Which Clash Royale Hero Should You Buy?
They're the only two heroes that clearly beat their own plain card on Trophy Road without falling behind in Path of Legends. Ice Wizard adds the most; Valkyrie fits the most decks.
Every hero costs the same 200 Hero Coins, and you can only hold 200 at a time, so the choice comes down to one question: which hero buys you the most wins? Hero win rates alone can't answer that. A hero on a card that's already strong will post a high win rate even if the hero form adds nothing. So for each hero we compared the card played as a hero against the same card played plain. That gap is what your coins actually buy.
What each hero adds to its card
Win-rate points gained by the hero form over the plain card
Trophy Road, adjusted for card levels. Whiskers show the 95% range. Hover or tap a row for details.
The picks
1. Hero Ice Wizard: the biggest reliable gain
Played as a hero, Ice Wizard wins 54.4% of games after adjusting for card levels, against 48.8% for the plain card: a +5.6 point gain, the largest of any hero we trust. It holds even in Path of Legends (50.4%), where everyone's levels are equal.
2. Hero Valkyrie: the safe all-rounder
Valkyrie adds a smaller +2.1 points (54.3% vs 52.2%), but it's the most-played hero in the game with 70,000 hero games in two weeks. That popularity matters: a hero only helps if it fits your deck, and Valkyrie slots into more decks than anything else here.
Honourable mention: Hero Giant
Giant also shows a clear gain (+2.2), but its overall win rate is low (45.6%) and it's one of the least-played heroes. Buy it only if Giant is already your win condition.
Two results to treat with caution
Berserker's +19.5 is too good to be true
Hero Berserker tops the raw rankings, but only because plain Berserker wins just 33%, far below any other card. Berserker's hero form was handed out free through a season event, so the people still playing it without the hero are likely newer players. The hero is probably good (52.5% adjusted), but nowhere near +19.5. Wait for more data before spending coins on it.
Four heroes lose on Trophy Road but win in ranked
Mega Minion, Barbarian Barrel, Goblins and Balloon all trail their plain cards on Trophy Road, yet win 57–60% in Path of Legends. Ranked matches players by skill, which Trophy Road does only loosely, so these heroes may be stronger than the Trophy Road numbers make them look. The ranked samples are small, though. If you play ranked seriously, they're worth watching.
Every hero, ranked
| # | Hero | Adds | Hero win rate | Plain card | Ranked | Hero games | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hero BerserkerInflated: the plain card wins only 33% | +19.5 ±1.1 | 52.5% | 33.0% | 48.2% | 14,293 | Caution |
| 2 | Hero Ice Wizard | +5.6 ±0.8 | 54.4% | 48.8% | 50.4% | 21,838 | Gain |
| 3 | Hero Giant | +2.2 ±1.3 | 45.6% | 43.4% | 49.5% | 10,968 | Gain |
| 4 | Hero Valkyrie | +2.1 ±0.5 | 54.3% | 52.2% | 49.2% | 70,144 | Gain |
| 5 | Hero Bowler | +0.1 ±0.9 | 47.4% | 47.2% | 54.2% | 27,004 | Even |
| 6 | Hero Electro Wizard | −0.1 ±0.7 | 53.2% | 53.4% | 52.9% | 18,735 | Even |
| 7 | Hero Tombstone | −0.4 ±1.0 | 48.1% | 48.5% | 50.4% | 12,936 | Even |
| 8 | Hero Mini P.E.K.K.A | −0.5 ±0.5 | 52.2% | 52.8% | 50.2% | 105,766 | Even |
| 9 | Hero Musketeer | −0.6 ±0.8 | 50.9% | 51.5% | 49.9% | 35,356 | Even |
| 10 | Hero Wizard | −0.9 ±0.5 | 48.6% | 49.6% | 47.1% | 82,649 | Worse |
| 11 | Hero Dark Prince | −1.2 ±0.8 | 47.7% | 48.9% | 48.6% | 25,871 | Worse |
| 12 | Hero BalloonRanked disagrees (57.5%) | −2.4 ±0.7 | 46.5% | 49.1% | 57.5% | 38,421 | Worse |
| 13 | Hero Knight | −2.6 ±0.5 | 52.8% | 55.4% | 48.9% | 100,996 | Worse |
| 14 | Hero Ice Golem | −3.8 ±1.0 | 45.1% | 49.0% | 50.0% | 15,423 | Worse |
| 15 | Hero Barbarian BarrelRanked disagrees (59.2%) | −5.2 ±0.8 | 43.9% | 49.4% | 59.2% | 16,289 | Worse |
| 16 | Hero GoblinsRanked disagrees (58.2%) | −5.8 ±1.2 | 44.6% | 50.7% | 58.2% | 12,580 | Worse |
| 17 | Hero Mega MinionRanked disagrees (60.3%) | −6.8 ±1.2 | 41.5% | 48.4% | 60.3% | 14,918 | Worse |
| 18 | Hero Magic Archer | −8.4 ±0.8 | 40.4% | 48.9% | 50.8% | 32,484 | Worse |
These rankings update every week. See the latest numbers, trophy-range splits and the cards each hero pairs with.
Live hero rankingsHow we measured it
- Collected real battles. 556,000 Trophy Road and 14,000 Path of Legends 1v1 battles from the last two weeks, pulled from the official Clash Royale API. Draft, 2v2, and event modes were left out because the decks there aren't the player's own.
- Detected heroes from deck slots. The API marks which special form each card was played in, and the deck comes back in slot order: evolution slot, hero slot, then the wild slot. A hero-form card in the hero or wild slot was played as a hero.
- Adjusted for card levels. On Trophy Road, the player with higher-level cards wins more often regardless of deck. We compared every game against the expected win rate for that trophy range and level gap, so a hero isn't credited for its owner's levels.
- Compared each hero with its own plain card. Same card, same adjustment, with and without the hero. Mirror matches were excluded.
- Checked against ranked. Path of Legends equalises levels and matches by skill, which makes it an independent second reading.
FAQ
Which Clash Royale hero should I buy first?
Ice Wizard if you play a deck that can use it; otherwise Valkyrie, which fits the widest range of decks.
How much does a hero cost?
200 Hero Coins each, and that's also the most you can hold. Coins come from the Pass Royale free track, season events and reward tracks.
Is Hero Magic Archer bad?
On Trophy Road it posted the weakest result (−8.4 points vs plain Magic Archer). Like Berserker, it was given away free, so many less experienced players own it, which drags its numbers down. In ranked it sits at a neutral 50.8%.