Hey, heroes! Kolz here.
Today, I'm breaking down the best heroes for Nightmare Mode. NMM is one of my absolute favorite parts of the game. It makes you think, interact, and actually play.
In Nightmare Mode, the goal isn't to kill horde. It's simply to survive to the end of the chapter.
To make it through each chapter, you need heroes with specific abilities: slows, stuns, and—most importantly—alternative forms of healing.
Some heroes have built-in ways to restore health, but not in the traditional sense. Shields and invulnerability play a massive role in keeping your hero alive in Nightmare Mode.
Faction bonuses also matter a lot more. The Warrior faction, in particular, stands out because it offers some of the best heroes for survival—not just dealing damage but making it to the end of each chapter.
With that in mind, let's dive into the heroes and see which ones truly shine in Nightmare Mode.
Update 2/26/2025: I updated the ordering based on new information. Dark Paladin and Knight moved up the ranks, while Leprechaun moved down to honorable mention.
Astral Mage is actually very strong because she has built-in healing via her shield.
Plus, her kit also has some slows via skills.
So that combination makes her quite strong for Nightmare Mode. I cleared up to the Chapter 160 range with her.
I haven't really tried her in late, late NMM. But she can easily clear the 1 - 120 nightmare chapters and then easier, later chapters.
Monk is very strong in nightmare mode. He's got plus movement speed and evasion built into his kit. Plus, he's got invulnerability for the first 120 stages of nightmare mode.
After that, his ultimate slows, and he has pushback. All good things for Nightmare Mode.
Monk is part of the warrior faction, giving him extra survivability.
Sentry Specialist is the sleeper pick here.
She also has plus movement speed and she has plus armor by default.
The way her sentry work is it draws the horde in. But once you figure out how to use her sentry effectively, you can kite horde for day.
It's just the fact that her sentry will absorb so much damage and then eventually start killing off horde that you can level up to. Surprisingly good hero for nightmare mode.
At three-star Sentry Specialist and four or five-star Forge, she might actually be S- tier.
I mean, that's a really expensive investment in one hero, but she gets really strong at that point.
Knight is an interesting case.
With Knight, you need four-star forge to make anything work.
And then, because of his total lack of movement speed, 1 - 120 can be hard.
But post 120, when you get a set nine movement speed; it negates his biggest weakness, which is his lack of movement speed. Combine that with 4* forge for Knight, and he becomes a beast.
The pushback from his Runesword will allow you to survive. I've cleared one of the hardest chapters in the game, NMM 201, with him.
So you can do end-stage nightmare mode with Knight once you get everything leveled.
Knight is just a great all-around hero.
Dark Paladin is just a tanky boss man that lets you survive through Nightmare Mode, at least through Chapter 120. I don't own him, so I haven't played with him past that, but I know people in my guild who have used him exclusively to climb Nightmare Mode.
You need to upgrade his forge to at least 2* to make him shine.
He has a lot of armor built into his kit. A lot of movement speed built into his kit. And he can freeze horde.
He's a very strong hero.
This Tinkerer guy is actually A plus tier nightmare mode.
Whenever I do a tutorial on how to beat early nightmare mode, I recommend using the Tinkerer because he's great and everybody has him.
So if you have the Tinkerer, you can clear through 1 - 120 nightmare mode, no problem. He has so much movement speed built into his kit that he can survive through everything.
Clockwork Mage again shows up on another best of list.
Her innate slows let you clear out content in this game just fantastically well.
She can clear all of Nightmare Mode. There are people in my guild that literally main Clockwork Mage and use her for everything and have beat all 260 chapters of Nightmare Mode with her.
So you can beat everything in this game with her.
She is not as easy as some of the other S-tier heroes in nightmare mode. So she's S minus because you have to work to kite - her one "weakness" is a lack of healing.
But she's very, very good.
Shield Warden used to be S plus, but now he's now more S minus.
The big benefit to the Shield Warden, besides the fact that he freezes everything all the time, is that his healing is based on his shield. His shield regenerates after three seconds of not being hit. And that's just free health.
In the later stages of nightmare mode, they upped the movement speed of the horde. And so you get hit a lot, and he can't regenerate his shield. And so he doesn't get all of that additional healing that he used to just get for free.
He's still very strong as I've cleared things above 200 with him, but he's just not S plus tier the way he used to be.
If you have him, but don't have the next two, use him.
Werebeast is my current go-to for nightmare mode. I created the Werewizard build, which you can check out here.
Werebeast can carry you from 1 to 201 in nightmare mode. While 202 is impossible, I used him again for 203 through 260.
Werebeast is almost S+ if not for that one chapter.
He's got armor built in his kit, movement speed built into his kit, actual healing built into his kit, shields built into his kit. I mean, like everything you could possibly want in a Nightmare Mode Hero. Plus, he's part of the Warriors faction, which, again, is a super strong faction.
Warlord is the only S+ Nightmare Mode hero. He is the single best hero for this content.
To make him an absolute beast mode, where you can almost AFK farm, you need three-star Warlord, and then you need five-star Forge. That adds the all important healing to his kit at 2* forge.
Before that, you need to pay attention, but you can clear all the content. He is the only one who can consistently clear 202, the one chapter Werebeast can't.
If you have him, you can beat the game. Plus, he's also part of the Warrior faction.
Leprechaun is a fun case.
His instant kill still works in Nightmare Mode. So you can end up taking out a whole bunch of horde each chapter, making him great for farming. Particularly, on the more farmable levels, you can get a ton of coins.
He's got movement speed and armor built into his default kit. And so he'll let you progress through early nightmare mode just fine and then farm easier levels for coins.
Necromancer is very good in nightmare mode.
You can use the minions to tank the damage, and you survive. I have a bunch of guildmates that use Necromancer through Nightmare.
I unfortunately don't own the guy. I really wish I did. I have over 350 shards for this dude. He is my first adventure hero, and I didn't always do my adventures and I didn't get him.
When playing Nightmare Mode, you're generally looking for three key attributes:
The secret to self-healing in Nightmare Mode is shields. Any hero that has a self-regenerating shield is your best bet for survival. These allow you to heal, absorb damage, and progress through the content with health regeneration is at a premium.
