Use your favourite features in-game with our Desktop AppWelcome to our beginner guide for The Bazaar!
This guide will assume that you’ve played the tutorial so it won’t cover those basics and will instead cover the next step up of things you should know.
If you’re a veteran of deckbuilders and/or autobattlers, you might already know some of these but there’s likely something new you’ll learn.
Let’s dive in.
In The Bazaar, your ultimate objective is to hit 10 wins!
If you’re playing Normal mode, this will grant you a Ranked Mode ticket.
When you play Ranked Mode, you’ll still want 10 wins but you’ll also have thresholds for partial rewards:
These chests grant loot like hero skins, card backs, rugs, and more.
To really maximize the length of your runs, you’re going to want to understand the balance between short term and long term decisionmaking.
If you’re doing well, consider making choices that you can build upon and will provide lasting benefits – such as investing into more Income or Experience.
However, if you’re in survival mode and you’re low on Prestige (your life bar), consider getting immediate benefits like Chocolates, Gumballs, and Temporary Boosts to keep you alive.
If you're playing during The Bazaar's Closed Beta release, you have access to three heroes: Vanessa, Pygmalien, and Dooley.
Vanessa is available by default as the tutorial hero, while Pygmalien and Dooley can be unlocked with the Gems from your Founder's Pack.
We recommend trying each hero at least 1-2 times so you can get a feel for who you like most, but after that, we consider sticking with one so you can build mastery.
If you're constantly jumping around, it can be hard to develop up your understanding of their different nuances.
After all, each hero has many lines of play that can lead to a wide range of successful builds.
Once you nail down successful runs and build up some comfort, then consider switching to other heroes so you can learn their item pools.
Since there are vendors and PvE encounters that give you access to the items of other heroes, it does help to know what you can get from them.
Do you know the difference between Charge and Haste?
Or that Poison bypasses Shields and deals direct damage to Health?
If not, make sure to constantly check them in-game or use our handy reference guide of The Bazaar keywords.
Many of these keywords interact and work together in different ways, so once you learn them, you can really understand what makes good builds tick.
Time and resources aren't infinite in The Bazaar, so you really have to make your choices count.
Because of this, rather than trying to be good at everything, the strongest builds keep focus around a theme.
Whether it's trying to maximize Vanessa's offensive firepower, becoming un-killable as Pygmalien, or using the power of Friends with Dooley, identify your best bet and optimize it.
This is something you'll only get better at in time as you discover and remember what items and skills are out there.
Although losing sucks, you can often learn from your opponents by seeing what item combos they're using.
Another good way to learn build themes and archetypes is by watching top players like Kripparian!
There are a ton of items in The Bazaar that can scale infinitely, it's up to you to find ways to empower them.
Doing so can be especially powerful if you can get the ball rolling early on - however, if you find a stacking item later on in a run, you might want to avoid them.
Here are two examples of how to navigate your stack management.
The Lemonade Stand scales your Max Health when you sell Small items.
This makes it a great combo with items that can generate Small items, such as Money Tree (creates a Spare Change upon level up) and the Cash Register (creates 3 Spare Change at the start of each day).
Options like Gumballs and Chocolates also become more attractive as you can simultaneously get their base buffs but also feed your stacks.
With Pygmalien's economic power, you can even consider buying every Small item you see so you can sell them.
Pro tip: Items with effects that happen outside of combat (like Lemonade Stand, Money Tree, and Cash Register) activate when they're in your Stash! They do NOT need to be equipped on your main board.
While the Lemonade Stand boosts your defense, the Langxian spear scales your offensive power by stacking with victories.
Remember earlier how we mentioned short term vs long term decisions?
Langxian allows you to play aggressively with short term decisions while simultaneously helping you build for the future.
For instance, you can consider opting for the Temporary Damage boost or other instant effects to keep the ball rolling.
Also, if the Langxian is still ramping up, you might want to choose easier PvE fights to help ensure an easier win.
Just make sure to not tunnel vision, if you aren't hitting Langxian upgrades it might not be worth committing to.
If you're coming from TFT, you know how important positioning can be - every point of damage and health matters.
Similarly, The Bazaar has a lot of effects and mechanics that incentivize positioning your items correctly.
For example, some skills will buff your left-most or right-most weapon.
There are also a good amount of items that affect or are affected by their adjacent counterparts, such as the Duct Tape which triggers when you use an adjacent item.
By pairing it with a fast-casting item like the Uzi, which only needs 2 seconds, you can get a ton of additional value out of it.
The lesson here is to always check your ordering - there's usually something that can be improved!
