We are on a new server.This influences which heroes we have available, as we will get more heroes over time. We have 7 Blood Rose heroes (1 S tier, 1S/A tier, 3 A tier, 2 B tier), 6 Wings of Dawn heroes (1 S tier, 3 A tier, 2 B tier), 5 Guard of Order heroes (3 A tier, 2 B tier) seemingly available. The Wings of Dawn S tier heroine Laura can be acquired using an event in the begining, so she isn't available with recruiting tickets on the first week. In this guide you should have some basic suggestions for leveling each of these heroes. Some of this guide is subjective, and future updates might change some of the details presented here.
Blood Rose Heroes
Blood Rose heroes are important for now, so they are discussed in greater detail.
S tier and S/A Tier
Katrina
You get an A tier (purple) version of Katrina as part of the tutorial / story, and she can be upgraded to S tier (orange) by acquiring the S tier version of her. You can acquire the S tier version of her for free. You can get Katrina from recruiting heroes at the bar. Initially you have 1% chance to get her at recruiting, and 2% more for getting a Katrina fragment, you intialy get Katrina (10 fragment worth) as "pity mechanism" if you don't get an S tier / Orange hero in 90 recruits. You can get Katrina fragments from killing zombies of various level for first time. As multiple people can attack the same zombie at same time, and all surviving players get the same reward beating zombies up to level 10 is easy, to get Katrina. You also get 25 Katrina fragment from the 24 hour timed event, where you race fake NPC players (bots) and can win the race by reacing exploration stage 61. 10+25 shards in 2 days should get her to 1 star. Her passive ability (3rd skill) also helps you to get more fuel.
As she is one of your S tier / Orange heroes, you should try to level her to as high level as you can afford and consider giving her good gear. As you are almost 100% sure to reach 1 stars, you will be able to spend orange skill books to improve her combat skills. Her first 2 skills used in combat is more important for now, leveling her "Exploration genius" global effect skill isn't really important, even if you would get a bit more free XP from it. By the time you would get her Exclusive Talent skill (4th skill) you probably wouldn't be a beginner, but it is only a self buff (and some other heroes have the same). Katrina is one of the heroes initially included in the "Love Texts" system in the game, where 2 dialogue threads can give you 50 gems each, which is a small bonus and can be achieved quickly. As an S tier hero, she will remain relevant in your troops. Getting Katrina is important, and automatic.
Sophia
You can get Sophia by spending real money, even from the very cheap first purchase offer. The other option is to spend diamonds to get VIP 3 and get the 7 Day Plan premium rewards. Sophia and her fragments will be added to the recruiting system later, so it is possible to get her for free later, but that is significantly slower and it makes you significantly weaker before she become easy to recruit. There are many options in the store that can get you Sophia fragments, and if you want to star her up you can also use versatile orange fragments, so it is entirelly possible to have her at decent power early in the game. Our guide about increasing your total power explained that her ability to provide free construction time is a very important tool, as it can help to level many buildings quickly.
As she is one of your S tier / Orange heroes, you should spend XP to level her, and you want to use your orange skill books to improve all her skills, as her construction speed bonus is important and valuable even on the long run. She might get love texts later. As her free construction time depends on her star rating you want to increase that star rating with your hero fragments. Again, as she is an S tier (Orange) hero she will stay relevant even in your troops, even for combat purpose for a relatively long time. In Season 1 you will get 2 more S tier heroes for each faction, so you will only have a chance to fill a troop with all S tier (orange) heroes of same faction for bonuses in Season 2, which is much later in the game. Getting Sophia is important, getting her early requires a purchase either with real money, or by using premium currency (diamond) to buy VIP 3 and get from 7 days plan.
A tier
Vivian
Vivian has a role in the initial story, she also has love texts sine the original release. She is also a very special heroine, as some events provide plenty of Vivian fragments for free, and it means you can star up Vivian quickly and cheaply. This also means she will be one of your stronger heroes for some considerable time, and as you won't be able to field a full S tier Blood Rose team in the game until Season 2, she will remain relevant for considerable time. When Hero Battlefield is released, you will have to do Level 5 Blood Rose battlefield before you would do Wings of Dawn Battlefield, and you would have to do level 5 Wings of Dawn Battlefield before starting the Guard of Order Battleground. It means usually you need stronger heroes for Blood Rose faction than others until the other team would catch up. Vivian will have a considerable role in your Blood Rose troop there.
Her Global Effect passive ability (3rd skill) is useful, both to do more damage and to save on fuel costs, an 5 star Vivian provides all bonuses to all troops. Using purple skill books to level her skills is important, and as she will be one of your stronger heroes for a long time using XP to level her is almost as important as using XP on your Orange / S tier heroes. Even in troops that aren't only Blood Rose, she can have an important role for some time, so you will deploy her for some time. As you will use at least 2 troops where strong enough heroes and lots of soldiers can be important, Vivian is a very important heroine. Getting Vivian is important, but automatic and free. If you can get enough Vivian fragments to star her up early, that can be a reason against using versatile fragments to star up Vivian.
Miranda and Ava
Both of these ladies have a Global Effect with small stat boost. One to Self ATK, other to Self DEF. It makes them a bit less important than the heroines above. Miranda is a guaranteed drop as Fixed Recruitment for 30th, 40th and 60th draw and as you will recruit more, you will surely get her at least to 2 star. Miranda is allegedly a Defense Expert, while Ava allegedly grants a strong buff. Their skills don't mention the buffs and while Miranda seem to have higher DEF than other heroes, thanks to her passive, the difference isn't significant. If we have a hidden mechanism not displayed, but influencing the combat using a hidden boost that cannot be verified easily.
You will use them in Blood Rose hero battleground and this is why you might want to increase their levels with XP, and you might want to improve their combat skills, but some of your other heroes are significantly more important. As you need significantly more XP to level a hero at higher level, you will still have a chance to level them to somewhat decent levels, and you can field them when needed. They are stronger than blue / B Tier heroes, and they can be important to make sure, you have a high bonus for having 4/5 blood rose heroes in the troop, so you mgiht field them for that reason too. Getting Miranda is guaranteed and she is useful in the begining and you can get specific fragments to star her up. Getting Ava depends on luck and isn't important.
B Tier heroes
Giselle and Audrey B Tier / Blue heroes. Giselle helps with gathering speed, Audrey helps with Unit training speed, their passive (3rd) skill is important, and you might want to level them to around level 30 for this reason. As your blue skill books isn't that valueble, blue shards aren't too valuable either, using the books to level the passive skills seem to be a good idea. Star up as needed. You might have one of them in Blood Rose Hero Battleground for some time.
Wings of Dawn Heroes
Some Wing of Dawn heroes can be somewhat important, so we mention at least the ones you are guaranteed to get in less detail.
Good Guaranteed heroes: Fiona, Isabella
You will get Fiona from the Newbie Exclusive radar missions,1st guaranteed recruiting, 20th guaranteed recruiting, 50th guaranteed recruiting. Isabella is a reward for the 87 day login event. They are similar to Miranda and Ava in their skills. Fiona will be one of your heroes with a high star rating as you get many fragments and both might be important heroes in your Wings of Dawn Hero Battleground team, as you will have only 2 S tier Wings of Dawn heroes until the S1 Wings of Dawn heroes get release, and the 2nd S1 one will be released much later. But as you will face weaker enemies in Wings of Dawn Hero Battleground compared to the Blood Rose one, you won't need them to be very high level, or at least not urgently.
I would recommend leveling Fiona as she will have a high star rating and she will be part of your Wings of Dawn team until the S2 Wings of Dawn heroine gets released, and Fiona will have a relatively high star rating. With Sophia being premium hero, and as Katrina, Vivian, Miranda, Fiona, Isabella forming a troop of free to play, guaranteed to get heroes with A or S quality they are somewhat important. To get other heroes you would either have to pay, wait or have some luck. Level and use Fiona and Isabella as needed for your purposes, as they might be more important heroes for Free to Play players. It might include the cases when you need some heroes on a farm account.
Other Guaranteed heroes: Angelina, Natalie and Laura
Angelina is B tier, so while she is a free staring hero she isn't important, but leveling her to level 30 for her 3rd skill to improve unit training speed is valuable in the game. Natalie helps with food gathering speed, so her 3rd skill (Global Effect) is useful to have.
As Laura comes from a week long event when you are already capturing a city, you won't be a real newbie before you get her. Also while in a top alliance you are assumed to get her, doing so might require more activity than guaranteed heroes. Her free radar missions will be important both for their direct rewards and on the days when radar events will give points for Alliance Duel score, but these topics aren't for newbies, and leveling your S tier Orange heroes will be logical, so for Wings of Dawn (blue) factions we will focus on the important heroes. Also before you get Laura it is likely that you will have access to Amelia, another Wings of Dawn Hero, with a battle pass (you can buy her) with an useful buff, she will be more important than Laura.
The rest...
William is the only male hero, a guaranteed one, and can provide Unit Training speed bonus with his Global Effect passive. The only Guard of Order hero we mentioned so far. You can get the other heroes depending on your luck, but they will have lower star rating, which can make even the A tier (purple) heroes potentially weaker than the ones mentioned above. You might level blue quality heroes to at least 30, and you can level A tier purple heroes to be useful at least in Hero Battleground. For free to play players, some B tier heroes might remain in at least their Hero Battleground troops.