You max out Anchor Smash over Gush given its low cooldown, incredible damage and how it reduces incoming damage from affected enemy heroes. This prevents them from last-hitting properly. Use this ability to farm the jungle/Ancients and get your core items at an incredible rate.

Getting Max Kraken Shell lets you farm the jungle camps and do ancients in combination with your Anchor Smash. Using the two together allows you to take down Ancients without taking any damage (dmg reduction + physical block)! At level 2 Kraken Shell, you can start doing Ancients. Does not stack with items like Vanguard.

Tidehunter needs his Blink Dagger as soon as possible, so we delay Gush for your Anchor Smash and Kraken Shell to farm Ancients. Gush is your initiating move if you dont have Blink Dagger yet: 1. Blink into an enemy line-up with Ravage. 2. Use Gush for any fleeing foes to kill 3. Activate Anchor Smash to reduce their damage.

This is one of the best ultimate abilities in the game. Considering its range, you do not need to be in the center of the fight to cast it off! Just dont use it as an escape mechanism as it does have a very long cooldown. During initial ganks, it is okay to use Ravage if it means securing a kill.

Iron Branch can be placed on the ground to then be consumed by your tangos for additional healing.

Buy Salves preemptively in lane so you don't have to return to base. Having an extra Salve in your inventory is much better than not buying one when you needed it.

If you're having a decent game, buy one of these for each Gauntlets of Strength you have. Otherwise buy Soul Ring.

You can buy this instead of double Bracer if you're having a bad game. Allows you to farm faster rather than fight better.

Builds into Vladmir's Offering.

Builds into Vladmir's Offering.

Buy Clarities after the laning phase to avoid returning to base.

Phase Boots gives more armor for a Tidehunter who is sufficiently high in health. Additionally, it allows you to more comfortably initiate before you get Blink Dagger. In general, buy Boots, then Chainmail, then Blades of Attack. If you are forced out of lane, get Blades of Attack earlier for better farming speed. If you are against a lot of ranged harass, you can get Chainmail before Boots.

Buy this for fighting early.

Improve team-fights and pushing power with Vladmirs Offering. Tidehunter is a great holder of auras given his ability to maneuver and stay in and out of fights when necessary. Vladmirs Offering lifesteal occurs during Anchor Smash.

Try to have this item by 20 minutes! Initiate with Blink Dagger. This is quintessential to making a good Tidehunter initiator. Without Blink Dagger, Tidehunter is incredibly difficult to engage a team-fight properly. You can farm for this via Ancients and Anchor Smash.

Aghs Shard extends your stun duration but also can be a great way to force fights when your ultimate is not up!

Gives yourself a lot of magic resistance at the cost of not buffing the team.

Pipe of Insight is always a great item for your team and yourself. As enemy initators will try to get the jump before you, Pipe of Insight is great if you dont think you can get some of the bigger Extension Items.

The value of Lotus Orb is both its stats in mana and armor but also the ability to dispel slows and silences that would be keeping you down. Furthermore, the ability to cast back big nuking abilities to your enemies has tremendous value, especially against stuns or ultimate damaging abilities.

BKB is necessary for a hero that relies on not getting stunned or silenced to be able to initiate.

A situational early fighting item whose primary benefit lies in the status resistance, which reduces debuff duration on yourself.

A strong armor item which is especially potent against illusion heroes. After using your ultimate, Shivas Guard is a natural item to get after to keep them within reach of your team as well as adding to the survivability in combination with Kraken Shell.

Assault Cuirass reduces the armor of nearby enemies. Combined with your Gush further reduces the armor of key targets, making your Anchor Smash even more hard-hitting.

Upgrades your blink dagger for additional sustain. Alternative to Overwhelming Blink.

While Gush is single target, Aghanims gives you a massive wave clear, armor reduction and incredible AoE damage at an incredible range. Be wary that this does drain mana fast.

For heroes who are dependent on their abilities to engage fights, Octarine Core is a great assistance, especially if you naturally build into it by having its components created earlier in the game.

Refresher Orb will give you a second ultimate and a second Shivas Guard active ability. Just make sure you have the mana for it all. Time your ultimates correctly to consecutively stun enemies.

Late in the game, Scythe of Vyse solves all your mana issues but more importantly guarantees to lock enemies down before they can even pop BKB. Its a great initiating tool when you know the enemy relies on BKB to safely output their damage.

Upgrades your blink dagger for additional initiation power. Alternative to Arcane Blink.

After a successful Ravage, pop Meteor Hammer to chain-stun them to death. You can use Tendrils of the Deep (Aghs Shard) as a follow-up stun for even more damage and disable. Also lets you destroy buildings.

For tanky enemies with high regen.

Be sure to get this item if countering a carry hero. This will disable them for a sufficient amount of time after you use your ultimate. The dodge mixed with your Kraken Shell is a nice mix of both avoiding attacks and reducing them entirely, keeping you in fights and spamming Anchor Smash.

The damage block is best suited against many units, such as illusion heroes like Phantom Lancer or zoo heroes like Broodmother.

A situational mobility item which applies Break, disabling passive abilities of the enemy you attack out of invisibility.