Costumes can boost any combination of gold, souls, and/or exp. They are fully cosmetic and only decrease grinding time. Their bonus works regardless of Hero being in your 4 lineup or not. This is everything they do and do not work on:

+ PvE
+ “PvP” win gold
+ Gold accumulated during any match
+ The 105 gold cap per match (i.e. 100% gold allows a gold cap per match of 210)
+ Souls accumulated during any match
+ The 40 soul cap per match (i.e. 100% soul alllows a soul cap per match of 80)
+ Quest rewards
+ All exp, even quest bonuses
+ Soul challenges
+ All Arena rewards
+ Defend bonuses every 15 wins of gold or souls

- Reclaiming stolen gold
- All gold and souls accumulated during an AI defend match
- Guild tasks
- Guild exp
- Kingdom gold
- Tributes
- Daily rewards
- Disenchanting cards
- Souls for "PvP" rank reset
- Souls bought with glory
- Gold bought with gems
- Souls bought with gems

Below are preview images done by dhjl. Alignment may be off on some, but it gives a general idea of what each costume looks like on each character.

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Unless you are planning to buy a 250 or 500 gem costume with real cash, this will be your starting point for buying a costume. Currently the best costume in 50 gems is the Assassin Armor. Try refraining from doing the 5 star task for every challenge until you have this armor.

Tier: 2/5

Pros:
- Great exp for the cost
- You will get more defends due to people thinking you’re an easier target
- Good early game for the level requirement of many guilds

Cons:
- You want to level as slowly as possible early game to profit as much as possible off of “PvP”
- Exp means very little with the current setup of the game
- This armor would be decent by around level 100, but by then you could easily have enough guild gems to get something better


Tier: 5/5

Pros:
- Great souls for the cost
- Near mandatory purchase, buy asap if not buying a higher cost costume
- Greatest purpose is to gain extra souls from the higher challenges and rewards
- Souls are very limited
- This armor will allow you to try additional builds early game without falling behind

Cons:
- You may get less defends due to people knowing you have higher leveled troops


Tier: 3/5

Pros:
- Great gold for the cost
- Increases ability to continuously play even without gold farm units
- Will help with guild contribution

Cons:
- You will naturally accumulate all the gold you should ever need to play by just logging in every day

This category should be skipped. The 25% bonus for 50 gems is not worth it. You are better off getting 3 magic keys or to save for a 250 or 500 costume.

Tier: 1/5

Pros:
- It is steampunk

Cons:
- Costlier version of Archmage Armor
- Exp is bad early game


Tier: 3/5

Pros:
- Cheapest armor that gives everything but exp
- Great early game farming armor
- Will minimize gold and soul issues early game

Cons:
- Assassin Armor is better and cheaper
- Dwarven Armor is cheaper
- Would be worth it if it was 50% souls and 25% gold


Tier: 2/5

Pros:
- Alternative to Assassin Armor
- The extra exp is fine for the 50% souls will be raising troops enough

Cons:
- Costlier version of Assasin Armor
- Extra exp is still bad early game
- Would be worth it if it was 50% souls and 25% gold

Some of these costumes currently excel over the 500 gem costumes in a couple ways. They are the half priced alternative to the 500 gem costumes. If you intend to play this game without paying a cent, one of these will likely be your second, and possibly final, armor.

Tier: 3/5, 5/5

Pros:
- You get to plunder all the booty
- Great for guild contribution
- By time you can afford the armor by playing f2p it is decent
- It is only tier 5 if you already own a 50%+ soul armor, which will be used for all soul challenges and rewards

Cons:
- Only costume that requires switching out between costumes
- Actual cost to fully utilize this costume is 300 gems


Tier: 4/5

Pros:
- Currently has highest exp gain of any costume
- Great level 70+ costume
- Gets souls to accommodate for increased leveling
- Great late game armor if you are interested in trying all of the legendary weapons
- Great super late game armor if you are interested in being one of the highest levels in the game

Cons:
- It is still exp and having a higher level currently means very little past 100
- Assassin armor is the same thing but levels nearly twice as slow
- Only armor that costs 250+ that has no gold bonus


Tier: 5/5

Pros:
- Currently best farming armor that has no exp gain
- Great stats for the price
- Arguably the best armor overall, with price in consideration

Cons:
- By the time you can afford it f2p you will likely want to be gaining a bit more levels

These costumes have the highest bonuses with prices that reflect this. If you want to drop a lot of money on this game, this is a much safer investment than 40 magic keys. This should not be your first costume unless you are paying for it in full. Trying to obtain these F2P will take a lot of cascade luck for gem drops and guild contribution. It is highly advised to buy a 50 gem costume before saving for one of these if you are playing F2P or mostly F2P.

Tier: 5/5

Pros:
- Highest soul gain of any costume
- Allows the formation of more level 15 troops than any other costume
- Gives bonus to everything
- Great late game armor if you are interested in trying as many different builds as possible
- Best costume for leveling kingdoms
- Best costume for Arena Mode

Cons:
- Costly
- Will take a long while to farm f2p unless you are in one of the top guilds


Tier: 5/5

Pros:
- Highest gold gain of any costume
- Pretty much impossible to lose gold in battle
- Gives bonus to everything
- Great late game armor if you are interested in boosting guild as much as possible
- Will help in exploration when additional kingdoms start to get created (currently 10-15 more are planned, eventually)
- Easiest armor to get more gems
- Can get nearly as many souls as Celestial Armor by dumping the extra 50% gold into tasks

Cons:
- Costly
- Will take a long while to farm f2p unless you are in one of the top guilds

Keep in mind that only one costume can ever be worn at once.

Dwarven armor will help speed up guild contribution. Save as many challenges as possible for Spider armor.

Dwarven armor will help speed up guild contribution. Save as many challenges as possible for Lion armor. Put the Dwarven armor back on for every 15th defend that is for gold.

Save level 5 tasks for Spider. Your gold up until Spider will come from level advantage in “PvP”.

Dwarven armor will help speed up guild contribution. Save as many challenges as possible for Dragon armor.

Do all challenges that you can with Assassin. Once you have pirate armor, use Pirate for everything that isn’t challenges. This combination, in the current game setup, is basically like having a 75% gold, 50% soul, and 50% exp armor at the inconvenience of having to switch out between the two.

Dwarven armor will help speed up guild contribution. Save as many challenges as possible for Celestial armor.

Do all challenges that you can with Assassin. Your gold up until Dragon armor will come from level advantage in “PvP”.