1 The shape of a run
A run is measured in days, and each day is divided into hours. In each hour you choose one of a small set of destinations: a merchant selling items, a monster to fight, or an event with a decision attached.
The day then closes with a match against a build another player assembled. That is the rhythm of the whole game: several chances to improve, followed by a test.
Because the test arrives on a schedule, so does the pressure to be ready for it. An hour spent on an event that does not advance your board is an hour your opponent may have spent on one that did.
2 The board and why space is the real currency
Your board space expands during a run. Check the slots currently unlocked before buying; a plan that fits the eventual full board can still be unusable at your present level.
Every item occupies a fixed amount of that space. Small items take one slot, medium items take two, and large items take three. That is the constraint the entire game is built around.
| Size | Slots | What it has to justify |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 1 | Very little. Useful even as filler that supports a neighbour |
| Medium | 2 | Should be doing a job you would otherwise need two smalls for |
| Large | 3 | Nearly a third of a full board. It has to be a centrepiece, not a nice extra |
Early in a run, with only four slots open, a large item is most of your board. Taking one is a commitment to building around it, and that is a legitimate strategy. Taking one because it looked strong and then trying to fit a different plan around it is how runs collapse.
3 Cooldowns: every item has its own clock
Combat runs without input. Items with cooldowns activate automatically when their cooldowns complete; passive items instead contribute through the conditions written on their tooltips. A fight is therefore two boards ticking against each other.
This is why raw numbers mislead. An item that hits hard every eight seconds may contribute less than a weaker one that fires three times in the same window, and a shield that arrives after the damage did nothing at all.
A family of effects exists specifically to interfere with those clocks, and learning them is the real skill curve of the game.
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Haste | Speeds up your own cooldowns |
| Slow | Drags out an enemy cooldown |
| Freeze | Stops an enemy item from progressing at all for a time |
| Charge | Pushes one of your items part way toward triggering |
| Multicast | Makes an item trigger more than once when it fires |
4 Tiers and upgrading
Many items use bronze, silver, gold and diamond tiers. Read the available upgrade and its displayed result instead of assuming that every item has every tier. Raising the tier improves the numbers on that item, which can mean more damage, more shield, longer haste or a shorter cooldown.
The important consequence is that a modest item you keep and upgrade often beats a flashier one you just picked up. An upgrade normally retains the size of the item. Compare that gain with replacing a weak piece or changing the supporting loop before spending.
5 Enchantments
An enchantment is an extra property attached to an item, with names such as fiery, icy, toxic, shielded, golden or radiant. Certain merchants and events apply them, and some monsters carry pre-enchanted items you can win by beating them.
Treat these as a way to change what an item is for rather than as a bonus. An enchantment can give a weapon a defensive role or turn a support piece into a source of damage over time, which sometimes rescues a board that was missing one function.
6 The stash is storage, not a second board
Alongside the board you have a stash with ten slots of its own. Items kept there do not activate during a fight, so nothing you store contributes damage or defence.
It is still valuable. The stash is where you hold a piece you intend to build around later, or a spare you plan to combine, and certain non combat effects still apply from inside it. What it must never become is a place where good items sit while a weaker board fights without them.
7 Choosing a hero
Heroes are the starting point of a run, and the roster has grown steadily since launch. Each has a distinct play style and its own pool of items and encounters, so the hero decides which kinds of board are even available to you.
For a first week, stay with one hero rather than sampling all of them. The item pool is large, and recognising what you are being offered is most of what separates a good run from a confusing one. That recognition does not transfer between heroes as quickly as you would hope.
8 What to do in your first runs
- Read every item you are offered rather than judging by picture. Cooldown and size matter more than the damage number.
- Fill your available slots early, even with modest pieces. An empty slot contributes nothing.
- Once slots are full, compare upgrades with replacing the piece that contributes least.
- Make sure your board can both deal damage and survive. A board that only attacks loses to one that outlasts it.
- Accept losing runs. The information you gain about the item pool is the actual progress.
The developer describes every run as a unique puzzle to be solved, and that is the right expectation. You are not executing a build you memorised. You are working out what the shop gave you this time.
Read Charge triggers after Hotfix 19.3
The 23 October Hotfix 19.3 changes many hero Charge skills from a limited set of opening triggers to a repeating threshold. For example, Alacrity now charges one item by one second after every four or three critical hits, depending on its tier. A board relying on its old opening burst may take longer to get started even though its skill keeps contributing in a longer fight.
Read the trigger count and eligible target together. Reverb counts Instrument uses; Burning Blade counts Weapon uses but charges a Burn item. Those are different jobs, so adding an unrelated fast item does not automatically advance either loop. The developer also distinguishes monster skills from the revised hero skills; do not infer your reward or hero tooltip solely from the enemy animation.
Source: Hotfix 19.3 skill changes. Checked 27 October 2026.
Runs move through days made of hours, each offering merchants, monsters or events, and each day ends against another player build. Board space opens during the run, and item size constrains the pieces you can use together. Combat resolves on cooldowns, which is why haste, slow, freeze, charge and multicast decide fights more than raw damage. Fill useful roles, then compare upgrades with replacements, use enchantments to fill missing roles, and remember that stashed items do not fight.
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