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Loop Hero is a deckbuilding roguelite that encourages players to experiment with different cards across four chapters of increasing difficulty. It's a roguelite (rather than a roguelike) because you unlock cards and other buffs while you progress.

RELATED: Loop Hero: Every Roadside Card, Ranked

Cards are placed down around a loop, which your Hero then walks around. There are different types of cards, such as the landscape cards that impact your hero's health or attack speed, and cards that spawn monsters that your hero must defeat. This guide covers the fundamentals of deckbuilding and gives you an idea of the best builds for each of the three classes: Necromancer, Warrior, and Rogue.

Different Types Of Cards In Loop Hero

Loop Hero board

There are four different types of base cards in Loop Hero: Roadside Cards, Road Cards, Landscape Cards, and Special Cards.

Roadside Cards

Cards that are placed next to the road.

Spider Cocoon, Vampire Mansion, Battlefield, Blood Grove, Bookery, Road Lantern, Smith's Forge, Chrono Crystals, Outpost, Witch Hut

Road Cards

Cards that are placed directly onto the road/path.

Cemetery, Village, Grove, Wheat Fields, Swamp, Ruins

Landscape Cards

Cards that can be placed on a free tile anywhere not near the road.

Rock, Mountain, Forest, Thicket, River, Desert, Sand Dunes, Meadow, Suburbs

Special Cards

These cards provide a special effect and work like landscape cards.

Oblivion, Beacon, Storm Temple, Temporal Beacon, Treasury

At the beginning of the game you start with these cards in your deck:

  • Cemetery
  • Grove
  • Spider Cocoon
  • Vampire Mansion
  • Battlefield
  • Road Lantern
  • Rock
  • Meadow
  • Oblivion
  • Beacon
  • Treasury

If it's your very first time jumping into Loop Hero, it's a good idea to just start with this basic deck. There's no better way to learn the interactions and behaviour of each card than by experimenting with them. As you progress through the game, and begin to upgrade your camp, you will unlock other cards.

Every Card Interaction In Loop Hero

Loop Hero battle with worms

Each card in Loop Hero has its own use, but there are many cards that interact with each other in unique ways. Here's a breakdown of each card interaction in Loop Hero, and why you might want to consider trying them out.

Cards

New Tile

Effect

Village + Vampire Mansion

Ransacked Village, Count's Lands

A powerful card combination. A Ransacked Village spawns Ghouls for three loops then transforms into a Count's Lands, basically an upgraded village that heals more and provides better quests.

Wheat Field + A Village?

Overgrown Field

Spawns a Field of Blades, an active tile that gives any creature on the tile a 200 percent damage critical hit on the first strike. Also heals the hero for 5 x loop level.

Wheat Field + Oblivion

Overgrown Field

Spawns a Field of Blades.

10 Thickets or Forests placed

A Village?

Spawns Wooden Warriors that reflect damage back at the hero.

Two Battlefields + Wasteland (road)

Blood Path

Blood Path spawns a Blood Clot, high damage enemies with high evasion. They do drop good loot.

Placing 10 Rocks or Mountains

Goblin Camp

Spawns powerful Goblins. These guys are tough and can be run-ending.

Blood Grove + Oblivion

Hungry Grove

Devours any enemy that falls below 20 percent health, killing them instantly. Works very well placed next to the boss tile.

Two Villages

Bandit Camp

Strong, fast attacking enemies that are a bit like Goblins. Hard to kill. Will sometimes steal an item from your inventory or loadout.

River + Road

Reed

Spawns Fishmen on tiles next to the Road.

Nine Rocks or Mountains in a square

Mountain Peak

Spawns Harpies, but grants a lot of the resource "Noticeable Changes." You can build one and then delete the center tile to prevent Harpies from spawning.

Seven Desert or Sand Dunes

Ziggurat

Spawns a powerful Sand Spirit in 1/3 of fights across the loop, on any tile. Also spawns a Ziggurat tile adjacent to the desert tiles.

Battlefield + River

Shipwreck

Spawns Sirens and Jellyfish after Chapter 3.

Goblin Camp + Swamp

Goblin Lookout

Spawns a ranged Goblin Archer on all nearby tiles. Will shoot you from the next tile over.

Three Swamps

Witch Hut Card

Grants you a Witch hut card you can place wherever you want. Spawns a Witch.

Bookery + Exchanging 20 Cards

Abandoned Bookery

Will no longer swap cards and will spawn Tomes in fights nearby.

Meadow + Any Other Tile

Blooming Meadow

Improves the daily healing rate over the standard Meadow card.

River + Desert/Sand Dunes

Oasis

Reduces enemy attack speed by 1 percent, reduces hero attack speed by 0.5 percent.

Five Suburbs In a Plus shape

Town

Towns provide a bigger boost to XP gains than regular Suburbs.

Treasury + Surrounded by other Tiles

Empty Treasury

Grants a stack of resources, and Gargoyles will now spawn across the loop.

Forest/Thicket + Desert/Sand Dunes

Maquis

Introduced with the June update, Maquis will decrease enemy strength while increasing their attack speed. Meant to balance the attack speed and river build.

Forest or Thicket + Storm Temple

Burned Forest

All forest and thicket tiles in a line with the Temple are turned into Burned forest, which increases magic damage.

Road Tile + River

Bridge

Must be unlocked, but allows rivers to pass over road tiles.

River + Landscape Tiles

Improved Tiles

River cards will increase the effectiveness of nearby landscape tiles, like doubling the HP of mountain tiles.

RELATED: Loop Hero: How To Beat Chapter 1 Boss - The Lich

What Is A Good Deck For Each Class?

Loop Hero boss battle

There are three classes in Loop Hero: The Necromancer, The Warrior, and The Rogue. At the start of the game, you only have access to the Warrior. You will unlock both the Necromancer and Rogue by upgrading your camp with resources gathered out on the loop. After recent changes in the June update, the ideal build for each class has changed slightly. Here's are some basic deck ideas for each class.

Warrior

Works well with health regeneration and vampirism.

Suggested Cards: Rocks, Mountains, Vampire Mansion, Villages, Meadows, River, Spider Cocoons, Groves, Blood Groves

Rogue

Attack speed is key. You need to kill enemies quickly, as the Rogue has little sustain.

Suggested Cards: Spider Cocoons, Smith's Forge, Arsenal, Desert and Sand Dunes, Forest and Thicket

Necromancer

Attack speed, skeleton level, and summoning level are all very important.

Suggested Cards: Forest and Thicket, Desert and Sand Dune, River, Spider Cocoon, Grove and Blood Grove, Villages and Vampire Mansions

For information on how to play each class, check out our build guides below:

NEXT: Loop Hero: Every Tile Combo And Synergies