Kingshot Howard

Full background story

Howard served in the Sixth Imperial Cavalry, a distinguished guardsman who had long since made peace with the idea that his life belonged to His Holy Emperor whenever it was needed. His finest hour came during the defense of the Imperial Palace against General Cesares, when he was handed the southern wall, a stretch of the perimeter everyone privately agreed could not be held. His men held it anyway. That was the problem. Every other unit on the wall that day broke, and the Imperial bureaucracy has never forgiven anyone for making it look bad by comparison. Howard found himself stripped of his rank before he understood what he had done wrong, and when that somehow still wasn't punishment enough, an imperial warrant for his arrest followed soon after.

Imperial prisons are exactly as filthy and miserable as their reputation promises. Howard's one piece of good fortune was landing near a chef named Gordon, who took it upon himself to look after him as well as a man in that place could. Everything that happened afterward could only have worked with someone on the inside. "Don't eat tonight's cookies," Gordon told him one evening, breezing past the cell like the words meant nothing at all. The rest of the block, delighted at the extra rations, ate every cookie they were handed. Then came the thumping, a string of heavy impacts somewhere below the floor, and Howard's last clear thought before the dark took him was that he really should have taken Gordon's advice and skipped his own cookie too.

He woke up rolled tight inside a coarse rug, with Gordon crouched beside him grumbling about "all of that darned sleep-talking" Howard had apparently done along the way. Whatever Howard mumbled in his sleep, it was enough to make Gordon repeat lines like "You don't like my pizza?!" and "It's not stealing if it's in the recipe, is it?!" back at him with open disgust. Gordon kept walking, and somewhere in the middle of it Howard noticed the air had changed. It smelled like freedom.

That was how Howard became chief sentry of the village that had, however roundabout the method, saved his life. His years in the army made him the obvious choice for the post, but it became far more than a job he was qualified for, it became one he cared about with everything he had. The first real test came fast, a surprise Rebel attack that caught the village short on decent weapons and forced Howard's men back into the old town fort, a structure that was itself barely standing. It was Chenko, the village's self-styled "great inventor," who tore a door clean off its hinges and started hammering it into a shield on the spot. From that day on, Howard was known through the village as the guardian who fought behind a plank for a shield, and its most loyal defender.

Skills

Conquest skills fire in the Arena. Expedition skills fire on rallies and the world map. A hero who carries one can be dead weight in the other.

Conquest

Shielded Strike

Hits an enemy with his heavy shield, knocking the target back and dealing Attack×200-280% AoE damage.

Joint Defense

Leads the effort to fortify defenses, increasing Defense by 5-15% for all heroes.

Shield Block

Trades in his shield for an upgraded model, reducing his own damage taken by 10-30%.

Expedition

Defenders' Edge

Guards the troops with his shield, reducing damage taken by 4-20% for all troops.

Weaken

His intimidating presence reduces total Enemy Squads' Attack by 4-20%.

Best pairings

• Lore-confirmed friendship with Gordon, the prison chef who broke him out of imperial custody.
• Grouped with Gordon and Quinn as Gen 1's damage-reduction joiner class.
• Matches this site's own arena guide, where he's the frontline shield in both F2P and paid Gen 1 teams via Shield Block.
• Stays the main F2P infantry rally hero until eventually superseded by Zoe in Generation 2.

• Zoe

Other heroes still being chronicled

• Amane
• Diana
• Edwin
• Fahd
• Forrest
• Gordon
• Quinn
• Seth
• Yeonwoo

Frequently asked questions