If you are just starting Birb, there are a lot of systems to learn at once, from Artifacts and Contracts to fishing, fish buffs, the Aquarium, and your companions. It can be difficult to know what you should focus on first and what can safely be ignored.
In this beginner guide, I’ll go through the most important systems and explain what I recommend doing as you progress. I’ll cover Artifacts, fish buffs, Contracts, Expedition tiers, Auto-Potion, Maub’birb, fishing, Gull Doctrines, Shiny fish, the Aquarium, and the Fish Market.
Birb Beginner Guide – Artifacts, Shiny Fish, Contracts
The goal is not to give you a complicated endgame build immediately. Instead, I’ll show you what matters early, what becomes important after your first Rebirb, and which upgrades you should work toward as you get deeper into Birb.
Artifacts
How Do I Get Artifacts?
Artifacts mainly come from Artifact Chests, which are dropped by Elite and Boss enemies.
The deeper you go into the Expedition, the better the Artifact Chests become.
If you are still early in the game, the trio of Elite enemies on Floor 3 is a good place to start farming artifacts.
You can also improve your artifacts through the Forge. The Forge lets you combine three artifacts together with some Aura to create a better artifact.
What Artifacts Should I Use?
Before your first Rebirb, don’t worry too much about finding the perfect artifact setup. Use whatever good artifacts you can get.
The most useful stats early on are generally:
- Damage
- SP gain
These give you the biggest immediate improvement to your progression.
After your first Rebirb, artifact recommendations become much more complicated because the artifact system has undergone reworks. The setup can change as balancing updates are released, so it is worth checking the current community recommendations before committing significant resources.
The setup listed in the source is:
- 1x Point Hoard
- 2x Tempest Harp
- 2x from the following:
- Spirit Amulet
- Skull of Reckoning
- Storm Locket
- Depth Chronicle
- Predator Instinct
- Lone Strider Boots
Spirit Amulet is generally the preferred option in most situations, while Skull of Reckoning can be more stat-efficient overall.
Storm Locket can be useful when you are two-hitting enemies or its splash damage allows you to one-shot enemies.
Depth Chronicle is specifically useful on Floor 9.
Fish Buffs
Fishing is one of the most important progression systems in Birb because fish can provide powerful temporary buffs.
For most players, using two of the strongest +SP fish is still a good starting point. However, the third slot is more situational because recent balance changes have made Damage and Move Speed competitive in some situations.
Best SP Fish
The current strongest Leviathans and Oraclefish listed in the source are:
| Floor | Fish | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Floor 6 | Borealis Leviathan | +155% |
| Floor 6 | Starfrost Oraclefish | +80% |
| Floor 4 | Deepsong Leviathan | +115% |
| Floor 4 | Fathom Oraclefish | +55% |
| Floor 2 | Twilight Leviathan | +86% |
| Floor 2 | Velvet Oraclefish | +40% |
| Floor 1 | Gladewarden Leviathan | +32% |
The Floor 2, 4, and 6 Leviathans are the main fish to look for.
Once you start getting Shiny fish more consistently, Shiny versions can become much stronger. For example:
- Shiny Starfrost Oraclefish: +240%
- Shiny Fathom Oraclefish: +165%
So don’t immediately throw away useful Shiny fish just because you already have a normal version.
Contracts
Contracts provide additional bonuses that can help you push further into the Expedition.
The most useful bonuses depend on your current problem.
Health and Damage
Health and Damage are useful when you are trying to push to a harder floor.
If enemies are killing you too quickly, Health can help you survive.
If you are surviving but taking too long to kill enemies, Damage is usually the better choice.
Regeneration
Regeneration is useful when you are struggling with sustained damage.
It can help you stay alive without constantly relying on healing.
Move Speed
Move Speed becomes useful when your movement speed is preventing you from keeping up with enemy respawns.
In that situation, a Move Speed contract can improve your farming speed.
SP Contracts
SP contracts can look extremely attractive because they directly increase SP, but their bonuses stack additively with Quest bonuses.
Because of this, they are generally weaker than they first appear.
Expedition Tiers
You will often see players talking about T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5.
Each Expedition floor is divided into five enemy tiers.
Each tier represents a significant increase in difficulty.
The easiest way to recognize them is by their position and the large jump in enemy Health.
Generally:
- T1 is around the portal.
- T3 contains the Elite enemies.
- T5 contains the Boss.
Later game updates also added the tier number directly to enemy tooltips, along with the enemy’s Health and Damage values.
Knowing the tier is useful because two enemies on the same floor can have dramatically different stats.
Auto-Potion
If you want automatic healing, you need to unlock the Emergency Flask upgrade in the Desert upgrade tree.
Emergency Flask gives you Auto-Potion functionality.
After unlocking it, you can set your desired healing thresholds from the Equipment page.
This becomes especially useful once you are farming enemies that can deal large amounts of damage.
What Is Maub’birb?
Maub’birb is another important Desert upgrade.
It gives you an SP multiplier based on how much Golden Popcorn you have.
The important early target is the soft cap of approximately 20x SP at around 53B Golden Popcorn.
After reaching the soft cap, the bonus continues increasing, but the Golden Popcorn requirements become dramatically more expensive.
Every additional 5x multiplier costs roughly 10 times as much Golden Popcorn.
How to Maximize Maub’birb Quickly
If your goal is to reach the Golden Popcorn soft cap as quickly as possible, the source recommends focusing on Dave first.
Get Dave to 1,000 Rebirbs as quickly as possible because of his milestone bonuses.
For leveling Dave, use the recommended distribution:
9 Travel → 1 Forage → repeat
Do not put points into Gilded yet.
Also, avoid helping Dave gather resources because doing so can take XP away from him.
After 1,000 Dave Rebirbs
Once Dave reaches 1,000 Rebirbs, reset his instincts and put your points into Gilded.
At this point, you can focus on AFK Golden Popcorn farming.
The source recommends using your Birb because it gathers popcorn faster than Dave.
Go into the Desert and farm until you reach the Maub’birb soft cap.
For your fish buffs, use:
- A Golden Popcorn fish, such as the Floor 4 Crownwake Serpent
- Your strongest +Radius fish
Then stand in the Desert with Auto enabled and let the farming run.
According to the source, reaching the soft cap can take only a few hours with this setup.
Once you reach the desired Golden Popcorn amount, reset your instincts again and return Dave to the idle farming setup:
450:30:520
Floor 9
If you reach Floor 9 and suddenly feel like your progression has slowed down dramatically, that is normal.
Floor 9 represents the end of the currently available content in the source material.
The difficulty and scaling become much more extreme, so progress here is expected to be considerably slower than the earlier floors.
Fishing Beginner Guide
Fishing is another major progression system in Birb.
Fish can provide buffs, unlock progression through the Aquarium, and eventually give you access to the Fish Market.
What Does the FEED Button Do?
The FEED button lets you consume a fish and activate its bonus effect.
Regular fish buffs remain active until they are replaced.
Shiny fish buffs work differently. Their enhanced effect lasts for a limited period before eventually becoming the normal version.
You begin with one fish buff slot.
Additional buff slots can be unlocked through progression, including the perk tree and Aquarium.
How Do I Unlock Fishing Rods?
Fishing rods are unlocked progressively as you advance through the game.
Each locked rod requires specific Rod Fish.
The important thing to understand is that Rod Fish requirements apply to the lowest currently locked rod.
Don’t skip a Rod Fish requirement expecting to unlock a later rod directly.
Once you have unlocked all of the rods, there are no more Rod Fish requirements and lures no longer provide this particular benefit.
What Are Rod Fish?
Rod Fish are special fish required to unlock your next fishing rod.
Only the lowest currently locked rod matters.
This means you should focus on catching the fish required for your next rod rather than trying to collect every Rod Fish at once.
Once every rod is unlocked, Rod Fish no longer have this purpose.
What Should I Do With Moneta?
Moneta is used for several progression upgrades and can also be spent on new bait at the Fish Market.
Early in the game, selling unnecessary non-Shiny fish is a good way to generate Moneta.
However, be more careful with Shiny fish because they can be valuable for Aquarium progression and Shiny Chance bonuses.
Best Gull Doctrine
Your best Gull Doctrine depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
Leveling Gulls or Sparrows
Use Training on the Bridge when your main goal is leveling your birds.
Training provides strong XP progression and is particularly useful while building up your companions.
Filling the Fishdex
If your goal is completing your Fishdex and gaining mastery, Balanced is a good choice.
Balanced is also useful when you are primarily hunting for Shiny fish.
High-Rarity Fish
If you want more high-rarity fish, use Hunter.
Hunter is designed around improving your chances of catching higher-rarity fish and is the preferred option when rarity is your priority.
Low-Rarity Fish
For low-rarity fish, Balanced is generally better.
You can also use a lower-level rod to improve your chances of getting the fish you need.
Heavy Fish
If your goal is catching the heaviest possible fish, Hunter is the recommended doctrine.
If you are fishing on the Bridge, you can also experiment with the Cursed Hook.
How Do I Get More Shiny Fish?
Before unlocking the Fish Market, the simple answer is to catch more fish.
There isn’t a complicated shortcut.
Level your Gulls toward 100, which gives you additional birds, Moonlight, and their faster fishing speed.
Then send them to the Bridge and let them fish.
You should also deposit the Shiny fish you find into the Aquarium instead of immediately selling them.
Expedition floors can be slower for Shiny farming, but they can provide more useful fish for other progression goals.
Manual fishing generally isn’t worth spending all your time on just for Shiny hunting. You may have better uses for that time, such as farming Golden Popcorn or progressing through the Expedition.
After unlocking the Fish Market, check the Penguins for additional bait options and Shiny-related contracts.
The Aquarium
The Aquarium is a progression system connected to fishing.
It improves your Shiny fish chances, provides passive bonuses, and eventually unlocks the Fish Market.
You progress the Aquarium by catching and donating fish.
Aquarium Biomes
Each Aquarium biome has its own associated buff.
For example, the Creature biome provides a Radius bonus.
Depositing fish belonging to that biome increases the corresponding bonus.
Aquarium Resonance
Every fish also has a Species Point value.
Collecting these points advances your Aquarium Resonance milestones.
These milestones unlock additional buffs and eventually help you gain access to the Fish Market.
Why Deposit Shiny Fish?
Shiny fish are particularly valuable in the Aquarium.
Depositing a Shiny fish:
- Doubles its species point contribution.
- Allows you to display it in the Aquarium.
- Gives you a bonus to your Shiny catch chance.
The Shiny Chance bonus is affected by the record catch weight of that particular species.
Because of this, you should generally deposit Shiny fish rather than selling them.
When Should I Study or Deposit Fish?
The general priority is simple:
Always deposit Shiny fish.
If you still have important perks that require Moneta, selling unnecessary normal fish can take priority over studying them.
Normal fish can be used for progression, sold for Moneta, or studied depending on what you currently need.
How Do I Unlock the Fish Market?
You need 700 points of fish stored in the Aquarium.
Once you reach 700 points, go to the Aquarium and interact with the large purple swirling portal.
This gives you access to the Fish Market and its additional progression options.