By Attabrain Zee, server 4. Updated 2018-07-05
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DragonSoul is a fun and addictive game for iOS and Android, published by PerBlue. In DragonSoul, you collect heroes, and team them up to fight in a variety of scenarios. It is possible to enjoy this game without paying any money, and a minimum payment of $3 (USD) gets rid of some of the little annoyances to enhance the experience.
In this guide, I analyze each rune set and the various powers of runes, so you can make intelligent decisions on your own. There are some other excellent guides out there, if you'd prefer just to be told which runes are the best for each hero.
Yet Another Rune. This visual rune selector is really useful for figuring out what hero would be best for a rune.
Rune Optimizer. Another visual selector to help you pick the best runes for your heroes.
Rune Guide, by kittenbones on server 1. Advice on choosing the best rune set for each hero. Keep in mind that this is for server 1, where runes go up to 6* and level 15, so some of your choices might be different on other servers.
Now on to my guide!
Do you hate runes? Then get them over with quickly by following these basic guidelines:
In the Rune Temple, there's an 'R' above the recommended rune sets for your hero. These aren't always the best choices, but they're always reasonable. If there aren't enough recommended sets, you can't go wrong with Tree, Rock or Mist.
Even a mostly bad rune is better than no rune at all. Have two empty slots? Put in a pair of tree, rock or mist runes.
Don't get just one of a rune type. Complete the set, by getting two or four (depending on the set). When you've done this, the set bonus will show up next to your hero's runes as green instead of gray.
You might love your favorite set's bonus, but you can't get it twice. Six Tree runes are no more powerful than two. Fill those other four slots with different sets.
The primary is the first ability listed on the rune. Pick one that works with your hero. Here are some basic guidelines:
You can find more details in the advanced section, below.
Common Mistake: Many people like to put “Larger Shields” or “Improved Healing” on heroes because they seem useful. They're often not. Larger Shields is only used by heroes who create shields, like Orc, Brozerker and Horse. Improved Healing is only used by heroes who heal, like Faith Healer, Satyr and Pixie. Improved Healing does not affect Life Steal.
The other abilities on the rune are secondaries and tertiaries. Look them over. If they seem good, it's a good rune, but the primary is the most important.
Orange runes have the most abilities, then purple, then blue, then green, then white. If you can find a good orange rune, it will help a lot, but don't worry too much.
Once you like a rune, empower it to improve its abilities, and fuse it with runes you don't care about. This will make your hero much more powerful.
Rune sets that grant a percentage bonus should be used to improve your strengths, not your weaknesses. Why? 30% more armor is worth a lot more when you have 1000 (+300 armor) than when you have 100 (+30 armor).
The Tree set gives you a 15% boost to health. This means the more health a hero has, the more he or she will benefit from the Tree set. A hero with 10,000 health gets 1500 extra, while a hero with 20,000 health gets 3000.
Tree runes come with one small disadvantage: The more health you have, the less effective your Fury stat is. Keep this in mind with heroes like Hydra, who depend on Fury. On the other hand, Tree will keep your hero alive longer.
A major rune with “Max Health Growth” as its primary can get as high as 64.8 growth. At level 100, that's 6,480. If your hero has less than 43,200 health at level 100, a single rune can beat the tree set. This becomes less and less true at higher levels. When your C+4 hero has 500,000 health, 6480 is insignificant, while the 125,000 you get from a Tree set makes a big difference.
These sets give you a 30% Armor bonus, or a 40% Magic Resistance bonus. Like with Tree, you want these on heroes who already have a lot of Armor or Magic Resistance. The math for these is more complicated, but it's still true. You can find more details in Dragon Soul: Stats Explainedplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigDragon Soul: Stats Explained
By Attabrain Zee, server 4. Last updated 11/30/2017
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Power
The heroes' Power numbers confuse a lot of people. Why does my more powerful hero keep losing fights? Why does my Drakul have 2000 less power than yours?
The most important thing to know about Power is that it's only one measure of how strong your hero is. A big chunk of the game's strategy is figuring out how to use a low-power team to beat a high-power team. You do this by c….
Another thing to take into account is whether a hero is likely to take physical or magic damage. The front line takes the most physical damage, followed by the back line, then the mid line, so armor is most useful on the front line. The midline takes the most magic damage, followed by front, then back.
Flame and Ocean runes give you a 25% boost to Basic Damage or Skill Power. Look at your heroes' skills. If there are a lot of orange numbers, you want Basic Damage. If there are a lot of green numbers, you want Skill Power. If there are a lot of blue numbers, you want Expertise (which doesn't have a set).
Not every hero wants Flame or Ocean. You should use these sets for heroes who are the most focused on dealing a lot of damage. These sets are usually bad for tanks, or heroes who have trouble surviving. If your hero has a really great white skill, consider using River instead. You'll deal less damage, but use your white more often.
Some say this one's not worth putting on any hero, because you always get more damage from Flame or Ocean. That's true, but let's look at what Bolt does. First, it increases attack speed by 15%. Second, it increases animation speed for all skills. Let's break that down.
Attack speed means:
And faster animations means:
In my opinion, the Bolt rune is useful on several heroes, including Bard, Hydra and Legendary Frost Giant, despite its flaws. I would even consider it on Megataur, if I was committed to always pairing him with another tank.
Think about what you're giving up when you use Bolt runes. Two 5* +12 major runes with Attack Speed on them will get you +17.28% speed. That approach would free up four runes for other sets. On the other hand, you could use both, and get a 32.28% boost!
Unlike many other rune sets, Blood gives a fixed numeric bonus, 200 lifesteal. This makes its value harder to figure out, since it actually gets proportionally weaker over time. While Tree will be more powerful the more health you have, Blood always gives exactly 200 lifesteal.
To figure out whether Blood is worth it (or two +12 5* runes with lifesteal primaries, which do the same thing), look at how much lifesteal your hero has. These days, most of them have much more than they need already, so blood isn't worth it, but heroes get left behind sometimes.
At low levels, Blood is better than Tree, because it keeps you alive longer, but at higher levels, it's almost never worth it.
Like Blood, Hail gives a fixed bonus, of only 30 accuracy.
Accuracy counters Dodge point-for-point. At promotion levels of O+3 and below, very few heroes have more than 30 dodge, making Hail overkill. At higher promotion levels, heroes have so much dodge that 30 accuracy does almost nothing for you.
Hail should never be used on any hero. If you really want accuracy, Hail is the only set which can be replaced with a single 5* +12 rune. If, some time in the future, the game changes so that Hail scales with level, it will be useful on heroes who depend on one big, infrequent hit, like Megataur or Magic Dragon.
River gives you 20% improved energy gain, which makes it the best set in the game for many heroes. River is the only way to get this type of bonus. Improved energy gain has a lot of benefits:
In short, River is useful for everyone, but like the other percentage increase runes, it's best for heroes who are already good at energy gain. This includes Hydra, who has high Fury, heroes with good Conservation, and heroes who have particularly useful white skills. It's especially good for heroes who get both benefits. Understudy gets a boost to her energy absorbing shield, and she uses her fist more often. Medusa gets a better energy absorbing attack, and can stone enemies more often.
For heroes who need to fire their whites as early as possible, River is a must. Some examples are Spirit Wolf, Karaoke King, Moon Drake, Medusa, Faith Healer and Unicorgi.
The two runes at the top are major, and the three at the sides and bottom are minor. The two types are allowed to have different bonuses, but other than that, don't worry about it.
In addition to the set bonus, every rune has a primary skill, which increases significantly with every upgrade.
Some runes have an additional ability in smaller type under the primary. This secondary bonus is between 1/30 of a maxed-out primary (+12 5*) and 11/30, and it does not increase with upgrades. Keep an eye out for particularly high secondaries. Those can be useful, especially when you don't plan to upgrade the rune much.
Every rune also has up to four tertiary bonuses. Every 3 levels, you either get a new tertiary bonus, or upgrade an existing one. This is based on the starting color of the rune:
This means that a level 12 Orange rune will have tertiaries twice as powerful as a level 12 White rune (which changes color to Orange). So if you find an Orange rune with 3-4 good tertiaries, you have a rare and valuable thing which you should upgrade as much as possible.
It's possible that the same tertiary will be increased multiple times. If you're lucky, you can end up with a number as high as a primary, so don't ignore those tertiaries, especially on Orange runes!
Green Runes are kind of special. Because they only have one tertiary, you know which power will be increased at level 3. Because of this, it can be useful to have a lot of 3* Green runes, but it's not always worth upgrading them to 6*, since the next tertiary is random.
If you like a rune, empower it to level 3 and fuse it to 3*. It's cheap, and if you decide you don't like the rune later, you can fuse it into another rune without losing anything.
If you really like a rune, upgrade it as much as possible, but consider your decision carefully. A 4* rune is only worth 30 points of fusing. You lose the 8 points you spent on levels 1-3 if you throw it away.
Costs and values:
This shrine is free. Use it as often as possible, but save a few keystone and major rune slots, and maybe a few set offerings, for the other shrines.
This shrine takes one offering, and gives you two 2-3* runes. Since 2* runes are worth 3 points of fusing, you'll usually get 2*3-1 = 5 points total from the shrine, but you could get as much as 2*8-1 = 15 points. This normally costs 100 diamonds, but can cost as little as 60 during a sale.
This shrine takes two offerings, and gives you three 3-4* runes. Since 3* runes are worth 8 points of fusing, you're getting 3*8-2 = 22 points total from the shrine, which happens to be the value of a 4* rune. If you're really lucky, you could get three 4* runes, worth 90 points of fusion. I don't think I've ever gotten more than one 4* rune at a time. Crystal Shrines normally cost 550 diamonds, but can cost as little as 330 during a sale.
Before the 2.6 update, crystal and stone shrines were identical in value. Now, it's hard to tell. Stone costs 20 diamonds per point if you're unlucky, while Crystal costs 25 per point, so in the worst case, stone is obviously better. But in the best case, Stone is 6.7 diamonds per point, while Crystal is 6.1. PerBlue hasn't released the odds, but my guess is that the shrines are pretty much the same in points per diamond.
The Stone Shrine needs a lot more offerings and is random, but produces a lot more runes. This makes Stone better when you want a lot of variety, giving you a greater chance of finding a good rune which you can then fuse. Crystal is better if you want a specific slot and set, or if you want a rare rune type. I generally save my keystones and an occasional major rune for the Crystal Shrine.
Until O+8 or so, this is good for all heroes. Even heroes who depend on Fury, and thus fire their whites more often the less max health they have, can't do their thing if they're dead. Heroes get so much health at higher promotions that this rune gets less and less valuable over time.
Useful defenses, especially on tanks who don't need more Max Health Growth. Armor is best for front line heroes, and Magic Resist is best for the back. Or just use these to shore up a hero's weaknesses. Give Armor Growth to heroes with low Armor, and Magic Resist Growth to heroes with low Magic Resist. These runes are less valuable at higher promotion levels.
Tenacity reduces the duration of stuns, Medusa's paralysis, and other disabling abilities. This is useful for all heroes, but especially those who depend on doing a lot in a short time. If Dark Horse is stunned, he can probably just wait it out, but if Ninja is stunned, he's dead. Of course, heroes get so much tenacity starting at O+6 or so that these runes aren't worth much at that point. Only give this to heroes with low Tenacity scores.
It's so satisfying to watch a Bard attack you over and over and see the word “Dodge” pop in and out above your hero. Dodge is a chance to completely avoid an attack. This works against everything – basic attacks, skills, stuns, whatever. Dodge is good for all heroes. However, starting at O+4 or so, heroes have a lot of dodge already, so this becomes less useful.
With Lifesteal, your hero heals every time he or she attacks with a basic attack. Some heroes have very slow, weak basic attacks, so they don't benefit much from Lifesteal. Other heroes, particularly Bard, Ninja, Hydra and Rabid Dragon, attack like crazy, and can heal themselves up to full in a few seconds. Give your Lifesteal runes to these fast attackers. Heroes who deal a ton of physical damage with one hit, like Dungeon Man, can also benefit. Lifesteal is essential for Megataur and Genie, since it keeps them from hurting themselves. Only give this to heroes with low Lifesteal scores (under 500).
Good for any hero who depends on base damage, or skills with a gold number in their description. Heroes with weak attacks who mainly use green skills shouldn't bother. Some heroes, like Bard, have skills which improve their basic attacks. Basic Damage can be very useful for them. However, this rune becomes much less valuable at higher levels, when heroes have a ton of Basic Damage.
Skill Power is used for any skill with a green number in its description. If your hero has two or more of these, Skill Power Growth is great. However, consider the percentage improvement. If a hero already has extremely high Skill Power (Understudy's a good example), then a little extra Skill Power won't make a huge difference. At high promotion levels, this becomes much less valuable.
Faster attacks means more damage and more frequent Lifesteal, as well as faster animations (see explanation in Bolt Set, above). Every hero can benefit this rune, but it's especially useful to heroes with a special effect on their attack. Bard has lots of Lifesteal. Medusa and Hydra do splash damage. Legendary Frost Giant slows down everyone he attacks, and Legendary Cosmic Elf breaks shields. These are the kinds of things you want to do as often as possible.
At higher levels, Attack Speed is the only major rune which makes a real difference to the effectiveness of your heroes.
Crit Rating increases the chance of dealing double damage. Most heroes have so much of this, even at low levels, that the rune doesn't help much. I never bother with this one.
Crit Damage increases the damage you deal on a critical hit by some percentage. Any hero with a high Crit Rating can benefit from Crit Damage. As a rule of thumb, I imagine that heroes have a 50% chance to crit. This means that a Crit Damage rune will add half of its value to your hero's average damage.
These increase the damage of attacks that match the descriptor. If your hero does that type of damage with his or her basic attack or skills, these add to that damage. Look for these in secondaries and tertiaries, because they can make a huge difference. Keep a particular eye out for runes with close to the cap of 10% damage in their secondaries, or 25% in their 5* tertiaries.
Armor Penetration lets you ignore some of the enemy's Armor, and Magic Penetration lets you ignore some Magic Resistance. The first is good for heroes who deal physical damage, while the second is good for heroes who deal magic damage. Both are useless for heroes who deal True Damage. Only give these runes to heroes who have low numbers in these abilities.
Each point of accuracy ignores one point of dodge. Starting around O+4, accuracy runes stop being significant.
Expertise makes your skills act like they're at a higher level. This gives you three main benefits:
Some heroes have specific blue-number skills which are so powerful that you want as much expertise as possible. These include:
small.
There are other heroes who benefit a lot from Expertise, but might have better runes:
Heroes start with 90 fury. This means that every time they lose 10% of their health, they gain 90 energy. Adding fury means they'll fire their white more often. This is good for heroes who get hit a lot and have powerful whites. Some examples:
It's also useful for any tank who has a reasonable white skill, since tanks have much more opportunity to take damage.
Conservation makes a hero use up less energy with his or her white skill. It can never be higher than 50% total. If your hero has a good white skill, this can be extremely powerful. Because most heroes get a conservation bonus from equipment, there are usually better choices.
Conservation has a cap of 50%, so check your hero's stats before adding more of it.
With Starting Energy, heroes get to use their white for the first time sooner. This is useful for heroes with a very powerful white, like Medusa, Spirit Wolf, Karaoke King, Cosmic Elf, Understudy, Bard, Ninja etc. Starting Energy can win you the battle very quickly, but watch out for Bone Dragon and Void Dragon, who drain energy immediately, and Ninja and Medusa, who drain it later on. Dragon Slayer can prevent energy loss at the beginning of the fight.
White powers use energy. Other powers have cooldown timers. For example, a power might fire every 3 seconds, or every 10 seconds. Cooldown Reduction shortens these timers. This is a stat you want on heroes with two or three active powers. It's also useful for heroes with really important powers that you want to fire as often as possible, such as Satyr's healing, Orc's shield, the energy drain of Ninja and Medusa, or Thief's damage absorbtion. Cooldown Reduction is capped at 50%.
These can only be found on keystones, and the numbers vary a lot from hero to hero. To figure out whether you want these, you'll have to do some math.
Each point of strength adds 18 health and 0.15 armor.
The math: A +12 5* rune can give you 64.8 health growth or 3.6 armor growth. To match the health component, you'd need 3.6 strength growth. To match the armor, you'd need 24 strength growth.
Example: (none. I haven't maxed out any strength growth runes)
Each point of agility adds 0.4 basic damage, 0.075 armor and 0.4 crit rating.
The math:
Example: Ninja Dwarf can get up to 3 agility growth, while Master Thief can get 5.94. Neither one is nearly as good as a basic damage rune, but you might still want the damage boost, however small.
Each point of Intellect adds 2.4 skill power and 0.1 magic resitance.
The math:
Example: Dungeon Man can get up to 6.48 intellect growth. This is better than a skill power rune, and you get some magic resist for free!
Healing powers get stronger. Pretty straightforward. This only works on heroes who have a specific healing skill. It's useless, for example, on Bardbarian. Remember that there's a 500% cap.
You definitely want to cap Improved Healing on Legendary Pixie Queen and Plant Soul.
Shields absorb more damage the larger they are. This is good for heroes with shields – Dark Horse, Orc Monk, Brozerker and Legendary Unstable Understudy. They only affect shields created by the hero, not shields other heroes create.
Stun, paralysis, silence, mesmerize. These are disables. Longer Disables makes them last longer. This is great for heroes with important disables, like Medusa, Elf, Skeleton and Cutie. Skills which disable whites (Wolf and Karaoke King) are not disables.
Movement Speed makes your hero walk faster, which doesn't sound very useful at first glance, but it has multiple valuable effects:
There's a down-side too. If your heroes are significantly faster than the other team's heroes, then you're helping them get into their starting positions more quickly. You might actually help the enemy fire their white skills sooner.
Movement Speed has a 300% cap, and you start with 100%, so you can't gain more than 200% from runes and abilities.
Once you get into the high orange promotions, runes with fixed numeric bonuses become less and less useful. For example, you get so much Armor Penetration from equipment that a little boost from runes isn't worth much. At this point, you'll want to focus on runes that give percentage bonuses. These are:
These are the highest numbers you can get on a rune primary on a maxed out rune, as well as the various values you might find in your runes' tertiaries, and the possible range of secondaries. This table doesn't cover keystones, which are customized per hero.