Troops in Gems of War come in six Base Rarities: Common, Rare, Ultra-Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic. Despite the names, ‘Rare’ and ‘Ultra-Rare’ are pretty common, even at lower level play. There are also Immortal and Boss level troops. Immortals are mainly used in PvP, Bosses on the AI team in events; I won’t be discussing either of those here.
Mythic Troops are by far the rarest and – usually – the most powerful. As a new player, you’ll probably go a long time before you get even your first Mythic.
Troop Rarity is shown on cards by coloured stars.
Differences Between Rarities
What difference does the Rarity of a Troop make? Lots! Higher rarities have a higher Troop level cap (20 for Mythics). They usually have significantly more powerful Spells and Traits – though these are also more expensive in terms of Mana and Traitstone cost respectively. And when it comes to Mana, higher rarity troops usually have more colours they can use.
Troops can be Ascended to the next rarity level. This is done by collecting extra copies or using the relevant Orb. Note that once you Ascend a Troop, the new effective rarity applies to all copies of the Troop you have, now and in the future.
The number of copies of a Troop needed to Ascend to the next Rarity depends both on its current Rarity and its Base Rarity. For example, Ascending a Base Rarity Legendary troop to Mythic takes five extra copies; Ascending a Base Rarity Common Troop from Legendary to Mythic takes a massive 100 copies – and that’s not including the copies it took to get it to Legendary in the first place! Those numbers reflects the fact that lower Base Rarity Troops are much easier to come by. To be honest, Ascending a Common Troop all the way to Mythic is rarely useful. But if you’ve got the extra copies, why not?
Note that Ascending a Troop increases its maximum level cap and hence its potential Skills, but does not change its Spell, Traits or Mana Colours.
The table below summarises these points:
| Rarity | Stars | Max Level | Mana Colours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common |  |
15 | 1 |
| Rare |  |
16 | 2 |
| Ultra-Rare |  |
17 | 2 |
| Epic |  |
18 | 2 |
| Legendary |  |
19 | 2 |
| Mythic |  |
20 | Usually 3 |
Ascended Troops show both their original and new Rarity through their stars. For example, the star symbol below is a Rare Troop that has been Ascended three times to reach Legendary:
Once you have a Troop at Mythic rarity and Level 20, you can power it up further with Elite Levels.