what am i doing wrong?

[Shy asian guy]

i get my ass handed to me, i bought all the tier 1 loots and i die over and over and over again, i fight stuff and it just kills me before i can kill it, i never get the blocks or heals i need, should i just not spend any money until i can unlock a tier 2 character and pick one of those? which characters are the best? seems like spending gold on anything is a bad idea then you are stuck in an endless loop of grinding tiny amounts of gold till you can buy the next upgrade that may or may not even help you

[SlackerBoe]

It depends on where you are at. If you are still in the grassland/first dlc you should be fine with tier 1. You don’t need tier 2 until the jungle.

Gear works in such a way that less loot upgrades leads to greater consistency. By identifying item combinations that bring you to +3 or +4 of a skill type (crushing, fire, etc.) in one or two upgrades you can clear a lot of worthless loot out of the pool. You can still play with a lot of loot options, but you are probably going to have to fight multiple enemies of each level when you are unlucky with loot choices.

[spayced]

I learned after getting the ice cream monk it can be better to decline loot. Say you have a plus spell damage card and a physical damage loot drops. You may be better not picking it up. It’s all about synergy.

I did the same thing you did, unlocked all tier 1 loot and it seems to have made things worse not better. If I played through again I would not unlock any tier 1 loot.

[123 Casual Player]

Characters? Shapeshifter follow by Cartomancer, card draw for blessing

For loots, Curio Shoppe for the Mariner Medellion. Follow by Leatherworker and Fine Awl for arcane/growth stuff (either works, so get whichever drops). I don't think tier 3 loots are worth getting.

[MnemonicNemesis]

You should start by observing your character of choice carefully and analyzing their unique starting cards. It does not make too much sense for you to build a physical deck for an apprentice, which is to say you need to stack card effects that have synergy with your character.

Example- I have recently started to use Cartomancer and find it stupidly broken when stacking Arcane cards and some Growth for extra healing to promote the Rules passive for free draws. Throw in the right blessing (Hag's +1 hand) as well and you can be unstoppable. This means for most encounters I have a full deck on the field in ~3 turns and 1 shot with Card Storm.

To reiterate.

1. Read your starting hand (Class based)
   
2. Read the traits of equipment, Growth, Arcane, Crush, Armor, etc.
   
3. Stack the type of trait(s) that blend with that starting hand the most as well as your class' unique passive abilities.

[Apostate78]

alchemist can be hilareously tanky, just grab any loot that gives heal skill, I generally find her hearts increase more than decrease, l often finish dungeon with 10-15 hearts