Active party and account unlocks

The core party begins with 1 active hero slot and supports up to 4 active heroes. Codex hero-slot effects increase the unlocked count; the effective count is limited by the configured maximum. Recruiting checks that an active slot is free. Unlocking a paid class and unlocking another party slot are separate requirements.

Start with the role and equipment of each class, then decide which skills complement the rest of the party. The class’s armor weight, native weapon and offhand differ. One party slot is one active hero; it is not one class unlock or one skill slot. See Crystal Shop heroes for permanent class entitlements and Codex for party capacity.

Send a hero to the bench

The bench stores a hero object outside the active party. The reviewed bench action removes the selected hero from the active list and appends that hero to the bench. It refuses to remove the last active hero: at least one must remain. Invalid indices leave the party unchanged.

Recruiting a base class first checks the bench for that base class. If several bench heroes match, the reviewed helper takes the highest-level matching hero. Only when no matching hero exists does it create a new recruit. The class-swap routine follows the same reuse rule, moving the outgoing hero to the bench and replacing the selected active slot. It rejects a non-base-class identity as the recruit/swap target.

Because the bench stores the existing hero record, benching is different from deleting or recreating a hero. Recruitment and swapping do not promise to reset or freely transfer equipment between unrelated heroes. Review the returned hero’s gear, skills and passive allocation after changing the party.

New recruits and catch-up

In the current shipped settings, matched-level recruitment is disabled. With the native default disabled, a genuinely new recruit starts at level 1, with zero XP, empty equipment and the catching-up flag set. A configured matched-recruitment option can instead start relative to the lowest active hero; that option is separate from ordinary bench reuse.

The XP catch-up rule can boost a lower active hero until its reference target is reached. It uses the party’s level spread and catching-up state; it is not a permanent XP bonus for every member. XP awards go through each active hero’s own level and cap checks. A benched hero is not in the active hero list passed to that award routine. Read Leveling and progression for the budgets and XP curve.

Learned skills and active skill slots

The core account begins with 1 active skill slot per hero; Codex skill-slot effects expand that count toward the native maximum of 3. Active slots are separate from learned ranks. A high-level hero may have many invested ranks while still being limited in which skills can run in combat.

Use the skill catalog to compare effect, cooldown, targets and stat scaling. A rank investment consumes the hero’s skill budget; equipping that learned skill also requires an active slot. Allocating passives changes a third, independent budget. The Share builds planner can help inspect allocations and party composition, but saved previews do not themselves equip anything in the game.

Formation and combat context

Check the game’s party/formation controls when assigning heroes, active skills and presets. Do not infer a final damage bonus from a portrait’s position alone. PvE targeting uses the current combat rules, while Arena has its own PvP formation and combat context. Class swaps, bench actions and skill changes should be evaluated with the resulting equipment, skill ranks and active selection together.

These rules come from the installed QuestAway 0.8.1 client, revision 6d1e887bd1c0, with shipped settings applied. Runtime balance and server-controlled availability can differ.

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