Ultimate Guide to Helena | Godtear Champions
With six followers and no banner, Helena is unlike any Godtear champion we’ve seen before. We’ll unpick this enigmatic Guardian and her unique warband in this Ultimate Guide.
This guide will help you master one of the most peculiar champions Godtear has to offer—now available to preorder.
With no banner to plant and six followers, Helena may at first glance seem like a weak champion who can’t score in the end phase and offers Maelstrom champions a glut of steps to be scored.
But all is not what it seems.
Helena’s Stats and Traits
As a Guardian, Helena gains bonus steps on the battle ladder when she has her banner on an objective hex in the End Phase—except she has no banner miniature.
However, she is holding one...
That’s right. Helena herself is the banner!
With her trait, Banner Bearer, Helena counts as a banner in the End Phase as long as she’s standing on an objective hex.
It’s important to note Helena only counts as a banner in the End Phase. So, you can’t go using skills that affect banners, like Finvarr’s Mirage, against her in the Plot or Clash Phase.
Top Tip: Move Helena on to an objective hex at the end of the Clash Phase to grab yourself 5 easy steps on the battle ladder.
Helena’s Skills and Ultimate
Positioning is key with this champion. Helena’s dodge and protection may make her a less-than-tempting target, but her health is low enough that one big hit can send her tumbling. And with her movement of two, she’s also not going to be tripping the light fantastic over the battlefield, so you’ll need to position her carefully if you want the chance to leverage her Banner Bearer trait.
Helena’s Skills In the Plot Phase
Helena’s skills in the Plot Phase revolve around making sure her Rallied Peasants can be as effective as possible. Rally the Troops lets them make two immediate recruit actions, and Lead the Charge moves all Rallied Peasants within range 1 hex (check the range after Helena has moved).
Top Tip: These skills might seem a little tame, but just wait ‘til we get to the Rallied Peasants. Then you’ll see how scary they are.
Helena’s Skills In the Clash Phase
As a Guardian, it’s unlikely Helena will be knocking out many enemy champions. Instead, you need to focus on crushing your opponent’s banners.
With Shield Push, it’s entirely possible that you could push an enemy champion out of the way and immediately move to crush their banner. Not only would this stop your opponent from scoring 4 banner points in the End Phase but because Helena counts as a banner, you’d immediately be replacing your opponent’s banner with your own—netting you 9 or 10 steps on the battle ladder (-⅘ for the banner crushed and +5 for Helena’s banner).
If you do need to do some damage, you can rely on Helena’s Holy Light to cascade down from the heavens upon her foe. With range 3, she can position herself out of harm’s reach and clear off defensive boons in the build up to a Slayer’s attack.
Top Tip: Try to keep Helena safe until the end of Clash Phase, when she can win you the turn!
Helena’s Ultimate Skill: Call to Arms
Helena’s Ultimate Skill rallies all followers back to full strength. This can be amazing for her Rallied Peasants if they’ve taken a beating before they activate, but also for friendly champions who rely on their followers (I can see Nia and Maxen loving this!).
Top Tip: This Ultimate can be situational as it relies on your opponent killing your followers, or recruiting champions that use their followers to power their abilities (like Rangosh).
Helena Followers: the Rallied Peasants
Okay, we’ve seen a lot of talk about why Helena empowers these peasants. Let’s take a look at why they’re so special.
Rallied Peasants in the Plot Phase
Firstly, there are six of them. That’s significant in itself. With six followers, you can surround and trap a champion, forcing them to use a skill to clear a path.
Obviously, the drawback is that Maelstrom Champions will be rubbing their hands together at the sight of twelve potential steps on the battle ladder. But all is not lost.
The Rallied Peasants’ Trait, Devoted, makes them harder to bring down when they’re near Helena. With some solid defensive stats and six numbers, with a bit of a speed boost these peasants can actively block off portions of the battlefield.
Their skills in the Plot Phase allow you to heal Helena with Prayer, and apply an accuracy Blight to an opponent with Condemnation.
Top Tip: Don’t forget the Rallied Peasants can always simply recruit and move to set themselves up for the Clash Phase.
Rallied Peasants in the Clash Phase
It’s during the Clash Phase that the Rallied Peasants show their ferocity.
Their skill, Will of the People, has a shocking 0 accuracy and 0 damage. However, for every adjacent Rallied Peasant these numbers increase by 1—making for a potential a 6/6 attack!
Again, we see Prayer to aid Helena in her mission to survive the Clash Phase.
Top Tip: Try to group up your followers near a champion for a massive attack!
Helena Tips and Tricks
Pick champions that use her Ultimate: Champions like Raith’Marid will benefit greatly from Helena’s Ultimate, because she can replace the followers they use to power their abilities.
Beware Hit Wounds: Attacks that can inflict wounds on a successful hit, as we see with Keera’s Young Dragons, can bypass Helena’s defense and take her down quickly.
Helena's Pros and Cons
Pros:
Action efficiency because there’s no need to plant your banner
High number of followers can be used to control the board
Not Boon hungry
Cons:
Can be knocked out and pushed off objective hexes
High follower numbers can be taken advantage of by Maelstroms
Doesn’t aid with Boons or Blights.
