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.