Clicker Heroes – Starting Tips

Gameplay Tips for Beginners

How to Level Heroes?

Before Frostleaf’s final upgrade

Level the highest hero to 10 and buy the upgrade, then get the previous one to 25 for the next upgrade, then the one before to 50 and so on, until they run out of upgrades (no need to level them any further, for now). Then move on to the next hero. Around Beastlord, you can start to get the best hero to 25 before moving to the next, and you can get Grant to 50 before saving for Frostleaf.

After Frostleaf to Power 5

Before being able to afford regilding and after Frostleaf’s final upgrade, you should level either Treebeast, Ivan, Brittany, Samurai, or Seer. Level the one with the most gilds, and in case of a tie, pick any.

If you can afford regilding, regild to Samurai. Do not bother with purchasing Dread Knight, he is never optimal.

After Samurai 2425 to Forever

Follow the gilding chart.

When to Ascend?

At zone 130 or when you consistently fail bosses, whichever happens later.

For your first ascension of the transcension, ascend at zone 130 and don’t bother pushing further.

What Build Do I Use (Idle, Active, Hybrid)?

Follow this list and see what applies to you.

1. If currently timelapsing, always use hybrid.
2. If on mobile, use hybrid.
3. If you have 1 or more autoclickers (some recommend having at least 2), use active/hybrid. 
4. If you don’t have any but you’re fine with clicking a lot until you get one, then still use active/hybrid.

Otherwise, use idle.

What Ancients to Buy?

Before transcending for the first time:

Get Siyalatas, Libertas, Mammon, and Mimzee. Level them all the same. Unspent HS equals (Siyalatas level+1)^2.

Alternatively, clicking consistently using Juggernaut is optimal but can be tedious and committal. Unspent HS equals (Juggernaut level+1)^(5/2)

Don’t worry about any other ancients until you reach 300 and transcend.

After first transcension:

• Active/Hybrid: Juggernaut > Kuma > Fragsworth > Bhaal
• Idle: Siyalatas > Kuma > Libertas > Nogardnit (if you have at least one Auto Clicker)
• Then, both builds: Atman > Argaiv > Mammon > Dora > Mimzee > Pluto (active/hybrid)

If you have enough hero souls to summon all ancients, then do it. Use the Ancient Calculator to level ancients. Level by either holding V and pasting/typing in the value, or using the Autolevel feature.

When to Transcend?

If you are transcending for the first time ever, transcend upon unlocking the feature (zone 300) immediately.

For following transcensions: After 3-4 ascensions that earn more hero souls than your total last transcension, unless over 24% Transcendent Power, then you should transcend at the Outsider Calculator’s prediction. 

You may also consider using the prediction before 24% TP.

What Settings to Use In-Game?

I personally recommend using these settings, but they don’t have a significant impact on your gameplay. The most important settings to change here are scientific notation, relic popups, and performance settings. Also sound, if you don’t want to hear the music constantly in the background of course.

What to Spend Rubies On?

1. 2 Auto Clickers.
2. 2x Damage (optional).
3. 3 more Auto Clickers.
4. Save your rubies for Time Lapses (zone 50k+) and Quick Ascensions (zone 250k-1m) later on.

Never spend rubies on gilds, purchasing mercenaries, and relics.

What Is a Clan?

Clans are unlocked at zone 50 and are a group of people who fight a boss every day for rubies and immortal souls. Immortal souls are used towards increasing your class level, allowing you to deal more damage to the boss.

When you unlock the clan tab, consider immediately joining a clan to begin earning ruby income.

The Retry Fight button allows you to retry your fight, however, it does not add an additional attack.

You can purchase a bonus fight for a large number of rubies, however, this is generally only worth it if your clan has a rotation, giving a maximum bonus of 5 extra rubies and double the immortal souls every day.

The Random Clan button is terrible. Legacy immortals give hero souls and are only slightly useful early game, and give a minimum of 4 hero souls.

What Relics Should I Keep / Upgrade?

Relics are overall hunks of garbage, and only have a slight use very early game. I would recommend not worrying about them at all, and rather pretending they don’t exist.

How / When Do I Timelapse?

After zone 50k and onwards (unless the calculator says to use Quick Ascension), follow the Timelapse Calculator in 5 simple steps.

1. Level all needed heroes for unlocking skills, and use skills (only after just ascending)
2. Level the specified hero as high as possible and regild
3. Send mercenaries on quests
4. Timelapse the specified amount of time
5. Repeat for each row of the calculation

In this example, level all the heroes you need for skills and use them. Then, level Maw to at least level 10419 and regild. Then send your mercs on quests before timelapsing for 168 hours.

If the “Duration” column isn’t a timelapse duration, do not timelapse. Simple. 

In this example, wait for about 13 hours until you reach zone 1.08 million, then ascend.

How / When Do I Use Quick Ascensions?

Once the Timelapse Calculator says to use Quick Ascension (zone ~250k) up until zone 1 million, use quick ascensions when you would normally ascend.

Do not use quick ascensions after zone 1 million.

They are purchased through the ruby shop for 50 rubies each.

What Quests Do I Send My Mercenaries On?

From highest to lowest priority:

• Recruitment quests.
• Ruby quests.
• Non-ruby quests like gold, hero souls, relics (all equally bad).

Overall the best quest strategy: 4h ruby > 2h ruby > 1h ruby > 30m ruby > 15m ruby > 8h ruby > 5m ruby > 5m-4h non-ruby > 24h ruby > 8h-24h non-ruby > 48h ruby > 48h non-ruby

Should I Revive My Mercenary That Died?

Overall, mercs with levels between 2.5 and 8.5 are worth reviving. If your merc has a ruby bonus, follow this chart.

If your merc has an extra lives bonus, you can consider reviving it at levels slightly higher (1 or 2 levels) than the specified maximum level, with no minimum level (1).

Other Tips

• Backup your save regularly.
• Progression mode (the boot icon) is unlocked upon beating zone 100 for the first time, allowing you to progress through zones automatically.
• It is recommended not to touch gilds during the first two ascensions, until you stop instakilling. Then open them all at once. Regilding all your gilds onto one hero isn’t a necessity, as the bonus is additive for each gild. Never regild if it costs a significant fraction of your hero souls.
• Always follow the calculators.
• Don’t buy rubies with money unless you want to support the devs. In that case, buy rubies with money.

I sincerely hope this was helpful. Good luck to you!