Hero Wars Dominion: Winter Fest 2025

Winter Fest 2025 Resource Generators

Figure I be more specific since the events prior to Winter Fest (WF) weren't explored fully due to resource limitations. Any who, Winter Fest 2025 kicked off with amazing and sanity saving additions: resource generators (labeled Winter Lanterns in game). There were 5-generators total but my focus was on two because they were of the most use to me: baubles and emeralds.

It sounds weird but for me, baubles are extremely difficult to come by and any time there's a WF that doesn't have a new hero attached, the earnings are abysmal. I haven't been able to send one of each gift daily in what feels like forever. This time around, I was able to do this without much issue once Day-2 came around.

Of course by this time, I omitted sending the Transformation Gift (20-Gingerbread Cookies) because it didn't feel like it was worth sending. With that said, the Power Gift was sent daily without missing a beat.

New Features and Currencies

Gifts. For some reason the screen starts on Pet
Gifts and not Upgrade Gifts. You have to scroll
to the left to get to it.

I made mention of the resource generators and the Gingerbread Cookies (GBC) earlier so here's a slightly more detailed explanation. The generators are a feature that were introduced back during Summer Festival. I didn't get to use them back then, because I didn't have enough of the event currency.

Fastforward 2-ish seasons and they make a return but they're within reach. Thanks to the event map overview, I was able to focus on the generators I really wanted without worry of clicking the wrong one. Baubles were top priority because they're used to decorate the guild tree for which we're rewarded with the second event currency: New Years Candies (NYC).

Between the NYCs and GBCs, the NYCs came in higher quantities. That made sending out the basic event gifts a breeze. The cookies, on the other hand, you had to stay on top of every task that rewarded them. This included the non-Winter Fest events that surfaced (some, not all).

The gifts are slightly different from prior WFs prior. This year we got the Upgrade (1K NYC), Pet (2K NYC), Ascension (5K NYC), Skins (20K NYC), Transformation (20 GBC) and Power (40 GBC) Gifts. The pick above is before is before gifts were sent out for the day. Since I'm taking these screen shots on the last day, I have to keep an eye on the clock so I don't miss out on any remaining rewards. 

Some Good Changes, But Complaints Persist

Page 1 of the Shop on my FB acct. Web accounts
look different because they weren't active in past
Winter Fest Events.

There is this strange fixation on hoarding being bad. In addition to the generators...Winter Lanterns, some players went the route of holding onto some of the event currencies for upgrading the lanterns to their max. To further agitate the situation, there was also an addition to the former avatar shop. This addition came with the ability to purchase certain resources along with a select few hard to get skins.

This included the two new skins for Folio and Lyria. Skins aren't top priority in a sense especially if they are paywalled. That said, some players were foregoing sending out x-amount of gifts so they could get stuff from the shop in addition to upgrading the Lanterns.

Some don't like this and want all the new stuff done away with so focus, in their eyes, will go back to sending gifts. Gifts are still being sent, but I guess they want boatloads of gifts to be sent to everyone and don't want players to focus solely on themselves majority of the time.

Despite the new additions which took some getting used to, they were welcomed by a nice sum of players of whom or can't spend in-game. As an example, the Bauble Winter Lantern could be upgraded using gold; a common in-game currency. In fact, that was the first lantern to be maxed while the others were left untouched.

When the Emerald Winter Lantern unlocked, that was upgraded to Level 3. The Elemental Catalyst Lantern would've been next, but time would've been very limited and earnings small due to the long regeneration time.

Other Highlights That May Seem Small to Some

Level 25 Winter Fest Tree

A first in a long while. The guild tree was upgraded to Level 25. It sounds ridiculous but the guild tree hasn't been this high a level, if at all, in a long while and this is just with two players.

This is a big deal especially since the tree level tends to translate into tree size in the main square. I could actually see it when in my other accounts you have to hunt for it.

As an added bonus, the guild was actually in the Top 50 for tree decorating and not in the hundreds somewhere. Over a million baubles combined. In addition to this, we made it to Level 53 for the Light and Dark Fest events. Plus I helped my guildmate get caught up on the available Winter Skins which included Augustus and Helios from last year. All that's left is Lyria and Folio but we'll have to wait and see when they'll be released for skin stones if at all.

Closing Impressions 

Letter to Winter Claus pre-selection of gifts.
Main acct (oldest of the bunch) asked for Totem,
Emeralds and Legendary Soul Stone Chest.

By far, this is the most productive and rewarding Winter Fest I've been in during my 8-years of playing. I mainly looked forward to it because a new hero would get released during this time which was tied to lots of bauble earning. When new hero releases ceased, so did the bauble earning and gift sending.

With this iteration of the event, there was a lot to get used to and quickly since time was of the essence. There was a way to earn lots of baubles which I enjoyed immensely and ways to earn other resources. I was earning enough to send one of each gift daily (Transformation included but opted out until the last 2-days).

Top changes I would like to see is a return to the list format for gift contents. Waiting to see what's included via the carousel is time consuming. Even more when lag kicks in with the launching of fireworks.

Moreover, it would be nice to have a neat little table showcasing the probability of item drops. In addition to this, the ability to get all three of the requested gifts from Winter Claus. For my oldest account I asked for emeralds, the Legendary Soul Stone Chest and Totem Sphere. Wonder which one I'll get?