Best Companions teams for campaign, towers, bosses, Arena and Temporal Rift

Most Companions modes are won by the same small group of heroes. Dracula, Medusa and Athena carry the Dimensional teams, Lucilla and Liberta are a pair built to be played together, and Twinlum Spirit is the only beast rated SS or better in every mode. What changes from mode to mode is who fills the other slots, because the modes bend the rules: a Forked Fate stage fails once you lose more than one or two heroes, and each Dream Realm boss brings a battle rule that switches some heroes off. The endgame teams below assume heroes at the Optimal investment shown on the tier list; the investment guide covers which ascension tiers unlock the skills these teams rely on.

How many teams you need

Several modes ask for more than one team at a time, and the count grows as you push. Every fourth Campaign stage from 13-4 is a multi-team stage: two teams from 13-4, three from 28-4, four from 36-4 and five from 40-4. Forked Fate asks for two teams every fourth stage from 16-4 (every third stage from chapter 20), then three teams every third stage from 28-3 and every second stage from chapter 30. King's Tower floors need two teams from floor 240 and three from floor 451; the four faction towers need two from floor 451 and three from 661, and the Celestial and Hypogean towers two from floor 351. Dream Realm, Guild Hunt and Arena add teams as your server ages, as described in the game modes guide.

That's why the teams in each section are listed from strongest down. Your first team takes the best heroes, and every team after it is built from what's left.

Campaign and King's Tower

The Dimensional core is built from five heroes rated S+ or better in Campaign, and it works because four of them are Dimensional. Albedo's Signature Item raises the Defense Rating of every Dimensional hero for each Dimensional hero deployed (up to three stacks at SI 20), and at SI 30 it adds 15% Attack Rating per stack as well. Dracula is the carry: her Blood Moon hits every enemy each second and heals every ally, and allies who attack a target carrying her Crimson Specter heal themselves based on their Life Leech. Merlin's ultimate cuts the damage the whole team takes by 25% (45% at full skill level), and at Ascended 5-star he casts it the moment the battle starts. Shalltear dodges fatal hits twice per battle with Time Reverse, three times from Ascended 3-star.

The Lucilla and Liberta team trades Dracula for a support pair whose kits reference each other by name, with the original Brutus in front: his Last Gasp makes him immune to damage for a few seconds the first time he takes a fatal hit. With Liberta on the field, Lucilla's Crimson Scythe always seals the maximum amount of enemy Attack and Defense, and her domain hands half of what she seals to your heroes (70% at higher skill levels). Liberta's link draws on Lucilla's seal, and at Ascended 5-star it splits health 60/40 in your favor, or 75/25 with Lucilla on the team. Mehira's whip deliberately hits her own allies, which gives each of them 80 Energy and 65 Haste, and Liberta's Signature Item gives 80 Energy every time an ally receives one of his Blessing Orbs, so ultimates come around fast. Haelus raises every shield your team receives by 20%.

The revive stall team is the cheapest of the first three to build and still pushes late campaign. Flora flies over the battlefield untargetable until every one of her allies has died, so the plan is to make sure that never happens: Talene is reborn from her fireball state, Thoran resurrects once per battle at 60% health, Shalltear has Time Reverse, and Mira survives her first fatal hit with a shield worth 40% of her health. While they hold, Flora's Sea of Flowers drains the enemy.

Athena and Medusa are designed as a duo. When both are deployed, Athena's attacks apply Medusa's Serpent's Venom, and from Medusa's SI 10 Athena takes 35% less damage from poisoned enemies. Salaki and Awakened Brutus are there to keep them alive long enough for the venom and Stonecurse stacks to build. On a newer account Medusa is the safer first Dimensional: the tier list notes she does better than Dracula in Campaign and PvP until Dracula reaches Ascended 5-star.

The two cheaper lines are for accounts that don't have the Dimensional heroes built yet. Khasos gives every ally 15 Life Leech, which is the stat Dracula's whole kit scales from, and Flutterplume Owl's opening Haste gets her first ultimate out sooner. The Wilder team is the one a new account is most likely to have, since Lyca comes free from Campaign stage 2-12 and the rest are Wilders from the Common and Faction pools. Lyca raises the whole team's Attack Rating once her Signature Item is unlocked, and Nevanthi heals and gives allied summons and their summoner her Mark of Nature. Once Awakened Solise unlocks, she takes Nevanthi's slot, which turns this into the World Tree team below.

Forked Fate

Forked Fate stages fail the moment you lose more heroes than the stage allows (see the Forked Fate guide), so these teams lean harder on survival than their campaign versions. Palmer earns his slot in the first team with Divine Defense: while at least two allies are alive, the ally with the lowest health takes 40% less damage and the difference is spread across the others, and that spread damage can't kill them. Lucilla resurrects once per battle on her own, twice from Ascended 5-star. Framton turns the damage he deals into stacking damage reduction for himself (up to 80% at his Signature Item), which makes him a front-liner that rarely falls. The tier list rates Awakened Talene, Merlin and Shalltear SS in Forked Fate as well, so they're the first swaps if you have them built.

Faction towers

Each faction tower only accepts heroes of its own faction, so Dimensional heroes stay home and Lucilla and Liberta can only go to their own towers. The Mauler, Wilder and Graveborn lineups below are the ones players run in those towers; the other three are built from each faction's highest tower ratings on the tier list. Nightfall Pegasus and Twinlum Spirit are the two beasts rated SS in the faction towers. The Lightbearer and Wilder towers are where a faction beast earns its place instead, because its Mythic opening skill only helps its own faction (see the beasts guide): Flutterplume Owl gives every Lightbearer 150 Energy as the fight starts, and Bellbellow makes every Wilder immune to the next control effect.

The Mauler team is an invade team. From Ascended 1-star, Skreg gives every ally standing in the enemy half of the battlefield 20% more Attack Rating and 25% less damage taken, and Brutus gains up to 40% more Attack Rating on top of his low-health bonus while he's on the enemy side, so Brutus and Skreg fight forward rather than holding a line. Awakened Brutus is rated higher in the towers and takes Brutus's slot once you have him; the game won't put an Awakened hero and the original in the same team. In the Tower of Light, Rosaline follows her assigned ally, taking 40% less damage herself while she does, and her ultimate refills that ally's Energy; assign her to Awakened Thane or Gwyneth. Awakened Baden is rated above every Graveborn on this list except Mira, so he replaces Hodgkin once you have him.

The Celestial Sanctum and Infernal Fortress only open after Campaign 61-60. Awakened Talene can't share a team with Talene, so she only comes in when Talene sits out; Orthros and Audrae are the next Celestials in line, and Mortas and Lucretia the next Hypogeans.

Dream Realm

Dream Realm rotates through six bosses, one per session, and each boss brings a battle rule that decides which heroes work against it. You start with one team and unlock more as the server ages, so the first team below is the one every account fields, and the hero with the biggest share of the damage is the carry.

The boss rules explain most of these picks. Against Kane, damage has to be spread out, because whoever leads the damage chart gets crippled after 10 seconds. Against the Grotesque Mage, ultimates are switched off entirely, so the team is built from normal-attack damage: Gwyneth's arrows, and Arthur's Signature Item, which raises the normal attack frequency of every ally standing behind him by 50%. Against Burning Brute, buffs simply stop working once the fight begins, so supports that grant stats in combat lose most of their value.

Several Dream Realm regulars work at a single copy, which makes Dream Realm the cheapest mode to compete in. The tier list notes Elijah & Lailah and Mortas as one-copy heroes, and Walker, Laios, Raine, Selene, Talimar and Warek all have Dream Realm use at Elite before you ascend them. Dual Dream Realms also lets you borrow up to 25 of a teammate's heroes, which fills the gaps in later rounds.

Guild Hunt

The tier list rates Liberta the only SSS hero in Guild Hunt, and the first team is built around him. His link converts the healing his ally receives into health loss on the linked enemy, and the boss can be linked even though its health isn't divided. Twinlum Spirit is rated SSS in Guild Hunt, and the tier list notes it's strongest beside heroes that deal health loss, which is what Liberta does. In round 2, assign Rosaline to Terrible Tornado (Tatsumaki) so the carry's Energy is refilled every time Rosaline uses her ultimate. Round 3 is the Laios and Marcille pair: Laios's ultimate gives Marcille 30% more Attack Rating, and the monsters Laios sends out are affected by Marcille's Rewrite.

These four rounds also work against Wrizz and Fortune Firecrackers. You start Guild Hunting with one team and add a second from the fourth boss week, a third from the seventh and the fourth from the tenth, so round 1 is the team to build first.

From phase 5 you can pick battlefield buffs, and the four faction buffs each give that faction's heroes 30% more damage when at least three of them are deployed. The top lineup above never fields three heroes of one faction; the Maulers team below does (Awakened Brutus, Skreg and Crassio), so it's the one that gets the Mauler buff. When you're missing heroes from the lineup above, these are the usual replacements:

Warek, Elijah & Lailah and Mortas all work at one copy here. Mortas's ultimate gives the ally with the highest Attack Rating 25% more Attack Rating and 25 Attack Speed for the rest of the fight (40% and 40 at full skill level), which is why he sits next to a single carry.

Vault of Time (Abyssal Expedition)

The Vault of Time doesn't use one fixed team. Each hero has its own stamina (80 at the start of the season, recovering 4 an hour, 10% faster for a Star of Dawn), and a battle draws on the stamina of every hero you deploy, so the goal is to clear tiles with as few heroes as possible and keep the heroes in your boss teams out of tile fights.

The tier list puts Dracula, Lucilla and Liberta at SS here, with Terrible Tornado, Awakened Brutus, Saitama, Albedo, Judy & Punch, Haelus, Palmer, Cha Hae-in and Laios at S+. For clearing tiles with one or two heroes, players lean on Dracula, Medusa, Sung Jinwoo, Cha Hae-in, Judy & Punch, Shalltear, Awakened Brutus and Grezhul.

Relics in the Vault of Time are upgraded per class (Warrior, Tank, Ranger, Mage, Support), and each hero uses the relic set of its own class. Spend your Blessed Essence on one class and pick carries from that class, rather than spreading relic upgrades across five; Mage is the usual choice. Settling next to a boss adds 5% damage against it. Kafka, Kikoru, Awakened Thane, Canisa & Ruke and Alna have no Vault of Time rating yet.

Arena of Heroes

The Arena of Heroes has its own battle rule: heroes deal 15% more damage to factions they have the advantage over and take 30% less from them, four or more heroes of one faction (Dimensional heroes excluded) raise every hero's base attributes by 50%, and Dimensional heroes are at a factional disadvantage against everyone. That's why a full Wilder team still holds up against Dimensional-heavy defenses. Each season also offers two of four tactics that boost five named heroes by 30% health, 20% Attack Rating and 15% Defense Rating; check the game modes guide for which heroes each tactic boosts before you set your defense.

Salaki is in three of these teams because his ultimate gives every ally 20 Life Leech and 15 Haste (up to 2.5 times as much for allies near half health), and from his third skill level every use permanently adds 4% Attack Rating and 4 Life Leech, stacking three times, which feeds Dracula directly. The Athena burst team plays the other way: from Ascended 1-star, Athena can use her ultimate once at the start of battle without spending Energy, Lyca adds 30 Haste to the team as the fight opens, and the venom pairing with Medusa does the rest.

These six are alternatives, not one set: a hero or beast can only sit in one of your teams at a time. When the arena gives you several teams, the Athena burst, Lucilla and Liberta, revive stall and Wilder lines share no heroes or beasts, so together they cover four. In the duo arena your partner's heroes can join your attack teams but never your defense, so build defense from your own roster first.

Temporal Rift

Temporal Rift runs every hero at level 360, so ascension and Signature Items decide strength, not levels. A run calls for several teams, and these eight share no heroes, so all of them can be fielded from one roster. Once you have the first five, strengthen them by moving the strongest heroes from the later teams up.

Beasts fight in Temporal Rift too, and Bellbellow is rated second only to Twinlum Spirit here. Each team in a battle needs its own beast, so teams 1 and 4 can only both run Twinlum Spirit if you own two; with one, keep it on team 1. Athena and Medusa, released after these teams were drawn up, are both rated SS in Temporal Rift and belong in the first teams, and Alna is rated SS for this mode as well. Teams 5, 6 and 8 are built mostly from one faction, so they're the easiest to fill from older heroes. The game modes guide has the floor rewards and the Infernal Chasm that opens after floor 300.