Daily rankings stopped being a hunt for one opaque score. The board now tells a much cleaner story: did you win, what unusual things happened along the way, and how long did it take?
That order matters. A fast loss is still a loss. A slow win with several badges can sit above a cleaner-looking run that collected fewer.
How Daily Run ranking works
The official sorting order is:
- Win status
- Number of Badges
- Completion time
Points still exist for some underlying actions, but the submitted leaderboard result is organized by those three fields. The Daily screen shows floor reached, badge count, and time instead of asking players to decode a single magic number.
This gives each decision a clear priority. Protect a winning line before taking a detour for a badge. When two winning runs have the same badge count, the faster one moves ahead.
What Badges actually measure
Badges are short records of what made a run distinctive. Mega Crit's examples include beating a boss without losing HP, finishing quickly, finding specific easter eggs, and reaching the end without spending your gold. Later patches added more, including multiplayer badges and a 20-card turn badge.
They are closer to a run diary than a permanent power system. You can see them at the end of the run and in Run History. The developers have continued to add and fix them during Early Access, so a static list can go stale quickly.
If you are trying to learn the system, review your last few runs. Look for badges that appeared naturally before building a plan around harder ones. The v0.111 troubleshooting guide also covers the patch that fixed badges being lost when leaving the game-over screen too early.
A sensible badge-chasing order
Start with a normal winning deck. It needs damage for early fights, enough defense to stop routine HP leaks, and a scaling answer for bosses. Our Act 1 pathing checklist is a better starting point than a risky badge route if the seed is already giving you trouble.
Once the deck looks stable, sort possible badge attempts into two groups:
| Badge opportunity | When to pursue it |
|---|---|
| It follows the deck's normal plan | Usually worth taking |
| It costs a little time but no combat strength | Consider it after the deck is safe |
| It asks you to skip gold, healing, or a key upgrade | Only with a large safety margin |
| It forces a weak card or dangerous route | Leave it for another seed |
This keeps badge hunting from turning into self-sabotage. The leaderboard rewards finishing first for a reason.
When speed starts to matter
Time is the third comparison, so rushing only pays after the win and badge count are competitive. You can still trim minutes without playing carelessly.
Make routine card picks quickly. Read the map once, choose a route, and keep a backup branch in mind. During easy fights, plan the whole turn before dragging the first card. Save the long calculations for elite and boss turns where a mistake can erase the run.
Animation speed and menu familiarity help, but they cannot repair a bad deck. If faster play causes missed lethal, wasted potions, or accidental pathing, slow down. A completed run gives you a result to improve next time.
Global boards and branch differences
Major Update #2 added global leaderboard browsing, page navigation, and a way to jump near your own result. Main and beta boards are separate because their balance and scoring data can differ.
Check the branch shown in the menu before comparing positions with a friend. A seed played on the current main branch is not a clean comparison with the same date on beta. The current update page tracks which advice belongs to v0.111 and which remains valid on v0.107.1.
Daily and Custom runs also do not unlock achievements or Epoch progression. Use them for the challenge, leaderboard, and practice. Return to a standard run when progression is the goal.
The repeatable plan
On the first attempt, learn the seed and finish if you can. Review the map, bad turns, potion use, and earned badges in Run History. On a later attempt, change one meaningful choice instead of replaying every room on autopilot.
The ranking formula is simple enough to keep in your head: win, badges, time. Let that order decide which risks are worth taking.