How to Play Guild Idle

A complete beginner-to-endgame guide

1. The Basics — Your First Run

Guild Idle is a browser auto-battler RPG. Your heroes fight automatically — your job is to recruit, upgrade, and equip them wisely, then send them out on dungeon runs to earn gold and loot.

When you first open the game, start by recruiting a couple of heroes from the Adventurers tab. Each hero has a class that determines their role and combat ability. Once you have a party assembled, head to the Parties tab, assign heroes to a party, and send them to The Crypt — the first dungeon.

Runs play out automatically across multiple floors. Heroes fight enemies on each floor and, if they survive, face a boss at the end. A successful run earns gold, experience, and loot. A failed run still grants partial rewards for the floors you cleared.

2. The Idle Loop

Guild Idle is designed around an idle progression loop. Even when you close the tab, your parties continue earning offline gold and experience. When you return, you'll find accumulated resources ready to spend on upgrades.

The core loop looks like this:

1. Send parties on dungeon runs
2. Collect gold, loot, and experience automatically
3. Spend gold to recruit new heroes and purchase guild upgrades
4. Equip better items and allocate hero stat points
5. Push into harder dungeons with stronger affixes for greater rewards

The Guild Upgrades panel lets you spend gold on permanent bonuses — increased gold income, faster run speeds, bonus XP gain, and more. These upgrades compound over time and are among the best uses of early gold.

3. Hero Classes

There are 14 hero classes in Guild Idle — 5 base classes available from the start, and 9 advanced classes that unlock by clearing specific dungeons.

Base Classes

Advanced Classes

Advanced classes unlock after clearing milestone dungeons and offer specialised playstyles:

Each hero has six stats: ATK (attack power), DEF (damage reduction), HP (health), SPD (action speed), AP (ability power), and LCK (luck — affects crit and loot quality). As heroes level up, they earn stat points you can freely allocate across these six attributes.

4. Dungeons

There are seven dungeons, each progressively harder and gated behind clearing the previous one. Later dungeons also unlock advanced hero classes.

Each dungeon also has a rare elite enemy that spawns occasionally during runs. Killing it has a 2% chance to drop a unique legendary item exclusive to that dungeon. These rare enemies are tracked in the Codex once you first encounter them.

5. Dungeon Affixes

Before each dungeon run, you can activate dungeon affixes — modifiers that make enemies more dangerous in exchange for bonus gold and loot rewards. Three affixes are rolled for each run; you can enable, disable, or re-roll them individually before dispatching.

Affixes come in three tiers. Higher-tier dungeons unlock access to more powerful (and more rewarding) affixes:

Tier 1 Affixes

Tier 2 Affixes

Tier 3 Affixes

6. Subclasses (Level 10)

When a hero reaches level 10, they are prompted to choose a subclass — a permanent specialisation that enhances their core identity and may alter or upgrade their ability. Each class has two subclass options. Choose carefully; you can only change your subclass by using a rare Subclass Repick consumable.

There are 20 subclasses in total:

7. Skill Trees

Every hero has access to a skill tree — a web of 120 interconnected nodes inspired by deep passive systems in action RPGs. Each level grants one skill point to spend on the tree.

Nodes are grouped into thematic clusters offering bonuses to ATK, DEF, HP, SPD, AP, LCK, and more complex passive effects. At the outer edges of the tree lie Keystones — powerful nodes that fundamentally change how a hero functions, at the cost of requiring deep investment in a cluster to reach them.

Skill tree allocations can be reset at any time using a Skill Reset consumable, allowing you to experiment freely once you have the materials.

8. Bounty Board

The Bounty Board offers a rotating selection of contracts — objectives that reward gold, items, or other resources when completed. Bounties range from simple tasks like clearing a specific dungeon to long-term challenges like equipping multiple heroes with subclasses.

Completing bounties is one of the best ways to earn resources early on, and many grant unique rewards not available elsewhere. Check the board regularly and queue up bounties that align with what your parties are already doing.

9. The Codex

The Codex is a discovery journal that tracks every item, enemy, and dungeon your guild has encountered. As you discover new entries, the Codex rewards your guild with permanent bonuses — flat stat increases that apply across all heroes.

Filling out the Codex also unlocks mastery titles — cosmetic and functional achievements that reflect your progression depth. Some titles are tied to specific milestones like clearing all dungeons, reaching deep floors in Eternal Strife, or killing every dungeon's rare elite.

10. Eternal Strife

Eternal Strife is Guild Idle's endgame mode — infinite scaling waves of enemies that push your party to its absolute limit. Unlike standard dungeons, Eternal Strife has no final boss: floors increase in difficulty without end.

To enter Eternal Strife, all party members must be at least level 10. Each floor you clear earns Honor, a currency used in the Glory Shop to purchase powerful upgrades and unlock further progression. Re-running floors you have previously cleared still earns a small honor bonus (5% per previously-cleared floor), so prior progress is never wasted.

Eternal Strife runs are tracked on a global leaderboard — see how deep your party can push compared to other players on the Leaderboard.

11. Beyond Colosseum

Beyond Colosseum is the PvP system in Guild Idle. Submit your heroes to compete automatically against other players' parties using an Elo-based ranking system. Three formats are available: 1v1, 3v3, and 5v5, each with its own independent Elo rating and leaderboard.

Colosseum fights are handled server-side — your party fights at the strength it was at when you last submitted. You earn Colosseum points and climb the ladder regardless of whether you are actively playing. Elo for heroes inactive for 365 days is eventually retired, keeping the leaderboard fresh.

View the current global standings on the Leaderboard page.

12. Tips & Strategies

Early Game

• Prioritise Guild Upgrades early — gold income and XP bonuses compound significantly over time.
• Don't neglect your Cleric. A healer in every party dramatically increases run consistency in the first few dungeons.
• Enable all three affixes even on early dungeons — the gold bonus is worth the extra challenge at low levels.
• Allocate stat points as you earn them; unspent points are wasted potential.

Mid Game

• Once heroes hit level 10, pick subclasses immediately and start spending skill points in the tree.
• Focus on clearing Sunken Citadel to unlock advanced classes — Chronomancer and Enchanter open powerful new team compositions.
• Use the Bounty Board actively; many mid-game bounties reward items you can't easily farm otherwise.
• Start hunting rare elite enemies once you reach Volcanic Depths — their unique legendary drops are strong.

Late Game & Endgame

• Push Eternal Strife as deep as possible before hitting a wall, then use Honor to upgrade your setup and return.
• Tier 3 affixes (World-Ender, Apex Predators) offer the best gold-per-run efficiency if your party can survive them.
• Fill the Codex methodically — target missing item entries by running dungeons that drop those items.
• Submit to Beyond Colosseum regularly to accumulate Elo passively, even while focusing on other content.
• Use the Allocate All button in the hero stat panel to quickly dump unspent attribute points into your preferred stat.

Have a question not covered here? Visit our Contact page or join the community on Reddit. See the Changelog for the latest updates and patch notes.