Hero status - Ready, Marching, On the Wall, Recovering - and changing your leader

Quick answer: a hero is free to use only when it is Ready (resting in the castle) or Guarding the Wall. A hero that is Marching, Sheltered, Recovering or Captured is busy, and it becomes free again when the march, shelter or timer ends. You can change your leader only while your current leader is at home.

What each status means

• Ready: resting in your castle. It can march, and you can upgrade it.

• Guarding the Wall: defending your Wall. It can march; when the army comes home it goes back to the Wall. You can upgrade it.

• Marching (Deployed on the hero screen): in an army or rally that is out. It cannot march again, and you cannot upgrade it (“Call your hero home first.”).

• Sheltered: in your Shelter. It cannot march, and you cannot upgrade it.

• Recovering: wounded or dead, waiting for its timer. A lightly wounded hero can march; a heavily wounded or dead hero cannot. You cannot upgrade it.

• Captured: in an enemy Prison. It cannot march, and you cannot upgrade it.

• A hero that is Recovering goes back to Ready by itself when its timer ends.

• A Marching hero comes back when its army is home. It returns as Ready, or Guarding the Wall if it was on the Wall, or Recovering if it was hurt in the fight.

• A hero listed on the market or locked by the game is also busy.

• Captured heroes and Shelter: see Prison and Shelter. Armies and rallies: see Sending armies.

Why a hero stays “Marching”

1. An army of yours is still out. The hero stays Marching until that army is home.
2. The game could not free the hero when the army arrived. It retries on its own, first after 5 seconds and then with longer waits up to 5 minutes. After 20 attempts or 24 hours it stops and the case is flagged for manual review.
3. A safety check runs every 5 minutes. It frees any Marching hero that has had no army for 30 minutes. The hero goes back to Ready, or to the Wall if it was on the Wall.

If your hero shows Marching and none of your armies or rallies are out, wait about 30 to 40 minutes, then close and reopen the game. If it is still Marching, contact support (see below).

Change your leader

Your leader hero counts double for army bonuses (see Heroes in battle) and turns on your Workshop gear (see Gear and trophy bonuses).

The game accepts a change when:

• The new leader is your hero, is Ready or Guarding the Wall, and is not locked.
• Your current leader is at home: Guarding the Wall, or Ready. You can set your very first leader at any time.
• You have a Wall.

When it works, the new leader takes a place on your Wall and the old leader becomes Ready again.

It does not work while your current leader is marching, sheltered, wounded, dead or captured. The game says “Your current leader hero is away. Wait for them to return to your Castle first.” A captured leader must be freed first (see Prison and Shelter).

A hero already guarding the Wall can be made leader. If you ever see Internal Server Error when you change leader, tap it again once. If it keeps failing, contact support.

If something goes wrong

• “My hero is stuck as Marching.” See “Why a hero stays Marching” above. Do not start a second march with it.
• “I cannot change my leader.” Check where your current leader is. It must be at home.
• “My hero says Recovering.” Wait for the timer on the hero screen. Reviving early costs a fee shown on the screen.
• Still stuck after you waited and reopened the game. Open a ticket from Setting > More > Support (see Contact support). Send the hero name, what its status says, and when your last march or rally ended. Support cannot promise a result before checking your account.