If you are finding it hard to choose the best hero to buy in the Challenger Store, this guide is for you!
First of all, never buy the 
normal faction heroes in the Challenger Store as they are very easy to obtain as you play the game and you will eventually get them all. The worst cost to get a normal faction hero is 9,000 
Diamonds while the average cost to get a 
Celestial/
Hypogean hero from Stargazing is 20,000 Diamonds.
Emblem Chests are not worth it as they are very expensive here.
So, it’s best to get 
CHAD heroes in the Challenger Store.
Challenger Store Heroes
Merlin is definitely the best choice here and you should just get him right away whenever t’s available. He is just too powerful for the price.
The amount of resources required to unlock the ascended Merlin is just about 1/3 of getting an Ascended Celestial/Hypogean hero here.
Athalia is not a great option right now as her damage output is just not enough for high deficits.
She was super great but not anymore. Her true use right now is to counter Nara! Getting her alive after diving is kinda hard. She is pretty flexible and can be used in almost all team comps besides Lucretia Cheese, however, she is not a great choice for those teams.
She also requires high investment: +30 and 3/9 to really shine.
Ezizh was always the best choice in the Challenger Store because of his passive Energy regen and his role in the Energy Cycle teams a.k.a godcomps.
He is a great energy provider while also disrupting the enemies.
He doesn’t require a lot of investment, usually, +20 3/9 is great enough.
He is very useful at attacking bosses like Twisted Realm. In the late game, he is mostly used in Cycle teams and Thoran Cheeses in favor of the new Mehira-based teams.
Zoralth is the new core hero of the dominating Merhira-based cycle team.
The most popular setup right now is 
, allowing Merhira to use her Ultimate almost instantly by whipping Zorath while he making the enemies entering the battle slower with his 3/3 furniture ability. This team works well from mid-game to end-game. Zolrath is really a high-burst hero with very high survability. He has decent damage as well. The main thing is he requires high investment, at least +30 3/9.
All of the previous Celestials/Hypogeans heroes are very powerful in PvP and it remains true for the next two ones.
Orthos was the core hero of many PvE and PvP teams but not very useful right now.
He is a high CC based tanker that requires time to become tanky.
Although he still has one of the best Signature Items in the entire game, however, it is still pretty weak when tied to a very squishy melee hero!
In Campaigns, his main use is to pair with Lucretia teams to activate his time bombs while slowing down the enemies with the Signature Item.
Fact: If you place Orthos +30 in front to protect your Safiya from the enemy Athalia, Athalia will get slowed down a lot and Safiya will have enough time to use her Ultimate.
Usually, you will want to have your Orthos at +30 3/9 for using him outside of Lucretia teams.
Flora is an “okay” hero for campaigns as she works great in the Thoran Cheese comp. Flora does not work well in other teams.
Do note that if you upgrade her Signature Item and Furniture, it reduces the damage your Thoran takes. If you are having trouble getting the Thoran ultimate, you can just invest in Flora!
You should get her to at least +20 3/9 for PvP but if you use her on PvE only, just save your resources.
Challenger Store Priority
PvE
Merlin โ Zolrath โ Ezizh โ Orthos โ Athalia โ Flora
For PvE, Flora is the worst choice as she is one of the weakest and you also can obtain her from many events. Athalia is the second-worst choice. Orthos follows as he is only useful in Lucretia team comps.
Ezizh is a very solid hero but mostly used in Cycle teams that require Twins, who is not at the top priority of stargazing right now.
Zorath is currently working great with lower-priority heroes like Mehira or Khazard.
Thus, I believe that Zolrath is the best hero to buy in the Challenger Store right now. However, Ezizh is still very powerful and if you are already working on him, it’s best to get him to Ascended before switching to Zolrath!
PvP
Merlin โ Zolrath โ Athalia โ Ezizh โ Flora โ Orthos
Guide by AFKArty
More: AFK Arena Stores
