- Damage is pooled.
- But gear adds more on some heroes than others.
- Put your best gear on your highest-ATK heroes.
- Expect a small gain — about 0.5%.
- Judge gear in your battle report, not by Combat Power.
Does it matter which hero wears the gear?
Yes, a little. Damage is shared across the whole march, but the hero who wears a piece of gear decides how much it adds to that shared pool.
Ask around and you hear two answers. One: "damage is pooled, so it doesn't matter who wears what." Two: "always put the best gear on your best hero." Both sound right. I wanted to know which one the game agrees with — so I tested it.
How I tested it
I fought the same Lv.60 Rotting Oni twice, two minutes apart, with the same march. The only change was which hero wore a weak grey helmet.
- Run A: grey helmet on Francis (ATK 25,182). Lan wore the better helmet.
- Run B: grey helmet on Lan (ATK 35,988). Francis wore the better helmet.
Same troops, same heroes, same everything else. One helmet swap.
What changed in the battle report?
Troop's Total ATK dropped from 2354% to 2343% — and every single damage line in the fight dropped by the same amount, about 0.45%.
| Round 11 line | Run A | Run B | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Barrage (Francis) | 132,450 | 131,850 | −0.45% |
| Ougi · Fatal Shadow (Lan) | 132,450 | 131,850 | −0.45% |
| Rain Fire ×2 (Tristan) | 132,450 | 131,850 | −0.45% |
| Quake Hammer · Absolute Order | 132,450 | 131,850 | −0.45% |
| Normal attack | 55,310 | 55,060 | −0.45% |
| Counterattack | 85,134 | 84,749 | −0.45% |
So is damage pooled?
Yes. Five different heroes' skills hit for exactly the same damage, and all of them moved together when one helmet moved.
Look at Run A. Francis was wearing the grey helmet, Lan the good one — and Fire Barrage and Fatal Shadow still hit for exactly 132,450 each. If gear made a hero's own skill stronger, Lan's would have hit harder. It didn't.
Then look across the runs. Tristan, Darian and Noah didn't change gear at all, yet their skills dropped by the same 0.45% as everyone else's. That only happens if every hero draws on one shared number. That number is Troop's Total ATK.
Then why did the damage change?
Because the better helmet added more to Troop's Total ATK on Lan than on Francis. Lan has the higher ATK on her Stats screen.
The pool is shared, but each piece of gear is first scaled by the hero wearing it, then added to the pool. Give the good helmet to Lan (35,988 ATK) and the pool gets 11 more points than if Francis (25,182 ATK) wears it.
How big is the effect?
Small. One helmet swap between two heroes changed all my damage by 0.45%.
Worth doing — it's free. But it is not the thing that wins fights. For what actually moves your damage, read the damage formula: a +6% damage buff did more than this whole swap.
How do I check my own gear?
- Fight something you can repeat — the same monster at the same level.
- Open the battle report and tap Stat Overview. Note Troop's Total ATK.
- Move one piece of gear to a different hero. Fight the same monster again.
- Compare Troop's Total ATK. Higher is better. Ignore Combat Power — it's a display score, not damage.
This is one swap, between two heroes, on one account. "It scales with the wearer's ATK" fits the result, but a second pair (say Tristan and Darian) would confirm it. Round 1 of a fight also varies a little between runs for reasons I don't know — so compare Round 11, not Round 1.