How To Upgrade And Rank Up Champions – RAID: Shadow Legends

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To keep up with the increasing power of enemies and the difficulty of stages in RAID: Shadow Legends, you need to upgrade and rank up your champions.

There are several different ways to increase the power of your champions in the game, some of which are most costly than others.

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We recommend not to spend scarce and valuable resources on low-tier champions, but more on this later in this guide.

The four main ways of increasing power and stats of champions are leveling them up, ascending them, upgrading skills, upgrading a champion’s rank, upgrading and enhancing artifacts, and unlocking champion masteries.

Recommended Read: RAID: Shadow Legends – Arena Guide

All of these ways to increase the power of a champion requires resources except leveling up.

You should, therefore, be mindful of which champions you choose to invest resources in.

You can get a better understanding of which champions might be worthwhile to spend resources on in our guide on the best champions in RAID: Shadow Legends.


Table of contents


How to level up champions

Leveling up a champion increases its base stats making it more powerful.

Each level, your champion needs a specific amount of XP to level up.

The amount of XP a champion requires to level up depends on the rarity of the champion.

By playing through the game and completing stages, dungeons, etc., the champions you put in your party will passively gain XP.

However, if you wish to level up a specific champion quickly, head into the Tavern instead.

Inside the Tavern, you can give a champion XP by sacrificing other champions.

All sacrificed champions give their base XP and the amount of XP they have gained from fighting.

Using this method, you can quickly level up a champion many times by sacrificing just one other champion, if that sacrificed champion gives sufficient XP.

You can also sacrifice XP brews to give XP to a specific champion.

If you want to level up a champion using this method, go to the Upgrade Level tab inside the Tavern, select the champion you wish to level up and then select the champion(s) and brew(s) you want to sacrifice.

You can see an example of this below, where I can level up my Shaman to level 10 by sacrificing a brew and a level 7 Ragemonger.

Level up champions in RAID Shadow Legends

How to upgrade a champion’s rank

The number of stars displayed on a champion’s icon shows the rank of that champion.

You can only level a champion to a specific level depending on which rank they are.

A champion that is rank 3, for example, which means it has 3 stars, has a maximum level cap of 30.

Here is a chart showing you all ranks and the associated maximum level cap.

RankMax level cap
110
220
330
440
550
660

To upgrade a champion’s rank, head into the Tavern and press the Upgrade Rank tab.

Choose the champion which’s rank you wish to upgrade.

Notice, a champion has to be of its current max level before you can upgrade it to the next rank.

So, a 4-star or rank 4 champion has to be level 40 before you can upgrade it to rank 5.

To upgrade the rank of a champion, you need to sacrifice champions of the same rank.

Alternatively, you can sacrifice chickens of the same rank as the champion you are upgrading, but those are harder to come by.

You can read about how to get chickens in our resources guide.

The requirements for ranking up a champion follows the same pattern for each rank.

A rank-3 champion, for example, requires a sacrifice of 3 rank-3 champions, 3 rank-3 chickens, or any combination of the two that equals three total units sacrificed.

Similarly, a rank-5 champion requires a sacrifice of any combination of rank-5 champions and rank-5 chickens that equals five total units sacrificed to get to rank 6.

When you upgrade a champion’s rank, it will reset to level 1, but its base stats are significantly stronger, making it much more powerful as it levels up.


How to ascend champion

Another way to increase the stats and power of a champion is to ascend it.

You can ascend champions once per rank, which means a champion can be ascended a total of 6 times when it reaches rank 6.

A rank-1 champion can only be ascended one time until you rank it up further.

When you ascend a champion, one of their gold stars turns into a purple star.

You can, therefore, tell the ascension level of a champion by looking at the number of purple stars it has.

Ascending a champion costs potions matching the affinity of the champion you wish to ascend as well as neutral potions.

You can learn how to get potions in our guide on how to get resources.

There are several benefits to ascending champions.

Firstly, ascending champions increases their stats, makes them tankier, and deal more damage.

Furthermore, when you ascend a champion, you increase the damage percentage of their skills.

At certain ascension levels, some champions also obtain entirely new skills.

At ascension level 5, you unlock the amulet slot for that champion, and at ascension level 6, you unlock the banner slot.

Both of these artifact-slots are a major boost to the power of the champion.


How to upgrade skills

You can upgrade a champion’s skill inside the Tavern under the Upgrade Skills tab.

There are three different skill tomes, rare, epic, and legendary.

If you wish to upgrade the skills of an epic champion, you need epic skill tomes, and if you wish to upgrade a legendary champion’s skills, you need legendary skill tomes.

To upgrade a champion’s skills, go to the Upgrade Skills tab. Then press the desired champion, and select however many skill tomes of relevant rarity you want to spend on that champion and press Upgrade.

Upgrading skills improves them in one of the following ways:

  • Increases damage
  • Reduces cooldown
  • Adds new effect
  • Increases chance of buff/debuff

Notice, because epic skill tomes and legendary skill tomes are so rare to come by, we recommend not using them as soon as you get them.

Instead, wait until a little later in the game when you have an idea of what your primary team is going to be.

Spending epic and legendary skill tomes on the wrong champions can set you back a lot, so spend them wisely.


How to upgrade and enhance artifacts

Giving your champions artifacts is another great way to increase their stats, power, and give them special abilities such as lifesteal.

To equip artifacts, press the Champions button in the bottom menu, select the champion you wish to give an artifact, and press the plus icon on any of the artifacts slots on the right-hand side.

You will now see all the artifacts you possess. Click on the artifact you wish to give the champion and press Equip.

To upgrade or enhance an artifact, press it, then click Upgrade. You will now see the upgrade window where you can upgrade the artifact in exchange for silver.

Upgrading the level of an artifact increases its stats, and at some levels, adds a bonus substat.

Bonus substats are obtained at artifact levels 4, 8, 12, and 16.

The other way to increase the power of an artifact is by enchanting it.

Again, press the Upgrade button on the artifact, but select the Enchant tab on the right side instead of the Upgrade tab.

Enchanting an artifact costs glyphs and silver.

The enchant an artifact receives, depends on which glyph you choose to use on it.

All glyphs have a rank with 6 being the best.

There is a total of nine different types of glyphs, each of which affects a different stat.

  • Health Glyphs – Increases HP substats on Artifacts by a flat value
  • Vitality Glyphs – Increases HP substats on Artifacts by a certain percentage
  • Attack Glyphs – Increases ATK substats on Artifacts by a flat value
  • Strike Glyphs – Increases ATK substats on Artifacts by a certain percentage
  • Defense Glyphs – Increases DEF substats on Artifacts by a flat value
  • Endurance Glyphs – Increases DEF substats on Artifacts by a certain percentage
  • Haste Glyphs – Increases SPD substats on Artifacts by a flat value
  • Protection Glyphs – Increases RESIST substats on Artifacts by a flat value
  • Precision Glyphs – Increases ACC substats on Artifacts by a flat value

How to unlock masteries

Unlocking masteries for a champion is an excellent way to increase its stats and power.

You need mastery scrolls to unlock masteries.

There are three different types of mastery scrolls, Basic, Advanced, and Divine.

The farther down a mastery is on the mastery tree, the higher the requirement of mastery scroll rank.

To unlock masteries, press the Champions button on the bottom of the main screen, select the champion whose masteries you wish to unlock, and press MASTERIES in the top right corner.

Here, you can see all the available mastery slots, which tells you how many masteries a champion can have unlocked at one time.

At higher ranks, you unlock more mastery slots, at a rate depending on the champion.

To see the mastery trees, press the Masteries button.

There are three branches, Offense, Defense, and Support.

To unlock a mastery, press the plus icon on the one you wish to unlock.

Once you’ve unlocked a mastery, the mastery right below becomes available.

Masteries to the left and right of the one right below also becomes available.

You can see an example of how new masteries become available for unlocking in the image below.

Unlock masteries RAID Shadow Legends

You should consider what role the champion you are unlocking masteries for plays on your team.

The role and playstyle of the champion will determine which masteries you should aim for.

Finding a mastery guide for a specific champion can be a great idea to get the best results.


That’s how to improve your champions in RAID: Shadow Legends!

If you have any input or alternative ways to improve champions in the game you believe should be in this guide, let us know in the comments below.

Tim Stadel Clausen

Tim, also known as Timzer online, is the founder & owner of Gamerempire.net. He was raised on a wide variety of video games and reached great heights in many of them. Having started several online ventures, including other websites, it was only natural that Tim started a gaming site as well.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Zoophile of DOOM!

    Faction Guardians. You can find them at the Guardian Ring, formerly the Sparring Pit.

  2. He-Woman

    What about the little military looking ranks that are somehow applied from having duplicates?
    I have some of these from when I used to play last year, and don’t know how to repeat the process.

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