Rogue Legacy 2 doesn’t make your generational struggle any easier. This sequel makes everything harder — the gameplay is faster, the bosses are tougher, and you’re given so many more options. More options mean more ways to fail. While Rogue Legacy isn’t the most hardcore rogue-like around, there are ways to make the game harder than it needs to be. Don’t waste your time slowly grinding away and unlocking useless enhancements or classes you won’t even use. Stick to the basics and you’ll be slicing through new biomes with surprising speed. We can worry about in-depth builds once we’ve reached NG+.
More Rogue Legacy 2 guides:
All Boss Damage Bonuses | All Heirloom Abilities Locations | Challenge Room XP Farming
#1: Unlock +Damage & +HP Upgrades First
For your first run through the castle, you’ll want to focus on just a handful of specific upgrades. Don’t waste your gold on everything — focus on a few things and increase them to max level. Anything that increases your damage output and increases your HP should be leveled up first. You’ll also want to unlock some of the different classes. We’ll get into what classes are easiest for newcomers next.
After that, unlock upgrades for Criticals, XP bonuses, and re-rolling. You can also spend your Soul Stones at the Soul Shop for even better upgrades — but you’ll probably only need to delve into that system in NG+. For now, your needs are simple.
#2: Unlock Barbarians, Paladins, Valkyries and Astromancers
Barbarians and Paladins are the simplest classes to crush your enemies with. Paladins have a powerful shield, while Barbarians can survive and dish out serious damage. Valkyries are also good later-game unlocks, while Astromancers are really reserved for players with strong dodging abilities. They can be incredibly powerful if you’ve got the right moves.
#3: Where To Go After Lamech
After defeating the first boss, it isn’t 100% clear where you need to go next. Especially if you don’t realize how all your movement powers work. Once you defeat Lamech, you can travel to Axis Mundi. In the start of this biome, reach the top of the tower and complete the Echo’s Boots challenge. This allows you to spin-kick off projectiles and recharge your dash / jump charges. This is required to reach the interior of the Axis Mundi biome.
#4: Unlock Mouse Aiming
On PC, you can aim with the mouse instead of with your character’s current direction. This is critical for the ranged classes, making mages and gunslingers even more useful. Now you can move in one direction and shoot in another. Incredibly useful little feature that adds extra utility to your ranged classes. Requires some practice to master.
This works for controllers, too! Unlocking this feature lets you aim faster without having to hold down an additional button.
#5: Money Is Your Lifeblood
Gold is everything in Rogue Legacy 2. You need it to upgrade, and you can’t keep much — so be prepared to spend it whenever you return to the hub. Always aim to earn enough gold to get the next expensive upgrade in your manor, and you can increase how much gold you earn early by unlocking +gold gain upgrades. Increase those enough, and you can start earning +140% very fast. That’s a huge boost over the standard 75% gold earnings.
And don’t farm the early areas for gold. Your gold earnings increase exponentially in the higher-level biomes. Reach the third or fourth tier areas, spend money to get the shortcuts, then you’ll be earning so much more gold. That’s why you’ll want to unlock the Astromancer. They’re extremely good at hunting for gold and taking chests.
Those simple tips should get you started in Rogue Legacy 2. Your future generations are counting on you.
