Tales & Tactics – Beginners Guide with Tips

New Players Guide

Basics

You might lose your first few runs as you adjust, but even losing lets you unlock stuff that makes future runs more powerful.

Key things would be looking to tier up units, early game a tier 2 unit is often better than completing a trait (some traits are so good that isnt true, but trial and error).

Look to hit the breakpoints on traits, so you want either 2 or 4 dragons ideally for example, having 3 doesnt grant new power, so is less useful than replacing that “dragon” unit with something that will complete another trait.

Dont hesitate to buy, all the units sell for exactly as much as you buy them. So buy them up, and when you get to 0 if you want to reroll, or sell them to invest (once you unlock that) you just sell the lease useful ones.

And units have a class, “Caster, Fighter or Tank” You want the tanks up front taking the damage, the casters as protected as possible and positioned to make maximum effect of there skills, and the fighters either in the front 2 rows if they have 1 range, or further back so they dont take stray hits if they are ranged.

Honestly, a bunch of the fun in this game is trying out combos, and when they dont work, or an enemy surprises you with something and your run ends, you just unlock more stuff and go again. The unlocks are very well paced so you arent likely to ever really lose a run without at least unlocking something new and interesting.

The basics I’d recommend are:

• Don’t put ranged units in the front.
• Don’t clump units in one spot unless you have good reason to, you become more vulnerable to AOE.
• If you run more than one tank, try to split up who is attacking who.

The biggest factor to what swings battles one way or another is when a unit dies. If your team is positioned such that your DPS focuses one of their units down quickly, but their team is splitting their damage between lots of your units more evenly, you automatically have the advantage

When we run back tuning-based bug reports and replicate the fight, we often see that a change to positioning turns a loss into a win. Not always, but more than one might think.

Useful Tips and Tricks

Be aware of your HP breakpoints (going below 3 in general, and below 5 for the first boss) and use them. Act 1 is the hardest, and it might be worth to just skip the boss if you can (only 1 loss before with either the +1 heart perk or a pale heart)

While every traits works, they don’t start equally. Some starting comps are better, but you need to also pay attention to your pivoting options. For examples, Mushroom, although the numerous nerfs really hammered them down, are still one of the best trait, but rarely work in act 1, even if you get them to stage 2 (A few personal favourite starting comp of mine include Fae/Mage/Healer and Orc/Vanguard/Reptile).

• Build your comp around your early items.
• Buy and use potions. Sometimes, it’s better to use it on a fight where it could prevent crossing a breakpoint (a devil deal in act 1/the last fight before the boss so you can preserver your pale heart).
• Give a lot of attention to positioning.

If you have a comp in mind (aka: missing a piece or two, or waiting for more slots), slow down and go for temporary traits/units to pivot and get to your comp more safely. No point in running 3 Fae, for example, while you collect what you need, get units that activate other traits that will help you for the few fights you need.

• Don’t be too zealous buying cursed units, especially in act 1. You’re taking a lot of risks for a run and a comp that is barely defined yet.
• It seems you like playing high curse so be mindful about when you can actually take the risk. Also, spend your star points before getting curses if you intend to buy unit and aren’t about to unlock rarities.
• Try and get your carry to T3/T4 before getting 15+ curses
• Use your items, it’s only 1 gold to unequip them and it might help a lot
• I tend to think that early on, offensive items are better if you intend to beat the boss. You won’t wait out the boss in act 1, they will outgrow your resistance.

Also, if you really want to beat CC15 extremely reliably, go Ifreye, get Gorbin/Xaphan, give them the mythic banner, put mythic units in a Y positioned around them, build a Leachknife as soon as you can and enjoy your win.

Short tips to custom drafted character (which to choose)

If it’s strong you’re searching for, the Kobold ancestry is close to the best thing there is. Sure you don’t get uncommons and rares naturally, but you can get them with perks, events, and even consummables, and then you build around them.

Another fun and very strong option is essentially going Ifreye but changing his profession to Smith, because you then have a chance to get 4 items on your mega carry mythic.

I think that this is a very consistent draft if you’re willing to play more or less the exact same thing every run:

• Ancestry: Hellborn for 4 Mythics.
• Class: Ranger for consistency / Berserker for higher ceiling.
• Aspiration: World domination for less curse interference.
• Profession: Blacksmith or Noble depending on your preference.

And the Ranger class is +1 life, which is obviously really good on CC15.