The story in the original Tap Titans wasn’t exactly a lot to go on — terrible monsters and titans (they always get such a bad rep) have overrun the world and it’s up to you, your rapid-fire finger tapping, and a motley group of hired heroes to kill ’em all.
The surprise sequel from Canadian game dev Game Hive (based right out of my hometown, even) hasn’t really taken the story in any new directions since.
This isn’t to say that nothing has changed — far from! Relic systems have been revamped, pets have been brought in to aid with the war effort, and even the most seasoned Tap Titans player will find they’ve got a few new quirks of the game to learn if they’re in it to “git gud.”
Here are a few good things to keep in mind whether you’re just starting out on this tap-frenzied journey or consider yourself a career clicker.
1. Upgrade your Sword Master.
In a lot of mobile games, tutorial stages skew you towards using your currency and special currency towards items, upgrades, or quick-building stuff you just really don’t need and which you should probably save towards other stuff in the not-so-distant future.
Not so for Tap Titans 2! When the game advises you to upgrade your Sword Master, it’s right. You really should upgrade your Sword Master. Which is nice, because right from the get-go, your coins are going exactly where you need them to go. Your damage will double every 20 levels starting at level 10 (i.e. 10, 30, 50, etc.) and the Sword Master is your primary damage dealer. In comparison, your fellow hero hires do a piddling amount of damage (at least for the 100 or so stages), particularly when you’re actively tapping away.
Additionally, when you hit certain levels (i.e. 100, 200, 300, etc.) with your Sword Master, you’re able to unlock certain skills – the majority of which allow you a burst of extra damage (Flame Sword at level 400 adds a damage multiplier to your tap damage for 30 seconds) or high crit chances (level 200 Critical Strike), but also to rake in large piles or cash (Hand of Midas at level 400 drops coins per tap like crazy for 30 seconds).
(Note: It’ll take a little while to get, but Hand of Midas is worth it. Worth it. And while you will be able to unlock other skills before, I highly recommend saving and holding out for Flame Sword. It’s a game changer if you’re getting stuck on a particularly nasty boss level.)
2. Level up your secondary heroes up to 20 levels each time.
Confusing? While these for-hire characters are introduced fairly early in game (and in abundance), don’t be turned off by their tiny amounts of damage. The same as your Sword Master, each of these will double in damage every time you hit 20 levels after level 10.
Devote enough cash to each of them in turn for at least this long before moving on to new attackers. Every 20 levels they will also acquire new skills that can be used to boost their damage output for a short amount of time.
For the first hundred levels or so, just try and focus on having one of each type (melee, ranged, mage). Skew your love towards whichever type has picked up the most bonuses and multipliers. Thereafter, your secondary heroes really come into their own and can start outputting damage to your enemies on par with your Sword Master.
3. Don’t forget your pets.
These are one of the new additions to the Tap Titans 2 gameplay and while you may get your hands on the first one very quickly, but you’ll quickly realize just how much grunt work these little guys pull for you. Unlike your secondary heroes (which, let’s be honest, don’t really start pulling their own weight compared to your Sword Master until after your first prestige), your pets do some pretty hefty damage and only gain more through your tap damage.
While in later (much, much later) levels you can get your pet to auto-attack, up until then it’s all legwork – you trigger your pet attacks by tapping as often as possible. Combine it with the War Cry skill to get your pet firing even faster.
“Pet” is used in singular because while you may have multiple pets (and you will, every 4 hours will net you a new pet egg, plus you can also buy them in the store), you can only have one up and attacking at once. Any duplicates are melded into the existing one and serves as a level up, whereas the rest are simply marked as inactive. While active, 100% of its unique pet bonuses will be up and working but your inactive ones will still contribute a percentage of their abilities. How much is dependent on their pet level.
4. Artifacts, Equipment, and Prestige
When your Sword Master hits level 600 (shortly after stage 100) you’ll be able to prestige — that is, reset your stage progress. Prestiging gives you new relics and and skill points to use in your skill trees. All pets, equipment, artifacts and perks remain the same when you prestige. See how much further you can progress with your current setup though before prestiging — many people have reported getting to about stage 105.
(Note: When you get here, also spend some time using Hand of Midas on the boss for some extra cash!)
The relics you acquire can be used to purchase artifacts which give you an Artifact Damage bonus plus another effect. The best of these ante up your damage, crit chance, or gold drops, but you can also find effects that extend skill durations or add various bonuses.
Meanwhile, you’ll acquire new equipment after every 20 levels starting from level 55 (i.e. 75, 95, 115, etc.). Like Tap Titans, these pieces will change your cosmetic appearance, but now they also offer their own bonuses. Unfortunately the bonuses you receive from these pieces are random and unlike pets, the inactive pieces won’t give you any passive bonuses.
Some other things to keep in mind:
- Pick a clan, any clan! Joining one once you hit stage 20 will give you a sizable boost to your damage, definitely worth taking advantage of. If you’re interested in being a little a more discerning in your clan choices, you can take a look at the Tap Titans 2 Reddit community’s open clan recruitment thread.
- While the game is pretty good about not laying the ads too fast and hard on you, the rewards for putting up with them are worth it. Mana fairies can be the deciding factor in jumping up 20+ stages more when you’re hitting your limits so if you find yourself stuck and you haven’t seen any of them in a while, exit the game and take a short break. They should start popping up fairly soon but of course there’s always the change they’ll drop something else for you (diamonds, gold, etc.) instead.
- If you’re running into trouble progressing, even after blowing your skills and mana refills, prestige and start over. You’re in it for the relics! Short runs are key right now.
- If you’ve got diamonds to spend, particularly in early game: when in doubt, go damage. Double damage trumps extra cash or mana and will be what keeps pushing you further and for longer on the up and up.
- Jump into a tournament! These are held every Sunday and Wednesday and depending where you place in your level bracket, the game will dole out an appropriate prize.
There’s more to come on specifics like artifacts and pet levels, but this should get you started on making some of your early game choices!
