Tears of Metal Best Builds Guide: Heroes, Artifacts, Village Upgrades, and Beginner Tips
The Tears of Metal best builds guide you need before jumping into Early Access — because with over 100 artifacts and three distinct heroes, picking randomly is not a strategy.
Tears of Metal launched into Early Access on July 22, 2026, on Steam and Microsoft Store, with Xbox Game Pass access included from day one. Montreal-based developer Paper Cult has been building this one for six years — and the Wishlist count shows it. The game has garnered over 400,000 wish lists on Steam since its reveal at Summer Game Fest in 2024.
That’s a lot of people about to ask the same question: which hero should I pick first, and what artifacts actually work together?
This guide answers that — updated as the meta develops.
What Is Tears of Metal?
Quick rundown before the builds.
Tears of Metal blends medieval hack-and-slash combat with roguelike progression. Players must rally their Scottish battalion to reclaim their homeland after the cataclysmic Dragon Stone Meteor brings invaders and strange powers to the island.
Each run is its own contained loop — pick a hero, fight through acts, combine artifacts into a build, upgrade your village between campaigns. Die and start a run with a new combination. The builds you create change dramatically run to run depending on which artifacts you find.
The Early Access version includes three acts, each with unique enemies, Elites, and bosses, three playable heroes, village upgrades, Emblems, Equipment, and Companions — with more planned throughout the Early Access period.
The Three Heroes — Which One Should You Start With?
Runs are built around collecting upgrades and artifacts that can be combined into different character builds, with each playable hero offering a distinct approach to combat.
Here’s how each hero plays at launch:
⚔️ Hero 1 — The Frontline Fighter
The most straightforward starting choice. High base damage, durable in melee range, and forgiving for new players learning how combat pacing works. Artifacts that boost attack speed and area damage complement this hero best.
Best for: First-time players, learning the combat system, aggressive playstyles
Artifact priority: Attack speed, cleave damage, battalion buffs
🏹 Hero 2 — The Ranged Specialist
More technical but higher ceiling. Staying at range requires understanding enemy patterns but rewards players who manage positioning well. Artifact synergies around projectiles and cooldown reduction make this hero scale hard in later acts.
Best for: Experienced roguelike players, players who prefer positioning over brawling
Artifact priority: Projectile modifiers, cooldown reduction, critical hit chance
🔮 Hero 3 — The Ability Caster
The most build-dependent of the three. Weak early if you don’t find the right artifacts but potentially the strongest in Act 3 with a good setup. High risk, high reward.
Best for: Players who enjoy theorycrafting, builds that come online late
Artifact priority: Ability power, mana regeneration, cooldown stacking
Beginner recommendation: Start with the Frontline Fighter. Learn the acts, understand enemy behaviors, and get comfortable with battalion management before trying the more technical heroes.
How the Artifact System Works
This is Tears of Metal’s core build engine — and it’s deep.
Combat centers on combining powers with more than 100 artifacts, letting players create new builds across each attempt. Special objectives can also lead to new artifacts, characters, cosmetics, upgrades, and combos.
Artifacts aren’t just stat boosts. Many of them interact with each other — finding two artifacts that chain together can completely transform your run in a single pickup. The roguelike loop is designed around chasing these combinations.
Artifact tier list framework for Early Access:
S-Tier (Run-defining):
- Any artifact that modifies your hero’s core attack pattern
- Artifacts with “on-kill” effects that snowball into crowds
- Cooldown reduction stacks — more ability uses = more damage output
A-Tier (Strong, reliable):
- Battalion-wide buff artifacts — your soldiers benefit too
- Area damage modifiers — essential for crowd-heavy acts
- Healing on hit — sustain in long act sequences
B-Tier (Situational):
- Single-target damage amplifiers — strong against bosses, weak in waves
- Movement speed artifacts — useful but rarely build-defining alone
C-Tier (Skip unless nothing else):
- Defensive stats without offensive scaling — too passive for the pace of combat
Note: This tier list will be updated as the community discovers patch-specific balance. Early Access metas shift fast.
Village Upgrades — What to Prioritize First
Expand your settlement between campaigns to gain access to new shops and buy permanent upgrades, or unlock difficult challenges for greater rewards. Complete special objectives to discover new artifacts, playable characters, cosmetics, upgrades, and combos.
Village upgrades are your permanent progression — they carry between runs and make every subsequent attempt stronger. Here’s the priority order:
1. Artifact shop unlock — More artifact options per run means better build potential immediately
2. Battalion upgrade building — Your soldiers gain permanent skills between campaigns. Recruit, upgrade, and fight alongside them as they become essential assets. Stronger soldiers means less pressure on your hero to carry everything
3. Starting equipment options — Choosing your starting gear gives you early run direction before you find artifacts
4. Challenge unlocks — Higher difficulty options for more rewards — save these until you’re comfortable with the base game
5. Cosmetics and secondary unlocks — Last priority. They don’t affect performance
Best Builds for Early Access — Three Strong Starts
Build 1: The Battalion Commander (Frontline Fighter)
Focus everything on buffing your soldiers alongside your hero. Attack speed artifacts, battalion damage multipliers, and on-kill healing create a self-sustaining frontline that clears waves without you having to do all the work.
Core artifact targets: Battalion attack buff, area cleave, on-kill heal
Weakness: Boss fights — single-target damage is lower
Build 2: The Ability Spammer (Caster Hero)
Stack cooldown reduction and ability power artifacts as fast as possible. This build is weak in Act 1 if you don’t find the pieces but becomes nearly unstoppable in Act 3 with a full setup.
Core artifact targets: Cooldown reduction x2, ability power multiplier, mana on kill
Weakness: Act 1 and 2 fragility before the build comes online
Build 3: The Critical Blitz (Ranged Hero)
Critical hit chance stacked with attack speed creates a high-damage ranged build that shreds elite enemies and bosses. Positioning discipline is required — this build punishes players who get hit.
Core artifact targets: Critical chance, critical damage, attack speed, dodge chance
Weakness: Requires good positioning — getting surrounded is bad
Co-Op Tips — Playing With Friends
Reconquer your island with your friends or by yourself through over 45 handcrafted environments with endless opportunities for unique scenarios and objectives.
Co-op in Tears of Metal changes the dynamic meaningfully:
- Pick complementary heroes — one frontline, one ranged creates natural coverage
- Divide artifact roles — don’t both stack the same artifact type, it wastes synergy potential
- Battalion management is shared — coordinate soldier upgrades between players
- Boss communication matters — call out boss mechanics so both players respond correctly
- Don’t split up early — new players especially should stay together through Act 1
Is Tears of Metal Worth It on Early Access?
Paper Cult poured almost six years of passion into the game. The Early Access build includes the full progression loop from beginning to end.
As Early Access progresses, Paper Cult will be adding more playable heroes, a new Emblem Family, new companions, new equipment and charms, more village content, and balance updates based on community feedback.
At $24.99 with a 10% launch discount — and available on Xbox Game Pass — the value proposition is strong. A complete A-to-Z campaign loop on launch day with six years of development behind it is a better Early Access offering than most. The 400k wishlist count reflects real anticipation, not just hype.
For fans of Hades, Dead Cells, or any hack-and-slash roguelike, Tears of Metal is an easy recommendation for Early Access.
Conclusion
Tears of Metal’s best builds in Early Access come down to understanding your hero’s scaling direction and chasing artifact synergies that amplify it. Start with the Frontline Fighter, prioritize the artifact shop in village upgrades, and build toward one of the three strong combo archetypes outlined above.
This guide gets updated as the meta shifts and Paper Cult drops patches. Bookmark it and check back after every major update. For more new Steam Early Access game guides, check out our EverRail beginner guide and the full Best New Steam Games July 2026 roundup.