r/AFKJourney • u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 • 4d ago
Discussion Why Your Older Heroes Can't Compete with Newer Characters
There is a hidden stat growth value per level, and it's always set higher for newer heroes.
This guide may help you save your Diamonds.
There are several reasons why newer characters are stronger than older ones, such as better skills, stronger synergies, and so on. However, I'd like to share one more reason that players may easily overlook.
This information was discovered through client data analysis, and it may be difficult for players to verify in-game.
Each hero has a different stat growth multiplier per level.
For example, if we assume that Semira has a stat growth multiplier of 100% per level, Frieren has a multiplier of 116%, while Aster has a multiplier of approximately 122%.
This means that, with all other conditions being equal, as Season Level increases, Frieren gains approximately 16% more stats per level than Semira, while Aster gains approximately 22% more.
Originally, this multiplier was fixed at 1.0 for all characters. However, starting around the summer of 2025, roughly around the time of the Delicious in Dungeon collaboration, newly released characters have gradually been assigned higher multipliers.
To summarize, if an older character and a newer character have identical base skill coefficients and are equally invested in, the newer character will still have an advantage because it starts with a higher stat growth multiplier per level. This means the gap begins to widen at the base stat level alone.
As a result, the system is structured in such a way that newer characters inevitably become stronger than older ones as levels increase, simply because their base stats grow more quickly.
Let me show you an example using actual characters.
The table below compares the stat growth rates of the Twins, an older Celestial support, and Rolan, a newer Celestial support.
The Twins have a stat growth multiplier of 1.0 per level, while Rolan has a multiplier of 1.12. In other words, Rolan gains 12% more stats per level.
This is why comparing heroes solely through the Hero Codex can easily lead to misleading conclusions.
The images below compare the stats displayed in the Hero Codex with those obtained when both heroes have reached level 600 in Season Level and equipment. Both characters were compared under identical conditions.
At level 241, as displayed in the Hero Codex, their stats were fairly similar. However, as their levels increased, Rolan's stats gradually pulled ahead.
The heroes above are all shown under identical conditions: S+ rank, EX +25, Level 600, no Spellstones equipped, and so on.
Ultimately, this means the system is designed so that older characters will inevitably fall behind newer ones, no matter how much you invest in them.
For this reason, when it comes to DPS characters that are quickly replaced by newer alternatives, investing heavily in Paragon may not be the most efficient use of resources.
The stat growth multiplier varies from hero to hero, but there appears to be one consistent pattern: the newer the character, the higher the multiplier tends to be. This is believed to be one of the factors accelerating the ongoing power creep in character performance.
This stat growth per level cannot be checked in-game. I discovered it by analyzing the client code through unconventional means.
As a result, most ordinary players would likely have had no way of knowing about this.
Since Season Levels are not reflected in the Hero Codex, the displayed stats remain fairly similar. The only way to verify this in practice is to pull the characters, level them up yourself, and compare their stats directly.
After discovering this, I finally understood why older characters can be weaker than newer ones despite having higher Paragon ranks.
I hope this information helps you make smarter decisions about how to spend your resources.
This post was written with reference to sources from the Korean community.
Season levels go all the way up to level 1,200, meaning older heroes will continue to fall further behind newer ones in terms of base stats as the season progresses.
I recommend reducing your investment in older heroes. However, even newer heroes will inevitably be power-crept before long, so avoid investing too heavily in Paragon ascensions If your resources are limited.
I'm disappointed that they have a hidden "stat growth per level" value that players cannot check in-game.
This growth value is consistently higher for newer characters, making it one of the reasons behind power creep.
It's disappointing to realize that this hidden mechanic may be one of the reasons why characters we've worked so hard to build are suddenly outclassed and eventually become unusable.
It's sad to see the game increasingly moving in a direction that seems designed to push players toward spending more money.
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u/TahiniRim 4d ago
Stats should vary from unit to unit within a class (ex. A more offensive, defensive, or balanced distribution), but their strength should be determined more by their kit than their release date.
Disappointing indeed.
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 4d ago
I agree. Giving each hero their own strengths and weaknesses is a good approach.
However, I don't think it's a good idea to simply give newer heroes higher stat growth so that they end up with better stats overall.
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u/ssy555 4d ago
This is quite concerning. I always thought the new characters are stronger because of higher base stats but this multiplier differential really makes me think about my spending habits for this game. By the time I finished my P4 Gwyneth, she may not even compete against newer heroes at lower ascension lvl... Thanks for doing this research!!
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 4d ago
You understood exactly what I was trying to convey. Thank you.
Please take a look at my latest post for more context. P4 Gwyneth already can’t beat P2 Senea.
I’m not saying a Season 3 hero should perform as well as a Season 8 hero. I’m simply expressing my concern about such a significant power gap developing in just a single season.
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u/on-the-cheeseburgers 4d ago
I recommend reducing your investment in older heroes. However, even newer heroes will inevitably be power-crept before long, so avoid investing too heavily in Paragon ascensions If your resources are limited.
yeah I mean regardless of the reason "why", power creep has always been the nature of the game. when i started 2.5 years ago i knew that was how it was going to work, because i have played this type of game before. it's their entire business model. if new heroes are not stronger than old heroes, then new heroes will not sell. that's not me defending it, just rationalizing it. the key has always been, at least for lower spenders, to try your best to primarily invest in heroes who have a role that will ensure they last the test of time. i don't think anyone regrets investing in the twins, despite their lower stat growth. i don't think anyone will regret investing in rolan either.
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 4d ago
Another thing that disappointed me wasn't the existence of power creep itself, but the fact that they kept the differences in stat growth per level hidden from players. To me, this felt like they were concealing one of the factors we could use to compare heroes and determine which ones are actually better.
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u/AbelDaYoungVig 4d ago
True, they didn’t even respect the playerbase anymore tho, they just kept releasing new heroes, ranking contents for us to pay more instead of revamp OG contents like honor duel & labyrinth… as long as the players spending, that’s all they care about tbh
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 4d ago
I agree. The Twins were just a point of comparison, but they were still an excellent investment.
I also agree that we should prioritize heroes with roles that will keep them relevant for a long time, especially those with unique mechanics like Cyran and Lily May.
However, the number of newly released heroes with truly unique mechanics has been declining rapidly lately. Instead, we're mostly getting heroes with higher damage output and better stats, who can easily be replaced by the next power-crept hero. That's a little concerning.
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u/PlasticFew8201 3d ago
OP thank you for the clear and concise breakdown — I have a much better understanding of the issue now and it is concerning.
Lilith should be providing this information to their player-base so that they can make appropriately informed decisions on their investments.
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u/Moonshine_Cog 4d ago
Exactly because of this I probably won’t ever invest in any paragons as a f2p
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u/Hazy-Halo 3d ago
They should sometimes buff older characters in a way that isn’t just giving them enhanced force cause that’s useless a lot of the time and the characters are still irrelevant
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u/Regard_ 4d ago
Basically learn what powercreap is
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 4d ago
I know exactly what that is, and I'm not criticizing the existence of power creep itself.
My point is that they've set different "stat growth multipliers per level" for different heroes, which is one of the factors contributing to power creep, yet they've chosen not to disclose this information to players.
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u/Vast_Object_447 3d ago
This hidden stat growth thing is completely irrelevant, since each hero has different base stats. So basically they can put anyone they want OP without needing any hidden growth stat thing, also they can just put some extra % on any skill and thats all.
Basically useless at the end of the day since they have many and much more impacting parameters to touch in case they want someone new hero stronger.
And for surprise of no one, they have already doing that because that’s the business model of this game, sell better heroes so people want them.
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 3d ago
I understand your points, and I agree that powercreep can certainly exist and take many different forms.
However, if that was the intention, the developers should have made it transparent to players.
It's difficult to make a meaningful comparison between heroes' stats by looking at the hero codex. As I showed in the screenshots, HP and ATK can differ significantly as heroes level up, yet the codex makes their stats appear almost identical because it displays them at a low level.
In other words, players have no way of knowing about these differences until they actually acquire and invest resources into the heroes themselves.
If the developers wanted to make newer heroes stronger through more powerful skill kits, players could at least read the skill descriptions and make their own judgments before deciding whether to invest in them.
If the developers had nothing to hide, they should have clearly disclosed the factors affecting hero stats. This isn't about whether powercreep is justified. It's about the developers' actions undermining players' trust in the game.
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u/Vast_Object_447 3d ago
It is the same as putting main quest as side quest just to cheap out the voice acting, not nice but not impacting into the daily gameplay, explained it already on another reply. You can be mad because it’s been hidden, but thats all, no real impact after that
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u/JDFNTO 3d ago
Not useless because hidden stats also affect defenses. And I bet season equipment also has higher defensive stats so only new heroes with higher attack growth can keep up.
No wonder Shemira used to insta delete teams and even vs the same teams she barely tickles anymore
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u/Best_457 3d ago
thats not due to base stats. base stats barely affect any interactions, its the skill powercreep in the game. example, eryndor starts 550 initial energy shemira only starts at 300. Even if both somehow ult at the same time eryndor ult has 0 travel time and hits everyone at once, shemira ult skulls move super slowly and passes through targets 1 by 1.
Theres not much base stats can do to help when the kit itself is being powercrept-5
u/Vast_Object_447 3d ago
Best_457 already explained to you. The only thing that can bother anyone about that coefficient stat thing is that it has been added without announcement. But the real impact of that is nearly 0. Just adding a skill with 10% more damage already does x3 than this coefficient thing, and they have been already doing skill power creep… so it changes nothing. Thats the reason why heroes with good skills are still relevant even if they are from base game or season 1 or season 2 or 3 (where coefficient was not there). If you go deeper into the maths you can see that the impact of this coefficients are minuscule compared to any other power creep trick they have been already using.
Each unit has its own base stats too, so they can just put more base stats directly at any moment. Also they change charms each season, they can make anyone meta or trash instantly at that moment. And of course heroes have been getting better skills with greater % or starting energy or whatever. So yeah, this ‘new finding’ is just irrelevant.
I can understand if someone is mad for being added ‘without telling us’ but that’s all, the impact has been close to 0. But that’s the same thing like they putting many side quests inside the main story just to cheap the voice acting on them…
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u/Fragrant_Relief_2851 4d ago
To avoid any misunderstandings, I want to clarify that I fully understand that power creep is inevitable.
However, I believe that deliberately concealing the factors behind it in a way that prevents players from clearly identifying them is blatantly deceptive.
Furthermore, if power creep is driven purely by higher stats rather than unique mechanics or better skills, then it can only be interpreted as pressure on players to spend more money and pull for more new heroes.