Hero growth and potential: how heroes really improve
Hero growth in Dungeons & Dynasties is easy to misread. Stars creep up, then stop; a promising recruit stalls at two and a half stars; an old veteran trains slower than a teenager. None of it is random. This guide explains the numbers behind hero growth, why it slows, how long each star takes, and the one way to raise a hero's potential itself. To run the numbers for your own hero, use the training calculator.
The two numbers behind hero growth
Every hero carries a Current Ability from 10 to 200 and a Potential Ability, the ceiling it can grow toward. The stars on the hero sheet are simply Current Ability ÷ 40, rounded to the nearest half: 120 is three stars, 160 is four. The faint stars are the same sum for potential.
Current Ability rises in three ways:
- Train in the Training Yard, the main engine, settled every six days.
- Hone, which raises chosen attributes and adds about half a point of ability for each attribute point gained.
- Passive growth from the Training Ground while a hero is at home: 0.12 a day per Training Ground level.
Delves and quests do not raise ability on their own. They raise Veterancy, and Veterancy makes training faster: a Veterancy-20 hero learns 25% faster than a Veterancy-1 hero. That is why the developer describes experience as knowing what to practise, rather than the practice itself.
How fast heroes grow
Each six-day settlement, a hero on Train gains the product of a short list of terms: a base of 3, the teaching term (1.6 alone, up to several times that with a good mentor), the Training Ground and trainer bonus, a life-stage term (×1.4 for Greenhorn and Rising heroes, ×0.5 in Twilight), Veterancy and learning traits, and a room-to-grow term that drops as the hero closes in on their cap.
A worked example: an 18-year-old Human with 60 ability and 140 potential, Veterancy 2, on a level-1 Training Ground. Trained alone, they gain about +3.1 ability per cycle. With a same-class mentor at Veterancy 12 and Leadership 12, that becomes +6.7. Over a whole career the mentored version reaches full potential in about 3.7 realm years, against 7.0 alone.
The mentor is usually the biggest single lever, followed by a good trainer on staff, then Training Ground levels. The calculator lists the best levers for any hero you enter.
Why hero growth slows or stops
Three separate caps act on every hero, and only one is the potential on the sheet:
- The approach. Training runs at full speed while the remaining gap is at least 60% of the cap, then slows with the square of what is left. With a quarter of the cap still to gain, a hero trains at about a sixth of full speed; at the very end, 6%.
- The age cap. Before their peak years, a hero can only reach part of their potential: about 57% at the start of a career, rising to all of it by the peak.
- The fade. Once past their best, a hero's cap slides toward 72% of potential by the end of their career. Well-Preserved heroes start that slide later.
Race decides how these play out. The same young prospect as an Elf aged 30 can only reach 80 right now, gains about +2.6 per cycle even with the same mentor, and needs around 20.3 realm years to reach full potential, because an Elf's career, and its age cap, stretch so much longer.
When each race peaks
Every hero's peak is a hidden roll centred on their race's typical value, give or take about a tenth of the career. The fade begins at the peak or the race's fade point, whichever is later.
| Race | Career ages | Typical peak | Fade begins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human | 16–40 | age 23 | age 32 |
| Elf | 30–80 | age 56 | age 71 |
| Dwarf | 25–63 | age 41 | age 54 |
| Halfling | 20–56 | age 33 | age 45 |
| Half-Orc | 14–36 | age 20 | age 28 |
| Tiefling | 18–42 | age 25 | age 34 |
| Dragonborn | 16–46 | age 25 | age 35 |
| Gnome | 22–64 | age 42 | age 56 |
| Goliath | 16–36 | age 21 | age 29 |
| Aasimar | 20–58 | age 37 | age 49 |
Raising potential itself
Potential is not fixed. While a hero is a Greenhorn or Rising and has a mentor, every six-day cycle gives them one chance of +1 Potential. The chance is higher when potential is low and the mentor teaches well, and it caps at 62% a cycle. With the mentor from the example above, a 140-potential prospect has about a 28% chance each cycle, and a 100-potential one about 51%.
Over a year or two of the young stages, that can add a meaningful number of points, enough to turn a decent recruit into a strong one. It is the best reason to give your youngest heroes a mentor early, even before their ability gains are large.
Choosing a mentor for growth
- Same class first. A same-class mentor teaches at 1.3× fit, same role 1.0×, a different role only 0.55×.
- Then Veterancy and Leadership. Both raise teaching quality; Leadership is the attribute to check on a candidate.
- Traits. Born Mentor adds 20% and can take on any rising hero; Exacting adds 18% but piles stress on the pupil; A Broad Hand removes the cross-role penalty; Of the Old School excels with its own class only.
- No bad blood. A personal grudge between mentor and pupil cancels mentoring entirely.
For choosing between Train, Hone and Mentor as assignments, see the training guide; for what Ability and stars mean on the hero sheet, see hero state.
Plan your own hero's growth
Enter race, age, ability, potential, your Training Ground and the mentor you have in mind. The training calculator shows ability per cycle, the cap that applies right now, when each star arrives, and the change that would help most.
Open the training calculatorHero growth questions
How do heroes improve in Dungeons & Dynasties?
Hero growth comes from the Training Yard. Train raises Current Ability toward the hero’s cap every six-day settlement, Hone raises chosen attributes, and an idle Training Ground adds a little passive growth. Delves and quests give experience, which makes training faster, but they do not raise attributes directly.
Can a hero’s potential increase?
Yes, but only while the hero is a Greenhorn or Rising and has a mentor. Each six-day cycle they get one chance of +1 Potential, higher when their Potential is low and their mentor teaches well, up to 62% a cycle.
Why has my hero stopped improving?
Usually one of three caps. Training slows sharply as a hero closes in on their cap; young heroes are held to part of their potential until their peak years; and heroes past their best have a cap that falls with age. Twilight heroes also train at half speed.
How long does it take to max a hero?
It depends on race, age and mentor. In the worked example on this page, a young Human prospect reaches full potential in about 3.7 realm years with a good mentor. A long-lived Elf of the same ability takes far longer because their age cap rises slowly.
Every number on this page is computed from the training formulas, checked against the v3.0.0 game code.