This Spin Hero Beginner Guide is split into two parts: Achievements (what to do and how to unlock them) and Advice (practical strategies, strong builds, and character-specific tips). Read the Achievements section if you want a checklist; read the Advice sections to improve consistency and climb the Gambler’s Curse difficulties.

Spin Hero is a roguelike deckbuilder built around a 20-slot wheel of active symbols. Each run you gather permanent symbols, consumables, and upgrade opportunities. Combat is resolved by spinning your wheel and applying symbols; synergies and careful inventory management determine whether a run succeeds. Survive, adapt, and refine your builds as difficulty increases.

Aim to have exactly 20 useful permanent symbols whenever possible; consumables can temporarily push you past 20.
Survivability matters more than flashy damage early on — many runs fail because of poor defensive planning.
Use planning tools: remove dead slots with cheap shop removals and save rerolls for boss or golden chest shops.
If you plan to farm later-game achievements, practice stable early- to mid-game strategies before chasing extreme synergy wins.

Achievements — what to do and practical tips

General completion

These are basic progression achievements:

Beat Stage 1–5: Win a full run once to clear these. Any character will do.
Character Masteries (Alaric, Elaine, Baldwin, Jango): Reach level 8 with each character. You gain XP from completed runs — you don’t have to win every run, but the run must finish for XP to count.
Lessons Learned: Fail five runs. This is automatic if you play frequently.

Unlocking characters

Elaine: Buy five items in shops across runs; this usually happens naturally.
Baldwin: Deal 300 damage in a single spin; strength or critical burst builds will achieve this.
Jango: Defeat 25 elites total — this unlocks just by playing.

Performance and loot achievements

EZ CLAP: Defeat a boss while at full health. Save a full-heal consumable or keep your defensive build intact during the fight.
GET REKT: Kill an enemy in one spin before they act. Early-game bombs or a powerful opening one-shot can do this.
Lucky Hit: Deal 777+ in one spin; stack damage multipliers and critical synergies.
Loot Hoarder: Open five golden chests in one run. Elaine with Lockpicking or builds focused on chest generation accelerate this.
We Might Need A Restock: Spend 1,500+ gold at a single shop. Save gold and spend in a big purchase spree. Elaine’s gold bonuses help.
Piggy Savings: Carry 3,000 gold at once. Prioritize gold-boosting items and avoid spending early. Elaine makes this easiest.

Stacking and extreme-stat achievements

These require specialized builds and often appear late in runs:

Feel Free To Attack (100+ Thorns stacks): Build around Thorn symbols and supporting runes that multiply stacks.
Try Killing Me NOW (300+ max HP): Baldwin excels here. Convert armor into HP and buy armor items liberally.
All The POWER (500+ max mana): Focus on mana-increasing symbols, preferably with survivability to sustain longer fights.
The Goliath (20+ Strength stacks): Stack Power runes and keep them active.
The Walking Fort (500 armor during combat): Extremely demanding. Use plated armor perks, Blessed Aegis, Titan’s Armor, and heavy money investment into defensive symbols. Expect to farm Stage 5 shops.
Spreading Plague (350+ Poison stacks): Poison-era builds like Jango with Venom Flasks and plague sickles are the best route. Boss fights with high HP are the most realistic opportunities.

Gambler’s Curse (difficulty milestones)

These are progression-based and require finishing runs on increasing curse levels:

Finish Curse 1 through Curse 5 for general completion.
You must unlock Gambler’s Curse on a character (finish a standard run), then complete each higher Curse level sequentially.
The Curse levels add modifiers like higher HP on enemies, enemies starting with rage, no regen between stages, reduced gold, and harder boss fights. They demand both build quality and execution.

Special:

Gentleman’s Triumph: Win a Curse 5 run while carrying the Fancy Top Hat. This is luck plus skill — the Top Hat is legendary and rare, so plan to buy or find it on a Curse 5 run.

General gameplay advice — core principles

Wheel discipline: Aim for 20 meaningful permanent symbols. Consumables and self-consuming symbols are exceptions, but never let dead slots dilute your core synergy.

Build for survivability first: Health, armor, and regeneration matter more than extreme damage in higher curses. If forced to choose, keep your HP and mitigation high.

Reroll and removals are valuable: Save rerolls and shop removals for late-stage shops or bosses to secure critical rare/legendary symbols.

Timing matters: Save powerful consumables and rerolls for elite or boss shops; use cheap consumables early for stabilization.

Be flexible: Take temporary symbols early and replace them when upsides appear. Don’t fetishize a single perfect item if replacements will make your build more consistent.

Avoid bows: They tend to underperform relative to investment. Invest in weapons and synergies that scale with your character’s unique strengths.

Boss window: Try to have a functional build by the end of Stage 3; Stage 3 and Stage 5 bosses are the most punishing and merit preparation.

Character-specific guides and builds

Below are reliable strategies for each character, with recommended chosen perks and what to prioritize.

Alaric — the flexible powerhouse

Core identity: Balanced survivability + strong melee options. He gets a passive heal after battles or permanent HP when at full health.

Recommended chosen perks:

Plated Armor (+2 armor per armor symbol) — makes armor-focused builds far stronger.
Angel Pact or Fame and Glory are viable situational picks.

Starter items to look for: Alaric’s Sword, Apprentice Staff, Mana Ring, Small Buckler.

Builds that work:

Armor-centered builds: Stack armor symbols, Blessed Aegis, and combine with Thorns or Poison for damage over time. Use items like Armorer’s Hammer for huge returns.
Strength/Pure damage builds: Alaric’s sword scales well with kills and power, making a damage focus effective.
Hybrid magic: His Mana Ring opens hybrid play — pick up mana symbols and survivability to support magic rotations.

Notes: If you want to pursue the Walking Fort achievement, Alaric with Plated Armor and strong armor gear is a top candidate.

Elaine — gold, chests, and high-risk reward

Core identity: Gold generation and chest interaction lead to explosive late-game options.

Recommended chosen perks:

Lockpicking — free golden chests and an extra chest each stage.
Smart Barter or Thrift Practice for economy-focused play.

Starter items: Elaine’s Dagger (scales with gold), Shinobi Star, Linen Cap.

Build approaches:

Gold accumulation / shop spam: Accumulate gold via passive perks and golden chests, then buy high-value symbols late in runs. Consider removing Elaine’s dagger at the end if it conflicts with a purchase-heavy plan.
Agility / Belt synergies: Items like Shinobi’s Belt and multiple small weapons scale well on Elaine.
Debuff / bleed variants: She can use bleed/poison builds if you avoid draining all gold early.

Tips: Elaine needs early healing or defensive items on difficult curses because losing HP early is costly. On the flipside, her gold advantages make Piggy Savings and Loot Hoarder straightforward.

Baldwin — brute force and sustain

Core identity: Damage-focused fighter who heals from offensive output.

Recommended chosen perk:

Flesh Armor — convert healed amount into armor (strongly recommended).

Starter items: Baldwin’s Helmet, Wooden Axe, Primal Club.

Builds that work:

Axe/Strength builds: Maximize raw damage and heal through Bloodlust. Baldwin’s damage is his sustain.
Scorching Page / Burn: Works well as a hybrid aggressive approach.

Notes: Baldwin’s unique mechanic converts armor into max HP. Use armor pickups strategically to pump health. He is the most straightforward character for aggressive play and often the easiest to carry through curses.

Jango — elite hunter and debuff specialist

Core identity: Excels at defeating elites, triggering powerful heals and elite-centric bonuses.

Recommended chosen perk:

Lethal Traps — grants heavy debuff stacks for elites and bosses, a strong choice for high-curse bosses.

Starter items: Jango’s Belt, Bandit’s Sword, Throwing Knife.

Build archetypes:

Bleed/Poison: Jango’s kit amplifies damage-over-time strategies; Venom Flasks and plague sickles are gold.
Hybrid weapon stacks: Jango’s Belt buffs adjacent weapons, making multiple small damage symbols stack powerfully.

Tips: Because Jango heals on elite kills, he is forgiving on elite-heavy runs. If you want Spreading Plague, plan Jango poison stacks into boss fights.

Example builds and endgame goals

Solid all-purpose build

Focus: durable offense + sustain.
Core slots: 10–12 reliable damage symbols, 4–6 armor/defense/regeneration, 1–2 utility (bag of coins / bomb), 1–2 powerful consumables reserved for boss.
Strategy: develop a damage core early, but keep an eye on HP and armor. Buy reroll removal if a slot is dead. Replace early filler with rarer legendaries as you find them.

High-damage glass cannon

Focus: max power symbols, few defensive items except those that convert to sustain.
Use on lower curse levels first; scale up only if you can secure major healing or armor conversions.

Gold-farming shop build (Elaine)

Fill inventory with gold-generating items early, skip expensive buys until Stage 5, then splurge on high-value symbols for boss fights or curse progression runs.

Poison/bleed boss build (Jango)

Prioritize Venom Flasks, plague sickles, and poison symbols. Keep some armor to stall while stacks build. Boss fights with extremely high HP are where this design shines.

Boss and elite shop strategy

Save rerolls for shops that appear before crucial fights or golden chest opportunities.

Buy removals to eliminate dead or weak permanent symbols — the cost pays off if it improves consistency.

Golden chests and epic shops on later stages are where you build your late-run power; conserve resources and rerolls until then.

Gambler’s Curse

Build incrementally: first secure a consistent Stage 1–3 strategy, then push Stage 4 and 5 with a wider safety margin.

On Curse modifiers that remove regen or reduce gold, pivot to items that convert into permanent durability (armor → HP, passive heals).

Repeat runs with focused goals: don’t try to chase every achievement on a single run. Grind curse progression and then farm the extreme-stat achievements with targeted builds.

Spin Hero rewards planning, tight inventory management, and flexibility. Start with stable, survivable builds and slowly specialize for achievements that demand extreme stacks or bizarre stats. Each character has an identity and reliable pathways to success — Baldwin for raw power, Elaine for economic dominance, Alaric for balanced armor/magic mixes, and Jango for elite-focused bleed/poison runs.