This guide was written for new players of Clicker Heroes.

It explains the basics (and a bit more).

Although it's apparently a simple game, there's a lot more to it than first meets the eye, so this guide is a bit lengthy.

Actually, there's a lot more information on the net re. Clicker Heroes, and so therefore a couple of links have been placed at the end.


(If this guide was of interest to you, then please rate it upwards.)

General rules for playing Clicker Heroes (rules of thumb):
(There are some exceptions, which will be mentioned at the end of this list.)


1) Always level up your highest hero as much as possible (up to level 100).*
-- This will give you the highest DPS (Damage Per Second).
(Just to be clear, "highest hero" refers to your latest unlocked hero, not the hero at the top of the heroes list.)



2) When your hero reaches an upgrade level, don't level up your hero any further until its upgrade has been bought.
Then keep on levelling up, until you reach the next upgrade level.
-- E.g. buy the upgrades when you reach levels 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100.



3) Buy the upgrades for your heroes, especially the highest hero, as soon as possible.*
-- Remember to go back every now and then and buy the upgrades for your lower level heroes (do this whilst abiding by rule 1).
-- The higher your highest hero's DPS is, the less important the lower heroes will be, as their % of your overall DPS will be minimal.



4) Buy the significant global upgrades as soon as possible
The following global upgrades are important ones to get:
(Non-global, or specific, important upgrades are indicated with an asterisk *)
-- Wandering Fisherman: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 25%.
-- Betty Clicker: Upgrades 1-4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 20%.
-- Leon: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 25%.
-- Broyle Lindeoven: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 25%.
-- King Midas: Upgrades 1-4 = increases all gold found (1-3 = x 25%, 4 = x 50%).
-- Referi Jerator: Upgrade 5 = increases your critical click damage multiplier by 3.
-- Amenhotep: Upgrades 2 & 3 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 20%.
-- Beastlord: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 10%.
-- Shinatobe: Upgrade 2 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 10%.
-- Grant: Upgrades 1 & 3 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 25%.
-- Frostleaf: Upgrade 3 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 25%.
-- Bomber Max: Upgrade 4 = increases all gold found x 50%.
-- Gog: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 50%.
* Wepwawet: Upgrade 3 = increases the DPS of Betty Clicker by 500,000,000%.
* Wepwawet: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of King Midas by 10,000,000,000%.
-- Tsuchi: Upgrades 3 & 4 = increases all gold found (3 = x 50%, 4 = x 100%).
-- Moeru: Upgrade 4 = increases the DPS of all heroes by 50%.
-- Zilar: Upgrades 2-4 = increases the DPS of all heroes (2-3 = x 25%, 4 = x 50%).



5) Get all of your heroes to level 200 (excluding your highest hero) as soon as possible.
-- At level 200, and at every 25 levels thereafter, your DPS will increase x4.
Usually, your heroes' DPS will increase x4 every 25 levels (after level 200) and x10 every 1000 levels (although you don't get the x10 at the very high levels).

Sometimes, when your highest hero can't beat the monsters, it is worthwhile going back and levelling up the two or three previous heroes, as they can add a significant % to your overall DPS.
(I have found Chiron to be particularly good in this regard.)



6) When your highest hero is at level 100, get your 2nd-highest hero to level 700 (and then level up your highest hero to 200).

-- This rule may seem to be counter-intuitive, but you are able to increase the DPS of your 2nd-highest hero (2HH) x4 every 25 levels for far less than it will cost to get your highest hero (HH) to level 200 (when it will increase its DPS x4; but by then its DPS won't be very impressive anyway).

-- When your HH is at level 100, push your ctrl key to see how much upgrading it to level 200 will be - when that amount is about the same as upgrading your 2HH by 25 levels, then upgrade your HH to level 200 (usually that tipping point occurs about when your 2HH reaches level 700 - although it may occur earlier for heroes at a lower level).

-- Once your HH is at level 200, compare its % of the overall DPS to that of the 2HH - e.g. if the cost of buying 25 levels for the HH will only increase its % of DPS to 4%, but the same amount will buy 25 levels for the 2HH and increase its % of DPS to 25%, then it is far better to upgrade the 2HH.



7) Hire mercenaries (use the 7th tab) as soon as possible.
Mercenaries become available when you get to level 140, or when you ascend for the first time.

(See the "Mercenaries" section below for more info.)



8) Summon your Ancients (use the 4th tab) as soon as possible.
When you ascend, you will be able to buy Ancients with your hero souls.

(See the "Ancients" section below for more info.)



9) Go as high as you can before cashing in your mercenary's hero souls.
This is very important!
(See the "Hero souls" section below for more info.)



10) If you are ready to Ascend, check first to see if a mercenary is about to finish its run for hero souls - if so, get the hero souls before ascending.
-- You can use the hero souls to level up your Ancients.

If you get to the stage where you can't beat a boss, even by activating your skills, then it's time to ascend (unless a mercenary is about to finish its run for hero souls).

When you're a new player, it may seem counter-intuitive to ascend, as you've just spent a long time getting up to a high level.
However, it's very much worth doing so, as your recently-accumulated hero souls then become available, which you can then use to level up your Ancients, which will make a huge difference.

An ascension can be done when the 4th upgrade for Amenhotep has been unlocked.

(Steam limits the amount of text that an be placed in one section of a guide, so the rules have been split into two sections.)

11) Spend your rubies wisely.
-- As soon as possible, buy the "2x multiplier" (from the in-game Shop), as this permanently doubles your DPS (you keep that bonus, even after transcending or ascending).

-- Buy as many auto-clickers as you can, as they are extremely useful.

(See the "Rubies" section below for more info.)



12) Look out for game extras which will sometimes appear:
-- Check for presents (which contain Gilded Heroes).
These will appear in the lower right corner of your game (just above the audio buttons), when you beat every 10th level which you haven't beaten before during the same transcension.

-- Click on the orange bird (which looks somewhat like an orange with a leaf and a bit of stalk on top of its head).

This bird may appear anywhere on the screen; it will give you rubies or money.

(See the "Rubies" section below for more info.)

-- Spam-click on the bee which goes horizontally across the top area of your screen (flying from the right to almost the middle of your screen).

Doing this will activate a random skill.



13) When your heroes are past level 200, increase your levels in multiples of 25, to get the x4 DPS bonuses.
-- Increasing levels by anything less than 25 isn't worth bothering with, as the increase of your overall DPS will be minimal.



14) Concentrate on levelling up your 2nd-highest hero (2HH) to level 950, whilst levelling up your highest hero (HH) occasionally (up to level 425).
-- When 2HH reaches 800 bring your HH to 300, when 2HH is at 900 bring HH to 400, when 2HH is at 950 bring HH to 425.
-- An exception would be when you need just a slight increase in overall DPS, in which case level up your HH.

Rules 14-15 probably won't be needed until you get to the higher levels (e.g. Dark Knight).



15) When your 2nd-highest hero (2HH) is at 950 and your highest hero (HH) is at 425, stop and wait for the next hero to become available.
-- When the cost of upgrading your HH and 2HH by 25 levels is about 1/5th (20%) or more of the cost of the next unlocked hero, stop and wait for the next hero to become available.
There may be occasions when upgrading your HH is much less than 1/5th (20%) of the cost of the next hero - in such a case, upgrade it to 450.



16) Save your progress before exiting the game.
To save your game, click on the spanner button in the top right, and then click on the Save button.

In addition - and perhaps most important of all - backup your game save file every so often.
I recommend backing up the file on your computer, as well as copying the file to a USB memory stick, or similar.

If you are unsure where your saved game file is, you can go to your Steam games list, right-click on the game name, choose "Properties", click on the "Local Files" tab, then click on the "Browse Local Files" button - which should open up a Windows Explorer box at the right folder of your computer.

On my computer the file path is:
[drive] / Program Files (x86) / Steam / SteamApps / common / Clicker Heroes

The name of the file is:
clickerHeroSave.txt



* 17) There are often exceptions to the rules.
There are some exceptions to the above rules.
For example:

-- The 3rd upgrade of Wepwawet (available at level 1500) increases Betty Clicker's DPS by 500 million, so concentrate on levelling up Betty Clicker when you get that upgrade.
Use any leftover money to raise Wepwawet up to level 2000.
I usually use any leftover money to level up Wepwawet, then Gog, then Bomber Max - and then go back to Betty Clicker again (the same applies to King Midas later on).
Not long after Betty Clicker reaches 9800, Wepwawet should be about ready to reach level 2000 (which is when you move on to King Midas - see below).

-- The 4th upgrade of Wepwawet (available at level 2000) increases King Midas's DPS by 500 million, so concentrate on levelling up King Midas when you get that upgrade.
Use any leftover money to level up Wepwawet - when King Midas reaches level 13,000, Wepwawet should be about equal in DPS.
When King Midas is raised to about level 13,500-14,000, the DPS of Wepwawet should outweigh that of King Midas.

-- When you get to Tsuchi, you can stop spending money on the previous heroes, as Tsuchi is so powerful as to make all of the previous heroes obsolete.
The same applies to the heroes after Tsuchi.

-- The 1st upgrade of Xavira (at level 150,000) increases Xavira's DPS by 1.0e625%; the 2nd upgrade (at level 185,000) increases Xavira's DPS by 1.0e650%.

This is a list of all the Heroes:

Cid, the Helpful Adventurer
Treebeast
Ivan, the Drunken Brawler
Brittany, Beach Princess
The Wandering Fisherman
Betty Clicker
The Masked Samurai
Leon
The Great Forest Seer
Alexa, Assassin
Natalia, Ice Apprentice
Mercedes, Duchess of Blades
Bobby, Bounty Hunter
Broyle Lindeoven, Fire Mage
Sir George II, King's Guard
King Midas
Referi Jerator, Ice Wizard
Abaddon
Ma Zhu
Amenhotep
Beastlord
Athena, Goddess of War
Aphrodite, Goddess of Love
Shinatobe, Wind Deity
Grant, the General
Frostleaf
Dread Knight
Atlas
Terra
Phthalo
Orntchya Gladeye, Didensy Banana
Lilinz
Cadmia
Alabaster
Astraea
Chiron
Moloch
Bomber Max
Gog
Wepwawet
Tsuchi
Skogur
Moeru
Zilar
Madzi
Xavira
Cadu, Tomb Guardian
Ceus, Tomb Guardian
The Maw
Yachiyl, The Primordial Soul
Ace Scout Rose
Ace Scout Sophia
Ace Scout Blanche
Ace Scout Dorothy


Notes:
Usually, your heroes' DPS will increase x4 every 25 levels (after level 200), and x10 every 1000 levels. However, there are some exceptions:
-- Sadly, Cid (the first hero) doesn't get any of these DPS increases.
-- The heroes from Dread Knight onwards [checked up to Moeru] get x5 DPS every 25 levels between levels 525-725 (inclusive).
-- At higher ranks you only get x4 every 1000 levels (instead of the usual x10).

Upgrades for heroes generally become available when you reach levels 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100 (although some have upgrades at 125 and 150).

When you reach the higher heroes, upgrades become available at much higher levels.
E.g. Tsuchi's upgrades become available when he reaches levels 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000.

Hotkeys for levelling up heroes (whilst holding the hotkey down, click on the "Lvl up" button to the left of the hero):
shift = x 10
z = x 25
ctrl = x 100
q = x 10,000
(Note: If you hit the T key, you can cycle through the x10, x25, x100 and x10,000 options.)

You get Gilded Heroes when you click on the presents which appear in the lower right corner of your game (just above the audio buttons). Gilded Heroes increase the DPS of your heroes.

You get presents when you beat every 10th level which you haven't beaten before during the same transcension.

You can receive Gilded Heroes of any heroes you have already unlocked (as well as for the next hero).

Full disclosure: My highest hero is Xavira.

Note: It was with Moeru that I finally obtained the Zone 30,000 achievement ("Transcendent Zone Conqueror: Beat Zone 30000 After Transcension").

You get hero souls when you beat every 10th level, after reaching level 100 - as well as from mercenaries.

The number of hero souls you have is shown at the top of the heroes section (on the left are your damage stats, on the right your hero soul stats).
-- The top number refers to the hero souls that are currently available to you.
You can spend them on buying Ancients (see the "Ancients" section).
Unspent hero souls will boost your DPS (I usually leave 10-20% unspent, for that reason).
-- The bottom number refers to the hero souls that you will get when you ascend (these can't be spent until then).

Beating bosses (after level 100) will get you hero souls, although the number of hero souls you get can be multiplied by using your mercenaries.
-- However, it is important to realise that

-- Levelling up as high as possible is the first way to maximise your hero souls.
-- The second way to maximise your hero souls is to send your mercenaries on quests for hero souls.
The hero souls obtained by mercenaries are a percentage of the hero souls you will get when you ascend (i.e. a % of the "Ascend for" number).
-- When a mercenary has completed a long quest for hero souls, I don't click on the button to "cash them in" until I have reached as far as I can go with my fighters.

This is important
-- The hero souls obtained by mercenaries are a percentage of the hero souls you will get when you ascend (as mentioned above), so I strongly urge you not to "cash in" your quests for hero souls until you have levelled up as far as you can.

That is, if your mercenary has completed a quest for hero souls whereby he'll get 20% (of your ascension total of hero souls), then it's of little use to cash in at a low level.

For example, if your ascension total is 1,000, then 20% will only give you 200; but if you wait until your ascension total gets to 1,000,000, then 20% will give you 20,000 (a big difference).

So, go as high as you can before "cashing in" your mercenary's hero souls, as the higher you are the higher the base line will be for getting a percentage of the "Ascend for" hero souls.

How I use my mercenaries:
Personally, if I have a mercenary which is significantly higher than the others, I will use it to go after hero souls, especially doing missions from 5 min. up to 4 hours.

If the highest mercenary is on a 2-hour quest for hero souls, and the next available mission is a 1-hour or 2-hour quest for hero souls, I won't allocate the mission to a mercenary of a significantly lower rank, but will leave it for when the highest mercenary becomes available again.

On the other hand, if the highest mercenary is on a 2-hour or 4-hour quest for hero souls, and the next available mission is a 5 min. to 30 min. quest for hero souls, I'll allocate the mission to a lower mercenary (and hope that a 1, 2 or 4-hour quest for hero souls will become available, which I'll save for the highest mercenary).

I usually allocate 8-hour quests for hero souls to lower mercenaries - they may die, but if they live they'll level up a significant amount (as well as bring in a few hero souls).
Maybe it's just my imagination, but sending mercenaries off on long quests seems to make it more likely to bring about their demise (however, to be fair, I could be totally wrong on that score).

When I ascend, I spend about 80-90% of my hero souls on levelling up the Ancients, leaving about 10-20% where they are (as unspent hero souls add significantly to your DPS).

When you ascend for the first time, you will unlock the 7th tab - which is the mercenaries tab.
(See also the section on "Hero souls".)

-- You can have up to 5 mercenaries.

-- As much as possible, use your mercenaries to get hero souls.
Attaining hero souls is essential to your levelling up, so they should be a high priority.
New players may be tempted to send their mercenaries after money, but that's just fool's gold (so to speak).

-- Grabbing money will give you short-term benefits, but obtaining hero souls will give you long-term benefits.
(You could say that mercenaries are your friends with benefits - but just don't say it out loud).

-- If you have high-level mercenaries and low-level mercenaries, use your highest ones to get hero souls.
A high-level merc may take 2 hours to bring in 25% of a Quick Ascension of hero souls, whereas a low-level merc may only bring in 2%.

Mercenaries doing hero soul quests will obtain a "% of a Quick Ascension worth of hero souls" - that's a % of the "Ascend for" number at the top of the heroes tab (see the "hero souls" section), e.g. if you are going to "Ascend for +100" and your merc then completes a "20% of a Quick Ascension worth of hero souls" quest, then your "Ascend for" number will change to 120 (sometimes I've noticed that the % calculation seems slightly off, but generally it's fine - I can't see how the game could make an error like that, so maybe somehow it's just me).

-- Every mercenary has a skill, which will make them more efficient at a certain task.

-- Although sending mercenaries on longer missions will get you more hero souls (or gold, etc.), the missions will be less efficient.
E.g. if a mercenary get 10% of an ascensions' worth of hero souls on an hour's quest, then you would expect to get 20% on a 2-hour quest, but you will actually get less.
The longer the quest, the less efficient the result; although, unless you are constantly sitting at your computer, it's worth doing the longer quests.

-- The more time that mercenaries spend on missions, the more their levels will increase.
The higher their level, the higher their efficiency.

-- When a mercenary dies, you can spend rubies to revive it.
However, if you are in the early stages of your game, don't bother doing it - keep saving up your rubies to buy auto-clickers from the Shop.


If a mercenary dies whilst at a high level, the game likes to make the cost of reviving it so outrageously high that you just won't do it.

When a mercenary dies, you will need to allocate another mercenary to go out and recruit a new one, which will take 8 hours (it can take a little bit less time if your recruiting mercenary has a recruitment skill).

It seems (to me) that the longer the mission, the more likely the chance of the mercenary dying, but maybe that's just my misinterpretation of my experiences (maybe it's really a more of a gamble, dependent on the whim of the RNG god).

Relics add bonuses to your Ancients.
You can obtain a new relic once per ascension, as well as getting them from mercenaries doing relic quests.
Good relics can be enormously beneficial to your game (however, some can be rubbish).

I suggest keeping those relics which:
-- increase the likelihood of treasure chests
-- increase the Metal Detector skill
-- increase the Golden Clicks skill
-- increase the Clickstorm skill
-- increase the Powersurge skill
-- increase the Lucky Strikes skill

There are several grades of relics:
Common (grey background).
Uncommon (plain green background).
Rare (blue background).
Epic (purple background).
Fabled (neon green background).
Mythical (lilac background).
Legendary (yellow background).

You can only have four active relics, so you will need to choose which is best for you.

Some relics include several bonuses, so - if you're lucky - you'll get some relics which have two or more of the bonuses you want.

When you are at higher levels in the game, the bonuses derived from your Ancients will render unnecessary any need to increase your Clickstorm, Powersurge, and Lucky Strikes skills.

It should not be assumed that a higher grade relic will be better than lower grade relics; I've had Common relics that were better than higher grade relics (both having the same directly-comparable benefits).

Relics can be bought with rubies. However, in my humble opinion, spending rubies on relics is just not worth it (save your rubies for better things). See the "Rubies" section below for more info.

Note: I recently discovered (Oct. 2021) that there is a limit to the amount of relics that you can keep in your Junk Pile. The limit is 196 (32 rows of 6, plus a last row of 4). Once that limit has been reached, any relics you are meant to get simply disappear.

You can get rubies by clicking on the orange bird which appears occasionally in the game (it will give you either rubies or money).

The orange bird can appear anywhere on the game screen (be aware that sometimes it may be a bit smaller than usual).

If you click on the Shop button (at the bottom of the screen), you will see that you can buy various items with your rubies.

In the shop you can buy timelapses, hero souls, ascensions, gilded heroes, or relics - but, in my opinion, spending rubies on those things is just not worth it (especially not in the long-term).

However, there are two things well worth buying in the shop:

i) As soon as possible, buy the "2x multiplier", as this permanently doubles your DPS (you keep that bonus, even after transcending or ascending).

ii) Buy as many auto-clickers as you can, as they are extremely useful (you also keep the auto-clickers, after transcending or ascending).

Unfortunately, the price of buying an auto-clicker increases every time you purchase one (the increase is an additional 50 rubies each time).

-- When a mercenary dies, you can spend rubies to revive it.
However, if you are in the early stages of your game, don't do it - keep saving up your rubies to buy auto-clickers from the Shop section.

If you are in the later stages of your game, my rule of thumb is not to spend more than 12-16 rubies on reviving a dead mercenary (and only if the mercenary is worth saving - e.g. if it's only at level 1-5, then let it rest in peace, and get a new one). Note: This is at the stage when buying a new auto-clicker costs over 500 rubies.

Skills are unlocked by upgrading some of the heroes.
The skills only operate for a short time, but some of those times can be extended by obtaining certain relics and levelling up certain Ancients.
The skills, once used, have a cooldown period - once that time has elapsed you can then use the skills again.

The nine skills are:
(in order as they appear in the game, from top to bottom)

Clickstorm
Activates a temporary Auto Clicker which automatically performs 10 clicks per second.
Unlocked by the 2nd upgrade for Cid.

Powersurge
+100% DPS.
Unlocked by the 4th upgrade for Ivan.

Lucky Strikes
+50% chance of critical click.
Unlocked by the 5th upgrade for Alexa.

Metal Detector
+100% gold dropped.
Unlocked by the 5th upgrade for Broyle Lindeoven.

Golden Clicks
Clicks give 1.0% of monster gold. (0.1% on Bosses).
Unlocked by the 5th upgrade for King Midas.

The Dark Ritual
Multiply your current DPS by 1.05 for the duration of your world. Stacks up to 20 times per Ascension.
Unlocked by the 4th upgrade for Abaddon.

Super Clicks
+200% click damage.
Unlocked by the 5th upgrade for Beastlord.

Energize
Doubles the effect of the next skill you use.
Unlocked by the 4th upgrade for Aphrodite.

Reload
Reduce the cooldown of the last skill you used by 1 hour.
Unlocked by the 5th upgrade for Shinatobe.


Using the skills gives the game a big boost.
As they have different cooldown periods, I tend to use them in groups:

1) Clickstorm
Powersurge

2) Clickstorm
Powersurge
Lucky Strikes
Metal Detector

3) Clickstorm
Powersurge
Lucky Strikes
Metal Detector
Golden Clicks
Super Clicks
Energize
Reload

The Dark Ritual skill becomes available every eight hours.



When all of the skills are available, this is the order I use:
Energize (which will double the next skill clicked on)
Lucky Strikes (doubled by the Energize skill)
Clickstorm
Powersurge
Lucky Strikes
Metal Detector
Golden Clicks
The Dark Ritual
Super Clicks
Reload
Super Clicks (enabled again by the Reload skill)

However, if I am at a stage where the heroes are powering through the levels, and don't need much help, I will start with the following, so as to gain gold rather than power:
Energize (which will double the next skill clicked on)
Golden Clicks
Metal Detector
(and then click on all of the other skills)

New players to Clicker Heroes (or existing players after transcension), start with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 8th tabs.

1st tab = heroes.

2nd tab = achievements.

3rd tab = statistics.

4th tab = ancients.
This unlocks when you hire Amenhot (the 20th hero).

5th tab = relics.
This unlocks when you defeat the level 100 boss (apparently the tab is triggered when you get a relic).

6th tab = clans.
This unlocks when you get to level 50.

7th tab = mercenaries.
This unlocks when you ascend (which you can do when you unlock Amenhot's 4th upgrade).

8th tab = transcendent power.
This unlocks at the start (as mentioned above).

When you ascend, you will be able to buy Ancients with your hero souls.

The Ancients are cheap to buy at first, but the price grows exponentially with each one that you get.
New players may have to ascend several times to get enough hero souls to buy all of the Ancients.

When buying Ancients, you can buy one from a choice of four.
Although the game offers you the chance to re-roll for a new choice of four Ancients, I never have, as re-rolling costs hero souls (personally, I view re-rolling as a waste of hero souls).


This is a list of the Ancients and their effects:

Argaiv + % to gilded damage bonus (per gild)
Atman + % to chance of primal bosses
Beserker + % to duration of Powersurge
Bhaal + % to damage to Critical Clicks
Bubos - monsters worth of boss life (minimum 5 monsters)
Chawedo + seconds to duration of Clickstorm
Chronos + seconds to boss fight timers
Dogcog - % to hero hiring and level-up cost
Dora + % to more treasure chests (maximum 9900%)
Energon + seconds to duration of Metal Detector
Fortuna + % to chance of 10x gold
Fragsworth + % to click damage
Hecatoncheir + seconds to duration of Super Clicks
Juggernaut + % to DPS per click combo (active clicking)
Kleptos + seconds to duration of Golden Clicks
Kumawakamaru - monsters to advance to the next zone (minimum 2 monsters per zone)
Libertas + % to gold gained from monsters when idle (no clicks for 60 seconds)
Mammon + % to gold dropped
Mimzee + % to gold from treasure chests
Morgulis + % to hero soul DPS (additive)
Nogardnit + % to DPS per unassigned Auto Clicker when idle (no clicks for 60 seconds)
Pluto + % to gold from Golden Clicks
Revolc + % to chance of double rubies from clickable treasures, when you get a ruby
Siyalatas + % to DPS when idle (no clicks for 60 seconds)
Sniperino + seconds to duration of Lucky Strikes
Vaagur - % of skill cooldowns


There will be varying opinions on buying Ancients, but - for what it's worth - here are mine:

Here are the main Ancients I would prioritise buying:
Atman
Fragsworth
Libertas
Mammon
Mimzee
Siyalatas
Vaagur

I try to buy all of the Ancients as soon as possible, as they have a major effect on your game.

Spending hero souls on Ancients will level them up.
There will be varying opinions on levelling up Ancients, but here's what I do:

I treat the Ancients as two groups (except for Nogardnit, who I don't really bother with, except to throw some spare hero souls his way - i.e. costing me a negligible amount).
There's a list of the two groups later in this section (however, it's important to read the following information regarding them, so please don't skip ahead just yet).

I level all of the Ancients in each group up by the same amount, leaving any leftover hero souls where they are (unspent hero souls add significantly to your DPS).

The first group can be levelled up in large amounts.
The second group can be levelled up in small amounts (as each level costs a lot of hero souls).

Just below your tabs, the game tells you how many hero souls you have.

I usually start with Fragsworth, and level him up until the amount of hero souls significantly changes, and then bring all of the others in the "large increment" group up to the same level.
Then I do Atman, and make all of the others in the "small increment" group up to the same level.


Important note: You have to be really careful with levelling up the "small increment" group, as if you level up too much, it will use up most of your hero souls in one go - I've accidentally done that several times.
(If you think it's going to be a problem, you can always save your game before doing your Ancients, and then import your saved file if you make a mistake).


Ancients to be levelled up in large increments:
(By how much depends on how many hero souls you have; at higher levels you'll have a lot.)
Argaiv
Bhaal
Fragsworth
* Juggernaut
Libertas
Mammon
Mimzee
* Morgulis
Pluto
Siyalatas
(Note: Juggernaut and Morgulis level up at very different rates to the rest of these Ancients, so just level them up until the cost of doing so is about the same as the others.)


Ancients to be levelled up in small increments:
(By how much depends on how many hero souls you have; at higher levels you'll have a lot.)
Atman
Beserker
Bubos
Chawedo
Chronos
Dogcog
Dora
Energon
Fortuna
Hecatoncheir
Kleptos
Kumawakamaru
Revolc
Sniperino
Vaagur


Nogardnit (re. unassigned Auto Clickers) I don't really worry about (I just throw a few scraps his way), as I use all of my auto-clickers -- I've been assuming that he isn't active when the game isn't running (if someone has information to the contrary, let me know).

Morgulis is actually quite cheap to level up, so his ability can be increased by a huge amount by spending only a relatively small amount of hero souls

Note 1: Prior to writing this guide, I had been assuming that Fragsworth was only for active clicking (physical clicking), but that turned out to not be the case. I've found him to be very useful.

Note 2: I had also assumed that Juggernaut (+DPS active clicking) was for actual active clicking, but it turns out that he works with the in-game auto-clickers, and is very useful.

Some Ancients can be levelled up to a point where they have reached their maximum potential, e.g. Kumawakamaru re. minimum 2 monsters per zone, Beserker re. Powersurge, and Chawedo re. Clickstorm.
There's no point levelling up the latter two when their active period outstrips the cooldown period (as you could keep them going all the time, without levelling up any more).
However, I must admit that I sometimes keep on levelling up such Ancients, when I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing; which is a waste of hero souls - doh!


Hotkeys for levelling up Ancients:

shift = x 10
ctrl = x 100
z = x 1,000
q = x 10,000

at 100K:
shift = x 100
ctrl = x 1,000
z = x 10,000
q = x 100,000 (x 1e5)

at 1,000K:
shift = x 1,000
ctrl = x 10,000
z = x 100,000 (x 1e5)
q = x 1,000,000 (x 1e6)

at 10,000K:
shift = x 10,000
ctrl = x 100,000
z = x 1,000,000 (x 1e6)
q = x 10,000,000 (x 1e7)

and so on.

(As can be seen from the above, from 100k onwards, every increase to the power of 10 will result in the hotkeys increasing the Ancients' levels by the power of 10.)

When players transcend, using the 8th tab, they can buy Ancient Souls.

The top area of the 8th tab will tell you how many Ancient Souls you will get when you transcend.
(Obviously, if it says "Transcend for +0", then it's not worth transcending.)

When you transcend for Ancient Souls, you lose any excess hero souls, so I usually transcend just after getting enough for one more Ancient Soul.


This is a list of the Ancient Souls and their effects:
(in order as they appear in the game, from top to bottom)

Xyliqil = increases effectiveness of all idle bonuses

Chor'gorloth = decreases Ancient cost

Phandoryss = increases DPS (Damage Per Second)

Ponyboy = increases Primal Hero Souls

Borb = increases effectiveness of Kumawakamaru (decrease monsters required to advance to next zone)

Rhageist = increases effectiveness of Atman (increase chance of Primal Bosses)

K'Ariqua = increases effectiveness of Bubos (decrease monsters worth of Boss life)

Orphalas = increases effectiveness of Chronos (add more seconds to Boss fight)

Sen-Akhan = increases effectiveness of Dora (increase number of treasure chests)

This guide just gives the basics for the game Clicker Heroes (and some of my personal strategies).

If you need more detailed information, there are various helpful sites on the net, e.g.:
https://clickerheroes.fandom.com/wiki/ClickerHeroes_Wiki
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClickerHeroes/

By the way, if you were wondering who the picture is of, at the top of the "General Rules" section, it's General Rühle von Lilienstern (General Rule - haha, get it? Hmmm, it seemed like a good joke at the time).

This guide is based upon my personal experiences with the game.
I hope that new players may find the guide to be of some use.
Some people may disagree with my strategies - that's okay; however, overall, I hope that people get some benefit from my guide.

Good luck and good gaming!