Hero Siege: Season 10 Guide (Ebontharn)

This guide covers Hero Siege as of Season 10: how the seasonal ARPG loop works, picking a class, levelling through the difficulties, the Incarnation and Ether trees, endgame systems like Wormholes, the Chaos Tower and Uber bosses, and trading on the Mos'Arathim market.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Season 10 "Ebontharn" (launched 21 August 2026), patch 7.0.11 plus the 5 September silent hotfix. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

What's New in Season 10

• Act 9: Ebontharn is a new act and free for everyone. It opens after you defeat Odin.
• Act 8 is now free and part of the normal campaign.
• Faster campaign: Normal keeps its waypoints into Nightmare. Nightmare now plays like the old Hell 1 and Hell like roughly Hell 4.5, and Inferno comes after that.
• Three new Uber bosses: Phantom Leviathan, Captain Grimtide and Blood Maiden.
• Four classes made free: Marauder, Plague Doctor, Shield Lancer and Jötunn. DLC owners get premium skins instead. Amazon, Paladin, Samurai, Shaman, Demonspawn and Demon Slayer were already made free in Season 9.
• Abyssal Chest is the seasonal mechanic: the chest creates up to five levers nearby, and each one you pull spawns high-rarity, dangerous monsters before the payout. Patch 7.0.2 buffed its magic find (+24% on Inferno, +35% on Hell).
• 24 new unique items, 100+ new Ether nodes, 600+ new Incarnation nodes, a free Relic Storage, and a paid Tarot Card inventory tab.
• Monster AI and skill and collision code were rewritten, with ongoing performance patches through 7.0.x.

Important 7.0.x Patch Changes

• 7.0.8: Fixed "ignore resistances," which had only been applying 1% of its intended value. Every build using it got a big damage boost.
• 7.0.5: Blood Pact slider caps raised (heroic/angelic up to 65%, movement speed up to 75%, experience up to 250%).
• 7.0.6: Elemental Absorb regenerates absorbed damage in 0.75 s (it was 2 s). Diamond drop chance raised by 10%.
• 7.0.11: Ether nodes buffed (Treasure Chests 1% to 3%, Presence of Evil 1% to 8%, Infernal Ascendancy 15% to 40%, Infernal Bodyguards 1 to 2). The loot penalty for not tagging a monster in group play was halved, and removed entirely in Blood Pacts. Major sub-skill nodes now show their tags.
• Silent hotfix (5 September): Reverted the Marauder Big Bo-oM rework and buffed it by 1 damage per point. Surgical Blood Letting got +4% per point. Thunder Fury and Lightning Fury gained the Spell tag.

Quick Start

1. Start a seasonal character. Seasons run about four months and carry the new content, the market economy and leaderboards. Non-seasonal characters are for permanent collection play.
2. Pick a free class first. Plenty are free now, including Marauder, Plague Doctor, Shield Lancer, Jötunn, Amazon, Paladin, Samurai, Shaman, Demonspawn and Demon Slayer. Buy the DLC classes later if you want them. The game advertises no pay-to-win.
3. Use a loot filter from day one. The screen fills with items fast. Filter out low-tier drops and focus on Satanic, Set, Heroic, Angelic and Unholy items, runes and gems.
4. Rush the campaign. It's been sped up on purpose. Don't farm Normal. Get to Nightmare, then Hell, then Inferno.
5. Read your sub-skill tree. Each active skill has its own sub-skill tree that can completely change how it works. Since 7.0.11, major nodes show their tags (Spell, Attack and so on), so check those against your gear.
6. Level 100 opens the Incarnation Tree. It's a huge passive tree. Before that, get the Ether Tree going to guarantee mechanics like chests and events.
7. Trade at the market. The Tarethiel Market in the Village of Mos'Arathim lets you buy and sell with other players in real time. It's often faster than farming a specific item.
8. Check the Adventure Journal. The in-game encyclopedia lists mechanics, uniques, runewords, and crafting and prospecting recipes.

Classes

Hero Siege has 23 playable classes. Classes that show up in the current patch notes include:

The Ignore resistances fix in 7.0.8 and the ailment fixes favour damage-over-time and ailment builds this season. The meta moves quickly early in a season, so check the community Discord and ladders before you commit to an expensive build.

Progression Path

Patch 7.0.2 also made the Act 9 quest NPC show on the minimap, and removed the Valhalla quest-chain restriction from the bounty board.

Build Systems

• Two main skill trees per class, plus sub-skill trees for each active skill. These are where builds really come together.
• Incarnation Tree: A huge passive tree that opens at level 100. It launched in Season 9 with close to 2,000 nodes, and S10 added 600+ more. Incarnation gems can slot into it (their weapon modifiers were fixed in 7.0.7).
• Ether Tree: It guarantees or increases mechanics like treasure chests, Presence of Evil, Infernal encounters, Chaos Pillars, Ruby Gardens and more. Season 10 added 100+ nodes. In S10, investing enough in Ether reliably gives you the mechanics you want.
• Runewords: Put runes into socketed white base items to create them. The Adventure Journal lists the recipes.
• Crafting: Items can be buffed, crafted and modified. There are also prospecting recipes, and gems (Diamond and Amethyst among them) come from mining nodes and drops.
• Relics: Collectable power items. The free Relic Storage in S10 makes swapping them easy.
• Tarot cards and the Codex are extra layers of seasonal buffs. Codex of Chaos works with the eternity tier since 7.0.7.

Endgame Activities

• Wormholes: Push as high as you can for seasonal cosmetic rewards like skins, wings and portraits.
• Chaos Tower: Endgame climbing with extra affixes. The Chaos Tower Arcade Machine crash was fixed in 7.0.2.
• Chaos Pillars: Tiered pillars that can give loot. Ether's Whispering Prophet node gives a 0.5% chance per pillar tier to contain a Prophet's Wisdom.
• Uber bosses: Season 10 adds Phantom Leviathan, Captain Grimtide and Blood Maiden. Earlier ubers include Uber Damien and Season 9's Architect of Ruin.
• Blood Pacts: Group runs with custom sliders for more rewards (heroic and angelic drops, movement speed, experience). Since 7.0.11 there's no untagged-loot penalty in them.
• Cursed Spirits: Season 9's mechanic, still in the world: endless monster waves until a timer runs out. Kill monsters and pop pustules to gain more time.
• Side zones: Asgard (a portal can spawn from mining nodes), Niflheim, Valhalla content and Boreal Island (its ship monsters were toned down in 7.0.7).

Modes

• Softcore (the default), Hardcore (permadeath), SSF (solo self-found, no trading) and HC SSF. Patch 7.0.7 updated their chat colours.
• Online seasonal is where the market and ladders are. Legacy online characters had a crash fixed in 7.0.2.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Farming Normal. The campaign has been sped up on purpose. Push through the difficulties.
• Skipping resistances. Hell and Inferno punish uncapped resists hard.
• Building around tags you don't have. Many nodes only work with Spell, Attack or ailment tags. Read the tooltips, which now show tags for major sub-skill nodes.
• Ignoring Ether. Mechanics like treasure chests and Infernal Ascendancy are big loot sources, and 7.0.11 buffed them heavily.
• Spending real money expecting power. Paid content is cosmetic, classes and convenience like stash tabs. Game power comes from playing.
• Not verifying files after a silent patch. Silent patches don't bump the version number. If something seems off, verify game files in Steam.

Advanced Tips

• Tag monsters in group play. Hitting a monster before it dies avoids the loot penalty (halved in 7.0.11, and gone in Blood Pacts).
• Controller jump length: 7.0.11 raised the minimum basic jump to 240px. Change it with the cursor length slider (press the left stick, then move the right stick up or down).
• Stack Ether mechanics that fit your build. Chest nodes for magic find, Infernal nodes for density.
• Use the market price check (fixed in 7.0.2) before listing. Sort and filter got quality-of-life fixes in 7.0.6.
• Watch Temporal Echo: As of 7.0.7 it needs 6 casts but gives +50% to the extra cast level. Rebuild your rotation around it.
• Keep a DoT build on the bench. 7.0.5 to 7.0.8 made several DoT and ailment optimisation and damage fixes.

FAQ

When did Season 10 start? It went live on 21 August 2026 with Act 9, Ebontharn.

Is Act 9 paid? No. Ebontharn is free and opens after you beat Odin. Act 8 was also made free.

Which classes are free now? Marauder, Plague Doctor, Shield Lancer and Jötunn joined Amazon, Paladin, Samurai, Shaman, Demonspawn and Demon Slayer. Check the in-game class screen for the full current list.

Is Hero Siege pay-to-win? The developers say it isn't. Paid items are classes, cosmetics and conveniences like the Tarot tab.

When does the Incarnation Tree unlock? At level 100.

How long do seasons last? Roughly four months per cycle, according to the store page.

My game crashes or acts weird after a patch. What should I do? Verify your files in Steam. Hotfixes like the 5 September silent patch don't change the version number.

Sources

• Hero Siege on Steam
• Steam news: Hero Siege — Ebontharn and Season 10 / Season 10 is live!
• Steam news: Patch 7.0.2, 7.0.5, 7.0.6, 7.0.7, 7.0.8, 7.0.9, 7.0.11 and silent hotfix (Aug–Sep 2026)
• Steam News API feed for Hero Siege