BattleHand Player Guide
By psykosis2 (PsykStrike)
Table of Contents
Loot Combo (3* Booster + SoT + Random Evo)
Quests/Achievements/Chapter Rewards
Before reading through this guide (which is admittedly, a bit lengthy), I recommend you take a look at some of the other resources available, in particular JaiLandar’s Guide For Noobs.
A hero’s strength is often measured by the power of his/her cards. When selecting a new hero to recruit, players should consider who they have the highest number of powerful (3* or higher) cards for.
Eventually (at fame 43) players have the option to unlock all 13 of the current heroes, although there is no strict requirement for a player to recruit heroes, if they do not want to. There are pros and cons to hero recruitment, as noted below.
Bounty fulfillment (explained later)
Arena bench (see known exploits section)
Note: you only need 2 “spare” heroes for this.
New heroes come with a set of 8 basic cards (1*), which can be sold for 10 gems and 1x 1* booster each.
Note: You will only receive a new copy of these cards if you do not already have 1 in your collection.
Creates a weak link, which can be targeted during Guild War.
Before purchasing a 5th hero, players should consider the state of their 4 current heroes. Prior to recruiting a 5th hero, card packs will only provide cards which can be equipped by the player’s current hero roster. Once a 5th hero is purchased, cards for any of the (currently) 13 heroes can be obtained from card packs.
Some cards can be considered as “core” cards; they basically outline what a particular hero is adept in(identify the role). When you choose a new hero, you generally want to consider someone that you already have good cards for. Here is a brief outline of each hero and how they can typically play.
Honorable Mention to the 2* neutral heal, Party Heal, which can be quite effective if Logan and/or Monty are in the party (Defensive and Heal passives each buff the card, stacking together).
Monty is a highly capable all rounder, sporting an impressive passive which boosts the stat of all shield and heal cards for himself and his ally, while in battle. His active pairs nicely, providing a similar (but short-lasting) boost to attack cards at the start of a battle/round. Monty’s cards have so much variety, that ihe can be played in pretty much any way you see fit.
Note: Monty’s Burning Missile can also be quite useful, before the end of the 1st month, providing a heavy Burn DoT. It is quickly replaced by the guaranteed Fuming Bunny SR, which supersedes it, which is why I do not recommend overleveling it.
Bree often plays as a staller/healer, drawing out battles as long as possible (useful in Gauntlet to line up cards and for defense in Guild War). With SRs (mainly Ivywood) at late game, Bree can also be played offensively, but I’ll focus on the early game here. Although Bree’s Trait may look fairly harmless on the surface, it allows you to line up a series of 0 cost attacks, which can add up to some hefty damage, under the right circumstances.
Brom more or less serves as a tank for his party. He is often targeted first, even without a taunt effect present. His revive passive and slower, but very powerful attacks made him a threat to your opponents.
Hawkeye’s Active and Passive set him up as a low cost attacker. He is first and foremost, a DPT hero (certain SRs can provide accuracy boost utility).
Note: Diverting Pin is currently unreleased. There isn’t any air type replacement for it, so Diverting Dart should be considered as an alternative.
Logan excels at stalling opponents, by chilling/interrupting them and buying time for heals, which his passive boosts the effectiveness of.
Much like Logan, Gilda primarily plays as a staller, knocking back enemy attacks through a combination of chill and interrupt. Gilda is the more effective of the 2, for this task, as her Chill Club can technically pay for itself (costs 2 to cast, if perked, pushes a non-chill resistant opponent’s attack by 2 turns). Also similar to Logan, Gilda provides a defensively themed passive, for shielding. Where Gilda sets herself apart is with her active, which causes her team to start with a trait fill advantage, helping to end battles sooner (traits can deal 20k+ damage at max level).
Note: There are certain cards, in particular, Safeguard, which are considered as being Shield cards, while also offering a healing component. Gilda’s passive increases not only the shielding value, but also the heal value, for these cards. On the other hand, Logan’s passive has no effect upon these cards.
Trix is an aggressive attacker, who relies heavily on magic attacks to dish out the pain. Her active and passive both increase the damage of her magic attacks (the active also applies to magic attacks made by her ally). Trix can be played in 2 different ways; either with low cost direct damage, or higher cost poison DoT. When using the poison DoT setup, Trix can really shine, when coupled with a fire hero, for afterburn.
Fergus is an aggressive support, buffing his own damage via weakens, while buffing his ally’s attack cards directly (via passive). Fergus whittles down his targets using Burn DoTs, which are strengthened by his fire weakens. In longer battles, his trait can turn the tide of a battle in an instant, becoming a huge tank and the bane of any melee-focused attacker.
Jinx employs evasive tactics to stall his opponents, buying him/her time to cast his/her own attacks. As Jinx is a spirit type hero, “it” is able to employ leech attacks, which synergize well with bleed attacks. The best use of this tactic is to follow Red’s perked Trait (applies a heavy bleed) and immediately follow with a Leech Boomerang, resulting in massive damage (from Bleed Out).
Krell is a powerful support; offering healing, party evade and heavy shielding, while debuffing the enemy’s accuracy. Krell also has arguably the best SRs in the game (Moonbeam and Pumpkin Field), which can deal devastating amounts of damage, while ensuring that the enemy never gets a turn.
Red offers high damage with low turn cost, specializing in DoTs, particularly bleeding attacks (due to her passive, which significantly boosts bleed damage). Red can be teamed up with another hero, who boosts card damage (like Fergus), which provides additional benefit to her resulting DoTs. Spirit heroes can also combo well, due to Bleed Out synergy (using leech on a bleeding target, to deal all remaining bleed damage immediately).
Honorable mention to Boiling Coffee which is one of the best cycle cards in the game (a low cost card, used to search for a more desirable card draw).
Thrudd can be considered as being a low cost hero, because his main purpose is to reduce card costs via a warp effect (randomly speeds up or slows down cards). If luck is on your side, Thrudd can enable high damage output, while providing a relatively weak regen effect. His overall lack of hero power synergy often leads to players selecting him last, or not at all.
Note: Chaining Warped Seeds can have some ridiculous effects, including 1 cost Rocking Roll (a powerful 5 turn SR), or on the opposite end, a 5 cost Power Shield, completely destroying its value.
Peg’s cards make her quite versatile, as either an attacker or a support specialist. Peg’s active effect synergises well with air type heroes; providing a significant damage bonus.
Assault:
Stingray Dart (Low cost piercing attack. Bamboozles enemy, causing them to misfire). Grog Bottle is a good replacement; bamboozling Peg, to activate her passive (adds an enormous amount of damage to her cards).
Piranha Pistol (Weaken to water and perk for a heavy DoT. Drown applies +100% damage, instead of the standard +60%). Rum Shower is a more RNG-based option, which deals decent damage, weakens to fire, bamboozles Peg (triggering her passive) and perks bamboozle on the enemy as well.
Oyster Blunderbuss (Interrupt on multiple targets, with reasonable damage). Rum Shower or Piranha Pistol can be used as a replacement.
Support:
Stingray Dart (Pierce through a shield, to bamboozle an enemy, causing them to misfire)
Mistral Strike (Applies an air weaken through shielding, allowing an air ally to deal significant damage)
Black Spot (Applies a +100% damage modifier, significantly boosting the damage of an ally’s attack, if timed correctly)
Note:
Black Spot is without any doubt, the single best damage buff available in the game, at this time. Unlike weaken effects, its stack is not consumed when applied. This means that you can potentially get a well aligned heavy strike (placed on same turn as Black Spot, immediately after it’s applied) + 2x Trait (1 per hero) + 2x 1 cost attacks off, all within the active duration of the debuff.
Neutral cards are good choices for upgrading, as they can be shared with any hero of the correct type (skill, might, magic). This does not apply to elemental cards, which are unique to each hero (water cards cannot be shared between water heroes).
These cards are hero specific and can benefit from elemental damage modifiers (via weaken and/or natural weakness). Many Elemental Cards are variants of Neutral Cards, with added or modified effects and Perks. An Elemental card is often more powerful than its Neutral counterpart.
A Perk is a bonus effect, which may or may not trigger, when drawn (it is chance based and the chance may be increased). Perks may trigger either when drawn into the hand, or when a new round begins (wave transition). If a card is already perked, it will not lose the perk at wave transition. You can raise the Perk Rate of any given card, by using SoT, during the evolution process.
You may want to equip 2 copies of the same card, within a single deck. To do this, at least 1 of the copies must be at least evo 1 (cards start at evo 0). You will also need a 2nd copy of the card, which can be obtained by selling an evo 2 version of the card you want to split; this will provide 2 base copies (evo 0 lv 0) of the card, when sold (selling a higher evo card provides more copies, but is pointless, as only a max of 2 copies can be equipped in a single deck).
Once a card has been raised to the highest level, it can be evolved. Evolving a card can boost its maximum potential, in terms of healing, shielding, damage and perk rate values. If a card is evolved, without using ALL of the required mats, the potential of the card is permanently reduced (you cannot make up the difference at a later point). It is strongly recommended that you only use “max evolve” (it will say “max evolve” instead of “evolve” on the evo screen).
Each card will require a certain number of WCs (or dupes), SoT, evo mats and gold. To see what is needed for any given card, select it from the list in Apothecary and then drag the lower half of the list downwards (it will not appear obvious at 1st, that this is a scrollable window).
WCs and Dupes act similarly, each providing exactly the same bonus during the evolution process, regardless of the level of the Dupe. The biggest difference is that a Dupe can be equipped as a 2nd copy, while a WC is more universal (you can use a WC for any card of the correct rarity, while a Dupe can only be used on the same card).
Sands of Time are responsible for increasing the “Perk Rate” (the chance that a card will gain its bonus effect, when drawn).
Evo Mats are responsible for increasing the maximum stats on a card.
Cards may also be sold for gems or used as WC (if it is the same card). There is also an option to feed a duplicate card as card exp, which YOU SHOULD NEVER DO. The exp gain is low, but more importantly, if you want to get rid of a card, it is much more profitable to sell it for the gems.
C = 10 gems + 1x 1* booster
UC = 20 gems + 1x 1* booster
R = 40 gems + 1x 1* booster
SR = 80 gems + 1x 1* booster
Note: Selling an upgraded/evolved card DOES NOT return all boosters, mats, WCs and gold, so it is very important that you choose your cards wisely (evolving commons is often wasteful).
Boosts Player Fame, which acts as a gating mechanism, enabling more hero recruitment, raised hero level caps, unlocks Apothecary upgrades (enables higher * evolution) and increases the Player’s key stack capacity. The maximum fame cap, at present, is 45. When a player increases their fame level, their key stack is refilled (at the new, increased value).
Basic in-game currency, used (alongside other “ingredients/materials”) for card evolution, card upgrades, hero power upgrades and hero recruitment.
These are shared by heroes of the same element; they are used purely for the purpose of upgrading a hero’s active/passive powers.
These are specific to each hero; they are used purely for the purpose of upgrading a hero’s trait power.
Raid tickets allow the player to instantly complete a dungeon, providing the same loot, with one exception. Raid tickets do not provide fame rewards, which makes them useful for burning excess keys, prior to increasing fame level. Raid tickets also delay hero level ups, as dungeon battles provide heroes (who have participated) with exp. Raiding can be useful for maintaining hero levels, for arena purposes (see Arena - Matchmaking).
On-element (provides +50% exp bonus, when matched):
Off-element (provides no exp bonus):
Neutral boosters do not provide a bonus to neutral cards.
Every stage can drop boosters of 2 different elements. If 1 booster can drop as a 1*, 2* or 3*, so can the other.
There are 3 categories of evo drops, which are;
Provides the highest drop rate for a specific evo mat.
Can drop any evo mat of the relevant rarity (C or UC or R or SR). This option provides the 2nd highest drop chance for a specific evo mat.
Can drop any evo mat of any rarity (C + UC + R + SR). This option provides the lowest drop chance (except 0% ofc) for a specific evo mat.
This is a very simple method of gauging the drop rate of any given evo mat for any given stage and is directly related to the categorisation of an evo mat, as explained in the section above.
Skip if you only want the answer and not the method:
For a random evo drop, the item dropped can be anything from the total loot pool, consisting of all 4 evo mat rarities. For simplicity, we assume that all evo mat rarities have equally sized loot pools and do not carry weightings. Given this assumption, we can say that Random evos have only ¼ the chance of dropping a specific mat, compared to Rarity evos. Given the previous assumption, Rarity evos can essentially act as the baseline indicator for any given evo drop; the simplified drop rate is therefore relative to these drop types. All Rarity evo loot tables consist of at least 2 different mats, so it can be said that targeted evo drops provide AT LEAST 2x the drop rate of a related Rarity evo.
Targeted = 2x drop rate
Rarity = 1x drop rate
Random = 0.25x drop rate
See naming conventions at end of guide.
Fire - kwnx
Earth - kwn9
Air - kwnx
Spirit - wwn2 / ttn5
Water - wwn2 / ttn5
Neutral - kwn9
Note: It is cheaper to use off-element from kwn9/x than to use on-element from ww/tt stages.
kwe 7/x
kwex is preferred due to 3* booster drops, despite providing lower drop rate.
kwe9 for Peg’s runes
ATe for everyone else’s runes (have not yet tested vs AT4e)
Gold and Fame per key are (in most cases) higher as you progress to higher level dungeons. Stage X will also invariably provide higher fame/gold than stage I.
Amethyst Trials currently provide the best gold and fame rates.
kwex (low cost makes up for non-targeted SoT)
ske3
hose4 (loot table is not large enough to show the 3* boosters)
sce8
ece7
wre4
cce3
wwn6
ttn5
hosn2
mmnx
ccn8
ecn6 (Only Wind boosters, but has Air and Earth Hero Crystals)
gtn6
wrn5
Gems are the premium in-game currency; they are used to purchase the most valuable in-game items. Gems can be earned for free on a daily and weekly basis, with additional gems obtainable according to player progression. Free players can amass huge (in fact infinite) quantities of gems, by playing the game on a daily basis.
There are various methods of obtaining gems, as explained below.
Arena begins at 01:00 UTC on Tuesday, each week and ends at 00:00 on Tuesday of the following week; the reward structure consists of both tiers and rankings. Tier rewards are obtained instantly by reaching the stated number of trophies, while Ranking rewards are issued at the end of each week and vary according to the player’s current ranking tier, at the end of the event.
Opponents are selected according to the highest level of your available heroes (available means they are not on cooldown).
Arena Tiers provide keys, raid tickets, boosters, WCs, Gems, Fame, Gold and even cards.
Arena Rankings provide Gems, Boosters, and either a UC, R, or SR and some rankings also provide SR wC.
Beginning on Wednesday at 12:00 UTC of each week, guilds may declare war, which provides them access to the war well and provides information for the upcoming war, specifically, the “brag” condition(s).
Each Guild War consists of 9 separate rounds, each lasting 7.5 hrs, followed by a 30 minute buffer. The 1st round begins at 00:00 UTC on Friday, with the final round ending at 23:30 on Sunday. Rewards can be claimed from 00:00 UTC on Monday.
To participate in a Guild War, a guild must contain at least 5 members and a 3* or 4* member must declare war. War can be declared after the 1st round has begun, but must occur before the final round commences. Declaring war late will not incur a penalty, but does place the guild at a disadvantage, due to a lower total point score.
The War Well provides players with a chance to acquire a random prize, from a loot pool. The prizes change each week and include; a “brag” card, WCs, Boosters and evo mats. It costs gems to purchase a random prize from the War Well.
Each brag card serves 2 purposes; to aid in achieving a brag and to provide a 50% bonus to the player’s point scoring.
A brag condition is a specific action or event which must occur, during a Guild War battle, in order to receive additional points and bonus Guild War keys, for that round.
There are 2 methods for achieving a high score in a Guild War battle; achieve the brag condition AND kill the opponents, OR kill the opponents as quickly as possible AND minimise damage received. Bragging is the more rewarding method.
Each round sees 2 guilds fight it out together. The guild which scores higher points, during that round, is deemed the winner and a 50% bonus is applied to the winning guild’s score (for that round only), before being added to a cumulative total. The losing guild will still receive points, but does not receive a bonus.
The 1st round of a war seems to match guilds randomly. In subsequent rounds, guilds appear to be matched according to win/lose and/or ranking.
Guild War does not offer guaranteed rewards; instead each ranking tier has a separate reward wheel, which can be spun a certain number of times, by each guild member (according to points scored - assumed to be gauged by percentage contributed). Each spin of the wheel will provide a random reward, corresponding to the markings upon the wheel.
Prizes may include SR cards, R cards, Gems, WCs, Boosters and Gold.
Donating heroes is mostly a waste.
To sum it up, this feature is (generally) only useful for players who cannot win a fight on their own.
Each day at 00:00 UTC, each player will generate 1 gauntlet key, as long as they do not already have 1. There are currently 5 Gauntlet floors, each with a number of separate dungeons, which consist of multiple waves of enemies. The event plays out in such a way that battles occur back-to-back, with reward tiers being unlocked according to the player’s progression through each dungeon. Gauntlet floors 2 and 5 are widely considered to be vastly superior to the other floors, in part due to an exploit, which is explained later in this guide.
Note: A player can begin a Gauntlet run on day 1, without completing it entirely and then complete the run on Day 2; the player will then also be able to complete another Gauntlet run on Day 2, following this. (If you are short on time, you can start a Gauntlet run, so that you don’t miss out on a key the next day).
While you are a member of a guild, you can donate booster cards to your guildmates, as they request them. Every time you donate 50 stars worth of cards (can be donated 1, 2 or 3 stars at a time), you can click the “flashing” gift box at the bottom right of the guild screen (chat tab), to receive 5 gems. The reward does not ramp up or do anything exciting like that, but it’s free gems, so it can add up in the long term. Guild donations reset weekly, at 00:00 UTC on Thursday.
You can send your heroes off regularly to complete bounties, which will require varying numbers of heroes, with varying elemental affinities; the bounties will also have varying star values, which indicate how well they pay off (gold and potential gems). By sending heroes who are strong against each of the listed elements (on a 1 for 1 basis), you can increase the bonus chance, which indicates the likelihood that the bounty will also provide gems. Sending higher level heroes also improves the bonus chance, and bounties with 3 slots can provide a higher maximum bonus chance than those with 2 slots or lower. Using the bonus loot feature for a specific bounty will increase the bonus chance by a flat +10%, so you should always use this bonus.
I do not have all of the data on bounties, but what I can say is this;
Each bounty, regardless of its star value or number of slots provides a total of 45% chance from the elemental affinity component, split evenly between each slot.
A level 90 hero increases gem chance by 6%.
Bonus loot increases gem chance by 10%.
Therefore the maximum values for 1 slot, 2 slot and 3 slot bounties are 61%, 67% and 73%, respectively.
By progressing through content, in a manner deemed appropriate by your quest log, you will receive gem payouts. Later chapters and achievements (and much much later quests) provide some quite generous gem payouts.
to make use of excess UC WCs, use them to evo an unwanted card to 2*0, then sell the evo'd card and the base card, which are returned, to gain gems. This method is not recommended until late / end-game, when boosters and gold are more readily available.
OK fine, I snuck this one in here, all ninja-like. You cannot buy this with gems, it must be purchased with kreds (which are purchased from kong with real money). The reason I mention it here, is that it has huge value for a relatively low cost. For 130 kreds (~$13), you get +20% max keys for 30 days and 50 gems each day you log in, within that 30 day period (redeemable from 00:00 UTC each day). To get a fuller understanding of the value offered, you need to be aware of the “keyfill” exploit, explained later in the guide.
High Resale value (costs 50 gems, returns at least 30 gems, with a maximum of 70 gems)
Highest value from bonus items (raid tix, arena keys, dg keys, 1* boosters, via resale)
Amazing for newer players, who can quickly upgrade a large portion of their card collection (with UC or R)
Recommended for purchase by players with less than 4 heroes decked out in full R cards.
Also recommended for players who mainly want the bonus items (Gauntlet 2 is another option for these items).
Absolute garbage. Provides low resale and cannot contain SR cards. Avoid like the plague, this item is a noob trap.
Each pack has 1 guaranteed Rare card.
Best possible card pack is 2x SR + 1x R (this is an extremely rare outcome)
Gold packs are the only card packs which can provide SR cards.
Recommended for players who have at least 4 heroes decked out in Full R cards.
Only provides booster cards, as the name suggests. Generally speaking they are a waste of gems, as gems can be spent elsewhere to obtain boosters.
This feature is mostly for whales (players who spend large amounts of real money) and end-game players. A relatively low number of high value prizes may be randomly picked from a comparatively large loot pool, with a high cost per attempt. Prizes include SR, R, WCs, Boosters, Gems and Gold.
If you so choose, you can purchase additional dungeon, arena or even gauntlet keys, using gems, enabling more grind for more lootz.
Arena and Dungeon keys are currently either bugged, or subject to hidden multipliers, which may or may not, also be affected by a hidden timer mechanism. Whenever you receive keys from any source, it is possible that you will receive a much larger quantity than what is stated (ex: 8 keys can provide 100+). You can trigger the exploit using; Gauntlet 2-2+ and 5-3+, Card Packs and Arena Tier Rewards.
Note: You may need to click the “+” icon next to your key stack after completing a Gauntlet run, to have the value update.
You can use the “exit dungeon” option available through the options menu (cog shaped icon in top right). Using this option within a Gauntlet run will take you back to the collect/continue screen. When you re-enter the Gauntlet, your status will be exactly the same as when you had begun the dungeon. This also works for Guild War fights, taking you out of a battle, without awarding points and without losing your key.
Note: DO NOT use this option within normal stages, as it will eat your keys and give you nothing in return (losing the battle would be more profitable).
Arena opponents are matched against your highest available heroes, which are not on cooldown. By keeping low level heroes (aka bench), you can pass through your 1st few rounds (where your strong heroes would be matched against strong heroes) and once your bench is left over, you will be able to fight low level opponents with your high level heroes, allowing for easy 12pt wins.
If a hero only selects 1 card during a “battle” (I prefer the term “wave”), Peg’s active will stack in the next wave. This can be continued through to later waves, each time accumulating yet another stack of the buff.
kw = knoll's Wood
ww = Waterways
tt = Twilight Tomb
sk = Scorched Keep
hos = Hall of Storms
mm = Mistwood Marsh
sc = Steaming Caverns
ec = Edenshore Castle
gt = Ghoul Town
wr = Wispy Ruins
cc = Cinder Chambers
at1 = Amethyst Trials I
at2 = Amethyst Trials II
at3 = Amethyst Trials III
at4 = Amethyst Trials IV
g1 = Gauntlet Floor 1
g2 = Gauntlet Floor 2
g3 = Gauntlet Floor 3
g4 = Gauntlet Floor 4
g5 = Gauntlet Floor 5
n = Normal
e = Elite
E = Epic
1 - 9 = I - IX
X = X
Note: Gauntlet stages are referred to in the following manner; g(Floor)-(Stage).
CardEvolution*CardLevel
CardEvolution.CardLevel (same meaning as above)
RT / Tix = Raid Ticket
BP = Bronze Pack
GP = Gold Pack
GW = Guild War
kwex = Knoll's Wood Elite X
hose4 = Hall of Storms Elite IV
at4e5 = Amethyst Trials IV Elite V
g2-2 = Gauntlet Floor 2 Stage 2
0*35 = An unevolved card at level 35