrixl can interfuse with scenery the same way heroes can, and can use the scenery to attack the same way heroes can. Destroying scenery, interfusing with it first, or keeping away from any interfused scenery should be a priority if you're having trouble with the Thrixl. Buffing the Warding of your heroes can work too. Raider is a great skill to have for this express purpose as it allows you to instantly destroy any scenery.

Deepists rely on overwhelming numbers. Many Deepist units can call for reinforcements or come in larger numbers, though there are some heavy hitters in the Deepist roster as well. AoE effects are effective enough, though you'll likely want some hard-hitting attacks to deal with the tougher enemies. Dealing any damage to a Deepist calling for reinforcements will stop the summon.

Drauven are the most complex and intimidating faction. Their roster is packed with tricks and traps to mess with you in a lot of different ways. Some units hobble you, some are immune to the first attack, others damage you over time. Make sure you read the effects of each Drauven ability and understand what to do to avoid or counter it. Also keep in mind that most Drauven will regenerate health if not killed in a single round, so focusing your damage is the best option.

*Note that "not present" only applies for generic combats and infestations on overland tiles. Certain specific story events - for example Spur of a Moment which is the opportunity quest for Lucky characters - will have fixed enemies every time you encounter them.

The character sheet is the most complex and useful source of information on a character. You can find most of the information you want here. You can view character sheets at basically any time so never be afraid to check if you want to find some information.

On the left of the character sheet you can see a visual representation of the hero. Above their head you can see their name, personality summary, level, class, and age. If you're in the legacy menu you can toggle whether that hero is playable and adjust the hero's visual age. While not having any impact on gameplay, this display age is how the hero will appear in the Legacy menu and on the title screen if they are randomly selected to appear there.

This page gives you a list of the hero's abilities, starting with learned level-up abilities then moving on to transformations from Themes. Each theme has a header to identify that it is present on the hero, followed by the list of features affected by the Theme. You can also see the experience required for the hero to reach the next level. You can click on any of the entries in the list to see details.

This page shows you the hero's equipped gear, starting with their weapons, then armor and augments (basically accessories). At the bottom under "archived items" it shows a list of items the hero once had, but were replaced at some point. You can click on any entry to see details.

Here you can see the total stats of the hero. Click on an entry to see what's affecting it. At the bottom you can also see details on the hero's personality. During character creation you can click the arrows to adjust the personality traits. These traits determine how the hero will act in story scenes and may affect eligibility for certain scenes. The top two traits will determine the hero's personality summary.

This displays a list of all the actions the hero can take in combat. Click on an entry for details.

Here you can see the relationships between this hero and others in the party. Heroes gain relationships over time. Higher relationship values mean special opportunity quests will appear for that hero more often.

This page shows the trials and tribulations of the hero. At character creation you can select three hooks to give the hero (which will change what opportunities the hero gets), manually edit their backstory text (for flavor), and view their unique passive effects. The only way to change the passive effects is to reroll the character. As the character is used their adventures and legacy section will fill up with things they have done.

This page is self-explanatory. Here you can customize the appearance of the hero, as well as whether to allow random romances, rivalries, and children. Once you complete certain achievements you will be able to change the appearance of themes on this hero here as well.

This is effectively a bulk page listing every tag, effect, and special stat of the hero. Click on an entry for more details.

When a campaign is finished, succeed or fail, all heroes that were part of the campaign (alive or retired) can be added to your legacy. Dead heroes can also be added if you chose to build a memorial for them (you will be given the option after the fight in which they die). Note that certain kinds of death (E.G. choosing a certain option in a particular opportunity) don't exclude heroes from legacy in this way. Your Legacy is effectively a compendium of past saved heroes that can be substituted for normal town recruits or be used in legacy campaigns.

There's no upper or lower limit on how many heroes can be added to your Legacy each campaign, nor is there a limit to how many heroes can be in your legacy. Feel free to add all of them, or none of them.

At the end of each campaign you will also get the option to promote one or more legacy heroes. This effectively "updates" the hero with all the new stuff they got in that campaign, overwriting what they previously had. It also increases their legacy tier making them more expensive to recruit and increasing the abilities they start with. You won't need to promote any hero that was just added to your legacy to keep their stuff.

Legacy heroes keep their armor, weapons, transformations, and skills, but lose their augments/accessories.

Each legacy hero has a "rank" from 1 to 5. These ranks come with their own names, but aside from differentiating the ranks, there's no mechanical meaning behind the names. When a hero is added to the legacy, it automatically becomes rank 1. From there, the hero must be promoted rank by rank until they reach rank 5. After a legacy hero reaches rank 5, further promotions will not increase the tier, but will still update that hero's equipment and transformations.

Any given story campaign will have roughly 42% (3 chapter)/ 70% (5 chapter) of your tier one legacy heroes available, along with an equivalent percentage of your legacy heroes that aren't tier 1, up to a maximum of 5 total legacy heroes per town.

When you recruit a legacy hero you will be able to select a number of extra starting abilities equal to that hero's legacy rank - up to five. The abilities you have to choose from are the abilities the hero had when they were last promoted. They will start at a level equal to their rank (up to 5), with all the stat bonuses that entails. Higher tier Legacy heroes also cost more Legacy points to recruit; again, by one per rank. Don't worry about adding heroes near or at retirement to your Legacy, as their age is "reset" when they are recruited. Legacy heroes also come with all transformations and equipment they were saved with, though it will be tiered down according to the chapter they are recruited into. It's worth noting that unlike greenhorns, legacy hero equipment will always be at least tier 1, giving them a substantial early game boost (not to mention they start at a higher level).

You can view all your Legacy heroes via the "My Legacy" option in the main menu. From this screen you can see and select Legacy heroes, see their saved abilities and stats, adjust their visual age (no effect on recruitment), disable or enable their playability, or even delete them altogether.

Legacy heroes with the "Playable" box unticked will never appear for recruit during a campaign. Use this option if you want to keep a hero in your Legacy but don't want to use them for the time being.

Deleting a Legacy hero is irreversible. Do this if you never want to play or see that legacy hero again.