Sooner or later the Hall of Fame asks for a level-90 captain you have barely touched. The fastest way to level up captains in Total Battle is to spend XP you already own: claim completed achievements with only your hero and the target captain active, so the XP splits two ways, not across a full line-up. Add Arachne Swarm marches and the Ragnarok shop's 16 × 400 million XP, and a level-1 legendary reaches the 80s.
Why do you need a level-90 captain?
Because the Hall of Fame gates progress behind one. At a certain level of the Courage House, the next faction level requires a legendary or mythic captain at level 90 — and as of September 2025 only two legendary captains count there, Alexander and Wu Zetian (Hercules is the mythic option). If you have been leveling only your fighting and utility captains, you hit that wall with an Alexander sitting at level 1.
Captain level pays off elsewhere too. Leadership, authority and dominance grow with level — the new player guide explains how those three scores cap every march — and in CP runs, Dustan's conquest-point bonus scales with his level and star level. Which captains deserve the investment is a separate question; the hidden-mechanics guide covers the ones most players level by mistake.
Which XP sources level up captains fastest?
Three places, and most players only use the first one.
| XP source | How it works |
|---|---|
| Arachne Swarm tournament | Put the low-level captain on a group march with a high-level captain and attack the swarm; the group march shares a lot of XP |
| Ragnarok shop (Jörmungandr section) | Buy XP with your Ragnarok points — 16 purchases of 400 million XP each |
| Achievements | Claiming a completed achievement pays XP straight to whatever hero and captains are active at that moment |
The achievements route is the one nobody plans around. A big push on building upgrades or research leaves a row of achievements ticked "completed" and waiting to be claimed — and that XP is yours to aim. It is how a level-1 Alexander reached 83, and how Helen was taken to 104, without burning the Ragnarok shop's XP. And if a Ragnarok is coming up, the same event can pay for a guardsman tier as well — the Ragnarok upgrade trick banks Fenrir points at your old tier's rates and cashes them into the next unlock.
How do you double the XP a captain gets from achievements?
By claiming with as few recipients as possible. Achievement XP is split fairly between every active hero and captain, so an XP payout of 400 million spread over a full line-up gives the captain you care about a fraction of it.
- Do your building and research push first, and leave the completed achievements unclaimed.
- Set the captain you want to level as active — Alexander, for the Courage House — and remove the other captains, so only your hero and that one captain are active.
- Open achievements and claim. The XP is now shared between the hero and your target captain, who gets twice as much as with the other captains still in the line-up.
Your hero still takes half, which is fine — hero level is never wasted. You can repeat this every time a batch of achievements completes.
When should you use the summoning circle?
Only when the summon mastery tournament features a captain you still need fragments for. Save every elite and common summon you get, and when the featured captain is one you need many fragments for, spend them as ×10 summons in one go so you climb the mastery levels — reaching the final level pays out the fragments. If you need 100 more fragments for Farhad, the day Farhad shows up in summon mastery is the day to run several ×10 elite summons; when it shows a captain you have no use for, leave the circle alone.
Two limits to know before you plan around it:
- The summoning circle only grants fragments for legendary, epic and rare captains.
- It never gives mythic captains — no Hercules, Beowulf or Skadi. Those come from elsewhere (below).
How do you get Hercules, Beowulf and Skadi?
Beowulf and Skadi are tied to the seasonal kingdom; Hercules is purchase-only, through the sales section at the top of the Triumphal Challenge. As of September 2025 the Hercules pack sits at the end of a chain where each offer requires buying the previous one:
| Step | Offer | Price (GBP) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First pack | £44.99 |
| 2 | Next pack | Free once step 1 is bought |
| 3 | Third pack | £89.99 |
| 4 | Next pack | Free once step 3 is bought |
| 5 | Mythic Hercules pack — 50 Hercules fragments, unlocks him permanently | £89.99 |
Five packs, quoted at about £250 for the whole chain. The paid packs also carry resources — mortar, guardsman experience marks and troop revives — so the money is not fragments alone. Players who have him say the price is worth it because a mythic levels up far faster than epic captains. The Golden Pass half of the Triumphal Challenge is the affordable part; the Hercules chain is a separate, much bigger decision.
Start with the XP you already own
Before you touch the Ragnarok shop, open your achievements, set one captain active beside your hero, and claim. Then bank your summons until summon mastery shows a captain you need, and only then decide whether Hercules at roughly £250 is the shortcut your Courage House progress actually needs.