Starting Loadout: Picking 3 of the 11
When you start a new game, you pick 3 of the 11 starting items to put on your reels. It’s one of the most important decisions of every run — pick wrong and the first two stages will be a slog. This guide covers every item’s stats, individual ratings, and 3 recommended combos.
The Starting Pool: All 11, Full Stats
| Item | Effect (level 1) | Crit | Max-level effect | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Poison Blade | 3 physical + 10 poison | ×3 | L10: 14 phys + 46 poison/turn | S |
 Hammer | 10 physical + 10 magical | ×5 | L5: 22 + 22, 10% stun | A |
 Massive Blade | 35 physical (skill check, 0.9-1.5s timing bar) | ×2 | L5: 77 physical (perfect) | A |
 Rusty Dagger | 15 physical, lifesteal 10%/10% | ×3 | L5: 45 physical | B |
 Blood Spell | 15 magical, lifesteal 0/50% | ×3 | L5: 33 magical | B |
 Wooden Shield | 20 shield | ×3 | L5: 60 shield | B |
 Wizards Shield | 25 shield (skill check) | ×1 | L5: 75 shield (perfect) | C |
 Apple | 10 heal | ×4 | L5: 22 heal | C |
 Ancestral Axe | +0.8 physical per point of shield | ×3 | L5: +1.28 phys per shield | C |
 Coin | +1 coin (appears twice) | ×6 | L5: +3 each | B |
Upgrade formula:
current value = base × (1 + per-level growth × (level-1)); upgrade cost = base price + 4 × level. Poison Blade maxes at L10 (0.4 growth per level, the highest in the pool); the rest mostly cap at L5.
Item-by-Item Ratings
S tier: Poison Blade — highest ceiling in the pool
- Poison decays 20% per turn but stacks infinitely; a triple crit applies 30 poison in one turn and the tick damage adds up fast;
- With a level cap of 10 and 0.4 growth per level, it’s the strongest lategame card of the 11 starting items;
- Downside: in quick-kill scenarios like the Stage 1 Queen Of Snakes fight, the fight ends before poison even gets to tick;
- Community consensus is that it’s one of the best openers (many Steam forum builds start with Poison Blade).
A tier: Hammer — the all-rounder
- Deals both physical and magical damage (benefits from both scaling) with a ×5 crit multiplier (one of the highest in the game);
- Has a built-in 10% stun chance — crits will often leave the enemy frozen in place;
- Downside: upgrades start at 15 (vs the usual 10), and at L5 its 22+22 output lags dedicated attack symbols.
A tier: Massive Blade — for skilled players
- 35 base physical damage, the highest of any opener in the game, but it requires the skill check minigame (timing bar, 0.9-1.5s window);
- A full bar = full 35+ damage; a perfect = crit ×2; missing the window cuts the damage hard;
- Community reviews are split: some say “Massive Blade is the easiest weapon to hit perfects with”, others call it pure luck;
- Great for players confident in their timing, and pairs extremely well with Respin symbols.
B tier: Safe Picks
- Rusty Dagger: 15 physical with no strings attached plus a free 10% lifesteal. Smooth sailing for the first two stages, but its L5 cap of 45 physical runs out of steam later;
- Blood Spell: 15 magical + 50% spell lifesteal — the only pure magic card in the opening pool. From Stage 3 on there are fights that want magic (shielded enemies), but physical damage is more efficient early;
- Wooden Shield: a free 20 shield. Great insurance against early deaths; you’ll swap it for better shields later;
- Coin: an economy card that speeds up upgrades when paired with poison or hammer builds, but it takes up a reel slot and dilutes your damage.
C tier: Don’t Open With These
- Wizards Shield: crit ×1 (no crit payoff) and it still needs the minigame — Wooden Shield does its job better;
- Apple: opening with healing means giving up your first-strike advantage; you can top up HP at the shop instead;
- Ancestral Axe: its damage depends on shields you already have (+0.8 physical per shield). At level 1 you have no shields at all — it’s a lategame piece for pairing with Iron Shield, not an opener.
3 Recommended Combos
Combo 1: Poison Blade + Hammer + Coin (community standard, best for new players)
Gameplan: stack poison with Poison Blade early, burst with Hammer; Coin speeds up upgrades.
Path: rush Poison Blade to L4+ at the shop; mid-game grab Spin Blade / Respin when you see them,
then swap Coin for Gem (an active item). Fully built, this is the "respin all reels" build the community talks about.Combo 2: Massive Blade + Wooden Shield + Coin (steady timing build)
Gameplan: Massive Blade carries the damage through timing, Wooden Shield keeps you alive.
Path: for players comfortable with skill checks; buy Respin-style symbols/items at the shop,
where perfect timing pays off most. Mid/late game, swap to Iron Shield (40 shield and up).Combo 3: Hammer + Blood Spell + Poison Blade (all-out attack)
Gameplan: no defense at all — three damage cards filling the reels, going for a 2-3 turn kill.
Path: for players on their second run. Gamble on an early Bomb at the shop to replace Blood Spell.
Warning: this combo needs some defense before the Stage 3 Knight of Baghar, or you'll die fast.The Logic Behind the Pick (advanced)
- Reel slots are scarce: 3 reels at start, +2 permanent from modifiers (5 total), +1 in-run from the Golden Key (6 total). Every extra non-damage symbol lowers the expected rate of attack symbols, so pure utility cards (Coin/Apple) usually get one slot at most — often none.
- Crits need 3 matching symbols adjacent (see Critical Hits & Timing): the more copies of a symbol on your reels, the easier the triple, so opening with 1 card ×3 copies (e.g., triple Poison Blade) is often stronger than 3 different cards. You can remove symbols at the shop (free in this version), and the lategame meta is to slim your reels down to a single damage symbol.
- Poison Blade and Hammer stay strong all game: they’re among the few cards useful from L1 all the way to clearing the game; Rusty Dagger/Wooden Shield get outclassed by shop upgrades (Ritual Dagger/Iron Shield).
- First strike is king: enemies in this game have low HP and low damage (see the bestiary for exact stats), quick kills pay coins, and a fully defensive opener just slows you down.
Community Takes at a Glance
- The mainstream answer on the Steam forums: Poison Blade + Hammer + Coin (“No enemy will even be able to move once” — the original poster’s words);
- Another approach mentioned in negative reviews: Massive Blade + Coin + Shield — it can clear the game too, but critics say “all builds end up the same”;
- The community guide Eazy win argues: “what you pick at the start doesn’t really matter, getting a Bomb fast is the real answer” — that’s a different route, see the Builds guide.
Based on game version v1.0.19, verified 2026-08. Ratings are the editors’ subjective take, combining in-game numbers with community consensus.