📚 Complete Beginner Guide

The Ultimate Brotato Guide

Everything you need to know to get started and improve at Brotato. From essential gameplay mechanics to item priorities – this guide covers the fundamentals for new players.

📑 Table of Contents

📖Introduction 🎮Gameplay Fundamentals 🎒Essential Items 📊Stats Deep Dive ⚔️Weapon Guide 👤Recommended Characters

📖

Before You Start

🎲 Brotato is a Complex Game

This guide is more of a guideline than a strict solution. No guide can give you a 100% guaranteed strategy – you need to adapt!I want to push you in the right direction, but I strongly encourage you to develop your own strategies as well.

🎓 Every Character is a Tutorial

Winning with each character teaches you how to play better with other characters. Each character teaches you a specific playstyle:

★Engineer – Teaches you how to play with turrets
★Speedy – Teaches you how to manage the Speed stat
★Sick – Teaches you how to handle HP loss (important for Blood Donation/Bloody Hand items)

By mastering characters with bigger handicaps, you learn to leverage their strengths and weaknesses – knowledge you can transfer to other characters.

📝 What This Guide Covers

✓Build types (Gun, Precise, Medieval, etc.)

✓Which stats/weapons to prioritize

✓Tips when you're stuck

✓Items to avoid or buy

✓Recommended characters to start with

✓General gameplay strategies

⚠️ Important Note

The screenshots and items I list are guidelines/recommendations. Don't expect to get all the items I had – you will get completely different items! Buy other upgrades based on the recommended main stats of the build. This guide is just a guide! Some things will work for you, some won't. We all play differently and there are SO many ways to play Brotato!

🎮

1. Gameplay Fundamentals

⚙️ Recommended Settings

✓Enable Mouse-Only Movement – More precise than WASD, crucial for dodging projectiles
✓Disable Visual Clutter – Turn off damage numbers, screen shake, and weapon highlighting for better visibility

🎯 Core Gameplay Principles

★Commit to One Weapon Type – Avoid mixing melee and ranged. Focus on a single weapon class (e.g., all SMGs or all Swords) for better stat synergy.
★Economy First (Waves 1-5) – Invest in Luck and Harvesting early. Buy weapons over items. This sets up your snowball.
★DPS Priority (Waves 6-15) – Focus on damage scaling. More DPS = fewer enemies attacking you = survival.
★Defenses Last (Waves 16-20) – Only buy defensive stats in the final stretch if needed.

🔧 Weapon Management

→Fill All 6 Slots First – Six white (Tier 1) weapons outperform four whites + one blue. Don't upgrade until all slots are full.
→Weapon Tags Increase Drop Rates – If you want Slingshots but don't have one, pick a Spear (both have the Primitive tag). More weapons of the same type = more likely to see them in shops.
→Delay High-Tier Upgrades – Upgrading past Tier 2 before Wave 16-17 is often inefficient. A +2 Ranged Damage item may give more value than a weapon upgrade.

💡 Golden Rule: Offense IS Defense

In Brotato, DPS is king. More damage means fewer enemies survive to attack you. For most builds, prioritizing damage over defensive stats is the correct approach. Only melee builds typically need extra HP and Armor.

💰 Economy & Resources

$Collect Everything Immediately – Money on the ground is XP and gold you need NOW. Don't leave it lying around.
$Reroll Wisely – Early game (Waves 1-10): max 2-3 rerolls. Once it costs 50+ gold, stop rerolling until end-game.
$Elite Crates Full Heal – The red crate from elites heals you completely. Factor this into your positioning.

🎒

2. Essential Items to Buy

These items should be purchased on almost every run. Prioritize weapons first (aim for 6 by Wave 4-5), then grab these:

Coupon

-5% Shop Prices

Buy ALL of them. Compound savings are massive.

Gentle Alien

+5% Damage, +5% Enemies, +2 Max HP

More enemies = more gold. Plus free damage and HP.

Piggy Bank

+20% Materials at wave start

Buy after Wave 9-10. Teaches good saving habits.

Recycling Machine

+35% Materials from recycling

Synergizes perfectly with high Luck builds.

Shady Potion

+20 Luck, -2 HP Regen

HP Regen is useless anyway. Free Luck!

Weird Food

+2 HP from consumables, -2% Dodge

Dodge is overrated. Consumable healing is not.

Lemonade

+1 HP from consumables

Pure upside. Best healing in the game.

Tree

More trees spawn

Trees = healing + money + crates (with Luck). Snowball city.

📊

3. Stats Deep Dive

✅ Excellent Stats (Prioritize These)

Luck~80+ by end-game

Better loot, more consumables, higher tier items, better level-ups. The ultimate stat.

HarvestingGet early, snowballs hard

Great early investment. Pairs well with Luck for massive economy.

% Attack Speed~100% by end-game

Essential for most weapons. Slower weapons benefit more. SMGs/Miniguns don't need it.

Range80-150 for melee

Amazing for melee AND some ranged (Crossbow, Sniper). Hit more enemies per swing.

% Speed~20% by end-game

Mobility is survival. Start investing around Wave 9. Don't go too high though.

Flat Damage (Melee/Ranged/Elemental)Build-dependent

Match to your weapon type. Foundation for % Damage scaling.

⚡ Situational Stats

% Damage – Buy after building flat damage base. Don't rush it.

HP – Ranged: enough to survive one-shots. Melee: 3-4 hits worth.

Armor – 10-12 is plenty. Avoid negative armor, especially early/melee.

Engineering – Only stat that boosts turrets/mines. Essential for Engineer builds.

% Crit Chance – Only for specific builds/classes. Ignore on most runs.

❌ Generally Avoid

HP Regeneration – Too slow. Consumable healing is vastly superior. Exception: Bull, Doctor.

Lifesteal – Same problem. Luck + consumables outperform it. Exception: specific builds.

% Dodge – RNG-based survival is unreliable. Manual dodging + HP/Armor is better. Exception: Ghost.

⚔️

4. Weapon Guide

Weapon effectiveness depends on your character. Generally, commit to one weapon type and stack it.

STop-Tier (Best in Slot)

Slingshot

Infinite bounces, no damage reduction

Fist

Great damage & attack speed (all variants)

Spear

Excellent damage & range

Sword

Strong damage, versatile attacks

AExcellent

SMG

Stack Ranged Damage, skip Attack Speed

Minigun

Same as SMG, pure DPS machine

Circular Saw

Great healing via slashing attack

Knife

Insane with Crazy class crit build

Thunder Sword

Best melee elemental weapon

Double Barrel Shotgun

High DPS close range, needs Attack Speed

Flamethrower

1-2 is enough (Burn stacks)

Nuclear Launcher

Elemental/Explosive, needs Attack Speed

Rocket Launcher

Non-elemental explosive

Crossbow

S-tier for Hunter. Scales with Range, not Ranged Damage

Sniper Gun

Same as Crossbow, skip crit

⛔ Weapons to Avoid

These weapons are generally weak and should not be purchased:

PistolLaser GunMedical GunGhost ScepterPotato ThrowerShredder

Note: Ghost weapons only work for Ghost/Demon. Wands are generally outclassed by Flamethrower.

👤

5. Recommended Characters for Beginners

These characters are ideal to start with as they unlock useful items/weapons and teach various game mechanics. Click on a character for detailed builds and strategies.

Well Rounded

→

Unlocks: Potato

Perfect for beginners – balanced stats

Sick

→

Unlocks: Whetstone

Teaches HP management

Speedy

→

Unlocks: Fin

Teaches speed management

Arms Dealer

→

Unlocks: Anvil

Useful weapon upgrade item

Masochist

→

Unlocks: Spiky Shield

Strong defensive weapon

Soldier

→

Unlocks: Nuclear Launcher

Powerful explosive weapon

Lich

→

Unlocks: Tentacle

Interesting mechanic

Streamer

→

Unlocks: Community Support

Great economy item

Cyborg

→

Unlocks: Improved Tools

Engineering boost

Engineer

→

Unlocks: Robot Arm

Teaches turret gameplay

Golem

→

Unlocks: Stone Skin

Strong armor item

Renegade

→

Unlocks: Fairy

Healing item

💡 Why This Order?

These characters were selected based on two factors: how useful the unlocked weapons/items are and how difficult the character is to master. By playing these characters in this order, you gradually build up your arsenal of powerful items and learn different playstyles.