Getting Started Guide

This is Shadowpyre's Getting Started guide for Incremental Epic Hero to help new players get their hands around the game mechanics, answer common questions and get you further in the game.

* this guide is as of IEH version 1.1.2.0*

Game Concepts
This chapter I am adding because there has been lots of questions regarding the resources / classes / purpose so I want to start up front to best explain those core concepts.

This game is broken into 3's as much as possible.

To start with the 3 Heros are associated with 3 "primary" types, 3 roles and 3 resources which is: To better explain the roles:


 * The Warrior can get farther in the first attempts and should be used to go after challenges.
 * The Wizard, once skills are all above 200, can clear areas faster than any other hero.
 * The Angel, once Angel Distraction is 100 and the Lucky Stance is selected, can gain more drops per second than any other hero.

Beginning & FAQ

 * What hero should you start as?

I personally suggest starting as Warrior, but in the long run of the game it doesn't really matter. Each hero has its own pros and cons depending on where you are currently in the game. It is worth noting that Wizard has the most difficult start due to it being more dependent on gear and stats.


 * How long should you play your first life?

If you pass 1-5, you should rebirth when you feel you are no longer able to defeat waves with a good pace. You should be able to jump to 2-1 after beating 1-5 to start getting resources from bats if you are at a good pace.


 * How do I get more skill slots?

Players start with 1 normal skill slot. You will get your 2nd from a quest line involving 2-2. Normal slots 3 through 5 are unlocked via Challenges. Your first global slot is available to purchase for 0 cost on rebirth.


 * What should I focus on?

At this level, you want to get your D gear unlocked and level Skills. Skills are unique for each hero (linked from the table above) and are the foundations for all heros. Each skill's passives greatly improve your hero stats compared to gear for a long time. Skills have passives at intervals until level 200. It is usually better to focus unlocking a passive bonus more than unlocking a new skill or gear. Most skills are not useful until the skill is leveled to level 100 or 150 as they start slow to cast, may have high mana cost, and normally do less damage compared to higher leveled skills.


 * What gear is the best?

Depending on what you are doing, I would say the EXP bonus gear is all around the best gear due to how useful leveling is. There is gear in each Tier (D/C/B/A) that attributes bonus EXP that normally should be leveled / kept fairly high level. Beneath that would be gear that gives additional resources (Sword / Staff / Wing) as they contribute to leveling skills.


 * What should I spend EC on?

Improving Dailies (quality and amount of daily quests). These means after you unlock all the bonuses you are guaranteed 4 quests with a minimum of 1k EC per real day. After that, favorite area / some QoLs are greatly worth it, depending on what annoys you the most really.


 * My hero won't get close enough?

The first skill slot has a dot in the top left of it. It is to indicate the default range of your hero. For most runs you want a short range skill in slot 1 and all your sniper / clearing skills in slots 2-6. by placing your cursor over an active skill (a skill on the right side of the screen) you can see the range visually overlaid on your hero.


 * How do I capture monsters?

System -> Help -> Capture is an incredibly useful resource. You will need to create nets from Alchemy though:


 * Are there any bonus codes?

Yes. You can view them all on the bonus codes page


 * I heard / read / see Alchemy stuff should I...

No. Alchemy is designed for mid to late game, with some understanding of resources required. I strongly recommend ignoring alchemy until:


 * You reach 4-4 and need help
 * You are going to continue your current rebirth (long run)
 * You can farm 4-2 idling

Rebirth

 * What should I focus on?

If your first rebirth, your top goal is to get the free global slot (top right) BEFORE you push the rebirth button. I would recommend the following guide to buying:


 * 1) If you can buy gold cap for the class, buy it
 * 2) if your material production is less than 10, buy it
 * 3) if you feel you need to improve the hero, buy column 3 or 4 depending on desire
 * 4) Column 5 is off limits until you hit 4-1, you don't need it.
 * 5) Column 6 requires planning and multiple heros with multiple rebirths

Once you rebirth, the global skill slot (right side) is used by viewing other heros skills and dragging them onto the global slot.

You cannot level other hero skills even if you have resources, it must be the active hero to level skills.

The First Wall & Challenge 1
From what I've seen, most players beat 1-8 unlock challenge 1, may or may not beat it. They can't beat 2-8 or trying to beat 3-2 and can't get much farther.

I feel there is a soft wall that is broken through easiest with Warrior with Swing Down and Swing Around. I recommend leveling both of this skills to at least 50 to make them usable.

If the player hasn't beaten Challenge 1, I recommend this first with Shield Attack as primary and Swing Down as 2nd skill slot.

Once beaten you unlock the 3rd skill slot, which should be swing around.

If you are running low on mana level Shield Attack to increase damage and mana gain.

The Swing Down + Swing Around combo can be used to beat 2-8 and up to 3-6.

You should have unlocked Slime Bank by this point which takes extra gold and turns it into Slime Coins (SC)

Missions
Each location has 5 missions with a 6th mission being complete the 5 (think of it as a freebie)

I would recommend completing missions except until later:


 * Capture missions
 * Clear with only Base Attack
 * Clear area with no Equipment
 * Clear within X amount of seconds

These 4 types require high gear, lots of resources, high level heros, and usually should be done with planning.

They normally can be done when you are able to clear all of area + 2. i.e. (I would say you can done the 4 above for Area 1, when you are able to complete all of area 3)

In the Explore tab you are able to see missions rewards and they can benefit your overall progress and speed at a significant cost.

Slime Bank
 Full Slime Bank Info/Page:  Slime Bank

Slime Coins are one of the few currencies that stay through rebirths. It can be used to turn back into gold, but I would never recommend it for the cost it takes to get a single Slime Coin.

Efficiency is the best thing to buy until you can buy Slime Coin Ledger.

If you have purchased SC auto queue, I would recommend switching from Efficiency builds to passive via interest.

Depending on your short goals, SC can boost stats / improve production / improve Alchemy / improve capture rates and improve Nitro creation.

Challenge 2
This challenge requires actually paying attention / playing the game. The boss has 3 different "attacks" which are indicated by both model and the color of the skill bar above them.


 * Black - Stone Throw
 * Red - Normal Attack
 * Green - Shield Improve

When fighting the Golem, you can completely avoid all damage from the black skill. Place your hero the left foot (Golem's right) until the skill bar completes. When the black bar is full, go right -> towards the other foot. The first rock hurls from the Golem's hand and should miss. Once the rock passes you / you are on the other foot; go left <-. 4 more rocks will spawn aimed at the right side of the screen and you should safely return to the left avoiding all rocks.

You can defeat Golem until the red attack one hits you assuming you have the base damage to get through the shield.

Gear Farming
With the defeat of challenge 2 comes C gear which should improve your resource production to get skills a higher level and improve your base stats.

You should begin leveling Slime Sword if you can as much as possible as the +ATK% is the best straight to damage leveling in the game currently.

The dodge from the bat gear can give you a free hit or two in challenges or hard levels.

If you get lucky from killing the Golem you will have the materials to create the golem shield; if not you will soon be using Alchemy to farm bosses.

You will want to reach 4-4 to unlock Tier 4 production that will let you get to 200 in each skill

Alchemy
 Full Alchemy Info/Page:  Alchemy

I strong recommend the following before starting Alchemy:


 * 1) Have at least Swing Fan level 150
 * 2) Be able to clear 4-2 in under 2 minutes
 * 3) Be prepared for a long run associated with using Alchemy
 * 4)  Angel with Lucky Stance on

Alchemy becomes needed when farming bosses or breaking through a hard level or getting a skill to 200.

Alchemy is broken down as such:


 * Size of bottle
 * Resources for craft
 * AP required for unlocking recipe

Each rebirth you start @ 1 mL vials with 1/1. This means you have have 1mL bottle and you make them at the rate listed after Purify Mysterious Water. You do keep crafted items and unlocked recipes between rebirths, but you cannot create more until you have meet all requirements.

To increase the bottle amounts press the + on the right side of the screen, this is only available when you are full. 1/1 would become 0/2 and the bar will start filling.

To improve the speed, you get a small bonus for each level of Alch (0/2 generates more than 0/1) and by consuming Monster Energy pots.

These will also grant you AP used to buy recipes.

Once you begin filling faster you can increase your vial to /10. This unlocks the next tier, 10mL.

Each tier has their own recipes that may have more powerful versions at higher levels.

For boss farming your goal is 10L where you finally generate enough AP to buy the 10L tinctures.

This will allow you to farm Slime King / Golem / Deathpider / FairyQueen at a fairly high level to keep the better drop rates.

4-4 Wall
If you hit 4-4 and you cannot seem to do enough damage, you are ready to leverage alchemy to use the 10mL-to-1L capsule of strength.

The difference between the 10mL, 100mL and 1L is the crafting materials required and how long the bonus last (time).

Higher level can result in high quality therefore more time.

After defeating 4-4, the 4th tier of collectors unlocks and allows players to complete getting skills to level 200.

Getting all skills to level 200 greatly improves the Angel and Wizard classes and is strongly recommended.

5-4 Wall
The 5-4 requirements is where I feel the game shifts into long term grinding / farming mode. It is at this point where you need to start pumping up base ATK and ATK bonuses to start competing with the scaling monster DEF and growing HP. Goals to consider:


 * 5-8 unlocks Bananoon which, after defeating, grants you your 5th and final normal skill slot (last is bought with 25k EC)
 * *12 golem shield - prepare for the grind, you will need this
 * 200 missions completed

All these things will help with defeating Monty though the shield is needed to survive the small attacks and stave off the yellow attacks.

Reincarnation
Reincarnation is the New Game+ mode in which nearly everything is reset for new skills and new modifications only accessible via the reincarnation menu.