Swag and Sorcery Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the patch it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Combat
#Combat runs itself, and spells are your only real input
Heroes advance, attack whatever they meet, collect resources, and drink their own potions. You cannot choose a target or tell anyone to block. Casting and pressing retreat are the whole of your control, and that is why loadout and formation carry the fight.
Checked against 1.50
Heroes
#There is no tank, carry, and support split in this roster
Every hero has exactly 60 points spread across the four stats in steps of 10, 15, and 20, so the gap between a hero's best and worst stat is 10 points. A basic level 2 sword grants 4 to 14 Strength by itself, which means the gear you hang on them decides far more than the pick.
Checked against 1.50
#Mona is the durable hero, and Eddie is not the runner-up
She has the highest health at 92, the highest armor at 20 where everyone else sits at 15, and the highest Survival at 98. Eddie gets named instead because he looks the part, but his armor is the worst in the roster and his Survival of 84 is near the bottom. His 29 Power makes him damage.
Checked against 1.50
Party
#The order you drag heroes onto horses is your formation
There is no separate slot picker anywhere. The party advances left to right, so the rightmost hero leads and is the one who should carry the melee weapon, because melee only works in the first row. Mona's level 25 trait is the single exception to that rule.
Checked against 1.50
Retreat
#Retreat is not instant, so pull out with a margin
The hero leaves at the end of their next action phase, which means one more round of attacks lands on them first. Call it when they are running low and not when they are nearly gone, particularly if they have no potions equipped and you have no mana for a heal.
Checked against 1.50
Spells
#Punishment I costs 5 mana and executes anything under 150 HP
It also heals your entire party for 150 on the same cast, which makes it the tool for a fight that is spiraling and not a damage spell. At that mana cost there is rarely a reason to hold it back once a run starts going wrong.
Checked against 1.50
Weapons
#Spears are ranged weapons built in the Smithy, not the Lodge
They scale with Strength and break the tidy melee-versus-ranged split, so anyone assuming ranged means Hunting Lodge will search the wrong building. It matters most for Hoshi, whose stun trait needs a ranged weapon while his stats are pure Strength.
Checked against 1.50
Potions
#Heroes drink their own potions, but only ones you equipped
This is the single biggest thing you can do for a run, and it costs nothing at the point of use because they handle the timing themselves. The Laboratory crafts four tiers restoring 150, 250, 350, and 450 health.
Checked against 1.50
Crafters
#Aiden crafts better in the Magic Store than in the Smithy
Each crafting building reads one stat, and the Smithy uses Strength, where Aiden sits at 15 against the 20 that Eddie and Hoshi carry. His Intelligence of 20 is his only top-of-roster number, and Intelligence is what the Magic Store reads. Rosaline ties him there.
Checked against 1.50
Buffs
#Church and Spa buffs are re-bought on every hero, every time
The five of them cost 50 to 100 gold a go and are temporary and per-character, with only one character and one buff active at a time. Heavy Hand I costs 250 gold to research and then 50 more on every hero you want it on, on every run.
Checked against 1.50
Crafting
#Planks, ingots, leathers, and fabrics no longer exist
Patch 1.50 removed every intermediate refined material, and recipes now consume raw logs, ores, pelts, and cloth directly. Any recipe list asking you for Copper Ingots or Chestnut Planks predates that patch and will send you hunting for something the game deleted.
Checked against 1.50
Research
#Library research is paid in gold, not essence
Essence Absorption is 150 gold and 30 seconds, and it is what lets heroes harvest essence from monsters in the first place, so build the Library and take it early. Clearing the whole tree runs to about 13,900 gold.
Checked against 1.50
Retreat
#Retreating is what saves your Loot Bag, not what loses it
A hero who hits zero health runs home having lost everything, Loot Bag included. Retreat deliberately and you keep the whole Loot Bag plus half the loose resources, rounded down, so pull out early and stash anything rare in the bag the moment you find it.
Checked against 1.50
Achievements
#All 48 achievements are obtainable, and none of them are broken
Players widely believe there are 50 with two permanently broken, and community folklore says to downgrade through Steam depots or reach for an unlocker. Your overlay counts 48, so 48 is 100 percent. Two definition slots were removed from the internal numbering and no visible achievement maps to them.
Checked against 1.50
Party
#Hiring more heroes does not make your party any bigger
You send one at first. A Spa mood quest raises it to two, and three only arrives with Guild III after the Dark Ruins boss. Everyone you hire before then is a crafter and a bench, not an adventurer. Later you unlock three Stables and can run three parties at once.
Checked against 1.50
Stats
#The Training Camp is the only documented way to raise a stat
You pay gold there to level a hero and improve their attributes, and nothing else in the game moves those numbers. The Market will not help, because it only sells your unwanted equipment back out and does not stock anything of its own.
Checked against 1.50
Zones
#Zones open in tiers, so half the bosses gate nothing at all
The Magical Forest is open from the start, killing the Owlman opens the Battlefield and Dark Ruins together, and killing both Big Boy and the Skull of Knowledge opens the Hot Springs, Swamp, and Underground City at once. The other bosses unlock no zone whatsoever.
Checked against 1.50
Gear
#Since patch 1.50 you can save gear sets and swap in one click
Set up a Combat loadout and a Crafting loadout for each hero and the shuffling between runs stops entirely. Without it you are hand-moving equipment every time a hero comes off an adventure and goes into a building, which is where the busywork in this game lives.
Checked against 1.50
Crafting
#No stat threshold unlocks better crafting, whatever you read
The widely quoted 250 for 100 percent crafting efficiency, the 75 percent cap on purple and orange, and the 25 to 50 percent legendary rate appear in no patch note and on no wiki. Even the phrase crafting efficiency is invented. More stat is better, with no line to reach.
Checked against 1.50
Spells
#Power of Fire I is the one spell you cannot research
It does not appear in the research list at all, which sends people hunting through the Library for something that was never there. It is the quest reward for crafting 50 points of mana. Every other spell in the game is researched normally.
Checked against 1.50
What to Read Next
- Adventuring and Combat. Party order, retreat rules, and what the automated fight actually lets you control.
- Crafting and Buildings. Every building, which stat it reads, and what patch 1.50 removed.
- Spells and Magic. Library research, the spell that is not in it, and what buffs really cost.
- Heroes and Traits. All eight heroes, their stat spreads, and the class quest chain.
- Resource Management. Where gold actually comes from and how crafting feeds adventuring.
- Getting Started. Your first hero, the Smithy, and gear loadouts.
- Achievements. All 48, and the two that were never really missing.