Here is a Whiteout Survival Star Level Guide. Star Levels are a key part of upgrading your Heroes. After collecting their fragments (or ‘shards’), you can Ascend your hero to increase their star level. Ascending the Hero will increase their stats and unlock access to unique Hero skills and abilities.
Each Hero has a maximum of 5-Stars that they can reach, and each Star is comprised of 6 segments (or ‘Tiers’) — meaning a total of 31 star levels inclusive of the first/last.
Whiteout Survival Star Level Guide
How Do I Upgrade the Star Level?
Upgrading a Hero’s Star Level requires Shards. Each tier of Hero has its own shards, denoted by color, which will match the Hero tier (Rare is blue, Epic is purple, Mythic is gold). There are two main types of shards:
General Shards
Hero-Specific Shards
General Shards are shown with a blank face, and Hero-Specific Shards have an image of the Hero they belong to on the face.
Hero-Specific shards can only be used to ascend the Hero they belong to, whereas General Shards can be used on any hero of the correct color tier.
Note: The exception to this is Jeronimo and Natalia, who can only be ascended with Hero-Specific shards.
Isn’t This Just Levelling the Hero?
Hero Level and Star Levels are two different facets of your Heroes:
Hero Levels
- Are numeric, max at Lv. 80
- Affect Hero / Escort stats
- Affect Troop / Escort deployment capacity
- Use Hero Exp items to increase
Star Levels
- Are broken into Stars and Tiers and cap at 5-Star (Tier 0)
- Affect Hero / Escort stats
- Affect access to, and level of, Hero Skills
- Grant Command buffs for any troops of the same Hero type under their command (e.g. Mia will give greater bonuses to the Attack & Defense of Lancers under her command the higher she ascends)
- Use Hero Shard items to increase
For more details on Hero Exp, check out the Hero Exp Guide.
Star Level Unlocks
When you first obtain a Hero, they start at 0-Stars (Tier 0).
Their first skill in Exploration and Expedition will be unlocked, but all others will be inaccessible.
- When you reach 1-Star (Tier 0), the second Exploration/Expedition skill will be unlocked
- When you reach 2-Stars (Tier 0), the third Exploration/Expedition skill will be unlocked (if applicable to your Hero tier)
- Rare Heroes have 2 Exploration and 2 Expedition skills to unlock
- Epic Heroes have 3 Exploration and 2 Expedition skills to unlock
- Mythic Heroes have 3 Exploration and 3 Expedition skills to unlock
Shards Required to Reach Max Stars
Each hero costs 10 shards to first unlock them.
Note: These MUST be Hero-Specific shards to unlock. You cannot use General shards to unlock a Hero for the first time.
After that, the segment cost increases with each Star:
0-Star
- Tier 1-2 costs 1 shard each
- Tier 3-6 costs 2 shards each
1-Star
- Tier 1-5 costs 5 shards each
- The final Tier costs 15 shards
2-Star
- Tier 1-5 costs 15 shards each
- The final Tier costs 40 shards
3-Star
- Tier 1-5 costs 40 shards each
- The final Tier costs 100 shards
4-Star
- All Tiers cost 100 shards each