An explanation for the Season 2 & 3 Talents system in AFK Journey.
Last updated: 05/01/2025
Faction Talents
Faction Talents are special buffs replacing Faction Bonuses in certain game modes. They provide stat boosts to all heroes and create Talent Buff Tiles, turning placed heroes into Prime Carriers with additional skills. At least 3 heroes from the same faction are needed to activate the Talent bonus, but Celestial and Hypogeans heroes don't count as they have their own Faction Talent tree - so you're not able to bypass the requirements like with the normal Faction bonuses.
How to upgrade Talents?
As you advance through your Season Resonance Levels and AFK Stages, you earn Talent Orbs and Talent Essences. The first two upgrades of each Faction Talent are free - then Stage 1 and 2 require Talent Orbs, and Stage 3 and 4 need Talent Essences.
To unlock the next Stage, you must accumulatively activate a set number of Talents from all faction groups - this means that you can't just hyper-invest into a single faction and need to split your focus between them.
Are the Talents active everywhere?
No. The new Talent system can be used only in those modes:
Talent Challenge AFK Stages,
Legend Trials,
Supreme Arena,
Dura Trials,
Battle Drill.
So Arena and Dream Realm still use the old talent system, not the new one.
Can I change the Prime Carrier slot tile?
No. The Prime Carrier slot always appears in the backline (check picture above).
So only the Prime Carrier benefits from the tree buffs?
All team members benefit from the 'smaller' nodes bonuses that give passive stats like Haste or ASPD, but only the Prime Carrier can make use of the 'big' talent.
Also, at later Stages, you will unlock a secondary Prime Carrier slot, allowing two characters to benefit from the 'big' talent.
Can I reset the tree if I make an mistake?
Yes! You can reset Faction Talents for free every 7 days or use a Talent Reshaper and it will refund all of your spent Talent Orbs and Talent Essences used.
Big Faction Talents - Season 3
Lightbearers
Big Talent: When a battle starts, Hogan descends from the sky and lands in front of the frontmost enemy, dealing damage equal to 170% of his ATK to enemies within 2 tiles and stunning them for 1.5s. Hogan inherits 10% of Team ATK and 100% of Team HP, along with an extra boost equal to 25% of the prime carrier's base ATK and 70% of base max HP.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Heals Hogan by an amount equal to 90% of the damage dealt by the prime carrier.
Stage 2: Reduces Hogan's damage taken by 40% during battle, and the prime carrier recovers Energy equal to 25% of Hogan's Energy on Hit.
Stage 3: Hogan activates Epic Domination, increasing ATK by 35% for himself and the prime carrier for 12s.
Maulers
Big Talent: 4s into a battle, allows the prime carrier to mark the enemy that has dealt the most cumulative damage as Prey. The prime carrier then teleports next to their Prey, knocking them down while dealing 220% physical damage. This strike also knocks back enemies within tile of the Prey by tile. The prime carrier takes 40% less damage from attacks by their Prey.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Increases the prime carrier's Life Drain by 8. Increases their Life Drain by an extra 5 for every 10% HP lost.
Stage 2: Deals 50% physical damage to adjacent enemies each time the prime carrier takes cumulative base damage from an enemy, equal to 400% of the enemy's ATK.
Stage 3: Increases all allies' ATK by 15% and their Haste by 30 for 15s whenever a prime carrier's Prey is defeated. This effect is active as long as the prime carrier remains in battle.
Wilders
Big Talent: Allows the prime carrier to enter the Concealed state when a battle starts. While Concealed, the prime carrier becomes Invincible and deals 18% increased damage with non-Ultimate skills, lasting for 8s. Each time a non-summoned ally is defeated, the Concealed state duration is reduced by 3s.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Allows the prime carrier to enter Concealed state for 3s after assisting or defeating a non-summoned enemy for the first time.
Stage 2: After Concealed state ends, grants the prime carrier a shield equal to 22% of the damage dealt while in Concealed state.
Stage 3: Allows the prime carrier's attacks to trigger special effects while in Concealed state. When triggered, the prime carrier's attack deals an extra 80% true damage and can stun the enemy for 0.5s. This effect can be triggered once every 4s on each prime carrier.
Graveborn
Big Talent: When a battle starts, seizes the soul of the rearmost non-summoned enemy for the prime carrier, instantly causing the enemy to lose 45% HP (up to 800% of the prime carrier's ATK) and stealing 6% of the enemy's ATK. Over the next 15s, the enemy gradually recovers, restoring their lost HP and eventually regaining their stolen ATK.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Allows the prime carrier to deal 18% more damage to the enemy whose soul they have seized, until the enemy fully reclaims their soul.
Stage 2: If an enemy whose soul was seized is defeated, triggers a soul explosion that deals magic damage to surrounding enemies equal to 280% of the prime carrier.
Stage 3: When seizing the soul of an enemy, grants the prime carrier a shield equal to 100% of the HP lost by that enemy. The shield value gradually decreases over 15s and stops decreasing if that enemy is defeated.
Celestials +
Hypogeans
Big Talent: When a battle starts, grants the prime carrier the oracle's blessing, restoring their Energy by 320. After allies cast a total of 4 Ultimates, grants the prime carrier with divine power, increasing their ATK by 10% and max HP by 20%.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: When a battle starts, restores 100 Energy to all allies who were placed within 1 tile of the prime carrier during battle preparation.
Stage 2: Increases the damage of the prime carrier's first Ultimate by 25%.
Stage 3: Grants the prime carrier chaotic power. When they cast their first Ultimate, triggers a dark explosion in an 2-tile area with the most enemies, dealing 250% magic damage and causing the enemies hit to lose 200 Energy.
Big Faction Talents - Season 2
Lightbearers
Big Talent (Echoing Radiance): When the prime carrier casts the Ultimate, they summon a shadow that casts the Ultimate again. The shadow inherits 60% of the prime carrier's ATK and 100% of their other stats, along with an extra 12 points of Penetration.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Increases the Ultimate damage for the prime carrier and their shadow by 20%.
Stage 2: Recovers 100 Energy each time the prime carrier assists or defeats an enemy.
Stage 3: When the prime carrier is defeated, a shadow remains and inherits the prime carrier's Energy. The shadow gains 100 Energy per second and will automatically cast the Ultimate when its Energy is full before disappearing from the battlefield.
Maulers
Big Talent (Bloodrage Step): The prime carrier will teleport to the nearest area with the most enemies when a battle starts, gaining a shield equal to 45% of max HP and immediately deal 170% ATK damage to all adjacent enemies. They then continue to deal the same damage every 5s to adjacent enemies.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Grants an extra 30 Life Drain to this damage.
Stage 2: The prime carrier is unaffected during the first 8s of a battle.
Stage 3: The prime carrier is immune to the first fatal blow they take. They are then immune to all damage and become unaffected for 5s
Wilders
Big Talent (Eternal Bloom): The prime carrier loses 50% of their max HP and gains a permanent shield that can block up to 55% HP damage when a battle starts. The prime carrier becomes unaffected while the shield is active and gains 65 ATK SPD. If the Prime Carrier uses ranged attacks, their attack range will be extended to cover the entire battlefield, and the range of certain skills will expand accordingly.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Increases the prime carrier's normal attack damage to enemies more than 3 tiles away by 20%
Stage 2: Increases the prime carrier's ATK SPD by 3 every 3s, up to 30.
Stage 3: Allows the prime carrier's normal attack to fire an extra projectile at the weakest enemy while the shield is active dealing 55% ATK damage.
Graveborn
Big Talent (Immortal Pact): The prime carrier selects another rearmost ally as a sacrifice when a battle starts. The sacrifice loses up to 5% of their current HP every second and recovers 100% of their lost HP for the prime carrier. This skill also increases the prime carrier's ATK, Phys & Magic DEF by 16% of the current sacrifice's corresponding stats.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Recovers 80% ATK HP for the prime carrier when they assist or defeat a non-summoned enemy and permanently increases their ATK by 10% and Phys & Magic DEF by 10%.
Stage 2: 80% of the sacrifice's lost HP per second will be converted into a shield for the prime carrier.
Stage 3: Marks the farthest enemy as sacrifice for 15s when a battle starts. During this time, the sacrifice loses HP each second, up to 60% of the prime carrier's ATK. If the sacrifice is defeated, the healthiest remaining enemy becomes the new sacrifice for the rest of the mark duration
Celestials +
Hypogeans
Big Talent (Dusklight Fusion): 6s into a battle and 6s thereafter, the prime carrier deals 120% ATK true damage to the area with the most adjacent enemies and stuns affected enemies for 1.5s. The prime carrier continues to cast this skill as long as they remain in the battle.
Upgrades:
Stage 1: Recovers 40% ATK HP for all allied prime carriers for every enemy hit.
Stage 2: Recovers 16 Energy for all allies prime carriers for every enemy hit.
Stage 3: If both prime carriers remain in the battle, the 'light' and 'dark' spells activate simultaneously every 6s, starting 3s into the battle. The effect radius of both spells extends to 2 tiles.
What is the best Talent tree to invest into?
It's kinda hard to pick the best one since you need to use 3 characters from a Faction to activate the special Talent in the first case and also everyone's account is different - so for example, those who invested heavily into Wilders will be able to make use of the Wilder tree easily compared to someone who invested into Maulers.
Still, each Faction tree 'pushes' a different playstyle based on the big and small talents and here's a rough summary:
Lightbearers
- favors mage-oriented teams as their ultimate is usually their most powerful skill and the Talent tree not only gives them a lot Haste, but also the big Talent allows them to 'use' the ultimate more often,
Maulers
- favors melee-oriented teams (or so called Dive teams) that aim to disrupt the enemy formation and mainly consist of short-range characters,
Wilders
- favors ranged-oriented teams (or rather they want the main carry to be a Ranger) as the Prime Carrier will not only gain a lot ASPD, but also gain battlefield-wide range,
Graveborn
- a pretty generic tree that can work with any of the above playstyles as it focuses on buffing the damage and survivability of the Prime Carrier,
Celestial
&
Hypogean
- the strongest tree for PVP that is also very generic. It provides additional damage and CC and this allows it to work with any playstyle.
