Pre-Release Guide
Defenders from Afar has not run live yet. This guide is built from game code analysis ahead of release. The fixed numbers — the 21 steps, the unlock gates, the recruit cost, and every free and paid reward on the ladder — are locked in configuration files and unlikely to change. The pass price, the exact event dates, and whether a late purchase unlocks earlier paid steps are not published in the game and can only be confirmed once the event runs.
Anything unconfirmed is marked as unconfirmed. We will update this guide with field-tested numbers after the first run.
01. What It Is
This is a hero giveaway with an optional star-up pass bolted on, not a pay-to-get event. Twenty-one steps, one step per day you log in, inside a 30-day window. Each step has two columns: a Free column everyone claims, and an Epic column that needs the paid pass. The free column hands out all three new heroes outright on steps 1, 4 and 7.
It lives under Deals on the main screen, not in the normal event center — the single most common reason players report they cannot find it. In-game the event describes itself as "Log in daily and fight alongside your Heroes!", and the whole purpose is to introduce Hikari, Dmitry and Sea-ah, three Epic heroes that are brand new in this version.
✅ The Whole Event In One Line
Log in on seven separate days and you own all three heroes for free. Everything past step 7 — free or paid — is star-up fragments, not access.
02. Unlock Requirements
If you cannot find the event, it is almost certainly your Chief's Office level — and the entry is hidden, not greyed out. Below Chief's Office Lvl 6 the icon, the Deals tab row and the event-calendar entry all disappear completely, so there is nothing on screen telling you what you are missing. There are two gates, and both must pass.
| Gate | Requirement | Shown In Game? |
|---|---|---|
| Chief's Office | Lvl 6 or higher | Yes — "Reach Chief's Office Lv. 6" |
| Server age | 7 full days since the server opened | No — no text exists for this at all |
The server-age gate is the one that catches people on fresh servers. Days are counted from the server's opening day as day zero, so the earliest the event can appear is the 8th calendar day of the server. Nothing in the game explains this — a new player at Chief's Office Lvl 6 on server day 3 simply sees no event and has no way to know why.
Raising your Chief's Office to Lvl 6 while the event is already running does not automatically pop the event open for you. Reopen the Deals menu yourself after the upgrade finishes and the entry will be there.
03. The Login Ladder
Steps count login days, not calendar days, and that single fact changes how you play the event. Twenty-one steps inside a 30-day window leaves nine days of slack. A skipped day does not push a reward out of reach and it does not reset anything — it only spends one of your nine spare days.
✅ Cheap
Missing a day here and there. You have nine to spare across the whole event, and the ladder picks up exactly where you left it.
❌ Expensive
Drifting away in weeks three and four. The last six steps hold half the paid fragments and most of the Diamonds.
The page shows a "Day" counter tracking how many login days you have banked, and each step's badge changes state as you pass it. The connector bar between steps fills completely once you are past a step, sits part-filled on the step you are currently on, and stays empty ahead of you.
Upcoming
Step not reached yet.
Claimable
Reached, reward waiting.
Claimed
Reached, nothing left.
04. The Three Heroes
Two of the three are Development heroes; only Dmitry is Combat. If you are joining this event for fighting power, Dmitry on step 7 is the one that matters, and the other two are economy picks. All three are Epic quality and all three cost 10 Fragments to recruit.
| Hero | Title | Role | Type | Arrives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sea-ah | Spark Sea-ah | Marksman | Development | Step 1 |
 Hikari | Helpful Hikari | Marksman | Development | Step 4 |
 Dmitry | Bloodhound Dmitry | Biker | Combat | Step 7 |
The three are introduced as officers arriving from Japan, Korea and Russia, and a short welcome dialogue plays the first time you open the event page. It is skippable and grants nothing.
Every Fragment past the first 10 goes into star levels. That is the only use for the rest of the ladder, and it is why the paid track is a star-up purchase rather than an access purchase. How many stars a given pile of Fragments buys is not readable ahead of release, so this guide quotes Fragment counts only.
Read more about the new heroes in their guide.
05. The Free Track
The free track alone finishes with all three heroes recruited and 65 spare Fragments each. Steps 1, 4 and 7 do not hand out Fragments — they hand out the heroes themselves, so you are not spending 10 Fragments to recruit anyone. Every free Fragment on the ladder is surplus that goes straight into star levels.
💡 One Week Is The Whole Roster
Sea-ah lands on step 1, Hikari on step 4, Dmitry on step 7. Steps 8 through 21 are pure Fragments. If you can only commit to a week of logins, you still walk away with 100% of the new heroes.
Sea-ahStep 1
HikariStep 4
DmitryStep 7Free Fragments are spread evenly on a three-day rotation — Sea-ah, Hikari, Dmitry, repeating — at 10 per step, rising to 15 for the final three steps. That produces exactly 65 per hero if you complete all 21 steps, and it means no hero is favoured by stopping early.
06. The Advanced Pass
The pass buys star levels, not heroes — and half its Fragment value sits in the last six steps. Buying it and then drifting away at step 12 collects under a third of what you paid for. This is the single most important number in the whole event, and it turns the buy decision into one question: will you actually log in 21 times?
| Steps | Fragments / Step | Fragments | Diamonds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–9 | 10 | 90 | 400 |
| 10–15 | 20 | 120 | 600 |
| 16–18 | 30 | 90 | 1,000 |
| 19–21 | 40 | 120 | 500 |
Steps 16 to 21 carry 210 of the 420 paid Fragments and 1,500 of the 2,500 Diamonds. The back half is where the pass earns its price, and the front half is deliberately thin.
What The Pass Adds
| Reward | Free Track | Pass Adds | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
 Hikari Fragments | 65 | 140 | 205 |
 Dmitry Fragments | 65 | 140 | 205 |
 Sea-ah Fragments | 65 | 140 | 205 |
 Diamonds | 0 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
 Epic Patrol Skill Books | 0 | 80 | 80 |
 Epic Deployment Skill Books | 0 | 40 | 40 |
 Legendary Universal Hero Fragments | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 Animated Emoji: Salute! | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The skill books are not filler. Epic Patrol and Epic Deployment Skill Books upgrade Epic heroes, which is exactly what Hikari, Dmitry and Sea-ah are — so the pass is a self-contained package for the three heroes it introduces. The two Legendary Universal Hero Fragments, landing on steps 11 and 21, are the odd item out: they redeem for Legendary heroes you already own, not for anyone in this event.
07. The Full Ladder
Read this table for the step you care about, not front to back. The pattern is a strict three-day hero rotation — Sea-ah, Hikari, Dmitry — with the heroes themselves dropped into steps 1, 4 and 7, and the Diamond and skill-book payouts alternating on the paid side.
| Step | Free Track | Paid Track |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sea-ah (hero) | Sea-ah Fragment x10 · Animated Emoji: Salute! |
| 2 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 · Diamonds x100 |
| 3 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 · Epic Patrol Skill Book x20 |
| 4 | Hikari (hero) | Hikari Fragment x10 · Diamonds x100 |
| 5 | Hikari Fragment x10 | Hikari Fragment x10 · Epic Deployment Skill Book x10 |
| 6 | Hikari Fragment x10 | Hikari Fragment x10 · Diamonds x100 |
| 7 | Dmitry (hero) | Dmitry Fragment x10 · Epic Patrol Skill Book x20 |
| 8 | Dmitry Fragment x10 | Dmitry Fragment x10 · Diamonds x100 |
| 9 | Dmitry Fragment x10 | Dmitry Fragment x10 · Epic Deployment Skill Book x10 |
| 10 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 | Sea-ah Fragment x20 · Diamonds x200 |
| 11 | Hikari Fragment x10 | Hikari Fragment x20 · Legendary Universal Hero Fragment x1 |
| 12 | Dmitry Fragment x10 | Dmitry Fragment x20 · Diamonds x200 |
| 13 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 | Sea-ah Fragment x20 · Epic Patrol Skill Book x20 |
| 14 | Hikari Fragment x10 | Hikari Fragment x20 · Diamonds x200 |
| 15 | Dmitry Fragment x10 | Dmitry Fragment x20 · Epic Deployment Skill Book x10 |
| 16 | Sea-ah Fragment x10 | Sea-ah Fragment x30 · Diamonds x500 |
| 17 | Hikari Fragment x10 | Hikari Fragment x30 · Epic Patrol Skill Book x20 |
| 18 | Dmitry Fragment x10 | Dmitry Fragment x30 · Diamonds x500 |
| 19 | Sea-ah Fragment x15 | Sea-ah Fragment x40 · Epic Deployment Skill Book x10 |
| 20 | Hikari Fragment x15 | Hikari Fragment x40 · Diamonds x500 |
| 21 | Dmitry Fragment x15 | Dmitry Fragment x40 · Legendary Universal Hero Fragment x1 |
Gold rows mark the final six steps, which carry half the paid Fragments and 60% of the paid Diamonds.
08. Claiming Rewards
- ▸Rewards do not expire early. A step stays claimable once you have reached it, so you can leave several banked and sweep them later.
- ▸Claim All takes free and paid together. It does not make you sweep the two columns separately.
- ▸The page jumps to your first claimable step. Opening the event scrolls you straight to what you can take, so trust the auto-scroll instead of hunting.
- ▸The red dot counts claimable steps. It shows the real number outstanding, not just a generic marker.
09. Common Mistakes
- ▸ Buying the pass to "get the heroes." You get all three on the free track. The pass buys star levels and Diamonds, nothing else.
- ▸ Buying the pass without committing to 21 logins. Half the paid Fragments and 60% of the Diamonds are in the last six steps. Stopping at step 12 wastes most of the purchase.
- ▸ Hunting for the event in the normal event center. It sits under Deals on the main screen, and it is hidden entirely below Chief's Office Lvl 6.
- ▸ Assuming a missed day breaks the ladder. Steps count logins, not dates. You have nine spare days across the whole 30-day window.
- ▸ Leaving steps unclaimed to "save them." There is no benefit to banking rewards, and anything unclaimed when the window closes is lost.
TL;DR — The Quick Hits
- 1. The free track recruits all three Epic heroes outright. The paid pass buys star levels, not access.
- 2. Sea-ah arrives on step 1, Hikari on step 4, Dmitry on step 7. Seven logins gets you the entire roster.
- 3. Steps 8 through 21 are pure Fragments — surplus for star levels, since the heroes are already yours.
- 4. Free track finishes with 65 spare Fragments per hero. With the pass, 195 spare per hero.
- 5. 21 steps in a 30-day window means nine days of slack. Steps count logins, not calendar days.
- 6. Steps 16–21 hold 210 of the 420 paid Fragments and 1,500 of the 2,500 Diamonds. Buy only if you will finish.
- 7. Dmitry is the only Combat hero of the three. Hikari and Sea-ah are Development.
- 8. All three cost 10 Fragments to recruit, and the ladder gives you the heroes rather than charging you that cost.
- 9. Two gates: Chief's Office Lvl 6 and a server at least 7 days old. Below either, the entry is hidden with no explanation.
- 10. The event lives under Deals, not the normal event center.
- 11. Sweep every step the day you earn it. The end date is not readable in advance, and unclaimed steps are lost when the window closes.