The Elder Tree Guide & Build Priority

Complete guide to The Elder Tree in AFK Arena: How to level-up branches effectively, Elder Tree Tier List, stats, and tree ability details.

A Guide by Grub.

What is the Elder Tree in AFK Arena?

The Elder Tree is located in the Library section, being unlocked from Campaign Chapter 8-40. This is where you can increase the stats and unlock new skills/abilities for each specific class in AFK Arena.

• Sustenance = Support Heroes
• Sorcery = Mage Heroes
• Might = Warrior Heroes
• Fortitude = Tank Heroes
• Celerity = Ranger Heroes

As you level up the Elter Tree, all of the Heroes linked to the tree will be powered up. New special skills for different hero classes will also get unlocked.

The higher ascension-tier your Heroes are, the higher level your tree is. The level of the tree determines the level cap of each tree branch.

How to obtain Twisted Essence?

Upgrading the tree branches costs Twisted Essences! You can find it via:

1. Twisted Realm in Guild building.
2. Campaign AFK Rewards.
3. Events.

How to Level Up Elder Tree Branches Effectively

Follow the below branch building flowchart by Grub for the most effective way to optimize your Elder Tree in AFK Arena!

Barricade Manipulation

The Barricade artifact is used with the tree to get your carry of choice to the highest rating, which is why I’ve suggested prioritizing Celerity and Sorcery as the highest due to the fact they are carry-focused trees.

The Barricade can only be acquired from The Depths of Time Level 32 (Trials of God)

Base Effect:  When ally with highest Combat Rating suffers fatal damage, that damage is nullified and the artifact wearer loses 40% of current health. That amount is converted into a shield that protects that ally. 15-sec cooldown at 3-star.

Carry-Tank Combination

The combo requires all heroes in team formation.

Formation		Description
Carry	Tank
		Kren needs to stay alive during his risky periods to ensure that he is able to ult as early as possible with as little risk as possible. Brutus provides amazing invulnerability and bulk as well as a damage and DODGE debuff from his roar, which helps solidify the already potent ult. Skreg groups the enemies and push them into the range where they will be caught in Kren’s bombardment.
		Grezhul often runs Barricade with Alna. Since his own damage is dependent on enemy scaling, he can run a more support-orientated artifact i.e. Barricade), which is used to keep backline allies alive so that the control or damage is high enough to win the fight.
		Albedo and Arthur both amplify Ainz’s damage whilst providing him with the bulk from Barricade to survive until the 15-second mark/the first ult.
		Barricade works with Lucretia Cheese in bursty teams. Any Fortitude hero is viable, but invulnerable heroes keeps Lucretia alive with BARRICADE to ensure that she can deal damage without the risk of getting bursted instantly. Brutus in particular provides a significant damage buff with his roar and allows Lucretia to use Bow, her most powerful artifact overtaking Shroud, as enemies get stronger.
		This comp is used to ensure that Raku is able to survive when the control on your team is on cooldown. It synergizes well with Gorvo, who provides this, as well as good initial control, which helps Raku maintain his buff with his 3/9 Furniture.

Sustenance (Support)

Key Heroes:

Rating: 6/10

Sustenance used to be the tree elect but now operates a niche area, providing main utility in Boss damage focused modes, PvP mirror matchups, Legends Championship, and gambit based teams to counter certain campaign enemies.

The tree has excellent return on investment until 42 as the greatest value is the Haste given rather than the abilities or the % stats.

After 42, you require 16,000 essence to hit the next breakpoint at 62. This is an expensive leap for a 4-6% increase in performance which is more effective invested elsewhere.

Sustenance Build Path

• Optimal Build Levels: 9, 47, 62, 72, 77.
• Break Point Levels: 47, 62, 77.

Level 57 is generally the point that players should stop until they have 2 or 3 other branches maxed out as far as they will go. This level provides HASTE with a nice balance between investment and reward and avoids overcommitting resources that would be better spent elsewhere.

Level 62 is for people who have at least 2 branches maxed out already or wish to focus on boss damage. For Abyssal Expedition and other boss rush style events, most people opt to reset their trees into SUSTENANCE. However, this isn’t wise for content that is semi-permanent. 62 does provide the next HASTE breakpoint and is a solid return, though not as powerful as other paths.

Level 77 is the point where the scaling becomes really relevant. This used to be the gold standard of the tree meta as lockdown and Talene based comps were the strongest teams. Now, however, we are at a point where much of the bulk is given by heroes like Alna or Brutus. Anyone considering going 77 likely has access to more cost efficient methods of protection other than SUPPORT. This is the final notable point where HASTE is provided as a special stat. Past this point is only necessary for extreme bulk which is niche at best.

Stat Bonuses

Rating: 8/10

The HASTE is the primary power here, helping get key ults off as fast as possible. That being said, base stats are not particularly impactful on most supports as they do not occupy frontal positions in the current meta.

Sustenance Abilities

Rating: 5/10

SUPPORT abilities are useful in mirror matches and gambit based comps, but are not strong enough to provide a noticeable advantage elsewhere.

Ability	Description
Savior’s Gift	Shield on most injured ally after the support hero’s ult. Shield absorbs damage equal to a percentage of support’s Attack Rating. Solid ability that can provide bulk and makes the difference in situations where the carry is being focused down. This has been overshadowed by BARRICADE, which is a reason this tree has fallen in the meta. The shield is rarely useful at 150+ deficits since damage is too high, but does have some use in PvP however,
Life Kindle	When unit that has this blessing heals an ally, the most injured ally will also be healed. One of the better abilities across all branches since most SUPPORTs heal frequently causing this to be triggered very often throughout the fight and making a significant difference. It is not a decisive advantage, but will slightly increase the bulk of the frontline.
Defiance	Recover energy after amount of time and gain CC immunity when ability is activated. A useful ability primarily in PvP as there are not many situations in PvE where only the SUPPORT is controlled. The energy bonus is helpful on ult dependent heroes like Rosaline, but the bonus has more of a PvP function currently with Ezizh and others in Ainz VS Ainz matchups.

PvP

Rating: 8/10

Most of this tree’s power comes from stat advantages on key heroes. Generally, the meta is moving away from SUPPORT based heroes while Lucretia Lockdown is becoming the flavour of the month. The most notable aspect of the tree is the HASTE bonus, which can prove decisive in mirror matches (typically against Ainz) and has some utility with Silas.

PvE

Rating: 6/10

The HASTE is the most critical aspect of this tree’s effectiveness in PVE. However, most heroes in this tree still rely on control, or extremely tanky frontliners for survival. The healing and slight boosts are helpful in getting a Silas or Desira ult off as fast as possible, but it is difficult to justify investment above 42 until the very late stages of the campaign.

Cost Effectiveness

Rating: 8/10

This tree hits it’s peak RETURN ON INVESTMENT at level 42, which is fairly cost effective for the benefit it provides. Given the recent shift in meta, SUPPORTS no longer rule the game and, as a result, the stats provided past level 77 are of limited relevance outside of Legends Championship.

Meta Relevance

Rating: 9/10

Almost all SUPPORT heroes are fragile and will struggle when exposed to damage, regardless of the investment in the tree. That being said, initial HASTE is key since the strongest 3 SUPPORTS, Silas, Rowan, and Desira, all rely on getting the crucial ultimate or victory condition as fast as possible.

Sorcery (Mage)

Key Heroes:

Rating: 8.0/10

Sorcery is something of an enigma. The actual abilities are rather poor, and the tree provides lower-tier bonuses.

However, it is balanced by some of the best heroes in the game within its category, most of which are control-focused. They rely on the tree to provide the necessary damage to ensure victory when pure control would otherwise result in a timeout.

In my opinion, this represents the most powerful tree for those pushing at the highest deficit in campaign.

Oden, Mehira, Khazard, Ainz, Zaphrael, Pippa, and Skriath are some of the most powerful heroes in the game who remain relevant even into CH 41.

The CRIT stat is also very underrated, giving more consistency with EYE-based setups, which provides extreme HASTE and control when used properly. Neglect this tree at your peril.

Sorcery Build Path

• Optimal Build Levels: 9, 22, 42, 
• Break Point Levels: 22, 37, 47, 62, 72

Level 22: The baseline investment for SORCERY tree. It is worth noting that this is the preferred level if you do not have Oden, Ainz, Skriath, etc. built. This provides enough stats to function in the earlier stages of the campaign without committing too hard without the baseline investments.

Level 37 is an efficient spot as both DODGE and CRIT are supplied. The percentage stats also increase the viability of mage-based sets. Most heroes will carry at this break point prior to CH 35 or so.

Level 47: This level gives +2 to flat CRIT. This is a noticeable increase in damage, particularly with EYE 5. When combined with Queen, it begins to build the base of some of the most powerful teams in game. This marks the beginning of where MAGE-based teams begin to really climb the ranks.

Level 62: Percentage stats really start to matter at this level. Built MAGE heroes will be able to exert a powerful influence in the fight. Oden in particular, when invested in, transforms into arguably the strongest carry in the game by exerting oppressive control and damage that few, if any, heroes can match.

Level 72: This is the main point where Queen-based teams should aim for. It is important to continue to focus on the percentage stats since most MAGEs benefit significantly from this. As the enemies get bulkier, they will rely on tree stats to make a difference.

Stat Bonuses

Rating: 9/10

MAGEs have some of the highest base ATTACK stats in the game, so they typically gain a significant amount from the extra stats given by the tree. As mentioned previously, CRIT increases viability with EYE and provides a DPS increase in practice, DODGE can struggle to be relevant in ability-based heroes since their accuracy is too high for this to matter, but against WARRIORs and TANKS, this can provide the crucial time needed to swing the fight.

Abilities

Rating: 8.5/10

The abilities themselves are effective as slight compliments in select situations. The second ability, when combined with control teams such as Portal Core (Oden and Pippa), provides a significant boost to the control uptime. The third ability can tip mirror matches as the brief immunity from control allows a potential ult or burst damage. The first ability is luckluster even at the higher ranks since the issue with MAGES is usually getting them to ult. It can have some value at extreme deficits where every point of damage is necessary, but is unlikely to be impactful for most players.

Ability	Description
Astral Focus	Atk rating increases for some time after ult. A pretty niche ability that doesn’t scale well. It has been made better with the arrival of Ainz and WINDBINDER where abilities based on scaling, like Ainz’s passive, actually get a good increase in damage. That being said, the issue with MAGEs is that their ultimate is often the source of damage, so improving after the fact is ineffective.
Astral Tide	All allies recover energy after a unit with this blessing ults. If ult is used again within a certain amount of time, the effect is reduced. Astral Tide is an interesting ability, potentially being very strong if used well. It’s most notable use is with Mehira and Rosaline and in Portal Party teams. Whilst Rosaline is a support, the extra energy given from WINDBINDER and from Rosaline helps bridge the gap in energy generation after the first ult. In Portal Party, this ability provides a solid boost in consistency and ensures that control effects remain active.
Power Surge	When health drops below a certain point for the first time, recover energy and gain CC immunity for bit of time. Most of this ability’s use is in PvP where it can be very helpful in mirror matches or against Ezizh. However, in campaign when a MAGE drops this low, it is unlikely that they will survive. BARRICADE has also made this less relevant in campaign as high SORCERY investment facilitates strong combos with BARRICADE—more than the influence of this ability with low HP.

PvP

Rating: 7/10

SORCERY is on the rise in PvP as Oden finds his way into the Legends Championship meta teams. Ainz, of course, is ever present as is Flora, both of which make good use of the additional stats this tree provides. MAGES Occupy an all-or-nothing position outside of Ainz and Flora. Generally, if the enemy has a MAGE like Oden with no invaders or control to counter then the MAGE will dominate the fight and win single-handedly, or at least provide a lot of burst damage.

PvE

Rating: 9/10

Most SORCERY heroes provide excellent control, but without tree investment, they can struggle with damage when not sup ported by another carry at high chapters. This tree bridges the gap in damage and allows for extremely powerful combinations, like Khazard in control sets, or to help facilitate Ainz who can struggle at chapter 40+.

Cost Effectiveness

Rating: 6/10

MAGE heroes are not particularly cheap, with most of them requiring S130 and FURNITURE investment. The tree does however provide a solid RETURN ON INVESTMENT curve. As with any carry focused tree, it is dependent on individual account composition on how high to go on levels without sacrificing cost efficiency.

Meta Revelance

Rating: 10/10

As the player base continues to push towards the high-end chapters, we see that most players at the very highest level rely on MAGEs as a significant portion of their compositions. As enemies get higher signature items and levels, their defences scale far faster than player damage. Hence, control becomes the only way to deal with this issue, and MAGES are the best at it. Incredibly powerful combinations like Oden and Khazard rely upon their control and continual scaling and benefit hugely from the increased stats that allow them to decimate their foes.

Might (Warrior)

Key Heroes:

Rating: 8.0/10

Might occupies a strange position within the current meta, making this tree spotty. On the one hand, you have incredibly powerful heroes, like Queen or Izold, who rely on the additional stats from the tree to survive and exert their influence on the fight.

Their positioning makes them immensely vulnerable to burst damage, particularly at higher deficits and campaign chapters.

However, the rise of immunity-based TANKS, like Alna and Brutus, as well as the extremely powerful control sets, Like Rosaline, Mehira, and Raku, make this investment somewhat inefficient.

After all, why struggle to survive the damage when you can nullify the damage completely and invest elsewhere?

Might Build Path

• Optimal Build Levels: 9, 37, 47, 62
• Break Point Levels: 22, 37, 47, 62, 72

Level 22: The baseline for any notable function with WARRIOR carries. This will suffice prior to around CH 34 or so, but will fall off quickly. Good value provided by % stat increases, but this will not be enough into CH 35.

Level 37: This is considered the strongest RETURN ON INVESTMENT point for the MIGHT tree. It provides a great increase to the damage and debuff of the first ability, which helps significantly in Twisted Realm and boss-fight based modes. It also provides slightly more percentage stats. Most might heroes will be able to survive at CH 35 with this investment but will struggle CH 36+

Level 47: A solid point of improvement for the MIGHT tree, giving +2 LIFE LEECH, which, if invested into further, can provide a noticeable increase in bulk, particularly for Izold. This is however considered a lower RETURN ON INVESTMENT as most MIGHT heroes struggle to utilise this to its full effect without massive and specific investment.

Level 62: At this level, most might heroes will be capable of surviving the early initial period of CH 36/37. However, they will still struggle with initial burst and will continue to be reliant on control. 12,000 essence is required to gain the next breakpoint at this stage, so the RETURN ON INVESTMENT is lowering significantly.

Level 77: This is the final noticeable breakpoint outside of purely percentage stats. It represents the ceiling of MIGHT investment for most players as, by this stage, it is likely their account is built enough to facilitate more powerful options.

Stat Bonuses

Rating: 5.0/10

MIGHT gains ACCURACY and LIFE LEECH, and ACCURACY is useful in MAGEs since it can help secure kills on dangerous enemy MAGE carries. It does struggle against AGILITY based carries who often have far higher DODGE than the tree’s ACCURACY increase can make up for. LIFE LEECH, as previously mentioned, is a difficult stat to rank in terms of effectiveness. It requires both attack speed, damage and ability to attack unhindered. This may sound obvious, but this will likely not happen often without protection on the WARRIOR.

Abilities

Rating: 6/10

Solid, but unremarkable overall except for niche situations-primarily boss fights. LIFE LEECH from Blood Thirst can provide storing value if used well, but, as a whole, the abilities are difficult to utilize against significantly stronger enemies.

Ability	Description
Shattering Force	Enemies lose health recovery rate and receives more damage for a cer- tain amount of time. Requires a suc- cessful hit and cannot be stacked. This is one of the best tree abilities in the game for boss fights like Twisted Realm or Abyssal Expedition. This also hits its main power spike at level 35, which provides excellent RETURN ON INVESTMENT.
Shield of Fortitude	After enemies use their ult, unit will recieve a shield equal to a percent age of their max HP. Shield of Fortitude is a solid improvement in PvE and can provide useful bulk in stall comps and could potentially decide fights. However, it struggles significantly in campaign if the enemy team has ulted at a good deficit. This shield won’t save you.
Blood Thirst	After using their ult, unit will get increased life leech for a certain amount of time. Blood Thirst is a difficult ability to rank as it depends on the hero in question and the composition they are used in. Some heroes, like Izold, with high attack speed gain a significant amount of healing from this increase, but others, like Zolrath, do not gain as much due to their slower speed. This also is hurt by the fact that it is difficult to guarantee an ult from a melee hero as they are often burst down quickly.

PvP

Rating: 5/10

Wukong, Zolrath, Alna, Estrilda, and Saurus are the relevant heroes in PvP. You will note that their primary function is to stren gthen existing compositions than to carry the fight themselves. Their kits don’t possess enough damage to make use of the additional stats, though the extra bulk can help facilitate backline-based comps with MAGES and the like.

PvE

Rating: 8/10

MIGHT heroes are something of feast and famine in PvE. Queen, in particular, benefits significantly from the stats and additional bulk. When supported and used correctly, she forms the basis of some of the most powerful compositions in the game. Izold, too, makes excellent use of the additional stats to bridge his vulnerability period earlier in the other MIGHT heroes form more of a support role than a carry one, so often their influence can feel ineffective.

Cost Effectiveness

Strong RETURN ON INVESTMENT until CH 37, where the branch struggles unless the account is built around WARRIOR carries. Generally, investment into other trees provides more versatility and options without losing out on incredibly potent uses.

Meta Relevance

Alna, Queen, Zolrath, and Izold occupy the higher echelons of hero power in the current state of the game. Queen and Izold, in particular, make excellent use of the stats given by the tree, but Alna and Izold fulfill their function regardless of it. It is therefore a question of whether you can keep Izold and other MIGHT heroes alive without the tree bonus.

Fortitude (Tank)

Key Heroes:

Rating: 5.0/10

FORTITUDE is the worst tree in the game. It does have some relevant heroes, but these heroes are reliant on enemy scaling rather than their own stats, making arguments for a FORTITUDE carry focused accounts challenging.

The effectiveness of this tree is tied to two things in particular: 1) future releases and 2) BARRICADE.

At the time of writing (May 2021) of top-tier FORTITUDE heroes. Lilith will likely release strong FORTITUDE heroes shortly, however, at present there is a lack of focus in this area. This means that any FORTITUDE investment is risky based on the belief in the frequency of releasing these heroes.

BARRICADE is an immensely powerful artifact that can only be used by FORTITUDE heroes. It provides the basis for risky or impossible sets and is key to many concepts.

Some tree investment may be necessary to facilitate the theoretical strength of this approach.

Fortitude Build Path

• Optimal Build Levels: 9, 22, 42, 
• Break Point Levels: 22, 37, 47, 62, 72

Level 9: I recommend most people leave their FORTITUDE branch here until the end. You gain a little in stats for the cost. Do not fall into the trap of investing into pure bulk which does not scale well.

Level 22: There is still some argument to be made that this is still an efficient investment-providing good stats still an efficient in
Code TS 15 without significant cost and a slight increase in bulk for niche situations.

Level 32: This is where HASTE begins to be supplied, creating a better argument in favour of the FORTITUDE tree as additional HASTE on Daimon is a noticeable increase in both his power and consistency. That being said, it is still a steep investment for 1 point of HASTE-around a 2% performance increase.

Level 37 provides another HASTE increase, giving 1.5 HASTE for 4,000 essence, which is a much better RETURN ON INVESTMENT. This will increase both Grezhul and Daimon’s power by a decent amount. If you go past 32, this beomes the more efficient stopping point versus the lower breakpoints.

Level 47: Another HASTE breakpoint; this time costing 8,000 essence for 1.5 HASTE, which is not as strong in value, but is not bad. Again, this is a noticeable increase in Daimon and Grezhul consistency. However, for around a 5% increase, you will be required to spend a significant amount of your expenditure for a mediocre increase for heroes who are unlikely to require the assistance.

Level 62: This is the point where the % stats become more relevant theoretically. At this point you are likely progressing onto the later stages of campaign where you will notice that bulk begins to struggle more and more as you progress. This level does provide another HASTE breakpoint, but costs 12,000 essence for a small increase in performance.

Level 77 should be considered the absolute final point for most players. At this point you have probably overcommited and would be much better off investing this essence into more relevant and powerful options.

Stat Bonuses

Rating: 7.5/10

HASTE is an excellent stat however most fortitude heroes will not survive long enough for this to truly be effectual. It will, however, increase the consistency of Daimon and Grezhul in particular, and will increase their damage on boss focused modes where they are both often used. However this is curtailed by the weakness of the accuracy stat due to their low accuracy it again is of limited benefit against most agility based heroes.

Abilities

Rating: 8.5/10

The abilities are the strongest part of the FORTITUDE tree, which has the opposite problem to SORCERY, but for mostly mediocre heroes. The ability power is, however, dependent on investment and individual matchups. At low investment, neither the abilities or tree stats will provide much benefit, but will become noticeable at higher levels.

Ability	Description
Clawback	When health drops below a certain amount, recover health per second for a certain amount of time. This is a nice ability particularly in PvP where the enemy team struggles to counter the healing. The effect does struggle in PvE without the use of immunity or extreme bulk/healing since the enemy’s strength overpowers it.
Sundering Slam	When unit loses a certain amount of HP, they send out a AoE shockwave to enemies, causing them to lose a certain amount of HP based on their max and lose Haste. Slam is one of the best tree abilities in the game, providing a powerful scaling debuff and max HP-based damage. It’s not going to result in a decisive advantage itself, but it does reduce the burst potential of the enemy team and provides a good amount of damage, allowing the ability to rise in relevance as the player’s team gets tankier.
Life Flash	When an ally heals a unit with this blessing, heal additional percent based on max health. A strong ability, but isn’t enough to keep your hero alive in campaign. It is a nice ability in PvP, however, and is one of the reasons that stall can prove difficult to deal with without specific tools.

PvP

Rating: 7.0/10

Grezhul, Arthur, Albedo, Thoran, Daimon, and Skreg are the main FORTITUDE PVP heroes. They are all heroes that are present in stronger PvP teams, and the stats provided are used to great effect. The problem is that they, themselves, are not capable of winning the fight single-handedly in most cases. Their primary function is either to stall the opponent for an ally, like Flora, to ramp up or to protect. This gives them some strength, but does not make them efficient primary investments,

PvE

Rating: 4.0/10

As enemies scale higher and their burst exceeds the comparative increase in player defences, FORTITUDE rapidly decreases in relevance. Some heroes like Brutus and Grezhul maintain their uses all the way to CH 41, but neither of those heroes are reliant upon their own stats. Alna often keeps Grezhul alive and Brutus is used for immunity to give a MAGE Or CELERITY carry time to influence the fight. This makes investment in them somewhat short-sighted as they lack bulk, are very suspectible to being powercrept, and are expensive and difficult to use.

Cost Effectiveness

Rating: 6.0/10

FORTITUDE has relatively strong RETURN ON INVESTMENT early on, with good increases across the board for boss-damage comps and slight utility with certain heroes. However, it struggles as its bulk increase does not scale very well into the highest chapters. It, therefore, has a disparity in its RETURN ON INVESTMENT, which is reflected in the score.

Meta Relevance

Rating: 6.0/10

A somewhat feast-and-famine situation. Daimon, Grezhul and Brutus are all incredibly relevant, but none of the three are dependent on the FORTITUDE tree to remain effective. Useful increase in base bulk, but struggles to be enough as enemies get stronger. HASTE will benefit some of these significantly. though overall the FORTITUDE tree suffers from a poor set of heroes compared to other options.

Celerity (Ranger)

Key Heroes:

Rating: 10.0/10

Best tree in the game and the option I would suggest as the priority for nearly every player

An immensely powerful hero pool with fantastic stat boosts and abilities make this the most powerful tree in the game!

Celerity Build Path

• Optimal Build Levels: 9, 22, 42, 65
• Break Point Levels: 17, 27, 42, 65, 80

Level 17: The begining of the destruction. At this level, you possess only a fraction of the tree’s true power, but even here it boasts an excellent RETURN ON INVESTMENT, though the 3rd ability is needed to tie this all together.

Level 27 a huge and efficient breakpoint. Having just received the 3rd ability, Rapid Surge, and additional special stats, at this level you will begin to see why this tree is so ridiculous as you go higher. Keep going!

Level 42: You will start to notice that with damage-oriented sets when one enemy dies, your entire team explodes in damage and becomes very frightening. But do not stop here!

Level 65: This is CELERITY’s biggest breakpoint. At this level, the first ability of the tree gives an additional 5 HASTE and will continue to do so every 15 levels. At this point, CELERITY will really start to ramp up into obscenity with huge damage increases par for the course. The sky is limit. From this point keep going to the highest % stat point you can, or, failing that, 65, 80, 95, 110 etc.

Level 80: This is another rung on the ladder of obscenity. Your team will deal massive damage to anything that stands in their way once you reach this point. Your Lucretia, Raku, etc. will dominate the battlefield, leaving a smouldering congealed mess in their wake.

Stat Bonuses

Rating: 9.0/10

This is the only area this tree has that isn’t ridiculous. Generally, DODGE is not majorly impactful since most CELERITY heroes struggle against magical damage and control. The additional stats do not help with either, but does improve survivability going into the remainder of the game. ACCURACY, however, is a very good stat, helping offset MAGE’S DODGE increases from the SORCERY tree. The stat bonuses also has a significant amount of power with Lyca, who has the ability to turn this increase into another damage advantage.

Abilities

Some of the most powerful tree abilities in the game, as well as an immense amount of synergy and fantastic RETURN ON INVESTMENT. The first ability, for example, provides more HASTE (without any HASTE stat bonuses from leveling the CELERITY tree) than a maxed SUSTENANCE tree!

Ability	Description
Impending Danger	When HP falls below a certain point for the first time, Dodge and Haste are increased for a certain amount of time. Impending Danger is one of the best abilities in the game, providing a big increase i n damage as well as survivability. This ability also scales extremely well with major breakpoints at key stages of the tree.
Maim	When dealing damage to an enemy unit below a certain amount of HP, unit with blessing will deal additional damage to that enemy that can’t be dodged. Another ridiculously strong ability, providing a huge amount of additional burst, which combines immensely well with the remainder of the CELERITY abilities and kits of the CELERITY heroes. This ability is one of the reasons that burst remains so prominent in Legends Championship
Rapid Surge	If damage is dealt in a certain amount of time before enemy’s death, unit heals a certain percent based on their max health and receive increased Haste. This ability completes the terrific trifecta of some of the best abilities across any of the trees. This is, in my opinion, the best ability across all trees, providing an absolutely ludicrous increase in HASTE and, therefore, damage and performance. This has an immense amount of synergy with the remainder of the tree and ensures that CELERITY is easily the top choice.

PvP

Rating: 10/10

Burst remains one, if not the strongest team in Legends Championship and PvP at all levels. The massive hero pool and sheer depth of the ceiling of the bonuses that this tree provides makes it impossible to overlook. It is the obvious choice.

PvE

Rating: 10/10

Much of the heroes in this tree like Eironn, Ferael, Lucretia, Raku, Kren, and Prince of Persia represent some of the strongest heroes in the entire game, who only get better with this utterly ridiculous tree to scale them faster than any other tree can hope to imitate. CELERITY is immensely effective at all stages and impossible to overstate its importance.

Cost Effectiveness

Rating: 10/10

This tree excels here, too. While most abilities and stats don’t scale noticeably past the initial period, this tree continues to scale exponentially providing excellent value at all stages. It also has massive synergy with its own abilities. As with more investment, those abilities become even more consistent and even easier to use.

Meta Relevance

As previously mentioned, some of the heroes in this tree are amongst the very, very strongest in the game. Lucretia, Raku, and Kren are easily top 5 in their role and towards the highest of all heroes in the entire game. This provides extremely relevant boosts for a massive number of applicable, useful heroes.

Infographic

Old Elder Tree Guide by Leanker

Guide by Leanker

Early Game

When you are in chapter 12, the enemy’s power growing pretty fast as you are getting into the mid-game.

When you pass some chapters quickly, you will get stuck for a very long time as you have never been before. 

At the moment, level up all of the branches to level 5 first to get the instant ROI.

Then, level up the main branch to level 15 (and skip it later).

The stats only are totally worth it, even for Sorcery units.

The next goal is Sustenance to level 15. Both stats abilities are extremely crucial for Sustenance in the early game progression as a lot of sustenance heroes are easy to use in a lot of formations, even at low ascension level.

The next goal is getting Celerity to level 30. This is by far the best thing you can get from the Elder Tree: 110 Haste.

You of course cannot get the Celerity 30 in a short time, depending on your tree’s level cap also.

If you get capped when working on it, switch to another branch and come back to it later once you are able to. Reset the tree if needed.

Mid Game

Get Might to level 10.

While Might carries don’t get too many benefits from the tree at the moment for the campaigns, the first ability is the exception: 18% additional damage + reducing 32% recovery rate to the enemy. This is kinda 1/2 of Ferael!

A lot of players like turning their Might heroes into versatile supports. 

Sustenance lvl. 25 unlocks a superb ability, giving them 60 Energy after 15s into the battle. You want to keep using Sustenance Heroes like Tasi or Rowan in higher campaign chapters. 

Fortitude to level 15: Fortitude has some key abilities and haste reduction. This is not the top priority even if your main carry is Daimon because it is not carry oriented. However, when you can use tank heroes for support, the value of this increased by a lot. 

At last, Celerity to 50.

If your level cap is 45, just skip it and come back to work on it later! 140 Haste = Excellent value!

Late Game

This is where you can work on the tree flexibly.

You can even get Might to level 37 before anything else here.

Do with caution because even the support bonuses are totally worth it!

Even  Sorcery lvl. 15 can buff other trees to do things it cannot do here. We want to utilize its second ability on budget.

Stats start to matter here. Hate buff for Sustenance heroes is crucial for both PvE and PvP, especially for the God Comp.

At this point, you should have the access to almost all key heroes in the game, meaning you want to have all key benchmarks at this point with the exception of Fortitude, you only want to work on it at the end game because the top tankers in the game require a lot of investment that you don’t have during the early game: Mezoth, Orthos, Skreg, Albedo, Arthur, etc.

End Game

Mezoth, Orthos,… are shining here. They are no longer forbidden words.

Stats do really matter here! We want to more gain more stats! 

The Fortitude level 32 unlocks a haste point and offers a lot of abilities, letting you be ahead of campaign and PvP.

The Sorcery 25 is kinda budget but useful for heroes like Safiya, Ainz, Mehira, etc.

Sustenance to level 60+: This should be the first tree you want to get past level 50s. Getting it to level 62 gives you a significant amount of stats comparing to any other level. Excellent for both PvP God Comps in Campaigns.

Finally, getting Fortitude to level 47 should be my last recommendation for now. You get 1.5 Haste on level 37 and 47 while unlocking all level 3 abilities.   

At this point of the game, you want to reset the tree quite often for Abyssal Expedition or Legends’ Championship. For the campaign, pushing Celerity to 77 is the next goal!

The Elder Tree In-Game Description

Flawless Droplets

In order to level up the Elder Tree, players need to use Flawless Droplets.

The Flawless Droplets can be obtained when you acquire an Elite Hero for the first time. The previously acquired & ascended Heroes also count.

Similar to Resonating Crystal, the level cap is based on the number of Heroes you have in your bag.

Dura’s Virtues (Branches)

The Elder tree has 5 branches, which represent to 5 classes in AFK Arena: Tank, Warrior, Ranger, Mage & Support. They are called the “Dura’s Virtues”

Similar to Signature Items, Dura’s Virtues give all of the Heroes in each class extra stats as well as special skills.

The Dura’s Virtues feature is unlocked after campaign Chapter 12. Players also need to upgrade the Elder Tree to level 15 in order to unlock this feature.

Leveling up a virtue will increase the stats of all Heroes in that specific class. Players can level up each Dura’s Virtue branch by using the Twisted Essence.

New skills unlocked at virtue levels 5, 15, and 25.