So you've just joined Card Hunter. You're running around trying to kill things with simple strikes and penetrating zaps and it sucks. Here's the simplest way to get ahead in the game. (1) Start reading the New Player FAQ, realise that it's too long, promise to yourself that you'll read it later. (Seriously, though, read it at some point.) (2) Make a 1/1/1 party; that is, a 1 warrior 1 priest 1 wizard party. Elf war, human priest and dwarf wiz is a good place to start. (3) Get as far through campaign as you can. Realise that campaign AI is exploitable (monsters will hit a character protected by nimbus all day long), and that most monsters have a weakness and a strength. Goblins are weak vs melee and strong vs direct magic. Imps are weak vs armour and strong vs unarmoured characters. Etc, etc. (4) Get to renown 7 so that you can start selling/buying stuff. DON'T SELL EVERYTHING. You only get a fraction of what an item is worth, and no single equipment combo will work the whole way through campaign. Keep 'max usable' of items (3 x boots, 9 x divine items, 12 x arcane items - enough to kit out 3 characters of that class). Sell the rest and sell treasure unless you're collecting it for Steam badges. How can you tell your renown? On the campaign map, this is renown. (5) If you get stuck, ask for co-op help in chat. Someone will take pity on you. (6) At a certain point early on, the game will let you play multiplayer. Play MP, win some, lose more. The important thing here is leagues. Leagues cost 50g entry, but pay out at least 3 gold chests, even if you do nothing and come in fifth place in your pod. Often, you just have to win 1 match to get a purple chest. But don't worry about winning yet. Those 3 gold chests will pay an absolute minimum of 3 rare items and 12 commons - 360g worth. Often, you get several uncommons and even the odd epic and legendary. So for each league you enter, you are getting a bare minimum 720% return on your entry fee, often much higher. Not bad for two seconds' work. (If you want to pick one league to actually play and get good at, choose Quick Draw. There is a QD league every ten hours in every league rotation, so once you get good at it, it's easy(ish) wins. And some annoying losses.) Edit: wrote a beginner's guide to Quick Draw. (7) You can co-op loot fairy levels twice a day (it's all in the New Player FAQ, I'm not typing it out again) and get more rares, epics and legendaries. Even two or three legendaries in the same chest on rare occasions. [Loot fairy x 2] + [unplayed league entries x 4] per day means that you're getting at least 17 rare+ items per day. And not all common and uncommon items suck. Here's a short list of Cs and Us that experienced players may still use (look them up in the Wiki, I'm not linking them all): Arcane item: Akon's Amulet, Cinnabar Ring, Runestone Arcane skill: Battery, Novice Teleportation Boots: Blinking Boots, Captain's Gumshoes, Turquoise Boots Divine armour: Glowing Hide Armor, Jet Armor, Sanctified Shroud Divine item: Purging Charm, Scar of the Hero, Tome of the Martyr Divine weapon: Lifesuck Spear, Purging Mace, Duality Mace Dwarven skill: Lucky Toughness, Subterranean Ferocity Elf skill: Cautious Mobility, Healthy Caution Heavy armour: Cuirass of Froth, Spiked Tlahuiztli Helmet: Outgrown Helm, Helmet of Thorns Human skill: Advanced Flexibility, Alpha Positioning Martial skill: Novice Bruising, Novice Impaling Robes: Yellowdrake Robes, Robe of Lightness Shield: Parrying Buckler, Twisting Shield Staff: Corrupted Feystaff, Counterblast Staff, Perimeter Staff Weapon: Bejewelled Shortsword, Blocking Mace, Double-edged Sword, Stolen Torch, Warrior's Mace EDIT: Testlum and the benevolent* Blades of Glory have put together an expanded list of good/competitive commons & uncommons in this thread (see the Google Doc in the first post), including some sample builds, absolutely worth reading EDIT2: In the middle of every September, Card Hunter holds a birthday weekend where all campaign modules carry loot fairy treasure and league first places pay out new character skins. If you put in a few hours of grinding here, it's very easy to walk away with thousands of GP and dozens of legendary items. Couple of weeks of playing like this, and you'll have a great inventory. Easy.
After talking with Happenstance, we both agreed that there are a few other uncommons/commons that should be mentioned. For the newly added items, I bolded ones that are particularly useful even at high ELO ranges. Arcane item: Akon's Amulet, Cinnabar Ring, Runestone; (Armorbane Pendant, Sensate's Ring, Blasting Amulet, Locket of the Gale, Brainfire Orb) Arcane skill: Battery, Novice Teleportation; (Superb Electromancy, Electroporter Novice, Advanced Electromancy) Boots: Blinking Boots, Captain's Gumshoes, Turquoise Boots; (First Responder's Moccasins, Muscle-bound Boots, Boots of Safety, Brash Gumshoes, Cursed Gumshoes, Boots of Discretion, Divine armour: Glowing Hide Armor, Jet Armor, Sanctified Shroud; (Mail of Succor, Corrupted Shroud, Armor of Surety, Inspirational Mail, Old Jungle Mail) Divine item: Purging Charm, Tome of the Martyr; (Medical Kit, Silver Healing Ring, Amulet of Inspiration, Alabaster Charm, Creepy Box, Demon Charm of the 2nd Circle Oak Roots) Divine skill: (Novice Piety, Superb Piety, Untrained Piety) Divine weapon: Lifesuck Spear, Purging Mace, Duality Mace; (Inquisitor's Morningstar, Axe of the Dark Soul, Arresting Torch, Flail of Justice, Glinting Eye Hammer) Dwarven skill: Lucky Toughness, Subterranean Ferocity; (Perfect Toughness, Tough Charger, Beginner Toughness, Reinforced Doorf, Solid Rock) Elf skill: Cautious Mobility, Healthy Caution; (Fey Insight, Novice Insight) Heavy armour: Cuirass of Froth, Spiked Tlahuiztli; (Haunted Mail, Recruit's Coat, Haunted Mail, Spiked Forcemail) Helmet: Outgrown Helm, Helmet of Thorns; (Bellowing Helm, Bubble Helmet, Commander's Cap, Lieutenant's Cap, Necalli Cap, Watch Captain's Helmet) Human skill: Advanced Flexibility, Alpha Positioning; (Superb Command) Martial skill: Novice Bruising, Novice Impaling; (Angry Attacker, Frenzied Slicing, Powered Slicing, Superb Impaling, Delicate Dervish, Blistering Dervish, Careful Attacker, ) Robes: Yellowdrake Robes, Robe of Lightness; (Cotton Wizard Robes, Autowarming Spacecloak, Thin Sparkling Cloak, Explorer's Force Suit) Shield: Parrying Buckler, Twisting Shield; (Unreliable Heirloom Shield, Beacon Shield, Shield of the Frog) Staff: Corrupted Feystaff, Counterblast Staff, Perimeter Staff; (Gusting Feystaff, Pearwood Staff, Whiterune Staff, Electro-Laser, Overloaded Staff, Prankster's Feystaff) Weapon: Bejewelled Shortsword, Blocking Mace, Double-edged Sword, Stolen Torch, Warrior's Mace; (Brutal Flail, Whirling Flail)
