[Hero Wars Guide]CoW Season 16

CoW Season 15: Schedule

• Schedule: Planned to run for 12 weeks with 24 battles.
• Ranking Trends: As in Season 15, guilds with many players using cheats to identify the optimal strategy may continue to perform well in the rankings.
• Season Buffs: Due to an unexpected issue, the Season 1 buff will remain active this season.

Season Buffs

• 10% per Tank in the Foundry (was 8% since COW-Season II),
• 5% per Control Hero in the Engineerium (was 4% since COW-Season II),
• no more buffs in the Lighthouse (was 1% per Support Hero since COW-Season II).

Match schedule

• Round 1: Mon, July 13 ,2026 – Thu 16 ,2026
• Round 2: Thu, July 16 ,2026 – Sun 19 ,2026
• Round 3: Mon, July 20 ,2026 – Thu 23 ,2026
• Round 4: Thu, July 23 ,2026 – Sun 26 ,2026
• Round 5: Mon, July 27 ,2026 – Thu 30 ,2026
• Round 6: Thu, July 30 ,2026 – Sun 02 ,2026
• Round 7: Mon, August 03 ,2026 – Thu 06 ,2026
• Round 8: Thu, August 06 ,2026 – Sun 09 ,2026
• Round 9: Mon, August 10 ,2026 – Thu 13 ,2026
• Round 10: Thu, August 13 ,2026 – Sun 16 ,2026
• Round 11: Mon, August 17 ,2026 – Thu 20 ,2026
• Round 12: Thu, August 20 ,2026 – Sun 23 ,2026
• Round 13: Mon, August 24 ,2026 – Thu 27 ,2026
• Round 14: Thu, August 27 ,2026 – Sun 30 ,2026
• Round 15: Mon, August 31 ,2026 – Thu 03 ,2026
• Round 16: Thu, September 03 ,2026 – Sun 06 ,2026
• Round 17: Mon, September 07 ,2026 – Thu 10 ,2026
• Round 18: Thu, September 10 ,2026 – Sun 13 ,2026
• Round 19: Mon, September 14 ,2026 – Thu 17 ,2026
• Round 20: Thu, September 17 ,2026 – Sun 20 ,2026
• Round 21: Mon, September 21 ,2026 – Thu 24 ,2026
• Round 22: Thu, September 24 ,2026 – Sun 27 ,2026
• Round 23: Mon, September 28 ,2026 – Thu 01 ,2026
• Round 24: Thu, October 01 ,2026 – Sun 04 ,2026

About CoW Season 17

• The plan is to start on: October 12 ,2026

CoW Season 16: Meta Trend Predictions

Following Season 15, guilds with a large number of players using cheats to reveal the optimal strategy are likely to remain dominant in the rankings.

Hero Battle Outlook

• Fluffy Usage: Fafnir is expected to remain a staple in defensive setups. Small variations in execution and RNG can influence outcomes, contributing to stable defensive performance.
• Engineer-based Synergies: Teams built around Chabba or Julius are likely to remain viable options for competitive play.
• Factory Defense Trends: Compositions featuring Mushy and Shroom and Byrna may emerge as a notable trend in Factory defense.
• Impact of New Heroes: The introduction of game-changing heroes like Lylia has the potential to shift these assumptions further, depending on future balance changes.

Season 15 Showcase #1

Season 15 Showcase #2

Season 15 Showcase #3

Titan Battle Outlook

• Verdoc’s Dominance: Verdoc, the powerful Earth Titan, continued to dominate the meta.
• Fusion Skill Changes: The increase in the Fusion Skill level cap and the introduction of new skills for certain defensive lineups temporarily made battle testing less consistent. However, top players had already stockpiled enough materials to fully upgrade their Fusion Skills, allowing the meta to stabilize relatively quickly.
• Defensive Trends: Defensive lineups continued to evolve throughout the season.

Season 15 Showcase #1

Season 15 Showcase #2

CoW Season 16 FAQ

Clash of Worlds Defense Buff Issue Under Investigation and Resolution in Progress

• Q. The Clash of Worlds case requires an immediate solution! It doesn’t matter what actually happened (whether it was a bug or a feature—you’ll figure it out later), what IS important is the SOLUTION: your programmers either urgently adjust the buff scale in trainings to the new field conditions or revert to the old values ​​in the field itself. A situation where it’s impossible to create an accurate training for 10 defense spots is absolutely unacceptable! (don’t encourage cheaters; they are already living great.) This really needs to be resolved ASAP – there’s only one working day left, then it’s the weekend and the start of the new season.
• A. The team is on it, I’ll keep you posted when I can.

CoW Defense Buff Changes Are Intentional for This Season, with Combat Training Adjustments Planned

• Q. Could you please tell us if this is intended or a bug what you changed in the COW defense buffs?
  
  Looks a bit weird since it’s just “back to 2022” with the buffs, exactly like they were in the first season of COW in 2022:
  – 10% per Tank in the Foundry (was 8% since COW-Season II),
  – 5% per Control Hero in the Engineerium (was 4% since COW-Season II),
  – no more buffs in the Lighthouse (was 1% per Support Hero since COW-Season II).
  
  So it looks a bit like a bug to me and not as intended…
  
  EDIT: And if this is intended, please take care that you also update the Combat Training settings. So far, for example, 200% is the max buff you can simulate in Combat Training for the health-buff. But 250% would be possible with the new buffs in the Foundry.
• A. Hello, lovely people, the team looked into the CoW issue, and I have an update.
  
  It looks like someone on the CoW team left us an unexpected “Easter egg” in the form of an experimental season. The current buff values don’t appear to be an unintended configuration.
  
  The buff values themselves will remain as they are for this season. However, the team agrees that Combat Training should accurately reflect the actual CoW conditions, and that’s what they’re working on now. Unfortunately, the update won’t be ready before the season starts, but the plan is to have the Combat Training buffs adjusted during the first week of the season.
  
  I know that’s not ideal for guilds preparing their strategies right now, and I’m sorry about that. If anything changes or the timeline shifts, I’ll make sure to let you know.

No Specific Experiment Behind CoW Buff Changes, Fix Delayed by Technical Constraints

• Q. CM would you please consider to communicate not just the WHAT (the fact that the buffs are going to stay like this for the next season) but also your INTENTION (what you are trying to achieve with this ‘experiment’?).this would for us very much increase the value of your ‘communication’ which is currently consisting mostly of confirming or denying that one of the unnanounced changes was unintended “a bug” or intended “a feature”.thank you.
• A. There is no specific intention here, we’re not testing anything specific. In this case, the fix is too complicated before the start season, from my understanding at least.

CoW Defense Buff Changes Were Unintended and Expected to Revert Next Season

• Q. Ok…let’s discuss about scripts cheaters…why you up buffs for CoW?! Its crazy😡 😡 😡
• A. It was not intended, next season should be back to regular settings as far as I understand

Immediate CoW Buff Fix Not Possible, but Combat Training Update Planned

• Q. Please make standard buffs for CoW…no need experiments 😔 🥃
• A. I’m very sorry about this, this was not intended and we plan to fix CT, but I don’t think a fix for the buffs is possible at this time