Clicker Heroes has been my favorite clicker/idle game since its release, and no matter how hard I try I always end up coming back to it.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) Clicker Heroes can be overwhelming for new players. There’s more to know in this than other clicker games and it can take time to know how to approach the systems.
The biggest thing to note is the Hero Soul system, which can trip up new players and tempt them into making bad choices. But before we get onto that, did you know there are shortcuts to mass-buy Hero and Ancient levels?
Hero and Ancient purchase shortcuts
These are indispensable. They save not only time, but your finger fortitude. Hold the keys listed below to quickly and easily purchase Hero and Ancient levels:
- Shift – Allows you to purchase 10 Hero and Ancient levels with each click.
- Z – Allows you to purchase 25 Hero levels per click. Purchases 1,000 Ancient levels per click.
- Ctrl – Allows you to purchase 100 Hero and Ancient levels per click.
- Q – Allows you to purchase the maximum amount of levels you can afford, up to 9,999 levels.
Hero Souls, Ascension, and Ancients
Hero Souls are your primary method of boosting your damage. Not only do they add 10% additional damage each, but they can be used to purchase Ancients. Hero Souls are your bread and butter and it’s essential that you not waste them.
There are three ways to obtain Hero Souls:
- You get 1 per 2000 levels between all your Heroes
- Primal Bosses give them upon defeat. These may appear every five levels after level 100.
- Quick Ascension, which is purchased via Rubies, gives them.
You can see how many levels you currently have between all your Heroes in the stats tab.
When you first start, you don’t want to ascend until you have between 8 to 10 Hero Souls. Getting them from Primal Bosses early on can take a ton of time, making leveling your Heroes your primary source of Hero Souls the first Ascension or two.
Ascension
You can ascend by getting Amenhotep’s ASCENSION ability. Getting this ability immediately ascends you.
Ascending restarts your level progress while cashing out the Hero Souls you’ve accumulated that run. Choose when you ascend carefully, as doing so too early will net you too little in souls while doing so too late will mean wasted precious time.
A good rule of thumb is that if you run into a boss you cannot beat when you use all your abilities, it’s time to ascend. Always make sure to check how many Hero levels you have and try to reach the next 2000th level mark before ascending.
Ancients
Ancients are how you customize your gameplay experience. Some people just like to farm idly, others like to click — it’s really up to you.
You don’t want to invest in your first Ancient until you have at least 50 Hero Souls. The DPS from Hero Souls is just too valuable to throw at Ancients right away.
Below is a list of the Ancients that available. The effects listed add on one another with each level you invest in that Ancient. The max level an Ancient can reach is noted in parenthesis in the Effect column.
Choose your Ancients carefully, as it costs Hero Souls to respec.
| Ancient | Effect (Max Level) |
|---|---|
| Argaiv | +2% Gilded bonus (N/A) |
| Atman | +1% chance to spawn Primal Bosses (25) |
| Berserker | +2 seconds to Powersurge (30) |
| Bhaal | +15% critical click damage (N/A) |
| Bubos | -2% boss health (25) |
| Chawedo | +2 second duration to Clickstorm (30) |
| Chronos | +5 seconds to boss fight timers (N/A) |
| Dogcog | -2% gold to hire and level Heroes (25) |
| Dora | +20% more Treasure Chests (50) |
| Energon | +2 seconds to Metal Detector (30) |
| Fortuna | +0.25% chance for 10x gold to drop (40) |
| Fragsworth | +20% click damage (N/A) |
| Hecatoncheir | +2 seconds to Super Clicks (30) |
| Iris | +1 starting zone after Ascension (N/A) |
| Juggernaut | +0.01% DPS per click in click combo (N/A) |
| Khrysos | Boosts gold you start with, up to Natalia at level 10. (10) |
| Kleptos | +2 seconds to Golden Clicks (30) |
| Kumawakamaru | -1 kills required to clear normal zones (5) |
| Libertas | +25% to +15% gold dropped when idle. Increase itself decreases by 1% every 10 levels. (N/A) |
| Mammon | +5% gold dropped (N/A) |
| Mimzee | +50% gold dropped by Treasure Chests (N/A) |
| Morgulis | +11% DPS for each Hero Soul spent on Morgulis (N/A) |
| Pluto | +30% gold from Golden Clicks (N/A) |
| Siyalatas | +25% to +15% DPS when idle. Increase itself decreases by 1% every 10 levels. (N/A) |
| Sniperino | +2 seconds to Lucky Strikes (30) |
| Solomon | +5% to 1% Hero Souls dropped by Primal Bosses. Increase itself decreases by 1% every 20 levels. (N/A) |
| Thusia | +100% health to Treasure Chests when Golden Clicks is active (N/A) |
| Vaagur | -5% ability cooldown duration. (15) |
Gilding Heroes
Gilds are a small facet of the game that make a big impact as you progress, and you get your first one at level 100. Subsequent Gilds can be obtained every 10 levels after 100.
So what are Gilds? Essentially they boost the power of your Heroes, one Gild at a time.
A single Gilded Hero has its DPS increased by 50%. Each Gild level gives a 50% increase to a Hero’s DPS — so a 4 Gilded Hero will have 200% DPS.
Gilds are given to random Heroes when obtained, but it’s not set in stone. You can move Gilds from one Hero to another random one for 2 Hero Souls, or even move Gilds from random Heroes to one in particular for a 80 Hero Souls. You can do this in the Gilded menu at the bottom of your Hero list.
You can’t be too picky about which of your Heroes are Gilded early on, so be happy with what you can get. Later, when you have Hero Souls to spare, you should try to maximize your Gilds into gold-efficient and high DPS Heroes.
Rubies
Rubies are the only currency you can use in the Shop, which is basically the cash shop of Clicker Heroes. There are only three things you can purchase in the Shop:
- Timelapse (20 Rubies) – Refreshes all your cooldowns and gives a huge boost to gold.
- 3 Gilded Heroes (30 Rubies) – Gives you three random Gilded Heroes.
- Quick Ascension (50 Rubies) – Gives you Hero Souls as if you were actually ascending as well as a +1 to your Ascension total.
Quick Ascension is the best purchase by far due to the amount of time it saves. I do not recommend being tempted by Timelapse or the 3 Gilded Heroes.
You do not have to spend real money to get Rubies. They can currently be obtained in-game by clicking on the little clickables that come up on the screen from time to time.
These clickables either give you gold or gold and a Ruby. The other clickable (the slime that scrolls at the top of the screen) simply activates a random ability.
Miscellaneous tips
- Mousing over a Hero will tell you what percentage of your current DPS that Hero does. This is indispensable information as your progress slows down so you have an idea of how to progress.
- You do not go from one area to the next when the game is closed. When the game is closed, you are in Farming Mode instead of Progression Mode. Bear this in mind when you’re considering closing the game.
- Your Heroes will get x4 damage every 25 levels, starting at level 200. They will get x10 damage every 1000 levels. This means leveling “weaker” Heroes as you progress will pay off big time, which them slowly becoming your primary damage sources despite the default big hitting Heroes.
- Don’t ever buy an Ancient if you’re not sure if it will help with your playstyle or not, and only reroll the Ancient list if everything offered isn’t ideal for you right now.
- The Octotentacle boss found on level 140 is the first real wall in Clicker Heroes and will likely be what makes or breaks you. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t beat it even after ascending — just ascend again for the extra DPS. You do not necessarily have to invest in Ancients to beat it (and often it’s not recommended).
- There are a few resources online to help you grow efficiently. The Ancient Optimizer Calculator, Hero Level Calculator, and the Clicker Lister are all valuable sources if you’re getting serious about Clicker Heroes.
