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Best Task Bar Hero Rune upgrades to unlock early

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Here are the best Runes in TBH: Task Bar Hero that you should focus on unlocking as quickly as possible

Task Bar Hero Rune upgrade menu Rune of Command
(Image credit: Nugem Studio)
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The Task Bar Hero Rune system helps you gradually upgrade your adventuring party's resource-gathering capabilities and overall combat prowess. The more gold you earn from killing things, the more Runes you can unlock, which in turn help you earn more gold – in short, you've got to spend gold to make gold and plenty more. But with many of the Runes being hidden until you've unlocked others and some being very expensive, knowing where to spend your gold early on isn't obvious. So, I've laid out some tips for how to go about unlocking Runes in Task Bar Hero and the best ones to get.

Best Task Bar Hero Runes

Task Bar Hero Rune upgrade menu annotated with orange circles makring the best runes on the upper Wealth path and the lower Growth path

(Image credit: Nugem Studio)

Once you unlock the Rune menu in Task Bar Hero at level 3, you can finally start spending your gold on these rune upgrades. You must start by purchasing the Rune of War for 100 Gold, then you'll have access to two paths: Up to the Rune of Wealth and Down to the Rune of Growth.

These two paths also roughly describe the sorts of other upgrades you'll find further up those paths. The Wealth path is all about increasing your Gold income, the chances of you getting loot chests, and inventory space. The Growth path is all about increasing your XP gains and improving your party's combat effectiveness in several ways. Some Runes have multiple tiers and multiple versions, so you can buy and upgrade the same effect several times.

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You'll therefore want to spread yourself across both Rune paths to a degree for noticeable improvements, but I think it's best to focus on the upper Wealth path early on. Getting more gold will help you afford more Rune upgrades sooner, which will help you get through some of the lower Growth upgrades faster, in turn helping you reach higher-difficulty stages in time.

Here are the best Task Bar Hero Rune upgrades to focus on getting as early as you can, bearing in mind that some of these Runes require you to have other Runes not listed below already unlocked:

  • Upper 'Wealth' path:
    • Runes of Wealth: These Runes improve the amount of Gold you get for killing enemies. The first five of these upgrades going to the left are all worth having and will cause you to gain much more gold from killing anything.
    • Rune of Repose: Unlocks offline play, meaning that you will still earn Gold and XP for up to 8 hours when the game isn't running. When you boot up the game, you'll be shown all the XP and Gold your characters have gained since you were away. Then get the Rune of Hoarding to increase the amount of Gold you earn while offline and the Rune of Training to increase the amount of XP you earn while offline.
    • Rune of Exploration: There are multiple versions of this Rune and they all increase the drop rate of Common Chests, helping you get more loot. Gear gained from these chests can massively improve your heroes, and it's well worth increasing your odds of getting chests to help you get as much as possible. Even if you don't use it, you can convert it into better gear or Gold via the Cube's Synthesis and Alchemy functions.
    • Rune of Conquest: As with the Rune of Exploration, there are a couple of versions of this Rune, and they all increase the drop rate of superior Stage Boss Chests. Again, this will help you get more gear.
  • Lower 'Growth' path:
    • Runes of Growth: As with the Runes of Wealth, these runes increase your XP gains from defeating enemies of all kinds. The first five Runes going off to the left are good to get.
    • Rune of Command: Unlocks your second Hero Slot, doubling your party size and massively improving your combat capabilities. If you want some pointers on the best heroes to add here, check out our Task Bar Heroes tier list. After this, a forked path will reveal itself and you should focus on going down the right and grabbing the Rune of Wealth, Rune of Growth, and the Rune of Awakening. Then go down the left part of the fork and get the second Rune of Command to get the full three-hero party.
    • Rune of Awakening: Unlocks the second Skill Slot for all heroes. Again, this massively expands the number of Task Bar Hero build combinations available to you, and substantially increases the power of your heroes.
    • Rune of the Shield: Provides all heroes with additional armor, making them a bit more durable.
    • Rune of War: Increases the attack damage of all heroes, making them a bit more lethal.

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Will Sawyer
Will Sawyer
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.

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