Many people have started playing Loop HeroHow do I know that? It hit 50,000 Simultaneous Users on Steam during the weekend. I was one of them. I’ve now put more than 25 hours into roguelite building a deck, and I have some tips for anyone just getting started.
At the most basic level, Loop Hero plays himselfYour warrior will automatically move around in a circle, automatically fighting hordes of slime and vampires. Over time, they get stronger, and if they get strong enough, they will survive to summon the boss, defeat them, and move on to the next chapter. Of course, the devil is in the details of everything you can do on top of this simple conceit, including upgrading equipment, building settlements, and choosing how to play the cards you collect on each expedition. Here’s some helpful advice I’ve put together based on my own experience navigating this complex glove.
Prioritize certain statistics for each class.
The knight is tank-like and strikes slowly. The Rogue is more vulnerable, but it has two weapons. The Necromancer summons skeletons to fight by their side. Each requires a different strategy. I’ve found that focusing on these specific metrics for each class has led to more success and a longer life:
- Knight: Rain / Vampirism
- Rogue: Evasion / Crit Chance
- Necromancer: Magic HP / Extra Skeletons
Survival is the name of the game, which means you have to weigh up how fast you can kill enemies with how fast you heal. Rain is nice because it works even when you’re not in battle, while Magic HP tells you how much damage the Necromancer can take in each battle before being injured.
High-level equipment isn’t always better.
All stuff in it Loop Hero has a level and one of four rarities: common, blue, yellow, and orange. The higher the rarity, the more bonus stats it contains. However, just letting the numbers rise is not enough. You may get armor that is two tiers higher than your current one, but it is the lowest rarity and so does not come with bonuses. In this case, something like 10% vampirism is better than an extra 100 HP.
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The reverse can also be the case, depending on the situation. In one expedition, I got a higher level common ring with a regeneration rate of 4.5. I quickly traded it in for the single-digit buffs in my existing orange rarity ring. Plus, any armor you don’t use will eventually break down into resources, so consider waiting instead of constantly switching to new gear with only marginally better stats.
Don’t just put land down.
Mountain maps give you more HP, and a total of 120 HP extra when arranged in a 3×3 grid. Pastures will give you an extra resource if you place them next to a mountain or a series of rocks, making it more beneficial to mix them up instead of placing them somewhere separately on the map. Rivers’ bonus effects are doubled when they hit another land in two places, so make sure to place them in a zigzag pattern rather than straight lines.
It’s okay not to play every card.
Like extra equipment, unused maps are split into extra resources that can be used to expand and upgrade your settlement. So don’t feel like you have to play everything that gets turned in your hand, especially if you’re on an expedition to grind purely for resources. Moreover, the key to success is in Loop Hero is balancing the need to breed enemies for better resources and equipment with the fact that they can survive until late game. A few vampire mansions is good. Littering the map with it is not.
Know when to fold them.
If you think you’ll survive another loop, retreat to your village when you pass. You may keep anything you collected on that expedition. There is a significant amount of grinding in it Loop Heromeaning you’ll likely take some expeditions to farm for certain resources to get major upgrades and unlock important maps without ever having the intention of taking on the Chapter Boss. Better to resume an expedition early than to lose much of your trek in an untimely death. When it comes down to it, you can also retire for a smaller penalty from another square on the map when you’re not in battle.
Tell-tale signs you should back off are when the loop has multiple squares with large groups or enemies on it, and if you haven’t gotten proper gear upgrades in a while. Enemies get harder each completed loop, and like the RNG, which one Loop Hero has a lot, just not going the way you want, better to stop while you are ahead.
Upgrade the Smelter.
Your settlement in Loop Hero is actually your skill tree. The upgrades are carried over between expeditions and are often the determining factor in whether or not they survive. Try to unlock the Melter as early as possible and upgrade it to get the arsenal. Once placed, you can equip an additional piece of gear in a new slot that will give you one more chance to improve your class’s key stats.
Unlock watchtowers.
Watchtowers take a little longer to get, but are also super useful for agricultural resources. They provide archers in your settlement who can attack enemies in the surrounding squares, depending on how much they are upgraded. This encourages playing as many monster cards as close to your settlement as possible to essentially engage in most of the toughest battles of your loop with backup.
Get the Blade of Dawn trait.
Each time your character is elevated in a loop, they can select one of three new traits to aid them during the expedition. The Knight has plenty of good ones to choose from, but Blade of Dawn has never let me down. It ensures that your first attack of each new day is super charged and deals double damage all enemies in an encounter. Days pass quickly outside of battle, and if you’ve placed enemy buildings sparingly and wisely, you can start almost any major battle this way.
For the Rogue I always go with the Child of the Forest pet trait which has a 75% chance of spawning a companion dire wolf every fight, and for the Necromancer I really like Unseen Care which gives you a permanent bonus Magic HP for each skeleton summoned. Normally I try to go with whatever trait gets triggered often or provides a lasting benefit that scales nicely as the loop gets harder.
Use a Storm Temple to burn a forest.
Loop Hero is full of mysterious synergies between different buildings and land types. One of these is the Burned Forest, which you get when you place a Storm Temple and it hits a forest or undergrowth with lightning. The Burnt Forest deals extra magical damage that ignores enemy defenses. Another good combination is the Hungry Grove, which is created when you place two Blood Groves next to a regular forest. It will occasionally attack you when fighting enemies next to it, but will also instantly kill any enemy that falls below 20% health, allowing you to take out large groups much faster.
Experiment with different combinations.
Different maps produce different effects and let you harvest different resources. If you always play the same class and do similar loop setups, you don’t get the full range of resources needed to quickly expand your settlement, which is the real point of 90% of the expeditions you take. Play with different land types, enemy buildings and placements on the map to see what happens.
Likewise, different classes are better suited for different types of loops. The Necromancer will fare better against larger mobs, while the Rogue can deal massive critical blows that can take out quest enemies (the ones that spawn by visiting villages) much faster.
Use Oblivion to destroy enemy camps.
I’ve died of goblins more times than I can count. They hit hard and fast and often appear in groups of three or four. With the Oblivion map, you can destroy every square on the map, not just the things you’ve built. You can use it to wipe out a crowd of goblins, or better yet destroy the camp that spawns them. The same goes for Bandit Camps and other enemy spawn sites that automatically appear as you progress.
Extra credit: You can also use an Oblivion card to destroy the last mountain or rock formation in a 3X3 mountain range. You can then replace the mountain or rock to reactivate the formation and get additional bonus resources. You can rinse and repeat as many times as you want. (Hat tip user Jolly2Joy of the Loop Hero subreddit