Minecraft Dungeons II Beginner Tips

These tips come from what Mojang said on stage and what the preview build showed on screen. Where a tip rests on the preview build it is marked as such, and this page is re-checked against the release version.

1. Gear is your class. There is no class system: you pick an appearance, and your equipment decides how you play. Trying a new weapon is the whole point, not a detour.

2. Enchant Books are reusable. Books are collected in the world and can be applied as many times as you like to whatever gear you like. Applying one does not use it up, so experiment early.

3. Echo shards are the currency that matters. They pay for rerolling gear effects, for enchanting and for upgrading the merchants in town, and they drop from Soul Corrupted enemies and randomly generated dungeons. Fight the corrupted mobs you meet.

4. Rerolling unlocks later, and it is permanent. On the preview build the Blacksmith's re-roll sat behind Merchant Level 3, and its confirmation warns the change cannot be undone. Do not spend shards on a roll you might regret.

5. Upgrades are capped by your Hero Level. The Blacksmith can carry a favourite item forward, but only up to the Item Power your level allows. Levelling unlocks more headroom; hoarding emeralds does not.

6. Upgrade prices vary a lot. The same +2 step cost 62 emeralds for a Rare and 182 for a Unique in the preview build. Check the price before you commit.

7. Jump attacks are not always better. Jumping and combo attacks are new, but in early-access testing, staying on the ground dealt more damage per second on some weapons. Slow, heavy weapons gain the most from jump cancelling; see the jump-cancel guide.

8. Use the minecart network. Travel happens in the world through minecart stations rather than a mission menu, and areas track how many of their items you have collected.

9. Talismans level up. Unlike the first game's gear, talismans gain levels, so an early one can stay useful longer than it looks.

10. Start an online character. A character created offline stays offline for good and cannot be converted later, so pick online even if you play alone (set it to invite only).

11. Spend before you cap. Emeralds stop at 99,999 since Mojang's October 1 balance update (9,999 at launch) and echo shards at 100; anything past that is wasted. Each gear type holds 80 items, and scrapped items can be bought back.

12. Disenchanting is free, but only half free. The Enchantsmith returns every enchantment point when you remove an enchantment, not the echo shards you paid.

13. Rerolls get pricier. A reroll starts at one echo shard and climbs to two, three, five and seven the more you reroll the same item.

14. Loot resets. Chests in the world restock after you log out and back in, and dungeon entrances move between sessions, so a chest near a minecart station is a repeatable emerald source.

15. Turn on the mini inventory (Settings, Interface). The full inventory does not pause the game; the mini version lets you swap gear mid-fight while still seeing around you. On PC, the middle mouse button draws a path to your marked quest.

16. Watch the Sift's tide. The Sift cycles through three phases shown in the top corner: Flow is normal, Thrive speeds up soul regeneration and artifact cooldowns, and Endure makes enemies much tougher. Save boss fights for Flow or Thrive, and never touch the Sift's water: it burns.

17. Check the minimap for secrets. Rooms behind waterfalls and hidden chests show on the minimap before you see them, and special chests, not plain ones, hold the better gear.

18. Enchantment points pile up before you can spend them. Enchanting opens only after the story quest Training With the Enchantsmith, usually around level 15; until then points bank up (one streamer sat on 11 unspent). The Enchantsmith stands beside the Town Merchant in Brave Haven, before the minecart stations.

19. Golden doors without a dungeon sign are free loot. The small gold doors that are not dungeon entrances open onto a short ambush and a reward, and they stay put; it is the big dungeon entrances that move between sessions.

20. Refight a boss straight away. Right after a boss dies, a respawn stone beside its arena offers a rematch that pays out another unique item once; after that it drops random loot, and the boss scales up if you come back much later.

21. Wear your loot gear before you open chests. Effects with a blue pouch icon raise the chance of extra drops from enemies (up to about 60%), and those with a blue ring raise the chance of higher-rarity items; swap them on before a boss or a big chest.

22. There is no full-set bonus. Mixing pieces from different armor sets costs nothing, so pick each slot for its own effect.

23. Keep gear within about ten levels. Upgrading an item that has fallen far behind gets expensive, so top up what you use as you go; the inventory warns you when equipped gear is too low.

24. Fill every artifact slot. The second artifact slot opens at hero level 5 and the third at level 10, and artifacts count toward item power, so even a weak one beats an empty slot.

25. Ranged ammo never runs out. Bows and crossbows recharge their shots over time instead of using arrows, so shoot freely.

26. Read quest rewards before you start. Each quest shows its reward up front, and side quests often pay unique gear: pick the ones with gear you want. Levelling the Town Merchant also unlocks stronger gear in its shop.

27. Rifts are the enchantment book farm. The chest at the end of a rift, after its boss or its elite ambush, gives at least one Enchant Book every time, sometimes two, in runs of five to twenty minutes. There are 32 books to collect.

28. Farm a boss you have already beaten. Once a boss's rematch reward is claimed, restarting it from its respawn stone drops random gear with a good share of legendaries, plus about eight soul shards. A good target is the golem reached from the Singer's Meadow portal in the Sift: it dies every 15 seconds and gaining a level every two kills; the bonus chest beside the arena only refills after you log out.

29. Upgrade before level 100. Hero level stops at 100 and item power at 149, so once you reach the cap your power only rises by upgrading and replacing gear: push upgrades before you get there.

30. Each item leans toward certain effects. Rerolling a piece draws mostly from its own theme: a companion helmet keeps rolling companion effects, a ranger jacket mostly ranged ones. Pick the base item for the effects you want before spending shards.

31. On console, an online hero needs the platform subscription even for solo play. An online character cannot be played at all on Xbox, PlayStation or Switch without that console's online membership, because it counts as multiplayer; an offline hero plays without one and still syncs between devices. On PC an online hero is the safe choice; if you play on console without a membership, keep an offline hero too.

32. Turn on Always Show Souls (Settings, Interface). It is off by default, and without it you only guess how many souls you hold and what each artifact costs; with it, the counter and every artifact's soul price are on screen.

33. Merchant refreshes stop being free. The shop's first refreshes cost nothing, then each one costs echo shards, and the button does not make the switch obvious. Shards pay for town upgrades, so stop refreshing once it asks for them.