Loot of Baal Beginners Guide

Loot of Baal is an idle game heavily inspired by Diablo 2. It includes variety of gameplay elements that should be taken into account when selecting the mercenaries, making teams and going thought the loot to equip. This guide will try to make early game easier for the new players and explain core mechanics of the game.

Early Game

In-game, party positioning is entirely random, and all characters have an equal chance of being attacked. There’s no such thing as fragile classes like Sorceress or Necromancer being more likely to take hits if they’re at the front—getting focused is just bad luck. Since you can only tank enemies with your own body, the new Necromancer class’s summons are excellent for absorbing damage (just resummon them if they die).

Hovering your mouse over mercenary skills shows their category, type, damage type, and range (single-target/AoE). If you’re unsure about skill levels from gear, compare them accordingly.

The recommended team levels for clearing stages are based on my personal playthrough, adjusted slightly. If you’re struggling, try grinding levels to improve skill ranks.

One-Sentence Version: Resistance is the foundation, HP is everything. Survival comes before upgrading damage.

Equipment mostly aligns with Diablo 2, with some new uniques for certain classes. For mercenaries: Paladins are kings for early-game progression:

D-tier: Prayer aura

B-tier: Zeal(Holyfire) + Holy Fire

A-tier: Vengeance + Holy Freeze/Salvation

S-tier: Fist of the Heavens + Redemption/Conviction

Necromancers are excellent supports: Summons are great for tanking, and Skeletal Mages (at higher levels) can freeze enemies with ice skills, providing crowd control and debuffs (slow, resistance reduction, defense reduction).

Starting Setup:

C-tier: Starting Sorceress: D skill + random passive (Mana Regen passive is highly recommended—early-game mana is scarce).

Team Composition:

D-tier Paladin: Any skill + Prayer aura (active skill recommended: Holy Bolt; Sacrifice consumes HP, so Prayer handles healing).

D-tier Necromancer: Raise Skeleton + Chill (no other options early on; skeletons tank, and the passive AoE damage is decent).

Gold Farming:

Hardworking Method: Check shop prices—disassemble blue items selling for less than 127 (material resale value) and sell the materials; sell yellows directly if above 274. Whites and fine-quality items should be sold outright. Use Ctrl+Left Click to quick-sell.

Lazy Method: Sell whites and fine-quality items, disassemble everything else, and sell the materials.

The level 9 gold dungeon isn’t worth farming—skip it.

Equipment Selection: Use whatever you find, but keep items with Poison Resistance and Poison Length Reduction. Push as far as you can; if stuck, farm the previous dungeon or try speedrunning earlier stages for green reward chests (Poison Resistance gloves from green chests make levels 19 and 22 much easier). If struggling, farm rune dungeons to craft runewords (only white/fine-quality items can be used as bases; runes sell for too little to be worth selling).

Recommended Early Rune Words:

Nadir (4 + 3): 2-socket helmet. Generally better than most blue/yellow helmets.

Stealth (7 + 5): 2-socket armor. +25 Poison Resistance, Faster Cast Rate, and mana regen—great for casters and useful against poison-heavy areas like level 22.

Pro Tip: If you lack stats to equip an item, temporarily wear stat-boosting charms or gear to meet requirements, then swap out afterward. This isn’t a bug—it’s a feature (confirmed by devs).

Post-Level 19 Unlocks (B-Tier Mercenaries, Team Level 21–23)

B-Tier Mercenaries:

Paladin 1: Zeal (B) + Holy Fire (B)

Paladin 2: Zeal (B) + Prayer (D)/Defiance (C) (no overlapping auras, so second Paladin should focus on healing or defense).

Paladin 3: Same as Paladin 2.

(Originally, an Enchant Sorceress was recommended, but Sorceresses are too squishy in this "everyone tanks equally" meta, especially as elites start gaining buffs. A Necromancer with Poison Explosion (B) or Skeletal Mages (B) + Decrepify (C)/Blood Golem (B) is also viable.)

Equipment:

Paladins: Prioritize fast-attacking one-handers or runewords:

King’s Grace (11 + 8 + 10): 3-socket sword—good attack speed and life steal.

Spirit (7 + 10 + 9 + 11): 4-socket shield (preferably with all-resist). Huge resistances, mana, HP, and +2 skills—endgame viable.

Hustle (13 + 18 + 2): 3-socket weapon/armor. As a weapon: 30% attack speed, 200% damage, and level 1 Fanaticism. As armor: 40% attack speed, 10% all-resist. A great physical DPS bridge until you can farm level 39 rune dungeons.

Lionheart (13 + 16 + 12): 3-socket helmet. HP, life steal, damage reduction—solid all-around.

Smoke (4 + 17): 2-socket armor. +50 all-resist—pure tankiness. Highly recommended.

Sorceress:

Spirit Sword: Best-in-slot for casters (+2 skills, FCR, HP/mana).

Leaf (3 + 8): 2-socket staff (+3 fire skills for Enchant). Lacks a shield, so survivability suffers—use only if no Spirit base is available.

Ancients’ Pledge (8 + 9 + 7): 3-socket shield—high resists.

Splendor (5 + 17): 2-socket shield (+1 skills, FCR, mana regen).

Lore (9 + 12): 2-socket helmet (+1 skills).

Necromancer: Similar to Sorceress, but prioritize skill levels for Poison Explosion or Skeletal Mages.

Gold Farming: Same as before—sell/disassemble loot. Higher-level gold dungeons still aren’t efficient.

New Feature (Post-Level 22): Abyssal Invasion—hourly event where a cleared stage becomes a special dungeon (level = highest mercenary level +3). Elite enemies gain buffs (up to 3 modifiers). Clearing it may spawn a red portal in town leading to a boss that drops unique charms:

Gaze (20): +8–10 all-resist, +3 stun resist.

Void Fragment (40): +1–20 all-resist, +5–30 HP.

Oblivion (70): +1 skills, +10–20 stats, +10–20 all-resist, +5–10% EXP gain.

(These compensate for D2’s difficulty quest rewards. The level 70 charm is essentially a "Hellfire Torch" but takes 2 slots.)

Post-Level 40 (A-Tier Mercenaries, Team Level 38–42)

A-Tier Mercenaries:

Paladin 1: Zeal(Holyfire) (B)/Vengeance (A) + Holy Freeze (A). Zeal has better life steal; Vengeance deals triple-element damage.

Paladin 2: Zeal(Holyfire)/Vengeance + Salvation (A) (boosts resistances—later stages have heavy resistance penalties).

Necromancer: Skeletal Mages (B) + Lower Resist (A). At level 21, summons 2 mages (often ice-based for crowd control).

(Necromancer’s Corpse Explosion is strong but requires a kill first, making it useless vs. bosses.)

Equipment:

Paladins: Continue prioritizing attack speed and life steal. Farm level 55 rune dungeons for mid-tier runes:

Hustle (13 + 18 + 2)

Lawbringer (11 + 20 + 18)

Oath (13 + 21 + 23 + 17)

Armor: Smoke if struggling; Duress (13 + 22 + 10) if tanky enough.

Gold Farming: A-tier skills are expensive. Equip Gold Find (GF) gear:

Gloves, boots, jewelry with high GF.

Wealth (20 + 18 + 3) armor (300 GF).

Charms: Small (10 GF), Medium (22 GF), Large (40 GF).

(GF/MF only applies to the killer, so solo farming is optimal.)

Post-Level 70 (S-Tier Mercenaries, Team Level 46–48)

S-Tier Mercenaries:

Paladin 1: Fist of the Heavens (S) + Salvation (A).

Paladin 2: Fist of the Heavens (S) + Redemption (S).

Necromancer: Bone Spirit (S) + Amplify Damage (S).

(Warning: Rolling S-tier mercenaries is brutally RNG-heavy. Some players spend tens of thousands of tickets and dozens of hours searching. Devs are aware and may adjust the system.)

Equipment:

Transition to caster gear:

Spirit Sword/Shield (4 skills, 50–70 FCR).

Heart of the Oak (18 + 26 + 21 + 10): 4-socket flail (+3 skills, 40 FCR, resists).

Magefist/Trag’Oul’s Claws (+20 FCR gloves).

Stack FCR to hit breakpoints:

75 FCR: Spirit (50–60) + 1–2 FCR items.

110 FCR: Spirit + Stealth (25) + 2–3 FCR items.

Gold Farming:

Use Fist of the Heavens Paladin with ~1000 GF to solo level 48 gold dungeon (~1.5–2.5M per run).

Post-Game (Level 85+)

Unlock Team 2 via Royal Crests (rare drops from bosses).

Farm Trial Keys for Uber bosses (Diablo 2’s "Torch" system).

Optimize builds for Uber Tristram-style content.

Endgame Farming:

Magic Find (MF): Fist of the Heavens Paladin.

Rune Farming: Conviction Paladin + 2 Fire Sorceresses.

Gold Farming:

Barbarian (Whirlwind + Find Item):

Grief mainhand + 6x Lem offhand.

Wealth armor, Goldwrap, Chance Guards, Dwarf Star rings.

~1900 GF, 1.5–2 min/run, 3–5M gold.

(Avoid level 85 gold dungeons—elites are too dangerous for efficient solo farming.)