It has been 3 months since the global servers of Returners began service, and following the 7-Star heroes, a new 7-Star gear update is about to be added as well.

Returners KR launched 2 years ago and already has 7-Star gear and new heroes, Thor, Napoleon, and Genghis Khan added. We thought that it was very likely that a player who has been playing on KR server for a long time would be able to provide some info about the future updates that are to come to the global servers and give advice regarding them. We were able to find one particular Korean player, ‘Kaggung’, who has been active in the official Korean Returners forum and has also been helping both newbies and veterans, posting his own tips and answering questions about Returners.

We had the chance to interview Kaggung and ask him about the popular KR meta and ways to counter it, how the 7-Star gear will change the game as well as the new heroes that are set to arrive in the global servers.

※ The set/gear and skill names are temporary translations and may differ from the official terms when added to the global servers.

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Hello! Could you please introduce yourself?

Hello, I am the breadwinner of a South Korean family, in my 30’s. I would like to thank Inven Global for giving me the chance to do this interview. I hope this helps global players even a little when playing Returners.

It’s almost been 2 years since Returners was launched in South Korea. When did you start playing and how much do you enjoy playing Returners?

It was back around Christmas of 2016 when I first started playing Returners. I remember Returners beginning its service at the start of December 2016, and I didn’t join during the BETA but started playing 20 days after its release.

Before then, I only played games like Go-Stop (a popular Korean card game) until I was recommended this game by all my close friends. Returners is the first RPG game I ever started playing.

Can you tell us about your current team comp and CP for League/Raid/Arena?

Currently, my League team’s CP is around 120~140,000. I place 1 tank or 1 fighter, 2 supports, 1 mage, and 1 ranger in my team. The reason I don’t limit my team comp to certain heroes is because my team comp varies depending on enemy comps.

As for tanks, I usually use King Arthur, Alexander, and Richard the Lionheart; as for fighters, I use Hercules and Hong Gil-dong. For supports, I use Seiren, Cassandra, and Victoria. As for mages, I use Nikola Tesla and Dr. Jekyll. Lastly for rangers, I use Hartmann, but since Hartmann is often banned during the Tournament in the latest KR meta I use Jumong, Taejo, William Tell, and Genghis Khan if Hartmann gets banned.

You are known for sharing good tips and information with many players in the official Korean Returners forum; is there any special reason why you do that?

At first, I didn’t even know about the official forum so there were many times I would be dejected when I didn’t know anything myself and invested in the wrong things. Then I got to know the official Korean forum where I started getting bits of tips and info from here and learned what events were held and such.

This may not be a good reason for why I became an active and dedicated player. But it is basically give & take. I try to return as much as I got from here -- things I learned about Returners, including tips.

To be honest, I didn’t tell all the secrets I knew; there was this one secret only our guild members knew until 2 months ago, but anyone would know about it now. It’s the wombo combo meta that is so popular in KR now.

What do you think Korean players ask the most about? Also, if you were to answer it very briefly?

The questions I am asked the most are like, “What hero should I scale up first?” and “What gear is good?”. I see questions like “What gear should I equip on Taejo or Jumong?” a lot, too.

My answer for the questions is scale Alexander and King Arthur for tanks since they come with taunt and Seiren and Cassandra for supports. If you place Cassandra in your League team early on, she would probably die too soon so it’s better to wait until you have proper gear for her then place her in your League team.

As for fighters, Hercules, Hong Gil-dong, and Musashi are okay. I played in the Asian server for a bit, and I was puzzled at first by how many players placed Musashi in their teams. But then, I think he’s alright now since Musashi’s ult makes him immune to all damage and has many hit counts.

Jumong’s gear sets can be classified into 3 types, but Ultimate gear is used most. First gear set uses 2 pieces of the Ultimate set (weapon, boots) and 3 pieces of the Annihilation set (helmet, armor, accessory) that provides stability in defense, critical rate, and critical damage. There also is the gear set that used 4 pieces of the Ultimate set with Dark Wolf Hunter Helmet for higher HP and critical rate instead of lowering defense. Lastly, there is the gear set that uses the full Ultimate set where you lower your HP and defense in exchange for decreasing your ult skill cooldown and increasing critical damage.

I use the full Ultimate set for Raid, and this gives me low attack speed, which I make up for using Cassandra’s skill (ult skill cooldown decrease) and let Jumong deal high damage with her buffs.

Do you have any favorite hero?

My favorite hero is Jumong. I got 3 of his Attack Runes as Crit DMG right now, and it took a lot to make it so.

Meanwhile, I do have a hero that remains as a bad memory to me, which is Rollo; I managed to upgrade him to 6-Star. I mentioned earlier that there were times I was dejected before I came to know about the official Korean forum, and I was leveling up Rollo first because I thought King Arthur would be weak since he was small and Rollo was large.

Let’s get into the game now. What do you think is the trending meta in KR for League/Tournament or Adventure/Raid?

The most trendy meta in KR for League/Tournament right now is the wombo combo where you place heroes with skills that can pull your targets together. You would basically end the battle with burst damage from Hartmaan’s ult (with its cooldown decreased by Cassandra’s ult) after enemies are pulled together using Maid Victoria and Hong Gil-dong’s ults.

It’s important to use silence skills first -- Cassandra and Seiren have silence skills that prevent their targets from using their skills or ults, which has become very important in Returners KR.

So, again, Maid Victoria, Seiren, and Cassandra are the main supports while Hong Gil-dong is picked as the fighter and Hartmaan for ranger in the most popular KR meta.

Victoria was solely used for Raids in the early phase of Returners but she has gotten so much better now. The gear set for Victoria was a secret I didn’t share until not too long ago. It was because having a gear set that lets her sustain until she can use her ult was very important and there might be players that already know about this -- you use Holy Archangel Staff or Asgard of the Gods for her weapon. As for the accessory, you would equip Mythical Diamond Ring. For the rest of gear, you equip 3-pieces of Dark Knight Set to get the ult skill cooldown decrease and sustain through the increased physical defense.

However, this does not apply the same way for the Raid since the Raid bosses are different for each league, although there are things in common; you would have Jumong, who deals a lot of damage because his attack speed can be increased significantly through using his ult.

Placing Sun Wukong (who comes with a skill that can decrease a target’s physical defense) and Nobunaga together in a team could be a great way to increase continuous damage. Other than that, Xiang Yu is another commonly-used hero as he has a skill that decreases a target’s physical attack, although this is not a must if you think your team’s defense is sufficient. Lastly, you can place Seiren to heal if you don’t think your heroes will make it to the end of the Raid.

As for Arena, there are no clear team comps that can be used as a counter since the number of opponents is high, so the number of team comps is as well. Same goes for the popular meta. Right now, I am using the heroes I use in the League for Arena. This isn’t used much in KR anymore; it includes Zhuge Liang equipped with gear that decreases skill cooldown to 10 seconds and using his Mind Control on an opponent target and turning it against its own ally, which will allow your team to fight 4-on-2. Of course, it’s hard to see Zhuge Liang used nowadays, though.

How can you counter the meta that is currently popular in League/Tournament on KR?

As previously mentioned, the most popular meta in KR right now is the wombo combo using Hong Gil-dong, Victoria, Cassandra, and Hartmann. Seiren is also added to this team comp.

A drawback for this team comp is that there are 3 supports; if you use Bad Trade, your opponent’s most powerful hero is killed. Use the Abnormal Status Immunity card here, and your enemy’s supports won’t be able to do anything during the battle. However, the number of times you can use these Tactic Cards is limited so it will be impossible to counter this comp if these Tactic Cards are not available.

You just told us how to counter the latest KR meta for League/Tournament; is there any popular composition for Tactic Cards as well?

It seems that Heavy Feet (Red Card), Stifled Cheers (Blue Card), and Stun Immunity (Blue Card) are the most-used Tactic Cards on the KR server.

Before, Heavy Feet decreased enemy movement speed by 50% but now it has been increased to 80%. Once this card is activated, opponent tanks or fighters won’t be able to do anything. It’s important whose supports use their ults first in League, and Stifled Cheers can silence enemy supports so it is very helpful. As for Stun Immunity, this card allows your heroes to be immune to stun effects when Nikola Tesla or Hartmann’s ults are activated.

7-Star gear will be added to the global servers soon and they increase HP and defense by a lot, which could change team comps. What change do you think this will bring?

There were many player complaints when the 7-Star gear was released on KR as some of the gear set effects were greatly changed. But still, players got to upgrade their most-used 6-Star gear to 7-Star eventually and are still using them to this day.

There is one thing you should keep in mind when the 7-Star gear releases -- I would like to advise you to upgrade only when you are ready to upgrade the full set instead of upgrading 6-Star gear one by one. This is because the set effects are extremely important. I myself upgraded my full Ultimate set to 7-Star, and by doing so, you can maximize the efficiency.

You asked what kind of team comp started to appear; actually, the wombo combo that is popular in KR right now appeared after the 7-Star gear was updated. The class that came with the most benefits after the 7-Star gear release was the support class; for example, it was hard for Cassandra to survive if she was equipped with 6-Star gear for 10-second skill cooldown decrease, but her survivability increased significantly when equipped with 7-Star.

If 7-Star gear is added to the global servers, then I think it is very likely the wombo combo will become popular, just like it became popular on the KR server. But still, I don’t think this comp will appear right away since DPS will have to be the first ones to be equipped with 7-Star gear. In my case, I got 7-Star gear for my ranger, mage, then Seiren for her heals; I got my tanks their 7-Star gear, then the rest of the supports, in this order.

It’s not easy to get the upgrade materials for 7-Star gear. Which item should I upgrade first?

It’s hard to find upgrade materials for 7-Star gear since they can only be obtained through the Tournament and need the same gear; upgrading to 7-Star is very difficult.

I upgraded Jumong’s gear to 7-Star first since he plays a crucial role in the League and Raid. Then I upgraded the full Absolute Monarch set since it is the most used mage gear. Then, it was either upgrading another ranger set or Seiren’s gear. As I mentioned before, you should upgrade your gear in sets when upgrading to 7-Star.

There was this particular case when the 7-Star gear was first released in KR -- the Combiner was added to the game before 7-Star gear and so many players already used up their duplicate gear in Combiner. This resulted in lots of player complaints, and eventually, they gave out one Choose My Legendary Gear every day after the daily missions have been completed for 15 days. That is when a lot of 7-Star gear was created.

Also, I was able to get my 7-Star Legendaries with the Choose My Legendary from the events or re-rolls afterward. If there weren’t events like these, it would have been very hard to continue playing Returners for me.

We don’t have Napoleon, Thor, and Genghis Khan on the global servers yet. Can you give a brief explanation and evaluation of them?

Once Napoleon was added to KR, he was dubbed, “Lottoleon”. This was due to his ult having a chance to one hit K.O. an opponent. When the 31~35 region for Adventure was added to KR, everyone was placing Napoleon in their teams and made him use his ult right away by using Hero Time (Tactic Card). If his ult was successful, they’d immediately get 3 Stars and move on, or not if it wasn’t successful. But this is not seen anywhere now.

As for Thor, he is immune to magic attacks but isn’t used much because of Athena. Athena’s ult previously made only herself immune to all damage, but now even her allies become immune to damage. This is why you see Athena a lot.

Genghis Khan is still used a lot to this day. His skill comes with a fear effect which is very helpful and his ult’s damage is fairly high. Genghis Khan is currently used a lot even in Master league in KR.

So basically, Napoleon and Thor are used for Adventure while Genghis Khan is commonly used in the League.

The lifespan of mobile games isn’t that long, but it’s already been 2 years for Returners. Looking back at the time you spent on Returners, was there anything you wish could have been different? Or, is there anything you would like in the future?

One of the greatest things about Returners is that you can still enjoy playing it even if you are an F2P player. You can get all the gear you need one day if you keep playing. There are players who were surprised when they saw my heroes and their gear sets, and in my case, I spent about 70$ during my play time.

One thing I wish it would change is that it has almost been a year since Korean players completed all 35 regions, and I hope there will be more new content to enjoy.

Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to global players?

Yes, I would like to tell players on the global servers that time is the answer. Don’t feel too desperate about scaling up your heroes or gear sets; enjoy the experience itself, and then, you’ll eventually get to the point where you become a veteran.