Picking a build

A build comes down to two choices: how you deal damage and how you earn gold. Those choices guide the rest of your setup, including your skill tree branch, slash and artifacts.

Why you commit to one damage source

Each damage source benefits only from bonuses that apply to it. A talent that boosts Pet damage won’t help Clan Ship. Bonuses for the same source multiply together, and talent effects grow quickly as you level them: Knight’s Valor is ×25 at level 5 and ×10^14 at level 20. If you spread skill points across branches, some of them boost damage you aren’t dealing. That’s why most of your points go into one branch.

The six damage builds

Build	Branch	How it plays
Heavenly Strike	Knight	Very active. You cast Heavenly Strike every few seconds, so mana limits how often you can use it.
Pet	Summoner	Active. Your pet attacks after a set number of taps, so you’ll tap often to trigger its attacks.
Clan Ship	Warlord	Mostly idle early on. The ship fires on a timer and deals 20 times your hero damage. It becomes semi-active when Thunder Ship unlocks at stage 5,000.
Shadow Clone	Sorcerer	Idle. The clone attacks by itself.
Dagger	Rogue	Semi-active. You aim and throw daggers at targets.
Gold Gun	Alchemist	Semi-active. You wait between shots, then deal damage in bursts.

Here are the core talents for each build and the stage when they unlock:

• Angelic RadianceKnight, opens at stage 250
• Pet EvolutionSummoner, opens at stage 60
• Master CommanderWarlord, opens at stage 60
• Aerial AssaultWarlord, opens at stage 300
• Phantom VengeanceSorcerer, opens at stage 150
• Summon DaggerRogue, opens at stage 400
• Gold GunAlchemist, opens at stage 8,000

Gold Gun opens much later than the rest: the whole Alchemist branch needs stage 8,000.

The in-game build guide lists recommended talents, artifacts and equipment sets for each build. This page explains why those choices work together.

The three gold sources

• Fairy Gold boosts fairy gold and the chance for fairies to spawn.
• Heart of Gold boosts boss gold and your pet’s gold attack.
• Chesterson boosts chest gold and gold from multi-spawned titans.

Gold talents are part of the damage branches, so choosing a gold source in the same branch as your damage source costs fewer skill points:

• Fairy Gold’s talents are in Knight, so it pairs naturally with Heavenly Strike.
• Heart of Gold is in Summoner, right under Pet Evolution, so it pairs with Pet.
• Chesterson’s talents are in Alchemist and Rogue, so it pairs with Gold Gun and Dagger.

Clan Ship and Shadow Clone don’t have an early gold talent in their own branches. Either way, you’ll spend some points in a second branch to support your gold source.

What your build decides for you

• Slash. Each slash boosts one damage source. Use the one that matches your build; a slash for another source boosts damage you don’t deal.
• Suit. Suits boost a gold source, so choose one that matches how your build earns gold.
• Artifacts. Prioritize artifacts that boost your damage and gold sources. The Knight, Warlord, Sorcerer and Rogue branches each have an artifact that boosts all talents in that branch.
• Deadly Strike. Heavenly Strike doesn’t benefit from it. Other builds get some value.

You can change your mind

Skill tree resets are free, so you can try another build if your current one isn’t working for you. If you’re already well into a run, you’ll need to prestige before you can reset.

Use the skill tree to see every talent and its stage requirement, and the build optimizer to work out where your points go.