Which runes are worth leveling up?
Should you level up your green 2* rune or should you wait until you get a better rarity rune?I have listed down the runes that are worth upgrading and the runes that are not. I have also explained the broader criteria I used, along with some specific cases where applicable. If you just want to look at the list, scroll down to the bottom. However, I'd recommend you to read through the criteria as well. It will help you decide which runes would be most useful to you based on your deck building style.
This guide is for mostly free-to-play players who are starting out. I am an f2p player in the mid game. Some of my opinions are possibly wrong. If you find errors or have a different opinion on something, kindly leave comments so that others could gain from your perspective.
Creature Runes
Runes equipped by creature cards (creature runes) come in two categories. One is skill-based runes that can be equipped by a creature with that specific skill, the other is the three generic Health and Attack increasing runes - Vitality, Violence and Protean.Creature runes associated with a skill comes in set rarities. i.e.
- a weakness rune is always of rarity 1 (white in color),
- a bless rune is always of rarity 2 (green in color),
- a fire rune is always of rarity 3 (blue in color),
- a bullseye rune is always of rarity 4 (purple in color),
- a rebirth rune is always of rarity 5 (yellow in color).
etc etc..
The three generic creature runes that are not related to any skill are
- Vitality rune (increases health)
- Violence Rune (increases attack)
- Protean Rune (increases attack and health)
These generic runes come in all rarity and can be equipped by any creature. Only the 5 star vitality/violence/protean runes are really worth leveling up.
One important aspect to consider is the actual usage of the creatures, with the rune's skill. A "Plague Rune" (level 4 rarity) might look good in theory, but it is not worth leveling up because you are not likely to use a creature with plague for long. A "Healer Rune" (level 2 rarity) on the other hand, is very useful because most free-to-play players use this rune on a recycle horned beast, which is an endgame card.
The rarity of a rune also doesn't always relate to usefulness. The bonus from (4 star) unbound rune is inconsequential, while the 2* runes like "Healer Rune" gives massive boost to your entire deck.
It also takes less exp to upgrade a low rarity rune to a higher level. That makes the lower rarity skill runes like "healer", "bless" and "injured" runes good candidates to get upgraded first.
Lastly, many of the better 4 star runes (like dodge rune and lifesap rune) and most of the powerful 5 star runes (like the "Retreat" and "Shatter Soul" rune) are not available in the glory altar. Some of them are available in the gem altar. These can be bought with gems when special sales or events happen. I wont list most of these gem-only runes below, because they are not available to 99% of the player base. They are all pretty powerful runes, completely in a different league.
Here is the list of runes available through the glory altar.
| Rune | Rarity | Usefulness | Commonly used creatures |
| Weakness | 1 | Less useful | - |
| Anger | 1 | Less useful | Ursa Major, Paladin |
| Restoration | 1 | Less useful | Frost Rager, Sentry Angel |
| Afflict | 1 | Less useful | - |
| Healer rune | 2 | Very useful | Recycle Horned Beast, Ash Beast, Treant Guide, Oracle, Blood Warlocks, Treant Elder, Naga Mistress, Magic Weaver |
| Bless | 2 | Very useful | Oracle, Blood Warlock, Frost Ragers melded with Bless |
| Flaming | 2 | Somewhat useful | Flame Brave, Arcane Sage (Somewhat useful till the time you use a Flame Brave) |
| Stabthrough | 2 | Useful | Ursa Major, Border Rangers, Graboid etc melded with Stabthrough |
| Injured Rune | 2 | Useful | Any creature with "injured" skill, played to increase hero rage using the rune |
| Ambush | 2 | Useful | Titania, creatures used early on in guild map for quick damage |
| Voodoo | 3 | Very useful | Spirit Siren, Dark Witch, Dahlia |
| Soulswap | 3 | Very useful | Harbinger, Frost Ragers melded with soulswap |
| Chainstrike | 3 | Very useful | Titania |
| Fire Rune | 3 | Very useful | Flame Brave, Magic Weaver, Griffi Knight, Gemini, Any creature with pyre |
| Frost Armor | 3 | Somewhat useful | |
| Block | 3 | Somewhat useful | |
| Miasma | 3 | Somewhat useful | |
| Ravage | 3 | Somewhat useful | |
| Consecrate | 3 | Somewhat useful | |
| 3 | Somewhat useful | ||
| Poison | 3 | Somewhat useful | Anathema, Blood Warlock, Capricorn |
| Deception | 3 | Somewhat useful | |
| Ice Rune | 3 | Less useful | |
| Detonate | 4 | Very useful | Any creature with detonate. |
| Bullseye | 4 | Very useful | Anathema, Pit Dragon, Paladin, Michael, Valkyrie, Manticore |
| Bloodlust | 4 | Somewhat useful | |
| Discord | 4 | Less useful | |
| Counter | 4 | Not useful | |
| Maji Shield | 4 | Less useful | |
| Sprite Link | 4 | Less useful | |
| Elven Salve | 4 | Less useful | |
| Feral Fever | 4 | Less useful | |
| Earth Totem | 4 | Less useful | |
| Death March | 4 | Less useful | |
| Unholy Pact | 4 | Less useful | |
| Humanity | 4 | Less useful | |
| Sage Advice | 4 | Less useful | |
| Warlust | 4 | Useful | Panther Chief, Centaur Chief. Especially good for guild map deck, to increase attack of creatures turn after turn. |
| Stoneskin | 4 | Useful | Anathema, Graboid. Especially good for guild map deck, to increase attack of creatures turn after turn when paired against a retreat creature. |
| Unbound | 4 | Less useful | |
| Sneak | 4 | Somewhat useful | |
| Bloodrage | 4 | Less useful | |
| Retaliate | 4 | Somewhat useful | |
| Reflect | 4 | Somewhat useful | |
| Plague | 4 | Somewhat useful | |
| Venom Edge | 4 | Somewhat useful | |
| Delay | 4 | Useful | |
| Sacrifice | 5 | Very useful |
Hero Runes
Hero runes come in all rarities. Most of the Hero runes at their 5 star levels are available through the glory altar, though they are hard to get.
Hero Vigor is the most important of all. Until you get a 5 star version of the same, a 3 star or even a 2 star Hero Vigor could be useful.
"Heal Amplify" rune is an exception. Dont expect anything better than a 3* heal amplify rune from the glory altar. The 3 star version itself is pretty useful though. You could buy the 5 star heal amplify rune with gems during some events, if you are into spending.
| Rune | Highest Level available from Glory Altar |
| Hero Vigor | 5 |
| Sorcery Rune | 5 |
| Blight Rune | 4 |
| Heal Amplify | 3, 4(very rare) |
| Haste Rune | 5 |
| Initial Rage | 5 |
| All Vigor | 4 |
| Faen Vigor | 5 |
| Morti Vigor | 5 |
| Human Vigor | 5 |
| Neander Vigor | 5 |
| Faen Might | |
| Morti Might | |
| Human Might | |
| Neander Might | |
| Snipe Rune | 5 |
For a complete list of all runes, check out the Deck Heroes Wikia
http://deck-heroes.wikia.com/wiki/Rune_List
For posts on other game topics, check out the index page HERE. If you have opinions, questions or suggestions, feel free to comment. Thanks for reading!
