This method is based on early damage, many class activations and having tier 1 and 2 units at level 3. There is no healing to concentrate on damage and speed.

Do not take silencer or a healer early on, because of the damage focus. Also avoid gambler early, because its damage is too low early on. I also recommend avoiding DoT mages, because it makes items increasing mage attack speed useless. But mainly it is too slow for later rounds, especially for bosses. Do take scout, archer, arcanist, magician. Arcanist may be replaced later, but is useful to have at level 2, and the others you eventually want mostly at level 3. Amongst tier 2, always take witch, of course.

Note that heroes like usurer and assassin are fine to take despite doing DoT because of their class, it's just that mage DoT and nukers don't suit the build, which is a combination of projectiles, orbs and AoE. Also, of course, the witch is an auto pick despite its DoT. Ranged DoT seems better, plus the witch is one of your sorcerors.

Tier 3 and 4 heroes aren't usually affordable and will die too frequently as you likely won't be levelling them until the shop reaches level 4. One exception to this is usurer, who only needs to live long enough to curse a boss to be worthwhile. Spellblade is another possibility as you want rogues fast. Thief also, although tier 4 is not possible until later.

This build is based on 3 rogues, always including scout, and usually either 3 rangers or 3 warriors. If you get either dual gunner or outlaw, that should help the choice, and both are useful to have. Later you will have silencer unless you're very unlucky with RNG, so curser and sorceror are included. Sorceror will always be an active set, since only 2 are needed by the end, and arcanist is useful early. Curser often is for the same reason, but it depends on the RNG where your build will go.

The aim, apart from the rogue and warrior/ranger active classes, is to have 6-8 active classes by the end, with needed supporting units including silencer and either merchant or two damage-dealing mercenaries, usurer, gambler or thief. Nukers and healers won't be involved. Voider, mercenary, curser, builder or swarmer are possible options for the 6th+ active classes. You will always have psyker and explorer from vagrant and one other psyker that isn't the healer, usually psychic. Complete classes are not the aim and are usually too narrowly focussed and with weaknesses from bad heroes to fill the class on NG+5, at least in my opinion for the winningest builds. 6 rogues is probably the strongest option if you feel you have to complete a class, but still isn't recommended. This build is about winning most often on NG+5, not getting achievements for complete sets, for which NG 0-2 are fine.

The build isn't intended for looping, just for maximal win rate.

The 3 rogues are non-negotiable. The build needs maximum chaining and crits. But ranger or warrior don't have to be active, so you have some freedom with the remaining active sets. Perhaps even 2 enchanters.

Since mage is not usually an active class, you may wonder why I don't suggest replacing the magician. Simply because it is adequate at level 3. Sometimes you'll be offered an alternative AoE (not counting the witch which is usually an auto pick) with the magician still at level 1. If it's tier 2, you can replace. Also, if you get spellblade, it's entirely possible to win with 3 mages, such as magician, elementor, spellblade, so you don't have to replace the magician.

On NG+5, you need to save some gold and try to get some level 2 units for the first 2 bosses.

I recommend leaving merchant at level 1 and not upgrading any unit beyond level 2 until you've survived the second boss on round 12.

After that, or if you get over 100 gold earlier, you can start to upgrade everything at once regardless of tier but only down to 100 gold or nearest 10.

If you have above 100 gold and reroll down to 100, consider spending 10 more gold to get a good item to level 2. It's more of a risk if you don't have 2 mercenaries.

I don't think it's worth upgrading the shop unless every hero at the shop majority tier or below is level 3. The overall strength of the snake is more important than trying to get one high tier unit to level 3.

If you don't have 2 mercenaries, or your gold is lower than usual, consider not upgrading any heroes that are above the majority tier of the shop beyond level 2. It's more important to get some level 3s even though they're only tier 1 or 2. If you have a very strong item and little cash, consider upgrading it even if it puts you low on cash to try to survive until you have 100 gold and 2 mercenaries.

The miner should only be taken if you have another mercenary and you have a decent damage item which might save you if levelled. Don't level miner past level 2 and replace with one of the better mercenaries as soon as you can. The miner isn't reliable damage and the only saving grace is the gold you collect.

The first real test at NG+5 is the round 6 boss. On lower difficulty, this is a routine boss, but on NG+5 you may need to use some rerolls to have a strong-enough snake. Try to focus the boss as much as possible whilst avoiding collisions with enemies. When greens die or the boss uses his special attack, all enemies will rush at you, and the best option is to run directly away and turn as near to the side of the board as you can without bouncing. Do not try to face enemies and tank on NG+5! But circle around as quickly as you can without collisions to focus the boss.

If you have barbarian, you may be able to take this boss slower as you can stun minions. But later bosses will need to be focussed.

Rounds with several whites or oranges can also be tricky at this difficulty. Arcanist can help a little, witch a lot, but you may not have witch and it's too early for silencer. Use your judgement as to whether you need a reroll to strengthen your build. The stunning and silencing strike items are auto picks, though not both as you want damage (or larger AoE). Sometimes a builder hero can help, but any tier 3 is an expensive risk. Probably the best option is good snake control, heading straight to surviving projectile orange and white that have stopped as soon as you can avoid other collisions.

Projectile items are particularly useful with this build having rogues, and most are high priority. The items to slow enemies or speed your snake are worth taking if nothing better offers. The preference is usually for items that level up and do damage. The two best orb items, giving speed and damage, are high priority, only displaced by powerful projectile items. You definitely want to use your vagrant to take advantage of all your active classes and get a second psyker other than the healer.

Between rounds 9 and the round 12 boss are several tricky rounds. The second boss is tricky on NG+5 and really needs sharp focus and damage, even at the cost of losing heroes. Blues are normally to be avoided, but here it's all about killing the boss quickly whatever the cost, circling around to avoid enemies as tightly as you can to focus the boss, ignoring blue mines as you don't have time to detour to try to evade them. Killing the boss quickly is your defense against blues, since it removes the boss's special attack creating extra mines. Once the boss is dead you can start avoiding blue mines.

Rerolls are often needed for these rounds and bad RNG can easily end your run since you have little cash to spare.

Round 15 is a major test for your build. Lots of massive waves with many whites. If your build can't kill the waves very quickly, the whites shielded by remaining enemies will decimate your snake. Chaining is usually the solution. If you have flying daggers or another mass chaining item you should be okay. Reinforce with an enchanter helps a lot, as does 2 psykers with a good orb item (orbs are projectiles). If you don't have a chaining item or level 3 scout even witch likely won't be enough. Consider adding stormweaver as a solution for this round, and spending a lot of rerolls.

Thief and usurer can be taken at any time. As a rule of thumb, I suggest taking the gambler, only when you have a full snake and you're not losing active classes.

With a merchant, or two mercenaries, I suggest the usual greed method of only rerolling down to 100 gold or nearest 10. However, for bosses apart from the first I would then spend 10 gold getting an item to level 2. Again, you will need to make judgement calls whether you need to reroll down to 80 gold. Mainly you need to consider the number of active classes and level 3 heroes, but also your items. If your merchant was late, the decisions are even more difficult. Sometimes you may need to level up a powerful item to compensate for a weak snake, and hope that you can survive until you have 100 gold.

I only get merchant to level 2. Level 3 seems like overkill when the gold could be used for offensive heroes. You'd rather the merchant died than one of those, anyway.

Merchant may be removed between rounds 17 to 24 depending on how your build looks, but not if it is needed for mercenary activation. It's probably a lot better to wait for a second mercenary, though. The gold you get from mercenary activation in later rounds is massive, making it much easier to max out items and heroes and activate 7 sets with good heroes. For the final round, you should probably remove it anyway for some more damage.

Add silencer if you don't have it and your snake has a couple of level 3 heroes. An item to silence or stun enemies is very helpful and an auto pick.

Note that some builds have 7 active sets without silencer, or without witch. Provided you max out a silence or stun item, you don't have to have silencer. You'll have to judge if you can do without witch, but generally you shouldn't lose active sets or level 3s to add any hero.

The style of snake control is to quickly head for spawns, get to projectile and cursing range, then either circle around maintaining distance or move nearly vertically. Don't waste time collecting gold or letting enemies die to witch AoE, you must close and curse as many as possible, as well as killing as many as possible quickly with projectiles so you don't get overwhelmed. There will be time enough to collect gold as you are kiting a spawn. Always try to avoid the centre of the map, the middle of the top and bottom edges is fairly safe.

Place the vagrant at the head and your toughest unit such as the squire or a swordsman at the back of the snake. Try to intersperse your squishy level 1s with higher level heroes so that the middle of your snake isn't too weak a target everywhere. Place the magician and silencer in the centre. I like having the dual gunner or some such powerful ranged attacker just ahead of the back hero to thin out enemies closing on your snake back.

Items that slow enemies or speed your snake obviously help with this snake pattern (but not both, and prefer slowing enemies).

The composition of the build is more of a useful rule of thumb than an unbreakable rule. As you gain confidence you can take advantage of exceptional situations.

For example, although an item to silence or stun is described as auto-pick, that's only if you already have at least one item increasing damage, or an exceptional case.

If not, although a silence/stun item is very good later, without enough damage it could lose before it becomes worthwhile.

Exceptional cases include having barbarian or barrager, both of which help in the early game when your snake is often a bit too slow to outrun all enemies and special attacks.

Squire or another enchanter can boost your snake early. I replace any other enchanter with squire when I can keep a full snake.

Usurer or barbarian pretty much guarantee surviving the first elite, but may not be enough to survive the second without more damage.

Although it's suggested not to get silencer early, if you have a particularly good item or synergy giving enough damage and either speed or some way to deal with massed enemies like barbarian or barrager, then it can be taken early.

I recommend getting rid of barrager or any other unit that pushes with force after round 12, because although very useful against early mobs, it's a liability later especially with yellow enemies, because it can lead to ricochet collisions. I don't recommend the item turning enemies to projectiles when they hit walls, it's better to get rid of pushers because of the chaos they cause later with masses of units making it difficult to find a safe path with your snake.

It's okay to take miner or gambler early if you have merchant, provided you don't upgrade them until after round 12 and you're not missing out on damage by taking them -- they're only there for gold, which should turn into the solution to all problems if you can survive long enough.

Replace miner or gambler with usurer or thief when you get the chance. Although gambler provides decent one-shot damage later in the game when you have around 100 gold, it can also lose you the game in later rounds by taking out blue or green enemies too early, unless your snake is really overpowered and clearing waves very quickly. Usurer and thief are more reliable, although usurer should be kept away from green and blue enemies until your snake is overpowered.

Although it's suggested to get 6-8 active classes including 2 psykers, and to keep magician, which usually works well, it does depend on the situation.

If you can only add a second psyker by removing a level 3 hero, or you don't have any orb items, it may not be worth adding the second psyker.

Sometimes it can be worth replacing magician to activate a class, although not usually at level 3 unless you already have 100 gold and 2 mercenaries.

Some builds can be strong with only 5 active classes, and trying to activate more would require removing a key or high level hero. Once you've spent a lot on upgrades, it's often not worth removing a hero, not so much because of the wasted gold, as because you are wasting upgrade chances, especially if you're adding a high tier hero and you don't have much gold.