Eternal Engravings open for a hero once it's Ascended 1-star and you've cleared stage 21-60. You level eight glyphs with Elemental Shards and Elemental Cores, and the total of their levels is the hero's engraving level. E30 and E60 each upgrade one of the hero's skills, E80 adds a PvP-only bonus called Endeavor, and Celestials, Hypogeans, Dimensionals, Draconis and Legendary-start heroes can go on to E100 for stats.
Which heroes can engrave
Every hero that can reach Ascended has a monolith, which is all 229 heroes that start at Elite or Legendary. Rare and Common heroes don't. How high a monolith goes depends on the hero:
| Heroes | Major glyph cap | Minor glyph cap | Max engraving level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elite Lightbearers, Maulers, Wilders, Graveborn (104 heroes) | 15 | 7 | 80 |
| Celestials, Hypogeans, Dimensionals, Draconis and Legendary-start heroes (125 heroes) | 20 | 8 | 100 |
Each monolith has 3 Major glyphs and 5 Minor glyphs, and its layout depends on the hero's faction and class.
Costs
Glyph levels cost the same on every monolith:
| Major glyph level | Cost each | Needs engraving level |
|---|---|---|
| 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 Shards | |
| 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 | 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 Cores | 30 |
| 11 to 15 | 300 Cores | 60 |
| 16, 17 | 350 Cores | 80 |
| 18, 19, 20 | 400 Cores | 80 |
| Minor glyph level | Cost each | Needs engraving level |
|---|---|---|
| 1, 2, 3 | 50, 100, 150 Shards | |
| 4, 5, 6 | 50, 150, 250 Cores | 30 |
| 7 | 300 Cores | 60 |
| 8 | 400 Cores | 80 |
The engraving-level gates force a fixed shape on the monolith. Before E30 a Major glyph can't pass 5 and a Minor glyph can't pass 3, and 3 × 5 + 5 × 3 is exactly 30, so every hero at E30 has the same glyph levels. The same thing happens at E60 and E80, which makes the cost of each milestone fixed:
| Engraving level | Elemental Shards | Elemental Cores |
|---|---|---|
| E30 | 3,750 | 0 |
| E60 | 3,750 | 4,500 |
| E80 | 3,750 | 10,500 |
| E100 | 3,750 | 18,200 |
E30 is Shards only, and every Shard a hero will ever need is spent by then. After that it's Cores all the way: 4,500 for E60, another 6,000 for E80, and another 7,700 for the last 20 levels on heroes that have them.
AFK Rewards start giving Elemental Shards once your campaign reaches chapter 22 and Elemental Cores from chapter 24.
Glyph order
Glyphs open in a set order. The first Major glyph is free to start; every other glyph unlocks once a glyph linked to it reaches level 5 (a Major glyph) or level 3 (a Minor glyph). The order differs between monoliths, but it only restricts which glyph you can start, not how far you push it afterward, and the gates above make the end result at E30, E60 and E80 identical whichever order you take.
What the glyphs give
Every glyph adds a stat per level, plus a larger bonus when it reaches certain levels: 5, 10, 15 and 20 for Major glyphs, 3 and 6 for Minor glyphs. Estrilda's first Major glyph adds 0.9% Attack per level and, at each of levels 5, 10 and 15, another 3.5% Attack and 1.4 Haste. At its cap of 15 that's 24% Attack and 4.2 Haste from one glyph.
Engravings also raise what the Elder Tree gives that hero: the flat Health, Attack and Defense from the Elder Tree and Dura's Virtues grow with the hero's engraving bonuses.
E30, E60 and E80
| Engraving level | What it does |
|---|---|
| E30 | Upgrades one of the hero's skills. At Ascended 2-star and 3-star, adds one bonus stat each. |
| E60 | Upgrades another skill. At Ascended 4-star and 5-star, adds one bonus stat each. |
| E80 | Endeavor: extra stats in Arena of Heroes, Legends' Challenger Tournament, Legends' Championship, Treasure Scramble and Heroes of Esperia |
For 202 heroes the E30 upgrade goes to the third skill and the E60 upgrade to the fourth. For 21 Awakened heroes plus Gavus, Zohra, Maetria, Eugene, Envydiel and Hybris, both upgrades go to the fourth skill. The star bonuses stack, so a 5-star Ascended hero at E60 has all four. Examples (Estrilda and Athalia here are the Elite versions; their Awakened versions have different engravings):
| Hero | E30 skill upgrade | E60 skill upgrade | Star bonus (each) | Endeavor at E80 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estrilda | Inspire: the Attack Rating boost to her allies rises to 40% | Ridicule: the Attack Rating cut on enemies rises to 18% | 6 Crit Damage Resistance | 13.7% Health, 37.04% Defense |
| Athalia | Purging Frenzy: final attack deals 180% of her Attack Rating | Protection: stat increase multiplied 1.5 times for the first 8 seconds | 5 Crit Damage Amplification | 55.56 Accuracy, 16.67 Attack Speed |
| Arthur | King's Blessing: damage increased to 240% | Shield of Honor: critical strikes from the front deal 30% less damage to him and the reduced amount is dealt back | 16.67 Accuracy | 10% Attack, 55.56 Accuracy |
So for most of the game E30 is the cheap win (Shards only, one skill upgrade) and E60 is the second skill upgrade for 4,500 Cores. E80's 6,000 Cores buy glyph stats that work everywhere, but Endeavor itself only switches on in those five PvP modes. E100 adds stats only, no skill, so whether those last 7,700 Cores go there or into another hero's E60 comes down to whether you need a second skill upgrade more than raw stats on a hero you already rely on.
Ascension stars also matter here. The bonus stats need the stars, so an Ascended 1-star hero at E60 has both skill upgrades but none of the four star bonuses.
Resetting
Engravings can't be undone at will. The Engraving Rewind event lets you revert one hero's engravings to zero and refunds every Shard and Core spent, and a hero reverted during a hero revert event gets its Shards and Cores back too.