Incarnation Tree Guide - Hero Level Tree Replacement

If you are following a guide that talks about the Hero Level Tree, it is describing a system that no longer exists in that form. The Incarnation Tree replaced it.

What is the Incarnation Tree?

Panic Art Studios announced it in the Season 9 teaser on Steam:

We will be having 2 new skill trees in Season 9. Incarnation tree which will replace the current hero level tree.

Functionally it is prestige progression: a grid where you invest stats to raise late-game power, sitting above normal character levelling rather than replacing it. Community build tools describe planning “Incarnation stat investments on the prestige system grid” as a distinct step from planning a skill tree.

How is it different from the Hero Level Tree?

The Hero Level Tree was the older account-wide progression that Hero levels fed into. The Incarnation Tree took its place in Season 9, so:

• Guides written before Season 9 that reference the Hero Level Tree are describing superseded progression.
• Hero levels themselves still matter — they add XP per kill for later characters — but the tree they used to feed is not the current one.

Does the Incarnation Tree work offline?

Yes. Players report that both the Incarnation and Ether trees are available in offline mode, along with other current-season content. If you play offline, this progression is not locked away from you.

Should you plan Incarnation investment in advance?

It is worth doing, for the same reason as skill points: undoing a choice costs more than thinking about it. Community build planners include the Incarnation grid alongside skill trees and gear precisely because the three interact — an investment that suits a clearing build may not suit a bossing one.

What this page does not cover

Node-by-node recommendations. The material available for this page establishes what the Incarnation Tree is, when it arrived and what it replaced — it does not contain a reliable current-season breakdown of individual nodes and their values, and inventing one would be worse than saying so.

The system is also new enough to have drawn mixed community reaction, so treat strong opinions about it as opinions rather than settled balance.

Use the leveling route guide to separate ordinary character levels from prestige progression, and the Ether Tree guide for the parallel farming tree. For a concrete allocation workflow, start with the build-planner guide before comparing the published build catalog.

Next step

Check your Incarnation grid alongside your skill tree rather than separately — and if you are reading an older guide, confirm whether it means the Incarnation Tree or the Hero Level Tree it replaced.