Part of the Sea of Conquest Heroes Series — this is the hub:

Hero Tier List: Every hero ranked, current meta.

Best Heroes for Ships: The +20% placement bonus.

Trinkets Guide: Gear by hero role.

Best Crew Combinations: Full fleet setups.

SP Heroes: The event-exclusive tier.

Quick Answer

Heroes crew your ships, and the two facts that matter most are counter-intuitive:

A 6-star Epic beats a 2-star Legendary. Star level outweighs rarity, decisively. Concentrating shards into a small core is the single highest-return decision you make.

Placing a hero on a ship matching their damage type grants a +20% attribute bonus. It is free, most players have at least one hero in the wrong seat, and it costs nothing to fix.

Your flagship now fields five heroes, with the last two role-locked: slot 4 is Master-at-Arms (defense heroes only) and slot 5 is Surgeon (support heroes only).

The Two Combat Modes

This trips up more players than anything else, because a hero can be excellent in one and unremarkable in the other.

	Naval Warfare	Close Combat
Format	Fleets, up to 3 heroes per ship	5v5, individual heroes
Against	Monsters, forts, ships	Other teams
Resolution	Real-time	Turn-based, you pick targets
Where	The world map	Trials and Rogue's Rumble

Your ships, parts and damage types matter enormously in Naval Warfare and not at all in Close Combat. Most published tier lists rank Close Combat specifically, which is worth knowing before you follow one.

Hero Slots

On regular ships: up to three heroes, in three distinct slots:

Slot	What it does
Captain	Drives the ship. Their damage type sets what the ship deals
First Mate	A secondary layer — support, control or amplification
Gunner	The third seat. Often where amplifiers and aggro heroes go

Heroes are built for specific slots, and a hero who is an excellent First Mate is frequently a mediocre Captain. Chizuru and Sharky are artillery First Mates; Molly, Kartal, Fung and Oscar are Gunners; Ophelia, Lester, Bones and Barnacle are Captains. Slotting a First Mate as a Captain wastes their kit.

On the flagship: five slots.

Slot	Restriction
Captain	Any — this drives the flagship
Core slot 2	Any
Core slot 3	Any
4 — Master-at-Arms	Defense heroes only
5 — Surgeon	Support heroes only

Those role locks change how you invest. You need a dedicated defense hero and a dedicated support hero, not just damage — otherwise two of your five flagship slots sit empty or badly filled. Yuji, Obi and Akhlut the Anchor Lord fill Master-at-Arms; Umar is the free-to-play Surgeon.

Navigators: at a threshold level of Radiance Enhancement, you can assign up to two non-deployed heroes as Navigators — extracting value from heroes sitting on your bench. See the combat mechanics guide.

Rarity, Stars and Investment

Rarity — Rare, Epic, Legendary, plus the separate SP tier — sets a ceiling.

Star level is what you actually build, through duplicate shards. And it dominates: a 6-star Epic outperforms a 2-star Legendary.

That inverts the instinct to save everything for the best hero you might one day pull. Build the good hero you can finish, not the great hero you cannot.

The clearest example is Cursed Ed, an Epic universal damage amplifier widely considered the best Epic in the game and a permanent formation fixture. For a free account he matters more than most Legendaries.

Free heroes worth building: Madame Lulu (Epic healer, from the 7-day Pirate King's Trail) and Will (Epic blaze first mate, from Azure Promise day 2). Both are genuinely good and both have deadlines — see the events hub.

The Roles

Defense. Absorbs and holds. Required for the Master-at-Arms slot. Chien is the flagship standard; Akhlut pulls aggro deliberately.

Damage. Artillery (multi-target), Cutthroat (targets the lowest-HP enemy), Strategic, Blazing and Drowning. Match the hero's type to the ship's — see the ships hub.

Support. Healing and buffs. Required for the Surgeon slot. Cordelia is arguably the best support in the game — but she belongs on a high-ATK side ship, not the flagship, because her healing scales with damage her ship takes.

Rage manipulation. An underrated category. Oscar reduces skill cost early, Wanda accelerates rage generation, Jango boosts it, Laila restores it. Since skills are where the disproportionate damage lives, more skill activations beats more attack.

Navigator / utility. Out-of-combat contribution from bench heroes.

Where Heroes Come From

Echo and Gold Conches — the summon currency, and what most gift codes pay out.

Shard accumulation from events, shops and alliance rewards. This is how free accounts reach high star levels — slowly, reliably.

Collaborations. KOF XV brought Mai Shiranui and B. Jenet (2025), Onimusha arrived in Season 3, and Fist of the North Star brought Kenshiro and Mamiya (2026). No collab has been documented as rerunning, and one creator estimated roughly $1,000 to take a collab hero to 12 stars — so getting one and building one are different projects.

SP heroes come from limited-window events outside the standard pool — see the SP heroes guide.

Investment Priority for a Free Account

Cursed Ed. Best Epic in the game, universal amplifier, farmable.
Claim Madame Lulu and Will before their event windows close.
Old Ahab as your realistic Legendary — he sits in the standard Conch pool, so you can actually star him up.
A defense hero for Master-at-Arms and Umar for Surgeon.
Trinkets and gems on that core.
Check your placements for the free +20%.

What not to do: level every hero you pull, or chase the newest Legendary with limited pulls. A half-built meta hero loses to a maxed accessible one.

Every Hero Guide

Flagship core

Toothsome Tom — the current meta flagship captain
Old Ahab — the Legendary you can actually build
Chien — flagship damage mitigation

Damage

Ophelia — Artillery Captain, the safe first Legendary
Chizuru — the ideal Artillery First Mate
Lester — Blaze Captain and burning stacks
Luna — Cutthroat Gunner, and why ratings split
Kalomira — the strategic ship must-have
Cursed Ed — best Epic in the game

Support and utility

Cordelia — best support, wrong ship
Umar — the F2P support captain
Madame Lulu — free Epic healer
Boa — B to S depending on stars

Systems

Conches and Summoning — how to spend pulls
Collab Heroes — KOF, Onimusha, Fist of the North Star
SP Heroes — the event-exclusive tier
Trinkets and gems — hero gear

FAQ

How many heroes go on my flagship?

Five. Slots 4 and 5 are role-locked to Master-at-Arms (defense) and Surgeon (support).

Is a Legendary always better than an Epic?

No. A 6-star Epic beats a 2-star Legendary. Build what you can finish.

What is the best hero for free players?

Cursed Ed — an Epic universal damage amplifier who never leaves the formation.

Should Cordelia go on my flagship?

No. Her healing scales with damage her ship takes, so she performs better on a high-ATK side ship.

What is the +20% attribute bonus?

Placing a hero on a ship matching their damage type grants it. It is free and commonly missed.

What are Navigators?

At a Radiance Enhancement threshold you can assign up to two non-deployed heroes as Navigators, extracting value from bench heroes.

Key Takeaways

A 6-star Epic beats a 2-star Legendary. Concentrate shards.
Five flagship slots, with Master-at-Arms and Surgeon role-locked.
Correct damage-type placement is a free +20%.
Cursed Ed is the best Epic; Madame Lulu and Will are free and good.
Naval Warfare and Close Combat rank heroes differently.

Sea of Conquest Heroes: Slots, Roles and Who to Build