Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis has 12 heroes, and you field two at a time in every campaign stage. All twelve are now named: eleven were known before launch, and the official site's post-launch update added the last one, Illiana, an explorer with a dragon. Six of the twelve are returning characters from earlier games, which is the point of a prequel: you are meeting the heroes you know, decades earlier. In a stage they sit alongside five towers and three spells, and the gameplay overview explains the full loadout.
The Roster
Availability below is the community wiki's record of the release build: on mobile the first four heroes are free and the rest are in-app purchases, while on Steam every hero unlocks through star gates earned by playing.
| Hero | Origin | Availability | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gerald Lightseeker | Returning. The Kingdom Rush 2011 hero | Free, from partway through stage 1 | Confirmed |
| Zefira | New. A sorceress who left the academy to join Gerald's mission | Free, after stage 1 | Confirmed |
| Bolin Farslayer | Returning. 2011 hero, formerly head of security at the Western Wall | Free | Confirmed |
| Connor | New. A Templar who lost his family young | Free | Confirmed |
| Malik Hammerfury | Returning. 2011 hero, also appears in Origins and Vengeance | Mobile IAP · Steam 28 stars | Confirmed |
| Rhodes | New. An elemental given self-awareness by the Stormcloud Sorcerers | Mobile IAP · Steam 40 stars | Confirmed |
| Gemina | New. An illusion mage who fights several enemies at once | Mobile IAP · Steam 54 stars | Confirmed |
| Ignus | Returning. 2011 hero, shown here before he mastered fire | Mobile IAP · Steam 58 stars | Confirmed |
| Illiana | New. An explorer who crossed the sea after Alleria with her dragon, Sparky | Mobile IAP · Steam 66 stars | Confirmed |
| Oni | Returning. The towering red warrior whose soul now hunts demons in the Pit of Fire | Mobile IAP · Steam 70 stars | Confirmed |
| Drakkan | New. A living weapon of pure arcane energy built to stop Vez'nan | Mobile IAP · Steam 76 stars | Confirmed |
| Ashbite | Returning. The dragon from Kingdom Rush: Frontiers | Mobile IAP · Steam 80 stars | Confirmed |
Six returning, six new. The returning names are drawn from the original 2011 game, plus Ashbite from Frontiers, and the game's story is explicitly about recruiting the ancestors of the characters you already know.
Oni, confirmed. Devlog #27, To Hell and Back (4 September 2026), settles what our earlier research could not: Oni is a returning playable hero. The devlog tells his origin: an honorable warrior whose katanas were sworn to a kingdom that fell to an army climbing from the depths, who condemned his own soul to inhabit the Pit of Fire and hunt demons for eternity, and who climbed back into Linirea when he heard a powerful wizard had made a deal with their overlord. Which earlier game he returns from is community documentation (Fandom places him in the 2011 release); the devlog itself does not say.
How Heroes Work
- Two at a time. You field two heroes per stage and can chain their abilities into combos.
- You move them directly. Heroes are repositioned by tapping or clicking. A hero cannot stand off the path, and heroes that can fly or teleport are the exception.
- They have their own statistics. HP, attack, armour and speed, deliberately uneven between heroes so that each has a role.
- They respawn. A defeated hero begins healing immediately and returns after a delay rather than being lost.
- They level individually. Heroes keep their own levels and upgrade trees, and any hero behind your highest-level one earns double XP until it catches up.
- Certain attacks cannot kill them. Regular enemies' instant-kill attacks do not work on heroes, though bosses and stage hazards can still take them down.
Fielding two heroes is not new to the series. It carries over from Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, and coverage describing it as a Genesis invention is wrong about the history.
Free Heroes, Paid Heroes And The Steam Ladder
The first four heroes are free on every platform: Gerald Lightseeker, Zefira, Bolin Farslayer and Connor. Gerald arrives partway through the first stage and Zefira joins after you clear it, so the dual-hero rule starts working almost immediately.
After those four, the platforms split:
- On mobile, the other eight heroes are in-app purchases, bought individually.
- On Steam, there are no hero purchases at all. The same eight heroes unlock with campaign stars, in a fixed ladder that runs 28 stars for Malik Hammerfury, 40 for Rhodes, 54 for Gemina, 58 for Ignus, 66 for Illiana, 70 for Oni, 76 for Drakkan and 80 for Ashbite.
This is the community wiki's record of the release build rather than an Ironhide publishing, but it matches the same pattern the towers follow: premium content on mobile, earned content on Steam. The pricing side of that split is on the price page.
Hero Abilities (Community Record)
⚠️ Unconfirmed. Ironhide has never published a hero ability list for Genesis. This whole section is the community wiki's transcription of the released game, and it is much thinner than the phrase "hero abilities" suggests: only two of the twelve heroes have their skill effects written down. For seven more the wiki lists skill names with no description, and for three it lists nothing at all. Nothing here is first-party, and the game launched two days before this page was last checked.
The stat bars are the wiki's five-pip display, not numbers: a filled pip is 1, a half pip is 0.5, an empty pip is 0. Every hero has a fourth bar using an icon the wiki never labels, so we call it "fourth bar" and do not guess what it measures.
Gerald Lightseeker
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 2; HP 3.5; Armor 2.5; HG 2. Unlocks: partway through stage 1 on Steam.
| Skill | Effect by level |
|---|---|
| Inspire Courage | Lv1: Rallies nearby units, increasing their armor by 40% for 4 seconds. Lv2: Rallies nearby units, increasing their armor by 40% for 6 seconds. Lv3: Rallies nearby units, increasing their armor by 40% for 8 seconds. |
| Shield of Retribution | Lv1: Summons a shield that grants Gerald 30% extra armor for 6 seconds. The shield reflects 30% of the received melee damage back to enemies. Lv2: Summons a shield that grants Gerald 30% extra armor for 6 seconds. The shield reflects 60% of the received melee damage back to enemies. Lv3: Summons a shield that grants Gerald 30% extra armor for 6 seconds. The shield reflects 60% of the received melee damage back to enemies. Cooldown is reduced to 25 seconds. |
| Fated Survivor | Lv1: Uses the Time Relic to avert his own death, recovering 40% of his total health and sending his attacker backwards. Lv2: Uses the Time Relic to avert his own death, recovering 70% of his total health and sending his attacker backwards. Cooldown is reduced to 50 seconds. Lv3: Uses the Time Relic to avert his own death, recovering 100% of his total health and sending his attacker backwards. Cooldown is reduced to 40 seconds. |
| Hardened Steel | Gerald gains 30% chance of blocking melee attacks. |
| Battle Vigor | Gerald regenerates 3% of his total heath per second while blocking enemies. |
| Divine Blade | Strikes an enemy, dealing 200 True Damage. Enemies around the target are stunned for 1 second and damaged for 75% of the main damage. |
Zefira
Stat bars (of 5): Magic 3.5; HP 1; Armor 0; HG 4. Unlocks: 1 star on Steam.
| Skill | Effect by level |
|---|---|
| Dazzling Hammer | Lv1: Hits enemies with a huge energy hammer that deals 20-40 Magic Damage in an area and stuns the targets for 1 second. Lv2: Hits enemies with a huge energy hammer that deals 50-70 Magic Damage in an area and stuns the targets for 1 second. Lv3: Hits enemies with a huge energy hammer that deals 80-100 Magic Damage in an area and stuns the targets for 1 second. |
| Shielding Blades | Lv1: Summons swirling energy swords that increase her resistances by 30% and deal 32 Magic Damage to enemies over 4 seconds. Lv2: Summons swirling energy swords that increase her resistances by 30% and deal 32 Magic Damage to enemies over 4 seconds and slowing them by 25%. Lv3: Summons swirling energy swords that increase her resistances by 30% and deal 32 Magic Damage to enemies over 6 seconds and slowing them by 25%. |
| Astral Blink | Lv1: When travelling long distances, Zefira teleports to the destinantion, gaining a 30% damage buff for 4 seconds. Lv2: When travelling long distances, Zefira teleports to the destinantion, gaining a 30% damage buff for 6 seconds. Lv3: When travelling long distances, Zefira teleports to the destinantion, gaining a 40% damage buff for 6 seconds. |
| Weakening Aura | Zefira decreases nearby enemy resistances by 30%. |
| Spell Proficiency | Zefira gains 20% chance of dealing critical damage with basic attacks. |
| Ethereal Spears | From her position, showers an area of the path with energy spears, dealing 210 Magic Damage in total. |
Bolin Farslayer
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 3; HP 1.5; Armor 1; HG 1.5. Unlocks: 11 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Mine Field, Smoke Mortar, Suppressive Fire.
Connor
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 2.5; HP 2; Armor 1; HG 2.5. Unlocks: 20 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Retribution, Arterial Slash, Earthshatter, Templar Rage.
Malik Hammerfury
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 2; HP 4.5; Armor 0; HG 3. Unlocks: 28 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Unbreakable, Earthquake, Obliterate, Hammernado.
Rhodes
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 2; HP 4; Armor 3; HG 2. Unlocks: 40 stars on Steam.
No abilities recorded on the community wiki yet.
Gemina
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 3.5; HP 1.5; Armor 0.5; HG 3. Unlocks: 54 stars on Steam.
No abilities recorded on the community wiki yet.
Ignus
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 3.5; HP 1; Armor 0; HG 4. Unlocks: 58 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Fireball, Heat Wave, Flame Rush, Melting Core, Reverse Entropy, Supernova.
Illiana
Stat bars: not filled in on the wiki. Unlocks: 66 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Sparky, Incinerate!.
Oni
Stat bars: not filled in on the wiki. Unlocks: 70 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Netherfocus, Death Strike, Hellish Blink, Lethal Combo, Dual Fervor, Sword Torment.
Drakkan
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 4.5; HP 3; Armor 2; HG 2. Unlocks: 76 stars on Steam.
No abilities recorded on the community wiki yet.
Ashbite
Stat bars (of 5): Damage 4.5; HP 4.5; Armor 0; HG 2. Unlocks: 80 stars on Steam.
Skill names recorded, effects not written on the wiki: Blazing Breath, Searing Sneeze, Feeding Time, Wildfire Barrage.
Where that leaves the roster. Gerald Lightseeker and Zefira have full three-level skill descriptions. Bolin Farslayer, Connor, Malik Hammerfury, Ignus, Illiana, Oni and Ashbite have names only. Rhodes, Gemina and Drakkan have nothing recorded. We list the names because a name is still a real, checkable detail, but we will not invent what they do.
Two things this section deliberately avoids. It does not turn the stat bars into damage or health numbers, because the wiki publishes none. And it does not present any of this as Ironhide's design notes: the upgrade system page is where the officially described upgrade shape lives, and the heroes page keeps its community label for exactly this reason.
What This Roster Tells You About The Story
The returning heroes carry their own history into the past with them. Bolin Farslayer was head of security at the Western Wall until an orc invasion broke through. Malik Hammerfury was freed from the Blood Quarry and later settled in Hammerhold. Ashbite had bonded with Prince Denas and his army. Gerald Lightseeker survived Vez'nan's attack and was sent back specifically to stop the Dark Wizard from using the Tear of Elynie.
Those details are community-documented rather than first-party, so we label them as such, but they line up with the officially named locations and factions. The wider franchise context is on the series background page.
FAQ
How many heroes does Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis have?
Twelve, and all twelve are named. The last one, Illiana, appeared in the official site's post-launch update.
How many heroes can I use at once?
Two per stage, a mechanic carried over from Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance.
Which heroes are free?
The first four: Gerald Lightseeker, Zefira, Bolin Farslayer and Connor. On Steam, every other hero can also be earned with campaign stars rather than bought.
Which heroes are paid?
On mobile, the eight heroes after the free four are in-app purchases. On Steam there are no hero purchases: the same heroes unlock through star gates, from 28 stars for Malik up to 80 for Ashbite.
Who is the newest hero?
Illiana, the twelfth name. The community wiki's transcription of her description: an explorer who set out to chart the world with her dragon, Sparky, following Alleria across the sea.
Are any heroes from earlier Kingdom Rush games?
Yes. Six of the twelve are returning characters, most of them from the original 2011 game, plus Ashbite from Frontiers.
Is Oni a hero or an enemy?
A hero, and this is settled rather than debated. Devlog #27, To Hell and Back, announces Oni as joining the Genesis roster and tells his origin: an honorable warrior who condemned his own soul to hunt demons in the Pit of Fire. Demons fear him; he does not fight for them.
Do heroes level up separately?
Yes. Each hero has an individual level and upgrade tree, and lagging heroes earn double XP until they catch up.
Has Ironhide published a hero ability list?
No. The abilities on this page come from the community wiki's transcription of the released game, and only two heroes, Gerald Lightseeker and Zefira, have their skill effects written down there. Seven more have skill names with no description, and three have nothing recorded.