Quick Answer
Guildrun is a single-player PvE autobattler roguelike from Leyline. The safest beginner plan is to learn the shop, place a stable frontline, rank heroes when the shop offers real upgrades, and pivot when your early plan stops scaling. Do not chase one perfect board on your first runs; the collected material says the demo rewards experimentation and run-by-run adaptation.
What You Do Each Run
You recruit heroes, position them before combat, and let battles resolve automatically. Winning fights gives you more chances to improve the roster through shops, rewards, items, relics, and events. The important beginner habit is reading what the run is offering instead of forcing a build that the shop does not support.
The research notes describe a demo with short normal runs but much longer high-difficulty and Endless attempts. There is no matchmaking queue and no combat timer, so you can pause and think through placement. Save support is part of the collected material, but exact behavior should still be checked in the current build if you are writing a technical save guide.
Run Structure
Each run starts with 3 heroes and lets you field up to 5. The total roster caps at 6 in the collected guide material, so at least one hero sits in Reserve. That Reserve slot is not wasted, because Backup effects can still help the fielded team from the bench.
Runs move through fights, shops, events, and act bosses. Bosses close acts, and act-end auctions can offer stronger pieces than normal shops. After Act 2's final boss, the collected beginner material says the game can roll into Endless mode, where scaling keeps rising.
Difficulty Ladder
The collected guide material describes an eight-rung ladder: Base, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and Red Rift. It says each rung stacks the modifiers from the rungs below it, so higher difficulties are not just one new rule. Start at Base until you understand combat resolution, then climb when your shop, rank, and placement decisions feel controlled.
This also explains why SS, SSS, Red Rift, and Endless pages should not be treated like beginner pages. Those pages assume you already know how to spend Shards, read rank choices, use Reserve, and identify the team's failure point. If you skip the ladder, the page will feel more confusing than helpful.
First-Run Priorities
Start by making a team that survives. Put your most durable hero where enemies engage first, then place ranged or scaling heroes where they can cast safely. If a fight is close, improve frontline durability before buying luxury damage pieces.
Shards are your main spending pressure. Use them to buy useful heroes, rank important units, and take relic or item opportunities that fit the board. The beginner trap is spending just because something looks rare; a high-rarity pickup that does not trigger with your team can be weaker than a plain upgrade that keeps the core alive.
Ranks, Classes, and Pivots
The material is clear that starting class labels are not destiny. Heroes can move beyond their starting roles through ranks, specialization paths, cross-class modifiers, items, and relics. Rank B is especially important because the collected guide says each hero chooses one of three fixed specializations there.
Rank A and S add more class-based growth and random class-pool upgrade offers according to the material. Dual-class choices can create more options, but also more randomness when you are hunting one specific upgrade. That means your plan should change when a shop gives you a stronger carry, better tank, or relic that points toward a new engine.
A good beginner pivot is simple: keep the reliable frontline, sell or bench the damage unit that fell behind, and rebuild around the best late A-rank or upgraded hero you actually found. Do this once on purpose after an easy clear so the habit feels normal. Guildrun is less about memorizing one opening and more about recognizing when the current board has a new direction.
Core Stats
HP is raw survivability. Defense reduces incoming damage on a linear curve in the collected guide, but it does not answer every damage type; True Damage, Poison, and Burn are called out as dangers where HP and Shields matter more. This is why tanks need more than just a good portrait.
Mana controls active abilities. The guide material says heroes fill Mana through flat Mana, passive Mana Regen, and auto-attacking. Attack Speed therefore matters even for some casters, because more hits can mean faster spell access.
Attack, Attack Speed, Crit, and Magic should match the hero. The collected guide says 100 Attack Speed roughly doubles swing frequency, while most heroes cap at 5 attacks per second. It also says Crit past 100% can add to damage multiplier rather than being wasted, and Magic should be checked against the ability tooltip before committing caster items.
Rush, Stall, and The Storm
Rush activates from the start of combat for a limited window. Stall waits until later, then becomes relevant after its delay. Both can win runs, and the material says strong builds can even mix them.
The key warning is The Storm. The collected guide describes The Storm as a hidden fight timer that starts escalating damage around 50 seconds and makes most fights unwinnable around the 65 to 75 second range. That means Stall is not the same as waiting forever; a Stall-heavy comp still needs enough damage to close fights before the timer beats you.
What Unlocks Matter
Official store and site material describe a demo pool expanding toward 25 heroes, 180 specializations, 300+ relics, and 100+ items. Early failures still teach systems and can move account progress forward. The exact unlock order for every hero, relic, and item is 待确认, so this page should not pretend to be an unlock database.
Use the wiki hub after your first run. The builds page helps with team direction, the classes page explains role labels, and the relics page explains run-wide power choices. Once you clear the basic loop, move to Red Rift, higher difficulty pages, and Endless guides.
Common Beginner Mistakes
The first mistake is buying too many unrelated heroes. A wide roster can look flexible, but it spreads Shards across units that do not share a plan. Keep enough flexibility to pivot, then commit when the board has a clear tank, carry, and support shape.
The second mistake is ignoring positioning. Since combat is automatic, placement is one of the few decisions you fully control before the fight starts. Move fragile heroes away from opening pressure and keep your most important scaling unit alive long enough to cast.
The third mistake is treating older tier lists as permanent truth. The patch material shows frequent balance changes to heroes, relics, items, Endless scaling, and class modifiers. Always check patch notes before trusting advice built around old Rush, Stall, Shield, Poison, Frost, or permanent-scaling numbers.
Beginner FAQ
Is Guildrun free? The Steam demo is free to download, while the full game is a separate paid product in the release-date material. For exact price and store status, Steam is the authority.
Do you need autobattler experience? No. The guide material says Teamfight Tactics-style placement or Slay the Spire-style relic experience can help, but tooltip reading matters more than prior ladder rank. Learn one clean clear before chasing meta pages.
How long is a beginner run? The collected guide says Leyline describes short runs with mid-run saving, around the twenty-minute range on normal pacing. Higher difficulties and Endless runs can stretch longer once auctions, pivots, and scaling choices become important.