How to Choose Hero Equipment: A Decision Framework for Ore and Loadouts

Last checked: October 10, 2026. Equipment slots, rarities, ore rules and October dates come from Supercell primary sources: its Hero Equipment launch post, its support articles, its October calendar and event posts, and its October ore-price announcement. The one Rift Medal price quoted below is secondary-sourced and labeled. Everything else, including the five-step framework, the role table and the Portal Pendant evaluation, is ClashVault editorial analysis, not a measured ranking.

Most equipment advice answers "which pair is best?" That question skips the two decisions you actually make. One is which equipment to invest ore in, which is slow, expensive and hard to undo. The other is which equipment to equip for a given attack, which is quick and repeatable. This guide is the framework that sits above our per-hero pages. Use it to decide where ore goes and why. Then use the hero guides linked below for specific pairs to test.

Two decisions with very different costs

Supercell's Hero Equipment launch post says each Hero carries two pieces at a time, chosen in the Blacksmith. Some equipment has an active ability you trigger, and some is passive and always on. Supercell's Blacksmith support article describes equipping as dragging icons onto Heroes and lists no ore cost for doing so. Upgrading is where ore is spent.

Our editorial rule: be experimental with the first row and conservative with the other two. Trying an unusual pair costs one attack. Leveling the wrong piece can cost weeks of a scarce ore type.

The Blacksmith article says it unlocks at Town Hall 8. Supercell's Heroes support article says the Barbarian King can receive equipment from Town Hall 7, so the two pages differ. Check your own village, and see Town Hall 8 for what else competes for resources at that stage.

Step 1: give each Hero a job in the plan

Supercell's Heroes article lists six Home Village Heroes and up to four Hero slots in an army. So you are choosing equipment for at most four Heroes per attack, and each one should have a stated job before you pick its two pieces. The table below is ClashVault's role vocabulary, not Supercell terminology.

Reverse the usual order. Don't look at a piece and ask what it is good at. Look at the gap in your attack and ask which owned piece fills it. A modest piece that fills the gap beats a strong piece that duplicates a job another Hero already covers.

Once the jobs are set, the per-hero comparisons give pairs to test for each one: Archer Queen, Barbarian King, Grand Warden and Royal Champion.

Step 2: understand Common and Epic economics

The rarity split decides which ore a piece will eventually demand. That matters more than the rarity badge.

• Common Equipment is unlocked by upgrading the Blacksmith, which the support article says is paid with Elixir. Upgrades need Shiny Ore, plus Glowy Ore every third level.
• Epic Equipment comes from special events or Hero Journey. Upgrades need Shiny and Glowy Ore up to level 9, and from level 9 on they may also need Starry Ore.
• Level caps were 18 for Common and 27 for Epic at launch, per the launch post. Check the Ore Calculator for the levels and costs ClashVault currently supports rather than relying on that 2023 table.

The editorial consequence is that Starry Ore is a budget only Epics compete for. Leveling a Common piece never touches it. So the real trade-off between two Epics is usually Starry Ore. The trade-off between a Common and an Epic is mostly Shiny and Glowy, until the Epic passes level 9. Frame your next upgrade as "which piece gets this ore type?" rather than "which piece is better?"

Hero Journey adds another wrinkle. The Heroes article says Epics on its track come from a per-Hero pool, that you cannot receive a piece you already own, and that owning a Hero's whole pool pays 50 Starry Ore instead. An Epic you are about to buy with medals may be one you would otherwise have received from Hero Journey. Check your track before you spend.

Step 3: budget each ore type separately

Supercell's support article lists these sources:

At launch, Supercell's post showed Star Bonus ore rising with league and Clan War ore rising with Town Hall, with wins paying more than losses. It also said those numbers can change, so we do not quote them as current.

Gems are the other route. Supercell's October 2 ore-price post sets a new permanent baseline. Shiny Ore drops from 1 Gem to 0.5, Glowy from 5 to 3 and Starry from 35 to 20. Supercell estimates this roughly halves the Gem cost of maxing an Epic. The rollout is staged: the Trader has used the new prices since July, the October medal shop follows, and everywhere else changes with the next major update.

Practical method (editorial): list your next two upgrade targets. Price each one by ore type in the Ore Calculator, then compare each type with what you hold. The Equipment Blast worksheet lets you record the inventory you confirm in game next to your targets. The type that runs out first is your real constraint. The deeper method is in the ore planning guide.

Step 4: decide when to commit ore

Commit when all three of these are true (editorial checklist):

1. The piece has a job in an attack you run most weeks. Equipment for an army you use once a season is a luxury.
2. You have seen it work at your level. Not boosted and not in a challenge, but at the level you would actually have after spending.
3. The ore type it uses is not needed by a closer milestone. If a Glowy level on your main pair is two upgrades away, a side piece shouldn't take that Glowy.

Wait when something is about to move the economy. Supercell's ore-price post says the team will return "later in October" with a fuller picture of where the ore economy is heading. That is a reasonable cue to hold a large Starry purchase or a speculative Epic push until it is published.

Hero levels feed this decision too. The Heroes article says every Hero level adds a point to Hero Journey, whose rewards include ore and Epic Equipment. If your Heroes lag your Town Hall, the Hero catch-up tool shows the gap. Closing it can raise the stats every piece rides on and move you along the reward track.

Step 5: test before you spend

Supercell keeps creating low-cost test windows. Monthly challenge levels can feature new equipment. Equipment boosts temporarily raise a piece to its maximum level. Use both, but read them correctly:

• A challenge shows how the equipment behaves in a fixed scenario. It does not show how it fits your army.
• A boost shows the ceiling. If your copy is low level, the boost overstates what you will have after a few upgrades.
• Your own attacks are the real evidence. Change one thing at a time, compare similar bases and judge the Hero against the job from Step 1.

The Equipment Testing Journal is built for this. It records each trial with its boost and attack context kept separate, so a boosted test does not quietly become your upgrade case.

Evaluating new equipment: Portal Pendant as a worked example

New releases are where ore gets misspent, because novelty feels like value. Here is the framework applied to October's new piece.

What Supercell says it does. The Portal Panic event post describes Portal Pendant as Epic Equipment for Minion Prince. It recalls him and nearby friendly troops and Heroes to the army bar, up to a Recall Capacity, so you can redeploy them. Redeployed units return partly healed with a temporary speed boost. Minion Prince is healed when it activates, and it triggers automatically if he would take fatal damage. It does not affect Siege Machines. Upgrades increase its radius, capacity, healing and boost duration.

Step 1, the job. By our role table, this is repositioning and survival, not damage. Ask whether your attacks ever strand a valuable group that you would rather redeploy. If not, its job is unfilled in your plan.

Step 2, the economics. It is an Epic, so past level 9 it competes for Starry Ore with every other Epic you run. It also takes one of Minion Prince's two slots.

Step 5, the test caveat. Every stat Supercell says upgrades improve is part of what the Pendant is: radius, capacity, healing and boost duration. A max-level boost therefore overstates a fresh copy more than it would for a piece where level mainly adds damage.

Opportunity cost. The same post says the medal shop also stocks Epics for the King, Queen, Warden, Champion and Minion Prince. Clash Ninja (secondary) lists Portal Pendant and several other Epics at 3,100 medals each. If that is right, buying the Pendant means not buying a missing Epic for a Hero you use more. Confirm prices in the Trader. Medal budgeting is covered in the Portal Panic guide.

What changed this season: October 2026

All dates below are from Supercell's October calendar and the posts linked above. The events page tracks the full month.

Quick answers

Should I level my two favorite pieces or spread ore evenly? Concentrate. Editorially, one well-leveled pair that has a job beats several half-leveled pieces competing for the same Glowy milestones.

Are Epics always worth more than Commons? No. Rarity tells you the ore bill, not the fit. A Common piece that fills your attack's gap beats an Epic that duplicates another Hero's job.

When should I spend Starry Ore? On an Epic you equip in most attacks, after testing it at your level. Starry is the budget only Epics compete for, so rank your Epics against each other.

Does a boost tell me whether to buy? It tells you the ceiling. Decide on fit and on the level you can afford to reach.

Can I change equipment between attacks? Yes. Supercell's support article describes equipping as a drag-and-drop in the Blacksmith with no listed ore cost. Ore is spent on upgrades, not swaps.

Where do I find specific pairs? In the per-hero guides linked in Step 1. Treat them as starting points to test, not a fixed ranking.