RAID: Shadow Legends beginner guide: who to build first

The most common early mistake in RAID is spreading resources thin. Food, gear and books spread across ten half-built champions leave you with ten weak champions. This guide is the short version of what to do instead in your first few weeks, and the build plan applies it to the champions you actually own.

Your first weeks, in order

1. 1.Follow the Arbiter missions

   The mission list is the game's own tutorial, and it pays well: energy, skill books, gems and gear along the way, and a strong champion at the end. When you are not sure what to do next, do the next mission.

2. 2.Pick five champions and level them to 60 first

   Choose a core of five that covers each other: damage for campaign, someone who keeps the team alive, and the debuffs bosses need, most importantly Decrease DEF. Put every bit of experience, food and your best gear into those five before anyone else.

   Picking them is exactly what the build plan does. Add the champions you own and it orders them, explains each pick, and says what your team still lacks.

3. 3.Farm campaign with two carries and food

   Once one or two champions can clear a late Brutal campaign stage on their own, run it with just them and fill the other slots with low-rank champions you are leveling as food. Ranking a champion up from N★ to N+1★ takes N other champions of the same rank, so the food pipeline is most of your energy early on.

4. 4.Ascend your core

   Ascension raises stats and, for many champions, unlocks a new passive or upgrades a skill. Each champion's page on RSLChamps shows exactly what its ascension levels add, so you know which ones are worth the potions first.

5. 5.Clan Boss every day, Minotaur for masteries

   Use your Clan Boss keys every day; the chest rewards scale with the damage you deal and are a big part of your gear and book income. Minotaur's Labyrinth drops the scrolls that buy masteries. The damage masteries (Warmaster or Giant Slayer) are what most Clan Boss teams chase first.

6. 6.Hold off on spending until you know the systems

   Nothing in the first weeks is urgent enough to pay for. Learn which game modes you enjoy, then decide what, if anything, is worth buying.

Gear basics

• Speed first. Turn Meter fills in proportion to SPD: a champion with 200 SPD takes twice as many turns as one with 100. Boots are the only slot with a SPD main stat, so speed boots go on almost everyone. Early on, gear with no SPD substat is rarely worth upgrading.
• Match chest and gloves to the champion's scaling stat. Weapon (ATK), helmet (HP) and shield (DEF) have fixed main stats. Chest and gloves are your choice. A champion whose damage comes from ATK wants ATK%; one whose skills scale from DEF or HP wants that stat instead. Every champion page shows which stat that is, taken from the champion's skills.
• Crit rate caps at 100%. Champions start at 15% C. RATE and anything above 100% is wasted. Critical hits deal 100% + C. DMG, so 150% C. DMG means a crit hits for 250%.
• Debuffers need Accuracy. Whether a debuff lands depends on the attacker's ACC against the target's RES. A champion whose job is Decrease DEF or Weaken is only useful if its debuffs land.

Where skill books go

Books are scarce. The best use is a book that removes a turn of cooldown from a key skill. Those make a champion use its best skill more often, which matters far more than a few percent of damage. Each champion page lists every book level per skill and says which skills to book first.

Strong early-game champions

Ranked by their weighted scores for Campaign, Clan Boss and the early dungeons, the same score the build plan uses. Rares are the ones you are most likely to own.

Rare

• ApothecaryATK4.2
• Kael4.1
• Pain KeeperATK4.0
• AthelATK3.9
• BellowerATK3.9
• ColdheartATK3.8
• MarkedATK3.8
• DaggerATK3.7

Epic

• Deacon ArmstrongATK4.9
• Dark KaelATK4.7
• Ursala the MournerATK4.5
• DemythaATK4.5
• SkullcrusherDEF4.4
• Dhukk the PiercedDEF4.4
• Toragi the FrogHP4.4
• PeydmaDEF+ATK4.3

Champion scores are aggregated from Ayumilove and HellHades, last refreshed October 2026. RSLChamps is an independent fan tool and is not affiliated with Plarium.