Best Rally Joiner Heroes

The rule that decides everything

When you join any rally, the game applies exactly one thing from your march: the first expedition skill of your first hero. Stats, gear, and every other skill stay home. A rally holds four joiner skill slots; the first four joiners seat theirs in join order, and from the fifth joiner on, higher-level copies replace lower-level ones. That makes "who do I join with?" a math question, answered below.

Every viable attack-rally joiner, ranked

Scores are the expected % contribution of each first skill at max level (Lv 5, which needs 4-Star), with offense and survivability counting equally. Your attack multiplier and your defense multiplier enter the damage math the same way, so a point of either moves the result by the same amount. Class-specific effects count one-third, and chance effects are already averaged out, so a 50% reduction that fires half the time scores as 25%.

Every one of those channels multiplies separately in the damage model: attack, lethality, damage dealt, defense, health, and damage taken. So a skill covering two of them compounds. Thrud leads on 15% damage dealt alongside 10% off damage taken. Saul, Hilde, and Wee & Woo follow at 26.5%, each hitting two channels where a flat 25% in one stays at 25%.

Twenty heroes then tie at exactly 25.0, and that tie is real rather than a rounding artifact. Simulated at 800 battles each, +25% attack, +25% health, and a 20% reduction in damage taken all finish within noise of one another. The game appears to have priced them deliberately: cutting damage taken by 20% multiplies your durability by 1 / 0.8, which is exactly the 1.25 a 25% stat buff gives you. The order inside that tied block carries no meaning.

Reading the table for Castle Battle and KvK

• Two-channel kits edge out single-stat ones. Thrud, Saul, Hilde, and Wee & Woo each buff two things at once, which compounds past a flat 25%. The community-consensus picks sit just behind in the tied block: Chenko, Yeonwoo, Amane, and Amadeus give squad-wide attack or lethality, while Gordon, Triton, Howard, and Quinn reach the same number from the survivability side.
• Stacking is what breaks the tie. Additive lethality (Chenko/Amadeus/Yeonwoo/Wee & Woo) multiplies against all-squad attack (Amane/Margot), and both multiply against defense and health. Four joiners spread across families beat four copies of one skill, so the weakest seat you can fill is another copy of whatever your rally is already deep in.
• Defensive first skills are worth more than they look. Gordon's squad-wide health and Saul's defense-and-health tie the best attack skills outright, because preventing a hit and landing one move the result identically. Seat by what your rally is short of rather than by which column the skill sits in. Pure defensive kits still earn their keep on garrison duty.
• Skill level is the real ladder, and stars are what set its ceiling. Your maximum expedition skill level is your star level plus one, so 0-Star caps at Lv 1 and you need 4-Star to reach Lv 5. A 0-Star Chenko brings 5%, a 4-Star Chenko brings 25%, and the same hero swings a long way down this table on stars alone. Shard tiers inside a star make no difference to the cap.
• Nothing else you own travels with you. Your hero's stat bonus, gear, widget, charms, and research all stay home when you join; only that one skill percentage and your troops make the trip. That is why a 5-Star fully geared Quinn adds nothing a 4-Star bare Quinn does not.
• From the fifth joiner onward the game re-sorts by skill level, so a maxed epic beats a Lv 1 mythic in the seat.

FAQ

Is the joiner rule the same for Bear Trap?

Yes, same rule, but the bear doesn't punish squishiness, so the ranking weights differ slightly. See Best Bear Trap Heroes.

What formation should joiners send?

Match the rally lead's call. In Castle Battle the consensus attack ratio is 50/20/30 infantry/cavalry/archers for everyone in the rally. Details in the Castle Battle guide.

Do troop tiers matter more than the hero?

Both matter, differently: the hero skill multiplies the whole rally, your troops add to its body. Serious Castle Battle rallies expect Truegold-promoted troops (TG1+, ideally TG3).