Strategy

The one rule behind every good build

You get four Signature slots, and an Ascension needs two families at MAX. That means a normal run can forge two Ascensions at most, and the four families you pick should be exactly those two pairs. A fifth family you liked in room 1 is a slot you can never use for an Ascension.

The second rule: put your weapon's evolution family inside one of the pairs. The recipe only needs that family at level 3 plus Swift or Vitality at tier II, and level 3 is allowed from room 2. Bring them together in room 2 and the next ordinary chest becomes the Epic that evolves you, a full room before any Ascension can forge. The same family then keeps climbing toward its Ascension in room 3.

A starting plan for every hero

These plans use one weapon per hero. In each, the first pair contains the evolution family, and the Generic in the last column is the one the recipe asks for. Take the first pair's families as soon as they appear; take the second pair's when the first pair is safe.

Two plans in the table lean on a single idea. The Wizard's Fire and the Demon's Hellfire both stack burn, so the Archmage and Conflagration traits multiply exactly the damage these builds deal. The Necromancer's Frostbolt plan freezes with one pair and shatters frozen enemies with the other, which is why Shatter sits next to the evolution family.

Traits that fit, and traits that fight you

Read a trait's cost line against the plan before you start. Some combinations quietly cancel out:

• The Knight's Oathbound says you can never crit, while Sundering Edge at MAX turns full stacks into certain crits. Pick one or the other.
• The Shinobi's Single Edge makes multishot do nothing, so skip Extra Projectile and spend that Generic elsewhere. Scavenger removes heal cards, which also takes Renewal out of your hands.
• The Archer's Steady Hand gives +62% standing still and costs 28% while moving. It is excellent in room 1 and costly against the Unbeaten, who makes you move constantly.
• The Genie's Lamp Bound lands one card per hand a tier higher but deals only three cards, which makes it harder to find the exact families your plan needs.
• The Knight's Immovable is big damage, but with no dash you cannot break a Chain Hook or cross a Brimstone lane quickly. Practise the later rooms with another trait first.

Spending your four Generics

Only four different Generics fit in one run, and one of them is the recipe's Swift or Vitality. That leaves three. A melee hero gets little from Extra Projectile, which is only offered to shooting weapons anyway, so lean on Might, Keen Eye, Brutal or Wide Reach. A spell-heavy plan such as the Necromancer's Lich Army wants Focus, which cuts spell cooldown by up to 25%. Magnetism widens pickup range and adds up to 25% experience, so it pays most when taken early.

Gold and the Altar

Rune prices rise 18% with every room, so the cheapest Altar runes you will ever see are in room 1. Buy line rune I at 20 gold as soon as you can, and plan the IV runes around player levels 12 and up. You must choose between A-IV, your hero's Capstone, and B-IV, your element's Ascension. A minion plan gains a lot from the Necromancer's Lich, where minions never expire. A burn plan gains more from Inferno, which stacks burn to eight and spreads it from corpses.

Field Dressing costs 40 gold and grows 1.6 times with each use in a room, so the third heal already costs over 100. Keep enough gold for one or two heals before each guardian rather than healing at the first scratch. Gold carries over, so an unspent purse in room 2 is a guardian heal in room 4.

Guardian tactics

Look at each guardian's bar: it prints the weakness and the resistance. An Archer is resisted by the Hog Dragon and the Dredge but strong against the Unbeaten and the Wickwraith. A Knight is welcome against the Hog Dragon and the Behemoth but resisted by the Unbeaten and the Ironwarden. When you are resisted, your spell and your Ascension effects matter more, so plan your weapon to peak for the room where it struggles.

• Hog Dragon: stand at middle range on purpose. It gores there, the lane never re-aims, and a missed gore gives you a full second of 45% bonus damage.
• Bone Behemoth: fight with a wall behind you. A charge into the wall stuns it for 2.6 seconds; a miss into open floor only winds it.
• The Unbeaten: when its guard opens for The Answer, stop attacking for 0.9 seconds. Everything you hit it with comes straight back.
• The Dredge: melee heroes should work from the pool edge, just inside its 150px rake, and step out on the wind-up.
• The Wickwraith: every torch it eats makes it stronger for the rest of the fight, so the fastest kill is also the safest.
• The Ironwarden: its plate blocks up to 95%, so hold your spell and burst for the vent windows. If your build is weak, the last 70 seconds wear its plate down for you.
• Malphas: spells strip shields 6.5 times faster than attacks. Keep your spell ready for the start of each form, and shoot the three runes first in form II.

Remember the spell cap: one cast takes at most 20% of a guardian's health in rooms 1 and 2. Using your spell on the crowd around the boss is often the better trade early on.

What to buy at the Shrine first

Shared upgrades help every hero, so they come first. The Eternal Reroll (100 shards) and Banish (120) make the plans above much easier to find, because you can throw away hands that hold no family you need. After that, pick one main weapon and put Power and Survival ranks into it; the first three ranks of a node cost 70 shards in total. Ranks IV and V wait for stars, which the same weapon earns by playing it. Claim the 60-shard daily reward every day you play.

New to the rules behind these plans? Start at Cards and builds, or go back to the Toon Survivors hub.