Raid: Shadow Legends is a turn-based fantasy gacha RPG in which you assemble a team of powerful Champions to defeat the Dark Lord Siroth and his marauding forces. The game sets itself apart from other titles through strategic combat, really rather lovely visuals, and the sheer variety of heroes on offer.
This epic struggle is free-to-play on both mobile and via Plarium’s launcher on PC, and there has never been a better time to get involved. That, of course, means that you can try it out right now without spending a penny.
The game’s turn-based combat will be familiar to fans of big RPG series such as Divinity: Original Sin, but it offers its own spin on proceedings through its Skills, Artifacts, and Masteries systems. You can equip each of your heroic Champions with up to six artifacts, all of which confer a variety of effects on their performance during battles. These Artifacts can drastically alter the optimal playstyle of each hero and will result in a different experience for every player.
So, what can you expect after signing up? Raid: Shadow Legends is chock-full of content for you to get stuck into. Most notably, the game includes over 300 characters to collect, each with their own unique abilities and stats. Genre stalwarts and new players will both enjoy meticulously managing their team, and ensuring they can make the most out of their heroes’ skills – and that’s even before you start experimenting with Artifacts. There are over 10,000 possible builds per Champion, though we don’t recommend attempting to try them all yourself…
The art team working on the game also deserve special recognition here, as both the characters and the environments are gorgeous. Whether it’s raindrops splashing on stone floors, torn flags waving in the wind, or the intricate costume and weapon designs, Raid is remarkably pleasing to the eye.
The enemy design is also detailed and varied, but it’s the bosses which really stand out. Throughout your adventure, you’ll face a number of these fearsome foes, and it’s during these encounters that you’ll have to make full use of your team management skills to ensure you can whittle down those huge, screen-wide health bars and emerge victorious. You’ll actually get a taste of this within the game’s opening minutes, when a dragon ambushes your team and puts an abrupt end to an otherwise painless tutorial. Don’t be too disheartened when it destroys your whole team in one hit, though – you’ll get another shot later, fear not.
Raid isn’t just a single-player experience, however. The game also offers tense PvP matches in which you can pit your assembled Champions against another player’s AI-controlled squad and see who comes out intact. This mode also yields plenty of high-quality rewards, so it’s worth focusing on once your team’s up to scratch. Raid’s devs have also recently announced a tournament that will feature eight streamers facing off against each other – it may well yield some worthwhile strategic tips (along with a chilli-centric forfeit or two).
If you’d rather work with fellow Raiders than send them away with their tails between their legs, you can team up instead and take on cooperative clan-specific challenges. You’ll be up against tough opponents in clan events and boss battles, but the rewards are worth it.
Raid: Shadow Legends’ modern take on the turn-based fantasy genre is well worth a look, and RPG players of all levels are sure to find something that piques their interest. Check out the guide on our sister site, Pocket Tactics for all the latest Raid promo codes that are still available.