Tips & Guide — Early Priorities, Runes, Cube, Teams

TBH is a light-but-deep idle ARPG that runs on your taskbar; small decisions early (runes, party slots, cube use) multiply into large long-term gains. This tips page collects practical, actionable advice to speed progression, avoid common mistakes, and shape long-term plans.

Early priorities (first session → first few hours)

• Rush Rune of Command / third hero slot. Unlocking the 2nd and especially the 3rd hero slot is the single biggest early power spike: more heroes = more damage, chests, and XP per minute.
• Claim the free Priest DLC immediately. Priest massively improves sustain and pairs extremely well with damage dealers (Ranger/Archer).
• Pick Knight or Ranger as your first hero. Knight is forgiving (frontline tank); Ranger clears faster and farms gold. Play each unlocked class to about level 5 to learn their roles.
• Enable Auto-retry and (when available) Auto-open chests. Auto-retry lets the game keep attempting tough stages; auto-open keeps loot flowing without manual clicks.
• Don’t force a stage you can’t clear. Portal back to earlier stages to farm gear, chests, and levels — that is the intended loop.

Rune tree & automation — the real economy

• Prioritize runes that add hero slots, auto-open chests, offline rewards, and gold/EXP gains in that order. Early gold => unlock more runes faster.
• Unlock offline rewards (Rune of Repose) once you have automation basics — offline yields gold/XP but gives zero chests, so use offline as a supplement, not a primary source of loot.
• Fund rune purchases with Cube Alchemy (sell duplicates) rather than early synthesis. Alchemy is your main early gold engine.

Party composition & positioning

• Best early-to-mid composition: Knight (frontline) + Priest (support) + Ranger (DPS) — stable, simple, and effective.
• If you only have two heroes, Ranger + Priest is the fastest gold/XP farm. Knight + Priest is preferable if survival is an issue.
• Always run a dedicated frontline tank so ranged damage dealers can act safely.
• Formation matters: tank front, sustain/support in middle, ranged DPS in back. Reorder freely in Formation before deploying (only deploying a new hero has a cooldown).
• Pets: equip whatever passive pet bonuses you have; their effects apply even if not actively deployed.

Levels, skills, and respec

• Spend early skill points to unlock core active skills first; don’t spread points too widely. Respec when metas or patch changes make a prior build suboptimal.
• Use SP/SSP chips where they make sense (attackers and durable tanks typically benefit most), but follow your long-term plan — SSP is a limited resource.

Gear management — Cube, Alchemy, Synthesis

• The Cube is your main item-refinement hub. Use Alchemy to convert unwanted items to gold early. Lock items (Alt + Left Click) you want to keep before using Auto Fill.
• Save good white/common bases — you’ll need them for later synthesis/crafting. Don’t melt every white immediately.
• Synthesis: 9 same-rarity items → one of higher rarity. Raise your Cube synthesis level before fusing endgame pieces (low synthesis level can downgrade results).
• Use Decoration/Engraving/Inscription slots strategically: socket materials that match the hero role (crit for glass cannons, HP/DEF for tanks).
• Treat Cube rerolls as a resource sink — plan and budget for rerolls if you want BiS pieces.

Inventory, stash, and market tips

• Use the Stash for long-term keeps (materials, high-level pieces you can’t equip yet). Sell gear for classes you don't play.
• If you need more gold quickly, craft/sell via Cube Alchemy or sell on the Steam Community Market (trade ship). Be mindful of market etiquette and ban risks.
• When listing on the market, check price ranges. Small price tweaks often cause faster sales.

Farming & progression strategy

• Clear each Act on Normal before pushing higher difficulties. Skipping Normal too early leads to painful walls later.
• Prioritize drop rate and gold early — more drops and gold accelerate rune progress, cube usage, and long-term growth.
• Run active sessions for chests (active play yields chests; offline does not). Use offline for steady gold/XP once offline runes are unlocked.
• Unlock Auto-open for chests as soon as convenient so loot keeps flowing during active play.

Building roles for higher difficulties

• On Brutal+ specialize inventory and gear around each hero’s role. Don’t build jack-of-all-trades items — let each hero lean hard into DPS, tankiness, or support.
• For late-game bosses and higher tiers, gear must be role-focused (crit/attack speed for DPS, HP/DEF and supports for tanks, sustain for healers).

Tactical combat tips

• Use range and movement cleverly. Long range (reach 5+) and range-boosting supports let you attack from safe tiles and avoid dangerous MAP weapon lines.
• Use the map’s attack / defense tiles and enemy MAP weapon lines to manipulate enemy spawns and reduce dangerous buffs (positioning can shift enemy spawn tiles).
• For stages with heavy support attack/defense mechanics, stall/position to trigger friendly CS or force enemy support consumptions on expendable units.
• If a map has a single target that ends the stage on death (boss objective), focus the required target first rather than full clear.

Events, Act bosses & Souls

• Soul Stones gate Act boss attempts; you consume a Soul Stone only when you defeat the boss. You may retry freely until you succeed.
• For event progression and missions, be mindful of AP efficiency — some event boxes have a different AP/value balance; plan accordingly.
• Challenge/Level-based modes scale boss stats multiplicatively; plan to one-shot or burst phases before HP thresholds that buff enemies.

Resource & progression economy

• Capital (in-game gold) can be earned via runs and Alchemy; prioritize rune nodes that increase gold and drop rate early.
• Daily store items rotate; capitalism + daily capital income can be used to funnel immediate progression when stuck.
• SSP/SP chips are limited. Recommended SSP targets tend to be attack or tank units with broad utility; prioritize units you’ll use across many stages and modes.

Quality-of-life and troubleshooting

• If the game window goes off-screen or scales wrong, press Shift+F11 to reset scale and Shift+F12 to reset position.
• If items disappear after a server hiccup (heavy load), check your mailbox and use the status/data export backup feature to store a save string locally.
• During server load or cube/box lag, play during off-peak hours (deep night) to reduce the chance of lost/lagged operations.

Do / Don’t checklist

Do:

• Rush the 3rd hero slot and the automation path on the Rune tree.
• Pair Ranger + Priest early for fast gold farming.
• Use Cube Alchemy to fund runes and save good whites for future synthesis.
• Run a tank front line and specialize gear roles on Brutal+.

Don’t:

• Use offline play as your sole progression method — no chests drop offline.
• Fuse top-tier pieces before raising cube synthesis level.
• Melt every white item; keep high-base whites for future crafting.
• Force a stage you can’t clear — farm earlier stages and return stronger.

Follow these practical priorities and you’ll convert idle time into steady, compounding power growth. Good luck, and enjoy the taskbar grind.