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Blade Idle Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Grow Your Character and Dominate the Dungeons

A young woman was out in the woods gathering herbs one day. Everything was going fine until she was accosted by a group of goblins! Terrified, she scampered away but tripped on a rock. Getting up from her stupor, she found a mysterious sword that she used to cut the goblins down. Will she now wield this blade to protect herself and the weak or to be on her quest for true might?

blade idle tips
Steel is my body, fire is my blood.

South Korean developer Mobirix (stylized as mobirix), the creators of Psychic Idle, Succubus Idle, Catapult Quest, and One Finger Death Punch, have released yet another idle title under their belt: Blade Idle. The game features a fearless heroine on her quest for strength (or domination) by wielding a shapeshifting sword that takes on the form of the weapons of her fallen enemies. The sword itself has bestowed on her various swordsmanship techniques and it’s with these that she uses to defeat swathes of her enemies.

blade idle sword
If this isn’t an OP weapon, we don’t know what is.

As it is with most idle games, this game requires a lot of patience and waiting, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. There are many ways to make the heroine stronger and make her do her best against giant bosses that only seem to get bigger and stronger the next time she encounters them. Regardless, the game is open to different strategies that are viable enough for beginners.

If you’re a beginner yourself and you’ve decided to accompany the heroine on her quest for loot and glory — er, we mean — protection and peace of mind, read our Blade Idle beginner’s guide below!

What Is an Idle Game?

blade idle true power
True power at the cost of time.

We’ve seen this genre before but not too many of us understand it. Let us shed some light upon this mysterious and new genre.

Essentially, an idle game is a game that plays itself. How this works is that the player uses earned in-game currency to upgrade their characters and leave them be so they get to the next level. The in-game currency is earned by having the characters slay monsters, complete quests, or defeat bosses.

Usually, idle games will still continuously earn these kinds of currency even while the player is offline, allowing them to come back to a slew of prizes. While this may sound more like an oxymoron than anything, an idle game in itself has its challenges.

Idle games are often difficult in which they require a lot of time management and dedication. For idle RPGs, the most common form of idle game, the real strategy lies in building your character properly. An ill-built character will not progress as effectively and will often cause more problems to the player than they’d want. If their stats are all over the place, their progression will be greatly stunted and it’ll keep the player stuck in their current level for a while.

Most idle RPGs offer resets, but older ones didn’t. Some idle RPGs had an “ascension” system where the player character would return all the way to the beginning but with increased stats, allowing them to plow through the levels rather quickly to get where they originally were. This shortens the grind and gives them a chance at getting better loot as well.

Popular idle RPG titles today include the likes of Nonstop Knight, Tailed Demon Slayer, Crush Them All, Raid the Dungeon, the Tap Titans series, and a couple of other titles available on the PlayStore and the App Store. But for this article, we will talk about Blade Idle instead.

It’s an unfortunate fact about Blade Idle that, unlike most of the titles we mentioned here, it does not have a tutorial. You’re immediately thrown into battle with little to no knowledge of what is happening to your heroine. Most players may feel a little bit overwhelmed by what it has to offer, but do not worry, that’s why we’re here!

How to Blade

Starting out in Blade Idle could come as a shock for newbies. The heroine finds the magic sword and all of a sudden, there are goblins everywhere trying to kill her. She fights back, and so many things are happening all at once! You probably don’t even know what to do with her, so you’d probably just watch her kill a couple more goblins and then… she’s either dead or she fails the floor.

Fails the floor? Dies? Keeps on killing things? What the heck is even happening? Don’t worry, dear reader, we’ll get down to all that quite soon! Here’s a quick and easy rundown of what you need to know before we give you tips on how to become powerful.

General Mechanics

blade idle game mechanics
Oof.

The heroine’s task is to get through a level by defeating hordes of monsters.

As simple as this might sound, it can get quite challenging sometimes since the monsters themselves become more powerful every time. With each wave she clears, she fills up a blue bar at the top-center of the screen. Once full, she goes up the next level. She will do this 50 times in order to clear a chapter.

On the upper right of this blue bar is a timer. If the timer runs out and she fails to kill the monsters in time, the game sends her back to the final level of the last chapter (Stage 50) or if it’s before that, it’s the halfpoint of the chapter (Stage 25). This will set her mode to Repeat instead of Breakthrough.

You can manually set these modes on the lower-right portion of the screen if you wish to make her attempt the next level and if you feel like she might be strong enough to succeed. Naturally, if her HP is brought down to 0, she will also fail and repeat the last stage of the last chapter she completed.

To keep her in tip-top shape, you have to spend gold to improve her stats under the Growth tab.

Growth

blade idle growth
You’ll be here a lot.

This is basically where you can increase her stats.

The Growth tab is divided into 7 other sub-tabs that all contribute to the overall strength of the heroine. Since this is a beginner’s guide, we will only focus on the first 4 tabs here: Growth, Level Up, Skill, and Upgrade. The most basic way to improve her stats overall is in the main Growth tab where you spend gold. These can be rapidly increased by long-pressing the Level Up buttons.

Be warned that each time you strengthen anything under this main tab, the price in gold increases by a little bit. Eventually, you will be spending millions of gold just to get one stat raised one level higher.

leveling up in blade idle
Level up!

The Level Up tab, not to be confused with the Level Up buttons found in the main Growth tab, gives large bonuses that can be reset if you so desire. Each time the heroine collects EXP, she levels up. You will notice this when you see her sprite bearing the words “Level Up” in a shiny, golden font above her head.

Tapping the red Level Up button here will reward her with Stat Points. These Stat Points can be then allocated into the various stats she has in this tab. Unlike the main Growth tab, these aren’t necessarily permanent, as we’ve mentioned earlier.

For a gem fee, the chosen stat can be reset and the Stat Points invested in it thus far will be refunded to you for distribution elsewhere. This re-arrangement of stats is purely on your discretion.

blade idle active skills
It’s all in the technique.

The Skill tab features a variety of skills that the heroine can perform. These skills each have their own behaviors and cooldowns. We’ll get to optimal skill setups later, but the main gist of this tab is that these are what will help her progress through a level faster.

The skills are divided into 2 categories: Active and Passive. Active skills are skills that she can perform that directly affect her enemies. Passive skills are skills that are always in effect but cannot be performed. Think of the latter as additional strength to her stats.

blade idle upgrades
Fashionable yet deadly.

The Upgrade tab features a set of various heroes that the character may aspire to be. You will have to help her work her way up the ladder, however, since each of these have steep requirements. In each of these challenges, the heroine will have to square off against a powerful boss.

Upon defeating the boss, she will gain a new Skin and newfound strengths. The bonuses received here are ginormous, so expect the bosses to be more difficult than the last. Be warned that before challenging an Upgrade boss, you will have to set the skills in which you want the heroine to utilize when they get into the fight.

You may do this by tapping the small gear-shaped button at the upper-right corner of every challenge segment in this tab. You’ll see it directly next to the costume presented.

As is with any RPG out there, Blade Idle is not without its inventory system. However, there is a uniqueness to it that may have some players confused.

Inventory

blade idle inventory
How many swords can her bag hold?

The inventory is the heart of every adventurer’s backpack, potion bundle, and +100 God Smiting Sword. Okay, maybe not the last two.

Unlike many RPGs, Blade Idle has no potion system, but instead focuses greatly on equipment, costumes, and other things you still have to unlock along the way. Whenever you receive a new piece of equipment, these are divided into 6 Tiers with their own Grades. Here they are in ascending order:

  • Magic (Gray, 8 Grades)
  • Rare (Green, 8 Grades)
  • Epic (Blue, 8 Grades)
  • Legendary (Purple, 4 Grades)
  • Mythic (Gold, 4 Grades)
  • God (Red, 4 Grades)

Each Tier determines the strength of the item while each Grade determines the quality of the item. Higher Tier means a better item, but for the Grades, a lower number means a better item. Overall, Tier beats Grade. We mean that a Grade 8 Epic item is more powerful than a Grade 1 Rare item but a Grade 1 Legendary is more powerful than a Grade 4 Legendary.

blade idle weapons
Shiny.

As you play the game, you will encounter lots of duplicates of these items. With these duplicates, you can merge them into a higher grade, but you need 5 duplicates of each.

Pressing the Merge All button will trigger all duplicates in your inventory to fuse together. This applies to weapons, armor, and accessories. While this is a slow but steady way of gaining new equipment, we’ll explain later how to get good gear quicker.

Gear can be upgraded with Enchant Stones that you get from different dungeons. Playing through them and winning each wave will help make your gear more powerful. If you happen to have a surplus of Enchant Stones, you may hold down the upgrade button to quickly upgrade the piece of gear. Just be sure to save some of these stones if you’re looking to upgrade your other equipment.

blade idle skins
Flex those muscles!

Skins also grant powerful boosts to the heroine’s stats. Upon wearing these, she will have increased various bonuses. Unlike the Costumes you get from the store, Skins are what you receive from the Upgrade menu we talked about earlier. Skins contain Upgrade Options that are randomly obtained using Dice.

Upgrade Options further help give the heroine better overall stats. However, these are all obtained purely at random. If you wish to not have any of the Options rolled, you may lock them, but rolling for the other Options will result in increased Dice costs.

Lastly, if all the options’ grades all line up at the Mythical or God grades, you unlock the skin’s Owned Effect. This means that this specific effect will be active even if you aren’t wearing the Skin, opening up avenues of even further strengthening and advancement. May the RNG be with you!

Pets

blade idle pet upgrade
This cute porker will be your starter pet.

As you progress, you’ll eventually unlock the Pet system. These cute and sometimes ugly-looking creatures assist the heroine in her toughest battles yet. Just having them equipped and out in the fray will pass on some buffs to her being. Much like Skins, these little guys can also be given Options which are also rolled by using the Dice. Unlike Skins, however, they’re only able to have Options when they have gone up some star levels.

Pets can be gained from the Pet Dungeon and occasionally, you’ll obtain duplicates of these pets or Pet Souls. We recommend that you first max out a Pet’s star level before merging these souls as you need Pet Souls to increase a Pet’s star level in the first place. If anything, do this after they’ve reached 6 stars. Get as many pets as you could and your heroine won’t have to fight alone ever again.

This covers the most basic things you need to know in order to make your heroine succeed in her journeys. What follows next is her path to true power.

General Tips

With so many things to consider and a lot of things that just might seem to overwhelm the average beginner of this game completely cleared out, we now progress to the part where we make the heroine much stronger than before. Take note of our tips below and prepare to get through even the toughest stages.

1. Keep Playing the Game to Unlock Certain Features

blade idle gameplay
To battle!

Progress — it’s what most gamers strive for in any video game.

The feeling of getting through an obstacle and opening up new avenues for improvement is something that’s well-sought after. Blade Idle has many of its features behind a progression wall.

These new features can range from different and new dungeons to further ways to make your heroine more powerful. We’ve already talked about the Pet System, so let’s introduce another system as an example: the Relic System.

Relics are powerful items that the heroine can summon but she has to have passed a certain stage before she unlocks it. These items grant a variety of buffs (i.e. the Ancient Grimoire is dedicated to increasing her raw attack strength), and come in all kinds of rarities.

Lower rarities means they’re more frequent in appearance but that also means they’re much easier to upgrade. Apart from this, you’ll also be unlocking other dungeons, more Upgrade Challenges, and extra modes like the Arena. Keep her going forward.

But this last statement is somewhat easier said than done. How does one keep their heroine moving forward?

2. Follow Your Main Quest

blade idle main quest
To fulfill a prophecy? Is this the heroine’s true destiny? Well, let’s get going!

In almost any RPG title today, there is a quest system.

Quests are strings of missions that send players on a journey. Perhaps it’s to help one NPC’s friend to recover, a mission to save the town from invading monsters, or a gathering mission wherein you have to collect a special item at the top of a perilous mountain.

Upon accomplishing these, the player is given rewards and is usually further incentivized to continue performing the next quests that come. Blade Idle’s quest system, instead, doesn’t exactly bring the player to these magnificent places, but instead guides them on what to do next.

The quests of Blade Idle are no easy feat, but they aren’t needlessly complex. They don’t affect the game’s plot either, if it had one to begin with. Instead, they simply bring your heroine closer to higher levels whilst supplying you with all manner of rewards.

Such rewards can be diamonds, gold, Skillbooks, and more depending on how high your current level is. As far as any of these go, this should be your main focus in the game. The Main Quest serves to be a goal for you in order to further strengthen your heroine as a whole.

But eventually, the fighting will turn into a slog — a slow, murderous slog. Early on, you should be able to conquer levels with ease. This is how.

3. Prioritize Attack Above HP and Defense Early On

blade idle attacking strategy
Time to get pumping..

As the saying goes: the best defense is a good offense.

Most of the time, the heroine’s goal is to take down swathes of enemies that come her way. Orcs, bugs, beasts, the undead, anything is out there to be struck down by her mighty sword. But if your main concern for the early levels is survival, look no further than to focus on improving your Attack stat over HP and Defense. Here are a few reasons why we say so.

Firstly, Attack is quite cheap to level up in the Growth main tab. Compared to HP and Defense, the amount of gold you spend for leveling up Attack goes up much slower than that of HP and Defense. When you have a lot of gold on hand, immediately level up your heroine’s Attack stat over all else. If you have a surplus of gold, that’s when you choose to spend it on either HP and Defense.

Secondly, if her goal is to progress, the heroine must defeat all of her enemies in time. Doing this with a boatload of gold (and Stat Points) invested in HP and Defense is going to slow her down drastically. Sure, she will outlast the enemy, but she will not be able to beat the clock. Dump points in her Attack if you really want her to succeed and if you want her to breeze through the levels early.

Thirdly, at least three things greatly depend on your heroine’s overall Attack power: Skill damage, weapon damage, and Relic damage. If you notice how some of the descriptions are written, they say that the damage you will deal will be increased or will be derived from a percentage of your heroine’s Attack stat.

For example, one sword might say that it increases her Attack power by 600%. Whatever your heroine’s current Attack value is, that value will be multiplied 6 times. Let’s say her Attack at that point is 600, she will deal 3600 damage per sword swing.

Imagine if you keep increasing her attack, and you happen to reach 1000. If she’s still using the same sword by then, she will be dealing 6000 damage per sword swing. That’s a huge leap forward.

Lastly, the only time HP and Defense become an issue (at least, if you have been leveling them up on the side, not totally neglecting them) is when you’ll be fighting Upgrade bosses and later levels. The enemies there will be hitting much harder, so this is when having a balance of offense and defense will slowly have to be integrated.

If you happen to reach Chapter 4, this is when the enemy’s damage ramps up considerably. Keep in mind that in the end, the heroine will still be needing all the Attack power she can get.

We’ve mentioned Skill damage earlier. Are all the Skills the same? Do they just have different visual effects? Let’s discuss this next!

4. Select a Set of Skills that Work Well Together Depending on the Situation

blade idle skills
Schwing!

With a great sword comes great mastery. Without the latter, the sword is just an object and not a weapon. This is where Skills come in.

As your heroine progresses through the chapters and level up via the Level Up sub-tab under Growth, she will learn more and more skills. Like every item in the game, Skills also come with their own Tiers with two Skills per Tier. It would seem that each Tier has Skills that deal with two kinds of situations:

  • The enemy is within the heroine’s immediate vicinity.
  • The enemy is far away from the heroine.

That said, mixing and matching skills from various Tiers is key to winning most battles. Let’s take for example, the Enchant Stone Dungeon. The Mermaid guardian is a stationary target that doesn’t fight back.

To give her a great amount of DPS means to perform Skills that are mostly reliant on the heroine being closer to her. An early setup would be Summon Lightning and Charge Boom or Summon Lightning and Chain Dash.

The idea behind this is that the heroine has nothing to worry about — the Mermaid won’t relocate herself nor will she attack. Summon Lightning is key here since it deals a quick burst of multiple hits while at the same time, it bears a very low cooldown. The heroine doesn’t have to wait for too long before she can do it again.

Take a look at our current setup:

blade idle equip skill
A mighty combo.

Space Field creates a powerful aura around the heroine that damages any enemy trapped within it. To add further damage here, she uses Summon Lightning. Closing the gap between her and the enemy is Chain Dash; this one also allows her to hurt multiple enemies all at once.

We’re using this example because at the stage of the screenshot taken, we wanted all the enemies around her to die quickly so that she wouldn’t incur much damage or even get herself killed.

Other than that, she easily farms the enemies for gold, drops, and materials, so her output for offline grinding is optimal (we’ll talk about that later). This makes farming Bonanza Boxes so much easier as well and the diamonds received by a lot of these just helps plenty.

diamonds are a common currency in almost any mobile game these days, aren’t they?

5. Spend Diamonds on Gear Summons

blade idle summon result
How can I hold all of these swords?

Ah, premium currency. Some people love them, some people hate them, others are impartial, but nowadays, premium currency seems to be a staple for many games. This goes especially for the mobile market.

The beauty of diamonds in Blade Idle is that they aren’t so much premium currency as they are “freemium” currency. What is freemium currency, you ask? It’s like premium currency that you can earn. Paying a sum of money will surely get you a lot of diamonds, but by playing the game over time, you will earn a lot.

Consider what we mentioned about the Bonanza Boxes (*nudge nudge*). But after a while, you will notice that you’ll have a ton of diamonds and you won’t know exactly what to do with them. Don’t fret, dear reader, let us tell you where you should spend them!

The easiest way you should spend them is on gear summoning. Unlike most RPGs where you buy gear from the shop (or kill a monster repeatedly and wait for it to cough up your desired gear), the gear in Blade Idle is most commonly obtained by summoning.

Spending 1.5k diamonds to summon 30 pieces of swords or armor is a great way to get better Attack. This goes for using the Merge All feature that we talked about before. The same thing applies to Relics but instead of 1.5k diamonds, you’ll be spending 3k. It’s all still worth it, though.

If you feel like you aren’t getting anything from the Mythic or God Tiers, don’t worry about that. The more times you pull, the better your next results. The game “levels up” your pulling methods.

For instance, if you constantly keep pulling for weapons, you will be leveling up your Weapon Summon. The higher the level, the more likely higher Tiers will show up. Keep going and you’ll be swimming in high grade equipment in no time.

Speaking of equipment, there is one costume set that stands out among the rest in the store. This will greatly help early on.

6. Buy the Schoolgirl and Wooden Moon Sword Costumes

blade idle costume
Live the anime dream.

In some RPGs, costumes bear powerful bonuses that help the player get through the toughest challenges quicker. That’s definitely the case here in Blade Idle as customizing your heroine is one of the features of this game.

Skins can be used as costumes but did you also know that you can buy costumes at the shop? The costumes available there range from various tastes of fashion as well as stats. Some of them increase the drop rates of Skill Books, some of them increase the heroine’s attack power, etc. But the costume we mentioned that stands out among the rest is the Student.

Accompanying this, under the weapons tab in the costume section, it’s the Wooden Moon Sword. The Student costume costs 15k diamonds while the Wooden Moon Sword costs 10k.

Why is it these costumes in particular? It’s because of their huge attack bonuses. You will earn the other drops in time, but in the end, clearing a level is still what matters. Having these bonuses purely to attack will allow your heroine to go nuts and rip through the enemy ranks effortlessly. In addition, you’ll make your heroine look like she’s ready for her anime character training arc.

After paying for such a hefty sum, perhaps you’d want to know how to refill your diamond cache.

7. Don’t Stop Claiming Rewards

blade idle missions
More!

Who doesn’t like rewards?

Blade Idle rewards you with diamonds just for playing the game. If you look to the upper-right corner of the screen, you should see a Mission button right below the Menu button. Tapping that will open all of your available missions.

While we’ve mentioned earlier in the guide that your main source of diamonds comes from clearing your Main Quests, you’ll run yourself dry when you’ve hit a stage where the heroine has to grind. It’s tough, but that’s where the Missions tab comes along. It helps augment a steady flow of your diamonds so you can save up and spend them on more gear summons.

blade idle reward received
This really is a bonanza!

Occasionally, the enemy will drop Bonanza Boxes. These will become pretty common later on and you’ll be swimming in diamonds thanks to them. When you find that you might have a Bonanza Box in your inventory under the Supplies sub-tab, open it right away so you may claim your diamonds.

There’s also gaining more diamonds from the pass, from in-game events, and more. Basically, never stop claiming these rewards. Remember: diamonds means being able to get more cool stuff from summoning and if gear won’t cut it, Relics will.

Reward-claiming? Check. Premium currency? Check. There’s but one more thing to add to the free-to-play mobile game trifecta.

8. Watch Ads for Buffs

blade idle ad buff
The best kinds of ads!

There are ads everywhere. It’s a bit unfortunate, but that’s how the times are these days. Most games are free, so developers don’t have too many ways to earn. One way they often turn to is to implement ads into the game.

Thankfully, the ads in Blade Idle aren’t just ads, they reward you in return by buffing your heroine for a few minutes. The buffs, pictured above, can only be claimed at least 5 times a day per buff. In doing these, you’ll allow her to obtain stuff more quickly as well as farm faster. We recommend you do this in conjunction with item number 10 of this guide.

One thing that’s worth noting about watching ads for buffs, however, is that it only applies to the main game mode. This means the buffs will not carry over when you’re in the dungeon, fighting in the arena, etc. So do this only when you’re farming.

When was the last time you did your dungeons? If you don’t remember, then you’re on the way to understanding the next bullet.

9. Check Dungeons or Challenges that You Might Be Able to Advance

blade idle dungeon
Have you checked back lately?

Frustration abounds!

You almost had the heroine kill the last boss of the chapter. You’ve spent nearly all of your diamonds on Relics and gear. You’ve used up all of your Enchant Stones on your weapons and armor. Now you’re all out. But wait, you haven’t tackled any of your dungeons in a while… Why not give them a visit?

It’s very easy to get caught up in a game like this. You’ll be distracted by a lot of things and mainly you’ll be solely focused on getting to the next stage. The problem here is, you might be neglecting some of the other battles your heroine should be fighting.

Try revisiting some dungeons or try challenging the Upgrade bosses. Who knows? Maybe you’ve already surpassed the requirements to get through. Maybe even higher than you think. It’s always to keep your wits about you, especially when you’re stuck.

There’s still so much left to do but your heroine can only go so far after a long day. What do you do?

10. Put the Game Down and Wait For Time to Pass

blade idle power save mode
Time for a break.

When the fighting turns into a slow, mind-numbing grind, it’s a signal for you to put the game down and take a break.

Do something else while you let your heroine grind: read a book, play another game, watch your favorite series, cook a meal, study or work, etc. Before you know it, your baby’s got muscles all over. Due to Blade Idle being an idle game, this is quite inevitable.

If you feel like you might be doing something short, the game has the option for a Power Saving Mode where it shows you how fast she can clear a stage, how much gold she’s earned, and more. Besides, the moment you do come back, you’ll get a slew of rewards relative to the length of time you spent away from the game.

Surprisingly, in a fast-paced game like this, patience is king. You have to simply wait for her to gain what she needs in order to overcome even the toughest challenges. Sometimes, the waiting may seem longer than usual, but you’re bound to find yourself a way when you start pulling some really rare stuff from all the diamonds you’ve earned.

blade idle upgrade options
True strength takes a while to obtain.

After all is said and done, Blade Idle still remains one of the more complex idle games out there. It has a plethora of stats and upgrades to unlock as you play the game, and it has so many other features that await players during the endgame. Bet you can’t wait for that one Skin that boosts your Attack by 3000000% (pictured above). Regardless, here’s what you would’ve understood at the end of this guide:

  • Play through the game. You’ll unlock all of it slowly but surely.
  • Your Main Quest is important. Fulfill it as much as you can and you’ll go far.
  • In the early game, having more Attack than HP or Defense is very practical. But don’t ignore the other two stats.
  • Skills should be used depending on the situation your heroine is in. Line them up properly for maximum efficiency.
  • Diamonds should primarily be used for gear summoning.
  • Buy the Student and Wooden Moon Sword costumes. ‘Nuff said!
  • Claim your rewards regularly to keep your diamond count up.
  • Ads are your friends! They make the heroine stronger!
  • If you feel like you might be stuck, try revisiting a dungeon you haven’t done in a while.
  • Do something else if you’ve run out of things to do here.

This brings our Blade Idle beginner’s guide to an end. If you feel like there might be something we forgot to point out, or if you’re one of those players whose heroine is a walking apocalypse and you’d like to share your thoughts and strategies, leave them in our comment section down below!