Top 10 Tips for Newbie Dudes

This guide distills the official Top 10 Tips published by Butterscotch Shenanigans for the July 30, 2026 full release. Most advice applies to the current Steam demo as well. For deeper mechanics, pair this page with Getting Started, Relics & Trinkets, and Ensemble Mode.

1. Every Dude Is Strong

The most common newbie mistake is writing off a Dude as weak, skipping their Relics, and watching them fall behind forever. The only weak Dude is a neglected Dude. Every Type in How Many Dudes? can dominate a run if you invest in their Ability, Relics, stats, teammates, and Trinkets.

Some Dudes are harder to read at first — Hacker Dude is a prime example — but once you understand their stat priorities and Relic synergies, they become rolling balls of Dudestruction. Spend a few runs experimenting with unfamiliar Types instead of rerolling past them.

2. Not Sure? Click It!

Almost everything in the UI is clickable: stats, icons, tooltip words. The built-in glossary The Dudex explains nearly every mechanic in depth. You should never guess what a term means — click it, read the popup, and move on.

3. Hold the Juice!

Dude Juice revives unconscious Dudes, but it costs Gold whether you buy it or stockpile it. Your squad can often win rounds while dragging a few KO’d Dudes; they recover naturally after several waves.

Chugging Juice at the first sign of trouble burns cash you need for Relics and Business Dude investments. Learn when your team can grind out a win injured — that discipline pays off past wave 40.

4. Don’t Fear the Tier

You need Tier 2 and Tier 3 progress to complete your collection, but you do not have to max Tier 1 first. Higher tiers offer early unlock rewards in just one or two runs, and Gold and Silver Stars earned on higher tiers retroactively backfill lower tiers.

Jumping up early also teaches new constraints that make finishing Tier 1 faster when you return. Give it a shot — you might get lucky.

5. Maximize Your Dudeconomy

How Many Dudes? is secretly about compound interest. Three times per run, Business Dude offers to double your invested cash when he returns. $1,000 becomes $2,000, then $4,000, then $8,000 if you keep reinvesting.

That means skimping on early Relics and consumables to save a big pile for Business Dude. It is risky — your team may be too weak mid-run — but a successful economy snowball lets you buy nearly every Relic you see late game. Butterscotch added an adaptive Relic icon shrink setting because teams can collect that many.

6. Be Brave — Try Weird Stuff!

Tank/heal stacks feel safe when Silverbacks backhand your squad, but Tier 3 Gold Stars demand creative synergies. Try:

• One-Type power spikes — Samurai + Alien + Taser, or Ninja Thralls under Lich Dude with Crit stacking
• No tank or no healer runs — win so fast enemies never deal damage
• Relic-first builds — River Raft (Explorer), Fuzzy Socks (Electrician), Bear Knuckle (Druid), Bandoleer (Cowboy), Shadowy Funnel (Warlock)
• Role bending — Medic as tank under General Dude, Trooper healers with Medical License

Use Daily Dude and Ensemble Mode to test wild theories without Main Run RNG.

7. Plan for the Big Bosses

Your first major milestone is beating the G.O.A.T. on round 105 in Tier 1. The G.O.A.T. has massive HP, burst damage, battlefield mobility, and hundreds of Ram minions chasing your squad.

Build for:

• Survival tools — Toughness, Max HP, Temporary Health, Cheat Death Relics
• Mobility — slow teams get shocked to death chasing the boss
• Tier 2/3 bosses — each final boss tests different weaknesses; watch their patterns and rebuild

8. Synergize Around Stats

Each Dude cares about different stats:

• Mutant Dude — Cleave, Attack Power, Attack Speed (not Crit for healing)
• Pirate Dude — Evasion and Crit Chance for Taunt uptime
• Knight Dude — Toughness and Max HP
• Electrician Dude — Attack Power and Run Speed after Relics; less Attack Speed
• Ranger Dude — Crit Chance with Hunter’s Blade for Magic Arrow spam

Stacking one stat across your whole team creates holes. Balance role-specific stats instead of maxing Evasion on everyone.

9. Understand the Relic Pool

Two levers control which Relics appear: Dude Families and Pre-Posted Flyers.

Each Dude Type adds its seven Type Relics plus its Family’s eight Family Relics to the pool. Each Relic enters only once. A single-family squad keeps Family Relics rare and Type Relics common; five families balloon the pool to 40 Family + 35 Type Relics, making specific Type Relics harder to hit.

Pre-Posted Flyers (Daily Dude, Rematch Mode, Ensemble Mode) lock families before the run. All five flyers pre-posted means the full pool is live immediately — great for variety, bad if you need one specific Relic like Blood Bag for Vampire healers.

In Ensemble Mode, pre-post only 1–2 Flyers to shrink the early pool and hunt key Relics. Empty slots still randomize mid-run. See the Ensemble guide for draft examples.

10. Save Yourself!

Avoid Knock Outs whenever possible. Once Dudes fall, the next round snowballs into more losses and expensive Juice.

Early game: prioritize Toughness, Max HP, and Temporary Health before big one-shot enemies appear mid-run.

Cheat Death: Circuit Breaker (Electrician), Bat Wings (Vampire), Time Dude Rewind, and similar effects let you take riskier fights without burning Juice.

Consumables: Meteors (stun + separation), Bottled Lightning (burst clears), Strange Spores (HP spread), Health Potions (Overheal → Temp HP), Burner Phones (Temp HP + repositioning) all prevent cascading KOs.

Official Source

These tips come from Butterscotch’s How Many Dudes Guide: Top 10 Tips for Newbie Dudes (July 2026). We expand them with wiki cross-links; mechanics may change post-launch — check Updates after July 30, 2026.