Fire Emblem Heroes training tower guide

From the battle menu in Fire Emblem Heroes, one of your options is the training tower. There, your reward for completing battles is more experience than usual, because there are always tough foes to face. In this guide, we'll teach you all about the tower.

Stratums and difficulty

Fire Emblem Heroes' tower is divided by levels, called Stratums, and there are 11 difficulty levels. The higher you climb, the fiercer your opponents are, so make sure that you have strengthened your characters sufficiently before you attempt the more challenging stratums.

The level and general type of enemies that you will encounter in a particular stratum are noted up front, along with information about how much stamina is consumed by entering that battle.

To reach the more advanced floors in the tower, you must first advance in the story campaign, on the normal difficulty level or greater. The requirements are as follows:

• Stratums 0 through 2: Clear chapter 1
• Stratums 3 and 4: Clear chapter 3
• Stratums 5 and 6: Clear chapter 6
• Stratums 7 through 10: Clear chapter 9

Tower strategies

You don't have to spend more time than you like in the tower, but it's a good idea to clear at least one battle per day.

The first battle that you clear on a given day awards you with a special shard or crystal that you can use to level up your characters. Different characters require crystals and shards of different colors to level up, so you will eventually need to tend to most or all colors as you build a well-rounded team.

The type of crystal or shard received roughly depends on the day of the week, and the cutoff time is 11 p.m. You'll receive a primary crystal if you win a battle in the fifth stratum or lower, or a secondary crystal will sometimes (though not always) appear when you win a battle in the sixth stratum or higher The disbursement is as follows:

• Tuesday: scarlet shard (primary) or scarlet crystal (secondary)
• Wednesday: azure shard (primary) or azure crystal (secondary)
• Thursday: verdant shard (primary) or verdant crystal (secondary)
• Friday: transparent shard (primary) or transparent crystal (secondary)
• Saturday to Monday: universal shard (primary) or universal crystal (secondary)

Other training tower rewards

There are other reasons to spend time in the training tower, as well.

Clearing maps awards you with badges, which are necessary to unlock ally potential (you can choose the advanced growth option while viewing an ally and then use the badge to make the change). As with crystals and shards, the type of badge that you receive from training tower stages varies according to the time you play, with primary and secondary rewards again available:

• Tuesday: scarlet badge (primary) or great scarlet badge (secondary)
• Wednesday: azure badge (primary) or great azure badge (secondary)
• Thursday: verdant badge (primary) or great verdant badge (secondary)
• Friday: transparent badge (primary) or great transparent badge (secondary)
• Saturday to Monday: random badge (primary) or random great badge (secondary)

The disbursement ensures that players have a valid reason to return each day. Even if you don't need any badges yet, it's a good idea to frequently spend time tackling the training tower, so that you can amass the badges, shards, and crystals that you will need when the time comes. Make visits to the training tower a part of your daily routine.

Learn more in our Fire Emblem Heroes guide

This article is also part of Polygon’s Fire Emblem Heroes guide. Be sure to check it out so you can learn more about battle basics, summoning, heroes, the arena, the tower, quests, missions and more.