RAID: Shadow Legends wouldn’t be a proper collectible squad-based battle MMORPG without something to collect, right? That’s where its more than 700 Champions come into play.
- NINJA
- ERINYES
- GEOMANCER
- SUN WUKONG
- BIG ‘UN
- WURLIM FROSTKING
- KAEL
- ZARGALA
- COLDHEART
- ROTOS THE LOST GROOM
- TALLIA
- LIGHTSWORN
- ARMIGER
- ARMINA
- XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS
- WARMAIDEN
- ROYAL GUARD
- FLESH-TEARER
- GRINNER
- LOKI THE DECEIVER
Without a doubt the most important part of the entire RAID: Shadow Legends experience is your army of Champions. You need your Champions every bit as much as they need you.
One of the fundamental things to know about RAID: Shadow Legends is how Champions work.
You’ll need to understand the sheer number of different ways in which you can obtain Champions, how to combine them with others to create all-new Champions, and the impact they can have on your play-through.
How to acquire Champions
When you tap on the Index button on the Bastion screen, you’ll see all the Factions within RAID: Shadow Legends. You’ll also notice the daunting number of Champions available to be collected in the game.
As with most aspects of RAID: Shadow Legends, there’s not just one way to acquire Champions. You can unlock or recruit them through multiple avenues.
Shards
Shards, the special crystals you’ll find as you play RAID: Shadow Legends, allow players to summon Champions to their army via the Portal in your Bastion. Shards come in different types, and each can drop Champions of differing degrees of Rarity.
To summon a Champion from a Shard, you’ll need to invest a set amount of Silver. Each Shard also presents a certain probability that you’ll find a RAID: Shadow Legends Champion of a different Rarity within them.
You can review the probabilities affecting each Shard type within the game by clicking the “i” icon on the Summon screen.
- Mystery Shards (Green):
Champion percentages: Common (74.2%), Uncommon (24.4%), and Rare (1.4%) - Ancient Shards (Blue):
Champion percentages: Rare (91.5%), Epic (8.0%), and Legendary (0.5%) - Void Shards (Purple):
Champion percentages: Rare (91.5%), Epic (8.0%), and Legendary (0.5%)
Note that Void Shards can only unlock Void Affinity Champions, which cannot be acquired from any other Shard type. - Sacred Shards (Gold):
Champion percentages: Epic (94%) and Legendary (6%)
If you open a certain number of Shards and have not received a Champion of a specific Rarity, that’s when RAID: Shadow Legends’ Mercy System kicks in. This will increase your odds of summoning Champions of a specific Rarity with each consecutive Shard you open.
These chances will reset once you summon that Rarity of Champion, but it means you will eventually summon a Legendary Champion from an Ancient Shard, so don’t lose hope!
Earning Shards is an adventure every bit as varied as the RAID: Shadow Legends Champions themselves. Each game mode rewards victors with specific types of Shards.
- Campaign: Mystery Shards
- Dungeons: Mystery Shards, Ancient Shards
- PVP Chests: Ancient Shards, Void Shards, Sacred Shards
- Demon Lord Chests: Ancient Shards, Void Shards, Sacred Shards
- Quests: Ancient Shards, Void Shards, Sacred Shards
Shards can also appear as one-time rewards from Progress Missions, Campaign, and Faction Wars progression, from regular Challenge rewards, as daily login rewards, as items to purchase in the Tag Team Bazaar, the Clan Shop, and the Market, and through limited-time in-game events.
All of these Shards are also available to purchase through special offers and as bundles within the in-game Shop.
Campaign Missions
Playing through and grinding the missions within the game’s Campaign can be another great way to collect specific Champions. Every single battle in the Campaign offers multiple Champions through the miscellaneous drops that can as earned victory reward loot drops.
While the Shards you purchase or earn as rewards provide a chance to roll for one Champion, the beauty of a Champion loot drop is that — assuming they have the Energy available — there’s no limit on how many times players can attempt to obtain one by completing these Stages.
Additional Sources of Champions
In addition to Shard unlocks, the rarest of the RAID: Shadow Legends Champions can be acquired via the completion of specific, and often very difficult, quests or achievements. These Champions are the ultimate prize for consistency and dedication, as none of them are easy to acquire. They require a significant investment of time and effort, but the rewards are worth it.
To learn which Champions you can unlock via Achievements or Quests, simply tap on either menu from the Bastion.
You can also summon powerful RAID: Shadow Legends Champions by Fusing other ones together, or by collecting Champion Fragments to summon a specific Champion. You may only have a limited time to gather all the Champion Fragments needed for one of these ultimate fighters but trust us, the final result is worth it.
You can see which Champions are available for both Fusion and Fragment Summon by checking in the Portal within the Bastion.
Starter Champions
When players first begin their RAID: Shadow Legends journey, they’ll play through a brief tutorial. At the conclusion of this tutorial battle, all four of your Champions will fall at the hands of your enemy. Afterward, the player is presented with the opportunity to revive one of these four Champions to build their initial army around.
Athel: A Sacred Order Attack Champion with weakening attacks, in addition to the epic AOE (Area of Effect) ability possessed by all starter Champions.
Galek: An Attack Champion from the Orc Faction with impressively high speeds and a defensive debuff.
Kael: A Dark Elf Attack Champion wielding poisons and AOE abilities.
Elhain: An Attack Champion from the High Elves with exceptional AOE attacks and a focus on critical hits.
Champion Rarity
One of the most important factors in determining the strength and ability of your Champions is their Rarity. Currently, RAID: Shadow Legends classifies its Champions according to five levels of Rarity.
- Common (Grey):
With a handful of exceptions, these Champions are your early game fodder, best used for “feeding” stronger Champions once you unlock some of a higher Rarity. Common Champions have a gray frame border around their character art. - Uncommon (Green):
The Uncommon Champion will most likely form the backbone of your army early on, but they’re quickly outgrown once you acquire Rare Champions. Relatively easy to obtain, Uncommon Champions bring somewhat more utility than the Commons thanks to their extra abilities. - Rare (Blue):
Rare Champions will be your peak performers in the early stages and remain a fixture in your lineup well into your adventure. Harder to obtain than the Common or Uncommon Champions, Rare Champions represent the lowest tier of quality worth investing time and hard-earned resources into upgrading for the long term. - Epic (Purple):
Epic Champions in RAID: Shadow Legends not only bring impressive base stats to your army, they also come with excellent moment-to-moment utility and stellar combat abilities. - Legendary (Gold):
As the most prestigious Champions of Teleria, Legendaries are the cream of the crop in RAID: Shadow Legends. These exceptional Champions bring with them the most game-changing of abilities and boast the best base stats of any Rarity.
While Legendaries aren’t always superior to less-rare Champions, the sight of a gold frame means you’ve acquired one of the most prized Champions in the entire game.
Champion Types
Part of the diversity that defines Champions in RAID: Shadow Legends comes from the Types assigned to them. Champions belong to one of four different Types, and it’s important to maintain a decent mix of Champion Types in your rotation if you hope to survive some of the more difficult situations you’ll find yourself in.
Attack:
These are your premier damage dealers. Although Defense and Support Champions can be developed to deal respectable damage, you’ll probably want to keep an Attack Champion or two on hand most of the time.
Defense:
Champions with the Defense skill set are hard to kill and can wield debuffs guaranteed to disrupt the enemy’s army. Instead of providing health and cures, though, these Champions sustain your squad by providing defensive protection.
HP (Health Point):
Champions of the HP (Health Point) Type are defined by their beefiness. They can soak up quite a beating during battles thanks to their great physical endurance, and they often wield valuable secondary skills as well.
These stalwart allies pair especially well with abilities that allow them to “pull aggro” and draw the enemy’s attacks away from weaker Champions.
Support:
These Champions will supply the rest of your lineup with supportive abilities like healing, friendly buffs, and applying debuffs to your foe. With a few exceptions, Support Champions can’t be relied upon to serve as primary damage-dealers or tanks.
Leaving home without these essential comrades will leave your army vulnerable and weak, since they function as a force multiplier for the rest of your team.
Affinity
Besides Rarity and Type, each Champion also has an Affinity. Affinity acts as a counter and strength system. There are four types of Affinity in RAID: Shadow Legends, with three Affinities sharing a rock-paper-scissors relationship.
The fourth Affinity, Void, is an outlier that offers no direct advantage and no direct counter.
- Magic (Blue): Beats Spirit (Green), weak to Force (Red);
- Spirit (Green): Beats Force (Red), weak to Magic (Blue);
- Force (Red): Beats Magic (Blue), weak to Spirit (Green);
- Void (Purple): No counter, no weakness.
Being on the right side of an Affinity matchup allows your Champion to inflict more savage strikes. However, the opposite renders your champion more vulnerable to damage and makes your champion’s attacks and debuffs more impotent.
The best armies in RAID: Shadow Legends are often ones that equip themselves with ample options for all four Affinities.
Ensuring you have the ability to match any combination of Affinities on the field of battle is an essential consideration to victory.
Now that you have the entire rundown on the depth of the RAID: Shadow Legends Champions available in the game, it’s time you get out there and start collecting hundreds of unique Champions for your own army.