AFK Journey Honor Duel guide

Honor Duel is a fun AFK Journey game mode because all players start on the same level, regardless of their game progression, hero roster, or the money they put into the game. In this guide, we’ll teach you how to dominate Honor Duel.

What is Honor Duel and how it works

Honor Duel is a PvP mode in AFK Journey. It involves drafting heroes for one-on-one battles, aiming for nine wins with up to two losses. Losing three times ends your run while winning nine brings more rewards and Honor Points. In this mode, your hero roster doesn’t matter since you assemble a new team in each run using Honor Badges. Hypogean and Celestial Heroes are not available.

1) Combo selection phase

In AFK Journey’s Honor Duel, you start with a combo of one Artifact, three heroes, and Honor Badges. These sets are inherently synergistic. Focus primarily on the Artifact you choose as it will shape your preferred playstyle for the run.

Some Artifacts offer significant stat boosts beneficial across various team setups. Proud Graves, for instance, increases the Attack Speed of your rearmost hero throughout the battle, making it viable for pretty much any composition. Conversely, Oracle Sculpture demands a specific strategy centered around Lyca. This means Choosing Oracle Sculpture forces you to use her, severely limiting your strategic options. As a general guideline, pick Artifacts that have minimal or no limitations, like Faction buffs. This approach keeps some flexibility in your team-building strategy.

2) Store Phase

After selecting your initial Honor Duel combo and after every battle, you’ll be in the Store Phase, which is where you’ll spend Honor Badges. The Store offers change and improvements every round, but you can lock individual items to buy them later. In the Duel Store, you can:

• Buy individual heroes for 15 Honor Badges each. Duplicates fill one bar of that hero’s ascension meter. All heroes start in Epic Tier.
  • Own three copies of a hero to make them Legendary tier and seven to make them Mythic tier and unlock their EX Weapon skill.
• Buy two copies of a hero for 30 Honor Badges each. If you don’t own the hero, it will be added to your roster with one Ascension bar filled.
• Buy hero Faction sets for 33 Honor Badges per bundle. They include random heroes from that specific faction and may contain multiple copies of the same hero.
• Buy random hero sets for 18 Honor Badges each. They contain three heroes from any faction, excluding Hypogean and Celestial, and may include multiple copies of the same hero.
• Buy equipment, with costs varying by rarity.
• Reroll the store for three Honor Badges per change, with unlimited rerolls as long as you have Honor Badges.
• Lock an item by touching the padlock icon. Locked items remain unchanged when you reroll or when the store refreshes after a battle.
• Equip items on heroes, with one piece of Equipment per hero.
• Sell heroes on your roster for Honor Badges.

The best strategy during the Store phase is to first purchase heroes that synergize with your Artifact and team composition, using rerolls to find them if necessary. For instance, if you picked the Graveborn Artifact Obsidian Earring, prioritize heroes like Cecia, Thoran, Igor, and Niru to maximize the Artifact’s true damage bonus.

Your second priority should be to ascend your heroes by purchasing duplicates of them. Don’t settle for Legendary—advancing to Mythic is significantly better despite the delayed returns. Only reroll aggressively for duplicates if you’re consistently losing, have Honor Badges to spare, or are aiming to secure your ninth win.

Your third priority should be to get equipment. Ideally, every hero on your roster should be equipped with some kind of item by round five or six. Finally, you can save Honor Badges for the next free shop refresh if none of the options are attractive.

3) Battle Phase

In the Battle Phase of Honor Duel, you’re facing your opponent in real-time. The battle starts with each side positioning three heroes on the field in secret, followed by the reveal of the partial formation to both players. Then, both players can position their last two heroes on the board, once again in secret to have them revealed later.

The best strategy during the Battle Phase is to save the positioning of your strongest characters for the second formation step to deny your opponent the chance to adapt and counter them. I usually start by placing my tank, my secondary damage dealer, and a utility character.

You should also adapt your composition and formation to what your opponent did on their first move, if their strategy is clear. If they have Vala, for example, you’re essentially forced to place a tanky character in the backline to attract her attacks.

Once both players finish their two formation steps, the battle starts and plays out automatically. A player wins if their characters defeat all opposing heroes. Any matches that run out of time are considered a draw, which doesn’t count as a win or as a loss. You also earn Honor Badges after every battle, and then the Store phase starts again.

Best characters in AFK Journey’s Honor Duel

The best heroes to use in AFK Journey’s Honor Duel are the ones that synergize with your Artifact and that you’re offered multiple copies of in the Store phase. While using a character tier list can guide you regarding which ones should be the best to focus on, even the strongest ones will struggle against an opponent at the Mythic tier. So pay attention to your Store offers, be flexible with your hero roster, and use the characters with the highest tiers you have.

In addition, some heroes in Honor Duel have modified stats compared to their standard versions, which is why following a standard tier list won’t work well for this game mode. These changes are: