Olden Era Blitz Guide — Towns or Banks, and the Hell Light Arena

Blitz is the Single Hero template with a choice in it. The others tell you where the army comes from — Exodus from towns, Sprint from boxes, Vendetta from the desert's treasure — and Blitz lets you pick. It was the fourth most-played Single Hero template in the season's first weeks, about one game in fifteen; the Single Hero map meta has today's share.

"Venture into untamed lands brimming with riches — claim your rewards and face your opponent at the end of the journey!"

This guide covers the template as the game ships it in build 26428102 (4 November 2026: the 0.82.06 update of 29 October, which grew every creature bank's guard and re-priced every town's dwellings, and the two hotfixes after it, which doubled the starting growth of Blitz's faction dwellings and raised five banks' guards a little further). The facts and text are the game's; the plan leans on the template's own description, this site's battle-site data, and the Single Hero principles strong players use on Exodus; the sources are listed at the end.

The template in the game's words

The detailed description: "A complex template designed for varied playstyles. Depending on your strategy, you can focus on city development and capturing creature dwellings, or bolster your army by fighting for 'creature banks' — special map objects that grant units upon defeating their guards. You can challenge your opponent to a final battle by using the 'Hell Light Arena', or hunt them down on the map to catch them off guard."

Note the tag the game gives it that no other ranked Single Hero template carries: Poor Economy. Blitz does not pay for both plans at once. You develop the town, or you fight the banks, and the choice is made by what your starting area has.

Two ways to build the army

The town plan. Build your faction's dwellings in the order its first-week guide gives, capture the creature dwellings in your area for their weekly growth, recruit on Day 8 and Day 15. The hotfixes favour this plan: since 0.82.07 every faction creature dwelling on Blitz starts with double growth, and since 0.82.08 the two guaranteed outer creature dwellings in your starting area sit near the road. This is Exodus without the second town and without the free Town Portal, on a poorer map: slower, steadier, and the army is your faction's own, with its laws and its upgrades working.

The bank plan. The banks are listed on the battle sites pages, each with every roll's guard, power and reward, and the 0.82.06 update made every one that pays in units dearer, five of them a little more again in the 0.82.07 hotfix. Those are the bank-plan army: the Ritual Pyre (four stacks of 6, 11, 15 or 18 Herbomancers for 1 to 4 Phoenixes), the Colosseum (five stacks of 11, 19, 26 or 31 Griffins for 4, 8, 12 or 16 Cavalry), the Petrified Memorial (four stacks of 7, 13, 18 or 22 Minotaurs for 6 to 24 Medusae), the Point of Balance (four stacks of 6, 11, 15 or 18 Worldwatchers for 1 to 4 Sentinels of Glory), the Carrion Pile (five stacks of 34, 54, 70 or 82 Locusts for 3, 6, 9 or 12 Waurmos), the Tomb of Vigilance (six stacks of 20, 35, 47 or 56 Undead Pets for 4 to 16 Dread Knights), Boreal Call (five stacks of 15, 26, 35 or 42 Aga’Shoth Riders for 1 to 4 Abyssal Envoys) and the Underground Labyrinth, whose Basilisks respawn weekly. On each of the seven big ones the two weakest rolls now hold no upgraded stacks; the upgrades start at the third roll. The ones that pay in gold (the Dragon Utopia, Research Laboratory, Troglodyte Throne, Overgrown Vori Ruins) are what buys the town plan's dwellings if you change your mind. Faster, riskier, and the army is mixed: a hero or a law that handles Morale across factions — Necropolis's Death Equalizes All, the all-creature hero specialisations — matters more here than on any other template. Two laws that used to help no longer do: since 0.82.06 Hive's Hive Integration and Hive Reception buff "Friendly Hive creatures" only, and Grove's Veiled by the Trees works only in an area you control, which the final battle rarely is.

The choice is made on Day 1 by the map. A starting area with two dwellings and a Crystal cave is a town plan; one with a Tomb of Vigilance and a Dragon Utopia behind size‑1 guards is a bank plan. A current-patch note applies to both: the bank guards grew in 0.82.06 and again in the 0.82.07 hotfix — the Tomb of Vigilance's smallest roll went from 14 Undead Pets a stack to 19 and then 20, the Carrion Pile's from 19 Locusts to 30 and then 34 — so clear the resource guards and easy camps first and read the bank's roll before you commit; the Companion shows it in-game.

The Hell Light Arena

Blitz has no scheduled duel and no city to hold. The game ends in a final battle, and either player can bring it on in two ways: "challenge your opponent to a final battle by using the 'Hell Light Arena', or hunt them down on the map to catch them off guard."

The Arena is a map object. On Blitz's sibling Helltide, whose description states the timing, "the battle will begin on the 3rd day after a challenge is issued. If no challenge is issued by day 30, one will be declared automatically" — Blitz's own text names no timing, so take the Helltide rule as the model, not the guarantee. The challenge is the template's real decision: issue it when your army is ahead and before the opponent's weekly growth catches up, and expect the opponent to issue it the week they believe the same. The hunt is the alternative for the player with the movement — Shadowflight, a tier‑2 spell since 0.82.06, and Dimension Door, bought with Astrology — who would rather pick the day than announce it.

A plan

Week 1. Decide, and do not hedge. Town plan: dwellings, the town hall upgrades, the dwellings in your area flagged early in the week so their growth accumulates. Bank plan: the size‑1 and size‑2 banks the starting army can take without losing a stack — and those are the rolls with no upgraded stacks in them now — resource guards for the gold the Marketplace turns into what you lack, and the hero's level — Single Hero's experience-before-gold rule applies through level 6, and since 0.82.06 Blitz's level-ups no longer offer Siegecraft. In either plan, Second Wind is the first Astrology purchase, and the main stack is never traded.

Week 2. Recruit on Day 8, or fight the size‑3 banks with the week‑1 army. Scout toward the opponent: the lattice has more than one path, and the one they are clearing tells you which plan they chose. A town-plan opponent is weakest in week 2, before the second recruit; a bank-plan opponent is weakest right after a bank that cost them a stack.

The challenge. Count both armies honestly. If yours is ahead now and theirs grows faster — a town plan against your bank plan — challenge now. If yours grows faster, decline to be hunted: stay near the town, Town Portal if you have it, and let Day 15's recruits arrive. If the Helltide timing holds on Blitz too, a challenge issued is three days to prepare, and three days of weekly growth can be the fight.

Factions on Blitz

A Poor Economy template rewards factions whose first week is cheap and whose power does not depend on the tier‑7 dwelling. The 0.82.06 update re-priced every dwelling, and the two cheapest towns are still Dungeon and Grove: the first-week routes in their guides cost 20,500 and 14,750 gold, and their six dwellings below tier 7 add up to 14,750 and 18,000 gold, against 18,750 for Schism and 21,000 or more for the rest; Necropolis's Skeletons cost 35 gold. The bank plan rewards heroes who clear from day one — Kel'Ghul's three Dread Knights, Typhona's two Hydras, Zoran's two Waurms, The Eye Collective's Grand Shoths — and Necropolis's Undead Transformer, which turns a mixed bank army into one faction. Which factions actually win on Blitz this week is on the Single Hero faction stats, filtered to Blitz.

Common mistakes

1. Hedging between the plans. A Poor Economy map does not pay for half a town and half a bank chain.
2. Fighting a bank for its reward without reading its guard. The roll pages exist; the Companion shows them in-game.
3. Issuing the challenge because you are ahead on the map. You are ahead when your army beats theirs in three days, not when you have more objects.
4. Declining the challenge decision altogether. Day 30 arrives on Helltide, and the opponent's hunt arrives earlier on Blitz.
5. A bank army with no answer to Morale. Phoenixes, Dread Knights and Cavalry in one army fight worse than their numbers unless the hero or the laws fix it.
6. Trading the main stack for a bank. Single Hero has no recovery, and the final battle is the only one that counts.

Where this comes from

The template's facts and text are from the game files for build 26428102 (4 November 2026, the 0.82.08 hotfix), as published on the Blitz template page and the battle sites pages, which also give the bank guards and rewards and the dwelling prices; the Arena timing is Helltide's, from the Helltide template page. The Single Hero principles are the ones in the Exodus guide; the bank-guard, law and level-up changes are from Unfrozen's 0.82.06 patch notes, and the dwelling and bank-guard changes since from the 0.82.07 and 0.82.08 notes. Live share, faction records and game length: Single Hero meta · Single Hero factions · Single Hero duration.

Related: Every ranked template explained · Exodus guide · Vendetta guide · Sprint guide