Read These Important Notes Before Starting!

Brotato is a complicated game. I am emphasizing here that this guide is more of an outline for how to beat the game with each character, not a strict solution. No guide can possibly give you a straight forward solution. You will need to adapt!

I am here to push you in the right direction if you need it, but I strongly recommend trying/developing your own strategies too. In Brotato, there is absolutely no straightforward strategy!

The strategies/items I give are based on runs from me and others, from videos and the Brotato Discord. The outlines are also intended to be easy to follow for beginners, although should all work for Danger 5 runs and completions too.

You could also think of winning with each character as a tutorial for how to win as other characters, as each one teaches you how to play a certain way/concoct a specific strategy to play around other characters' stats and abilities.

For example,
Engineer teaches you how to play better with turrets,
Speedy teaches you how to play around with the Speed stat,
Sick teaches you how to play around losing 1 HP per second (which teaches you how to play around the Blood Donation/Bloody Hand items and when it is a wise idea to get them.)

By winning with characters with bigger handicaps than others, you can learn how to exploit their strengths and weaknesses to implement them when playing other characters in a certain way.

As you can see, the game is set up so that the more you play and think about your own strategies, the more you'll learn. I suggest using this guide as an outline and still creating/changing the strategies a bit. However, there is more information if you're having trouble and I do explain enough to make it easier if you need it. Don't be shy, we all need help sometimes!

During the guide, I will cover:

• How to, and the easiest way to unlock each character
  
• Build type (Gun, Precise, Medieval, etc.)
  
• Which stats/weapons to focus on
  
• Tips for when you’re stuck
  
• Wave 10 builds for each character, to give you a sense of direction
  
• A successful build at Wave 20
  
  Remember that the screenshots and items I listed are guidelines/recommendations. Don't expect to get all the items I did (you'll get completely different items too). Buy any other item you can find that's in line with the recommended stats!
  
  
• Items to avoid or target
  
  This is pretty straight forward, however. I will not write down many items, only the most relevant ones. Buy other upgrades based on the build's Main Stats! For example, if we are aiming for HP Regen over Life Steal, I wouldn't say to avoid Bat, to avoid cluttering the guide. You'll learn what to buy based on what stats we are aiming for.
  
  Note: In many of the runs in this guide, I actually avoid many items that can make the guide an easy win to make it as easy as possible to follow. As you are obviously not guaranteed the same items that I am. But don't let this stop you from getting the items yourself!
  
  
• Difficulty of each character
  
  This is largely based on how consistent a character is; that is to say, how much RNG is involved in a successful run. Additionally, how complex a character’s mechanics are to understand is also factored in. This is a completely subjective rating, so don’t let it scare you off playing a character that seems interesting.

Remember that this guide Is only a guide! Some things may work for you and some may not! We all play differently and there are SOO many ways to play Brotato! I am just highlighting what worked for me and the community, and I’m hoping it helps you too!

If you need to find a certain character, check on the right side for the table of contents. You can also use CTRL+F to find exactly what you’re looking for.

As said above, if anything is difficult to understand or you're having trouble at all, let me know. I will try to help and fix the guide so others won’t have the same problems!

To make this guide easier to follow and understand, I also reset my save file. This is so that you can follow along easier since I will be using weapons/items you would only receive from some of the characters before.

You will always want to get 6 your desired weapon ASAP (on most characters), simply ignoring items and going for weapons until you get all 6 is most desirable as it gives you bonuses and more damage!

Also do not forget that when you're upgrading weapons, you will still ALWAYS want to have 6 weapons! So don't upgrade weapons together until you have another weapon in the shop to put in its place after you've fused together the weapons!

When upgrading weapons, you typically want to upgrade the lowest tier weapons first. For example, if you have 2 tier 1's, 1 tier 2 and 3 tier 3's, you will want to start with upgrading the 2 tier 1's to make a tier 2 rather than making a tier 4 with 2 tier 3's, then buy another weapon to put in its place from the shop! You'll get a hang of this the more you play!

One last thing about weapons you should know about it that they all have a class (or 2), meaning that you get a stat bonus for using more than 1 weapon from the same class, this is to incentivize using more of the same weapon/weapon class!


Every single character can benefit from early Luck (around 20-50+) This is because luck has a multitude of helpful traits. It increases the rarity of Items in the shop and Stats in the Level Up, as well as increases the amount of consumables dropped from enemies, and crates from trees! In general, it's usually a smart idea to get some amount of Luck on most characters, although it's never 100% necessary to win. Due to this, I won’t put Luck in the recommended stats section most of the time, since it’s universally applicable.

However, Harvesting is better on some characters than others, and will be mentioned when appropriate. Harvesting is also stronger the earlier you get it, and for most characters you may want to get Harvesting as your first level up choice to get an immediate increase in your economy!
Although don't waste materials on rerolls to get it, but i do suggest taking it if you get the option.

When it comes to Armour, its basically another way to increase your effective Max HP and i explain how it works a bit lower in this section.


This isn't much a game tip as a guide tip:

Remember, over time of playing the game and/or following this guide, you will learn about what Items will work with certain builds, based on what Stats we are looking for and avoiding. I will mainly outline in this whole guide the MAIN items that you want to look out for and get for each character, just because i dont list it, doesn’t mean you should avoid it!

If you are completely lost in how the game works, or you need small things need to be explained, then please head over to ArosRising's Gameplay Guide[docs.google.com] (Separate To His Character Guide) as this explains everything needed for complete beginners and more! You will want to head over to the Game Information tab, and everything that I don't explain here, will be there. This can give you a great grip on the game, mechanics, settings and more! It also goes into great detail on Items, Materials, the Shop. It's all there in one place!



This list applies universally to any character - although as noted above, you should still take into account the factors of your run before picking up any given item.

• Cape - Cape gives you 20% Dodge AND 5% Lifesteal, with a very minor damage penalty.
  
• Lemonade - Grants 1 more HP per consumable. With the introduction of Gardens, these have become even better.
  
• Potato - Gives you a small increase in most of your stats.
  
• Tree - More trees are ALWAYS helpful; they give materials, healing, and sometimes crates.
  
• Bag - Crates are already amazing, so getting 15 free materials when picking them up is a no-brainer.
  
• Coffee - Attack speed is almost always a net positive (even with Engineering builds, with the right item), so having it come with a very small damage decrease is quite beneficial for practically any character.
  
  
• Fish Hook - Check DLC Tips section for explanation

• Coupon - Pretty much always a net positive in no time at all.
  
• Grind's Magical Leaf - Gives you free stats for no downside.
  
• Dangerous Bunny - Free rerolls will pay for themselves very fast.
  
• Anvil - Level up your weapons without any downside.
  
• Crown - Unless you're skipping Harvesting, this gives too much of a bonus to pass up. As a rule of thumb, don’t pick this up after wave 15, and pick it up when your harvesting is 10x the wave number you’re on (e.g. at Wave 11, you should have 110 Harvesting).

When it comes to HP Regeneration or Life Steal, it comes down to your play-style and what build and character you're using!

Usually when I am playing any type of fast attack speed or weapon or something with a good amount of Ricochet or Pierce, I recommend opting for Life Steal. Life Steal activates when you hit an enemy, so attacking more quickly or hitting more targets directly increases effectiveness. For most other scenarios, HP Regeneration is generally preferable and is very strong when utilized correctly!


For certain characters you will not be able to heal nearly as much from HP Regeneration or Life Steal. In these cases, I recommend healing from consumables more than anything else.

• Trees - These always drop consumables, plus materials.
  
• Lemonade - +1 HP from consumables.
  
• Weird Food - +2 HP from consumables.
  
• Cute Monkey - +8% chance to heal 1 HP when picking up a material (stacks linearly).

Getting these can be very helpful for characters such as Chunky, who heal primarily with consumables.


I suggest leaving the Range stat out of your builds almost all the time. It tends to be relatively easy to get additional range, and most ranged builds will have enough range to work with. This obviously does not apply when your character or weapon scales with Range, such as the Ranger or Crossbow.


Armour is quite a misleading stat in Brotato on the surface. Basically, Armour scales linearly, so every point of Armour will scale just as much as the last point of Armour, even if it seems the tooltip says otherwise.

The reason it seems to scale less is because reduced damage is exponentially scaling. So going from 0% damage reduction to 1% damage reduction is a lot smaller/less significant than going from 98% damage reduction to 99% damage reduction (this essentially means you take 50% less damage).

The formula that the game uses to figure out effective HP is (1+Armour/15)*HP = effective HP.
So if you have 10 HP and 0 Armour, your effective HP is 10.
With 10 HP and 15 Armour, your effective HP is 20.
With 10 HP and 30 Armour, your effective HP is 30.
With 10 HP and 45 Armour, your effective HP is 40.
(etc)


Melee weapons have an interesting interaction with Range. The lower your Range, the higher your effective Attack Speed. This is because melee weapons have a travel time in Brotato, so by not attacking as far, their cooldown is refreshed faster.

Speed is quite an important stat, especially in Danger 5 for most characters. For this reason, i will not be putting Speed as a main stat in most cases, as it should be universally used! Getting above 10/15% Speed is a good amount to aim for, and will make your life when dodging enemies, and more importantly, Elites!

The first 2 Waves guarantee 2 weapons in the shop each reroll, so use rerolling regularly (especially as the first rerolls in the first few waves are very cheap) to get the weapons you want/need! Waves 3-5 guarantee 1 weapon, but after that, weapons are no longer guaranteed on each reroll.


If you see an item that you'd like to take or see a weapon that you can't afford, locking the item will keep it in your shop, no matter if you go into the next wave or re-roll and will keep its price from when you locked it!


Unless you're playing a specific character (such as Saver or Streamer, or a character that requires you to buy certain items ASAP), or have a Piggy Bank/Padding (anything that scales with materials), use your materials! There is no need to save them! The more prepared you are for the wave the better!

But even though you should spend your materials, don't waste them on bad items that won't help you. Don’t spend too much on rerolling each Wave either, as the price increases each time you use it. The base price increases with each Wave, but each new Wave starts off with this base price.


Most items in the game have 'item tags' assigned to them (such as Bat -> Life Steal, or Black Belt -> XP Gain), and most characters have item tags assigned to them too (Chunky -> Max HP etc.). So if the character is connected to an item tag, all the items corresponding to the tags will be more likely to be seen in shops when using those characters. Items that match a character's tags are 5% more likely to appear in shops.

For example, the character "Mutant" is tagged with "XP Gain", meaning it is more likely to see items that are also tagged with "XP Gain", such as Black Belt and Scar!

This may seem overwhelming and confusing, but this whole thing simply shows what Stats/Abilities are aimed more towards a character!

For a full list of item tags and their associated characters (and a better explanation), please see the section on the official Brotato Wiki[brotato.wiki.spellsandguns.com] which shows the item tags that are linked to each character!

What Characters Should You Play First?
As you know, there are a lot of characters in Brotato, and you can play any of them in any order you'd like (as long as you unlock them first).

If you're not sure what characters to play, then the list below has good suggestions on to which characters that you should complete first. The items and weapons these characters unlock are very useful on main builds.
(These have been ordered considering both the helpfulness of the weapon/item, and the difficulty in completing the character.)

• Well Rounded - Potato
  
• Sick - Whetstone
  
• Speedy - Fin
  
• Arms Dealer - Anvil
  
• Masochist - Spiky Shield
  
• Soldier - Nuclear Launcher
  
• Lich - Tentacle
  
• Streamer - Community Support
  
• Cyborg - Improved Tools
  
• Engineer - Robot Arm
  
• Golem - Stone Skin
  
• Renegade - Fairy

Let me know if you believe that this should be changed in any way or if a character should be added!

This section of the guide will focus on:

• Each Elite
  
• Their stats and how they scale per wave
  
• Their move sets/attacks
  
• How to deal with them

A lot of the information here about the enemies is taken from the Wiki[brotato.wiki.spellsandguns.com], be sure to look there if you're curious!







ㅤㅤRhino

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 250
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Charges The Player


'Charges to the player every 2 seconds, shooting projectiles to its left and right during the charge'


'Charges to the player every 1.33 seconds for shorter distance, shooting projectiles to its left and right during the charge, at the start of its charge fires extra 2 projectiles'

Melee/Ranged -
Both Mutations are quite similar, although Mutation 1 can give you more trouble. Rhino is constantly chasing you down in both phases but is not too difficult to dodge, although becomes scarier when having to deal with a bunch of enemies at once. Focus on it and its dash and you shouldn't have too many problems. Speed can be helpful here to run and avoid the dash.







ㅤㅤButcher

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 200
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Mutation 2 Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 0.75 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Chases The Player


'Creates 4 slashes every 1.33 seconds around the player pointing to the player'


'Creates 8 slashes every second in a random pattern around the player in a large area'


'Creates 3 slashes every 0.75 seconds around the player randomly in a large area that deals 33% less damage'

Melee/Ranged -
The main course of action with dealing with Butcher is learning the patterns for their slashes and dodging them. If you're still learning the attacks, keep distance between you and Butcher, and focus on the slashes. After facing Butcher a few times, you'll get used to the slashes and they'll be easy to dodge. Once you can dodge them comfortably, the Butcher becomes super easy, as it slowly chases you around the battlefield.








ㅤㅤMonk

Health = 1 + (+ 700 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 350
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Wanders Around


'Spawns 15 Slasher Eggs (3 every 1.5 seconds)'

Melee/Ranged -
Most of the time you'll want to focus on destroying the eggs, after 10 seconds Monk will stop spawning them and you can focus the Monk itself.


'The Monk stops spawning eggs, but starts firing 6 projectiles in a spray towards the player every 1.5 seconds'


'The Monk begins to Spawn 2 Tentacles every 2.4 seconds'


'The Monk spawns a ring of 10 Projectiles around the player'

Melee builds may have more trouble here than Ranged builds, as it gets difficult to chase down the monk in some cases.
Melee/Ranged -
Your main course of action for the base Monk, is to focus on destroying the eggs.
In Mutation 1, focus on the monk while dodging the projectiles (you can usually fit in-between gaps in the spray of projectiles, the further away you are the easier it is to do so). You can also employ the strategy of running around The Monk to keep dishing out damage and avoiding the attacks.
In Mutation 2, its up to you whether you leave the Monk and focus on killing the tentacles it spawns. But if you have enough damage, getting Monk to phase 3 ASAP will make your life easier.
In Mutation 3, you'll need to learn and adapt to the pattern of the ring of projectiles, but ones you do, rushing Monk and dealing as much damage as possible isn't too difficult.







ㅤㅤCroc

Croc is probably the Hardest Elite in the game so far (and probably the scariest) thanks to its fast speed and hard to dodge dash. This is especially true for Melee Builds as its hard to dodge them and also deal with enemies at the same time.

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave)
Speed = 350
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Charges To The Player


'Charges to player every second creating 2 slashes around itself'

Melee -
The best way to deal with this move and projectiles is let it charge up its dash (which doesn't take long) and move up, down, left or to the right of Croc while it's dashing. Speed is very helpful for this.

Ranged -
Ranged is very similar to Melee, except you'll be able to run away more often. You'll want to either create space between you and Croc and attack from afar (works best with multiple projectile/bouncing weapons), or simply do the same as you would as Melee.


'Charges to the player every second creating a circle of projectiles around the player'

The circle of projectiles simply makes it harder to dodge the charge. Do the same as you would on the base elite.

ㅤColossus

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 300
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Chases The Player


'Spawns 50 moving projectiles in a big area around itself every second and move randomly until they detonate'


'Colossus starts wandering the map, spawns circle of projectiles around player that moves every 0.5 seconds'

Melee/Ranged -
For the Base Elite, the pillar projectiles spawn around Colossus itself, so if you're not looking to kill it, then running away is a easy and safe option, although you'll need to focus on the projectiles if you don't want to be hit.
After the first and last Mutation, you will be attacked regardless of where you are on the map, there are 2 ways to approach this. The first way is to follow the way the ring is moving, the second is to run the opposite way (out of the ring), so that it moves away from you. You can mix these up when fighting Colossus, although getting in attacks when you're focusing on dodging is more tricky when playing a Melee build.







ㅤㅤMantis

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 250
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Chases The Player


'Slashes 6 times every 1.25 seconds around itself'


'Charges to the player every 1.3 seconds creating slashes around it while it charges'

The Mantis is quite similar to Rhino, you have just got to be prepared for the projectiles.
For the base Elite, it just slowly moves towards you, allowing you a lot of freedom as long as you can dodge the slashes.
After the first and last mutation, it will be harder to evade both the moving projectiles as you need to worry about Mantis itself dashing at you. If you have some speed, and you’re not planning on killing the mantis, you can quite easily outrun it and get out of range of its slashes.
If not, Melee -
I suggest focusing on staying close to mantis and circling it, focusing on dodging the slashes and letting Mantis try dash towards you, although it will dash away as you're too close to it.
Ranged -
You can implement the same idea as Melee when using ranged too, or you can keep your distance and focus on dodging Mantis while moving side to side.







ㅤㅤMother

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 250
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Chases The Player


'Throws 4 Slashes towards the player'


'Mother attempts to stay 500 range away from you. Mother starts creating 2 slashing projectiles near the player every 0.66 seconds. With each time it slashes at you, it also spawns 6 Fin Aliens around it'







ㅤㅤGargoyle

Health = 1 + (+ 750 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Speed = 350
Damage = 1 + (+ 1.5 Per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Projectile Damage = 1 + (+ 1.15 per Wave) (+40% for Danger 5)
Behaviour = Wanders Around


'Spawns a big circle of projectiles around itself every 0.3 seconds'


'Gargoyle starts chasing you, spawning 12 projectiles in random patterns around itself every 0.4 seconds.'


'spawns a 3 of projectiles in random directions every 0.01 - 0.15 seconds'

Melee/Ranged -
Gargoyle is a relatively easy Elite to beat. In the first phase/base Elite, I suggest simply running after Gargoyle and dealing as much damage as you can. The ring of projectiles around Gargoyle is easy to stay in, so you shouldn't have many problems. After Mutation 1 and 2, focus on dodging the projectiles, they aren't too difficult to dodge as they are quite slow. If you're having too many issues, just focus on learning dodging the projectiles. And because the projectiles are slow, it can make it easier to gain ground on Gargoyle and kill him with ease.

• Constantly Update the guide on every update
  
• Add more strategies for Characters to add more variety

(From Beginning Of Guide To When All Characters Have Been Added)

• Added All Characters With At Least 1 Strategy
  
• Massive Guide Overhauls Throughout - Transparent Character Icons Added, New Layout and Symbols, Added Many Tips And Redone 'Contents' Page etc.
  
• Added 8 Contributors To 'Thanks And Feedback'
  
• Re-Grouped Update Logs - To Make It Shorter And Easier To See At First Glance
  
• Completed Guide From Patch 0.6.1.6
  
• Updated 'Quick Tips' - 1) Explained How Armour/Effective HP Works, 2) Removed Shop Related Tips, 3) Updated Items and Removed Section
  
• Added New Section - 'Brotato's Shop System & How It Works'
  
• Removed Section - Work In Progress Notes
  
• Updated Many Character Difficulties And Changed Criteria Needed - Check 'Contents' For More Information
  
• Added New Strategies And Fixed Old Ones to multiple characters
  
• Added Danger 5 Tips and Screenshots to multiple characters
  
• Redone How Strategies Will Be Written Out
  
• Updated Guide Information

• Achieved 100 Ratings, and 4000 Unique Viewers!
  (Thank you all for the support! And Don't Forget To Give The Guide A Positive Rating If It Helped You To Get It To More People!)

• Fixed 29 Instances Of Spelling Mistakes
  
• Updated Many Characters (With New Strategies, Tips etc.)
  
• Added Section - 'What Character Should You Start With?'
  
• Updated 'Feedback And Thanks' - Added Contributors
  
• Updated Section - 'Contents'
  
• Updated Section - 'Other Helpful Guides'

(Right After v 0.8.0.0 Beta up to v 1.0.0.0 Beta)

• Added New Characters - Cyborg, Glutton, Jack, Lich
  
• Added Screenshots etc. to many characters
  
• Reworked Guide For - Half Of All Characters
  
• Updated - 'Other Helpful Resources', 'Quick Tips', Cyborg D5, Glutton D5, Jack D5, Lich D5 etc.
  
• Rewriting big parts of the guide, each character, headings etc.

(Right After V 1.0.0.0 Beta)

• Added 6 New Characters, all with respective strategies and tips - Apprentice, Cryptid, Fisherman, Golem, King, Renegade
  
• Added New Section To Each Character - Easiest Way To Unlock - Which shows how to unlock each character, and the easiest way to do so!
  
• Updated many, many Characters
  
• Added and completed new section - 'Elites and How To Deal With Them'

• Added 18 new characters + DLC (strategies to be done) -

The Official Brotato Wiki is always up to date with new sources, information, and more! This will be your Go-To place when it comes to Brotato Information! This also includes things like how the enemies work!



Check out the Official Brotato discord server and head over to the #runs-won, CTRL+F and type in the character you're looking for, other people's runs will show up and you can try to take inspiration from them!


ArosRising's Character Guide[docs.google.com]

Aros is one of the biggest contributors to the Brotato community and has also created a character guide that can help you if you are having trouble here!
So if you are having issues with a character here, check out Aros' guide for a new perspective!


These two guides from Darkly77 - one of the top contributors to the Wiki and Modding - are amazing guides to get you started on modding!
They explain everything you need to know, and anything else, you can find on the Wiki and Discord!

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931079751
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937226054

Well-Rounded
'Win a run with Well-Rounded'


- N/A

➤ +5 Max HP
➤ +5% Speed
➤ +8 Harvesting

Our first character, Well-Rounded, has no major upsides or downsides. This does mean that you’ll need to have an idea of what to go for in advance, but it also means that many options are viable.

For this run, we will be going a Gun build for the extra 50 Range when getting all 6 weapons.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armor
  
• Dodge

It’s up to you whether you start by going all out in Offense (Damage, Ranged Damage and Attack Speed), or Defense (Max HP, Life Steal, Armor). Either will work well, although, especially on Danger 5, I can suggest going with Offense first; just be careful, as you won't have much HP/Defense so you will die a lot quicker.

Later on in the run, you should focus on the one you didn’t build up in the beginning. Sometimes, the game will decide for you and give you a lot of, say, Defense choices from level ups. In this case, leave Offense until later.

Although it is up to you entirely how you would like to play in the end and you can always restart if you don't get your desired start!

When building Defense early, you probably will have a tough time when your first Horde/Elite Spawns. You will most likely not be able to kill the Elite, as your damage won’t be high enough. Remember that you don’t actually need to kill the Elite to progress!

• Shotgun

The Shotgun is a very reliable weapon throughout this run, although it can struggle with Damage in the early game. Playing Offense can be a great option as you'll have no trouble killing enemies, although you may feel extremely squishy and may be more difficult to newer players.

• SMG

Great alternative to shotgun, similar strategy to shotgun

• Stick

Great alternate Melee option













If you’re struggling by this point, make sure you have enough Defense. You can always build damage later, but you won’t get a chance if you keep dying.













Don't worry about getting too much Range, it'll come and go as you play Well Rounded and there is no need to focus on it! (Keeping it positive is a good idea though)

Brawler
'Win a run with Brawler'


➤ +50% Attack Speed with Unarmed weapons
➤ You start with 1 Fist
➤ +15% Dodge
➤ -50 Range
➤ -50 Ranged Damage

For the next character, Brawler, we simply go for all Unarmed weapons.

I’ll outline 2 main strategies for Brawler. If you’re newer to the game/character, use Strategy 1. Otherwise, Strategy 2 is simply better and stronger.


(Note: Check 'Strategy 2' for a Stronger, and more D5 applicable strategy!)

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour

For this run, we’ll be aiming for max Dodge by the end of the run.

A good amount of Armour in the early game is important as well, since Brawler has very limited range. Max HP also provides a buffer for when your Dodge fails to activate!

While reaching max Dodge is important, don’t neglect your other stats, like Damage and Armour. A bit of Attack Speed and Speed is also helpful, but they aren’t very important to focus on.

When it comes to Range, some prefer to keep it low to increase Attack Speed (less travel time), but you may find that getting more can be very helpful when it comes to the final boss as it lets you stay further away. Note that if you keep it low, getting Speed may be crucial to get in and out without dying or taking too much damage!

• Fists (3-4)
  
• Hand (2-3)

Obviously, you should only be picking up Unarmed weapons. Try to get around 2-3 Hands for knockback; the rest should be Fists for damage. Us going for Unarmed weapons also gives us a head start on Dodge!

If you see Flaming Brass Knuckles in your shop, you should always pick them up, as they are a direct upgrade to Fists, even if you don’t have any Elemental Damage!

• Adrenaline

Perfect item for Brawler, gives us +5% Dodge and gives us a 50% chance to heal whenever we dodge!


(Sorry, this screenshot is after Wave 12!)











After Wave 10, you should ideally have over 30% Dodge, closer to 45%. You also want to make sure you’ve started adding Melee Damage or %Damage, as well as a good enough buffer of HP. Just keep scaling these and you should do fine. Be wary of projectiles, since it’s a little difficult to take out shooters with your low Range. Projectiles tend to appear on Waves 8, 14, and 15, as well as every wave after that.












If you’re having trouble, try getting more Defense (Life Steal, Max HP, Armour), as Brawler has relatively high natural damage.

Note: I got lucky with a Retromation’s Hoodie, which gives 2% Attack Speed per Dodge. This is not a requirement for winning, although it’s a great pickup.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour

For this strategy, you also want to max out Dodge and get a good amount of Armour and Life Steal; and thanks to us using Unarmed, and having the +15% Dodge off the bat, we will have 30% Dodge as soon as we have all 6 Fists!

Brawler’s range is quite low, and Elites can be dangerous, so we need to make sure we can tank a hit or two while we deal damage. Just try not to neglect your Melee Damage and %Damage too much. Some also prefer to keep it low to increase Attack Speed (less travel time), but you may find that getting more can be very helpful when it comes to the final bosses and elites as it lets you stay further away. Note that if you keep it low, getting Speed may be crucial to get in and out without dying or taking too much damage!

• Fists

Your fists are all you need. Remember that Flaming Brass Knuckles and Power Fists are a direct upgrade to Fists, so feel free to grab any you see. Without Hands, you won’t be doing any knockback, so it’s okay to pick one or two up very early, but we’ll need all the damage we can get.

Remember, we are going for Unarmed weapons also gives us a head start on Dodge!

• Adrenaline

Perfect item for Brawler, gives us +5% Dodge and gives us a 50% chance to heal whenever we dodge.












When it comes to D5, you will need Life Steal and close to max Dodge to survive almost any special Wave as Brawler, whether that be the D5 Elites or the Horde Waves. Focus Dodge early before transitioning into Melee Damage and Life Steal to prepare for Elites and Hordes. Early Luck and Harvesting will also really help.












For the Final Bosses and Elites, you shouldn't have too much trouble if you have a decent amount of Life Steal and Max HP. You'll have to count on yourself to know when you feel that you're lacking in one stat or another, such as Melee Damage or Life Steal!

Getting some Attack Speed here can be majorly helpful, especially against Waves 9, 14, and 15. These stats are also very good against Hordes, as the more enemies there are, the better your chance to activate Lifesteal.

Note: I had a bunch of Harvesting at the end due to the Crown that I got early on at round 7. So don't worry too much about that for your own run.

Crazy
'Win a run with Crazy'


- N/A

➤ +100 Range with Precise weapons
➤ +25% Attack Speed
➤ You start with 1 Knife
➤ -30% Dodge
➤ -10 Engineering
➤ -10 Ranged Damage

Crazy is a somewhat straightforward character. Crazy benefits greatly with Precise weapons, thanks to the +100 Range off the bat when using them. And in turn with that, Precise weapons work great with Crit Chance!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Armour

Don’t bother picking up Dodge, since you start with -30% Dodge. This requires far too much investment to overcome, so just focus on increasing Max HP, Armour and HP Regeneration for survivability.

With Crit Chance, you'll want to increase it as soon as possible, especially with the weapon we're using for this run, the Thief's Dagger. It will increase the chance and how quickly we can get more and more Materials as every time we Crit, there is a 50%+ Chance of receiving a material! Continue scaling Damage as usual along with Crit Chance, although, for this run, i suggest you focus Crit to get a head start on your economy!

Luckily for us, Crazy is tagged with Crit Chance so we have a higher likelihood of seeing Crit Chance items anyway!

Remember you can also hover over each weapon you have to see it's individual chance of getting Crits!

Attack Speed works alongside Crit Chance nicely, the more we can attack, the more chances we have for more Crit and free materials!

• Thief's Dagger

We will be using Thief's Dagger for this run, although there are a few other weapons that use similar Main Stats that i'll list below. Thief's Dagger will give us a great economy (especially when getting Crit Chance early) and is a strong weapon for Crazy!

• Shuriken
  
• Lightning Shiv
  
• Knife

Of these Precise weapons, Shuriken and Thief’s Dagger benefit the most directly from additional Crit Chance, gaining extra bounces and extra materials respectfully. Knife also has a high Critical multiplier and base Critical chance.
I suggest just choosing one of these three if you want to try a different strategy!
Note that, despite being a Ranged weapon, Shuriken scales off of Melee Damage!

• Claw Tree, Insanity, Sunglasses etc.

These items (and a few more) are great ways to get efficient Crit Chance!

• Hunting Trophy

Gives us a 33% chance (per Hunting Trophy) to gain 1 material every time we Crit! (Crazy Unlock - play a game on Danger 0 if you want this unlock for D5!)

• Tentacle

Gives us a 20% chance (per Tentacle) to heal every time we Crit! (Lich Unlock)

• Giant Belt

The Giant Belt can be incredibly strong. When we crit, it takes 10% of the enemies remaining health and add that onto our damage! Although only 1% for bosses it can make a big difference, and the more Crit Chance we have the better!

• Lucky Coin

Lucky Coin gives us 2 Luck per Crit Chance we have, and is a great way to sort out all the Luck we need for the rest of the run.

If you're not using the Knife as your starting weapon, you will have your starter weapon along with a spare Knife (i.e a Thief's Dagger + a Knife) for your first wave. As soon as you get into the first shop, sell this Knife as it will influence the shop to give you more knives that we don't want, so sell it immediately for some extra materials and a better shop!
(although ignore this if you're going for a full Knife build)

Ranger
'Win a run with Ranger'


➤ +50 Range
➤ You start with 1 Pistol
➤ Ranged Damage modifications are increased by 50%
➤ You can't equip melee weapons
➤ Max HP modifications are reduced by 25%

Ranger is extremely straightforward and easy to win with. We’ll be using Guns, obviously.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

We’ll be a bit squishier than normal with these stats, as we want to kill the enemies before they even get to us.
You may be wondering why Max HP is listed, given that Max HP modifications are reduced. Unfortunately, Max HP is still incredibly useful, so you still want to pick up at least a little bit.

If you’re struggling to not die, you can add in some Dodge as well as items to buff consumables, or even some Speed.

• SMG

This should be the only weapon you ever need, but if you want to mix and match a few additional weapons in, you can try some early Pistols, or Miniguns, which are extremely powerful and you should pick them up if you see them.
























Ranger is a great character to teach you how to play while really squishy and without as much Max HP and Armour/Dodge!

Mage
'Win a run with Mage'


➤ +5 Elemental Damage
➤ Elemental Damage modifications are increased by 33%
➤ You start with 1 Snake
➤ You start with 1 Scared Sausage
➤ Melee Damage modifications are reduced by 100%
➤ Ranged Damage modifications are reduced by 100%
➤ Engineering modifications are reduced by 100%

The Mage is another quite straightforward and easy character to win with. We’ll be burning our enemies with just a single weapon.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal OR HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Elemental Damage
  
• Attack Speed

You can sprinkle in a bit of Armour if you find yourself dying often.

• Taser
  
• Flamethrower

The Taser is the only weapon you should need. Scared Sausage and Snake will provide a lot of the damage, while the Tasers will keep enemies away from you. Flamethrowers are incredibly powerful and should be picked whenever you see them.

Keep at least one Taser for the slow effect, if you get lucky enough to get that many Flamethrowers.

• Scared Sausage
  
• Snake

Although you already start with these items, getting more is important. Scared Sausage doesn’t have a 100% chance to activate without 4, and more Snakes will greatly enhance your ability to deal with Hordes!

• Ugly Tooth

When playing with Scared Sausage, Snake and/or Flamethrower, burn will also proc the Ugly Tooth and consistently slow the enemies down which is great for crowd control, especially on Horde Waves












There isn’t much to it. The first few rounds may be difficult, but once you get all 6 Tasers you shouldn’t have too many problems. Not too much to add here, hopefully the run is going well!












Near the end of the run, you may feel like your damage is too low, especially if you didn’t manage to find any Flamethrowers. However, you should just be able to play passively and win that way. Remember that you don’t actually need to kill the boss!

Chunky
'Win a run with Chunky'


➤ Max HP modifications are increased by 25%
➤ +1% Damage for every 3 Max HP you have
➤ +3 HP recovered from consumables
➤ -100% Life Steal
➤ HP Regeneration modifications are reduced by 50%
➤ % Dodge modifications are reduced by 50%
➤ % Speed modifications are reduced by 100%

We have got to go Chunkier. We want as much Max HP and Armour as possible.

I will be outlining 2 strategies for Chunky. Rocks are good for beginners. Spiky Shields are better, but require you to complete a run with Masochist first.

• Max HP
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

All we really need is Max HP and Armour, as Chunky’s damage scales directly with Max HP. We can’t pick up Life Steal, HP Regeneration, OR Dodge effectively, so we will need to rely on healing from consumables. If you need a bit more damage, a splash of Melee Damage can be very effective, but don’t focus on it too much. Attack Speed is valuable for more attacks.

• Speed

Speed will be COMPLETELY Irrelevant for this run due to Chunky's Ability.
Do not be scared to Lose OR Gain as both will do nothing! So if you see something with -Speed, dont be afraid to take it as it will have NO impact on speed!

• Life Steal

You start with -100 so there is no point of even trying to go for it! So focusing on Consumables is your best bet!

• Dodge

Don't bother too much at all with dodge, simply stacking Armour is all you need to worry about!

• Garden

Gardens will produce a bunch of consumables for us to use at any point and reduces some RNG with the spawn of Trees and consumables

• Lemonade/Weird Food

As we're healing with Consumables, these are some of the top priority items!

• Ugly Tooth

Ugly Tooth works really well with Chunky as slowing the enemies movement speed will make up for the movement speed we lose by not being able to increase our own Speed

• Rock

What can I say? It gives you everything you want, and the downside of negative Speed is completely negated.












After the first 10 Waves, you may feel that you aren't dealing enough damage. Make sure to get your Max HP as high as possible for damage, and if you’re still dying, get some additional Armour.












If you have the damage, you can try killing the boss, otherwise you should be able to just tank the damage and win the run that way. Your HP should be as high as possible, with Armour sprinkled in to raise your effective HP.


Reminder: (To unlock Spiky Shield, you'll need to complete a run with Masochist before-hand!)

• Max HP
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

Just like with the first strategy, Max HP is our primary source of damage, but Armour is even more important now due to Spiky Shields scaling directly from Armour.
We will still struggle to heal off damage, and the only realistic way to do this is through Consumables, so make sure you pick up any Consumable-related items you see such as Weird Food, Lemonade, Tree's etc.

• Speed

Speed will be COMPLETELY Irrelevant for this run due to Chunky's Ability.
Do not be scared to Lose OR Gain as both will do nothing! So if you see something with -Speed, dont be afraid to take it as it will have NO impact on speed!

• Life Steal

You start with -100 so there is no point of even trying to go for it! So Focusing on HP Regen and Consumables is your best bet!

• Dodge

Don't bother too much at all with dodge, simply stacking Armour is all you need to worry about!

• Melee/Ranged/Elemental Damage

For this run with the shield, it will be completely irrelevant as Spiky Shield scales with Armour.

• Spiky Shield

Spiky Shield scales directly off the Armour stat, not Melee Damage, which means you can effectively just build defensive stats while still scaling damage. Very simple.

• Garden

Gardens will produce a bunch of consumables for us to use at any point and reduces some RNG with the spawn of Trees and consumables

• Lemonade/Weird Food

As we're healing with Consumables, these are some of the top priority items!

• Ugly Tooth

Ugly Tooth works really well with Chunky as slowing the enemies movement speed will make up for the movement speed we lose by not being able to increase our own Speed























Really not very much to say. Silver Bullet helps with the boss fight, but you should have more than enough defense and damage by now to deal with anything!

Old
'Win a run with Old'


➤ -25% Enemy Speed
➤ +10 Harvesting
➤ -33% Map Size
➤ -10% Enemies
➤ -10% Speed

Old has a few good strategies that I’ll outline below, including an Engineering build that can help you unlock Engineer.


For The Run, We Will Be Going For A Shotgun Build

We Will Be Doing This Because Of The Smaller Map Size Will Make It Easier To Hit Shots!
(You can also try out Wrench and go for a Engineer build but i found it easier with Shotguns!)

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

Armour and Dodge are especially good, as it’s tougher to avoid the enemies due to your low starting Speed and the small map size.

• Shotgun

We will mainly be going shotguns due to the smaller map as stated above. Pellets are a lot more likely to hit enemies in a confined space.












(Personal Note)
At this point, you should probably have a bit more Ranged Damage than I did.

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Engineering
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

Armour and Dodge are still important with this build, due to the small map size making it difficult to avoid enemies. Almost all of your damage will be coming from Structures, so prioritize Engineering.
We are also going for HP Regeneration because Life Steal doesn't work with turret bullets!

• %Damage
  
• Melee, Ranged, Elemental Damage

Don't worry about these stats AT ALL This run as none of our damage will come from these! So long as you focus on Engineering and Surviving the smaller map, you shouldn't have too many/any issues.

• Wrench

We will be going full Wrench build and maximize on turrets. Due to the smaller map, your turrets will always be on screen and shooting at enemies which will be super helpful and you won’t need to do much other than collect materials for more turrets.

















This run will not be difficult as long as you keep scaling your defense and Engineering. The more turrets you can pick up through items, the better.












Depending on how much Engineering you were able to pick up, it might be a better idea to try and just outlive the boss. You shouldn’t have any problem doing so!

Lucky
'Win a run with Lucky'


➤ +100 Luck
➤ Luck modifications are increased by 25%
➤ 75% chance to deal (15% Luck) damage to a random enemy when you pick up a material
➤ -60% Attack Speed
➤ -50% XP Gain

Lucky just needs to get... lucky. The strategy involves going full Slingshots or Sticks, for some early extra Max HP. We’ll skip focusing on Attack Speed, and probably won’t be able to kill the final boss, but that’s to be expected.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Speed
  
• Dodge OR Armour
  
• Luck

Life Steal is great if you go Slingshots, otherwise you can maybe go for HP Regeneration. Luck is an obvious stat to stack for damage, and Speed will help you pick up materials for your passive.

• Slingshot OR Stick

Either one is fine, depending on whether you prefer ranged or melee.
















As said above, I favored some Speed to help outlive the boss, rather than killing it. Getting Dodge or Armour can help as well.












I made sure I didn’t any items that increase enemy count or speed, to make the final wave easier by focusing on dodging the Boss’s attacks. I also had 4 Trees this run, not shown in the screenshot.

Mutant
'Win a run with Mutant'


➤ +200% XP Gain
➤ +50% Items Price

For the run, we will be going for a full Gun/Ranged build. Mutant plays very differently to other characters, in the fact that most of your stats will come from Level Ups, rather than Items in the shops!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed (To help proc Life Steal more if you were to focus more on Life Steal)
  
• Armour
  
• Harvesting

Focus Harvesting heavily in early game for a massive boost in economy. I'd suggest using your first level ups on Harvesting, and making sure you setup a good foundation to build off of. After Wave 10, you can forget about harvesting as it'll keep building on it's own and give you a lovely boost in materials. (Remember that harvesting is even stronger with Crown).

Even though we aren't specifically going for Luck, get some Luck to improve the odds of getting higher leveled Level Up stats, even 10-15+ is enough.

You will lack in damage heavily this run, so take as MUCH Ranged Damage and %Damage as possible. If at any point in the run, you feel like you're just taking the enemies on a walk around the map, you're probably lacking in Ranged Damage.
Note 1: Ranged Damage is also tougher to find in items, so you'll mainly get it from Level Ups. The same goes for Armour.
Note 2: Ranged Damage > %Damage in Level Ups. You can take %Damage over Ranged Damage if it's higher rarity or if you're not re-rolling any Ranged Damage.

Adding onto this, Attack Speed isnt as important as Ranged Damage or %Damage, but if you ind an item that is a good source of Attack Speed, then don't hesitate to get it. (i.e coffee etc.)

Life Steal will pair very well with out weapon choice and help a ton in the later rounds when we are surrounded by enemies.

My final tip is to not hesitate re-rolling level ups. Focus on the core Ranged Damage, Armour, Harvesting (in early game) and Attack Speed when re-rolling. Re-rolling is especially strong when you've got all Purples/Red's, you're guaranteed a decently big stat boost for the stat you're wanting/missing as long as you find it by re-rolling.

• SMG
  
• Minigun

You're first priority should be getting all 6 of your weapon as soon as possible! The prices of them will rise quickly so take advantage of the lower cost weapons in the early game!

• Decomposing Flesh (Currently Beta Only - Unlocked by winning a run with Vampire)

Decomposing Flesh will solve any healing issues you may have. I'd suggest only picking up 1 or 2, if you pick up more, you may need to use a level up or more for Max HP.


Note: You don't need to actively avoid +XP Items (such as scar and bean teacher), but they're not necessary for a successful run. And usually are not worth the amount they're worth and for the amount of levels they give (you might aswell just buy a different item that gives you straight up stat boosts!).

Note 2: But if you would like an even higher level or know you're investing more into Luck, for higher rarity level up options, then getting more XP items isn't a bad idea. But for this run, it's simpler to ignore them.























You may find that you lack in Ranged Damage, so getting it from Level Ups is your best bet, so if you don't get enough Ranged Damage, make sure to invest in some Attack Speed to help with some of the lost damage!

Generalist
'Win a run with Generalist'


- Collect 2000 materials - Any Character

➤ +2 Melee Damage for every 1 Ranged Damage you have
➤ +1 Ranged Damage for every 2 Melee Damage you have
➤ You can only equip 3 melee weapons and 3 ranged weapons at a time

For the character, Generalist, they are very unique, only being able to have 3 Melee, and 3 Ranged weapons

For the run, we will be going for 2 specific weapons for the Primitive Bonus (for the extra Max HP)

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee/Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

Make sure you prioritize the individual damages (Melee/Ranged) but getting some %Damage on the side will help as it will scale and do more, based on how much Melee/Ranged Damage you have! Getting a good amount of Life Steal will be super helpful too, as both weapons allow Life Steal to activate constantly as you will be firing many projectiles!

• Cacti Club (3 Of These)
  
• Slingshot (3 Of These)

I suggest starting with Cacti club and buying slingshot in the shop during the game

A big reason we are using Cacti Club is because of the thorns that it releases after hitting an enemy, these thorns scale with Ranged Damage despite the Cacti Club being a Melee weapon. We're also using Cacti Club because its a Primitive weapon, which makes it easier for us to get Slingshot!

• Most items that give both Melee and Ranged Damage (Hedgehog, Alloy, Wheat, Big Arms etc.)
  
• Baby with a beard

Baby with a beard is also great for letting your Life Steal proc more often, as it shoots out even more projectiles and deals a ton of good damage!

• Mastery

Mastery may seem like it'd be a great item, but the effects of it cancel each other out, as if it were to +6 Melee, it'd also take away 3 Ranged, and the -3 Ranged would take away 6 Melee, which simply cancel each other out while taking your hard earned materials!

• Most items that take away Melee or Ranged (Shmoop, Peaceful Bee, Lucky Charm etc.)

Up to this point i focused on Melee And Ranged Damage and a bit of miscellaneous survivabilty stats (armour/hp/life steal)
Although, based on your playstyle, you may find it more useful to get more Dodge, and/or Armour than Melee/Ranged Damage (although both are completely acceptable, use your own trial and error to figure out what you need!)












Dont make the same mistake that i did and have 0% more damage, i wasn't paying enough attention and went all the way down. even with this mistake i was still able to win! (so don't worry too much if you make the same mistake)

If you're having many problems with surviving, as said above, go for some more Armour/Dodge or speed if you're comfortable playing around it!

Loud
'Win a run with Loud'


➤ +30% Damage
➤ +50% Enemies
➤ -3 Harvesting at the end of a wave

For the character, Loud, We will be going for either a Primitive Or Gun Build. Both will work well, it is up for you to try either!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour

To make this run as easy as possible, especially for Danger 5, focus on, Ranged Damage and Attack Speed immediately, these will help you tremendously. In addition to that, also slowly start on Life Steal as soon as possible too!

You will be receiving a TON of materials this run, but you will need to make sure to pick as many up as possible. These will be scattered around the whole map frequently because of the slingshot bounces, so make sure you focus on getting the 2x materials first (the materials you didn't pick up last round which are doubled). Or pick up the Sifd's Relic item to help manage it, although is not necessary at all!

• Harvesting

Do not even try going for Harvesting as it will be a waste of materials and levels due to you losing 3 harvesting every round no matter what!
(Although if you get to 60+ Harvesting, you will lose 3 but gain 3 at the same time. which cancels it out, but it will be a pain to get there and may simply be a waste of materials, so i suggest simply staying away!)

• Slingshot

Slingshot is a fabulous weapon, and will do great for clearing although may struggle some more at killing Bosses and Elites, not to worry though, as if you get as much Ranged Damage, Attack Speed etc. at the start, you won't have many problems!

The run shouldn't be too difficult although you may feel over-run by enemies.
If so, then try to avoid:

• Mouse
  
• Gentle Alien

As these items will increase the amount of enemies and make your life harder!
Although, if you're adventurous and comfortable, you can pick them up due to them giving even more materials, but is suggested not to if you're not 100% comfortable!
















When it comes to Max HP, you won't need to worry about it for a while as you'll get a good amount simply by getting 6 Slingshots and getting the +15 Max HP buff from the Primitive tag!












If you're following along the screenshots or looking at the final stats, the Max HP is that high due to the Extra Stomach item! So don't expect to get that much Max HP at the end.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour

You can get more dodge if you're having a more difficult time or some armour if you feel its needed!

• Harvesting

Do not even try going for Harvesting as it will be a waste of materials and levels due to you losing 3 harvesting every round no matter what!
(Although if you get to 60+ Harvesting, you will lose 3 but gain 3 at the same time. which cancels it out, but it will be a pain to get there and may simply be a waste of materials, so i suggest simply staying away!)

• SMG
  
• Minigun

Start with SMG and get 6 of them, if you see a minigun, i always recommend buying it as it will be a massive help! SMG/Minigun will be better at killing Bosses and Elites than the slingshots but will have a much harder time during waves!

The run shouldn't be too difficult although you may feel over-run by enemies.
If so, then try to avoid:

• Mouse
  
• Gentle Alien

As these items will increase the amount of enemies and make your life harder!
Although, if you're adventurous, you can pick them up due to them giving even more materials, but is suggested not to if you're not 100% comfortable!





























Life Steal will be the MVP here at keeping you alive, as you shoot so many bullets, that making it happen is super easy!
More Ranged Damage would've helped here in my run, although due to being unlucky (which can happen to you too), i adapted and went for more Survivability!

Multitasker
'Win a run with Multitasker'


➤ +20% Damage
➤ You can equip up to 12 weapons at a time
➤ -5% Damage for every weapon you have

For the character, Multitasker, We will be going for a specific Primitive build (I'll explain in a moment)

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal Or Regeneration
  
• Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Speed/Armour

Getting %Damage to POSITIVE after getting all 12 of the Sticks (Our Weapon Of Choice) will be necessary for this run (due to Multitaskers de-buff ability), keeping it at positive for most of the run is ideal but difficult in the early rounds, but try your best to keep it at positive otherwise you will receive a massive Damage penalty!

• Stick

Now the reason we are going to go Stick is to counteract one of Multitasker's de-buffs, The de-buff is getting -5% damage per weapon you are holding (which adds up to -40% with all weapons and including the 20% damage buff you get from the start). but the Stick gives you +4 Damage per stick you have (different to %, your sticks simply do +4 damage each when you hit an enemy), meaning that you lose a lot less damage with all sticks comparing to -60% damage overall with other weapons like Spear.

In short, Sticks have exceptional early game potential, especially with multitasker, as you get SO much extra damage simply by holding the sticks and having a bunch of -% damage won't affect you nearly as much!
(Although you should aim for positive %Damage after reaching 12 sticks too!)

1) Focus on getting all 12 Sticks ASAP, this will make the run considerably easier.
Don't worry too much as you may not even have all 12 sticks by Wave 10, just get them as soon as possible to make you life easier!

2) Make sure your %Damage is positive quickly after getting all 12 sticks, which includes scaling it while you're making your stick collection too! (In Short, Keep %Damage At Positive If Possible/Needed)












Getting early Melee Damage can be super helpful here, allowing you to kill all enemies really easily, just bear in mind that you will be quite delicate so be aware of your HP, or get some Dodge/Armour.












More attack speed would be nice if you are having some trouble but overall you shouldn't have much trouble and manage to defeat the final boss quickly!
(More armour/going for dodge can be beneficial if you are having trouble surviving instead of going for as much Melee Damage!)

Wildling
'Win a run with Wildling'


➤ +30% Life Steal with Primitive weapons
➤ You start with 1 Stick
➤ You can’t equip weapons above tier II

For the character, Wilding, we will be going for a full Primitive Build

Due to the only being able to get your Weapons up to level 2 (Blue Rarity) due to the character's debuff, we will try focus on stats, which is also why i picked a specific weapon.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour

Now, I put Life Steal in the main stats but bear in mind that you get +30% Life Steal when using primitive weapons (Sticks being Primitive). Although, this 30% does NOT show up in the side menu with all our stats, but instead shows when you hover over your weapon. So what we are looking for here, is to get 20% Life Steal on the stats board, this will add up with the 30% on each weapon, and actually mean we have 50% Life Steal!
(In short, get around 20% Life Steal before the end of the run)


1) Focus Damage and develop an economy in the early game, you can get away with this due to having a good amount of Early Life Steal and Small Amount Of Extra HP!

2) Leave Damage scaling for a bit and focus on scaling Survivability stats at the start. As you should have enough Damage simply by using the Stick due to its ability!

• Stick

I found stick to be the easiest simply just due to the +24 damage you get when you have all 6 Sticks (at base level, it goes up to +6 at level 2/Blue Rarity) (along with the extra health from Primitive Bonus too).

If you do go for a decent amount of speed, then i recommend going for:

• Power Generator

As you can get a decent amount of extra damage by the end when you get speed!

















After the first 10 waves, you hopefully won't have too much trouble, getting early attack speed, and luck will always be beneficial. But this also depends on what stats you get from your level ups!












Items Underneath - Peaceful Bee, Defective Steroids x2

As said at the top of this Section, getting around 20% Life Steal should be all you need, and getting your Max Dodge and Armour will let you have an easier time to get through this run!

if you get low during the final boss(es), then take advantage of the Life Steal and go after enemies around the boss or play more passively and walk around the edges making sure to dodge attacks while killing a few enemies to get your health back up!

Pacifist
'Win a run with Pacifist'


➤ Gain 0.65 material and XP for every living enemy at the end of a wave
➤ You start with 1 Lumberjack Shirt
➤ -100% Damage
➤ -100 Engineering

For the character, Pacifist, We will be going for a full 'Unarmed' Build with the Hand!

This run can be a bit tricky, but our main aim for this run is to keep enemies away and stay alive. Practically, we will be a moving Tank!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour
  
• Harvesting
  
• Speed

Don't get any Damage related stats, they're useless on Pacifist and we will want to keep as many enemies alive as possible to make the most of Pacifist's ability!

It's up to you whether you go for only HP Regeneration or Life Steal, but i suggest making HP Regeneration your main and possibly only source of healing, although you can always take Life Steal aswell, it won't be as effective and may be harder to keep on top of, so consider avoiding it.

I recommend getting Armour and Dodge simultaneously, by the mid game (wave 9-15), you'll want to hopefully have 60% Dodge and a good amount of Armour!
I can also suggest prioritizing Armour, Dodge and HP Regeneration over Max HP as it isn't as important in this run. Getting enough Max HP to survive a few hits is usually enough.

Harvesting is also very important, because you wont be getting much/any materials from killing enemies, and each enemy is only worth 0.65 materials per round! The more harvesting you have the better, and bear in mind, you will start with +25 Harvesting due to the Hands, so is quite easy to start a good economy! Simply buy Harvesting items or pick up Harvesting from level ups! Furthermore, you'll have more materials to spend on Harvesting as you dont need to spend any on Damage!

Attack Speed isn't as important here as the other stats, but when you're offered good items and level up's, don't be afraid to take them. Such as Coffee, Community Support etc. Attack Speed also becomes even better when you receive the Ugly Tooth item.

Speed is also incredibly important, as you'll need to run away from enemies, bosses and elites quite often. Make sure you have enough to outrun them!

• Damage
  
• Melee Damage

This is mainly due to one of Pacifists abilities which gives you 0.65 materials and XP per enemy ALIVE at the end of the round (and getting these stats would improve your lethality), so being a true pacifist and trying not to kill any enemies will be beneficial till the end, which also means you use more level ups and materials in the Item shops to buy more important Stats!

• Hand

Hands are a great weapon for pacifist due to its great knockback and the two different extra buffs you get when pairing 6 of them together (Unarmed/Support) for a really strong economy start.

• Unarmed giving us 15% more Dodge total
  
• Support giving us +25 more Harvesting total

• Crown, Fertiliser, Tractor, Bowler Hat etc.

In general, items that provide harvesting, especially Harvesting items that reduce Damage (as we dont care about Damage this run!), although be wary with Blood Donation. Crown is always a must pick up if you find it whenever we go for more Harvesting.

• Stone Skin, Shmoop, Peaceful Bee, Panda, Cake etc.

In general, items that provide Health and Defence, especially ones that reduce Damage (as we dont care about Damage this run!). Stone Skin is especially strong here thanks to all the Armour we are getting. But you'll want to have enough before you decide to take it (20+).

• Community Support

Community Support is a perfect fit for Pacifist. Community Support gives us Attack Speed per living enemy, and with pacifist we will have a lot of them, meaning we can very easily get over 100 Attack Speed just with this item! This can help for keeping enemies away or activating Life Steal if you have any.

• Ugly Tooth, Wandering Bot

Ugly Tooth is an incredible item this run, as this will greatly reduce the enemy movement speed after hitting them, and is where attack speed comes in handy too! So don't sleep on this item and get it ASAP!
Wandering Bot also is another item that can slow enemies by a lot for a short time, consider picking it up if you have the materials.

Ugly tooth can also completely lock enemies in place when used correctly! This is done by grouping enemies together into one big blob and running around them in a circle while constantly hitting them. This will practically 'lock' enemies in place as they'll be stuck behind the slow enemies and can make those bigger enemies a lot easier to deal with!

• Bait, Lure and items that spawn special enemies

Because we will be doing 1 Damage per hit, we will not be able to kill these enemies that these items spawn! Lure can be used in some cases, especially in the end game where we have materials to spend, but bait also gives us %Damage which we dont care about, and will make our next wave 10x harder!























Bear in mind, I was able to skip out on much Attack Speed due to Community Support! It'll give you all the attack speed you need during a wave so not much need to get more!

Gladiator
'Win a run with Gladiator'


➤ +20% Attack Speed for every different weapon you have
➤ +5 Melee Damage
➤ You can't equip ranged weapons
➤ -40% Attack Speed
➤ -30 Luck

For the character, Gladiator, Due to the characters quirk, we wont have a Full Build to go for but we can have some sort of idea on what to go for which i will underline in a second to be able to receive a massive attack speed increase.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed (Will explain more in detail, no need to focus it due to the ability of Glad)
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Dodge
  
• Armour

Not much to it, i will explain some more insight into the stats while going over weapons

• ??? (Read Below)

For the weapons, this can get complicated, but due to wanting to only holding 1 of each weapon to be able to get the massive Attack Speed Boost due to Gladiator's Buff!
It's going to be more difficult to get a full Stat boost from the Weapon Combos (i.e Primitive, Precise etc.) while still receiving the MASSIVE attack speed buff.

(Bear in mind you can ONLY get melee weapons!)

For this run, i tried my best to get Precise Weapons only, i will list the ones down below:

• Thief Dagger
  
• Knife
  
• Lightning Shiv (Which is also elemental)
  
• Scissors (Which is also medical)

Now these can be very useful as you can get the full 15% extra crit chance after collecting these weapons but i recommend instead of going for screwdriver, you can go for another Medical item (i.e Circular Saw)

In the end, it is quite difficult to map out this run so try your best, you can always get multiple of one if you need it. Take a look at the screenshots down below for some more help as this may be tricky due to the randomness of it all












By wave 10, i had a good variety of weapons and got a nice high attack speed along with 5/6 of the Precise bonus (giving me +12% Crit Chance)

Although my damage was quite low at this point so i suggest getting it at a respectable amount for Wave 14/15 and higher!












By the end i had a respectable amount of attack speed, and a good mix of Damage and melee damage (along with nearly max dodge)
The only scare i had was during Wave 15 where i did not have enough health/life steal and nearly died. So be sure to try to collect more life steal and HP than i did in this run!

Note: (These Screenshots Were Taken Before Patch 0.8.0.1, Screwdriver is no longer a Precise weapon, and Gladiator is on my list of characters to rewrite!)

Saver
'Win a run with Saver'

➤ +15 Harvesting
➤ +1% Damage for every 25 Materials you have
➤ You start with 1 Piggy Bank
➤ +50% Items Price

Saver is a very complicated character and requires some luck in the early game. However, hopefully with some guidance, you can overcome this character easily!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Life Steal
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge
  
• Harvesting

You do not want to get %Damage from level ups or items, as we will get most or if not ALL of our %Damage from simply saving materials! This is because Saver's ability will give you more than enough so getting extra from items/level ups is unnecessary!

Harvesting is not a necessity here but I do recommend getting a small increase at the very start as it can help your materials scale even quicker!

This is one of the only characters that I suggest not following in the Items You Should Consider section in General Tips. Among them are bags, coupons, and so on. These usually aren't worth it and you'll spend more than you get!

• %Damage

As said above, we will get all of our %Damage from Savers ability!

• Spear

Spear is a great weapon as it deals a bunch of damage and its reach is super helpful on Horde waves and waves where enemies can overrun you! (Wave 9 etc.)

• Padding (Gives Max HP the more materials you have! Can Be Very Helpful With D5)\

• Wave 1 to 7 -

In these waves, you want to get all 6 Spears while not wasting materials rerolling! As a rule of thumb, don't spend more than 5 or so rerolls, or up until each reroll costs 10 materials. This will ensure you keep saving and give you the best chance of finding the weapons you need.
Also try your best to stay away from buying any item in the shop, as they are too expensive and would mess up anything you've already saved!

• Wave 8 -

I personally found wave 8 to be the most difficult. It's very easy to die here with little items/stats. Having some Armour, HP Regeneration/Life Steal, or Attack Speed (whatever you can get from Level Ups and Crates) will help greatly!

• Wave 9+ -

This is where your Materials will climb quickly due to the high amount of enemies, which you can kill quickly thanks to your spears! At this point, there is a small rule of thumb to spend a quarter of the materials you currently have max each wave! This will ensure Piggy Bank still has some sort of effect!
I also suggest only buying epic+ (Purple) rarity items that will help with any stats you're currently missing out on, or something you know will give you an advantage later on! (and of course make sure you still level up your spears)























If you do decide to spend a lot of materials in the final buy phase, make sure you have enough for damage. Remember, the amount of materials you have determines your %Damage!

Sick
'Win a run with Sick'


- Reach -5 HP Regeneration On Any Character

➤ +12 Max HP
➤ +25% Life Steal
➤ You take 1 damage per second (does not give invulnerability time)
➤ -100 HP Regeneration

For the character, Sick, We will be going for a safe bet of a Ranged Build!

Bear in mind, you will take 1 Damage a second, so as a small tip, make sure you are not running into or near enemies if possible as if you get low, you may not have a chance to heal up!

(Recommended D5 and Non D5 Strategy)

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed/Crit Chance
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

You will have 25% from the start, getting more can be helpful but may not be necessary!)

• Slingshot

The bounces make it possible to have life steal proc more often and will help a bunch with keeping you alive, as well as it doing a good amount of damage makes it an amazing weapon!

• Bandana - Very useful item here, allows our bullets to travel through one target, if you get overwhelmed by enemies, this can be very useful!
  ⌞ Pumpkin (To Increase Pierce Damage)
  
• Ricochet (Again, very useful item and allows us to hit even more enemies, although be careful as this takes -25% Damage, so if you dont have much damage, avoid this)

Be careful with these items as a few are Run Killers!

• Spooky Ghost

You must avoid this as it will kill you and end your run! it makes your HP to 1, and after 1 second you will take 1 damage, and you will lose your run!

• Triangle Of Power

Now this might seem odd, but every time you take damage with this Item equipped you lose 2% Damage EVERY time you take damage, which means you lose 2% Damage per second.
This could lose you the entire run due to you losing so much damage in a quick time!

• Tardigrade

This item is useless when playing Sick as you lose 1HP per second, meaning you lose the effect of Tardigrade immediately! This will be a waste of your materials.

For this run, i focused on HP, Life Steal, Speed and Attack Speed, this allowed me to stay alive quite easily although meant that i could not kill any of the Elites/End Bosses, you can definitely spend more in Damage but bear in mind that the screenshots below from my run are from playing passively and spending more in Survivability!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed/Crit Chance (Get some of both, they can be useful and work well here)
  
• Armour (Only go for it if you are having problems, try keep it around 0 to not take too much damage!)

I didnt go for dodge here, although it is perfectly fine to, i personally went for Armour to reduce enemy damage so i have more health to tank the -1HP a second as it can definitely overwhelm you!

• SMG
  
• Minigun

Pretty self explanatory, the more bullets, the more chance we have to get life steal!
Bear in mind you do not need Minigun, but if it is there, go ahead and pick it up in the shop!

• Bandana - Very useful item here, allows our bullets to travel through one target, if you get overwhelmed by enemies, this can be very useful!
  ⌞ Pumpkin (To Increase Pierce Damage)
  
• Ricochet (Again, very useful item and allows us to hit even more enemies, although be careful as this takes -25% Damage, so if you dont have much damage, avoid this)

Be careful with these items as these are Run Killers!

• Spooky Ghost

You must avoid this as it will kill you and end your run! it makes your HP to 1, and after 1 second you will take 1 damage, and you will lose your run!

• Triangle Of Power

Now this might seem odd, but every time you take damage with this Item equipped you lose 2% Damage EVERY time you take damage, which means you lose 2% Damage per second.
This could lose you the entire run due to you losing so much damage in a quick time!

















I Had no issues after the first 3 waves, even in them, i didn't have much of an issue, getting higher Range and Attack speed can be very helpful as you will be able to hit more enemies and will make the future waves (Specifically Wave 14, 15 and 19) a lot easier!












At the end, i had no problems, i did sacrifice a lot of Damage for Ricochet and Bandana but i still had no problems in the end. Not much to say here, very similar to how you would play Ranger!

Farmer
'Win a run with Farmer'


- Reach 200 Harvesting - Pacifist, Entrepreneur

➤ +20 Harvesting
➤ Harvesting increases by an additional 3% at the end of a wave
➤ +1 Harvesting when picking up a consumable while at maximum health
➤ -50% materials dropped

Farmer is an amazing character due to it's insane economy from Harvesting, and can be incredibly overpowered in the late game!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal/HP Regeneration (or a bit or both)
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Speed
  
• Harvesting (From Ability)

Farmer is a pretty straightforward character, apart from the fact that we will be mainly focusing on Harvesting (in the early game) to make up the -50% materials dropped and to take advantage of the +20 Harvesting at the start (which gives us a really good base) and +3% additional Harvesting at the end of each wave!

• Pruner

Pruner is incredibly good on Farmer due to it's ability to spawn a Garden per Pruner, this allows us to take more advantage of the '+1 Harvesting when picking up a consumable while at maximum health' ability, as each garden spawns a consumable every 15 seconds (reduced the higher tier Pruner you go)

• Crown

Crown is one of the best items for Farmer as it lets us get even MORE Harvesting! It will scale incredibly fast after you get Crown, and the earlier you get it, the better!

• Garden & Tree

Garden and Tree will simply give us more consumables, which means even more harvesting and healing!

• Piggy Bank

Piggy Bank can be very good when used correctly, and is even very good on Farmer as we will be getting so many materials, which means the scaling is even more effective.

• Padding

Padding can be very useful due to getting even more Max HP from the more Materials you have. As well as getting even more materials with piggy bank!

• Extra Stomach

We will be getting a ton of Consumables this run, also while mainly collecting them at full hp, so getting the full +10 Max HP per wave is incredibly easy and in the end gives you a ton of Max HP!

Bear in mind, during this example run i did not pick up most of these example items to show that they're not necessary but can make your life and run a lot easier!

Ghost
'Win a run with Ghost'


- Reach 60% Dodge - Brawler, Pacifist, Speedy, Doctor, Cryptid, Golem

➤ +10 Damage with Ethereal weapons
➤ +30% Dodge
➤ Dodge is capped at 90%
➤ -100 Armour

For the character, Ghost, We will be playing a full Ethereal Build due to Ghost's Buff/Ability which gives us +10 Damage with Ethereal Weapons!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Dodge
  
• Attack Speed & %Damage

Apart from early game and from certain efficient items (like Glass Cannon, and Coffee), you will not want to be going for %Damage and Attack Speed as we will get the majority of it from our Weapons.

We will also want to make sure to invest heavily into Melee Damage (heavily past mid/late game), as Melee Damage scales with %Damage and Attack Speed, leading us to kill enemies quicker and get even more %Damage and Attack Speed!

In the early-mid game I suggest focusing on getting your Dodge to 90%, getting some Consumable Healing Items (such as lemonade/weird food) or HP Regeneration, some Melee Damage to make sure you can kill the enemies. And some early Luck and Harvesting (Peaceful Bee/Fertilizer)

Dodge is the most important and useful stat. Due to Ghosts' ability, we will be able to get Dodge up to 90, which will be necessary due to us taking a BUNCH more damage from the -100 Armour debuff!
⌞ Bear in mind, due to the Ethereal 6 Weapons class buff, you will get +30% Dodge, not also including the 30% Dodge from the Ghost Buff. Meaning once we have all our Weapons, we will only need an extra 30% Dodge before getting to the max.

Dont bother at all with Armour! Gaining or losing Armour also makes nearly no difference!
So dont be scared if you're losing more armour as it wont matter too much. Simply put, never worry about getting more -% Armour and don't bother with getting +% Armour either.
This also allows us to buy items that give -Armour without any downside!

Finally, when it comes to Max HP, you'll usually want to have enough to Survive at least 2 hits in a row without any healing (which is approximately 100+ Max HP). This should allow you to stay comfortably alive unless you're unlucky. I suggest constantly building up your Max HP throughout your run.

• Ghost Flint
  
• Ghost Axe

I suggest getting 3 of each here, the reason we are disregarding Ghost Scepter is solely because we can survive off of the Max HP we gradually get from Items and Level Ups.

• Armour Items (Glass Cannon, Gambling Token etc.)

As I mentioned above, because it doesn't really matter if we get + or - Armour, getting Items with -Armour as a downside are all really efficient and usually in your best interest.

• Adrenaline

Even if you have your Max Dodge, I highly recommend picking up Adrenaline due to it helping you recover from being hit by healing you every time you Dodge, this could save your Life after being hit and is overall very strong.

• Tardigrade

A simple item that blocks the first hit of Damage you take, pick it up when you can as it is especially strong on Ghost!

• Stone Skin

Stone Skin immediately puts your HP down to 1 if you get it thanks to our -100 Armour, avoid it at all costs!












Even before wave 10 (After Wave 9), i highly recommend getting as close as possible to 90% Dodge, otherwise you may have quite a lot of issues with enemies constantly getting stronger and more frequent!
Try to get dodge when leveling up over other stats!

Speedy
'Win a run with Speedy'


- Reach 50% Speed - Lucky, Pacifist, Almost Any Character

➤ +30% Speed
➤ +1 Melee Damage for every 2% Speed you have
➤ -100 Armour while standing still
➤ -3 Armour

Speedy can be an incredibly strong but fragile character, having a ton of Damage but hardly any Armour to protect us from hits. Yet our speed can make up for this weakness

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage (preferably from item, Power Generator)
  
• Melee Damage (mainly from ability)
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Armour
  
• Speed

Speed is an incredibly important stat in this run because, speed will be one of the main ways you get a bunch of Melee Damage, this is due to Speedy's Ability (You get 1 Melee Damager per 2% Speed!). The only other two times I suggest picking up Melee Damage is either when a good deal is offered as either a level up or as an item or if you feel like the amount of speed you have is too much/overwhelming (you'll know this when you start running into enemies more often). At this point, you should stop taking Speed and if you still need more, go for Melee Damage itself

Speed is also incredibly useful in-case you get the item, "Power Generator", this will allow you to get a lot of %damage as for every 1% speed, you get +1 %Damage.

When it comes to Armour, it is up to you how much you'd like to go for, as with your speed you'll be able to dodge enemies, elites and bosses a lot easier. But if you get hit, it'll take a massive chunk of your health if you dont have much armour. Usually your best bet is starting out as more of a glass cannon build. This means slowly getting armour later in the run and focusing on Speed/Melee Damage, Attack Speed, Crit Chance and a bit of early Luck and Harvesting (you can aim for 50+ on these two by the end of your run, although the earlier you get Harvesting, the better)

You'll want to finish off your run with around 50-60% Crit Chance, as after all the hidden bonuses have added up, your Shuriken's will have 100% Crit Chance! (at 60% Crit Chance, you'll have 100% Crit Chance on Tier 2 Shuriuken's). Although you dont need this much Crit Chance, you will do just fine with less.


Do NOT stand still! When standing still, you'll lose 100 Armour and will take a bunch of damage if you're hit, sometimes enough damage to kill you immediately. Also know that if you quickly press 'a' and 'd' on your keyboard at the same time (or simply press them at the same time), it can still count as you standing still, this is similar to how counter-strafing works in FPS shooters. So you cannot just spam 'a' and 'd' over and over to not get the penalty. Just stay on the move and you should hopefully be okay!

• Shuriken

Shuriken is an incredibly reliable weapon, we will be getting Crit Chance to make the most out of their great clear potential. It is also technically a ranged weapon as it throws the shuriken's as projectiles, but just know that they do still scale on Melee Damage and not ranged damage!

If you're having lots of trouble, then I can suggest trying Spear instead, this also means you won't have to go for Crit Chance.























For Wave 20, you will most likely want over 10 Armour, although as you can see from my run, it is not necessary, just focus on evading attacks and projectiles and you should be alright (It is okay to simply wait out the timer too if you feel too squishy).
Just as said above, a nice 50-60% Crit Chance is most helpful here.
As long as you don't stop moving, you should be fine!

Entrepreneur
'Win a run with Entrepreneur'


- Hold 3000 Materials - Saver, Farmer. Easy to unlock when you have piggy bank etc.

➤ -25% Items Price
➤ Harvesting modifications are increased by 50%
➤ Gain 25% more materials from recycling items
➤ -100% of your materials at the start of waves
➤ Damage modifications are reduced by 50%

Entrepreneur is one of the most powerful characters in the game, this is due to their insane snowballing capabilities, and once you get past the first 10 waves, you can become incredibly strong.

Due to us being able to have so much money and so many stats, i'll be giving an outline of what time to get each stat that we want. For example, Early means from the start, all the way till the end. And Mid means from the middle of the run, all the way till the end.

• Engineering (Early)
  
• Armour (Early)
  
• Luck (Early)
  
• Harvesting (Early)
  
• Max HP (Mid)
  
• Attack Speed (Mid)
  
• HP Regeneration (Mid/Late)
  
• Dodge (Mid/Late)
  
• Speed (Mid/Late)

You'll notice that i have the stats weirdly laid out compared to other characters, this is to make it easier to follow if you're following the outline!

Harvesting will 100% be the most important for this run! You will lose ALL materials at the end of wave! If you get a good amount of Harvesting, you can get a lot of each Stats and buy a ton of items in each wave shop.

Luck will go hand in hand with many items and level ups too, which is why we are going to be getting a good amount, especially in the early to mid game. (50+ by mid possibly)

I also suggest if you go for Armour or Dodge, go with Armour as it will benefit you more and we can get all of our Dodge easily later in the run.

We will also want to get Engineering constantly throughout the run as it is going to be the main way we grow out damage!

IMPORTANT:
You will lose ALL of your materials at the start of each round, make sure to spend ALL OF IT before it gets wiped! This is why we will want a high amount of harvesting to get as many materials as possible!

• Wrench

Wrench lets us completely avoid the downside of 'Damage modifications are reduced by 50%' because our main damage source will be the turrets, which use Engineering for damage scaling. And Engineering doesn't count as a Damage modification! So we can simply avoid Melee Damage and %Damage (until the very late game if you'd like).

• Crown

Get it when you see it, don't miss it! It is the most

• Tractor/Fertilizer/Blood Donation

Any '+ Harvesting' items are incredibly useful this run, and the earlier you get them the better. As long as they dont interfere with your other main stats too much.

• Coupon, Dangerous Bunny

You're Tagged with these items in mind, so make sure you pick them up to save even more money!

• Recycling Machine - Which goes hand in hand with Tree, Bag, Lure and the stat Luck

Recycling Machine is actually a great item for this run, as it adds onto Entrepreneurs 'Gain 25% more materials from recycling items', in turn, making it 85%! Which lets us get even more materials from recycling items that we get from crates. Lure simply gives us 2 crates guaranteed, Tree lets us get more tree's to drop crates, Luck giving us more chance to get crates, and Bag gives us more materials when picking up crates!

• Piggy Bank
  
• Padding

Piggy bank will be pretty much useless during this Run, due to us losing ALL materials at the start of each wave, which means piggy bank will do nothing!
Padding will just have a negative effect on you and it will not be worth it as you will lose all of your materials and only materials you have during the round will make a difference!












I suggest picking up Harvesting and Luck as early as possible, as the earlier we get them, the better. I also suggest if you go for Armour or Dodge, go with Armour as it will benefit you more and we can get all of our Dodge easily later in the run. And getting Engineering is a great idea too.

Engineer
'Win a run with Engineer'


- Get 5 turrets on the map simultaneously - Old

➤ +10 Engineering
➤ Engineering modifications are increased by 25%
➤ You start with 1 Wrench
➤ Structures spawn close to each other
➤ Damage modifications are reduced by 50%

For the character, Engineer, we will be going fully automated with a full Turret orientated build!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Engineering
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge
  
• Luck And Harvesting

Pick up early Luck and Harvesting, these will help you snowball a lot easier!

Engineering has many great items, so most of your engineering will come from these. So make sure to focus on survivability stats from level ups over engineering, unless of course there are no other options.

If you get Improved Tools or Pile of Books, take Attack Speed and Crit Chance as you see fit, but don't bother with them until you find these items!

Your turrets will spawn in a small bunch at the start of each round. Find them and stick around as much as you can! These will be your DPS against your enemies so be sure to stay around them to survive.

As we're going a full Engineering build, we can struggle to make use of Incendiary Turrets, so make your priority to not hold more than 2-3 Blue Wrenches if you can help it. Upgrade them ASAP!

• Wrench

Wrench will be our weapon of choice, we will not be dealing much damage with the wrench as we won't be going for %Damage or Melee Damage. We will purely be focusing on Engineering and Turrets!

• Any Of The Turret Items

Any of the turret items will be very useful here, From Explosive Turret to Medical Turret! Any kind of turret and items that would work well with the turret will be good, such as Dynamite and Plastic Explosives for the Explosive turret!

• Pocket Factory

We will be spawning many Tree's, and Pocket Factory takes full advantage of that! In addition to giving us 2 Engineering, it spawns a turret every time we kill a tree!

• Pile of Books

A great item that lets your Turrets Crit, pick up Crit Rate if you find this item.

• Improved Tools

A great item that lets your Turrets scale with 50% Attack Speed, pick up Attack Speed if you find this item.












For this run, i do suggest playing around your turrets as they will spawn in a bunch at the start of the round! Try to dodge projectiles and dashing enemies and you should be alright












By the end, killing the boss may pose a problem, if that's the case then try staying around your turrets to kill the small enemies and dodging attacks from the Main Boss. This may prove difficult but you may simply be able to kill the boss by focusing on dodging and letting your turrets do the work!

Explorer
'Win a run with Explorer'


- Kill 50 trees - Cryptid

➤ More trees spawn
➤ You start with 1 Lumberjack Shirt
➤ +10% Speed
➤ +50% pickup range
➤ +33% Map Size
➤ +25% Enemies
➤ -50% materials dropped from enemies
➤ +10% Enemy Speed
➤ -40% Damage

For the Character, Explorer, There are many ways to play them! But i will write down the strategy that seems to work the best for me and others!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour/Dodge (Try to get more Armour than dodge, i found it better than dodge for the most part)

Early game luck can be very helpful here.
You will have -40% Damage to start with, i recommend getting it to Positive by the end of the run
There isn't Much to say here, getting a bit more speed can make traversing the map easier to get to Tree's etc. but is not necessary.

(Bear in mind, we will be staying ALIVE for wave 20, not killing the boss. Get enough Damage to kill enemies and put the rest into Survivability!)

• Cacti Club

As i said, there are many ways to play this character, but i found and have seen that Cacti Club is the way to go here!
It is also very good because it hits enemies, and more importantly, Tree's from afar! which lessens the amount of time to go after each tree itself due to the spikes that the weapon releases upon hits!

If you have any issues, you can try a lot of other Strategies such as:

• 1) Flamethrower, Torch (Elemental Build)
  
• 2) Wrench, Screwdriver (Engineering Build)
  
• 3) Spear (Alternate Melee Build)

But i recommend giving this strategy a good go and a few tries if necessary as this one (Cacti Club) seems to work the best and most reliable!

• Tree's

This can be extremely helpful, plus we will start with More Tree's, and the more tree's the more Crates we can get for more items!

• Alien Tongue

• Lemonade, Weird Food etc.

Any Item That Increases Consumable Heal would be brilliant due to the copious amount of trees there are, and how many consumables they will be dropping. this could be essential to keeping us alive!
Can make your life a lot easier by picking up everything from further away! I suggest getting all the ones that come your way as they can be nice and helpful!


























For the end, Wave 20, I Recommend staying alive until the end, and killing enemies around the side, this is where Armour, Dodge, Speed and Life Steal will kick in well!

Doctor
'Win a run with Doctor'


➤ +200% Attack Speed with Medical weapons
➤ +5 HP Regeneration
➤ HP Regeneration is doubled
➤ +5 Harvesting
➤ -100% Attack Speed
➤ Armour modifications are reduced by 50%

For the character, Doctor, we will be going for a full Medical Build to take advantage of Doctor's ability of getting 200% attack speed when using a Medical weapon!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Dodge

We will be going for ONLY HP Regeneration here, because our HP Regeneration is doubled and can be incredibly overpowered when you get HP Regeneration high enough. We will have more than enough Life Steal from simply using our weapon, Scissors!

Getting Dodge to max by the end will also make your life a bunch easier and could save your run if you take too much damage all at once!

Even though we also start with -100% Attack Speed, still getting more attack speed can be very helpful with surviving Elites and Hordes! And getting some early Harvesting will be important too, the +5 Harvesting you get at the start is a sign that you should get even more!

Even though i haven't mentioned Armour at all here, try not to go into the negatives, but also don't worry about being positive as it is not worth it!

• Scissors

Scissors is one of 2 starter weapons, so is easy to pickup and gives a bunch of early Crit Damage and Life Steal(from the weapon itself and the Medical and Precise tags)





























Even if you have a lower amount of Melee Damage, if you have a decent amount of Crit Chance, Dodge, HP Regen etc., you shouldn't have too many issues with the final boss(es)

Hunter
'Win a run with Hunter'

- Reach +300 Range - Ranger, pick up any range items you see

➤ +100 Range
➤ +1% Damage for every 10 Range you have
➤ Crit Chance modifications are increased by 25%
➤ Harvesting modifications are reduced by 100%
➤ Max HP modifications are reduced by 33%

For the character, Hunter, we will be going a Precise/Medieval Ranged build.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal (Will be better than HP Regeneration here, mainly due to the piercing from our weapon)
  
• Damage
  {*] Ranged Damage
  
• Crit Chance (Modifications are increased by 25% so it will be easier to get more of it!)
  ⌞ Try to get 50-60 Crit Chance, this will guarantee you hitting a crit almost every shot!
  
• Range (Damage scales with Range)
  
• Armour And Dodge

Bear in mind that you will get 33% Max HP Modifications, I personally suggest aiming for around 50, but it is up to you.
You will get some of your damage from getting a bunch of Range due to Hunter's Ability, so getting range is always a good idea for this run! Although you wont get a super load of Damage just from Range, so getting some on the side is definitely a good idea (See Screenshots For More Of An Idea)
+ a bit of Ranged damage on top can be helpful too.

• Harvesting

There is no point for harvesting as all modifications are reduced by 100%. Basically meaning, you cannot gain OR LOSE any harvesting, so any items that reduce harvesting you should think about getting!

• Crossbow

From experience and others, i've seen that Crossbow works the best here out of the starter items
(As well as spear but for this run we will be focusing crossbow!)












For the first 10 rounds i do recommend getting a good amount of survivability and Crit Chance and dont worry about Damage too much, for the first 10, get Range for your damage or Crit Chance which can help a bunch, it will help you kill groups of enemies and survive!












I do suggest making sure you can at least survive a few hits from the boss incase you do get hit, but if you follow along with the stats which are honestly important to follow this run, you should be alright!

Artificer
'Win a run with Artificer'

- Kill 15 Enemies with a single explosion - Engineer, Bull

➤ +175% Explosion Damage
➤ +4% Explosion Size for every 1 Elemental Damage you have
➤ -100% Damage
➤ Armour modifications are reduced by 50%

For the character, Artificer, We will be focusing on the thing that they're best at, Explosions!
We can go both a Melee or a Ranged Build for this run, i will outline them both down below!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal/HP Regeneration (Either works, preferably HP Regeneration)
  
• Elemental Damage AND Melee/Ranged Damage (Depending on what type of weapon you go for)
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge

We will not be going Damage for this run due to the -100% Damage due to Artificer's de-buff, but we will be going Elemental Damage so that we can get even bigger explosions!
And we will be getting Ranged/Melee Damage to scale with our weapon!

In short, don't get %Damage but get Elemental Damage along with Ranged/Melee Damage based on the weapon you are using!

Dont worry about Armour too much, i suggest keeping it positive, but due to all modifications being halved, no need to focus on it to get it super high!

• Ranged Build | Start With Shredder - when you see Rocket Launcher/Nuclear Launcher (Which you get from beating Soldier), Take it over shredder as they are better and will make your life easier!
  
• Melee Build | Plank - You can always try a plank build if Shredder is not working for you! (Bear in mind, it scales with Melee Damage and Elemental Damage, as well as engineering but dont worry about it)

When it comes to the Nuclear Launcher, remember that you can only get it if you have beaten Soldier but is the best weapon to get for this run. So get it over Rocket Laucher and Shredder!

I Suggest only going for Rocket Launcher if you dont have Nuclear Launcher Unlocked!
(Bear in mind, you can complete the entire run with just Shredders)

• Dynamite
  
• Plastic Explosive
  
• Explosive Shells (This will be unlocked AFTER completing the character, if you are re-doing the character, this will be an amazing item)

Dynamite and Plastic Explosives important to the run, always pick them up when you see them! the more the better!






























(Personal Run Notes)
For this run i personally did not manage to get Rocket or Nuclear Launcher a single time, but even for you, it should not be much of a problem!
Keep scaling your explosion Size and Damage as much as possible and follow the suggested stats and you should be alright!

Arms Dealer
'Win a run with Arms Dealer'

- Recycle 12 weapons during a run - Any Character

➤ -95% Weapons Price
➤ +30 Harvesting
➤ Damage modifications are increased by 33%
➤ You start with 1 Dangerous Bunny
➤ Shops always sell at least one weapon
➤ All of your weapons are destroyed when entering a shop

For the Character, Arms Dealer, as they are convoluted and difficult to understand, but with a good understanding of how to influence the shop and knowing what to buy, it could be a lot easier than you think!

For the run, due to the Arms Dealer's special abilities/stats we will be making sure that we get as many materials as possible to be able to buy the guns necessary to allow us to live as-well as getting the items needed.

I will be outlining below (Under the recommended weapons) how we will be playing this

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• Damage
  ⌞ Ranged Damage and Melee Damage (i highly recommend getting a both, so that if you're forced to play with Melee Weapons or Ranged weapons due to the shop (Which i will explain in a moment) you have enough damage to deal with the wave upcoming)
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Crit chance
  
• Dodge (Try To Keep Armour At Positive)
  
• Luck (Can be very helpful to get higher leveled weapons, you wont need too much though)
  
• Harvesting (I let harvesting stack on its own most of the time)

I Got a good amount of Attack Speed and Crit Chance to help with Life Steal as it is the main healing of this run.
Harvesting was useful to be able to get a good amount of materials to be able to buy all the weapons (Even though they are very cheap anyway) and all the items that i needed!


Pretty much any weapons you can find would be great for this!

Look under the heading below i will explain how to create your build by influencing the shop into giving you certain weapons!

I will write down each weapons i had each wave to help you give more of an idea. Although due to the luck and randomness on this Character, it will be impossible to get specific weapons or follow even close to my guide, but i am sharing it to show that it can be completed with weird combinations of weapons.

With the shop, whatever your FIRST weapon that you buy is, it will influence the weapons of your next reroll, which will reduce the amounts of re-rolls needed to be able to get the weapons you would want.

So if you were to buy an SMG, you would be more likely to find ranged weapons in your next re-rolls.
And if you were to buy a Knife, you would be more likely to find Melee weapons in your next re-rolls.

In short, the first weapon you get, if it is ranged for example, you would see more ranged weapons in the next re-rolls.

I always recommend trying to Lock a weapon before going into the wave (after getting the weapons that you see fit) so that you immediately can influence the shop next round by buying the locked weapon (whether it be Melee or Ranged) for more specific weapons without wasting too many materials on re-rolling!

Bear In Mind, You Will Not Be Able To Follow This Exactly or even close at all, But It Is To Give You An Idea On What Weapons You Could Go For. This is also based on the weapons i had for the Wave.

Wave 1 - Pistol
Wave 2 - Shotgun, Pistol
Wave 3 - Shredder, Pistol, Ghost Axe, Ghost Scepter
⌞ Got what i could for this round, mix and matched
Wave 4 - Pistol x2
Wave 5 - Med Gun x2, Thief's Dagger
Wave 6 - Shredder x2, Taser, Laser Gun
Wave 7 - Shotgun x2, Ghost Axe, Wrench
⌞ Got what i could for this round, mix and matched (Will happen a few times for first 10 rounds but you shouldn't have too many issues
Wave 8 - Ghost Scepter, Shotgun, Crossbow, Taser
Wave 9 - Knife x2, Rock, Lightning Shiv
Wave 10 - Shotgun x2, Rocket Launcher, Laser Gun











Items That Were Cut Off:










It is very difficult to try to route out this run, but i found that it may get easier in the later waves!
Make sure that if you're lacking in one area, get more of a stat to help! But this can be difficult if you get unlucky like i have.
If you get a weaker loadout for one Wave, be sure to play more passively, getting some more Dodge or Speed can be beneficial if you think so!

Wave 11 - Shredder, Pistol, Ghost Scepter
Wave 12 - Ghost Axe x2, Torch
⌞ This round was close, got unlucky with weapons but when you get unlucky, make sure you play more passively!
Wave 13 - Crossbow x2, SMG, Shuriken
Wave 14 - SMG, Crossbow, Laser Gun, Potato Launcher
Wave 15 - Sword, Hatchet, Spear, Scissors, Rock
Wave 16 - Medical Gun x2, Shredder, Laser Gun
Wave 17 - Medical x2, Shredder, Laser Gun
Wave 18 - Cacti Club x2, Knife, Thief's Dagger, Chopper
Wave 19 - Screwdriver x3, Cacti Club
Wave 20 - Potato Launcher, Laser Gun, Shuriken, Rocket Launcher, Taser, Shotgun

(Remember, this is just to show that you can complete this with the most random weapons, you won't be able to copy it)













I found this character somewhat easy in the end, sometimes you can get unlucky but there isn't much you can do about it, making sure that you keep on top of influencing the shop, they may take a few tries to wrap your head around.

I can suggest that you try to get 5 or 6 weapons nearly every round after round 15/16, but do not waste too many materials on re-rolling!

Remember, Dont try and focus on one of the damage types, get half and half if possible, usually Melee damage is easier to get than ranged damage but also make sure you have enough %Damage too, as this will scale with both!

Streamer
'Win a run with Streamer'


- Reach -20% Speed - Old

➤ +3% of your materials (+25 max) per second while standing still
➤ +40% Damage while moving
➤ +40% Attack Speed while moving
➤ +2 Armour for every 1 Structure you have
➤ -50% materials dropped
➤ -1% Damage for every 15 Materials you have
➤ -1% Speed for every 30 Materials you have

For the Character, Streamer, We will be playing a very specific way to make the most out of the Buffs that this character gives!

This strategy is originally by Zealousideal_Ease429 from the brotato reddit, make sure to upvote and see their original guide here!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Engineering
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

Engineering is the top priority stat for this run. This will be the stat that will increase our damage, and the only damage increase stat that we will go for. Ignore %Damage and all flat damage! We will want to get enough Engineering to kill enemies and then focus on LOTS of survivability. Such as Max HP, HP Regeneration for healing, and Armour/Dodge. It's up to you whether you go for Armour or Dodge in the first 10 waves, but note that you get a bunch of Armour from stacking wrenches immediately, and it's always beneficial to keep stacking Armour, and focus on Dodge past wave 10.

Also note that we get armour for every turret/structure you have! So every time you see a turret make sure you pick it up.

A general rule of thumb in the very early game is to get 1 wrench per wave from the shop so that you have all 6 wrenches by Wave 7. These Wrenches will also be spawning turrets, the plan for most of the run is to find the biggest group of turrets and stand still around them for as long as you can without needed to dodge while you keep gaining materials.

When buying and upgrading wrenches, my only suggestion is to not stick with Blue (Tier 2) Wrenches for too long, and don't have too many of them. The Tier 2 Wrenches, rather than shooting bullets, act like a flamethrower and aren't good at single target damage and can get you killed because there isn't enough damage output. So when you have the chance to merge 2 tier 2 Wrenches, make sure you do so! (although don't let this discourage you to buy Tier 2 turrets)

You may wonder what to do with the materials sitting around the map, and my suggestion is to spend the last 5-10 second of the early waves collecting them. But as you go further and you become a lot slower, it'll be very difficult to pick up all these materials and it's simply best to keep standing still in the later waves.

The economy is probably the most important part to understand, i'll list a few milestones that i find the most important.

At 67 materials, you will receive 2 materials per second
At 168 materials, you will receive 5 materials per second
At 400-500 materials, you will receive 12-15 materials per second
And 834 materials, you will max out and receive 25 materials per second

For this strategy, after the early waves you want to make your way up to above 400/500 materials and stay above that much, and at whatever point you feel comfortable, get to 834 materials and stay above there.
You can also work your way up to above 834 materials earlier and become stronger, much quicker. But you may find more struggle, but its definitely worth a go!

• Wave 4

Starting from Wave 4, Spitters (that shoot projectiles) will start spawning, here you'll have to be careful and judge for yourself when to keep standing still and when to dodge. But understand that in these early waves you aren't earning so many materials that it'll make much of a difference if you decide to dodge. Its better to be alive!

• Wave 7

• Wave 20

Spend all of your materials on the final shop, this will simply open up your speed back to normal to make it easier to run around and kill the final boss(es).

• Wrench

• Improved Tools

Improved tools is a very important item as if you find the item, you'll want to buy it and then immediately start stacking attack speed! (if you don't have improved tools, do not worry about attack speed)

• Fairy

Because HP Regeneration is our main source of healing this run and we will have so many Tier 1 items in the later game from having so many materials. Hence, Fairy is a very strong and a must pick up item.

• Chameleon and Barricade

As we will be standing still for a lot of the game, these items can make a big difference (especially in the early game) as they give us big stat boosts for standing still! (Statue is only good if you pair it with Improved Tools)

• Piggy Bank

Piggy Bank is great for some extra money, although not 100% necessary. But can be helpful, especially in the early game to get to 834 materials faster!

• All types of structures

Turrets, Gardens, Landmines, Wandering Bots etc. Any structure will give you an armour boost so is automatically worth taking, plus nearly every structure scales on Engineering, which makes them all even stronger.

Cyborg
'Win A Run With Cyborg'

➤ You start with 1 Minigun
➤ Ranged Damage modifications are increased by 250%
➤ 100% of your Ranged Damage are temporarily converted into Engineering halfway through a wave (1 Ranged Damage = 2 Engineering)
➤ Engineering modifications are reduced by 75%
➤ Melee modifications are reduced by 100%
➤ Elemental modifications are reduced by 100%

Cyborg is a very interesting Character, due to us needing to mix and match 2 weapons to make this run as easy as possible!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

We won't be going for Engineering here as our Engineering modifications are reduced by 75%, meaning you will only get 1 Engineering per 4 Engineering you get! Instead, we will go for Ranged Damage explicitly as half way through each wave, all of it is switched to Engineering (1 Ranged Damage = 2 Engineering - this engineering is NOT affected by the -75%!)

We will be using Life Steal here over HP Regeneration because even when our Ranged Damage switches to Engineering and we lose all damage in our Minigun, we can still use it to heal due to the Minigun's high attack speed! This is also the reason we are getting Attack Speed, it's to increase the effectiveness of Life Steal!

• Minigun
  
• Wrench

As you start the run, simply go for Wrenches, but keep the minigun the whole time! By the end of the run, your ideal setup should be 2 Miniguns (Red Or Purple) and 4 Wrenches! This is very important, especially if you're attempting D5. Don't be afraid to take Ranged Damage whenever you see it, as it is super important.
As a rule of thumb, to make your life easier, whenever you spawn into a wave, see where the biggest clump of your Turrets are, and stick around them! So that when you switch to Engineering, you shouldn't have too much of a problem killing enemies and staying alive!

When playing D5, whenever you come up against an Elite, ALWAYS target it and kill it ASAP with your minigun(s)! As you'll find it very difficult to kill it with just your wrenches and turrets after the half way point in the wave! Although not to say it can't be done.












When possible, picking up Turret items are always a massive help during your Engineering phase!

And i can always suggest getting a bit of Speed too, although i haven't listen it due to it not being necessary to the build!
And anything that can help your minigun utilize Life Steal more! Like Bandana, Ricochet etc.












Again, as mentioned above, make sure to focus on one of the two final bosses (if on D5) with your minigun and get rid of it ASAP! If you can even get both bosses before heading to the Engineering phase then you're golden, but lowering the load of projectiles you need to dodge will be greatly helpful!

Glutton
'Win a Run with Glutton'


➤ +50 Luck
➤ +1 % Explosion Damage when picking up a consumable while at maximum health
➤ Consumable have a 100% chance to explode for 500% Melee Damage when picked up
➤ +25 % Items Price
➤ -25 % XP Gain

Glutton will heavily rely on Consumables for healing and damage! I will be outlining a strategy and weapon that will achievement good healing and damage both at the same time.

• Max HP
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge
  
• Luck

You may notice we are not getting HP Regeneration and Life Steal, this is because for all our healing, and a lot of our damage, we will be using Consumables which are dropped from Tree's, Enemies and Gardens.
(Hence getting any item that increases Consumable Healing like Weird Food, is necessary in this run!)

Although, if you are struggling with this strategy, HP Regeneration can usually be very helpful.

You should mainly prioritize Melee Damage for a lot of this run as this will be how we deal a TON of damage and is necessary to kill Elites and Bosses! Although having enough Max HP and Armour as a buffer until you can reach Consumables to heal and deal damage will also be very important!

We will play this run by staying around our spawned Gardens and walking into Consumables when enemies come towards us, as our Pruners don't do much damage alone, its as simple as that! If you feel overwhelmed by enemies, try to find your nearest Consumable and walk into it and they'll pretty much all die in one go, depending on how much Melee Damage you have! (which is why its important to get Melee Damage)

Remember that when you pick up Consumables at full health, you will also increase your Explosion damage, which allows you kill more enemies quicker!

Finally, Luck is quite an important stat this run, as it increases our chances to drop more consumables! Pick it up when you can from Level Ups (when there isn't a better choice) and items for more damage and more healing

• Pruner

Pruner spawns 1 Garden per weapon, meaning when we have all 6 weapons, we will have 6 gardens consistently spawning the Consumables we need to deal damage!

• Weird Food, Lemonade

Weird Food and Lemonade are vital for this run, the more we heal from consumables, the quicker we will be able to deal damage with the explosion!

• Tree, Garden (+ Improved Tools)

Tree and Garden both spawn more consumables, for more healing and more damage! And if you have a garden, don't be afraid to pick up Improved Tools to make consumables spawn faster from them!

• Plastic Explosives, Explosive Shells

These two items give us more explosion range on our Consumables! Meaning less time to get hit, and more space for damage!

Jack
'Win A Run With Jack'


➤ +50% damage against bosses and elites
➤ +200% materials dropped from enemies
➤ -75% Enemies
➤ +250% Enemy health
➤ +50% Enemy damage
➤ From D2-5, you will only encounter Elites, hordes never spawn

For The Character, Jack, we will be going for a high damage build, which will be made possible because of the +200% Materials dropped! Although, newer players will have troubles due to enemies having +250% Max HP and deal +50% Damage!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

You will get a large amount of a lot of stats over time from simply buying a bunch of items, although you may always feel like you lack in HP and Healing due to the enemies constantly dealing a bunch of damage! Jack is one of those characters to really test your dodging skills!

Attack Speed is a SUPER important Stat in this build, it will allow us to make the best out of our Laser Guns as they shoot very slowly without the attack speed!

You will also have the opportunity to get some Crit Chance, i suggest getting Crit Chance but waiting until you have a bunch of materials to spend, and NOT getting Crit Chance from level ups, simply waiting to get them from Items! (You won't need more than 25/30% by the end)

The strategy for this run is mainly going for Attack Speed and Damage at the very start, this will make it very easy to kill the small amount of enemies and get you started!
Although if you feel you're lacking on Health then feel free get some Max HP and Armour.

• Laser Gun

Laser Gun works really well here, as they do a bunch of damage which is necessary because enemies have such a high amount of health! (+250% than normal)

Although the fire-rate is quite slow on this gun, so getting Attack Speed will be necessary!

• Bait

Bait is great here because it also scales with the -75% enemies ability, meaning you get +8% Damage and only need to deal with 1-3 speical enemies instead of 5+ of them! This makes this item incredibly easy to get pretty much free damage! (Although still be careful, as they will still hit you with a LOT of damage and could make you lose your run!)

• Silver Bullet

Silver Bullet simply improves your damage when facing Elites and Bosses, which is perfect for this run due to you only facing Elites and Bosses, never hordes!

• Gentle Alien Or Mouse

Be careful with these items, as they will increase the amount of enemies you see in your waves. although, this also means you get even more Materials. If you're confident enough, pick 1 or 2 of these up to get a noticeable increase in materials!

(If you ever want to decrease the amount of enemies, picking up White Flag and Candle will do that for you, although i do NOT recommend doing this unless you have already picked up Gentle Alien or Mouse)


















From this point on, you will be getting a bunch of Materials, more if you have Gentle Aliens, start buying any items that benefit your main stats!

Lich
'Win A Run With Lich'


➤ +10 HP Regeneration
➤ +10 % Life Steal
➤ 100% chance to deal (100% Max HP) damage to a random enemy when you heal
➤ Damage modifications are reduced by 50%

Lich is quite a difficult character on D5, but it can be made easier when you know what Stats you need to stack to be successful!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Life Steal
  
• Attack Speed
  
• %Damage (Halved)
  
• Melee Damage (Only Very Early Game)

Due to our weapon, our main stat we want to focus on is Max HP as its damage will scale with both Max HP and Melee Damage, although due to Melee Damage being halved, it means that we wont want to focus on it after the first few rounds. (although a slow gradual buildup of Melee Damage throughout the whole run can be beneficial).

When it comes to healing, you will receive a lot of healing from Consumables, and with the Chopper weapon, once you have all 6, you will receive +6 Consumable Heal!
Although, you will need even more healing than just from consumables, this is where Life Steal and HP Regeneration come in, HP Regeneration is probably the better choice here to prioritize, although, you will need a bunch of Life Steal too. In short, dont skimp out on either of these. As you will need them to have a successful run!

When it comes to all the damage you're doing throughout your run, most of it will still come from your choppers, so make sure you also don't forget about Attack Speed as it can be a lifesaver in Horde waves or when you get overwhelmed by enemies!

• Chopper

Chopper will be our weapon here for 2 main reasons:
1. It scales with Max HP (which you should have a lot of during this run) meaning we don't need to worry about all Damage modifications being halved as this will be our co-main source of Damage Scaling.
2. We get +1 Consumable Heal for each one we carry, meaning we get +6 consumable heals for free just by using the weapon!

• Blood Donation, Bloody Hand

These 2 items will make sure you do consistent damage every second, because when you take 1 damage, you will heal 1 damage immediately after and deal however much Max HP you have, as damage to a random enemy every second!
(Although i only recommend taking 1 of these, unless you have a BUNCH of HP Regeneration, because you will take more damage than you can heal)

• Alien Worm

The Alien Worm may seem like an odd pick for a recommended item here, but there reason I've put it here is because we will have an abundance of Consumable Heal, due to our Choppers! With Lich, we want to heal as often as possible and not as much as possible. This item will make Lich's Ability happen more often!












Early on, focusing on getting all your Choppers is the most important thing, then focusing on Max HP and Luck (and a bit of Melee Damage if you feel) up to wave 10.
You will want to focus on your Healing AFTER wave 10, as your consumable healing and starting HP Regeneration and Life Steal will do perfectly fine!

Apprentice
'Win a run with Apprentice'


- Reach level 20 - Mutant

➤ +2 Melee Damage when you level up
➤ +1 Ranged Damage when you level up
➤ +1 Elemental Damage when you level up
➤ +1 Engineering when you level up
➤ -2 Max HP when you level up

Apprentice is a character that gets stronger and stronger the higher level you are, at the cost of your Max HP, but when you learn how to manage your Max HP, Apprentice can become a lot easier.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage (From Ability)
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

You'll notice that we dont have any kind of Flat Damage here in our build, this is because we do not want to be going for it, apart from some cases where items give it out as an extra or at a good deal. In this case, we will get all our Ranged Damage from Levelling up, as every level up, we get +1 Ranged Damage! And the more XP Gain items we get, the easier it is to level up and the easier it is to get more damage.

Due to us not having to worry about Damage too much, we will want to focus on Survivability stats, such as Armour, Max HP and indirect damage like Attack Speed. We dont really need dodge in this build, although getting some can prove helpful, but usually is outclassed by just having more Armour, especially in the early to mid game.

The only downside to levelling up is that we lose +2 Max HP every time we level up, which will add up quickly over time and can be a run killer in the early game, this is why i suggest mainly picking up Max HP from Level Ups and Items in the early game; items such as Broken Mouth, Medal, Cake etc.
This also means early game healing will be less effective, so leaving Life Steal for a few rounds and relying on Consumables for early game healing while focusing on Max HP and Armour can be a good idea. Although this is up to you!

• Slingshot

Slingshot is a great weapon for Apprentice, we will be able to get a ton of damage output relatively quick, clear out enemies with ease, and get an easy +15 Max HP to combat the -2 Max HP per level in the early game!
Although, you may find that Elites and Bosses are significantly harder to kill than another builds. So playing more passively during those Waves is a good idea unless you have enough Damage!

• Snake, Scared Sausage and Turrets

Due to Apprentice's ability, we will have a ton of spare Elemental Damage and Engineering, and these items let us take advantage of our spare stats!

Snake and Scared Sausage let us burn the enemies, and all the turrets will shoot the enemies, both of which giving us a good amount of extra damage to deal with Hordes and Enemies!
If you also get Turrets, make sure to pick up Improved Tools too!

• Peacock, Scar, Bean Teacher, Black Belt (XP Gain Items)

You almost always want to buy Peacock and Scar, but be careful with Peacock as you will take double damage in the next wave, so make sure you have enough Max HP and Armour to survive the round! (Its extra effective on Wave 9!)

Bean Teacher and Black Belt are a bit more situational, as Bean Teacher takes away from our Life Steal, and Black Belt takes away from our Luck and gives us Melee Damage, which isn't useful to us in this run. So make sure you have the extra materials for it and only take it when you feel like you should!























Its up to you whether you get Dodge or not, it can be helpful but is not necessary as shown in this run!


(Writing Soon-ish!)

Cryptid
'Win A Run With Cryptid'


- Finish a wave with 10 or more living trees - Explorer

➤ More trees spawn
➤ Gain 12 material and XP for every living tree at the end of a wave
➤ +3 HP Regeneration for every current living tree [+0]
➤ Dodge is capped at 70%
➤ +3% Attack Speed until the end of the wave when you dodge an attack
➤ -100% Life Steal
➤ -100 Range
➤ -50% materials dropped from enemies

Cryptid is an incredibly strong character, especially on Melee, they can easily get a bunch of HP Regen and gain a ton of Harvesting at the end of each wave, leading us to being able to focus more on damage!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

There is many main stats to this build, so let me quickly explain in which order to go for each.

For the first 10 waves, you will mainly want to focus on Melee Damage, Crit Chance and some Attack Speed/HP Regeneration. You may be wondering why we are still going for HP Regeneration even though we get it from trees, this is simply to help us in the 10/20 seconds before our trees spawn to give us a good enough effect, and also lets us stack even higher when they do spawn!

When it comes to Crit Chance, you will want to get to 50/60 Crit Chance by the end of your run but preferably earlier, this is because tier 3 (purple) knives have 100% Crit Chance when you have 60% Crit Chance. This is because Tier 1 Knifes have a base +20% hidden Crit Chance, and it increases by 10% every tier, so +30 for Tier 2, +40 for Tier 3, and +50 for Tier 4.

And because the Crit Chance multiplier on Knifes is very high (you can Triple your damage with Tier 4 (red) knives! This can make eliminating hordes, elites and bosses a breeze.

Dodge is an interesting stat in this run, because every time you dodge, you gain +5% Attack Speed, so getting your dodge up can also be very important in the late game, and it lets you drop some Attack Speed and simply focus on Dodge for most of the run! (although getting base Attack Speed is preferable and you shouldn't neglect it)

You'll also want to Avoid Life Steal, because you start with -100% in the first place!

In short, you'll want to avoid breaking any trees if possible, although dont worry if you do, and dont be afraid to break them if you are in dire need of health or need to clear a path, but keeping as many possible is in your best interest as you get an extra 12 Materials at the end of each round per tree, and HP Regeneration constantly during the Wave!

• Knife

The Knife is a great weapon for Cryptid, as it does a ton of damage and scales incredibly well with Crit Chance, hence why it's one of our main stats!

• Lumberjack Shirt

I suggest avoiding Lumberjack shirt, because you want to keep trees alive as often as possible and its quite normal to sometimes accidentally hit a tree, but the lumberjack shirt punishes you for it by killing it immediately. Avoiding it simply gives you 2 or 3 hits of leeway before you accidentally kill a tree!













Getting the Tree item is also incredibly helpful as it spawns more trees and gives us more buffs and money!












Even though you have an increased Dodge cap, you dont always need to get to the max of 70%, although can be massively helpful if you do, i personally didn't here in my run due to getting unlucky but i highly recommend doing so!

Fisherman
'Win a run with Fisherman'


- Get 2 bait during a run - Any Character

➤ +5 Max HP
➤ +20 Harvesting
➤ Shops always sell a Bait
➤ -100% Bait price
➤ +2 Harvesting for every 1 Bait you have [+0]
➤ Baits make some special enemies spawn throughout all future waves
➤ -50% materials dropped from enemies

Fisherman has one of the craziest Damage scaling possibilities in the game because of how much Bait you'll be getting in a single run, although you've got to be careful as all the special enemies (Lampreys) can get overwhelming!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal or HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage (From Ability)
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Speed
  
• Harvesting (From Ability)

Due to Fisherman's ability, we will be buying multiple Bait every round, which is how we will supply 99% of our Harvesting and %Damage, as for every Bait we have, we get +2 Harvesting and +8% Damage! So dont worry about buying %Damage or Harvesting in any other way.

Also due to Fisherman's ability, we also have a second downside to picking up bait, the more bait we have, the more Lampreys spawn randomly throughout future waves. This isn't too bad but be wary of this, as it can sometimes catch you off guard if you're not ready.

The rest of the stats are very important too, especially Melee Damage and Attack Speed (To easily be able to kill Elites and the horde of Lampreys from Bait every round).

Speed is to easily outrun the enemies and out-manoeuvre the Lampreys from Bait. But not incredibly important, just very helpful.

• Spear

Spear is un-ironically a great weapon for Fisherman, mainly because of its great reach which makes it super easy to kill as many Lampreys as possible in one go!
(alternate weapon recommendation - Stick, I will add a new strategy for it in the future)

It can be difficult sometimes, especially in the early game, to deal with the Lampreys from Bait. Your best chance at killing them with the Spear is heading towards one corner/side of the map, let the Lampreys dash at you and hit the wall, and then move down to position yourself so that you're lining up as many Lampreys up as possible and attack. (This is also where speed can be incredibly useful)

This may feel difficult at first, especially if you've not had much practice on evading enemies, elites, bosses etc. But the more you practice and try, the easiest you'll get. Although remember, this rough 'strategy' on how to deal with the enemies may not work for you like how they did for me, try new things how too!

There is no set in stone amount on how often you should buy the Bait, as it appears in every single shop, after every reroll. But i have created a rough outline to get you a bunch of bait for enough %Damage and Harvesting, but not be so difficult that its nearly impossible to deal with.

• Wave 1 to 4 - Buy 2 Bait
  
• Wave 5 to 9 (6 spears minimum) - Buy 3 Bait
  
• Wave 10 to 12 - Buy 4 Bait
  
• Wave 13+ - Buy Bait On Every Reroll

Now again, remember this is only an outline (mainly guided to beginners), if you are having trouble, you can always buy 1 Bait instead of 2, or 3 instead of 4, or offset each recommendation by 1 wave (i.e, Wave 5 to 10 instead of 5 to 9). By following this small outline, you will end you up with 60-70 Bait by the end.

One thing i can recommend, especially when playing lower Danger Levels and for more comfortable players. Once you have enough damage to 1 shot the Lampreys, from that point on, dont be afraid to buy Bait every single wave! This can be earlier than wave 13 usually, depending on your luck.

Small Note: You can get away with getting every single bait in the shop each Wave although this is incredibly risky. But, while playing Fisherman, it pays off to play risky. So dont be afraid to give it a go if you're daring enough as it really pays off in the end game!

• Dangerous Bunny

I will almost always Dangerous Bunny, but this time, you do not want to miss out on it. This is because when we get a free reroll, we also get another Bait, and after Wave 12/13 when we want to buy every bait possible, this makes a huge difference! When you see it, lock it or buy it!

• White Flag, Candle

These will reduce enemy counts which can make taking more Bait bearable and rounds considerably easier, we also dont need many enemies as we get 50% less Materials from them and we are using Harvesting as our economy source anyway!

• Weird Ghost

Weird Ghost will almost always end your run unless you have a ton of HP Regeneration. This is because the enemies from Bait will spawn very quickly into a wave, and there is a lot of them. Be wary if you decide to pick it up, but it's usually safer to just avoid it.

Fisherman is one of the best characters to be able to exploit the use of Manual Aiming, this allows you do hold down your mouse button and aim wherever your cursor is! This can make a round where you get a ton of bait from 1 shop a ton easier!

If you don't already have this on, head to the main menu or in-game, head over to Options, then Gameplay, and the third down option on the left should say 'Manual aim on mouse press'.
(Please let me know if this is wrong in future updates!)




Dont turn on just 'manual aiming', but make sure its on your mouse press!












You may notice that I have the White Flag item, it is up to you whether you take it or not, but it will reduce the amount of enemies spawning (-5%), which includes all Lampreys from Bait, so it can make them easier to deal with in the early game. Although this means that you get less enemies, which means less materials, although this shouldn't matter much due to how much Harvesting we will have!

Golem
'Win a run with Golem'


- Finish a wave with 1HP - Demon

➤ +20 Max HP
➤ Max HP modifications are increased by 33%
➤ Armour modifications are increased by 33%
➤ +40% Attack Speed when you have less than 50% health
➤ +20% Speed when you have less than 50% health
➤ You can't heal in any way

Golem is an incredibly unique character because they cannot heal... at all. This means you'll need to be evasive and change up how you approach enemies.

Note: This strategy requires you to have beaten a run with Masochist to unlock the Spiky Shield

• Max HP
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge
  
• Speed

Dont sleep on some Range this run, I'm saying this now because if you go into Elites and Bosses with -Range, you will be taking so many hits in close quarters and could possibly die, I suggest getting at least positive range and not worrying too much about it, as it will usually gradually build up over time. If you feel like you're lacking, don't be afraid to get some more.

If you've read Golems abilities, you'll realise that when under 50% Max HP, you receive a stat boost in Attack Speed and Speed. This is very useful, although, dont make the mistake of purposefully going down to 50% health for the stat boosts, as this will sacrifice half your health, and make you considerably easier to kill.

I recommend playing to evade enemies, especially stray projectiles as much as possible, but dont fret when you get hit. You have an abundance of health and the 50% health stat boosts are there to give you some help to get to the end of the wave! But when you do get to 50% health, playing more passively and being extra careful of projectiles should help you survive till the end.

We are avoiding many Stats in this run, so take advantage of this and be sure to take items with downsides to these avoided stats! Such as Broken Mouth (with -HP Regeneration), Banner (with -Life Steal) and many more!

Small note, due to us getting -50% Materials from enemies, Luck isn't as necessary here, still get a bit for the higher item levels, but don't worry about it and focus on other stats!

• HP Regeneration
  
• Life Steal

These are self explanatory, we cannot heal at all, so these will be useless! (Although items that take it away become even better with Golem!

• Melee Damage

Due to the weapon we are using (Spiky Shield), we will want to get Armour to scale our damage, so we can ignore Melee Damage entirely!

• Spiky Shield

Reminder: (To unlock Spiky Shield, you'll need to complete a run with Masochist before-hand!)

Spiky shields are perfect for Golem as their damage scales directly, and only, with Armour, which we will need as much as we can get our hands on to survive! This means we can avoid Melee Damage entirely and at the same time become even more tanky!

Golem has an array of trap items that can instantly lose you your run, so read this to be aware of them!

• Any item that promises healing in any way possible

These items include: Cute Monkey, Lemonade, Garden etc. These items will not work properly or add any kind of healing because of Golems ability so do not get fooled!

• Weird Ghost

This item is THE run killer, it will set you to 1HP, and you will have no way of healing, don't fall for it!

• Blood Donation and Bloody Hand

These items are secretly items that simply halve your health during a round because they deal 1 damage every second, and you cannot heal any of the damage taken, and will simply end your run slowly but surely if you dont have enough health! Do not take them!

• Alien Eyes & Spicy Sauce

Due to us getting a bunch of Max HP this run, these items will be great for extra miscellaneous damage! The more of each we get, the more effective they are too!

• Alien Worm, Broken Mouth etc. (Cheap Max HP with no downsides)

Alien Worm may seem odd as a recommended item as it gives us HP Regeneration (which we are avoiding), but the reason we will want to get it is for the +3 Max HP as Alien Worm is a cheap item! Broken Mouth (and items like it such as Torture) are great because its a great source of Max HP with no downside as we won't use healing anyway!












I suggest focusing on Armour before focusing on Dodge, as you want to get your damage high enough to be able to deal with Hordes and Elites, this is also where attack speed does wonders!

King
'Win a run with King'


- Get 3 tier IV weapons at the same time - Any Character

➤ +50 Luck
➤ +25% Damage for every Tier IV weapon you have
➤ +25% Attack Speed for every Tier IV weapon you have
➤ +5 Max HP for every different Tier IV item you have
➤ -15% Damage for every Tier I weapon you have
➤ -15% Attack Speed for every Tier I weapon you have
➤ -2% Max HP for every Tier I item you have

King has a very interesting ability that can get very strong when played around it correctly, but can also have a hard time starting up in the early game.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage (Mainly From Ability)
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour & Dodge
  
• Luck (Mainly From Ability)

You'll attain most of your Luck from the +50 boost that King gets from the start, so no need to worry about it.

Getting some early Max HP can be helpful, especially if you're looking to get a few Tier 1 items off the bat. Although I highly suggest limiting the amount of different Tier 1 items you get, as they can be detrimental, although mostly in the early game.

The best way to look at King's ability with Tier 1 items is that all of them have a -2 Max HP effect on the first one you buy. This means that once you get the first copy of any Tier 1 item, you can get more of them without the -2 Max HP penalty. This is great for us as we're able to get more of some of the 'always consider' items that I've mentioned in the tips section such as Bag and Coupon.

• Pistol

Pistol is a great choice of a weapon on King, but you'll have to play slightly differently due to King's abilities.

Due to us being heavily de-buffed when having a weapon at Tier 1, we usually want to get at least Tier 2 weapons ASAP. This doesn't mean don't pick up Tier 1 pistols at all during the first few waves, but if you do, make sure you combine it with another pistol to make it a Tier 2 and get rid of the de-buff!

If you'd like, you can also rush a Tier 4 pistol which will give you a great stat increase of +25% Damage and +25% Attack Speed! Although it will take a bit of planning ahead but can be very helpful to snowball your strength for the rest of the run!

• Baby With A Beard

Baby With A Beard can be super helpful this run as Pistols can sometimes have a hard time clearing waves, and with our relatively high Luck from the start, can make it easier to find. Its never necessary but a massive help and can sometimes help win a run entirely!

Renegade
'Win a run with Renegade'


- Get 10 different tier 1 items during a run - Any character

➤ +2 projectiles
➤ Projectiles pierce through 1 additional target
➤ +10% (+2%) Damage for every different Tier 1 item you have
➤ You can't equip melee weapons
➤ -400% Damage (-80%)
➤ -50% accuracy
➤ %Damage modifications are reduced by 80%
(The numbers in brackets is what actually shows up in game, after the %Damage modifications have been reduced by 80%)

• Max HP (From Ghost Scepter)
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage (From Items Only)
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Dodge
  
• Speed

Important note: For this strategy, we don't want to be getting Max HP from items and level ups. Instead, we will be getting all of our Max HP from our weapon, the Ghost Scepter. This will give us a ton of Max HP and give us a bunch more opportunities to get more other important stats! (Although dont let this stop you from buying tier 1 items such as Cake)

Life Steal is incredibly powerful on Renegade because of how many projectiles we will be constantly shooting out, this is why we are prioritizing it over HP Regeneration!

Renegade will start with -80% Damage and we will be countering this over the entirety of the run by buying most/all Tier 1 (Grey) items that we see, as this is how we will increase our %Damage! Its simply not worth it getting %Damage from level ups and items themselves, hence we will be getting 1 of most/any tier 1 item that we see.

In Renegades description, it says that you get +10% Damage per Tier 1 item, but this is also affected by the -80% Damage modifications, meaning that you get +2% Damage per Tier 1 item!

Now, for most items we will only need 1 of them. Once you have 1 of a tier 1 item and that item doesn't directly improve our main stats (such as Book, Boiling Water, Goat Skull), there is no point of getting them again! You'll know that you haven't got one of the tier 1 items when you see the renegade character swapped instead of the material in the price tag. Once you have 1 of that item, it'll go back to normal.

Bear in mind, just because we want to so many Tier 1 items, we still want to prioritise getting 6 Ghost Scepters over anything else in the early game!

• Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter is a great weapon for this run, as it will be given more pierce and more projectiles, to hit and kill more enemies to get more Max HP and to help a lot with clearing which was one of Ghost Scepter's weak sides!

• At least 1 of most Tier 1 items

This is especially recommended for items that can also increase our Main stats (and decrease stats we dont need), such as

• Fairy

Fairy, although giving us HP Regeneration (which isn't one of our main stats) is very strong on Renegade because of how many Tier 1 Items we will already be getting for our Damage. So picking it up is still very helpful and can give you a ton of extra healing in 1 item!
The only downside to Fairy is that you'll need to win a run with Renegade beforehand.

• Bat, Butterfly, Coffee (remember, the -2% will be decreased by 80%, so will actually be -0.4% Damage!) Lens, Duck, and many many more!

• Pumpkin, Bandana, Ricochet

These items are great on Renegade due to us not needing to worry about their damage downsides (as they're lessened by 80%) and giving us a good amount of extra damage!

• Medical Turret

This may seem like an odd pick in a non engineering build, but this is because the turret is also affected by the +2 projectiles and will heal you TRIPLE than it normally would! If you see it, its a good idea to pick it up!

Dont be scared of items such as Cake, it does show -1% Damage, although due to the -80% damage ability, this means its actually -0.2%, and if its the first time getting it, you also get +2%, overall. So buying -% Damage items can be very beneficial.

The enemy 'Fly' (picture below) is an interesting enemy this run due to how it interacts with Projectiles, for every projectile we hit it with, it shoots out a projectile too. And due to our high projectile count, it will constantly be spraying out projectiles till it dies. You'll have be careful around them!



When playing D5, (or D2+) you will face either Hordes or Elites, Horde waves are actually great for Renegade, as you will be able to get a metric load of materials as there will be so many enemies that you'll be able to easily kill! You can make them even easier to kill by pairing Pumpkin and Sharp Bullet!

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage (From Items Only)
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Speed

Life Steal is incredibly powerful on Renegade because of how many projectiles we will be constantly shooting out, this is why we are prioritizing it over HP Regeneration!

Renegade will start with -80% Damage and we will be countering this over the entirety of the run by buying most/all Tier 1 (Grey) items that we see, as this is how we will increase our %Damage! Its simply not worth it getting %Damage from level ups and items themselves, hence we will be getting 1 of most/any tier 1 item that we see.

In Renegades description, it says that you get +10% Damage per Tier 1 item, but this is also affected by the -80% Damage modifications, meaning that you get +2% Damage per Tier 1 item!

Now, for most items we will only need 1 of them. Once you have 1 of a tier 1 item and that item doesn't directly improve our main stats (such as Book, Boiling Water, Goat Skull), there is no point of getting them again! You'll know that you haven't got one of the tier 1 items when you see the renegade character swapped instead of the material in the price tag. Once you have 1 of that item, it'll go back to normal.

Bear in mind, just because we want to so many Tier 1 items, we still want to prioritise getting 6 SMG's over anything else in the early game!

• SMG

Due to SMG's super high attack speed, it's a perfect weapon for Renegade as it's able to shoot so many projectiles! It's also great for early game, and Life Steal becomes incredibly effective with it!

(Please see the Recommended Items and Tips above in strategy 1, they would be the same and I cannot fit them all in this section due to the character limit!)























You'll notice that we have a lot of stats that aren't our main stats (such as some Melee/Elemental Damage), this is just from Tier 1 items, we have enough materials to buy 1 of the tier 1 items and it's worth it for the 2% Damage!

You will also notice here that we have a bunch of HP Regeneration, all of it is due to Fairy and is very strong on Renegade although you will need to complete a run before-hand!

One-Armed
'Win a run with One-Armed'


Character Stats/Abilities
➤ +200% Attack Speed
➤ Damage modifications are increased by 100%
➤ You can only equip one weapon at a time

For the Character, One-Armed, There are many ways to win but should not be too difficult as we can put all of our focus into 1 Singular Weapon! (Due to One-Armed's Ability)

For The Main Stats On The Build, You Should Aim For:

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal/HP Regeneration (Depends On The Weapon)
  
• Damage
  ⌞ Ranged Damage
  (Remember, all Damage Modifiers are Doubled! Which means %Damage and Ranged/Melee/Elemental)
  
• Armour (Get Lower Levels maybe up to 10-15 but not super necessary)
  
• Luck/Harvesting

I Recommend getting Luck early which can make your life easier when getting more upgrades and upgrading weapons. Along with Harvesting to afford the weapons.
Attack speed will be provided by the start, i suggest keeping at the same as what you start as (200%)
No need to go much higher or lower!

I suggest going Life Steal over HP Regernation due to the High amount of Attack Speed and the either High Bounces (With Slingshots) and the high fire-rate with SMG/Minigun

Important Tip:
Damage and Ranged/Melee Damage will be doubled BUT that includes doubling the negatives too! You wont find yourself in a damage deficit most of the time but be careful with -%Damage upgrades and try to pay attention to them!
(I recommend against getting any items with -Ranged/Melee damage as they are harder to come by than normal %Damage, but you should have an alright time no matter what)

Strategy 1:
For The Weapons You Will Be Going For:

• Slingshot

This is the weapon i will be using here as it is, in my opinion, the easiest to follow and is also one of the starter weapons which makes it easy to access! (And is objectively one of the best weapons in the game entirely)

Strategy 2:

• SMG Or Minigun

SMG is a great starter weapon for this as it will take full advantage of the 200% Attack Speed. Although bear in mind that you will not have the Bounces of the Slingshot.
But if you are able to find the Minigun in the shop, taking it is a great idea and another good reason to go with Life Steal

Strategy 3:

• Shotgun

Shotgun is also another weapon you can use effectively in this run

Recommended Items

• Baby With A Beard
  
• Bandana (When You Have Baby With A Beard Or Are Playing With SMG)

Baby with a Beard is always a good idea and you should definitely pick it up if you see it.
Although, be cautious with Bandana due to the total of -20% Damage (Instead Of -10% Due To One-Armed's Ability). So be careful when taking it as you could lose the run if you dont have enough Damage!
(Dont Take Bandana When You Have Slingshot And no Baby With A Beard!)

Items to (sort of) avoid

• Ricochet

You may wonder why, as Ricochet is usually a very good item. Well, in this situation, you will want to avoid it due to One-Armed's Ability of All Damage Modifications being Doubled. This means that you dont only lose 35% Damage but a whole 70% Damage.
So pay attention to your damage. If you feel like you're being overwhelmed a lot, it may be helpful just know that you will lose a lot of damage in place!

Strategy 1 - Slingshot:

After Wave 10 Stats, Weapons And Items
















For the first 10 rounds, i put a lot into damage rather than any survivability and had no problems at all, you could go for more Armour/Life Steal if you feel like you're struggling, but i got hardly got hit due to the bouncing 'bullets' and already really quick attack speed that pairs really well with Slingshot!

You wont need to worry about Wave 14, 15 and 19 as the slingshot may kill all of the projectile throwing enemies so quickly that they dont have a chance to even attack!

(I Do 100% Recommend Prioritizing Damage, even if you have lower HP, you'll be able to shred all enemies quick enough! (Although dont completely ignore Hp, Life steal etc.))
But if you see damage, i can recommend getting it up until maybe 100% Damage before Wave 11, after that then you can start putting more into other stats to stay alive!
Although isn't completely necessary.

End Of Run Stats, Weapons And Items











After wave 10, i started working more on HP, Armour, And Life Steal (As well as still scaling damage), i had no problems at all with Slingshot as it does a great amount of damage and you can easily kill enemies.

I found that One-Armed is one of the most fun and easy characters to beat!

Bull
'Win a run with Bull'


➤ +20 Max HP
➤ +15 HP Regeneration
➤ +10 Armour
➤ HP Regeneration modifications are increased by 50%
➤ You explode for (300% 300% 300% ) damage when you take damage (this explosion has a 1.5x crit multiplier)
➤ You can't equip weapons

For the character, Bull, we wont be going for a specific build because this character cannot equip any weapons!

Bull's character can't equip weapons because they ARE the weapon!

For this run you'll have to run into the enemies to take damage, which will cause an explosion that you can make bigger and stronger with the correct stats and items!

Bear in mind, we will be outliving the final wave, meaning we won't kill the final boss(es)!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee, Ranged and Elemental Damage
  
• Armour
  
• Speed

You may be wondering why we are looking for all 3, Melee, Ranged and Elemental damage, well that is because your explosion actually scales with all 3 the same amount! For this run you won't need to be picky with damage at all as all damage can affect you positively!

We will also be going HP Regen over Life Steal because of Bull's ability that increases HP Regeneration modifications by 50%, don't bother with Life Steal at all! Make sure you also stack on HP Regeneration, as well as Armour! these will make your life a bunch easier as you'll take less damage and heal very quickly!

Be ready to face the fact that you probably won't be able to kill Elites and Bosses as you simply may not be able to deal enough damage! So playing passively will be a good idea when facing them!

To make the most out of Bull's explosion, try your best to herd enemies together to reduce the amount of damage you take and to take enemies out quicker!

• Dodge
  
• Attack Speed (you wont need to attack enemies yourself, so attack speed won't make a difference!)
  
• Range (No Need For Range As You Need To Run Into Enemies!)
  
• Crit Chance

The reason for dodge, being, if you have dodge happen, yes you wont take damage but you also wont be creating an explosion, which could lead to a pile up of enemies that overwhelm you. I only ever suggest taking Dodge if you already have Blood Donation or Bloody hand as this will guarantee your explosions, no matter what!

• Nothing!

As said above, there are no weapons involved with Bull. Simply following the stats and items will be the only need!

To Help With Damage/Explosions:

• Dynamite (+15% Explosion Damage)
  
• Explosive Shells (+60% Explosion Damage)
  
• Plastic Explosive (+25% Explosion Size)

These items will increase the damage and size your explosion does, which will make it easier to kill enemies! Also any items that give -Range, -Attack Speed and -Dodge are good as we dont care about those stats!

• Blood Donation and Bloody hand

Blood Donation/Bloody Hand will help with quick Harvesting/Life Steal accordingly, along with constantly exploding every second! You will be able to deal even more damage with this upgrade and is necessary for an easier D5!

• Rip And Tear (Situational)

If you see the item 'Rip And Tear', take a look at how much Melee Damage you have, the more if you have a very spread out amount of damage across Melee, Ranged and Elemental then you can probably skip this item, but if you have most of your Damage into Melee Damage, this item can be brilliant and in most scenarios you would want to pick this up for more explosions!

• To break Tree's you will need to lure enemies over to where the tree is to break it as you cannot run into the tree to break it as it doesnt have a hitbox to deal damage.
  
  
• In the later waves, you'll fight stronger enemies, try to find the weakest enemy to run into so that you take the least amount of damage but still explode to do damage to the enemies.

For the first 10 Waves, i recommend getting a good amount of Early Armour and Max HP, and for the whole run, keep scaling your HP Regeneration and Damage!
(Make sure you have enough HP Regeneration and Max HP to survive Wave 14/15 and 20 as you may die on them due to the projectiles)

















Final Wave 20 can be scary if you do not have enough HP Regeneration/Life Steal and Max HP depending on the boss you get. But as long as you keep running around the edges and trying not to run into enemies (As its not necessary to kill them in the end wave) you should be alright!

But don't get disheartened if this takes a few tries. Try learn from how you died the last time, if it was because you didn't have enough damage, try again with more damage! And vice-versa with health/regen!

Soldier
'Win a run with Soldier'


Character Stats/Abilities
➤ +50% Damage while standing still
➤ +50% Attack Speed while standing still
➤ +10% Speed
➤ +200% pickup range
➤ +15 Knockback
➤ You cant attack while moving

For the character, Soldier, the strategies can variate a lot here. I will be outlining one main Gun build but will also write some others in-case you would like to try out different builds if one doesn't work for you!

For The Main Stats On The Build, You Should Aim For:

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• Damage
  ⌞ Ranged Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge
  
• Harvesting

Armour and Dodge will be very useful during this run as you will be standing still most of the time. Which means you will probably get hit! So getting these up (along with Max HP) to make sure that you can stand still, take some hits and stay alive will be important!

Harvesting can also be very useful due to you not being able to move around as freely during the run
Tip:
If you're having too much trouble with taking a lot of damage when standing still, you can slightly tap your WASD keys (Or joystick on controller) which allows you to move slightly, then you can shoot, and repeat. You'll be able to move slightly and still shoot every so often!

Strategy 1:
For The Weapons You Will Be Going For:

• Shotgun

The way we will be playing this run, is standing still most of the time and killing enemies quickly, Hence the Shotguns Weapon Of Choice. Once they get closer, the more damage we will be doing, plus with a decently high attack speed for this run they will pair nicely all together!

Strategy 2:
Although you can play the whole run differently if you'd like by going:

• Taser

This strategy would mainly focus on slowing down enemies (Hence i suggest pairing this will the Ugly Tooth item!) So if trying this build out.
Getting a bunch of attack speed would be a good idea, as then you'll be able to shoot more and slow down more enemies!

Strategy 3:
If you're having trouble with either of those other two strategies, you can always try:

• Shredder
  
• Rocket Launcher/Nuclear Launcher (Nuclear Launcher Unlocked AFTER Beating This Character)

You can still focus on the same main Stats for all of these builds, you'll just be focusing on different weapons.
Most of the time you will want to focus on Survivability first, and you would be alright due to the buff of dealing 50% more damage and 50% attack speed when standing still! So getting some Life Steal, HP etc. is a good idea!
(But i suggest leaving this strategy out as you will want Nuclear Launcher to make it work!)

(I Personally Found The Most Luck In Strategy 1, With Shotguns, But Feel Free To Try And Experiment With The Others. But The Screenshots Are Done With Strategy 1)
(I will be adding other screenshots with the other strategies in the future)

Recommended Items

• Barricade
  
• Chameleon
  
• Statue

These items give you buffs simply on standing still which we will be doing a lot in this run! So getting these can always prove helpful, but i do suggest trying to keep your speed up a bit as Barricade and Statue will decrease it!
Keeping it at positive is always a good idea

Strategy 1: Shotguns
After Wave 10 Stats, Weapons And Items











The first 10 rounds will be more difficult than the later ones, just try to keep ontop of everything, make sure you have enough damage, health and healing mainly.

If you struggle a lot, try mainly focusing on either Damage/Attack Speed or Survivability for the start and then move onto the other later on in the run.

(Personal Note)
I personally started with Survivability from the start to ensure i survived, and got damage slowly over time! (Remember, Trial and Error is Key). After wave 10, the waves started getting easier, make sure to keep upgrading your weapons!

End Of Run Stats, Weapons And Items











(Personal Note)
After Wave 10, the run started getting a lot easier, if you keep scaling the main stats you shouldn't have too many problems as the shotguns are great and do a bunch of Damage, even if you put most of your stats into Survivability!

Masochist
'Win a run with Masochist'


Character Stats/Abilities
➤ +5% Damage when you take damage until the end of the wave
➤ +10 Max HP
➤ +20 HP Regeneration
➤ +8 Armour
➤ -100% Damage

For the character, Masochist, we will be going for a full Medical build which will focus on healing as our Damage will come from taking damage!

For this run, we will not be killing the final boss, simply outliving it should not be much of a problem!

I Also Highly Recommend, due to us needing to look at our health a lot, make sure you have the 'HP Bar On Character' setting turned ON.
To do this, simply press ESC --> Options --> Gameplay --> On The Left Side, 4th One Down
Make sure that this setting is on as it can make your life easier!












For The Main Stats On The Build, You Should Aim For:

• Max HP
  
• Health Regeneration
  
• Melee Damage (Don't Worry About %Damage as we will get it from simply taking damage!)
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour (Get As Much As You Can, It Will Be Very Important To Stay Alive!)
  
• Dodge
  (Bear in mind, dodge can be counter-intuitive as you need to take damage to get more damage. i have put it here as you can get it in-case you need it but i suggest trying to stay away from it unless you're having too many issues!)

We will receive a good amount of life steal from using the weapons we will use, and Health Regeneration here will be important as we will need to heal as we take more damage!
Therefore prioritizing Health Regeneration here is the better idea.
Remember that we will get all of our %Damage from taking Damage during the waves, so dont bother too much with getting %Damage!
Getting Melee Damage can Definitely Be Helpful Though

IMPORTANT:
Remember, you WILL need to take damage to deal damage! Running into enemies is a good idea here! Just be very wary of your health and focus on getting enough Health Regeneration and you should not have too much of a problem!

For The Weapons You Will Be Going For:

• Scissors
  
• Medical Saw

Scissors will be our starter weapon and most of the time it will be our weapon for a lot of the run, but i do recommend getting a Medical Saw if you see one in the shop as it will do more that scissors!

For the start of the run, i recommend just getting your HP, Armour and Regen up, you can focus on more attack related stats later when the amount of enemies starts to pile up!

Recommended Items

• Regeneration Potion
  Regeneration Potion is VERY good as when you get below half health you double your health regen! Which means you dont need to worry too much about getting to low health as you will Regenerate a lot quicker! (although i still suggest keeping an eye on your health as always)
  
• Blood Donation
  Blood Donation will allow you to constantly get more damage per second and will not interfere with enemy damage as it does NOT give invincibility frames! Pick it up if you see it, it will give you more and more damage!

After Wave 10 Stats, Weapons And Items
















As i said above, i suggest in the very early rounds getting HP and Regen/Armour then later on getting Attack Speed/Crit Chance (Although I Suggest Attack Speed). although you could definitely go straight for survivability and probably have an even easier time as you will be able to stack damage easily!

End Of Run Stats, Weapons And Items











By the end, surviving the final boss was no issue at all, getting an even higher Health Regen is honestly not a bad idea! As long as you follow the Main Stats and the tips, you shouldn't have many problems during this run!
(Although Let Me Know In The Comments If You Do!)

Knight
'Win a run with Knight'


- Win a run on Danger 4 - Any Character

➤ +2 Melee Damage for every 1 Armour you have
➤ +5 Armour
➤ You can't equip ranged weapons
➤ You can only equip tier II weapons or above
➤ %Attack Speed modifications are reduced by 50%
➤ Harvesting modifications are reduced by 80%

Knight is a great character due to its insanely strong early game, which then snowballs into an insanely strong late game too!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage (From Ability)
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

One of your main priorities this run is getting Armour, as it will also be our main way of getting Melee Damage and will make us nice and tanky. You can also get some Melee Damage alone, but only when you get it efficiently from certain items such as Mastery, Little Muscley Dude etc.

When it comes to Dodge, its up to you whether you skip it or not, but I suggest that you go for it, although only later in your run, and mainly through items such as Clover, Leather Vest and Adrenaline. But dont be afraid to pick up Dodge in the level upgrades if it's your best choice.

We will also be choosing HP Regeneration over Life Steal here, but mainly in the early game. Later in the run, getting both will be beneficial and won't matter too much. Although still suggest prioritising HP Regeneration as one of our potential weapons, the Circular Saw, has a flat 45% Chance for Life Steal!

Even though our %Attack Speed modifiers are halved, I still highly suggest getting a good amount of Attack Speed as you'll find it still greatly beneficial. But you can definitely leave it until past the mid-game if you feel you dont need it.

Completely disregard Harvesting, as the -80% Penalty is just too much to make any good come out of it, as you could simply just be using your Materials and Level Ups getting more useful stats!

• Sword
  
• Medical Saw

Usually I don't recommend mixing weapons, but in this situation it can be very helpful!
Your starter weapon will be the Sword, and i suggest picking up more as you usually would, but if you stumble across a Medical Saw, i highly recommend picking it up, maybe even 2 or 3 total.

I personally believe that 4 Swords and 2 Medical Saws is the sweet spot and what i've done in the example run.

• Stone Skin

Stone Skin is Golem's item unlock and is amazing for this run! It simply gives us Max HP per Armour we have, and we will be getting a bunch of Armour, so this item can set us up for the rest of the run with all the HP we need!

(Screenshot taken at Wave 13 instead of usual wave 10, I apologize for any inconvenience!)

Demon
'Win a run with Demon'


- Win a run on Danger 5 - Any Character

➤ +50% of your Materials are converted into Max HP at the end of a wave (13 Materials=1 Max HP)
➤ You buy items using Max HP instead of materials

Demon can be a difficult character as they are hard to understand how to use, but also one of the strongest in the game after the early game.

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal/HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Armour/Dodge

Max HP is going to be very important in the run, as it is also what we need to buy pretty much anything.

When it comes to healing this run and choosing between Life Steal and HP Regeneration, it doesn't make much of a difference, hence why i can suggest going for both.
Although, if you'd like to focus on just one, a small amount of HP Regeneration in the early game would do (as we won't have much Max HP to heal back anyways), but Life Steal will be more effective later on, thanks to the amount of projectiles we will be shooting out!

Elemental Damage is also a stat you'll want to go for when using our weapon, Lightning Shiv. Although, i suggest leaving it until we have a more abundant source of Max HP, but if you see an efficient source of Elemental Damage through a good item or a Level Up, don't be afraid to take it as it will make a difference.

In the early game, both Attack Speed and Armour can make a big difference, it's up to you whether you go for more Attack Speed, or more Armour. If you're more prone to running into enemies then Armour may help you survive longer or even make it through, just be sure to pair it with a small amount of either healing options, to be able to bounce back from taking some Damage. But Attack Speed can help us kill enemies quicker and give us less chance of being overwhelmed!

A two final notes, as said in the Strategy Explanation, be sure to take advantage of the early game, cheap items and level ups to get Harvesting and Luck!

• Lightning Shiv

Lightning Shiv is a really good weapon here and will greatly help in the early game with getting rid of enemies due to the projectile that shoots out after you hit an enemy. We can also make these

• Ricochet

Ricochet works incredibly well with Lightning Shiv, and simply put, lets our projectiles bounce even more for even more damage and easier clearing! Getting just one of these can help tremendously but is not necessary to win.

• Piggy Bank

Demon is often not able to spend all their materials each round, since it keeps half, and only uses it for refreshing. So a piggy bank can be good. Also, don’t over refresh, since keeping more material means more Max HP for next round.

Most of the time you'll find yourself having a good left-over materials each round since you keep half while the other half is converted into Max HP, and you mainly use materials to refresh the shop (if you have piggy bank, make sure not to overspend on rerolls). Hence, piggy bank is a great item for Demon!

As Demon, Max HP is the currency for buying Items and Weapons, and due to us not having much HP in the early game, we sometimes have to go into dangerously low Max HP to get the items and weapons that we need.

Hence, the early game will be your biggest enemy, but there are multiple things you can do to make it easier.

In short, 1 Max HP = 13 Materials thanks to Demon's ability. Although, in shops, item prices work slightly different. In shops 1-20 Materials = 1 Max HP, so any item that costs between 41-60 materials usually, would be 3 Max HP.

For the first 4 shops, you'll usually be limited by Materials (on rerolls) if you dont get lucky with weapons and certain items. To combat this, you can consider buying out the entire shop. This will give you a free reroll to spend more Max HP in the same shop. If you buy out the shop, you'll most likely have random weapons that you don't want, simply recycle them and gain even more materials to use for another reroll!

Items and weapons are quite cheap in these first waves, usually only costing 1/2 Max HP per, so don't be afraid to pick as many good items (but mainly your weapons) up as possible, even if this means going to 1 Max HP or less. This can help you build an insanely good economy of Harvesting and Luck to get even more strong items later on.

Thanks to many items being cheap in the first few waves, this also means the items that give us Max HP usually cost less than what they give back! Examples of this are Cake, which costs us 1/2 Max HP but give back 3, Broken Mouth, Weird Ghost etc.. Picking up these items is a great idea and can possibly help you purchase another item or keep you alive next wave. Just make sure it isn't too detrimental to other stats!

Demon is one of those few characters that I suggest playing risky, yes you will be at incredibly low Max HP (sometimes even at 1 Max HP or lower (bear in mind, if you get to 0 or lower Max HP, you will be at 1 Max HP for the wave, but still at 0 or lower afterwards, and will have to work back up)) by buying items and weapons, but can snowball into an extremely good late game! I suggest to plan ahead, and if you have trouble with a specific wave on low HP, have a bit more HP for it!























This run is very fun once you get it going, keep scaling all of your different stats and dont be too scared. You can always get more flat Damage, than i did here, but is not necessary by any means.

Demon can have so many different builds and stats built upon them and a lot of things will work, don't be afraid to try out different strategies, main stats (such as going for more Crit Chance) and experiment!

Baby
'Win a run with Baby'


- Reach level 10 before wave 6 - Mutant

• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Range
  
• Armour
  
• Harvesting

Baby starts off with +10 Harvesting, and all items are -20%, so the sooner we get a good Harvesting setup going, the better. Due to us not receiving stats from level ups until after level 24, we will need to rely on items to give us the early harvesting we want. There's no need to go too crazy, but getting a good economy going, quickly, leads us to being able to buy even more items for more stats.

You can go either Life Steal or HP Regeneration, if you find yourself with a horde wave in your run or picking up items with increased enemy spawn rates (which i would suggest in this run. i.e Mouse/Gentle Alien), Life Steal will be better and keep you alive more consistently. Life Steal can also be improved more with Attack Speed, which i also suggest building here, so they work hand in hand. HP Regeneration is also a great option if you prefer it.

When playing Baby, we can get up to 24 weapons, and for every weapon we get, they move slightly further away from our character. So the main reason we want enough range, is so that when we have up to all 24 weapons, that all weapons can target an enemy, even if it is on the opposite side of us. Don't worry about Range in the early game, get it in late-mid/late game.

• Sticks

Due to use having so many weapon slots, we can stack up a total of +96 flat damage from just having sticks alone due to its ability! This will make us incredibly strong, very fast.

• Any +%XP Gain

This includes any items such as Black Belt, Scar, Bean Teacher, Celery Tea and Peacock. You want to get as many of these as possible in the early game and throughout to reach level 24 as soon as possible.

• +Harvesting Items (Mainly Early Game)

Vagabond
'Win a run with Vagabond'


- Have 6 different weapons at once - Arms Dealer, Multitasker


Your 2 best options for builds are either full Melee, or full Ranged. So that you dont need to bother building nearly all stats, and can instead focus on the select few.

• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Speed

These should be your main focuses for stats as you'll recieve a bunch of the rest you may need from the Weapon Class bonuses. Although, don't be too rigid, and make sure to take Armour and possibly Dodge if you feel too squishy, as you barely get into the positives with the bonuses.

We lack Attack Speed and Speed from any of the Bonuses, so be sure to pick them up.

As Vagabond has a -50% multiplier on Harvesting and Luck, there is no need to chase them.

Figuring out the 6 weapons you want to choose can be tough, but the main gist, is that you want to have multiple weapons, that all scale similarly with Melee Damage, that branch out as many different weapon classes as possible.

Here is a list of all the Weapon classes that encompass Melee -

• Classes we're aiming for - Blade, Blunt, Elemental, Heavy, Medical, Medieval, Precise, Primitive, Unarmed

All the classes here are obtainable from Melee Weapons, and give us a substantial buff, so our weapon picks will be based off of these (and yes, we are able to get all of them!)

• Classes we dont particularly want - Ethereal, Explosive, Support, Tool

We don't particularly want these as they either give us a useless stat boost we don't need or are not viable to get.




Remember not to feel forced into JUST these weapons, there is weapons i didn't mention, such as Plasma Sledgehammer and more that would also slot in really well!

In-case it's not clear, I'd suggest starting with Cacti-Club, and building off of the chart above.

• ANY Legendary Weapons

This is because you'll immediately lose 100 Max HP if you have all 6 weapon slots filled due to the Legendary class 'bonus'. So try to avoid Legendary weapons UNLESS you know you're aiming for one and you have more than enough Max HP.

Technomage
'Win a run with Technomage'


- Reach 10 Elemental Damage and get 3 structures at the same time - Mage, Apprentice (Get 3 Wrenches and 3 Elemental weapons + Elemental Damage from level ups)

Vampire
'Win a run with Vampire'


- Reach +40% Life Steal - Sick

➤ +2% Damage for every 1% of missing health
➤ +1% Life Steal for every 3% of missing health
➤ +1 Armour for every 5% of missing health
➤ Max HP modifications are reduced by 25%
➤ -60% Damage
➤ -100 HP Regeneration
➤ -100 HP recovered from consumable

• Max HP
  
• Life Steal
  
• %Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

As we're using Spiky shield, we will want excess Armour on-top of whatever we get from our ability to further increase our damage and survivability. Be sure to pick up Armour from Level Up's and Items.

Even though Max HP modifications are reduced by 25%, you still want to get some Max HP, no need to focus on it but get some good HP items or pick it up from level ups if you feel like you're getting to a critical hp during waves. The more HP you have, the more chance you also have to use the Life Steal and %damage you gain from Vampires ability.

We will also be using Life Steal as our healing option, as well as getting Attack Speed and %Damage for more overall damage. Usually you'll want more attack speed to deal with enemies as you'll usually deal enough damage to kill them anyway. But if not, then dont be afraid to go for well priced %Damage items as we get a ton of Flat Damage thanks for Amour.

I would love to explain this, but Aros Rising has already done a great job in his guide right here[docs.google.com]!

But in short, you'll want to keep your HP around 33% to 50%.

• Spiky Shield

• Blood Donation & Bloody Hand

Both of these can help you reduce your HP to your optimal amount, while giving you great buffs at the same time. Bloody Donation's +40 Harvesting is super helpful early game. While Bloody Hand sorts out your healing, aswell as giving you a TON of damage.

This section will focus on the Abyssal Terrors DLC.

The DLC releases a TON of new items, a bunch of new characters, and a new stat (Curse).

The Curse stat is the new mechanic introduced in the Abyssal Terrors DLC. This section will answer any questions you have about Curse.


You can accumulate Curse in a multitude of ways.
You can obtain initially it by:

• Defeating new Curse Hoarder enemies that can appear on both maps
  
• By playing as certain characters that start with a set amount of the stat
  
• By using certain weapons that give curse
  
• By obtaining certain items that give curse (Barnacle)

These are the only ways to get curse from 0.

Once you've already acquired some curse, you can increase it by the previous points, but mainly through picking up Cursed Items in the shop


Curse makes a big difference to game-play and will change the way you play if you choose to focus on it.

Once you've accumulated some Curse, cursed enemies will begin to appear based on the amount of Curse you have. These enemies are distinguished by a bright purple outline.

As you may imagine, Cursed enemies have some changes compared to regular enemies.
They have:

• +150% to health and an additional +3% health per point of Curse (e.g +15% if you have 5 Curse)
  
• +25% damage increase
  
• +15% speed increase
  
• +20% materials on death

As your Curse increases, these enemies become more common and even tougher to defeat, but also yield more rewards!

The more Curse you have, the higher chance you have to encounter cursed items and weapons. These cursed items and weapons give you additional curse, as well as increase the number of additional stats than the item would usually give/take away.


This list applies universally to any character playing with/collecting the Curse stat (this is most DLC characters, and builds on others). You should still take into account the factors of your run before picking up any given item.

• Fish Hooks

Fish hooks will make items 'cursed'. Cursed items increase base items stats (for example, +4% Speed would become +6% Speed etc.). This item, when it curses items, also gives us extra curse on top of these stat increases, which is more than welcomed when we're playing a Curse build! Cursed Legendary items can also be very very strong.

I like to take this item even when not playing Curse builds if it comes up. Getting Cursed Items and Weapons are a massive help and can make a run feel so much better.

• Black Flag

This gives you a bunch of free materials whenever you're playing with Curse. The more Curse you get, the stronger this item gets. Can fall off in the later game though.


Cursed enemies have a slightly increased speed, so getting your own Speed becomes even more vital. You won't need too much, but getting good sources of speed early on will really help. I like aiming for 20+ but in the end, its up to your personal preference.

I'm placing it here as to not clog up each character with Speed as a recommended stat, as I will always be recommending it.

Sailor
'Win a run with Sailor'


- N/A

➤ +200% damage with Naval weapons against cursed enemies
➤ +25 Curse
➤ -30% Damage
➤ You can only equip tier 2 weapons or above
➤ Crit Chance is capped at 20%
➤ Dodge is capped at 20%
➤ Harvesting modifications are reduced by 100%

• Curse
  
• %Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

Curse is a very important stat here for Sailor. This is what most of our Damage will scale from. We also start with 25 Curse, so it's inevitable that we build Curse, as our weapons scale with it, and we get a huge boost of it from the start.

You start with -30% Damage, so be sure to get some %Damage early and get back to positive at the least.

Attack Speed is very important here. As Trident and Anchor attack very slowly but have high base damage, attack speed becomes even more important to get the full use of our weapons.

Most of our flat damage will come from Curse, so no need to worry too much about Melee Damage. Can be helpful to get some more if you feel as if you're really lacking in damage.

• Dodge
  
• Crit Chance

We're capped at 20% for both of these, so is a bad investment overall

• Trident

Trident is definitely the strongest of Sailors options. You're able to make the other weapons work, but Trident definitely feels the most consistent, strong and fun!

Anchor works well, but can feel slow and sluggish, still a very strong weapon!

Curious
'Win a run with Curious'


- N/A

➤ You start with 1 Spyglass
➤ 2 additional loot aliens appear every wave
➤ All future loot aliens become stronger when you kill a loot alien
➤ +2% XP Gain for every different item you have
➤ -10% Damage for every duplicate item or weapon you have
➤ +25% Enemy Health

• Brick or Jarvelin

Brick is a great start. It's able to 1 shot the Loot Aliens, and give us a bunch of materials when it breaks! You're able to keep upgrading it until it breaks, dont be too worried having 2 or 3 Bricks in the first few waves if you're looking to upgrade one.

Another alternative start is Javelin. I'd suggest picking up Javelin anyway, so getting it off the bat is a great idea too if you're not comfortable with Brick!

After Brick, carry on with any Melee weapons you want. Keep upgrading your weapons, and pick up any high tier, legendary or your favourite weapons!

Writing Soon! Apologies for the delays D:

Chase after every loot alien you can. Using manual aiming if you'd like or can.

Grab some early harvesting, can be really helpful in the early game. Not necessary though.

99% of the time, pick up 1 of an item. And I suggest you pick up almost every item that at least has some benefit to you. The ones that don't, forget about them. Don't let the curious face make you buy items you don't need!

Builder
'Win a run with Builder'


- N/A

➤ You start with 1 Builder's Turret
➤ Every 5 uncollected materials are converted into 1% Structure attack speed and 1 Structure Range at the end of a wave
➤ Engineering modifications are increased by 50%
➤ +20 Harvesting
➤ You can't have structures
➤ -30% pickup range
➤ Damage modifications are reduced by 75%

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• Engineering
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge (After T4 Turret)
  
• Speed

You'll want to mainly focus on Engineering until you get your Tier 4 Turret. Sprinkling in Armour, Speed and HP Regeneration every now and then. Please do check out the Strategy section right below for a more detailed explanation!

If you want, you can play around with Curse and get the Fish Hook item, and then try rolling for a Cursed Weapon. This is a big damage upgrade to your Builders Turret. Your turret should also be able to kill Cursed Enemies easily, so playing with Curse can also be beneficial to gain more materials.
If you're playing on Crash Zone, you'll have to get lucky and spawn a Curse Hoarder, then kill it to get your first piece of Curse. If you're on the Abyss, keep an eye out during wave 4 and 5 and kill on there.

• %Damage
  
• Any Flat Damage

These are entirely useless this run, 99% of our damage will come from our super buffed up builder turret (see strategy below), and we get a -75% Damage modification. Hence, it is not worth trying to invest in any %Damage or Ranged Damage.

• Slingshot

Slingshot is a great weapon, and when paired with the builder turret at tier 4, it clears the whole map very easily, quickly and safely.

The strategy is quite simple. We want to max out our Builders Turret ASAP.

We can level up our Builders Turret by leaving materials on the ground. Every 5 materials left on the ground are then converted into +1% Turret Attack Speed and +1 Structure Range. When you reach a certain Structure Range (which is indicated when you hover over the Builders Turret item), it will upgrade and shoot an extra +1 projectile. This maxes out at +3 Projectiles.

The Builders Turret also scales off of our best leveled Ranged weapon. So our first priority is getting a Tier 4 (red) weapon. In this case, the Slingshot.

99% of the time, you'll just want to sit by your Builders Turret while it kills everything, and then leaving to collect materials. You can usually manual aim any trees that spawn.

• Waves 1-4

Pick up as many materials as possible, and buy as many slingshots as possible, upgrading them when you can, and getting that Tier 4 Slingshot. You can ignore other items for now if you'd like.

• Waves 4-10

Once you have acquired this Tier 4 Slingshot, you can start leaving materials on the ground to level up your Builders Turret.

• By Wave 11

Get your turret up to at least Tier 3 before going up against your first Horde/Elite wave, this will help a lot.

• Wave 12-16

Once you've reached turret Tier 3, you can choose whether to rush Tier 4, or start buying survivability items. I personally prefer the former, and rushing to Tier 4. It's not too difficult, but you can feel a bit squishy in the process.
You can mix in a bit of both if you'd like, don't waste too much time buying now though, get that turret to Tier 4!

Once you have your Tier 4 Turret, you can almost always just start picking up materials. This is where you start stacking Engineering and your survivability.

The extra Turret Attack Speed and Range from leaving materials can be nice if you feel as if it's not hitting/killing all enemies. But if it feels too weak, you're most likely just lacking in Engineering.

Captain
'Win a run with Captain'


- N/A

➤ +50% XP Gain for every free weapon slot you have
➤ +100% stats gained from level upgrades
➤ +200% XP Required to level up
➤ +3% Enemy health at the end of a wave
➤ +3% Enemy damage at the end of a wave

• Javelin

• HP Regeneration
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge
  
• Luck
  
• Harvesting (Early game)

Note: We get a lot of our stats from level ups. If you find a stat in your level ups that is a high tier, because of the +100% stats gained from level upgrades ability. This buffs them even more and makes them even more useful. This is a great way to stack up stats such as Dodge, Luck or Speed as you can get Dodge in incredibly high amounts from 1 level up.

Please refer to the strategy a bit further down to see how we juggle taking these stats from Level Upgrades.

If you'd like a quick summary. Only get Harvesting for the first 3/4 Waves (you want around 50-60 by Wave 4 shop). From here, you can leave Harvesting alone, and focus on the other stats.

Melee Damage and %Damage are very helpful. You can wait on %Damage unless you find a high tiered one. Armour can be very helpful too, make sure to balance it out with Max HP. A [2 | 1] ratio of Max HP to Armour generally is good to aim for.

Luck can really help in this run and is quite easily obtainable, especially if you get a high tiered level upgrade. Luck will further improve your odds of higher tiered items and level upgrades, which means more stats! I would suggest to not worry about chasing the stat too much though, as you have other stats that could be better invested in.

Attack Speed lets our Javelins throw more often, which means they also Crit more often thanks to their passive ability. Attack Speed is a great pair up with the Javelin.

• Crit Rate

Javelins have great pierce, and crit constantly without the need of any Crit Rate, so we can ignore Crit Rate entirely.

• Ranged Damage

Remember, Javelins scale off of Melee Damage, not Ranged Damage, so be careful not to get confused.

• Hunting Trophy

Hunting Trophy is a great item as Javelins Crit after every 5/4/3/2 hits. We're also building a bunch of Attack Speed, making these Crits happen more often, so it's a great item to have for some extra materials.

• XP Gain Items (Bean Teacher, Black Belt, Scar)

After the early game and once you're clearing comfortably, this is when I'd suggest picking up these items. They can help you get a level or two by the end, especially when we have more than 4 Javelins.

Captain is a very strong character, but struggles a lot in the early game. Not to worry, I'll be here to explain the best way to go about playing the early game with wave by wave tips and suggestions.

The general premise of the strategy is to get an a strong start with Harvesting, and to balance out how many Javelin's we hold to ensure we get a bunch of early levels without handicapping ourselves so much that we can't clear waves.

Remember to always upgrade your Javelins

• Waves 1-4

Level Ups
For the first three waves of level ups. If possible, reroll and only pick up Harvesting. Don't worry if you don't get Harvesting every time, try rerolling and see what you get. Early Luck and Melee Damage can be greatly helpful too. But don't take them over Harvesting just yet if you have it as an option.

The Shop
Generally, have 1/2 Javelins. Where possible, have only 1 for the extra XP Gain, make sure to upgrade Javelins for more crits and damage. Try to use your re-rolls well and have a Javelin locked at the end of each wave. Combining the ones you buy together so that you stay between 1 and 2 Javelins.

Items
You can ignore most items for now, don't forget your 'Must Buys' and 'Recommended Items'. If you don't have the materials, lock the item for the next wave.

Remember, during the first 2 waves, the shop always spawns at least 2 weapons (and until wave 5, 1 weapon), so locking items will not affect your chances of getting a Javelin.

After Wave 4 is when you can stop investing only/mainly into Harvesting. Melee damage and Attack Speed can really help you clear from here. Aim for around 50-60 Harvesting. You can always make up for it later if you'd like.

• Waves 5-6

Level Ups
From now on, you can start focusing on our other main stats. Be on the lookout for high tier versions of our main stats, as they're extremely good.

The Shop
From here you should have around 3 Javelins (I wouldn't recommend any more for now). You can get away with 2 Javelins in Wave 5, but make sure you have the Javelin tiers and some Melee Damage/Attack Speed.

Items
You can now start being more lenient with items now that we have an economy of Harvesting. Pick up your general good items, as well as good sources of Melee Damage and survivability while still prioritizing upgrading your Javelins.

• Waves 7-9

Level Ups
Same as previous waves, focus on our other main stats and be on the lookout for high tier versions of our main stats.

The Shop
Generally, have 3/4 Javelins. Wave 9 can be great for xp if you can go with 3 Javelins, but make sure you can clear all the enemies before trying.

• Waves 10+

The Shop
From wave 10, it's up to you, you can stay around 4 high level Javelins up until around Wave 14 (this will give you maybe an extra level or two overall.)
On the other hand, you can go up to 5 or even 6 Javelins quickly. Just be sure to buy some +XP Gain Items such as Bean Teacher, Black Belt and Scar to help you gain some more levels.

I'd suggest staying on 4/5 Javelins as long as you feel comfortable for. If you need more Damage, pick up %Damage and Melee Damage from level ups, or just pick up another Javelin, you will not be missing out on too much past this point and it's way better than losing the run. This is another reminder to keep upgrading your Javelins!

Cephalopocalypse did an amazing job explaining this strategy. Here is his original video if you'd like to follow along!

(All wave numbers indicate the Shop Wave number in the top left of the screen when in the shop)

Creature
'Win a run with Creature'


- N/A

➤ Weapon damage additionally scales with 35% Curse
➤ You start with 1 cursed Fish Hook
➤ +1 curse when you level up
➤ -10 Range at the end of a wave
➤ -5% XP Gain at the end of a wave

• Creatures Abilities Explained

As Creature, we start with a cursed Fish Hook. This item gives us a 28% chance for the item to become cursed when we leave the shop (we will see if it's cursed when we return after the wave). This is a very strong item to start off with, and allows us to get buffed items and weapons, and give us more Curse, which in turn, gives us more damage. This is because of Creatures ability that allows our weapons to scale with 35% curse on-top of their previous scaling.

Remember, Cursed items give us:

1. More Curse (more damage on weapons, more materials from enemies)
   
2. Increased Buffs on items (+12% damage --> +25% damage etc.)
   
3. Decreased Nerfs on items (-12 Range --> -6 Range etc.)

• Locking Items

For this reason, at the end of every shop, we want to lock at least 2 useful items to our build. If you've not got any items that you find 'good', try to keep enough materials for at least 1 or 2 re-rolls and lock the ones you see along the way.

• Extra Fish Hooks

Make sure you pick up every Fish Hook you see, as this will increase your chance of making an item cursed even further. But don't worry if you don't see any, as you can still become incredibly strong without any extra.

• Picking Up Cursed Items

During this run, you'll want to pick up most Cursed Items you see. I say 'most' as there are still quite a few items that don't benefit us at all, be it Melee Damage or Elemental Damage. So we can skip these. But most of the time, taking those Cursed Items that show up that give us small stat boosts across the board are very handy, and more importantly, giving us more Curse.

• Curse
  
• Life Steal and/or HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour
  
• Luck

Curse is the forefront of this built, and we want to get as much of it as possible. Pick up Cursed Items, kill Curse Hoarders, the usual. Build this as high as you can!

For this run, I'll suggest Life Steal, as we're going to be playing with the SMG. Which has a great fire-rate, and the potential for lots Pierce and Ricochet. Although, don't be afraid to pick up HP Regeneration from Cursed Items, or great sources (cheap items/good level ups).

Attack Speed further increases our healing, as well as our damage output. Since we have so much Curse, we will have a lot of damage. And increasing our Fire Rate will simply increase it even further in the later game.
%Damage for the same reason, you can leave %Damage until the later game as you shouldn't be too short of Damage throughout.

In the later game, when we have more materials than we could ever need, this is when I'd suggest grabbing Dodge, more %Damage and possibly HP Regeneration. You'll most likely already have a few of these from random Cursed Items that may show up during your run.

Early Harvesting is very handy, but not necessary. If you find/make a Cursed Item with harvesting on it, it's a very nice upgrade and I would suggest taking it.

If you're really struggling with damage early game, pick up some flat Ranged Damage.

• SMG

We get given an incredible amount of Flat Damage in Curse. So we can take full advantage of the SMG's amazing fire rate to burn through the enemies.

• Dont forget our regular must-buy Curse items (Black Flag, Fish Hook etc.)

• Piercing Items/Ricochet

SMG Attacks very fast, and we will end up doing a lot of damage, Piercing Items and/or Ricochet make clearing a breeze. As well as giving us more healing from our Life Steal























In this run and the few before it, I didn't find a single extra Fish Hook. If you're in the same boat, do not worry. Just focus on Locking items (to make Cursed Items) and picking up any Cursed Items and you should be fine!

Chef
'Win a run with Chef'


- Have at least 25 burning enemies at the same time - Mage, Elemental Explorer Build, Elemental Technomage Build

➤ +35 Luck
➤ +200% damage from non elemental sources against burning targets
➤ Consumables explode for 5 x (+100% Elemental Damage) burning damage when picked up
➤ You start with 1 Scared Sausage
➤ +100% Enemy Health
➤ Elemental Damage modifications are reduced by 75%

Chef has a seemingly confusing ability-set at first.

In short, if a weapon scales with Elemental Damage, it will not count for +200% Damage against burning enemies.

However, if a weapon has an ability or anything to do with Elemental Damage, as long as it doesn't scale with Elemental Damage, it will get the +200% damage bonus against burning enemies.

This weapon (Spoon) will get the +200% Damage against burning enemies.

This weapon (Torch) will NOT get the +200% Damage against burning enemies.

So, we want our main damage weapons not to scale with Elemental Damage, but we also want some way to apply burn to all the enemies. This is where we can use items, or elemental weapons such as Flamethrower to apply the burn. Just note that they aren't meant for damage, but instead utility to make our other weapons deal much more damage.

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Armour
  
• Dodge

Due to Fists, we get a good amount of Dodge from the class. So it's definitely worth getting to 60%.

If you need damage, grabbing some Melee damage and %Damage is your best bet.

Armour, Max HP, and HP Regeneration are your generic survivability stats. Chef is a character that wants a good amount of survivability. So make sure you build it!

We have a great amount of early Luck and Chef likes picking up consumables, so be sure to grab +consumable healing items as alternative/early healing.

• Fists --> Flaming Brass Knuckles
  
• Flamethrower

Fists are a great starting option. But we want to move on to Flaming Brass Knuckles ASAP.

If you need to apply burn, say when you don't have any Flaming Brass Knuckles, or Scared Sausages. Then i'd highly suggest picking up a Flamethrower. This will constantly apply burn to the enemies.

Flaming Brass Knuckles have the exact same scaling/damage as Fists, except their ability always applies Burn onto the enemies. Meaning we can easily apply burn and grab out +200% Damage bonus when hitting those burned enemies.

Flaming Brass Knuckles also don't scale with Elemental Damage, so we're safe to grab 6 of them and keep our +200% Damage from burning enemies.

• Scared Sausage + Snake

We start with a scared Sausage, but getting more is incredibly helpful. For each Scared Sausage, we get an extra +25% chance to burn enemies, meaning we are less reliant on weapons such as Flamethrower for burn. Snake also spreads the burn effect, so no matter the situation, it's always a very great item.

• Frozen Heart

Frozen heart makes all of our weapons scale off of Elemental Damage, meaning we lose the +200% Damage against burning enemies ENTIRELY. So be sure to not pick up Frozen Heart.























You unlock Spoon by completing a run with Chef, so you must have won a run prior with Chef if you want to try this strategy!

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Melee Damage
  
• Armour

You can get Dodge, it's up to you and probably a good idea, but you can leave it until past the early/mid game.

If you need damage, grabbing some Melee damage and %Damage is your best bet. But due to our weapon, Spoon, we won't need as much Melee Damage as when using Fists.

Armour, Max HP, and HP Regeneration are your generic survivability stats. Chef is a character that wants a good amount of survivability. So make sure you build it!

We have a great amount of early Luck and Chef likes picking up consumables, so be sure to grab +consumable healing items as alternative/early healing.

• Spoon
  
• Flamethrower

Spoons have no alternative to burn enemies, so be sure to pick up every Scared Sausage you see, and if needed, a Flamethrower or other burn applying weapon.

It's also even more important to burn enemies when playing Spoons, as they crit 100% of the time against burning enemies (hence, we don't build crit chance).

Druid
'Win a run with Druid'


- Collect 250 materials by the end of wave 20 - Glutton

➤ +5 Max HP
➤ +15 Luck
➤ Enemies have a higher chance of dropping fruits
➤ 33% chance to get +1 Luck when you pick up a fruit
➤ 33% of fruits are poisoned and hurt you (ignored Dodge and Armour)
➤ -100 HP Regeneration
➤ -100% Life Steal
➤ Engineering modifications are reduced by 50%

Note that the poisoned food scales based on your consumable heal (can be seen at the top of the secondary tab)


Druid notes:

Pearl is very good for %damage. And your only option for BIG %damage.

Weird Food/lemonade are great

Grab good sources of Luck such as Lucky Charm, Clover, Shady Potion etc.

Extra Stomach is great if you get lucky

Luck items such as Baby Elephant or Cyberball are very good

Jerky heals you over time, but does not damage you overtime. Jerky is a complicated item, Jerkys healing from Consumables keeps going even after youre full health, so when you pick up a poisoned consumable, depending on however many Consumables you picked up before-hand, you'll regenerate that health back quite quickly














(I built Dodge very very soon after this wave)

Dwarf
'Win a run with Dwarf'


- Hit at least 25 enemies in a single melee attack - Loud (using spear weapons can help), any character in a Horde Wave.

➤ +1 Engineering when killing at least 6 enemies with a direct weapon hit
➤ +1 Melee Damage for every permanent 2 Engineering you have
➤ You can't equip ranged weapons
➤ -20% Dodge
➤ -100% Attack Speed
➤ % Attack Speed modifications are reduced by 50%

Gangster
'Win a run with Gangster'


-

➤ Can steal 1 item per shop
➤ Stealing from the shop can spawn an elite
➤ All future elites and bosses become +20% stronger when you kill an elite or boss
➤ +20% Items price
➤ Can't lock items

Diver
'Win a run with Diver'


-

➤ You start with 1 Harpoon Gun
➤ -100% Harpoon Gun price
➤ +200% Crit Damage with Precise weapons
➤ %Crit Chance modifications are increased by 25%
➤ +1 HP Regeneration for every 2 Melee damage you have
➤ Enemies take 300% more damage for 3 seconds when hit by Ranged Damage
➤ -100 Ranged Damage
➤ +250% Enemy Health

Baby with a beard + Ricochet/Pierce on top here 🔥

Have to re-do run for Wave 10 screenshot. My apologies D:

Hiker
'Win a run with Hiker'


-

➤ Earn 5 materials for every 10 steps you take during a wave
➤ +1 Max HP for every 80 steps you take during the wave
➤ %Speed modifications are increased by 10%
➤ -5% Speed
➤ -50% materials dropped

Buccaneer
'Win a run with Buccaneer'


- Reach 100% Pickup Range - Soldier - Just click on Soldier and you'll unlock Buccaneer!

➤ Picked up materials have +100% Value
➤ Picking up a material resets the cooldown of all your weapons
➤ -100% Attack Speed
➤ -50% materials dropped from enemies

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage
  
• Armour

• Laser Gun (4)
  
• Revolver (2)
  
• (Later Game) Obliterator, Rocket/Nuclear Launcher, Sniper Gun etc.

Start with Laser Gun, and pick up another 3, while also picking up at least 2 Revolvers.

Revolvers are our 'backup' weapon for this run. One of Buccaneers weaknesses is when you kill a bunch of enemies, and none of them drop a material. If this happens with 6 Laser Guns, you're more or less screwed.

Revolvers on the other hand can load up multiple bullets in their chamber, meaning that even if no enemies drop any materials, you can still shoot with the Revolver! For this reason, I highly suggest bringing at least 1 Revolver with you the whole run. Although I found that 2 felt the most comfortable.

In the later game, you'll start finding high tier weapons, such as the Obliterator, Rocket/Nuclear Launcher, Sniper Gun etc. When you find these, be sure to combine or recycle one of your Laser Guns for these weapons. They are incredibly powerful and can be buffed further with items. So be sure to be on the lookout for items that synergize well with the weapon(s) you pick up.

• Gentle Alien, Mouse

These items both increase the amount of enemies during a wave. These extra enemies can really help us obtain more materials, and therefore allow us to reload our weapons more often. Just be sure you're able to clear these extra enemies. If not, look for some of the extra pierce/pierce damage or one of the better weapons.

• Baby Gecko/Sifd's Relic

Baby Gecko is a more obtainable version of Sifd's Relic. And if you have 4, acts the exact same way to Sifd's Relic. Both of these items are great, as they bring any materials straight to you, allowing you to constantly reload your weapon.

• Alien Tongue

Alien Tongue increases your pickup range which is very helpful while you're waiting for/building up Baby Gecko's or Sifd's Relic.

• Tree

Tree's still drop all the materials as normal (as Buccaneers -50% materials ability is on enemies alone), so Trees are a great way to grab emergency materials if needed to reset your weapon cooldown.

• Ball and Chain

Ball and Chain practically has no downsides, as we're using Buccaneers ability to reset the cooldown of our weapons.

Ogre
'Win a run with Ogre'


-

➤ Enemies taking double their max health as damage explode for (+50% Max HP and -50% Attack Speed) damage
➤ +10 melee Damage
➤ +10% Damage
➤ You can't equip ranged weapons
➤ -50% Attack Speed
➤ -10% Speed

Romantic
'Win a run with Romantic'


-

➤ Hitting an enemy that has less than 25% health has a (50% Max HP) chance to charm for 8 seconds
➤ +50 Range with melee
➤ -10% Items Price
➤ -3% Damage for every 5 Curse you have
➤ -1 Armour for every 5 Curse you have
➤ +1 Curse at the end of a wave

• Max HP
  
• HP Regeneration
  
• %Damage
  
• Ranged Damage (Early)
  
• Attack Speed
  
• Armour

Max HP is how we 'Charm' our enemies. So we want to build Max HP for both survivability and utility. 50% of our Max HP is our chance to charm enemies. We don't need 100% chance, but getting around 50% chance (100+ Max HP) by the end is what i'd suggest.

Due to our weapon for this run, SMG, we can use both Life Steal and HP Regeneration. I'd really leave it up to what the game decides to give you in your run. Life Steal has great benefits with items. As we can then easily pick up items such as Broken Mouth for an easy +5 Max HP. But HP Regeneration can generally be more stable and reliable. Getting both is also an option.

%Damage and Ranged Damage are important as we need to be able to deal enough damage to the enemies to get their health down to 25% to charm them. I'd suggest grabbing early Ranged Damage, and if you ever feel like you're struggling with making Charmed enemies or clearing, grab some more %Damage or Ranged Damage. But otherwise, your Charmed enemies will do a lot of damage, so focus more on survivabilty if you can clear with them.

We lose Armour with Romantic every few waves, so grabbing Armour will be extremely beneficial to staying alive.

• Curse

Honestly, it's up to you whether you want to completely ignore Curse or embrace it. I personally found it easier to ignore. This means not picking up Cursed Items/weapons (unless you find them very good) and avoiding killing Curse Hoarders. You get +1 Curse every wave, and based on the amount of Curse you have, you lose %Damage and Armour. This can be tough to juggle and is simply easier to be left alone.

• SMG

We're using SMG here, but other options such as Slingshot are also a very good option. Slingshot will be my weapon of choice for The Abyss run below.
SMG simply requires slightly more flat damage but still a very good option.

• Piercing Items (Sharp Bullet, Bandana) + Pumpkin

Our general SMG clear items, Pumpkin just makes them stronger!

Please write a comment if there any issues or if something is difficult to understand. And if i have made any errors, i will credit you if you do so!

This includes:

• Spelling Errors
  
• Insufficient Details (Let me know if i should add anything)
  
• Parts of the guide that aren't like the rest (I have added idea's on how to make the guide more readable and easier to understand, some things might be irregular compared to the rest of the guide!)
  
• Most suggestions on something to add to the guide, like switching a strategy on a character to make it easier to understand for others
  
• Any new other guides to add at the top of the guide
  
  
• And anything else really, any help will be greatly appreciated, you wont just be helping me, you'll be helping many others too!

Poly~chan - Practically rewrote half of the guide to fix my wording and mistakes! MASSIVE THANKS TO THEM!

ArosRising (On Discord) - Helped Tremendously with Character information, Strategies and Typos/Misinformation along with other misc tasks! Also a top contributor to the Brotato Wiki!

TheAwakening - Helped with a BUNCH of strategies for multiple characters, aswell as helping with tips, items etc.!


SnowMew~ - Gave Suggestion For One-Armed Weapon Strategy

jamesfinkle - Gave Alternate Streamer Strategy (Will Be Implementing Into The Guide Soon)

acka.47 - Fixed Typo Where I Listed Precision Weapons As Primitive Weapons

Quoras123 (On Reddit Comment) - Fixed False Info In Character 'Crazy', Highlighted Missing Item In 'Quick Tips', Highlighted 2 Missing Items In Character 'Lucky'

Ohcibi (On Reddit Comment) - Helped Re-vamp The Contents Section and Emphasize Certain Aspects Of The Guide

Siffhittn - Recommended Strategy With Spiky Shields For Chunky

xlr8ors - Created a great small d5 guide on reddit and allowed to me put some of their tips in the tips section!

Tobi-Wan - Gave Suggestion For Character - Sick

ExceedingChunk - Highlighted An Area In The 'Tips' Section Where I Miss-understood A Vital Game Mechanic

SilentBobUS (On Reddit Post) - Helped Add Tips In General And To Specific Characters Over The Guide

Krimi - Helped Fix A Typo In The Character, 'Mutant'

Sir Moo - Helped Fix Typo In 'Multitasker', 'Entrepreneur' and 'Sick'

repose - Helped Fix Mistake In 'Gladiator'

Mr_Elton - Pointed Out Missing Item In The Character, 'Sick'

Tuggy - Pointed out a missing 'Avoid' Item in Generalist

Sutasu! - Pointed out spelling mistakes around the guide

Bruh - Gave a bunch of Strategy Suggestions, fixes and information!

Wimbledofy - Pointed out missing information about the Speed Stat

ToM! - Highlighted a mistake and missing recommended item in 'Demon'

Redhand_Jedi - Pointed out a small issue with the guide not highlighting how to obtain the item: 'Spiky Shield' in a few areas. (also indirectly reminded me to fix some spelling errors)

Darkeonz - Pointed out mutliple strategies and small errors throughout the guide

KomodoKebab - Pointed out an error in the Beginner & General Tips section

aeason - Pointed out missing images for runs

Muchaches - Pointed out a simple way to unlock Buccaneer

Roemint - Pointed out a mistake in which character to use to unlock Explorer

Thank you for taking the time to work alongside my guide.
Feel free to leave any questions or feedback in the comments below.

If you enjoyed my hard work please Follow, Like & Favorite (Or Even Give My Guide An Award) as it is greatly appreciated and helps push the guide to more people!

Goodluck On Your Runs,
Have a great Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Or Night!