i'm taking a break, feel free to dm me on discord izJordy#7050 i'll still answer questions, u can also submit guides to me and i'll put them in here and give u credit as i prob won't be adding or updating anything myself at the moment

S+
ㅤDraculis

S
ㅤKassandra
ㅤLeaf
ㅤGorguts
ㅤShari

A+
ㅤChieko
ㅤGrimond
ㅤArnaud
ㅤPandora
ㅤFrankrit
ㅤMondulas
ㅤGenji
ㅤWanda

A
ㅤOubrecht
ㅤBrimstone
ㅤMadierra
ㅤMaja
ㅤFern
ㅤKukbar

B+
ㅤMarshal
ㅤDynor
ㅤVintor
ㅤCara
ㅤLuna
ㅤFeu
ㅤHoneybell
ㅤEva
ㅤIronheart
ㅤNorton
ㅤDee Dum

• mercenaries not listed are below B+, do not let the tierlist scare you as every mercenary in the game is viable!
  
  
  
• NEW MERCENARIES:
  This is MY opinion, i'd rate Jesker an A+ tier tank, mitch A tier similar or slighty better than oubrecht, and rayne probably below B+ tier.
  
  I've had bm5 ongar and ophellia since the day they both released.
  Ongars damage is nearly the same as draculis and consistently better than ophellias in both PvE in PvP, even easily outdamages chieko in PvE.
  Ongar also comes with a great buff (better than ophellias), pairing both ongar and ophellia together isn't worth it as the increase in performance is barely noticeable.
  Ongar also consistently outdamages chieko by a good amount therefor i'd rate ongar S tier and ophellia high A tier or low A+.
  

There isn't really a tier list for passives, get creative with them and see what works!
we will recommend the most popular passives used for each class below.


archers

DPS
we highly recommend: Continuous Combat (Genji ), Outrage (Dynor ), Passionate (Feu ), Rage (Mitch ), could also consider: Calm (Deedum ).

SUPPORT
(such as fern and maja ) who focus on making your other mercenaries stronger.
we highly recommend: Continuous Combat (Genji ), Accumulate (Squall ),
Plunder (Jesker ) if you aren't using it already you could consider: Insight (Brimstone ).



assasins

DPS
we highly recommended: Continuous Combat (Genji ), Passionate (Feu ), Rage (Mitch ), Calm (Deedum ), Lucky Star (Drac )
could also consider: Plunder (Jesker ) if that's your only Plunder, since it doesn't stack.

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1st Artifact: Sword of Annihilationㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 0 mana

Sword of Annihilation is the best artifact to use for speedclimbing. It is also useful for bosses which swarm you with spawned minions, as the W 'Leap Attack' always attacks in the direction of the boss.
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2nd artifact: Feather of Windrunnerㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 500 mana

The knockback on the Q, and the fallback on the W 'Grappling Claw' of this artifact are extremely useful for ensuring the survival of your hero.
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3th artifact: Gaea's Shieldㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 2,000 mana

Of the first six artifacts,Gaea's Shield is the best artifact to use for the majority of the time. Most importantly, it has a stun with a short cooldown, allowing you to interrupt boss casts.
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4th artifact: Devastating Hammerㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 5,000 mana

The awaken on Devastating Hammer is the best one to use for the majority of the time, as it heals your entire team for 20% of their maximum health.
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5th artifact: Infinity Edgeㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 10,000 mana

Infinity Edge is the best artifact to use when doing gold dungeons, as mimics are light element and are weaker to the dark element of Infinity Edge, in addition it has the highest additional attack percentage of 50%. The 'E' skill 'Triple Slash' should be timed, as its cooldown is instantly refreshed if it kills the enemy.
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6th artifact: Delin's Scepterㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 20,000 mana

Delin's Scepter has the most important passives of the first six artifacts, it is therefore extremely important to get it as soon as possible, by buying mana crystals from the resources tab of the adventure shop, skipping lucky cards if necessary to get the diamonds quicker to do so.
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7th artifact: Axe of Laurianㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 50,000 mana

The 'Q' skill on the Axe of Laurian reduces enemy defence by 30%, while the 'W' skill prevents the enemy from healing for 10 seconds and shatters shields, both of these are especially useful on certain bosses.
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8th artifact: Black Crux Bowㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 80,000 mana

The E on Black Crux Bow has an AoE silence, which is especially useful on certain boss stages.
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9th artifact: Phoenix Guardianㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 120,000 mana

Phoenix Guardian has a stun on the E while Gaea's Shied has a stun on the Q, so that it may be used in conjunction with Gaea's Shield if using the stun on Phoenix Guardian's Q is too difficult. The cooldown reduction from the mercenary Shari makes Phoenix Guardian superior to Gaea's Shield, however it is much more difficult to use.
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10th Artifact: Midas Staffㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 180,000 mana

The W on Midas' Staff gives a substantial +20% attack buff. The E on Midas' Staff decreases the defence of opponents by 20% and increases the duration of control effects by 30%, all of which should be used in certain circumstances. The awaken of Midas' Staff gives a substantial heal to the mercenary with the lowest health, which in certain circumstances is the best awaken to use.
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11th artifact: Wayne Wingsㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 240,000 mana

The skills of this artifact should be used as frequently as possible, to maintain stacks of the Zeal buff.
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12th artifact: Scythe of Deathㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcost: 300,000 mana

The E of this artifact should be used carefully, as the direct damage only affects the area around you, while sacrificing all hellhounds, which may be disadvantageous due to their positioning.
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The Introduction

Previously, prevailing wisdom held that Golden Woods should not be run until one reaches level ~2500. Nowadays, it is generally recommended to start running Golden Woods (GW) after hitting a hard wall with no recourse. Different for everyone, but usually, people start getting stuck on bosses in the 1200-1500 range.

The advent of the daily one-time bonus for GW, which triples the gold obtained in 1 GW run provided that the condition of the highest level reached differential between any two party members is >1500 (greater than 1500), means the first GW run each day only costs 8/3 (2.67) common stones.

This makes it more appealing for even beginners who otherwise couldn't afford to spend those stones. The reason for this is that common stones are much better used as currency to raise gold reduction (this can be found in the cost management pane of the hourglass). Gold reduction is permanent, and essentially, the gold ore/common stone costs scale linearly, while the effectiveness of gold reduction scales exponentially. For anyone who wants the arithmetic on this, see this chart[docs.google.com]


Golden Woods Background

Golden Woods is a dungeon that lasts 60 seconds, only the player can enter (no mercs), and can be run solo, with a party, or be swept.
DO NOT run a GW solo. A duo GW can obtain 2x the gold, while a full party is ~3x.

What if a party cannot be found? Sweep. Sweep is a straight exchange of common stones for gold, where it multiplies one's highest gained total in their GW history by a factor of 0.8 (80%), and uses that as the exchange value. For example, if your highest GW record is 1 trillion, your sweeps will give you 800 billion, while a solo GW might only get 300-400 billion. Again, never run solo GW.

For a complete newbie who just started and doesn't have any historical record of GW, wait until the daily reset time of 0800 UTC -05:00. Usually there will be continuous GW action for 1-2 hours after the daily reset, and if not, one can always use advertise or ask in chat. Discord also has a LFG chat to find GW partners.

As for Golden Woods itself, it contains light-element mimic chests that must be attacked and defeated within the time limit of 60 seconds. How one acquires gold in GW is through the strength of their attacks on the mimics, where the more damage one does, the more gold one gains.

Required Setup

As GW requires the highest DPS setup to maximize gold, and with the mimics being light-element, the dark daggers (Infinity Edge) are the preferred (almost necessary) artifact to use.

Circumstantial evidence shows the scythe can boost dmg/gold gain for party members, but that is relevant to very few people. For 99.9% of players, dark daggers should be used at all times.

The best runes for dark daggers is the Split rune (2nd rune, or Q2) for the Q skill, the Precise rune (5th rune, or W5) for the W skill, and the Summon Killer rune (4th rune, or E4) for the E skill. The reason for this is that the Q2 rune does the most damage (outdamages Q3 extra hit), the W5 rune increases the animation speed of W (increases DPS), and similarly the E4 rune also increases animation speed. There is an argument to be made that the Bounce W3 rune is also good, but there is conflicting evidence about its effectiveness.

For every extra rune unlocked, one gains 1% extra damage, which can add up, but for newbies, focus on obtaining the aforementioned runes first.

In addition, have FULL ULT ready when entering GW, because gold gained during ult comprises a large % of the total. Moreover, be sure to have your W and E skills off cooldown or close to ready when entering GW.


Rotations and Technical information

When to use ult, which rotation/skills to use at what time, etc. is hard to optimize due to factors outside our control, such as what other party members do and GW having 3 distinct “modes”.

These 3 “modes” are essentially 3 states of being within the dungeon: one can be attacking mimics solo while other 2 party members are off in the distance doing their own thing, or vice-versa and be with another party member, or lastly be with other 2 party members together in close proximity (this is recognized as the normal state of affairs). All 3 can drastically affect how much gold is gained, with the “solo” state affording the highest gains.

GW layout is static (didn't always be static, but being static is good).
Another factor is mimic chest health, which is roughly proportional to the sum of the highest level reached of the entire party, which means a high level party will have very beefy mimics, and vice-versa.

Rotation itself: USE MANUAL CONTROL in GW. Auto-skilling will throw off the rotation, especially during ult when rotation execution is crucial. Depending on the health of mimics, rotations can be different, so it is difficult to provide an exact rotation; therefore, only general guidelines will be given.

For a regular GW with 3 party members in close proximity (the normal state as described above), the rotation that I typically use is to pop my ult right when I get to the first mimic chest, use W, then Q. Always use Q after W unless another party member has used W recently, at which point use Q immediately, as Q's dmg is greatly increased after the mimic has been marked by W.

At this point, depending on what other party members do and their level (which corresponds to mimic chest health), either do nothing and autoattack if the mimic is almost dead, or use E to finish the mimic off to refresh skills (for those confused about this, go read the skills for Infinity Edge).

The party will then move on to the second mimic. By this time, the player should be close to or already out of their ult, and can move to using the regular rotation as described above.

By the time the dungeon has less than 25 seconds left, the player can consider holding on to E until a killing blow chance presents itself (E's CD is 24 seconds).

In short: W → Q → E. E contributes the most dmg/most gold (1434% total at skill lvl 6), Q second most (780% x W multiplier), and W the least.


Tips and Tricks

• When the player is within skill range of the mimic, attacks will hit even if the mimic hasn't shown itself due to latency (it will appear “underground”, but your attacks/skills will still connect).
  
  
• In situations where multiple players ult at the same time, expect the mimic to be defeated sooner than usual, so react accordingly.
  
  
• One of the worst possible situations is to whiff/miss your E because you misjudged how fast the mimic will fall.
  
  
• Sometimes, due to latency, a killing blow with the E will not count, which will severely hamper your gold gained as well.
  
  
• In other words, whether or not your E lands consistently, whether or not it can refresh your skills, and whether or not you get the most of your E during your ult can have a big impact on your gold gain.
  
  
• Usually, the best gold gains are obtained with 3 members being roughly equal in HLR, and a party member up till 1000 levels higher has beneficial effects. More than 1000, the benefits start diminishing (exactly how they diminish is unknown, but safe to say a person at 3000 HLR running with a 4000 HLR is going to have roughly the same gains as running with a 7000 HLR - daily triple bonus EXCLUDED).

The most efficient things to purchase with real money is:

• Exclusive Credential
  This is essentially the same thing as a season pass in other games. What makes this so great of value is that you'll get next seasons Exclusive Credential for FREE upon reaching level 43.
  
  
• Permanent Card
  This card is forever valid and will allow you to claim extra 120 diamonds a day from exclusive daily tasks. You'll also directly receive 1200 diamonds when purchased.
  
  
• Tail of Werewolf
  This allows you to claim the second part of your rewound challenge rewards which will help massively in your game progression. The tail lasts for a whole month.
  
  
• Werewolf Growth Pack
  This one is more expensive but will give you 11,500 diamonds, 1,500 mana, 13 heavenly hazes, 3 shimmering sundews, 3 midnight moons, a few medals, souls and a single time key and not to forget a permanent werewolf skin which increases awaken duration by 3 seconds.

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The most efficient ways to spend your diamonds is:

RECOMMENDED

• Lucky Cards
  Each time you rewind time, for two hours you can try out Lucky Cards. The first try is free, then the cost goes to 50 diamonds, 100, 150, 300 and then 500 diamonds. If there are a lot of legendary shards as a prize, or a large amount of shards for a mercenary you need to evolve the ones you use, then it can be worth it to spend all the 1,100 diamonds required to get all the mercenary shards available on this. The mercenaries on lucky cards can be rerolled for 20 diamonds, greatly increasing the value of this method of obtaining mercenaries.
  
  
• Tombstone
  You should upgrade this only in twos, for each new set of legendaries you get. These are permanent upgrades which can be very useful. It is also advisable to get your tombstone 'beforehand' around 30 or 40 levels before the last level you rewound time at, to accelerate your progress.
  
  
• Mana Crystals
  Buying Mana Crystals will greatly accelerate obtaining artifacts, each artifact comes with a global passive which will greatly increase your rate of progress. Diamonds spend on Mana Crystals will also count towards Shopping Mania achievement which rewards you with hero medals. Buying Mana Crystals is expensive and quite an investment, as a newer player this might not be worth doing yet but i do highly recommend it if you can afford it.

OPTIONAL

• Taverna
  Every 30 drinks you get 150 hero medals and a Midnight moon which will guarantee you a 5* mercenary. The 'Lucky Day' tavern achievement will give you shards for Fern and Canida Luna which makes spending diamonds on tavern drinks more efficient. During events the Carnival Crest drink is available, which has the same rates as a Shimmering Sundew, except certain mercenaries have higher drop percentages.
  
  
• Souls
  If you are at a point where it is very difficult to get higher stars on your mercenaries, then souls can be a good way to increase your power. The amount of souls you gain buying them for diamonds is eventually drowned out and made inefficient by the amount of souls you gain from explorations.
  
  
• Equipment Boxes, Common & Rare equipment
  I advise buying common and rare equipment for diamonds from the Resources shop after rewinding time. Refreshing the shop for 10 diamonds each time, you should buy at least three pieces of equipment on each day that you do not have your equipment from your tombstone, so that you may complete the daily quest for 30 diamonds each day. I advise to consider buying a single Golden Equip Box for 200 diamonds at the beginning of each rewind, and buying the rest of your equipment from the Resources shop.

DO NOT BUY

• Mercenary Shards
  Bought from the Mercenaries shop. Four star mercenaries cost 30 diamonds for 10 shards here, while five star mercenaries cost 200 gems for 10 shards, both of which are too expensive to be efficient.
  
  
• Dark Iron
  The only reason to buy this is because it is the cheapest way to complete the daily quest which gives you 30 diamonds when you buy 3 things in the shop.
  
  
• Hero Medals
  Too expensive for what you get.
  
  
• 13th Tombstone
  The thirteenth tombstone upgrade is a purely aesthetic upgrade for 800 diamonds.
  
  
• Dragonscales
  You should never buy these with diamonds as the artifact upgrades give very small stat increases.

here's some information that might be useful as those have been asked frequently.

Increase in drinks when rewinding at a certain level.

• Level 151: 3 shimmering sundews, 1 heavenly haze
  
• Level 451: 4 shimmering sundews, 2 heavenly haze
  
• Level 951: 5 shimmering sundews, 2 heavenly haze
  
• Level 1451: 6 shimmering sundews, 3 heavenly haze
  
• Level 1751: 6 shimmering sundews, 3 heavenly haze
  
• Level 1951: 7 shimmering sundews, 3 heavenly haze
  
• Level 2451: 8 shimmering sundews, 3 heavenly haze
  
• Level 2551: 8 shimmering sundews, 4 heavenly haze
  
• Level 2951: 9 shimmering sundews, 4 heavenly haze
  
• Level 3351: 9 shimmering sundews, 5 heavenly haze
  
• Level 3451: 10 shimmering sundews, 5 heavenly haze
  
• Level 3951: 11 shimmering sundews, 5 heavenly haze
  
• Level 4151: 11 shimmering sundews, 6 heavenly haze
  
• Level 4451: 12 shimmering sundews, 6 heavenly haze

Amount of mercenaries required to create bloodmoons 1-5.
click the image to enlarge it
credit: rasta#1287