Bones and Coins Beginner Guide

How to play: the progression loop

Bones and Coins combines dungeon looting with permanent purchases. Your heroes fight automatically; between runs, use your earnings to improve the next attempt. The official store lists mouse-only play among the game’s tags.

1. Play an available room. Collect the coins and items earned from enemies.
2. Choose one next purchase. Permanent upgrades live in Skill Tree, forging in Blacksmith, and hero choices in Guild.
3. Check the resource requirement. Keep recipe ingredients before selling the rest.
4. Return with a target. Compare your progress before changing another part of the setup.

If you have not installed the game, compare the Steam demo and itch.io prototype first. For room selection, use the dungeon directory.

After a run: use the right menu

Your loot has several uses. Open the menu that matches your next task; the official interface puts these tabs across the top. A tab marked Locked! is not yet usable.

On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to see every column.

For a forge, write down each missing ingredient before returning to the dungeon. This gives your next run a concrete target.

What should you spend resources on first?

Use this as a starting approach, rather than a fixed purchase order. The right choice depends on what you have unlocked and what is holding your current run back.

1. Find the bottleneck. Are skeletons taking too long to clear, or are you simply missing a particular currency or crafting material?
2. Compare the available fixes. A relevant skill, a weapon you can actually forge, or a useful hero upgrade may solve the problem. Read the effect and the entire cost.
3. Buy for the next run. Prefer a change that helps your current party over an effect you cannot yet use.
4. Check the result. Return to the same room before changing anything else. Did the purchase help you reach your resource target faster?

Need a closer look at that decision? The Skill Tree breaks it down by bottleneck.

Before you sell that pile of materials

Enemy drops can be sold for coins or used at the Blacksmith. Check the recipe for your next weapon first, then keep the ingredients it asks for. Selling everything may solve a coin shortage while creating a crafting shortage.

You do not need to hoard every item forever. Keep the amount your chosen recipe needs and review the rest when you know what your next purchase will be. See Weapons for a practical shopping checklist.

When the next room feels like a wall

Go back to a room you know and compare what you earn over the same amount of time. A tougher room is useful only if it moves you toward your current goal. Check its currency and item rewards before committing to another long attempt.

Also check your game version. The full release adds Expeditions and expands heroes, Blessings, and the Skill Tree. A Demo route can explain the basics without matching your current unlocks or costs.

How to attack and collect loot

In both recorded openings, the tutorial asks the player to move the attack circle over skeletons and gather rewards before the torch runs out. In A, coins collect without hovering over each coin; item drops still need attention. Move across dropped materials instead of assuming every reward behaves like a coin.

A later purchases automatic item collection. Until that unlock is available in your build, check the floor before the session ends. If a crafting ingredient seems unusually scarce, first check whether you are leaving its drops behind.

Video A: 00:00–01:24, 17:28, 2:06:15–2:08:16. Source notes.

How to add your first hero

1. Unlock a party slot through the Skill Tree.
2. Purchase the hero’s recruitment unlock as well. An empty slot does not recruit anyone.
3. Open Guild and drag the recruited hero into a slot at the bottom.
4. Start a run and check that the hero appears in your active party.

A purchases a slot before recruiting Barbarian, then adds him through the Guild. Budget for both purchases when planning your first companion.

Video A: 01:45–02:10, 05:32–05:59. Source notes.

How to use abilities and auto-cast

After unlocking Arrow Rain, A turns off “Automatically use ability” and uses left-click when the ability is ready. Later, after unlocking another ability, he has to select it in the available slot before trying it. Unlocking a spell is not the same as equipping it.

If your abilities seem inactive, check the selected slot and automatic-use setting. Manual use lets you choose the moment and location; automatic use reduces repeated clicking. B discovers his automatic-use setting is unchecked after a long stretch of play.

Video A: 22:08–23:46, 40:25. Source notes.

Video B: 58:07. Source notes.