Shards are used to unlock and star up heroes as follows:
| Stage | Shards |
|---|---|
| Unlocking | 10 shards |
| 1 Star | 20 shards |
| 2 Star | 30 shards |
| 3 Star | 40 shards |
| 4 Star | 70 shards |
| 5 Star | 100 shards |
Premium Heroes require 60 shards to unlock because they unlock directly at 2 Stars.
(See this post for explanation of Premium, Open (A and B) and Restricted heroes)
Obtained from:
In Runs:
- Castles: Kills (Open B heroes) and one-time clear rewards (Armorita, Miasma, Fursus, Scorcher, Hocus Focus)
- Weekday Daily events: Kills (Open A heroes), max 1 per event
- Jackbot’s Jackpot: Hits (Open heroes + Restricted heroes you have unlocked already)
Outside Runs:
- Summon Gates (Open heroes + Restricted heroes you have already unlocked)
- Banner Summon Gates - current practice is that all include all Open heroes and have a featured hero (double chance if it’s an Open hero, same chance as others for Jackbot or one of the Premium Heroes). But this can change, especially for special promotions
- BattlePass / Super Battle Pass “Exclusive” rewards: 10 Shards (Arctor, Miasma and Hocus were introduced this way; Fursus, SIMO and Prospero were subsequently offered) on the BP and now the SBP always features 10 shards of a selected hero
- BattlePass track rewards: Usually 2 Shards
- Special events (e.g. first Golden Pig even had 10 Miasma, 2nd had 5 Frostina)
- Login bonuses
- Promo codes
- Tower Shop - initially had some Open heroes but currently only feature 3 Premium Heroes (Mrs. Surefire, Shiver, Ignus)
- Gambit event Shop - usually it’s only coins but the July event has shards