Brotato beginner's guide — how runs actually work

Brotato looks like a game about dodging. It is mostly a game about shopping. Twenty waves, each 20–90 seconds, and between every wave a shop where you spend materials on items and weapons. The character you pick decides which stats are cheap for you; the shop decides whether you get them. Here is what matters, in order.

1. Six weapons, matching classes

You can carry up to six weapons. Every weapon has one or two classes — Unarmed, Blade, Gun, Elemental and so on — and holding several of the same class gives a set bonus that grows from two matching weapons up to six. Two Blades give +1 Melee Damage and 1% Life Steal; six give +5 and 5%. The bonuses are listed on every weapon page.

The practical rule: pick a class early and stop buying off-class weapons, unless the character gives you a reason not to. Combining and upgrading weapons (two of the same weapon at the same tier merge into the next tier) is usually better value than a new weapon after wave 8 or so.

2. Stats: three groups, not sixteen

The stats page lists sixteen primary stats. Think of them as three groups:

Damage output — Damage (a percentage multiplier on everything), the three flat damage stats (Melee Damage, Ranged Damage, Elemental Damage) that only matter for weapons that scale with them, Attack Speed, Crit Chance, and Engineering for structures.
Staying alive — Max HP, Armor (each point is about +6.7% effective HP), Dodge (capped at 60% for almost everyone), HP Regeneration and Life Steal.
Economy — Harvesting (materials at the end of every wave, compounding 5% per wave) and Luck (more drops, rarer shop items).

A build needs one damage stat it leans on, enough survival to stop dying to chip damage, and some economy before wave 10 so the late shops are affordable. The weapon pages tell you which flat damage stat a weapon scales with — a Blade with 100% melee scaling turns every point of melee damage into a point per hit.

3. The shop and the economy

Materials are the only currency. Prices rise every wave, so a tier IV item at wave 6 is a bargain compared with wave 16. Rerolls cost materials too and get more expensive each use within a wave.

Three habits separate good runs from bad ones:

Spend down to a small buffer early. Materials in the bank do nothing; stats on the potato compound.
Lock items you want but can't afford. The lock button keeps the slot through the next wave.
Buy Harvesting before wave 8 or not at all. It needs waves to compound.

Character pages list favoured tags — the shop weights its offers toward those tags, which is how a Brawler keeps seeing melee items.

4. Danger levels

Danger 0 to 5 scale enemy health and damage and, from Danger 2 upward, add elites and a second boss. Each level unlocks by winning the previous one with that character. Danger 5 is the standard for "can this build actually win". Our tier list is written for Danger 5.

5. Unlocks

Most weapons and items unlock by winning a run with a specific character on any Danger. Characters unlock through in-run feats (finish a wave at 1 HP, collect a number of materials, and so on). The unlocks page has every condition on one screen; the fastest route is Danger 0 wins with each default character.

6. The mistakes everyone makes first

Buying a weapon from a new class because it looked strong.
Stacking Dodge past the 60% cap — every point above it is wasted.
Ignoring Armor on melee characters; it is the cheapest survival stat for anyone who stands near enemies.
Taking negative HP Regeneration items on characters who rely on regen.
Never rerolling. A reroll that finds a weapon upgrade is nearly always worth it.
Standing still. Speed is a survival stat; the arena has no cover.

Where to go next

Browse characters and read the stat lines — they tell you the intended build.
The weapons list sorted by DPS shows what scales; the per-tier table shows how much.
When the co-op team builder is live, use it to pair characters whose economies stack.