The tips that actually change how fast you progress
TBH: Task Bar Hero looks simple from the outside. Your heroes walk around, kill things, and you get back to whatever you were doing. That illusion collapses fast once you realize the gold economy has teeth and a few early mistakes can stall your account for hours. After spending serious time mapping out every system, here are the tips that genuinely move the needle, covering Rune priorities, party building, chest farming, and skill point allocation.
Rune tree: Wealth vs Growth paths
What should you do first in TBH: Task Bar Hero?
Before anything else, open the store page and claim the free Priest DLC. She is the single most valuable character in the game, and you want her in your party from minute one. The Priest fights in melee range despite being a healer, which surprises most players, but her buffs carry your entire party's damage output as the game progresses.
After that, head straight to the Rune tree. You unlock it at level 3 by purchasing the Rune of War for 100 gold, which opens two paths: the upper Wealth path (gold income, chest drops, inventory space) and the lower Growth path (XP gains, combat upgrades, hero slots). Your first real goal is expanding your party, because running a single hero is leaving most of your progression on the table.
The second hero slot is cheap and easy to grab down the Growth path. Put the Priest in there immediately.
How do you unlock the third hero slot?
The third formation slot sits further down the Growth path and costs 150,000 gold. That sounds enormous when you are scraping copper in Act 1, but save for it aggressively and do not spend gold on anything else until you have it. Running three heroes simultaneously multiplies your XP, gold, and gear drops across the board. Everything after this point, builds, gear optimization, pushing harder content, becomes faster with a full party.
Do not burn gold synthesizing low-level gear in the Cube while you are saving. Use the Alchemy tab to convert unwanted items into gold instead, and stockpile until that third slot is yours. For a detailed breakdown of the exact Rune costs and the fastest path through the tree, check out our guide to unlocking more hero slots.
Three-slot party formation setup
What is the best early-game party composition?
Once you have three slots, the formation that holds up through the early and mid-game is Knight + Priest + Ranger. It covers the two things most beginner compositions fall apart on: sustain and multi-target damage.
The Knight buys time, the Priest extends that time, and the Ranger spends it. You can swap the Ranger for a Sorcerer if you need better AoE clear on dense stages, but Knight + Priest + Ranger is the most reliable foundation to build from.
One thing to avoid: do not stack three melee characters (Priest, Knight, Slayer) or three ranged characters (Sorcerer, Hunter, Ranger) at the same time. Later monsters use heavy AoE skills, and a mono-range or mono-melee team clusters everyone together so they all take the hit simultaneously.
For more team pairing ideas once you expand your roster, the best team combinations guide covers free and premium options in detail.
Never put movement speed gear on the Priest. She already charges straight into melee range. Making her faster just means she dies faster.
How should you spend skill points?
Skill points can be refunded, so nothing is permanent. That said, a plan from the start saves you from playing catch-up when content gets harder.
Ranger: Start with flat damage for the first few levels. Attack speed bonuses are percentage-based and barely register when your base damage is low. Once you unlock a second skill slot, reset and move into Rain of Arrows, then stack crit chance. Prioritize the skill that fires multiple quick shots at a single target over any version that splits shots across multiple enemies.
Knight: Put 8 points into Health Boost first, then 1 into his active skill, then 1 into Attack Damage. From level 10 onward, prioritize Armor Boost. The more armor the Knight carries, the longer your whole party survives, which gives the Ranger more time to work.
Priest: Get 1 point into Heal immediately, then invest in HP because she takes direct hits in melee. Once the second skill slot opens, go straight into Blessing of Strength. A 90% damage boost for your entire party is not something you want sitting unspent.
For the Knight specifically, there is a lot more nuance around passive selection and gear synergy. The best Knight build guide goes deeper on tank and hybrid setups.
Check character portraits in the Formation menu regularly. A red dot means unspent skill points. Every point matters, so open their status windows and assign them.
Why does offline farming slow you down?
This is the trap that catches almost everyone. When the game runs offline, your heroes accumulate gold and XP, but the game drops zero chests while you are away. No common chests, no boss chests.
Chests are your primary source of gear and crafting materials. Leaning on offline play means your heroes gain levels but their equipment falls drastically behind, leaving you too weak to clear the acts you are supposedly leveled for. Even 20 to 30 minutes of active play where you can click on chests produces more meaningful resources than hours of offline accumulation.
The fix is to invest in the Rune of Exploration and Rune of Conquest on the Wealth path as early as possible. These increase common chest and boss chest drop rates respectively. Once you also unlock auto-open Runes (found heading north from the starting point), the game opens chests on a timer (5 minutes base for common chests, 10 minutes for boss chests) so keeping it running in the background while you work becomes genuinely lucrative.
Cube: Synthesis and Alchemy tabs
How does the Cube work?
The Cube handles all your item progression. Synthesis lets you combine 9 items of the same rarity to create one item of a higher rarity. This is your main path to better gear once drops start flowing, but do not rush it in the very early game when gold is the priority.
Alchemy converts unwanted items into gold and becomes one of your biggest income sources. Before using the auto-fill feature, use Alt + Left Click to lock items you want to keep, otherwise the auto-fill grabs things you intended to save.
One thing players miss: do not synthesize white (Common) items early. They are important crafting ingredients for higher rarity gear later. Sell Common gear through Alchemy if you need gold, but hold onto white materials until you have a clearer picture of your build.
Also, the Removal feature in the Cube does not return decorations or engravings once you strip them. Save high-level decorations and engravings, and use low-level versions when experimenting with accessories.
What are the best Runes to unlock first?
Focusing entirely on one path is a mistake. You need a spread across both, but the upper Wealth path deserves priority early because more gold means more Rune purchases, which accelerates everything else.
Wealth path priorities:
- Runes of Wealth (first 5 nodes going left): Increase gold per kill substantially.
- Rune of Repose: Unlocks offline play for up to 8 hours of passive gold and XP.
- Rune of Hoarding and Rune of Training: Increase offline gold and XP gains respectively.
- Rune of Exploration (multiple tiers): Boosts common chest drop rates.
- Rune of Conquest (multiple tiers): Boosts boss chest drop rates.
Growth path priorities:
- Runes of Growth (first 5 nodes going left): Increase XP gains from all enemies.
- Rune of Command: Unlocks the second hero slot.
- Second Rune of Command: Unlocks the third hero slot.
- Rune of Awakening: Unlocks the second skill slot for all heroes, massively expanding build options.
- Rune of the Shield: Adds armor to all heroes.
The Rune tree has some extreme late-game costs. The "Rune of the Gale" in the south-east red section costs 5 million gold for a 5% movement speed bonus. Skip it entirely until you have gold to burn.
Other tips worth knowing
Farming stage selection: Target stages where your party kills enemies in 2 to 3 hits. Going too high means slower kills and slower loot. Going too low means weaker gear drops. Find the sweet spot where clear speed is fast and item level is still relevant.
Pet farming locations: Pets drop from specific enemy types in specific stages. Here is where to find each one:
- Bat: Stages 1-7, 1-8, 1-9
- Watcher: Stages 2-4, 2-5
- Burning Skeleton: Stages 2-8, 2-9
- Hell Golem: Stage 3-6
- Ghost: Stages 3-4, 3-5
Equip pets immediately in the Formation screen. Their passive bonuses apply whether they are actively deployed or not.
Auto-retry: Turn this on in settings. If your party fails a stage, the game keeps trying without you manually resetting it. If a boss is blocking you, use the blue portal icon in the bottom right to drop back to an earlier stage, farm gear, and return stronger. Soul Stones are only consumed when you actually clear the act, so failed attempts cost nothing.
Window shortcuts: If the game window ends up somewhere you cannot reach, Shift + F11 resets the window scale and Shift + F12 resets the window position.
Difficulty pacing: Do not push to harder difficulties before you are ready. Clear each act fully on Normal first. Brutal difficulty scales enemy stats hard enough that a mixed loadout stops working. At that point, specialize entirely around your class's primary role, whether that is maximizing damage and crit or going deep on armor and HP.
For everything else you need to get started, the TBH: Task Bar Hero beginner's guide covers starting class selection, Rune priorities, and Cube mechanics from the ground up. You can also browse the full TBH: Task Bar Hero strategy guides collection for class-specific builds and deeper system breakdowns.