Best Prestige Upgrades
Prestige is best spent on the problem that keeps coming back after resets. Early PP should shorten the opening loop; later PP should improve den rewards, mithril, gates, and ascension scaling.
Prestige by Phase
Section titled “Prestige by Phase”| Phase | Best Buys | Payoff |
|---|---|---|
| First few PP | Swift Start · Ancestor's Picks · Marching Orders | These make every new run start faster: more hauling, better miner damage/luck, and less time waiting on runners. |
| Early stability | Fleet-Footed And Rock-Hard · Orequake Finger · Heirloom Inheritance | Useful when basic runs still need help surviving hazards, clearing ore, or starting with a useful artifact. |
| Dens and artifacts | Fated Finds · Undermined Foundations · Vault of Kings | Take these when den clears are reliable enough that better den rewards and artifact carryover change the next run. |
| Mithril | Greyglitter Leylines · Holy Pickaxe · Ascended Mithril Cache | These help when mithril is the currency bottleneck, either through luck, holy pickaxe procs, or ascension-starting mithril. |
| Damage specialization | Powder Keg Lineage · Ballista Lore · Infernal Fortune · Deep Penetration | Pick the line that matches your actual build. These are strongest when they support the damage branch you are already funding. |
| Gate and ascension prep | Key Master · Ascetic Rites · Yeeti Arms · C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. | These matter when the goal shifts from clearing another normal mountain to special gates, rituals, and deeper permanent scaling. |
Bad Prestige Habits
Section titled “Bad Prestige Habits”| Habit | Better Read |
|---|---|
| Buying every cheap permanent upgrade immediately. | Cheap is only good if it changes the next run. A cheap bonus to the wrong system can wait. |
| Taking a weapon prestige for a weapon you are not using. | Weapon prestige should follow your active damage branch. |
| Waiting too long on den/artifact prestige. | If dens are already dying, guaranteed artifact and lower-den-HP effects can snowball quickly. |
| Ignoring start-of-run upgrades. | Starting with runners, artifacts, mithril, or soul can remove dead time from every future run. |