Task Bar Hero Runes Guide — Priority & Best Unlock Order

Task Bar Hero runes live in the Rune Tree — it opens when your first hero hits Level 3, usually within the first few minutes. Tap the Runes icon at the bottom of the Hero menu to spend gold on permanent account-wide passives: combat stats, gold and XP per kill, chest drops, inventory space, offline rewards, and — most importantly — extra Formation hero slots.

There are 197 nodes laid out on a compass map with eight themed branches. The tree is fully resettable, so you can experiment, but early gold is scarce — matching your spending to your current bottleneck matters more than maxing a random branch.

Owning a hero class does not add a party slot. You could own all six classes and still field one hero until you buy Rune of Command nodes on the south Formation path.

Step 1 — Buy Rune of War for 100 gold (the first node on the tree). This splits the tree into the north-west Wealth path and the south-west Growth path.

Step 2 — Buy one level of Rune of Growth for 200 gold on the south-west path.

Step 3 — The first Rune of Command node unlocks. Purchase it (~50,000 gold per datamined costs) to add your second Formation slot. Total path cost before Command: 300 gold plus the Command node itself.

Immediately open Formation and deploy a second hero — usually Priest after you claim the free Steam DLC, or your starter DPS. Do not leave the slot empty.

• Prerequisites: Rune of War (100g) + Rune of Growth level 1 (200g).
• Second slot: first Rune of Command node (~50,000g).
• Third slot: continue south through Rune of Expansion nodes, then final Rune of Command (150,000g).

The third Formation slot is a medium-term goal, not a day-one rush. After your second slot, you must progress farther south — including two Rune of Expansion nodes — before the final Rune of Command appears at 150,000 gold.

Hoarding every coin without buying anything else is a common mistake. Cheap economy runes improve your income while you save, so you reach 150,000 faster than pure hoarding.

Farm the last stage you clear comfortably with Auto-Retry off if you are stuck. Alchemy grey gear at the Hero-dric Cube and boss Rune of Wealth nodes both feed the savings fund.

• Do not skip economy nodes entirely while saving — boss Wealth (200+300+500g) pays back after ~34 boss kills.
• Rune of Repose (100g) unlocks offline rewards — essential if you close the game between sessions.
• Flat +1 gold per kill (1,000g) breaks even after 1,000 kills on active farms.
• Common chest drop nodes (Rune of Exploration) are harder to value but speed gear flow for Alchemy gold.

Rune of War opens two directions. The north-west Wealth path boosts gold per kill, boss gold, chest drops, stash space, and alchemy income. The south-west Growth path boosts XP per kill, hero slots (Rune of Command), and Rune of Awakening for extra skill slots.

Many players lean Wealth early because more gold means more rune purchases — but you still need the south path for Formation slots. Think of it as a spread: unlock Command on Growth, sprinkle cheap Wealth nodes while saving for slot three, then deepen both once three heroes are online.

Combat branches (Rune of Might / War ATK, Rune of Resilience / Shield armor, Rune of Frenzy attack speed) are secondary until your party structure is solved. A third hero with Priest heals beats +5% attack damage on a solo carry.

Rune of Awakening grants an extra active skill slot on every hero. It sits on the south Formation branch after Command prerequisites and costs roughly 50,000 gold in datamined data.

When gold is tight, unlock the third hero slot before the extra skill slot — three bodies with one skill each beats one hero with two skills. Once Priest is in your party, Awakening is a high-value pick for Sanctuary and burst combos.

Free skill respec means you can rearrange points after buying the slot — prioritize unlocking the slot over perfect point allocation early.

• What are Task Bar Hero runes? — Permanent account-wide passives bought with gold in the 197-node Rune Tree from hero level 3.
• What runes should I unlock first? — Rune of Command for slots 2 and 3, then offline Repose, then economy nodes while saving for the 150,000g third slot.
• What level unlocks the Rune Tree? — Hero level 3. The Hero-dric Cube follows at level 4.
• Does owning a class give a hero slot? — No. Only Rune of Command adds Formation slots.
• Rune of Command vs Rune of War? — War is the 100g entry node; Command is the slot unlock farther south on the Growth path.
• Is there a rune planner? — No official planner yet. Use this priority guide and the full node table on the Runes database page until a tool ships.
• Can I respec runes? — Yes — the full tree is resettable without a permanent lock-in penalty.

• Hoarding 150,000 gold without buying boss Wealth or Repose along the way.
• Maxing combat stats on one hero while still on a single Formation slot.
• Buying Hunter or Slayer DLC before funding the second Command node.
• Assuming a new class unlock equals a new deploy slot — check Formation, not the character roster.
• Chasing Far North auto-chests before your party can survive the stages that drop chests.
• Ignoring the free Priest DLC while waiting for slot two — claim it early so she is ready to deploy.