Rune Tip 4: Rune type progression

So now that you know where to get runes now you just need to farm for them. The best place to start is the scenario levels to get something on your monsters so they're not runeless. After you've beat Mt. White Ragon and can farm for energy, fatal, blade, and swift runes you have everything you're going to need to get started. Get any monsters you have that are attack type on fatal/blade with atk%/criDmg/atk% and any other monsters can be swift/energy with hp% and/or def%. Once you've got all your monsters with a basic set of runes it's time to hit Giant's Keep like it's going out of style. The scenario may be nice because you can farm for a specific rune but without the sub stats from the rune that drop from Giant's almost every rune you find is a 100% gamble when it comes to subs. So now that you're farming Giant's as a day job, you're going to want to go hard on until you can do at least b6 with a near 100% success rate. By Giant's b6 you should be ready for Dragon's Lair (depending on what monsters you have). Now that you're in Dragon's, again you're going to want a solid b6 team but just because you have a Dragon's b6 team doesn't mean it's necessary time for Necropolis. Farm Dragon's until you have enough violent runes to switch some of your monsters on swift to violent. About 9/10 times a monster that you have runed swift will be even better on violent (the wind and fire griffons, Bernard and Spectra, should be kept on swift though). Violent runes are the best rune set in my opinion. At the end of a monsters turn they have a 22% chance to get an additional turn which can flip a battle in an instant. Once you can get enough violent runes it's time to  start moving in the direction of Giant's b10 and/or Necropolis. Now Necro is different from Giant's and Dragon's. You want to bring only monsters that have multi-hit skills (skills that hit two or more times in one attack, like the harpu's first skill). Once you finally make it into Necro it could be worth your while to switch some of your fatal monsters to rage runes or vampire runes, energy runes can be traded for nemesis runes on most support monsters, and some monsters that do big damage could even take a set of destroy if you're using them for PvP (player vs player, aka arena, guild battles, and live arena).

Rune Tip 3: Where do I find this rune type?

So now that you know what types of runes to use now you're tasked with finding them. Before I get any further I need to say that Summoners War is a game that you need to devote time to or else you will not progress. You need to take the time to farm for runes for your monsters because without runes you're monsters won't do what you want them to do. Anywho, runes drop from Giant's Keep, Dragon's Layer, Necropolis, and all 13 scenario levels. Giant's, Dragon's, and Necro are accessible in the Cairos Dungeon and each have a special rune set that only drops from that specific dungeon. Giant's drops despair runes, which give a 25% chance to stun on attack. Dragon's drops violent runes, which give a 22% chance to gain an additional turn at the end of yours. And Necro drops rage runes, which boost crit dmg by 40%. And while all of these rune types sound nice, it's not as easy to get them because each dungeon drops an assortment of runes. For information on which dungeon drops what specifically click on the "Item Drop Info" button after opening Cairos Dungeon. A good place to farm runes at earlier levels is in the scenario. Garen Forest will only ever drop energy runes, Mt. Siz will only ever drop fatal runes, Kabir Ruins will only ever drop blade runes, etc. The reason I say that scenario is only good for low levels is because you will never find a 6* rune and your chances of finding a rune that isn't white is pretty slim, and in the late game 6* runes with good sub stats are the only way to live. To find out which scenario drops which rune click the "Drop Info" button while looking at the level in question. Also, the only difficulty really worth farming is Hell so if you can't do Hell difficulty try improving your current runes or settle for Hard.

Rune Tip 2: Set Bonuses

Another big part of runes are rune sets. There are two different types of rune sets: 4-sets and 2-sets. Most monsters get runed with a 4-set and one 2-set as there are only six rune slots. Some monsters such as the water pirate captain (Galleon) is a very flexible monster in his runes and can be runed with a rainbow of sets. The best way to figure out which rune set is best for your monster is to read it skills and look at while type of monster it is. If you have an attack type monster that has AoE (area of effect/hits all enemies) damage dealing skills then rune it for damage such as fatal or rage as a 4-set and, more often than not, blade as a 2-set. One thing to look out for when picking your rune sets is what the skill scales of off. On a monster like the wind joker (Lushen) he scales off his atk but a monster like the wind living armor (Copper) does damage based on his def so fatal runes with boost atk wouldn't do much good on Copper. For support based monsters a good build is either swift or violent as your 4-set and just about any 2-set will suffice. On a monster like the wind griffon (Bernard) you need to rune him fast and to stay alive so use swift runes to buff his spd and whatever 2-set you have the best spd sub stats. Monsters good on violent tend to be healer monsters like the fire harpu (Colleen) or the light inugami (Belladeon).

Rune Tip 1: NO FLAT RUNES ON 2/4/6!!!

     Runes can be tricky little rascles at low levels and many players don't understand the importance of runes and think they need a bunch of natural 5* monsters to do good. While nat 5*s are nice a couple decent nat 4*s, 3*s, and a 2* or two can give you a decent early Giants Keep team but you NEED to use percentage runes ONLY! Rune slots 1/3/5 will always be flat attack (atk)/flat defense (def)/flat hp respectively, but slots 2/4/6 can differ from rune to rune so it's important that you go for the best possible so you don't screw yourself. If you have a rune with +24% atk instead of just +100 atk then you'll get more bang for you buck on a monster with high base atk. The only exception to this rule is speed (spd) on slot 2. Spd can and will only ever be the main stat on slot 2 and it will never be percent so if all you can find is flat spd keep them, but any other rune on 2/4/6 that is +% is an instant sell with one optional exception. Runes that are 6*s and legendary (orange at +0 and with four sub stats) that are flat will rank highly in World Boss for players far enough in the game to do WB. Just throw it on a monster that you're not using then power it up and call it good. Also if you get resistance% on slot 6 sell it unless it's legendary. Pretty much consider resistance% a flat stat.