Overgeared Hero hands you its systems a few chapters at a time, and the early choices that matter most are about investment: which Epic and Legendary hero to build, where shards go, and which gear to level. This guide gives an order for all of it, then covers the shop, merging, Dragon's Blessing and the daily routine. For rankings see the Tier List, and for full builds see the Backpack builds guide.
Your first Epic hero: Spark or Rebecca
If you want one answer, take Spark. She is the strongest Epic hero on offense and the easiest recommendation for chapter progress, because her kit is built on Stun. Mages are fragile, and an enemy that spends the fight stunned can't hit you, so the Stun is her defense as much as her damage. With the burn gear from the Backpack builds guide she clears chapters and dungeons quickly.
Rebecca is the other strong first pick, and she pays off earlier than you might expect: even at 1 star she is useful in the early chapters. Her weapons deal extra damage equal to 10% of her Block, so she turns armor into damage, and she holds up in PvP too. Her limit is Rose. Once you own Rose, Rebecca is mostly replaced.
Don't overthink this choice in your first week. Both are fine, and picking the hero you enjoy playing matters more this early than squeezing out a few percent. You'll want both eventually anyway.
Your first Legendary: Rose, then Raven
When the choice comes, it is between Rose and Raven, and Rose goes first. Her Impale sends Spike, Poison and Burn straight through Block, and Parting Rose executes the enemy once your Spike stacks get high enough. She is a huge boost to your account and clears stages up to around Chapter 100 on her own.
Raven becomes the more common pick after that, and both are among the strongest heroes in PvP. The reason Rose still comes first is coverage. Acrobat, a Rare Ranger you'll have much earlier, can do a lot of what Raven does with her own Dodge kit, while Rebecca can't reliably cover what Rose brings.
One cheap trick helps a Rose account: raise Kai to 1 star. That unlocks Gladius, and Gladius is half of Rose's Legendary weapon, since Red Rose Rapier is merged from a Gladius and a Red Rose. With Kai at 1 star the Rapier becomes much easier to build.
Where your shards should go
In the long run you want at least one copy of every hero, because each hero you own adds its ownership effect, a percentage boost to HP or ATK, to every run. Early on, get Spark and Rebecca to 1 star first.
After that, the best long-term use of Epic shards is taking Spark to 3 or 4 stars.
Exchange shops sometimes offer Legendary hero shards next to a pet. Take the hero shards: there are very few ways to get Legendary heroes, and pets are much easier to come by. Talin shards are a good example, since her Skill Link unlocks at 4 stars. The exception is Geezer. If you don't own him yet, he is worth taking, because he is excellent when your build can use his pre-merged items.
When an event lets you pick a pet reward, Mimic is the safe choice. It merges everything for 1 energy, and that helps every build, so the pick stays good however the meta shifts. Events like Double Up also hand out Rare and Elite hero shards, which is one of the cheapest ways to reach your next Elite.
Pets: Legendary or better
You can take up to 3 pets into a run, hatched from the Nest with Pet Eggs, levelled with Pet Food and ranked up with Pet Shards. Ranking up raises the ownership effect and can lower the activation cost, and since a run only gives you a small pet energy budget, a pet whose cost drops from 3 to 2 is almost like an extra pet.
Don't equip pets below Legendary once you have Legendary ones. Lower-rarity pets reduce your overall combat stats, so a Rare pet in a slot makes you weaker even before its skill matters. The usual starting lineup is Mimic and Red Dragon plus one more, and the Pet section of the Tier List explains which third pet suits which fight.
Gear: what to level first
You wear 1 weapon, 1 shield, 2 rings and 2 gloves, and everything you equip enters the backpack as starting items on every run, so gear is a permanent head start. Level the slot rather than the piece. Gear Enhancement Stones raise a slot's level, every 10 levels needs a Gear Blueprint to continue, and swapping the gear in a slot keeps the slot's level. A piece's grade goes up by merging copies of it, and resetting a piece returns the Gear Scrolls you spent.
For your first gear weapon, Primal Flame is the clear early-game winner. The one exception: if you already own Rose and get an Item Selection Ticket, Spiral Spear is the better pick for her. Next, level Gloves of Plague, which multiply your Burn, and then one Garnet Ring and one Archwizard's Ring. The Backpack builds guide explains why a pair of different rings beats two of the same.
How the shop and merging work
Each round the shop shows four items. Buy with gold, then place and rotate them in the backpack. Refreshing costs gold, so refresh when nothing fits your plan rather than every round. Anything you buy sells back for about half, and buying an item just to merge it, then selling the leftovers, is normal play.
Legendary items only come from merging; they never appear in the shop. Pick a direction in the first few rounds and buy the parts that feed it. Tap an item and then the book icon to see its recipe tree, or use this site's item pages, which list what each item merges into and from.
Items with empty circular sockets gain an extra effect when the right item type sits on the socket square: armor on an armor socket for more Block, a weapon on a weapon socket for an on-hit effect. A backpack that fills its sockets is far stronger than the same items placed at random, so plan the layout.
Dragon's Blessing
Found in the Dungeon tab. Spend blessing gems (Courage for Warriors, Agile for Rangers, Wisdom for Wizards) to roll a blessing from Common up to Mythic. The overall Dragon's Blessing level raises the odds and the rarity ceiling and unlocks more blessing slots.
Push the overall level before chasing perfect rolls. Each blessing also shows how high it rolled within its rarity's range, so a high-rarity blessing with a low roll is still worth re-rolling later.
The daily routine
Spend energy on Chapter Challenge and clear the daily Pet, Hero and Blessing Dungeons, which are the only source of hero, pet and blessing materials. Tower of Trials tickets regenerate over time up to a cap, and clearing a boss sub-floor gives tickets back plus Gold Keys, so clear at least the boss floors each day to keep the tickets from sitting at the cap.
Collect Expedition rewards before they cap, take the free quick expeditions, and redeem everything on the Codes page for free keys, gems and eggs. Arena runs on separate backpacks and pays Medals of Honor for its own shop, and Clan donations buy from the Clan Shop and open the Clan Raid.
Beginner mistakes
Spreading Epic shards thin. Past the cheap 1-star unlocks above, Spark at 3 or 4 stars is the better use of them.
Equipping a Rare pet because it's the one you've levelled. It lowers your stats, so fill the slot with a Legendary or Mythic pet as soon as you have one.
Upgrading the gear piece instead of the slot. The slot keeps its level when you swap, the piece does not.