Top Ladder Stats (2025-04)

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Authors:

Alpe

Last updated: 2025-05-07

Page change log:

• Created: 2025-05-07

Page contents:

• About Season Stats
• Tower Troops
• Evolutions
• Evolution Unlock Rate
• Evolutions VS Normal Cards
• Champions
• Spells
• Win Conditions
• Checks and Balances
• All Cards
• Top 20 Countries

About Season Stats

The Path of Legends (PoL) leaderboard is a great place to consistently find the best players and to see how they adapt to the meta. The first Monday of every month, the season ends and a new one begins. While players are competing to reach the top, we are tracking their results and deck choices.

With this blog, we present a summary and a few insights of all the data that we collected during the last days of the season, with a focus on the decks that players used to obtain their final rank.

Stats Format Basics

These stats are based on the decks and card collections of the best players, the ones who finished among the top 1,000 players in Path of Legends.

Over this blog, we'll look at card stats with tables that use the following format:

• Usage refers to the share of players who used the card in their main deck. This stat is paired with a change %, which is the difference when compared to last season's usage.
• Average Rank is the mean of all the placements from players who used this card. The center point is 500, so if the value is below 500, it means the card is quite good.
• Have It Maxed refers to the share of players who have that card at Level 15, which is the ideal level to compete in PoL. The companion bar chart also shows the amount of players who have this card at Level 14 (in light blue). If the light blue range is wide, it implies that a lot of players don't consider this card worthy to spend Elite Wild Cards on it, because EWCs are a scarce resource.
• Usage/Maxed (U/M) shows the amount of players who use a card from those that have it maxed. Some cards can be harder to unlock and level up, so usage may not be a good indicator if it's being held down by other factors. It's also relevant to know that every season boosts a few cards, which allows players to use them without the need to level them up.

Win Rate VS Rank

Due to the nature of the ladder system, card win rates aren't useful to understand the strength of a card. We think a mix of the stats listed above can paint a more accurate picture of the state of each card.

The main reason for this is that system which are based in score matchmaking aims to pair players with others of similar strength. If the amount of battles played is sufficient, the score of the player stabilises, leading to a win rate of ~50%.

Better players stabilise at higher scores than worse players, but in the long term, the winrate becomes similar. This causes this metric to be fairly irrelevant when compared to rank and usage.

Tower Troops

• This season introduced a +14% buff to the cooking speed of Royal Chef, but this change didn't make a difference.

Evolutions

• Evolved Executioner scores #11 in evolution usage during the first season.
• Evolved Ice Spirit had the best average rank
• Evolved Lumberjack, again, has the biggest fall in usage (-15%). This time a much bigger drop than last season.

Evolution Unlock Rate

Evolutions are arguably the most challenging progression limitation for players who don't purchase Pass Royale regularly. This means they are also a great indicator for seasonal revenue from the competitive players.

Over time, players find evolution shards through other means, so older evolutions lose that strong correlation with Pass Royale purchases. To avoid that, it's best to keep comparisons to very recent evolutions from the last 2 seasons:

• Lumberjack (S68) ➜ 46%
• Hunter (S69) ➜ 37%
• Executioner (S70) ➜ 31%

Executioner is now the least popular evolution in terms of unlock rate.

Evolutions VS Normal Cards

Comparing evolutions to their normal cards is a great way to see how relevant each evolution ability actually is.

If we also look at the usage of the normal card, we can get a better sense of their place in the meta, helping us answer:

• Is the normal card strong and usable by itself?
• Is the evolution necessary and what makes it strong?

Several evolutions take this to an extreme, where the normal card is completely unused and only the Evolution has usage. For these cases, it seems fair to argue that the normal card has been weakened so that the evolution buff turns it into a balanced one.

It seems incompatible to have both the normal card and the evolution in a balanced state, at least as long as the evolution provides a relevant advantage.

What is LUR?

This chart introduces a new stat: Log-based Usage Ratio (LUR). This is a value that directly compares the usage of an Evolution with the usage of it's normal variant.

$$\mathsf{LUR}={\log }_{10}\left(\frac{\mathsf{Evolution}\mathsf{Usage}}{\mathsf{Normal}\mathsf{Card}\mathsf{Usage}}\right)$$

The basic way to read it is:

• A positive value means that the Evolution is more popular
• A negative value means that the Normal Card is more popular

The logarithm is simply used to translate this ratio into a simpler number that's easier to read. E.g.:

• LUR=1: Evolution is used 10x more
• LUR=2: Evolution is used 100x more

Champions

Champions are always an interesting category because they exclude each other in decks. But players don't always have a Champion in their deck, so that's why "No Champion" is listed as well.

Overall, using "No Champion" led to a worse average rank. This difference seems mainly due to the strength of Boss Bandit, Monk and Little Prince.

Spells

This season, the spell meta didn't change significantly when compared to the last one.

Fireball and The Log remain as the best options, and Tornado lost a significant amount of usage.

Rocket stands out with a great average rank, even if i wasn't very popular.

Win Conditions

Win conditions are one of the best ways to look at archetype performance. Unlike support cards, which can fit in several archetypes, these are the core cards that define them.

Some highlights from this season:

• Giant had the biggest drop in usage; last season it had the biggest jump upwards.
• Evolved Royal Giant almost doubled in usage, and also ended up with a great average rank.
• Lava Hound had the best average rank, although it wasn't very popular.

Checks and Balances

The start of the season introduced balance changes, what was their outcome?

Balance Changes

• Tornado, Dagger Duchess and Evolved Lumberjack had big reductions in usage.
• Evolved Tesla had a significant usage increase, but remains in the single digits.

All Cards

This data can be used as long as we are properly credited as the source.

Data Dump

#		Card	Usage	Rank
1		Tower Princess	78.6%	497
2		The Log	39.0%	490
3		Fireball	26.1%	481
4		Guards	25.9%	504
5		Arrows	25.2%	506
6		Skeletons	20.5%	462
7		Evolved Cannon	18.6%	499
8		Goblin Gang	17.4%	488
9		Miner	17.2%	427
10		Barbarian Barrel	15.9%	497
11		Electro Spirit	15.7%	482
12		Evolved Zap	12.3%	467
13		Boss Bandit	12.1%	457
14		Evolved Bats	12.0%	459
15		Cannoneer	11.7%	489
16		Knight	11.5%	482
17		Rage	11.2%	548
18		Tornado	11.2%	587
19		Fisherman	11.1%	479
20		Evolved Royal Giant	10.7%	467
21		Lightning	10.5%	546
22		Monk	10.3%	461
23		Evolved Knight	10.1%	496
24		Spear Goblins	10.0%	430
25		Ice Spirit	9.9%	503
26		Evolved Ice Spirit	9.9%	421
27		Dagger Duchess	9.5%	535
28		Balloon	9.4%	477
29		Royal Ghost	9.4%	552
30		Evolved Hunter	9.4%	452
31		Skeleton King	9.2%	496
32		Ice Wizard	9.1%	473
33		Hog Rider	8.3%	517
34		Prince	8.1%	529
35		Graveyard	7.9%	503
36		Evolved Archers	7.9%	553
37		Evolved Wall Breakers	7.9%	492
38		Bandit	7.7%	526
39		Archer Queen	7.7%	520
40		Poison	7.6%	526
41		Rocket	7.5%	421
42		Evolved Giant Snowball	7.4%	479
43		Evolved Executioner	7.3%	545
44		Evolved Skeletons	7.2%	535
45		Cannon Cart	7.0%	439
46		Earthquake	6.8%	483
47		Evolved Barbarians	6.5%	503
48		Evolved Mortar	6.4%	436
49		Inferno Dragon	6.2%	451
50		Night Witch	6.2%	573
51		Princess	6.2%	496
52		Mega Minion	6.1%	412
53		X-Bow	6.0%	527
54		Giant	5.8%	453
55		Evolved Goblin Barrel	5.8%	496
56		Royal Hogs	5.7%	497
57		Evolved Royal Recruits	5.7%	555
58		Evolved Battle Ram	5.7%	579
59		Evolved Lumberjack	5.6%	495
60		Evolved Goblin Cage	5.5%	552
61		Bowler	5.4%	577
62		Evolved Valkyrie	5.4%	521
63		Evolved Tesla	5.4%	463
64		Giant Snowball	5.2%	466
65		Heal Spirit	5.2%	565
66		Skeleton Dragons	5.0%	470
67		Dark Prince	4.9%	591
68		Ice Golem	4.9%	481
69		Mighty Miner	4.7%	527
70		Evolved Musketeer	4.5%	475
71		Bomber	4.3%	380
72		Lava Hound	4.3%	412
73		Baby Dragon	4.2%	591
74		Electro Wizard	4.2%	713
75		Zap	4.2%	519
76		Elixir Golem	4.1%	595
77		Evolved Goblin Giant	4.1%	581
78		Goblinstein	4.1%	538
79		Ram Rider	4.0%	457
80		Goblin Drill	4.0%	463
81		Evolved Firecracker	4.0%	524
82		Elixir Collector	3.9%	570
83		Evolved Bomber	3.7%	548
84		Cannon	3.4%	427
85		Firecracker	3.4%	519
86		Evolved Mega Knight	3.4%	487
87		Bomb Tower	3.3%	469
88		Goblin Machine	3.3%	651
89		Flying Machine	3.2%	479
90		Inferno Tower	3.2%	503
91		Royal Delivery	3.2%	459
92		Freeze	3.1%	583
93		Mother Witch	2.6%	611
94		Sparky	2.4%	656
95		Tesla	2.4%	443
96		Phoenix	2.3%	501
97		Zappies	2.2%	485
98		Evolved Electro Dragon	2.2%	596
99		Fire Spirit	2.1%	464
100		Electro Giant	2.1%	643
101		Minions	1.9%	626
102		Elite Barbarians	1.8%	699
103		Tombstone	1.8%	368
104		Dart Goblin	1.7%	551
105		Skeleton Barrel	1.7%	517
106		Evolved P.E.K.K.A	1.7%	758
107		Evolved Dart Goblin	1.7%	578
108		Goblins	1.5%	447
109		Evolved Wizard	1.5%	598
110		Golem	1.4%	619
111		Musketeer	1.4%	558
112		P.E.K.K.A	1.3%	503
113		Bats	1.2%	528
114		Giant Skeleton	1.1%	481
115		Magic Archer	1.1%	582
116		Mini P.E.K.K.A	1.1%	507
117		Minion Horde	1.1%	502
118		Goblin Curse	1.1%	538
119		Battle Healer	1.0%	605
120		Golden Knight	1.0%	519
121		Rascals	0.9%	585
122		Skeleton Army	0.9%	586
123		Little Prince	0.9%	302
124		Three Musketeers	0.8%	685
125		Wall Breakers	0.8%	649
126		Lumberjack	0.7%	492
127		Suspicious Bush	0.7%	679
128		Valkyrie	0.6%	183
129		Void	0.6%	495
130		Witch	0.5%	627
131		Mega Knight	0.4%	431
132		Royal Giant	0.4%	768
133		Battle Ram	0.3%	556
134		Executioner	0.3%	708
135		Evolved Goblin Drill	0.3%	422
136		Berserker	0.3%	620
137		Clone	0.2%	280
138		Goblin Cage	0.2%	712
139		Royal Chef	0.2%	839
140		Hunter	0.1%	761
141		Archers	0.0%	-
142		Barbarian Hut	0.0%	-
143		Barbarians	0.0%	-
144		Electro Dragon	0.0%	-
145		Furnace	0.0%	-
146		Goblin Barrel	0.0%	-
147		Goblin Giant	0.0%	-
148		Goblin Hut	0.0%	-
149		Mirror	0.0%	-
150		Mortar	0.0%	-
151		Royal Recruits	0.0%	-
152		Wizard	0.0%	-
153		Goblin Demolisher	0.0%	-
154		Rune Giant	0.0%	-

Top 20 Countries

This leaderboard sorts countries based on the amount of players in the Top 1,000.

The amount of players for each country is displayed in the "Count" column; to the right, you can see a ±value, which is the change compared to last season.

Signature Cards are cards which were disproportionately used in the region when compared to the global average. The 5 displayed cards are sorted, meaning that the first card is the Top 1 signature card. Usually signature cards hint towards a specific archetype that is unusually popular in the country.

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