Which cards are best in Loop Hero?

Judge a card by the combination it enables, not by its own text. Meadow is unremarkable alone and becomes Blooming Meadow — better healing per day — the moment any non-Meadow tile sits beside it. Rock is a small HP bonus until nine of them form a 3x3 Mountain Peak. Village is a quest source until a Vampire Mansion turns it into a Count's Land that gives better rewards permanently.

How big should my deck be?

Small. A fresh deck has 20 percent of its cards removed before you draw, so padding costs you draws of the cards that matter. Ten or so cards you genuinely want beats fifteen with filler, and this matters most on the Necromancer, whose useful set is narrow.

What is the difference between Road, Roadside and Landscape cards?

Road cards go on the loop itself — Cemetery, Village, Grove, Wheat Fields, Swamp, Ruins. Roadside cards go on tiles directly touching the road — Spider Cocoon, Vampire Mansion, Battlefield, Blood Grove, Bookery, Road Lantern, Smith's Forge, Chrono Crystals, Outpost. Landscape cards go anywhere else — Rock, Mountain, Forest, Thicket, River, Desert, Sand Dunes, Meadow, Suburbs.

What are Golden cards and which should I take?

Golden cards can be placed only once for the whole expedition, and you pick one to start in hand before the run. They are Ancestral Crypt, Zero Milestone, Maze of Memories and Arsenal. Arsenal is the usual pick because the extra equipment slot it grants differs by class — a helmet for the Warrior, an amulet for the Rogue, a shield for the Necromancer.

How do I trigger a Mountain Peak?

Place nine Rocks or Mountains in a 3x3 square. The result grants a large amount of Noticeable Change and an HP bonus equal to the nine tiles, and spawns Harpies. It is the single best reason for a Warrior to run Rock and Mountain, and a reason for a Necromancer to avoid them.

Are enemy-spawning combinations worth it?

Only when you can handle what they spawn. The count-based ones fire whether you want them or not — 10 Forests or Thickets spawn A Village? with Wooden Warriors, 10 Rocks or Mountains spawn a Goblin Camp, 7 Deserts or Sand Dunes spawn a Ziggurat with a Sand Spirit each loop. Plan for them rather than being surprised, because you cannot opt out once the count is reached.

Loop Hero Best Cards — Combinations Ranked by Value

A Loop Hero card is rarely worth what its own text says. Meadow is a small heal until something non-Meadow sits beside it and it becomes a Blooming Meadow. Rock is a little HP until nine of them form a Mountain Peak. Village hands out quests until a Vampire Mansion ransacks it into a Count's Land that pays better forever after.

So build the deck around the combinations you intend to trigger, and cut everything else. A fresh deck has 20 percent of its cards removed before you draw from it, which means every card you include that you did not really want is a draw you lose of one you did.

The combinations worth building a deck around — ranked

Rank	Combination	How to trigger it	Why it ranks here	The catch
1	Count's Land	Place a Vampire Mansion beside a Village	The Village becomes a hostile Ransacked Village spawning Ghouls for three loops, then upgrades permanently into a Count's Land whose quests give better rewards. A temporary cost for a permanent upgrade is the best trade in the card system.	Three loops of Ghouls arrive whether you are ready or not. Do it early in a chapter, not while you are already struggling.
2	Mountain Peak	Nine Rocks or Mountains in a 3x3 square	A large amount of Noticeable Change plus an HP bonus equal to all nine tiles. It is the single biggest survivability swing available to a Warrior.	Spawns Harpies, and it costs nine landscape tiles. Actively bad for a Necromancer, whose survival runs on Magic HP instead.
3	Blooming Meadow	Place any non-Meadow tile next to a Meadow	Better healing per day per tile than a plain Meadow, for no cost and no downside. The cheapest upgrade in the game and the easiest to forget.	None worth naming. The only mistake is clustering Meadows together, which prevents the upgrade.
4	Town	Five Suburbs in a plus shape	A Suburbs surrounded on all four sides becomes a Town, which gives better experience from kills and quests than Suburbs do. Experience is traits, and traits are the run.	Needs five tiles in a specific shape, so plan the space before you start placing.
5	Oasis	Place a River next to Desert or Sand Dunes	Cuts enemy attack speed by 1% per tile while costing you only 0.5% per tile — a two-to-one trade in your favour, which is rare.	Only worth it if you are already running Desert, which rules out the Warrior.
6	Empty Treasury	Surround a Treasury with 8 cards	A large pile of resources in one go, which is the fastest way to fund a camp building.	Spawns Gargoyles, and it consumes eight surrounding placements you may have wanted for something else.

If you take one thing from this: place a Vampire Mansion next to your first Village, and never put two Meadows next to each other. The first is the biggest permanent upgrade available early, the second is free and constantly thrown away. Everything below is the complete list, including the combinations that fire whether you planned them or not.

The card pool, by placement type

Type	Where it goes	Cards
Road	On the loop road itself	Cemetery, Village, Grove, Wheat Fields, Swamp, Ruins
Roadside	On tiles directly touching the road	Spider Cocoon, Vampire Mansion, Battlefield, Blood Grove, Bookery, Road Lantern, Smith's Forge, Chrono Crystals, Outpost, Witch Hut
Landscape	Anywhere that is neither road nor roadside	Rock, Mountain, Forest, Thicket, River, Desert, Sand Dunes, Meadow, Suburbs
Special	Mostly behave as Landscape	Oblivion, Beacon, Storm Temple, Temporal Beacon, Treasury
Golden	One chosen before the run, placeable once	Ancestral Crypt, Zero Milestone, Maze of Memories, Arsenal

Oblivion is the exception to everything. It can be placed on any tile on the map and erases both the tile and any enemies standing on it. Treat it as a repair tool for a placement that went wrong, not as a card you build around — unless you take the Blissful Ignorance trait, which fills your hand with Oblivion and makes each use heal you for 10 percent of maximum HP.

Every combination tile

Triggered by adjacency

Blood Path — Wasteland within range of at least two Battlefields. Spawns Blood Clots, and persists even if another card is placed on that road tile.
Ransacked Village into Count's Land — Vampire Mansion beside a Village. Three loops of Ghouls, then a permanent upgrade.
Overgrown Field — a Wheat Field next to A Village?, or a Wheat Field whose neighbouring Village you delete. Adds Field of Blades to a free enemy slot in battle.
Bridge — a River placed onto a Wasteland. Does nothing except let the River cross the road.
Shipwreck — Battlefield meeting River. Spawns Sirens, which summon Jellyfish from Chapter 3 onward, and keeps the Battlefield's ghost effect.
Goblin Lookout — Swamp next to a Goblin Camp. Puts a ranged Goblin Archer in the enemy line for every adjacent tile.
Abandoned Bookery — a Bookery after you exchange 20 cards. Spawns Tomes, or Watcher Mages with a Temporal Beacon present, or Vampire Mages with a Vampire Mansion present. A Vampire Mansion in range blocks the Watcher Mages.
Hungry Grove — a Blood Grove after you delete an adjacent Grove, Forest or Thicket, or turn that Forest into a Burned Forest. Kills any enemy that drops below 20% health, and occasionally hurts you too.
Reed — a River placed next to the road. Spawns Fishmen on adjacent road tiles.
Blooming Meadow — a Meadow with any non-Meadow tile beside it. Straight upgrade to its healing.
Oasis — River meeting Desert or Sand Dunes. Enemy attack speed down 1% per tile, yours down 0.5%.
Burned Forest — Forest or Thicket in line with a Storm Temple, whose range is a full row and column. Converts attack speed bonuses into magic damage.
Maquis — Forest or Thicket next to Desert or Sand Dunes. Lowers enemy strength while raising their attack speed.
Town — five Suburbs in a plus. Better experience than Suburbs.
Empty Treasury — a Treasury with eight cards around it. A large resource payout, and Gargoyles.

Triggered by a count, whether you like it or not

Trigger	What appears	What it brings
10 Forests or Thickets placed	A Village? on a free road tile	Wooden Warriors, which only deal damage when directly attacked
10 Rocks or Mountains placed	Goblin Camp on a free roadside tile	Goblins and Goblin Leaders on the adjacent road
2 Villages placed	Bandit Camp on a free roadside tile beside one of them	Bandits on adjacent tiles
3 Swamps placed	A Witch Hut card in your hand	Not an enemy — a free card, and the only way to obtain the Witch Hut
7 Deserts or Sand Dunes placed	Ziggurat on a free tile beside one of them	A Sand Spirit each loop, with a 33% chance to join any battle on the road
9 Rocks or Mountains in a 3x3	Mountain Peak	Large HP bonus and Noticeable Change, plus Harpies

The count-based combinations are not optional. Once you have placed ten Forests, A Village? will appear, and its Wooden Warriors will show up in fights. This is only a problem if you did not expect it — as a Necromancer it is nearly free experience, because Wooden Warriors cannot hurt someone who spends the fight summoning rather than attacking.

Deck-building rules that hold across classes

1

Pick three or four combinations, then cut everything else

A fresh deck loses 20 percent of its cards before you draw, so filler directly costs you the draws you wanted. Ten deliberate cards beat fifteen padded ones.
2

Check the combination against your class

Mountain Peak is the best tile in the game for a Warrior and a waste for a Necromancer. Oasis requires Desert, which a Warrior should not be running at all.
3

Count your landscape cards before you place them

The count triggers fire at 10 Forests, 10 Rocks, 7 Deserts and 2 Villages. Knowing where you are in those counts is the difference between a planned spawn and a surprise.
4

Keep hand space free

Thirteen cards is the cap, and overflow turns the oldest card in hand into a Memory Fragment. If your hand is full, you are losing cards you paid draws for.

For which class to build all this around, see the class tier list — the three want genuinely different decks. For the camp buildings that unlock these cards in the first place, see the camp guide. New players should start with the beginner guide, and the honest review covers how well the loop holds up over a full campaign.