Progression and cosmetics

A run ends with a handful of rewards that stay with you. This guide follows them from the end screen to the places that spend them. Everything here is in the hero menu, between runs, unless it says otherwise.

What a run pays out

A finished run, a lost run and a run you end yourself all keep what they earned. The Game Menu says so when you leave: gold, gear, account experience and achievements are kept.

Some rules change the amount:

• Later zones bank more gold than early ones, and Heroic tiers pay more experience.
• Endless play after a victory keeps paying: the minutes past the win bring talent, Game Pass and account experience and count for the survival achievements.
• Challenges (see below) raise the gold and experience of a run for the handicap you accept.

The gold you pick up inside a run is a separate use of the word: during a run it pays for caches and rerolls. The tray in the hero menu is the account's gold.

The tray also shows Talent Points. These come from achievements and account levels and are spent in the Account tab of the Talents window, not on class talents. While a holiday runs, its currency appears beside them (see the Event Shop below).

For zones, tiers and Endless see Runs and zones.

Gear, stars and sets

Click GEAR in the top bar. Gear belongs to the class, not to a single hero: whatever your Mage collects, every Mage you play has.

How gear comes

• Bosses drop gear for the class you play. Each boss has its own piece, and the last boss drops the weapons.
• Every miss raises that piece's chance by 10%. A duplicate turns into gold.
• Every zone drops one rarity, from Common up to Legendary. Heroic drops more often and pays more gold.
• The shop's gear chests hold more (see Chests).

The window lists eleven slots: Head, Shoulder, Chest, Waist, Legs, Feet, Wrists, Hands, Main Hand, Off Hand and Ranged. A class fills only the weapon slots it can use. Each class has five sets, one per rarity, plus a PvP set that sits between Epic and Legendary.

Stars

Click a slot to open its upgrade window. Each star (up to 5) costs gold and makes the piece stronger. The window shows the stats before and after and your gold. Only worn pieces add their bonuses, and only worn pieces show on your hero.

• Right-click a slot to put on the next piece you hold there.
• Click a set to put on every piece of it that you hold.
• Shift-click a slot, or click the small round badge on it, to pick a different look for the slot (see the wardrobe below). The bonuses stay those of the worn piece.

Set bonuses

Four armor pieces of one set at 1 star or more wake its 4-piece bonus. All eight at 3 stars wake the 8-piece bonus. All eight at 5 stars make the set empowered: half again as strong. The Gear Bonuses panel shows what your worn gear adds and which sets are awake.

Spread your first stars over one set rather than across several: a set with four starred pieces already pays off.

The Items page of the Achievements window (the trophy on the hero card) lists every gear piece your heroes own.

Chests

The word covers two different things.

Gear chests in the shop

Open SHOP, then the Chests category. There is one chest for each rarity: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, PvP and Legendary. They are sold for gold, one list per class (the hero you picked).

• A chest stays locked until a zone of its rarity is open for that class. The detail pane says "Open a zone of this rarity first."
• Purchase buys a chest and keeps it unopened. Press Open when you like; the number of waiting chests shows on the button.
• In the opening window a reel spins and stops on your prize. Open Another opens the next chest.
• Most chests hold a shop cosmetic you do not own yet. The cheap ones come often, the dear ones seldom and only from the higher chests. Now and then a chest holds a piece of gear for your class at the chest's rarity instead; a piece you already hold pays gold back.

Chests inside a run

On the minimap and in the world you find three kinds:

• Cache: costs the run's gold.
• Boss Treasure: free.
• Cursed Chest: free, but cursed. The run tracker shows its curse.

A guardian's fall opens the same kind of hand. Each one offers a choice of a ring, a trinket or an amulet.

Jewelry

Rings, trinkets and amulets are found during a run, on the cards that caches, treasure, guardians and cursed chests give. Gear is kept between runs by your class; jewelry is picked from cards during the run.

• A card for something you already wear says Upgrade.
• You wear one amulet at a time. A new amulet asks "Replace your amulet?", and the old one is lost for good. Choosing an amulet you already wear says Empower; its rank shows.
• Legendary amulets are tied to a spell.
• Your worn jewelry shows as a row of round icons above the health bar; hover one for what it gives.
• Outland jewelry drops only in Outland and Northrend jewelry only in Northrend.

The end screen lists the Spoils of the Run: new gear pieces and the jewelry you wore. Hold Shift on a level-up or jewelry card to compare it with what you wear.

The shop

Click SHOP in the top bar. The categories stand on the left, a search box and rarity filter sit over a grid of tiles, and the tile you pick shows its details, a preview and the button that buys or wears it. Most prices are in gold.

Cosmetics change the look only. Damage, cooldowns and bonuses stay the same. In co-op your partners see your name style, trail, kill effect, dyes, wing colour and spell colours.

Try before you buy

Dyes, wing colours, single pieces of an armor set, wings, head pieces, enchants and tabards can be tried on the hero in the list. Use Try on the hero, or click a greyed dye swatch. The shop steps aside and a Preview bar appears with End preview. A look you only tried does not stay on into a run.

Event Shop and holiday currency

While a holiday runs, every run's kills drop its currency. Examples: Candy Corn at Hallow's End, Snowflakes at the Feast of Winter Veil. Holidays in the game are Hallow's End, Feast of Winter Veil, Lunar Festival, Love is in the Air, Noblegarden, Midsummer Fire Festival, Brewfest and a monthly Darkmoon Faire.

• A banner over the hero card shows the holiday, the time left and the currency you hold, with a button to the Event Shop. The currency also appears in the tray next to gold; click it to open the shop.
• The Event Shop sells the holiday's own items: mounts, wings, head pieces, trails, emotes, name styles, kill effects and spell colours. Some mounts are sold nowhere else.
• What you buy is kept for good. Currency you do not spend waits for next year.
• The shop also shows a ranking of who picked up the most of the holiday's currency. Spending it costs you no place.

The wardrobe

The Mog button sits left of the hero's turn arrows under Enter. It opens the Wardrobe beside your hero, who turns when you drag the mouse. Everything you click shows at once.

The tabs are:

• Items: a row of slots and a grid of every look the picked slot can show. A slot can show nothing, the worn piece, any piece your class holds there, a bought armor set, a legendary weapon that fits, or your starting outfit. For the head it also lists your head pieces. A weapon look can appear only in a slot its kind fits; the off-hand slot is offered only to classes holding two weapons.
• Sets: the armor sets from the shop. Pointing at one tries it on; a click puts on an owned one and takes you to the shop for one you do not own.
• Enchants, Wings, Head, Tabards: the cosmetics you own. A click wears or removes one.

A look changes only what shows. The worn piece keeps giving its bonuses.

What is account-wide and what is per class

Armor sets and legendary weapons

Sets are bought whole. Any class may show any set, whatever its armor type. Three sets are not sold: a Game Pass season's premium track gives them. A legendary weapon is a section of the Armor Sets category. It dresses the weapon slot of its kind, whatever the class. Frostmourne is not sold; ten recruits earn it (see Recruit a Friend).

Dyes and wing colours

Open SHOP, then Dyes. Pick a class tab, then a slot, then a colour. There are 32 dyes in four packs: Basic Dyes (free), Noble Dyes, Wild Dyes and Shadow Dyes. A pack is bought once for the account. The dye you wear is set per slot and class. A dye sits on top of whatever the slot shows, gear or look, and other players see it in co-op.

The Glow Colours pack is separate. It unlocks 14 glow colours for your wings, shown as a row of swatches under a worn pair of wings.

Spell skins and spell colours

Spells shows one spell at a time. Pick a skin, Purchase it and Wear it. Every hero of that class casts the spell with that look. The spell itself keeps its damage, cooldown and card.

Spell Colours has class tabs. Each class has five class colours, which turn every spell the class casts to one hue, and one class colour is worn per class. Below them are school colours (one per school) for the schools its spells use. A school colour still wins for its own spells. Holiday two-tone colours, such as Pumpkin Hex and Witchfire, are sold in the Event Shop for every class at once. The next run wears the colour you set.

Titles, frames and name styles

Titles & Frames lists titles that stand by your hero's name, over the head and in the frames. Some are earned by achievements and wins, some bought, and a few only the Game Pass gives. Borders go round the level orb of your own unit frame. One title and one border show at a time. Names has animated name styles that dress the name over your hero's head.

Races

Race looks are not in the shop. Some races have extra skin tones and hair colours that an achievement unlocks, such as winning runs with a hero of that race. On the create screen you can try a locked look; a line under the hero says which achievement opens it and Save refuses it until you earn it.

Emotes and the dancing hero

Eight starter emotes are on every account: Wave, Cheer, Dance, Laugh, Salute, Roar, Bow and Flex. More are sold in the shop's Emotes category, some with fireworks or music. They are bought once and are then on the wheel of every hero.

• In a run, press B for the emote wheel. A dance holds while you run; the same emote again ends it. Others in the run see it.
• In the hero menu, the Emotes (B) button sits by Enter. Click an emote and the hero standing in the menu plays it. A dance repeats until you click the same emote again, pick another or press Escape; one with music plays its track in place of the menu theme. With more than eight emotes the wheel pages with the mouse wheel. More emotes in the shop opens the shop's Emotes category.
• In the shop, one owned emote can be set as the victory emote. Your heroes play it on the end screen of every run.

Achievements and the Codex

The Achievements trophy on the hero card opens a window with three pages: Achievements, Codex and Items.

• There are more than eighty achievements in the groups Classes, Co-op, Codex, Holidays, Looks, Modes, Races, Rifts, Slaying, Survival and Victories. Each pays gold, talent points for the account tree and account experience once. Some also unlock titles or race looks. Achievements pop up during a run.
• The Codex lists every creature you have fought, zone by zone. A creature you have not met shows as ???. Each one wears its own icon.

Challenges

Challenges are handicaps you choose before a run. Each pays more gold and experience, and they can be combined. Open the Game Modes window and press Choose in the Challenges section. The bottom of the panel shows your total bonus.

The eight challenges are Hardcore, One Life, Speed Up, Half XP, Half Damage, Glass Cannon, No Healing and No Dash. Some modes do not take challenges; the panel says so. Drops do not grow. In co-op the host's challenges count, see Co-op.

The Game Pass

The Game Pass opens from a round glowing button next to the top bar. A badge counts the rewards waiting.

• A season has 30 tiers. Every run earns pass experience; you climb tiers with it.
• Each tier has a reward on the Free Track and one on the Premium Track. Rewards are gold and cosmetics: trails, emotes, wings, name styles, head pieces, enchants, titles and armor sets.
• The premium track is unlocked for gold, for the season. Every premium reward you already reached waits for you when you unlock it.
• Claim a reward when its tier is reached. A reward is yours for good, and what past seasons gave stays yours.
• A cosmetic you already own pays gold instead.
• The premium track ends in items that only the pass gives.

Each season has its own theme. The window shows the season's name and the time left.

Recruit a Friend

A round button next to the Game Pass opens Brotherhood of the Banner. You get a recruit code and an invite link. A friend who enters it gets a welcome pack with gold and a name style only recruits wear. They count for you once they reach account level 5 and finish 3 runs.

The recruiter's honours come at 1, 3, 5 and 10 qualified recruits: a trail, a name style, a mount and the legendary Frostmourne. They are kept for good and never sold.