Champion Duel is the tournament that comes round about every three weeks: any player at Headquarters level 10 or above can register, nothing you field can be lost, and a ten-round qualifier followed by a knockout bracket crowns one champion from up to four states, who takes home 60,000 Valor Medals and 1,500 diamonds.
- Scope: solo, open to every player from Headquarters level 10
- When: roughly every three weeks; the Event Center shows the registration window
- What it costs: nothing. Registered teams don’t tie up heroes or troops, and no battle in it causes losses
- The shape: registration, a ten-round qualifier, a 64-player knockout, a round of eight, and the tally
- The side game: fireworks and cheering, which pay vouchers for a shop with orange fragments and Power Cores in it, whether or not you win a single fight
What Champion Duel is and when it runs
Champion Duel is the game’s open tournament. It returns about every three weeks, and the bracket has grown with the game: it was one state’s players at first, and it now draws four states into a single bracket. You enter from the Champion Duel button at the top right, then Main, then “I Wanna Join!”, and you need Headquarters level 10 to qualify.
Once you’re in, you set three formations, Troop 1, Troop 2 and Troop 3. Each match fights them in order against the opponent’s three. You can change them at any time except the five minutes before a match. And nothing is at stake: the formations you register are copies, your heroes and troops stay free for the rest of the game, and no unit dies in any Champion Duel fight.
The stages, in the order the game runs them:
- Registration. The window the Event Center shows. Fireworks start here.
- Qualifier. Ten rounds with an hour between matches. Three losses and you’re out; the top 64 by wins advance (the top 32 from each of two states, or the top 16 from each of four). Ties break on points, which are battle damage dealt.
- Knockout. The 64 split into eight groups of eight. The group finals are best of three with an hour between fights, and one survivor per group goes through.
- Round of eight. Best of three, then semi-finals best of three, then a grand final best of five.
- Tally. Qualifier rewards by win count, ranking rewards for the knockout and final, all by mail.
How scoring works in Champion Duel
Fights are won or lost; the only score is the qualifier’s win count, with damage as the tiebreaker at the cut. What decides fights is the matchup, not the power figure.
The three factions sit on a triangle: Wings of Dawn’s Shooters beat Blood Rose’s Assaulters, Blood Rose beats Guard of Order’s Riders, and Guard of Order beats Wings of Dawn. Each faction also has its own Tactical Plugin, and a plugin matched to the troops it’s set on is the difference between a formation that does its job and one that doesn’t. Because each match runs Troop 1 against Troop 1, then 2 against 2, then 3 against 3, the order you set is a prediction of the order your opponent sets, and their last match is public.
| What you can see | What to do with it |
|---|---|
| Your opponent’s previous arrangement | Set your three to counter it, slot by slot |
| The hour between fights in a best of three | Change your order after fight one, since they can too |
| The tiebreak at the cut | Damage dealt separates 64th from 65th, so a lost fight that did damage still counts |
The side game runs on two currencies. Duel Fireworks come from attacking Boomers during registration and the qualifier, two per Boomer up to a daily cap of 30, and launching them earns points toward shared rewards. Cheering Vouchers come from cheering for other players’ fights, in the knockout rounds, and paying out when your pick wins; a final-round cheer returns three times its stake. Both feed the Duel Tasks and the Cheer Shop.
What to do in each stage of Champion Duel
- Register. Headquarters level 10, “I Wanna Join!”, done. There’s no reason not to; nothing you own is at risk and the state-wide rewards pay you even if you lose every fight.
- Set the three formations with the triangle in mind. Most players put their strongest squad first, then second, then third. Set yours to counter that: a Wings of Dawn squad against the likely Blood Rose lead, Guard of Order against the Wings of Dawn second, Blood Rose against the Guard of Order third, each with its matching plugin.
- Kill 15 Boomers a day during registration and the qualifier. Thirty fireworks a day, and the firework task pays 100 vouchers and four Z Chests on its own.
- Read the opponent before every qualifier round. Their last arrangement is public. Change yours to match.
- In the best-of-threes, change between fights. The hour between matches is for exactly that. A lost fight one is information, not a result.
- Cheer in the knockouts, but hold the vouchers. Cheering tasks pay from the first cheer, so take part, and bank the vouchers for the final rounds where a win returns three times the stake.
- Spend in the Cheer Shop. Universal Orange Hero Fragments and Power Cores first.
Champion Duel rewards and what to spend them on
The victory rewards, from the game’s panel:
| Reward | Champion | Runner-up | Top 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duel Dominator trophy | 1 | ||
| Z Chest | 1 | 1 | |
| Tactical Plugin EXP | 200,000 | ||
| Diamonds | 1,500 | 1,000 | 800 |
| Valor Medals | 60,000 | 45,000 | 35,000 |
| Badges | 3,500 | 2,500 | 2,000 |
| 1-hour construction speedups | 30 | 25 | 20 |
| Orange resource chests, each type | 4 | 3 | 2 |
Everyone in the top 64 gets 40,000 Tactical Plugin EXP, 100 diamonds, 500 badges and three speedups. For scale, 60,000 Valor Medals is six times what a winning state’s players get from a Capital Clash streak.
The Duel Tasks pay the rest of the field. Launching fireworks 90 times, winning one, three, five and eight qualifier matches, cheering one, four and ten times, cheering successfully one, three and five times, and winning one knockout match together pay 800 Cheering Vouchers and 32 Z Chests. Most of that is reachable by a player who goes out in the qualifier.
Then the state-wide rewards, which your whole state claims on the strength of its best competitor: a champion from your state pays everyone 3 million hero EXP, twenty 1-minute speedups, two S-Medals and five Roses, scaling down to 500,000 EXP and a Rose for a state whose best reached the top 16.
What to do with it. The Cheer Shop sells Universal Orange Hero Fragments, Golden Wrenches, Power Cores, enhancement alloy, Modification Blueprints, speedups and hero EXP; the fragments go to whichever hero the tier list puts next, and the cores are Thursday’s Alliance Duel. The Valor Medals buy orange gear in the Merit Shop, the same currency Capital Clash and Canyon Clash pay. The diamonds are the diamond guide‘s business.
Mistakes that cost you in Champion Duel
- Not entering. It’s free, nothing can be lost, and the tasks and state rewards pay whether you win or not.
- Keeping the same arrangement all tournament. Your last match is public to your next opponent. Change it, every round.
- A plugin that doesn’t match the troops it’s on. The faction plugin on the wrong faction’s formation is a formation fighting without it.
- Assuming the higher power wins. The triangle beats the number often enough that the tournament exists.
- Giving up after fight one of a best of three. The hour between is for changing your order.
- Spending Cheering Vouchers in the early rounds. The final pays three to one; the early rounds pay far less.
- Skipping the Boomers. Fifteen a day is the whole firework task.
Is Champion Duel worth it for a free player?
Yes, and it’s the rare event where a free player gives up nothing to find out. No troops die, no heroes are tied up, there’s no entry cost, and the Duel Tasks pay 800 vouchers and 32 Z Chests to anyone who fires their fireworks, wins a handful of qualifier matches and cheers in the knockouts. The Cheer Shop turns those vouchers into Universal Orange Hero Fragments and Power Cores, which is as good as voucher income gets.
The honest limit is the bracket. The top 64 of four states is a strong field, and the champion’s 60,000 Valor Medals are a spender’s prize. Below that, the fights are decided by the triangle and the plugins as much as by power, and a free account that reads its opponent’s last arrangement and counters it will win qualifier matches it has no business winning on paper.
If you never enter a fight, still claim the state-wide rewards. They’re paid on your state’s best competitor, not on you.
Champion Duel sits in the events schedule as the three-weekly tournament, and the beginner’s progression guide covers what to build before any of this matters.
