Best Rogue Build in Loop Hero

The Rogue is one of the three classes players can use within Loop Hero to complete the circuit and bring back their world. As a separate class, the rogue is mechanically very straightforward. Speed and damage are the best friends in this class that come preloaded with a bit of vampirism. We'll go over the best cards to keep in a rogue's deck and what items will benefit them the most.

Best Cards to Keep in the Rogue's Deck

The biggest part about building a deck for any character is knowing how to min-max the class and its opportunities. This means looking at what makes the rogue special and amplifying it. Focus on placing enemies that are easy to kill but drop decent loot and secondary effects that debuff the enemy and buff the player's speed. Players should also keep amulets that increase their magic HP as that will not be affected by the environment tiles.

1. River - Doubles the effects of adjacent tiles.
2. Forest (Thicket) - Add 2% to the player's attack speed.
3. Desert (Sand Dunes) - Subtract 2% from every creature's health pool.
4. Arsenal - Creates an additional item slot, however it lowers the extra items quality by 15%.
5. Cemetary - Spawns a skeleton every three days in the loop.
6. Grove - Spawns a ratwolf every two days in the loop that can move to one adjacent tile.
7. Blood Grove - It's roots devour enemies with less than 15% of their hit points left.
8. Spider Cocoon - Spawns a spider on an adjacent tile once per day.
9. Smith's Forge - Removes up to two items from the player's inventory, however, it adds an effect to remaining items that causes the player to take 20% less damage for 10 hits per item.
10. Beacon - Increases the player's movement speed by 40% and attack speed by 20% for all units whenever they are within range of it.

Optional: Players can also grab an Oblivion tile to destroy their Grove tile and make the adjacent Blood Grove a Hungry Grove to push its effect up by 5%. Vampire Mansions can be added to this list in the mid-to-late section of games if players want a nice heavier enemy to face at the end of each of their enemy sections. Road Lanterns can be used to thin packs of enemies if the player has built too strong of a force along the loop.

Alternatives: A good alternative Gold Card to the Arsenal is the Ancient Crypt, particularly in the late game stage as it allows the Rogue to gain extra health for every fight. Storm Temples can make a good alternative to Sand Dunes in the mid-game as they will deal extra magic damage to enemies by striking them with lightning. Space them across from one another in two corners of the map, then build the Thickets and river between the Temples and the loop.

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Best Early Game Rogue Strategy

The biggest focus for early on in the game is to build up a collection of equipment with useful effects. Mainly, the rogue should focus on collecting gear that either increases their vampirism or increases the damage done to all enemy types. Secondarily, now that the player has a nice deck set up, they will need to use it effectively.

Groves should be placed on either side of the campsite. This will allow players to place a Blood Grove in the corner between the two groves. Placing this near the campsite will make boss battles and any other enemy weaker as they will effectively have 15% less health than normal.

Placing down any tile will bring the player closer to the boss battle. This can easily cause players to face the boss without being built up much at all. Instead of using the Forest cards only use the Thicket cards which will double the secondary effect of the Forest card but not bring the boss up faster. Placement for thickets isn't a huge deal, however, they'll need to be placed on either side of a river tile.

Deserts, specifically Sand Dunes, will be used in a similar way to the Thickets. Placed on either side of the River tiles to double their effectiveness. Once placed on either side of a River tile, the River tile will turn into an Oasis. Oases have another effect, they remove 0.5 percent of the player's attack speed but a full percent of all enemy's attack speed.

The Beacon should be placed off to the side of the base camp. It should sit perfectly to be just within the radius of the camp and the previous Grove. This will offer its boost of movement and attack speed to the player without boosting it for the boss.

Best Mid-Game Strategy for Rogues

Once players have reached the mid-game more of their deck will become relevant and useful. One of the first things players should take advantage of is their Smith's Forge cards. Place these on either end of the campsite to drop the worst of your loot before healing and then stack the effect on the way out of camp with a couple more pieces of loot.

When building up enemy tile areas, players should line up their enemies to affect one tile of the loop each. Stacking the same kinds of enemies along the same part of the path to have the player go through each round. Mixing enemies can be dangerous, however, with enough stacks the player should easily be able to outpace both their spiders and skeletons.

Outside of these, the last main focus for the deck should be to continue building the river and loop it around the area as much as possible. Place Thickets and Sand Dunes around it to stack their effects throughout the continuous loop. Then watch as the rogue quickly slices through their enemies each round.

As for equipment, players should focus on finding gear that increases their attack speed. This is the easiest way to outpace all of the player's enemies. Especially with all the other tiles built up throughout the map.

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Best Late Game Strategy for the Rogue

Place more beacons throughout the map. Make sure to specifically avoid buffing the very beginning of the track. However, players should put a beacon down to affect players between different enemy sets along the track. This will buff them just in time to deal with enemies without buffing them as well.

Most of the outside of the loop should be covered in the winding pattern of a river with thickets and sand dunes surrounding them. Make the most use of space here to ensure the highest boon possible. This will make the player hard to touch by the majority of enemies.

Once the player is fully powered up and ready to go, they can use their remaining Forest or Desert cards to activate the boss battle. Remember to pick traits throughout the play through the buff the most important aspects of the playstyle as well. If the player has enough vampirism, attack speed, and critical damage baked in, they should be able to face any of the bosses within the game.

For more Loop Hero content, be sure to check out What are Swamp cards good for in Loop Hero and how to use, explained on Pro Game Guides.