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Loop Hero best class | How to play as Necromancer, Rogue, & Warrior

Rebecca Jones avatar
Guide by Rebecca Jones Guides Writer
Published on

Like many indie hits on Steam, Loop Hero can claim a place in many different genres. Part roguelike RPG, part fantasy adventure, part deck-building strategy (and all nostalgia if you remember games from the '80s and '90s).

Before you begin the hero's task — rebuilding an erased world, using their collection of cards to redraw the map — you'll need to choose from one of the Loop Hero classes to play as.

Loop Hero features three classes, all of which will be familiar if you have a passing knowledge of fantasy settings: Warrior, Rogue, and Necromancer.

Players familiar with roguelikes will probably have guessed that you can change your class. You can do this on the main screen before beginning a new loop.

Each class has their own benefits and drawbacks, of course, as well as access to some unique abilities. While the classes that are harder to unlock tend to be more powerful, it's mainly a case of matching your class to the situation and what you want to achieve in any given loop.

Read on for the strengths and weaknesses of each class, as well as how to unlock them:

Playing as the Warrior in Loop Hero

When you first begin the game, the Warrior class will be the only one available to you. The other two are locked until you meet certain requirements.

You may have the impression from this that the Warrior is the most basic class. You wouldn't be entirely wrong to think this. The Warrior doesn't have any special abilities unique to them.

However, they do enjoy a couple of enviable advantages. They're the physically toughest class, as you might expect. They also gain +1.5% damage for every second of a fight — they literally get stronger the longer they're engaged in combat. For all the benefits you'll enjoy as a Rogue or Necromancer, you'll never beat the Warrior for sheer tankiness.

The Warrior has the following class stats:

  • Attack Speed
  • Counterattack
  • Damage
  • Damage to All
  • Defence
  • Evade
  • Regeneration
  • Vampirism

How to unlock more classes in Loop Hero

Both the Rogue and Necromancer classes need to be unlocked through gameplay. It's necessary to construct certain buildings in your camp before you can play as either class.

The resources to construct these buildings can be time-intensive to get. It's perfectly possible to carry on progressing through the game as the Warrior until you gain enough materials to unlock the other two. However, there is an undeniable advantage to being able to choose your class at the start of each loop. So focusing on building up a supply of resources to unlock the other two classes early on isn't a bad idea.

Both unlockable classes have a shared starting requirement: you must build a Field Kitchen in your camp. Fortunately, the requirements for this one aren't too involved. You only need 3x Preserved Wood, 2x Preserved Stone, and 1x Food Supply to build one.

The Field Kitchen brings a number of its own benefits to the camp. Most importantly for our purposes here, though, it's a prerequisite for you to add certain class-specific buildings.

How to unlock the Rogue class

Once the Field Kitchen is constructed, you have the option to build a Refuge next door to it.

Fortunately, unlocking the Rogue class is as easy as constructing a Refuge. The only real problem is that gathering the resources for one is a bit more complex.

You'll need everything you used to build the Field Kitchen, but in equal or greater quantities — 12x Preserved Wood, 2x Preserved Stone, and 7x Food Supply — in addition to 4x Stable Metal.

Once construction is completed, though, you'll have unlocked the Rogue. The class will be available to select the next time you're on the main screen.

How to unlock the Necromancer class

The Necromancer is the hardest class to unlock in Loop Hero. This is purely down to the number of stages involved. While the Rogue was unlocked with two buildings, the Necromancer requires four in total.

With the Field Kitchen in place, you're now able to build the Gymnasium. This requires 6x Stable Metal, 3x Preserved Stone, 2x Stable Wood, and 1x Metamorphosis.

This in turn allows you to build a Cemetery. (Who hasn't felt that way after a visit to the gym?) Things are getting more on-brand for the Necromancer, but you're still a while away from unlocking them yet.

To place a Cemetery, you will need the following resources: 14x Preserved Stone, 4x Stable Wood, 2x Stable Metal.

Once you have a Cemetery, you're able to place a Crypt nearby. This is an incredibly lavish resting place for a single important person, and requires 16x Preserved Stone, 9x Stable Metal, 4x Stable Wood, and 1x Orb of Expansion.

It's a resource-intensive process, but once you have a Crypt in your camp, you've unlocked the Necromancer class. You'll be able to select it the next time you're on the main screen.

Playing as the Rogue in Loop Hero

The main advantage of playing as the Rogue is the improved loot yield. Instead of directly looting a defeated enemy, Rogues pick up a trophy from them. What you lose in instant gratification you gain in the long term, though. Bringing these trophies back to the campfire results in more — and better! — loot in the end.

While not as strong as the Warrior, the Rogue does enjoy the benefit of 5% Vampirism as a base stat. This means they will heal a little bit every time they land a hit on an enemy. They can also dual-wield weapons, and even get a 10% bonus if the items have matching effects.

The Rogue has the following class stats:

  • Attack Speed
  • Crit Chance
  • Crit Damage
  • Counterattack
  • Damage
  • Damage to All
  • Defence
  • Evade

Playing as the Necromancer in Loop Hero

The Necromancer is the most complex class in Loop Hero. Unlike either Warriors or Rogues, they prefer not to engage in combat themselves. While they can fight in a pinch, their main approach to any violent situation is to summon undead fighters who will do battle for them.

The Necromancer has the following class stats, almost all of which are in some way unique to the class:

  • Defence
  • Evade
  • Regeneration
  • Skeletons' Power
  • Summon Quality
  • Summoning Speed (works like Attack Speed for other classes)

There are five possible types of skeleton that the Necromancer can summon: Friendly, Guard, Warrior, Archer, and Mage. At base, Friendlies are the most common, then Guards and Warriors. Archers and Mages can only be summoned once there are at least four other skeletons in play.

Better Summon Quality will improve the chances of spawning a Guard or Warrior, as well as improving the chances of spawning Mages once their requirements are met.

Skeletons' Power improves the health and damage stats on summoned skeletons at higher levels.

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