Updated New Hero Event | Hero Wars Dominion Era
The Eva event, Freedom Protocol, is the Updated New Hero Event in Hero Wars Web — and it quietly breaks nearly every pattern you have learned from past releases. There are nine chapters instead of seven, a brand-new resource that free players can only partly earn, and a ranking ladder that stacks up to +200% bonus if you are willing to pay. So before you touch your seals, it is worth understanding the structure, because a wrong move here can waste the few free attempts you get at the new Archdemon chapters.
Everything below comes from the pre-launch datamine (credit to the community datamine source). A couple of numbers are still unconfirmed, and those are flagged clearly so you know exactly where the risk sits.
What Stays the Same in the Updated New Hero Event
The core loop is untouched, so start from familiar ground. You spend energy to upgrade relics, and from those relics you earn valor coins. Then, in the altar, spending valor coins returns resources or medallions, which feed chapter progression and your hero and pet upgrades.
The relic section behaves exactly like previous events. The amulet relic raises the buff and unlocks chapters, the tome relic returns more coins per energy spend, and the grail relic increases the coins you pull per altar opening. As always, there is a conversion after the event ends, so nothing you earn is wasted.
The quests are also what you would expect: win battles, buy emeralds, and work through an upgrade line for Eva, the new hero. The shop is similar too, stocked with the items Eva needs. However, there is one notable change here — unlike the Astrid and Lucas event, the totem is not in the shop. This shop focuses entirely on upgrading Eva, which raises the obvious question: where did the totem go?
Nine Chapters and the Free-Player Wall
This event runs nine chapters instead of the usual seven. Chapters one through six work the way we know, but the totem now sits in chapter six rather than chapter seven. Do not read that as a discount, though — the energy cost moved right along with it, so chapter six now demands the same energy that chapter seven required before. In total, unlocking all six chapters costs 790 energy, the same price as always. The chapters are renumbered, not cheaper.
Here is the number that matters most if you play for free: on free energy alone, you can realistically reach chapter four. That is the free wall. Chapters five and six — and the totem now parked in chapter six — require more energy than free play provides. As a result, the totem is effectively behind spending this time, which is a real shift from events where a disciplined free player could grind all the way to it.
The Archdemon Chapters (7, 8, and 9)
Beyond chapter six sit chapters seven, eight, and nine — the Archdemon Chapters. This is where Freedom Protocol becomes a genuinely different event, because entry is gated by both relic level and the new resource. Notice the pattern in the table: the ranking bonus, which is exactly what competitive players chase, is locked behind rising relic levels and Abyssal Seals.
One detail is still being verified: the event data suggests the Archdemon chapters open only after you clear chapter six. If that holds, they are content for players who push past the free wall, full stop.
Abyssal Seals: The New Resource
Abyssal Seals are the headline addition to this Updated New Hero Event, and their supply is the whole story. The six normal chapters hold 10 seals in total. Because of the free wall, however, reaching chapter four nets a free player only 6 seals. The remaining four sit in chapters five and six, and everything beyond the chapter rewards comes strictly from bundles. Unlike energy or coins, which you can farm, seals are deliberately scarce — and that scarcity is where the money lives.
The Seal Rewards Ladder and +200% Stacking
A second system rides on top of the seals: the Seal Rewards ladder. It counts your seals cumulatively and pays out at fixed milestones. Ranking bonuses arrive at 1, 3, 7, and 14 seals — up to +100% extra just for collecting. Meanwhile, hero upgrade chests drop at 5, 10, 18, and 26 seals, and these are general chests useful across your whole roster, not Eva-only. Extra items land at 22 and 30.
Now do the math. A free player with 6 seals reaches the 1- and 3-seal ranking bonuses (+50% combined) plus the 5-seal chest. That is the free ceiling. The 7-seal bonus sits just out of reach, the 10-seal chest needs chapters five and six, and everything above that is bundle territory. At the very top, chapter nine’s +100% ranking bonus stacks with the ladder’s +100%, which is the +200% from the intro. Put plainly: two identical players with the same teams and damage will not score the same — the one who bought seals scores roughly triple. This leaderboard is built to be bought, so decide now whether you are competing on it, because that single choice shapes how you play everything else.
The Big Unanswered Question: Per-Attempt or One-Time?
Here is the honest gap, and it may be the most important unknown of the whole event. The seal tooltip reads “required to start Abyss chapters.” What we cannot yet confirm is whether seals are spent on every attempt or only once to unlock a chapter. That difference is enormous. If it is per attempt, even a player holding 10 seals after clearing chapter six gets only a handful of Archdemon runs — roughly one chapter-eight run and two chapter-nine runs. If it is a one-time unlock, you pay 6 seals total to open both chapters and then farm freely.
Until this is confirmed, the safe play is patience. Do not spend seals on chapter eight early just because it opens first. Instead, hold them until your relic level hits 25 and chapter nine is live, since that is where each seal buys the most ranking value. If it turns out to be a one-time unlock, waiting costs you nothing; if it is per attempt, waiting just saved your event. We will update this guide the moment the event goes live and the real behavior is visible.
What To Do, By Player Type
Free-to-play
Be realistic: your event effectively ends around chapter four. Therefore, aim at Eva’s upgrade progress from quests and the shop, the 5-seal hero upgrade chest, and the +50% ranking from the ladder. The totem is most likely out of reach without spending, and the Archdemon chapters are probably not your content — so do not burn resources stretching for them.
Small spender
This event asks more of you than usual. Chapters five and six are where your money goes first, because they carry the totem, four more seals, and access to the Archdemon chapters. That gets you to 10 seals, the second chest, and the 7-seal bonus — a solid, contained target.
Competing for top ranking
This one has a clear price tag: the full +200% stacked bonus, which everyone at the top will carry. So budget for it deliberately, or stay out of that race entirely — there is no cheap middle path on this leaderboard.
Eva’s Second Skin: Probably in Emerald City
Eva’s second skin is confirmed for the 24th, yet here is the strange part: it is not in the battle pass paid rewards, and it does not appear anywhere in the datamined Freedom Protocol resources — not in the chapters, not in the seal ladder, nowhere. So if it is not in this event, where is it? The clue is timing, because the Emerald City event begins the same day. My best guess, clearly labeled as a guess rather than confirmed, is that the skin lands in Emerald City, most likely behind the paid pass. Consequently, if the skin is your goal, do not chase it inside Freedom Protocol — hold your decision until Emerald City opens and the pass rewards are visible.
Freedom Protocol Summary and Prep
To pull it together, this Updated New Hero Event keeps the familiar loop — energy into relics, into valor coins, into the altar — while changing the parts that matter. The totem now sits in chapter six at the same total cost as before, but the free wall near chapter four pushes it behind spending. Three new Archdemon chapters are gated by relic 15 and 25 and by Abyssal Seals, of which only 6 are free and 10 exist in the chapters at all. Ranking stacks up to +200% for payers, and two questions remain open: the per-attempt seal cost, and Eva’s second skin, which is absent from this event’s data and most likely arrives in the Emerald City paid pass on the same day.
So prepare your energy and level your relics early, because relic 15 and 25 are the real gates here. Emerald City coverage is coming next — that is where the skin story continues.
Keep reading
Want the confirmed numbers the moment Freedom Protocol goes live?
Join the Hero Wars Olympus Discord — we post the per-attempt seal answer, Eva build talk, and the Emerald City skin update as soon as they land.