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Beginner Progression Guide

Your first hours in Abyss Hunters matter. This guide walks you through each progression phase with clear priorities so you don't waste resources or hit avoidable walls.

Phase 1: Getting Started (Abyss Depth 0–20)

Your Starting Team

You begin with one hero of each class. All three stay in your party permanently — there's no swapping heroes out, only changing their builds.

Role Class What They Do
Tank Warrior Frontline. Takes hits, taunts enemies, keeps your backline alive
DPS Archer Primary damage dealer. Highest sustained DPS potential
Support Mage Flexible healer or secondary DPS. Healing builds are the safest early choice

Tip: Don't stress about skill choices yet. Stones of Forgetting (skill resets) are available from the gold shop, so nothing is permanent.

Early Priorities (In Order)

  1. Push Abyss depth — Equipment drop level is tied to your current depth. Farming lower levels gives weaker gear, so always push as high as you can
  2. Equip everything — Even white (common) gear beats an empty slot. Replace as you go
  3. Feed your pets — Your starter pet's passive buffs your whole team. Keep it fed
  4. Unlock town buildings — They provide passive income and unlock key features like the shop and arena

Equipment Slot Unlocks

New equipment slots open as you push deeper:

Abyss Depth Slots Available
0 Weapon only
6 Weapon + Armor
12 Weapon + Armor + Ring
18 All 4 slots (+ Amulet)

Each slot has 3 gem sockets — 12 total gem sockets at max. Weapon and Ring use Type 1 gems (offensive). Armor and Amulet use Type 2 gems (defensive/utility).

Phase 2: First Job Advancement (Depth 20–80)

Job Advancement

At certain levels, each hero advances to a specialized job. Each class has 2 initial branches that further split into 5 total paths:

Warrior Paths:

Path Skill Role
Howl Warrior Taunt Main Tank — recommended for beginners
Whirlwind Warrior Whirlwind Slash AoE Melee DPS
Crack Warrior Ground Slash Burst DPS
Jump Warrior Leap Slash Initiator
Shield Wall Warrior Shield Wall Team Protector

Archer Paths:

Path Skill Role
Poison Archer Poison Arrow DoT DPS — recommended for beginners
Volley Archer Five Shot Single Target DPS
Multiple Archer Multi-Shot AoE DPS
Windforce Archer Rapid Fire Auto-Attack DPS
Animal Friend Pet Summon Summoner DPS

Mage Paths:

Path Skill Role
Healer Mage Heal Healer — recommended for beginners
Ice Cone Mage Ice Arrow CC / Cold DPS
Firebolt Mage Fireball Chain Rapid-Fire DPS
Blast Mage Great Fireball AoE Nuke DPS
Fire Snake Mage Fire Snake Summoner DPS

Recommended Beginner Build

Slot Build Card Why
Tank Howl Warrior Rock Dragon Forces enemies to attack you. Rock Dragon's DEF stacking makes you nearly unkillable
DPS Poison Archer Forest Queen Poison bypasses enemy DEF entirely. Best F2P DPS scaling in the game
Healer Healer Mage Boar King Double-cast heals at ★3. Keeps the team alive through any content

Monster Cards

The card gacha is one of your biggest power sources. Cards come in 4 quality tiers:

  • ★1 (Green) — 1★ max. Starter filler. Feed these to level your real cards
  • ★2 (Blue) — 2★ max. Your first real upgrades
  • ★3 (Purple) — 3★ max. Strong mid-game cards. Lost Archer is the best purple card
  • ★4 (Orange) — 4★ max. Build-defining. ~1% gacha rate. Your endgame target

Each pull costs 1 Trade Permit or 200 Diamonds. Save diamonds for 10-pulls (1,800 diamonds = saves 200).

Good Early Cards:

Card Quality Effect Best For
Rock Drake ★2 +10–15% HP, +3–5% DR Any tank early game
Imp ★2 +5–8% DMG Any DPS early game
Lost Archer ★3 +1 Range, +15% Crit, up to +50 Crit DMG Best purple card — keep this
Raptor ★3 Crit = bleed (50% pure DMG/sec, 3s) Universal DPS

F2P tip: Focus on only 2 orange cards and 1 purple card (Lost Archer). Orange cards are hard to star up as F2P — you can realistically get 1 orange card to ★4.

Pet Setup

You have 3 pet slots but they work differently:

  • Slot 1 (Active) — This pet fights alongside you with its own stats and skill
  • Slots 2–3 (Bench) — These pets don't fight, but their passives buff your entire team

Bench pet passives are one of the strongest multipliers in the game. Priority order:

Pet Passive Why It's Important
Raptor +25→55% ATK Speed Benefits every hero. Fastest damage increase
Cave Spider -15→45% Poison Resist Essential if running Poison Archer
Small Bat Heal 10→20% ATK per auto (0.5s CD at max) Team sustain, keeps everyone alive

See Pet Talents & Passives for all upgrade costs (Gold + Fluid + Feed + Crystals).

What to Spend Gold On (Phase 2)

  1. Pet passive upgrades (team-wide permanent buffs)
  2. Gems from the gold shop (combine 3→1 for higher levels)
  3. Card star-up materials
  4. Stones of Forgetting (keep 1–2 in reserve for skill resets)

Phase 3: Building Power (Depth 80–150)

Systems That Unlock

  • Gem Combining — 3 gems of the same type/level → 1 gem of the next level. Power scales exponentially. See Gem Guide
  • Enchanting — Additional stat layers on equipment
  • Arena — PvP with bracket-based rewards. See PvP Guide

Gem Priority by Build

Build Weapon Gems Ring Gems Armor Gems Amulet Gems
Howl Warrior Ruby / Ruby / Ruby Ruby / Garnet / Garnet Sapphire / Sapphire / Emerald Sapphire / Sapphire / Emerald
Poison Archer Jadeite / Jadeite / Ruby Jadeite / Ruby / Ruby Emerald / Emerald / Sapphire Emerald / Emerald / Sapphire
Healer Mage Ruby / Ruby / Ruby Ruby / Ruby / Topaz Emerald / Emerald / Sapphire Emerald / Emerald / Sapphire

Never sell gems — always combine them. A Level 7 gem is worth 729 Level 1 gems.

Resource Priority

  1. Pet passive upgrades — Still #1. Each level is a permanent team-wide buff
  2. Gem combining — Exponential stat growth. Buy gems from the shop daily
  3. Card star-ups — Each star provides massive passive improvements
  4. Equipment affix rerolling — Only reroll gear you plan to keep. Target your build's key affixes (check the Build Summary Card on each build page)

Phase 4: Pre-Endgame (Depth 150+)

What Changes

  • Equipment drops at higher rarity more frequently
  • Boss difficulty spikes demand specific team compositions and card synergies
  • Pet quality upgrades become the biggest power lever: E (24%) → D (32%) → C (42.5%) → B (56.5%) → A (75%) → S (100%)
  • Card star levels provide exponential stat increases at ★3+

Equipment Sets Matter Now

Start farming specific equipment sets for their bonuses:

Your Build Target Set Key Bonus
Howl Warrior Moogle +15% Block, Pure DEF +200, +100% HP Recovery
Whirlwind Warrior Lilith +350 Lightning ATK, 50% Lightning → Crit
Poison Archer Shackled Enemy +15% Auto DMG, +20% Dodge
Healer Mage Artisan / Moogle Skill DMG + sustain
Any DPS (farming) Shadow Fighter Frenzy: +10% all stats per kill (max 10x)

Shadow Fighter's Frenzy stacks from pet/summon kills too — confirmed from game data. Great for wave clearing.

Stuck? Here's Your Checklist

If you can't push deeper, don't just farm lower levels — the gear will be too weak. Instead:

  1. Star up your Monster Card — Biggest non-Abyss power boost. Even ★1 → ★2 is significant
  2. Upgrade pet passives — Each level is a permanent team-wide multiplier
  3. Upgrade pet quality — E→D or D→C is a massive stat jump. Costs Pet Fluid
  4. Combine gems — Keep combining 3→1. High-level gems provide enormous stats
  5. Reroll equipment affixes — Check your build's Reroll Priority on the Build Summary Card
  6. Review your skill tree — Make sure you're on the optimal branch per your build guide
  7. Check team comp — Sometimes a card or pet swap breaks through a wall

Progression Milestones

Depth Key Targets
0–20 All heroes equipped, starter pet leveling, push for all 4 gear slots
20–50 First job advancement, pick up ★2 cards, start pet passive upgrades
50–80 Level 3–4 gems, pet passives at Level 1–2, target first ★3 card
80–120 Second job advancement, ★3+ cards, pet passives Level 3
120–180 ★4 card equipped, Level 5–6 gems, pet quality C+
180–250 Card at ★2–3, affix optimization, pet passives Level 4
250+ Card at ★4, full set bonus, pet passives Level 5, endgame optimization

Daily Routine (Beginner)

Do these every day in roughly 5–10 minutes:

  1. Collect town resources — Don't let them cap
  2. Check gold shop — Buy gems, pet materials, and Stones of Forgetting
  3. Feed all pets — Active and bench pets
  4. Push Abyss — Go as deep as you can each session
  5. Arena attempts — Free rewards, even if you lose
  6. Daily login reward — Don't miss it

See the Daily Routine Checklist for the full interactive checklist.

Next Steps

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