Birth of the Hero · How the game works

Gameplay Guide

Explore a map. Bring its rewards into your castle, army and hero. Carry that progress into the next part of Failon's story.

Age of Failon: Birth of the Hero is a persistent turn-based strategy/RPG campaign. You follow Failon through story maps, developing the same hero, castle and army across the journey. This guide explains how those systems connect; the in-game tutorials cover the individual controls.

Story chapters: 30
Campaign maps: ≈358
Castle eras: 4
Hero level cap: 250

Campaign figures describe the full campaign, rather than the demo's scope.

Select any gameplay screenshot below to view it at full size.

01 / The journey

Campaign & persistent progression

The story spans 30 chapters and approximately 358 campaign maps. You complete maps in sequence: finishing one unlocks the next, and completing a region opens the next region and its first map. Completed maps cannot be replayed.

Kalgerion region map with map 1 available and later locations locked. — Within a region, the campaign map shows your available map and the locations still to unlock.

Explore & complete objectivesCollect resources and defeat enemies on the current map.
Develop your forcesUse rewards to improve your castle, recruit units and develop Failon.
Continue the storyEnter the next map with the progress you have built.

Before completing the objectives

Losing any battle sends you back to the lobby, and you must restart the current map.

After completing the objectives

Use Leave Map immediately, or stay to collect remaining resources and fight remaining enemies. A defeat during this extra exploration does not undo the map's completion.

02 / Exploration

Playing a world map

Each map gives you an objective, such as defeating a specified number of enemies. Completing it reveals the next objective; fulfilling all objectives completes the map.

Between objectives, you move Failon along the map's routes, collect resources and encounter enemies and guarded objects. Defeating a building's defending army always grants a reward. Rewards can include unit cards for recruitment, Building Points, Hero Points, Skill Points and Spell Points. The reward window shows what you earned.

Map Objectives window and current objective showing Kill enemies 0 / 7. — Objectives track what remains to complete the current map.

Rewards window with unit cards, progression rewards and a Claim button. — Encounter rewards connect exploration with recruitment and progression.

20 movement steps per day

Failon has 20 steps each day. When they run out, end the day to continue. Enemy heroes take their turns at this transition when an enemy-hero encounter is active, and can move to attack Failon.

Nearby enemies trigger combat

Moving onto a tile next to an enemy triggers an encounter, as does an enemy hero moving next to Failon. Ordinary enemies may show an army preview first, but the encounter is already committed. Building defenders and enemy heroes start battles directly.

Map rewards feed the other systems: resources pay for development, unit cards open recruitment, and progression points improve your castle and hero.

03 / Development

Castle & economy

Choose from six realms, each with its own buildings and units:

Kingdom
Wildlands
Nature
Underworld
Void
Heavens

Each castle has 19 buildings arranged in a branching dependency tree. The first four buildings need no earlier building; later ones require their predecessor along the branch. Construction brings a building from level 0 to level 1. Further upgrades can eventually take it to level 50, subject to your current era's limit.

Heavens castle building tree with connected buildings, levels and castle and era progress. — Lines in the castle tree connect buildings to their prerequisites.

Lizard Hold building details showing resource costs, Building Points and four unit evolutions. — A building's detail view brings together its costs, requirements and unit line.

Gold: The primary resource, used alongside other resources for castle development and recruitment. Spell upgrades also cost Gold.
Wood & Stone: Secondary resources used in the economy. Each building or recruitment option shows its required resources.
Silver, Sulfur, Crystal & Diamond: Rare resources needed for development and recruitment according to the displayed costs.
Building Points (BP): Every construction and building upgrade requires BP as well as resources. Earn these points by defeating building defenders on maps.
Era Crystals: A separate resource used to advance your castle to the next era. These are earned from building defenders, like Building Points.

Castle development and exploration work together: maps supply the resources, points and unit cards; the castle turns them into recruitment options and stronger unit evolutions.

04 / Long-term growth

Four eras & unit evolution

You begin in Era 1. Each era sets a maximum building level. To advance, bring all 19 buildings to the required level and spend the required Era Crystals. You can then upgrade buildings toward the next limit.

Castle milestones and unit evolution unlocks
Advancement	Every building must reach	Then upgrade a building to unlock
Era 1 → 2	Level 14 + Era Crystals	Level 15 → Evolution 2
Era 2 → 3	Level 29 + Era Crystals	Level 30 → Evolution 3
Era 3 → 4	Level 44 + Era Crystals	Level 45 → Evolution 4

In Era 4, buildings can reach level 50. Each of the 19 unit lines has four evolutions, giving a realm 76 unit forms across its progression.

Unlock the Next Era window listing buildings required at level 14 and an Era Crystal requirement. — The era window lists the building milestones and Era Crystals needed before you can advance.

05 / Preparing your forces

Army & recruitment

Before you can recruit a unit, you must obtain its unit card as a map reward. With the relevant castle building, unlock and resources available, recruit through that building or the castle's shared recruitment window.

Find a unit cardMap rewards make units available for recruitment.
Recruit in the castleSpend the required resources. New recruits enter Army Storage.
Choose your formationMove stacks from storage into the army you take into battle.

Your active army holds up to 7 unit stacks. You can drag units between Army Storage and formation slots, and rearrange the formation. At least one unit must always remain in the active army.

Recruit Units window with available units, quantities, Gold costs and Buy buttons. — Recruitment shows which units you can buy and their costs.

Army Storage containing three unit stacks, with Take Units and Move All to Storage controls. — Army Storage holds units that you can move into your active formation.

Seven active army slots with four occupied unit stacks and three empty slots. — Your active formation: seven slots, with a unit count on each occupied stack.

Building levels determine when the next evolution of a unit line becomes available. Cards, castle development and recruitment costs all contribute to which units you can field.

06 / Failon

Hero progression

Failon can reach level 250. Maps also reward Hero Points, which you spend on attributes: one Hero Point raises an attribute by one.

Failon's hero window with level, experience, combat statistics and five primary attributes. — The hero window brings together Failon's progression, combat statistics and attribute investment.

Attack Cap 50: Improves hit chance.
Strength Cap 100: Increases damage and the chance of a critical hit.
Defence Cap 100: Improves armour and block chance, helping reduce incoming damage.
Stamina Cap 100: Increases hit points and contributes to your army's health.
Intellect Cap 150: Increases mana and spell power.

Your attributes develop alongside your skills, spellbook and castle. They remain part of Failon's progression as you move through the campaign.

07 / Passive effects & magic

Skills & spells

Skills: a branching tree

Spend Skill Points earned on maps to develop passive effects. Starting skills need no predecessor; later skills require the preceding skill in their branch.

Each skill has its own maximum level, ranging from 1 to 5. Some skills have only one level, while others can reach level 3 or 5. Its description explains the conditions for its battle effect, the current benefits and, where further upgrades are available, the next level's benefits, cost and prerequisites.

Spells: unlock, then upgrade

Failon starts without spells. The first Spell Point for a particular spell automatically unlocks it. Further points for that spell can be spent, together with Gold, on upgrades in the spellbook.

Each level improves the spell. The spellbook shows its description and upgrade information; check it outside battle to see the points available for that spell.

Branching skill tree with connected skill icons and an unspent points counter. — The skill tree shows the branches you can develop with Skill Points.

Spellbook showing locked spells, page tabs and remaining mana. — The starting spellbook shows locked spells; their first Spell Point unlocks them.

Spell categories & level caps

OffenseLevel 10
Simple roundsLevel 5
Simple tacticalLevel 8
Hard tacticalLevel 3
Post tacticLevel 5

Use each spell's description to understand its effect. Spell Points and Gold develop your spellbook; mana pays for casting spells during battle.

08 / Combat

Turn-based battles

Battles take place on a grid using the stacks in your active army. Your formation determines the starting rows: slots 1–4 form the back line, while slots 5–7 form the front line, closer to the enemy.

Toward the enemy ↑

Front line

Back line

Formation slot numbers determine the starting row, not the turn order.

The turn-priority list orders units by their movement attribute. On a unit's turn, move across the grid or attack: melee units fight up close, while ranged units can shoot from a distance.

Round 1 battle with a highlighted movement grid, opposing unit stacks, turn-priority cards and spell, Skip, Wait and Retreat controls. — The highlighted grid shows movement options, while the cards along the bottom show turn priority.

Wait: Moves the unit's turn to the end of the current round.
Skip: Passes the unit's action for the current round.
Hero spells: You may cast one hero spell per round. Each cast costs mana; the spellbook shows the cost and remaining mana. Enemy heroes also have a mana pool.
Retreat: Surrenders the battle. Before completing the map objectives, this loses the map and means restarting it. After objectives are complete, the map remains completed, just as with other defeats during extra exploration.

Your preparation comes together here: castle development shapes your available units, formation sets their starting rows, and Failon's attributes, passive skills and spells support the battle.