Rarity sits at the center of team building in Inazuma Eleven Eiyuutachi no Victory Road. It is not just a cosmetic label; it directly dictates how strong a player can become and how far you can customize them.
Rarity ranks in Victory Road
Victory Road uses a six-step rarity ladder for players:
| Order | Rarity rank | Role in progression |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Normal Player | Base rank for almost everyone |
| 2 | Growing Player | First upgrade tier |
| 3 | Advanced Player | Mid-tier upgrade |
| 4 | Top Player | High-end upgrade |
| 5 | Legendary Player | Highest upgradeable tier via Spirits |
| 6 | Hero | Separate, ultra-rare tier obtained via HERO Spirits |
Normal through Legendary form a straight progression: you start at Normal Player and can push a character upward, step by step, by spending Spirits. HERO sits on its own. You do not evolve a Legendary into a HERO; you acquire a separate HERO-version of that character via specific Spirits.
How rarity changes a player’s stats and build
Each time a player goes up one rarity rank (for example, from Normal to Growing, or from Top to Legendary), three things happen:
| Effect | What changes when rarity increases one step |
|---|---|
| Base parameters | All stats gain an additional 20% of that player’s Normal-rank parameters. |
| Passive Skill slots | One new Passive Skill slot unlocks, expanding how you can tune their role. |
| XP requirement | XP needed to level up increases, but the current level stays the same after the upgrade. |
The 20% increase is always calculated from that character’s Normal Player parameters, not from their current rank. Over multiple upgrades, this stacks into a large jump in raw stats by the time you hit Legendary.
Because each rank adds another Passive Skill slot, higher rarity also widens your build options. Legendary versions of a character are not only stronger numerically, they can run more passives at once, making them much better anchors for custom strategies.
Spirits: the currency for upgrading rarity
Spirits sit between matches and progression. They act both as an upgrade resource and, in the full game, a way to summon players outright.
| Aspect | How Spirits behave |
|---|---|
| What Spirits are | Items tied to specific players and rarities, used to raise rarity or summon that player. |
| Where they drop | Rewarded for winning Focus and Scramble battles; the drop pool depends on players present on both teams, including bench. |
| Rarity mirroring | Spirits appear at the same rarity ranks as players; higher-rarity Spirits show up more often when strong teams face off. |
To use Spirits on your team, you go through the Training section of the Team Dock:
- Open Training, then choose the player you want to upgrade.
- Select the
Spiritoption. - Any player who has a matching Spirit in your inventory is highlighted with a red exclamation mark in formation, and the corresponding Spirits are flagged in the Spirit menu.
- Pick the Spirits to consume, then choose
Synthesize(dub:Synthesise) to convert them into upgrade points.
Spirits of higher rarity grant more points, and the number of points needed to move up a rank climbs sharply at each step. Using a Spirit that matches the player’s identity (for example, an Endou Mamoru Spirit on Endou Mamoru) doubles the points and immediately promotes them to at least that Spirit’s rarity, if it is higher.
Rarity points: costs and yield from Spirits
Upgrading rarity is entirely governed by a simple point system. Each rank has two values: how many points are needed to reach the next rank, and how many points a Spirit of that rank gives when synthesized.
| Rarity rank | Points needed to reach next rank | Points granted by a Spirit of this rank |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Player | 10 | 1 |
| Growing Player | 50 | 5 |
| Advanced Player | 250 | 25 |
| Top Player | 1250 | 125 |
| Legendary Player | – (final upgrade tier) | 625 |
The numbers grow in a clear pattern: each step multiplies the requirement and payout by five. That makes low-rarity Spirits poor fuel for higher upgrades. Pushing a player from Top Player to Legendary is far more efficient if you have Top or Legendary Spirits, especially matching ones, than if you try to burn piles of Normal Spirits.
Hero vs Legendary: which rarity is stronger?
Legendary Player is the peak of the standard upgrade route, but HERO sits above it in practical power. Players in HERO rarity are treated as premium versions of iconic characters with dramatically higher stats and strong built-in passives.
The tradeoff: HERO players are effectively “fixed builds.” You cannot alter their move sets or Abilain board loadouts; the only thing you can change is their equipment. Their passives and growth path are locked. In return, they arrive with what players describe as “ludicrous” stats compared to even well-built Legendary versions of the same character.
| Comparison point | Legendary Player | Hero |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Any player can be raised to this rank via Spirits. | Only a limited, mostly main-character pool; obtained via rare HERO Spirits. |
| Stat ceiling | Very high, but below HERO equivalents. | Higher overall stats and very strong passives. |
| Customization | Multiple Passive Skill slots, flexible Abilain builds, move changes. | Moves and Abilain board are fixed; only equipment is swappable. |
| Team-building role | Core units whose passives you tailor to your plan or to amplify a HERO. | Centerpiece stars you build around, similar to “Mega Evolution” style power spikes. |
| Limit on field | No hard cap. | Intended hard cap of two HERO players; currently bypassable through a bug. |
In practice, HERO players outclass Legendary ones on raw numbers. The design intent is that you field up to two HERO characters and then surround them with carefully crafted Legendary teammates whose passives and tactics support those HERO anchors.
There is currently a bug that lets teams sneak in more than two HERO ranks. Competitive players expect that to be patched, because it undermines the balancing idea that Heroes are limited, “build-around” threats rather than a full-team standard.
Different HERO “rarities” and playstyle builds
HERO characters also come in different cosmetic or sub-rarity flavors that map to playstyle-focused passive sets. Three names show up in gacha presentations and community testing:
| HERO variant | Common passive themes |
|---|---|
| Burning | Often leans into Tension boosts or Rough Play-style aggression. |
| Metallic | Frequently associated with Bond-focused or Justice-aligned passives. |
| Purple Dia | Tends to feature Knockout/Breach or Counter-themed passives. |
Each HERO variant of a character can push them into a different role. For example, two HERO versions of Axel (Gouenji Shuuya) can exist with different passives and orientations, letting you pick the one that fits your system—one might be better as a pure finisher, another as a pressure forward with better off-the-ball value.
Not every HERO strictly follows the initial pattern for these three sub-rarities, especially when obtained as drops rather than from a gacha banner, so individual passives still need to be checked on a case-by-case basis.
How rarity ties into the broader grind (Spirits, Heroes, and drops)
Because higher-rarity Spirits scale exponentially in point value, the late-game loop tilts toward farming matches that can drop Top or Legendary Spirits and specific custom passives. One widely used tactic is stacking a custom passive that boosts rare item drop rates across as many players as possible, pushing the team-wide chance for rare drops toward roughly three-quarters of matches.
That grind feeds several overlapping goals:
- Gathering enough high-rank Spirits to push key players to Legendary.
- Stockpiling Legendary Spirits instead of immediately converting them, so you can buy HERO Spirits when they appear in the Spirit Market.
- Chasing HERO Spirits through gacha-style pulls in the Player Universe using Bond Stars, and through hard Hero Battles in Chronicle Mode.
The result is a loop where rarity, Spirits, and drops all reinforce each other. Stronger teams unlock harder matches, those matches have better odds for high-rarity Spirits and passives, and those in turn make it easier to raise more Legendary players or secure the HERO versions everyone is chasing.
Rarity in Victory Road is more than a label: it is a structured progression system that determines both the ceiling on a player’s stats and the complexity of their build. Legendary rank is where normal players peak, with high parameters and flexible Passive Skill setups. HERO rank stands above even that, trading almost all customization for extreme stats and powerful predefined passives, and is limited in how many you can reasonably field. To build a competitive team, the real work lies in deciding which characters deserve the climb to Legendary and which HERO variants are strong enough to justify building your entire system around them.
