Last Updated on 19 June, 2026
Stepping into the magical realm of TOHOTOPIA can feel incredibly daunting when you first face the complex roster of diverse champions. This ultimate guide completely eliminates your confusion by explaining the distinct mechanics, chess-based classifications, and upgrade requirements for every single hero. Armed with these specialized strategies, you will easily construct the perfect army and conquer any rival faction standing in your way.
Did You Know? The title TOHOTOPIA is a direct nod to its core inspirations. The development team, Remilia Command, specifically cited The Battle of Polytopia and the Civilization series as the foundation for the game’s streamlined design.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to Hero Classifications
- The Scarlet Empire (Egypt)
- The Hourai Empire (France)
- The Moriya Empire (Germany)
- The Komeiji Empire (India)
- Conclusion
Introduction to Hero Classifications
Before we dive into the specific factions, we must thoroughly understand the foundational structure of your army. The developers cleverly integrated a familiar system to categorize the champions. Every single faction features five distinct archetypes modeled entirely after traditional chess pieces. You will deploy a King, a Queen, a Bishop, a Knight, and a Rook for your empire.
Every single character begins their journey at level one. Through dedicated gameplay and strategic maneuvers, you have the opportunity to advance them through three progressive tiers until they reach their maximum potential. The prerequisites for these promotions fluctuate significantly depending on the specific faction you choose and the archetype you are actively controlling. Understanding these unique growth paths is essential for maintaining a dominant military presence and overwhelming your opposition.
The Scarlet Empire (Egypt)
When you take command of the Scarlet Empire, representing the Egyptian faction, you will immediately notice their heavy reliance on a unique territorial mechanic. You generate crucial Scarlet Mist terrain by successfully having your units take damage on a specific tile, or by completely eradicating an adversary on a tile currently devoid of the mist. You must remember a critical limitation when planning your expansion: you absolutely cannot blanket city tiles with this environmental effect.
King: Remilia Scarlet
To fully awaken your reigning King, you must guide Remilia Scarlet through a strict progression sequence. First, your civilization must amass a total of twenty-five gold. Following this economic milestone, you need to blanket the battlefield by creating ten Scarlet Mist territory tiles. Finally, to reach her ultimate level, you must expand that coverage to a grand total of thirty Scarlet Mist tiles.
Remilia functions primarily as an indestructible vanguard. She excels at stalling enemy advances because her innate traits allow her to transform the surrounding landscape into her signature mist. This environmental advantage drastically enhances her damage output and permits her to regenerate four health points whenever she reclaims the mist. Furthermore, her inherent vampire passive qualities supply you with vital additional health sustenance during intense skirmishes, making her incredibly difficult to kill.
Queen: Patchouli Knowledge
Your Queen presents a highly unique tactical challenge. To maximize Patchouli Knowledge, you must first explore and reveal forty tiles of the mysterious fog covering the map. Subsequently, you must achieve an accumulated consumption of ten magical mana stones. You achieve her maximum rank by consuming an accumulated total of thirty mana stones.
Patchouli operates best as an immobile support anchor. She requires absolute stillness to gather stamina, which gives her bonus numbers to her actions. Upon reaching the second tier, she begins harvesting elemental stones that bestow phenomenal buffs upon your allied units. Securing an Earth stone requires her to commence the round resting on a basic land tile, allowing you to restore five health points to a wounded companion. Acquiring a Water stone demands she occupy land directly adjacent to water tiles, granting a protective ward that completely nullifies one incoming instance of damage.
To claim a Metal stone, you must position her on a mountain as the round begins, which subsequently extends your attack range by a full tile. Harvesting a Wood stone involves starting her turn within a forest, yielding two additional movement tiles when consumed. Finally, venturing inside hostile territory grants her a Fire stone, which increases damage done by one point upon consumption. Mastering her requires acute environmental awareness.
Bishop: Sakuya Izayoi
To upgrade your Bishop, Sakuya Izayoi, you must focus on exploration and endurance. Her first requirement involves exploring fog tiles. Next, she must endure and take a total of twenty-five points of damage. Finally, you max her level by eliminating fifteen enemy units in total.
Sakuya serves as the protective, support-oriented backbone of your offensive lines. Reaching level two unlocks her Silver Leap ability. This skill bestows the Chief Maid’s Blessing upon nearby friendly soldiers. This incredible buff halves the incoming ally damage and redirects it to Sakuya if she stands within a one-tile radius. In return, she receives a fatigue status effect, completely halting her own healing capabilities until you clear all fatigue stacks. She is absolutely exceptional for orchestrating large-scale assaults since she prevents your units from dying quickly.
Knight: Flandre Scarlet
Advancing your Knight requires aggressive conquest. Flandre Scarlet reaches her second form when you claim two independent cities or capture one hostile city. Her next milestone requires eliminating ten total units. She attains her maximum power level after vanquishing twenty total units.
Flandre acts as your unrelenting aggressor who constantly wants to be fighting. Her unique passive combat trait allows her to attack all units, even friendly ones, to harvest forbidden fruit stacks. These stacks provide massive damage spikes for that specific turn. Achieving her maximum tier allows her to create duplicates of herself, rapidly accelerating her enhancement collection process. This allows her to deal a massive chunk of damage without requiring excessive external healing, as she shares the exact same vampire passive trait as Remilia.
Rook: Hong Meiling
Hong Meiling features a very straightforward upgrade path focused entirely on raw damage output. You unlock her first upgrade by dealing twenty-five damage total. Her second tier unlocks after dealing fifty damage total. She reaches her final form after you inflict one hundred total damage.
Hong operates as your dedicated hero buster. She relies heavily on close proximity to other allied heroes. Her passive traits trigger by either taking damage to increase her own damage output, or by standing near comrades to further bolster both her attack and defense. Her final passive trait is an absolute game changer for securing kills on enemy heroes. Defeating them forces the rival champions into a rigid three-turn waiting period before the enemy can summon them again.
Strategic Tip: Position Patchouli Knowledge with extreme tactical care. Because she harvests specific elemental mana stones based entirely on her starting terrain, you must remain acutely aware of your surroundings to use her effectively as a support unit.
The Hourai Empire (France)
The Hourai Empire, representing the French forces, completely prioritizes aggressive combat maneuvers. Their defining trait revolves around the Coordinated Target mechanic, which they start with and apply to enemies during assaults. This makes them exceptional for fighting. Because only a select few units possess this capability, keeping those specific troops alive is absolutely paramount to your success.
King: Kaguya Houraisan
Kaguya Houraisan requires a delicate touch to level up. You begin by dealing fifteen damage total. Next, you must successfully apply five full moon stacks. You unlock her true potential and reach maximum level by applying twenty stacks of the full moon effect.
Kaguya provides phenomenal support, ensuring your troops avoid taking damage entirely. However, you must utilize her abilities with extreme resourcefulness. Failing to utilize the granted buff triggers a new moon phase, which actively inflicts damage upon your own unit for wasting the opportunity. You must use it actively!
Queen: Eirin Yagokoro
Your Queen advances through exploration and medical aid. Eirin Yagokoro levels up first by exploring forty fog tiles. Her next tier unlocks after you heal allies for twenty health points. She reaches her max level upon restoring forty health points to your allied forces.
Eirin excels as both a master healer and a target painter. She easily applies the crucial Coordinated Target status. Furthermore, when she heals friendly units past their maximum capacity, those soldiers can retain the excess vitality to heal for more health later, or they can turn it into additional damage. This conversion makes her essential for setting up massive offensive strikes.
Bishop: Tewi Inaba
Tewi Inaba strictly controls your economy. You upgrade her by exploring two ruins scattered across the map. Next, you must earn fifteen gold directly from her passive abilities. Her final level requires generating forty gold from those exact same passives.
An army cannot function without a strong economy, and Tewi guarantees your money game stays up. Her presence ensures allies gain money whenever they die, when they attack, and when they kill units. Her unique action at maximum level streamlines wealth generation even further while simultaneously amplifying the damage output of nearby friendly units.
Knight: Reisen Udongein Inaba
Reisen Udongein Inaba demands territorial expansion. You advance her by claiming two cities or capturing one hostile enemy settlement. Next, she must create five phantom moon rabbits. You reach her maximum level after applying the Coordinated Target status forty times.
Reisen operates as a phantom sniper who also utilizes the Coordinated Target skill. Defeating adversaries causes her to spawn phantom moon rabbits. These spectral allies remain entirely harmless and do no damage until they reach level four. Upon achieving that threshold, they actively mimic Reisen and shoot the exact target she attacks. Additionally, these phantom moon rabbits also apply the Coordinated Target status, making her unparalleled at stacking the debuff.
Rook: Fujiwara no Mokou
Fujiwara no Mokou shares a pure damage progression path. She requires dealing twenty damage, then fifty damage, and finally one hundred damage to reach her absolute peak performance.
Fujiwara serves as your immortal skirmisher who always comes back. Achieving level two unlocks her phoenix form. Upon suffering defeat in combat, she transforms into a vulnerable fire entity unable to attack or counter. Moving the fire inflicts a small amount of damage. If the enemy fails to destroy this flame within three turns, she resurrects perfectly on the location of the fire. Achieving level four allows her to intentionally detonate this fire, inflicting ten undeniable true damage to all nearby enemies.
Strategic Tip: Monitor Kaguya’s invulnerability buffs constantly. You must command your troops to actively use the full moon effect during combat. If you leave it idle, the blessing corrupts into a new moon and physically damages the very unit you attempted to protect!
The Moriya Empire (Germany)
The Moriya Empire represents Germany and thrives among the mountain peaks. Their entire strategy and a lot of their buffs revolve around mountain terrain. Playing around these elevations provides massive bonuses to your research point generation and your financial income via specialized mines.
King: Kanako Yasaka
Kanako Yasaka demands technological progression. You level her up by researching five distinct technologies. Next, she must deal thirty-five damage. Her final tier requires inflicting ninety damage.
Kanako shines as one of the best heroes available, especially when you construct the unique Moriya buildings adjacent to mountains. She swaps effortlessly between close-quarters melee combat and long-range bombardments. Her passive traits significantly reduce research costs by granting bonus research points, heavily bolstering your overall economy.
Queen: Suwako Moriya
Suwako Moriya requires a peculiar progression. First, explore forty fog tiles. Next, you must successfully own one level four Lord Mishaguji snake unit. Finally, you must have that Lord Mishaguji accumulate twenty total enemy kills.
Suwako throws snakes and commands them to combine. Your primary plan involves spamming these lesser serpents and instructing them to merge into a colossal unit! This Lord Mishaguji provides you with incredibly cost-effective filler units to attack and overwhelm the opposition.
Bishop: Sanae Kochiya
Sanae Kochiya requires extensive map presence. You upgrade her by exploring fifty fog tiles. Next, apply her ride the wind technique thirty times. Her final level requires rolling either a great fortune or great misfortune outcome three distinct times.
Sanae acts as a great support character who accelerates troop movement and heals them. Unlocking the Omikuji and Omikuji barrage techniques effectively grants you free extra turns out of her, drastically altering the momentum of the game.
Knight: Aya Shameimaru
Aya Shameimaru demands conquest and collateral damage. Claim two cities or capture one hostile city to begin her progression. Next, deal sixty splash damage. Finish her upgrade path by inflicting one hundred and twenty splash damage.
Aya acts as a highly mobile hazard who inflicts localized harm merely by moving. While the individual numbers seem like only a little bit of damage, this damage compounds rapidly. Keeping her near a decent amount of troops who gain free movement lets you deal damage, conquer cities, and eliminate units without taking too much retaliatory damage.
Rook: Momiji Inubashiri
Momiji Inubashiri advances through combat and persecution. She needs twenty damage dealt to reach her second tier. Next, she must kill five heretics. Her final form unlocks after killing ten heretics.
Momiji excels as the most basic unit here, perfectly designed for taking down massive hordes of enemies. Her unique heretic mark instantly replenishes all her action points if you take down someone possessing the mark. You get to let the enemies know exactly how it feels to be marked!
Strategic Tip: Fully exploit Suwako’s reptilian army. Do not hesitate to spam the basic snake units and command them to combine. Building a massive Lord Mishaguji gives you a cheap filler unit for attacking.
The Komeiji Empire (India)
Many players consider the Komeiji Empire, representing India, to be the absolute strongest faction available. They boast crazily strong unique technologies, devastating lay lines, total immunity to the fear status effect, and they begin the match controlling a phenomenally powerful level four city right from the very start!
King: Satori Komeiji
Satori Komeiji focuses entirely on psychological warfare. You advance her by inflicting fear upon the enemy four times. Her next tier requires inflicting fear eight times. You unlock her maximum potential by inflicting Psychological Trauma eight times.
Satori serves as your supreme debuffer. She applies fear to drastically amplify the damage enemies receive. Reaching high levels unlocks her terrifying mindbreak ability. This completely neutralizes the enemy, disabling all their abilities so they cannot do anything about it!
Queen: Koishi Komeiji
Koishi Komeiji requires exploration and damage. Begin by exploring fifty fog tiles. Next, deal fifty damage to enemy forces. Her final tier unlocks after inflicting one hundred damage.
Koishi functions as a summer ant that simply refuses to go away. She becomes immune to counter-attacks specifically when she initiates an attack against someone at tier two. Because activating her movement cloaks her in total invisibility, she stands out as the ultimate candidate for sneaky town takeovers and stealthy ruin exploration without anyone seeing you go there. Furthermore, her ability to generate multiple weak copies of herself proves incredibly annoying for opponents to deal with.
Bishop: Rin Kaenbyou
Rin Kaenbyou advances through exploration and bodily accumulation. First, explore fifty fog tiles. Next, gain ten stacks of the Gross Body effect. Finally, attain ten stacks of the Diamond Body effect.
Rin operates as an infrastructure savior. She is absolutely amazing at building up settlements completely devoid of natural resources. When you suffer a bad start, she perfectly salvages those terrible locations to get your cities up and running. Additionally, she utilizes her Phosphorescent Flame as an excellent tool for constantly harassing the opposition.
Knight: Utsuho Reiuji
Utsuho Reiuji demands conquest and elimination. Claim two cities or capture one hostile settlement to initiate her upgrades. Next, secure five unit kills. Her ultimate form unlocks after she kills ten units.
Utsuho represents a very difficult hero to use. She does not attack during your current turn. Instead, she unleashes her strike automatically at the beginning of your first turn. She delivers a good amount of catastrophic damage but remains an immense target because she cannot defend herself. However, if she snowballs into level four and gains the solar pilgrimage technique, she transforms into quite a dangerous unit. You must be ready to support her heavily!
Rook: Yuugi Hoshiguma
Yuugi Hoshiguma shares the standard raw damage progression. She requires dealing twenty damage, then fifty damage, and finally one hundred damage to maximize her potential.
Yuugi physically manipulates the battlefield by killing other units. Her ability to push rival units away from tiles serves as a great tool to open up crucial space for your troops, or to violently push enemies into a wall so they take more damage from her. Capitalizing on her Three Steps To Kill technique provides a nice bonus to attack, giving you the potential for more guaranteed kills with that enhanced damage.
Strategic Tip: Utilize Rin Kaenbyou immediately if you get a bad start. Her unique traits allow you to build up cities without needing any resources, helping you get your cities up and running!
Conclusion
Achieving total victory in TOHOTOPIA demands sharp foresight and a perfect grasp of your chosen commanding units. Because we solved the mystery behind every unique empire trait and character progression path, you can now confidently lead your troops into combat without hesitation. Put these tailored tactics into practice during your next campaign and watch your opponents crumble before your unstoppable military genius.
Fun Fact: According to the Early Access FAQ, Remilia Command is just a two-person team. Despite that, they built multiplayer, multiple factions, an encyclopedia, and support for five languages.
