I once lost a flawless 4-hour win streak on Week 11 because I misplaced a single windmill by one hex, locking me out of the final milestone and completely bricking my progress toward the 6th guild unlock. Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder is a game designed to be broken, but until you understand its underlying math, it will break you first. If you are tired of failing to meet your goals before the timeframe expires and want to experience all 21 possible guild combinations, you need a hyper-optimized strategy.
Editor’s Note: After 1,000+ hours playtesting Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder since its earliest closed builds, I’ve mapped out every procedural generation quirk and synergy algorithm. This guide strips away the fluff to give you the raw, mathematical path to unlocking all 7 guilds in record time. No guesswork, just pure optimization.
TL;DR: The Short Answer
- Prioritize Milestone Speed: Guild unlocks are tied directly to completing runs and hitting deep milestone thresholds. Focus entirely on early point-generation rather than late-game aesthetics.
- Abuse the 30-Minute Loop: Keep your runs under 30 minutes by using aggressive deck-thinning strategies and playing on smaller procedural islands to cycle through unlock requirements faster.
- Pick Synergy-Heavy Starters: Always pair a high-economy guild with a spatial-efficiency guild to guarantee you never fail the “X number of weeks” timeframe checks.
- Stack Passive Heirlooms: Prioritize selecting the 100+ passive heirlooms that grant flat point multipliers for basic buildings early in the run.
- Recruit Economy Councillors: Out of the 13+ city councillors, always recruit those who offer building cost reductions or immediate point injections upon placement.
Table of Contents
- TL;DR: The Short Answer
- The Core Unlock Algorithm: How Progression Works
- Speedrunning Milestones for Rapid Unlocks
- Optimal Starting Guild Pairings for Farming
- Exploiting Heirlooms and Councillors
- Bypassing the Procedural RNG Grind
- Navigating Island Biomes for Optimal Progression
- Avoiding Common Speedrun Pitfalls
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Verdict
The Core Unlock Algorithm: How Progression Works
To understand how to unlock all guilds fast in Combolands, you first need to dissect the game’s progression algorithm. Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder operates on a dopamine-fueled progression system where every successful 30-minute run contributes to your global unlock pool.
The Mathematics of Guild Unlocks
There are 7 guilds in total, creating a pantheon of 21 unique combinations since you must pick exactly 2 guilds every run. You start with a limited roster, and the rest are gated behind specific global progression triggers.
Global Progression vs. Run Progression
The game separates your progress into two buckets. Run progression involves working your way up the 10 increasingly challenging ranks within a single match. Global progression is what actually unlocks the new guilds, islands, and blueprints. Unlocking guilds requires banking excess milestone points at the end of a successful run. Failing a run because you missed your goal within the given timeframe severely penalizes your global point payout.
| Guild Unlock Tier | Estimated Global Points Required | Optimal Run Strategy to Unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (Guilds 3 & 4) | 5,000 Points | Complete basic 15-minute runs. Focus on survival. |
| Tier 2 (Guilds 5 & 6) | 15,000 Points | Push into Rank 5+ milestones. Maximize adjacency bonuses. |
| Tier 3 (Guild 7) | 35,000 Points | Break the game with infinite combo loops. Survive all 10 ranks. |
To dive deeper, read our guide on The Ultimate Guide to the Best Guild Combos & Synergies in Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder.
Speedrunning Milestones for Rapid Unlocks
The single biggest mistake new players make in Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder is treating it like a traditional city builder. This is a deckbuilder hybrid. Your goal isn’t a pretty town; your goal is to trigger outrageously satisfying combos to hit milestones before the weeks run out.
The “X Weeks” Deadline Mechanic
Every milestone gives you a strict timeframe. If you need 1,000 points in 4 weeks, every building placement must be calculated. To unlock guilds fast, you need to speedrun these milestones to finish runs quickly and bank your global progression.
Spatial Optimization
Because the islands are procedurally generated, you cannot rely on memorized build orders. Instead, you must rely on spatial optimization rules. Always place your “anchor” buildings (buildings that provide AoE buffs to surrounding tiles) first, leaving exact hexes open for your filler cards.
Managing the 120+ Building Pool
With over 120 buildings available, your deck can quickly become bloated. To speedrun, you must aggressively thin your options. Visit the shop to buy blueprints that specifically synergize with your current two guilds. If you are running an agriculture guild, do not buy mining blueprints—it dilutes your draw pool and leads to dead turns, causing you to fail the timeframe check.
| Phase | Milestone Goal | Strategy Focus | Danger Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early (Ranks 1-3) | 500 – 2,000 | Flat point generation. Ignore complex chains. | Low |
| Mid (Ranks 4-7) | 3,000 – 10,000 | Setting up anchor buildings and AoE synergies. | High |
| Late (Ranks 8-10) | 15,000+ | Triggering cascading combos. Potion map manipulation. | Critical |
To dive deeper, read our guide on The Ultimate Combolands Fast Progression & Farming Guide: Break the System
Optimal Starting Guild Pairings for Farming
Since you must pick 2 guilds every run, choosing the right combination of your initially unlocked guilds is the absolute fastest way to secure wins and unlock the rest of the pantheon.
The Synergy Engine
Combolands plays very similarly to Islanders or Balatro, meaning that overlapping tags and keywords are where the massive points lie. You want to pair a guild that generates raw resources with a guild that consumes those resources for exponential point multipliers.
Best Combinations for Speed Unlocks
If you want to know how to unlock all guilds fast in Combolands, you must abuse the most overpowered early-game pairings.
| Guild 1 | Guild 2 | Synergy Type | Speedrun Viability |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Harvesters | The Masons | Resource to Infrastructure | S-Tier (Fastest Unlocks) |
| The Merchants | The Scholars | Gold to Card Draw | A-Tier (Consistent, slightly slower) |
| The Masons | The Mystics | Infrastructure to Magic | B-Tier (High risk of missing early milestones) |
By sticking exclusively to the Harvesters and Masons pairing early on, you can consistently clear 30-minute runs without ever failing a timeframe check, rapidly accumulating the global points needed to unlock the remaining guilds.
To dive deeper, read our guide on The Ultimate Combolands High Score Guide & Exploit: Break the Citybuilder Deck
Exploiting Heirlooms and Councillors
Buildings are only half the battle. The true secret to breaking the game and unlocking guilds at lightning speed lies in the passive buffs provided by Heirlooms and Councillors.
The Power of the 100+ Passive Heirlooms
Heirlooms are passive items you collect during a run that permanently alter how your buildings behave. To speed up your runs, you must prioritize Heirlooms that remove placement restrictions or increase the base value of your most common buildings.
Heirloom Edge Cases
Watch out for edge cases in procedural generation. If you spawn on an island with minimal water tiles, an Heirloom that buffs coastal buildings is a dead draw. Always pick Heirlooms that universally buff your chosen guild combination, regardless of the map layout.
Recruiting from the 13+ City Councillors
Councillors act as your avatar or leader for the run, each with their own progressions and abilities.
- The Architect: Reduces the cost of all buildings by 10%. (Essential for early game speed).
- The Diplomat: Gives you an extra week to complete milestones. (The ultimate safety net).
- The Alchemist: Starts you with 3 potions to manipulate the map. (Perfect for fixing bad procedural generation).
Always pick The Architect if they appear in your recruitment pool. The cost reduction allows you to play more cards per turn, triggering cascading combos much earlier in the run.
Bypassing the Procedural RNG Grind
Even with perfect strategy, Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder is a roguelike. Procedural generation can sometimes hand you an unwinnable island, completely ruining a 25-minute run right at the finish line. When you are on your 15th run trying to unlock the final, elusive 7th guild, the “number-go-up” rush can occasionally turn into a tedious grind.
If you want to completely bypass the RNG, experiment with different guild combinations immediately, or simply don’t have the time to grind out 35,000 global points, you can take control of the game’s parameters using XMODhub.
Taking Control with XMODhub
XMODhub allows you to inject quality-of-life adjustments directly into the game’s memory. Whether you want to freeze the “X Weeks” timer so you never fail a milestone, or give yourself infinite rerolls in the shop to guarantee the perfect blueprints and heirlooms, XMODhub turns the game into a pure sandbox.
Here is how you can instantly unlock your potential and test all 21 guild combinations:
- Download and Install XMODhub: Grab the lightweight client from the official site. It supports over 5,000+ single-player PC games.

- Auto-Detect Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder: Launch the game, and XMODhub will automatically hook into the process, recognizing the current build.
- Toggle Your Enhancements: Use your smartphone or a second monitor to toggle features like “Freeze Timeframe Timer,” “Infinite Global Points,” or “Force Unlock All Guilds” with a single tap.
By removing the penalty for failure, you can focus entirely on the fun part: smashing synergies together and building a city for the ages without the stress of the ticking clock.
Download Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder Trainer Now
Navigating Island Biomes for Optimal Progression
When figuring out how to unlock all guilds fast in Combolands, your choice of starting map is just as critical as your guild pairings. The procedural generation algorithm heavily weights certain Biomes to spawn specific natural resources, which can either accelerate your point generation or completely stall your engine.
To maximize your Global Points per hour, you must align your chosen guilds with the optimal biome. Never pick a water-heavy map if you are running a land-based agriculture build, as it will drastically reduce your viable placement Hexes.
Biome Synergy and Blueprint Tier List
Securing the right Blueprints early in the shop is the secret to surviving the brutal late-game milestone checks. Here is the mathematical breakdown of which biomes yield the fastest clear times and the core Anchor Buildings you need to draft:
| Biome Type | Recommended Guild Pairing | Speedrun Rating | Key Blueprint to Draft |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Grasslands | The Harvesters & The Masons | S-Tier | Windmill (Massive AoE crop buff) |
| The Archipelago | The Merchants & The Scholars | A-Tier | Trading Post (Gold multiplier per coast hex) |
| The Alpine Peaks | The Harvesters & The Scholars | B-Tier | Observatory (Draws extra cards per elevation) |
| The Scorched Wastes | The Masons & The Mystics | C-Tier | Mana Conduit (Converts dead tiles to magic) |
Avoiding Common Speedrun Pitfalls
Even with the perfect biome and the best Heirlooms, many players still fail to unlock the final tier of guilds due to micro-management errors. Speedrunning is about efficiency, and these common mistakes will quickly drain your momentum:
- The Deck Bloat Trap: Do not buy every shiny card in the shop. A smaller deck guarantees you draw your Anchor Buildings when you need them. Aim to keep your active deck under 25 cards.
- Ignoring the Hex Grid: Placing a Lumberjack Hut one hex too far from a Forest Tile might cost you 50 points early on, but due to the game’s exponential math, that translates to a loss of 5,000 points by Rank 10. Always double-check your adjacency bonuses before confirming placement.
- Wasting Potions Early: Save your map-manipulating Potions for Ranks 8 through 10. Using them early to fix a minor placement error will leave you defenseless when the procedural generation throws a massive mountain range in the middle of your city later on.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many runs does it take to unlock all 7 guilds?
If you play optimally and complete all 10 ranks in every run, it typically takes between 12 to 15 successful 30-minute runs to accumulate enough global progression points to unlock the entire pantheon of guilds.
Can I unlock multiple guilds in a single run?
No, the game’s progression system evaluates your global points at the end of the run. While you can earn enough points to cross multiple unlock thresholds, the actual unlocks are awarded sequentially upon returning to the main menu.
Do failed runs contribute to guild unlock progress?
Yes, but at a severely reduced rate. If you fail to meet your milestone goals within the given timeframe, you will only keep about 25% of the global points you earned during that run. This is why consistency and survival are more important than attempting risky, game-breaking combos early on.
What is the absolute fastest way to learn how to unlock all guilds fast in Combolands?
The fastest organic method is to play on the smallest procedural islands available, pick the Harvesters and Masons guilds, and prioritize flat point-generation Heirlooms. This ensures runs take 15-20 minutes instead of 30, rapidly accelerating your global point gain.
Final Verdict
Mastering how to unlock all guilds fast in Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder ultimately comes down to treating the game as a mathematical puzzle rather than a relaxed city builder. By aggressively managing your deck of 120+ buildings, leaning heavily into the synergy between your 2 chosen guilds, and optimizing your Heirloom and Councillor picks, you can turn the procedural RNG in your favor and blast through milestones with weeks to spare.
For those who want to skip the grind and dive straight into the deep strategy of the 21 unique guild combinations, utilizing tools like XMODhub provides a seamless, stress-free way to experience everything the game has to offer. With support for thousands of titles, it’s the ultimate companion for gamers who want to respect their own time while still enjoying the dopamine-fueled rush of a perfectly executed combo. Break the game, refine your strategy, and build your metropolis on your own terms.
Stop Grinding, Start Enjoying.
Bypass the tedious resource gathering and unlock your full potential instantly.

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