The Bazaar Beginner Tips Guide: Best Heroes, PvE Choices & Build Strategies

The Bazaar is a unique blend of roguelike, card game, and auto-battler mechanics that challenges players to build strong item boards, outlast opponents, and make smart decisions along the way. If you’re just starting out, the game can feel overwhelming with its many mechanics, heroes, and strategies. This beginner guide will help you understand the fundamentals and avoid common mistakes so you can maximize your runs.

Quick The Bazaar Beginner Tips Cheat Sheet

1. Aim for 10 Wins – Every run ends when your Prestige runs out. Rewards scale at 4, 7, and 10 wins.
2. Pick a Hero and Stick – Vanessa is the easiest starter. Learn her Shuriken Combo build before branching out.
3. PvE Encounters Matter – Wins grant XP, board slots, and health. Choose fights you can realistically win, but go for Diamond/Legendary if it looks close—the extra XP is huge.
4. Know the Keywords – Haste and Charge make you faster, Poison ignores Shield, and a Storm will finish games if they drag on.
5. Build With Focus – Don’t grab random items. Commit to a theme (burst damage, Shield wall, or econ scaling) and refine your positioning every run.

See also: Guntouchables Beginner Tips & Tricks for New Players

Learn the Core Objective

Every run in The Bazaar revolves around competing asynchronously against the “ghosts” of other players. Your ultimate goal is to earn 10 wins before your Prestige (the game’s equivalent of an HP bar) runs out.

• Wins Earn Rewards: At 4, 7, and 10 wins you’ll earn increasing numbers of chests containing cosmetics like hero skins and card backs. In some versions, 10 wins award 6 chests, while in Ranked it awards 10—check the in-game tracker for the current value.
• Ranked vs. Normal: Both modes share the same mechanics, but Normal starts you against easier opponents, making it a safe place to practice. Ranked mode, on the other hand, lets you climb divisions from Bronze to Legendary for exclusive rewards.

Draws are also counted as wins, which can sometimes influence whether you take a safe or risky approach in close battles.

Choosing and Mastering a Hero in The Bazaar

At the start, you’ll have access to Vanessa, Pygmalien, and Dooley. Each one offers unique playstyles:

• Vanessa – Straightforward, weapon-focused offense. Great for beginners.
• Pygmalien – Excels at generating Gold and Shields, enabling economic and defensive builds.
• Dooley – Synergy-heavy, with items that boost one another when combined.

Additional heroes like Mak and Stelle are available as DLC, but the starting trio is more than enough to learn the ropes. Vanessa is especially forgiving for new players because she focuses on strong weapons and avoids overly complex mechanics.

A good approach is to test every hero once or twice, then stick with one. Deepening your mastery of a single hero’s synergies will give you stronger fundamentals and make learning the others easier later on.

Navigating PvE Encounters

After each day, you’ll face PvE encounters that offer XP, gold, and unique item drops. Choosing the right encounter is one of the most important decisions you’ll make:

• High-tier fights (Diamond/Legendary): Offer the best rewards but carry higher risk.
• Lower-tier fights: Safer choices if your build feels weak or inconsistent.
• XP Gain: Each PvE fight grants XP, which increases your max health, unlocks more board slots, and provides powerful level-up rewards.

If a Diamond or Legendary encounter looks close, it’s often worth taking—it grants an extra 4th XP even on a loss, which can push your build ahead. On the other hand, losing repeatedly in PvE usually signals that your setup lacks synergy and needs adjusting.

Items, Cooldowns, and Keywords in The Bazaar

Items (weapons, tools, apparel, etc.) make up the backbone of your strategy. Once placed, they activate automatically based on their cooldowns. Stronger items often take longer to fire, so balancing speed and power is essential.

Some key mechanics to remember:

• Haste/Charge: Reduce item cooldowns, letting you act faster than your opponent.
• Shield: Absorbs incoming damage but doesn’t block Poison.
• Poison: Ignores Shields and directly damages health—healing or regeneration is the best counter.
• Storm: If neither side falls quickly, a Storm will appear, steadily draining health from both heroes. Faster builds often win these showdowns.

During battles, you can right-click an enemy’s item to pause the fight and inspect its details—an excellent way to learn unfamiliar keywords or interactions mid-run.

Finally, always keep an eye on Ammo. Weapons that run out without reload tools or skills quickly become dead weight on your board.

Building With Focus and Synergy

The strongest builds in The Bazaar stick to a theme rather than trying to cover every angle. For example:

• Vanessa thrives with weapon-focused aggro and burst setups.
• Pygmalien scales through Gold and Shield economy strategies.
• Dooley shines with core synergy builds where items power each other up.

Avoid spreading your resources across too many directions. Pick one strategy and optimize around it, making sure you balance offense with support. A board full of damage-dealing weapons without Shield, Healing, or Reload support often collapses against more rounded opponents.

Watching your opponents is another way to learn. Pay attention to the combos they use, and you’ll discover new archetypes to try for yourself.

Managing Permanent Stacking Items

Some items scale indefinitely over the course of a run, and these can define your strategy if you find them early:

• Lemonade Stand: Increases max health when you sell Small items. It pairs well with generators like Money Tree and Cash Register.
• Langxian Spear: Gains permanent boosts from victories, rewarding consistent wins.

Stacking items are strongest when acquired early in a run. If you only find them later, they may not be worth building around. Also note that some passive items like Lemonade Stand, Money Tree, and Cash Register work from your Stash—they don’t need to be equipped on the main board.

When using Langxian, consider taking easier PvE encounters while it scales up. Losing too many fights in a row can nullify the payoff.

Positioning for Success

Placement is just as important as item selection. Some skills and items interact directly with their neighbors or rely on position:

• Left-Handed/Right-Handed skills: Buff specific board slots.
• Duct Tape + Uzi combo: Works well because Duct Tape triggers off the adjacent item, and Uzi’s three-second cooldown means it procs often.

Before locking in a fight, review your board’s order. Small tweaks in positioning can lead to surprisingly large power gains.

Gold, Conceding, and Other Smart Habits

Gold fuels your item purchases, but you don’t need to hoard it early. Unless you’re aiming for a dedicated economic strategy with Pygmalien, having around 10 Gold on hand is usually enough to buy what you need from vendors.

Don’t be afraid to concede a run that isn’t working. There’s no penalty, and you’ll still keep any chests you’ve earned up to that point. This saves time and lets you quickly move on to a stronger attempt.

Finally, don’t hesitate to experiment. Some of the best discoveries come from trying unusual item combos and learning how they interact across different heroes.

Starter Builds for The Bazaar Beginners

If you’re unsure where to start, here are a few simple archetypes for each free hero. These builds don’t require perfect items but give you a clear path to aim for in your first runs.

Vanessa Beginner Builds – Best Starter Path

• Shuriken Combo (Safe Beginner Pick): This is the most forgiving starting build. It focuses on Charge and Haste with items like Shuriken, Pistol Sword, and Orange Julian to quickly burst down opponents. It teaches core mechanics while staying simple.
• Full Ammo Aggro: Leverages Ammo weapons such as Revolver and Repeater, supported by reload tools to maintain damage pressure.

Pygmalien Beginner Builds – Economy and Shield Strategies

• Money Tree Scaling: Use Money Tree with Lemonade Stand or Cash Register to build long-term value, then buy expensive power items like Skyscraper.
• Shield Wall: Focus on stacking Shield-generating items to survive longer fights. Keep in mind that Poison bypasses Shield—so bring Healing or Regen to counter it.

Dooley Beginner Builds – Core and Dino Synergies

• Weaponized Core: Center your run around the Core itself and buff it with flexible weapons like Flamethrower or SMG.
• Dinosaurs: If you find an early Diana-Saur or Dino package, commit to it. Permanent scaling makes them incredibly strong if ramped up early.

The Bazaar rewards patience, experimentation, and adaptability. As a beginner, your focus should be on:

1. Understanding each hero’s strengths.
2. Building around synergies instead of randomness.
3. Taking smart risks in PvE fights.
4. Refining your positioning and item choices every run.

Failed runs aren’t wasted—they’re lessons that teach you how items and heroes interact. With these fundamentals in mind, you’ll not only survive longer runs but also climb the ranks with confidence. Play Now!