Kingshot Hero Counter Guide: Direct, Conditional and Utility Counters

How to read this counter guide

A counter is not simply a higher-ranked hero. It is a repeatable advantage created by skills, position, targeting, or formation context. The raw data is reviewed by matchup and lane, then combined with gameplay-observed utility tags.

Direct counter

A repeated observed advantage with a clear matchup or lane condition.

Conditional counter

An observed advantage that depends heavily on formation, position, or teammates.

Utility counter

The skill kit answers a mechanic, but the exact hero-versus-hero matchup needs more direct testing.

Observed direct counters

These relationships have the strongest repeated support in the current raw Conquest dataset. The confidence label summarizes evidence without exposing row counts, powers, or private lineups.

Counter	Target	Evidence	Condition	Data note
Alcar	Amadeus	Strong	Place Alcar in the same frontline lane as Amadeus.	Observed through stage 490.
Howard	Amadeus	Strong	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Jabel	Helga	Strong	Most often observed with Jabel in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 420.
Jabel	Howard	Strong	Most often observed with Jabel in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 427.
Gordon	Howard	Strong	Most often observed with Gordon in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 382.
Quinn	Howard	Strong	Most often observed with Quinn in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 264.
Jabel	Amadeus	Moderate	Most often observed with Jabel in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 435.
Margot	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Margot in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 505.
Saul	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Saul in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 268.
Marlin	Amadeus	Moderate	Most often observed with Marlin in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 478.
Quinn	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Quinn in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 269.
Triton	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Triton in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 506.
Howard	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 268.
Rosa	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Rosa in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 471.
Howard	Margot	Strong	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Vivian	Amadeus	Moderate	Most often observed with Vivian in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 490.
Howard	Eric	Strong	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Zoe	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Zoe in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 422.
Long Fei	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Long Fei in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 422.
Vivian	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Vivian in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 489.
Thrud	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Thrud in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 487.
Yang	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Yang in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 506.
Triton	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Triton in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 490.
Marlin	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Marlin in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 479.
Amadeus	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Amadeus in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 478.
Saul	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Saul in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 380.
Amadeus	Rosa	Moderate	Most often observed with Amadeus in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 480.

Observed conditional counters

These matchups are useful leads, but the advantage is more sensitive to formation context or has meaningful evidence in both directions.

Counter	Target	Evidence	Condition	Data note
Rosa	Helga	Strong	Most often observed with Rosa in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 505.
Helga	Rosa	Strong	Most often observed with Helga in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 477.
Amadeus	Alcar	Strong	Most often observed with Amadeus in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 480.
Alcar	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Alcar in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 487.
Thrud	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Thrud in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 490.
Gordon	Helga	Moderate	Most often observed with Gordon in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 381.
Howard	Thrud	Strong	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Howard	Alcar	Strong	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Helga	Margot	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 477.
Thrud	Amadeus	Limited	Most often observed with Thrud in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 489.
Yang	Amadeus	Limited	Most often observed with Yang in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 489.
Helga	Gordon	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 269.
Amadeus	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Amadeus in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 475.
Quinn	Amadeus	Moderate	Most often observed with Quinn in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 267.
Saul	Amadeus	Moderate	Most often observed with Saul in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 264.
Howard	Forrest	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 23.
Olive	Forrest	Moderate	Most often observed with Olive in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 23.
Quinn	Forrest	Moderate	Most often observed with Quinn in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 23.
Zoe	Howard	Limited	Most often observed with Zoe in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 435.
Helga	Quinn	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 269.
Zoe	Amadeus	Limited	Most often observed with Zoe in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 421.
Howard	Long Fei	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 480.
Olive	Howard	Limited	Most often observed with Olive in back right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 24.
Gordon	Amadeus	Limited	Most often observed with Gordon in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 264.
Helga	Zoe	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 437.
Yang	Howard	Limited	Most often observed with Yang in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 490.
Marlin	Helga	Limited	Most often observed with Marlin in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 422.
Howard	Jabel	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 429.
Howard	Rosa	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Howard	Vivian	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 477.
Helga	Howard	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 249.
Margot	Howard	Limited	Most often observed with Margot in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 479.
Helga	Jabel	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 423.
Long Fei	Helga	Limited	Most often observed with Long Fei in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 505.
Helga	Marlin	Moderate	Most often observed with Helga in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 476.
Howard	Marlin	Moderate	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 480.
Eric	Howard	Limited	Most often observed with Eric in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 475.
Vivian	Helga	Limited	Most often observed with Vivian in back left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 488.
Amadeus	Margot	Moderate	Most often observed with Amadeus in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 480.
Howard	Quinn	Limited	Most often observed with Howard in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 382.
Amadeus	Jabel	Limited	Most often observed with Amadeus in front right, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 437.
Jaeger	Amadeus	Limited	Most often observed with Jaeger in back middle, initially pressuring the enemy front right.	Observed through stage 435.
Amadeus	Marlin	Limited	Most often observed with Amadeus in front left, initially pressuring the enemy front left.	Observed through stage 480.

Utility counter reference

Enemy mechanic	Useful response	Why
Healing and self-sustain	Anti-heal, burst, heroes-first or backline pressure	Prevent the next heal cycle or remove the healer before it stabilizes the team.
Stun, disable, immobilize, pin, confuse	Cleanse and control immunity	Keep the key hero acting through the control window.
Area damage and cleave	Team mitigation, team Defense, team healing	Reduce formation-wide damage instead of protecting only one hero.
Burst damage	Mitigation, Defense, healing, invulnerability	Survive the short damage window and force a second cycle.
Damage over time	Cleanse, healing, team mitigation	Remove or outlast repeated damage.
Heavy mitigation or Defense	Damage vulnerability, burst, repeated damage	Raise effective damage or maintain pressure through the defensive window.
Invulnerability	Damage over time, control, delayed pressure	Avoid wasting the main burst into the protected window.
Backline targeting	Backline anchor, team mitigation, healing, counter-pressure	Protect the carry or punish the enemy backline before it cycles.
Low-health triggers	Burst and heroes-first pressure	Finish the hero before the conditional recovery or damage spike activates.
Dodge	Multi-hit and damage over time	More independent hits reduce the value of avoiding individual attacks.

Utility counters are starting points for controlled experiments. They become direct or conditional hero counters only after the exact matchup is tested.

Why a counter can appear in both directions

Some hero pairs have winning evidence in both directions because the real counter is position plus formation, not the hero name alone. Alcar has the stronger observed advantage into Amadeus when aligned in the same frontline lane, but Amadeus has still won in other team structures. Those reverse wins do not erase the stronger pattern; they show why the condition must remain visible.

Generation, gear, widgets, surrounding control, and which front dies first can reverse a theoretically favorable matchup.

How to verify a counter on your account

Place the proposed counter in the required lane.
Keep the other four heroes and positions fixed.
Repeat the battle to separate the pattern from one random trigger.
Watch whether the countered hero dies, fails to cast, or loses its normal value.
Submit the exact result and positions.
Treat an Arena counter as preliminary until it is repeated in Arena.

Conquest conclusions use the current raw Conquest Lab dataset. Arena conclusions are preliminary projections unless a section explicitly says otherwise. Exact private rows, lineups, powers, and ratios are not published.