Guildrun Player Handbook — Positioning, Targeting & Combat Rules

Combat in Guildrun is automatic. That does not mean placement is optional. Between fights you choose the board geometry; during the fight the game resolves pathing, targeting, casts, and keyword windows without you. This Player Handbook is the reference for that layer on Demo 0.5.7.

Use it when:

• a carry dies in the opening seconds,
• a Mage never finishes a channel,
• an aura / neighbor buff never appears,
• or you keep blaming “DPS” after every wipe.

For the full run loop, start with Getting Started. For post-fight diagnosis, use Why did I wipe?. For how to spend after you know the problem, use Shop order.

What this handbook is (and is not)

It is: a decision manual for formation, first contact, cast windows, and board language.

It is not: a hero tier list, a relic dump, or a claim that one placement always wins. Shop seed, enemy range, and your engine (Rush vs Stall) still move the correct answer.

If a tooltip mentions Adjacent, open Adjacent positioning for the neighbor-specific catalog.

The only question combat asks

After every fight, ask:

Did the right hero take the first meaningful hit, and did my win condition get a window to work?

Everything else — Rank spikes, Uniques, crit items — is secondary if that answer is no.

Formation jobs (name them before you place)

Do not place by “who looks cool in front.” Place by job:

| Job | Typical classes | What they must do | | --- | --- | --- | | Wall | Tank, Vanguard, durable Warrior | Eat first contact; fail the plan if they die instantly with no peel behind them. | | Carry | Duelist, Mage, backline Assassin | Deal the damage / channel that wins the fight if they live. | | Enabler | Mystic, control / shield supports | Keep the wall up or keep the fight on your clock (Shield, Stall, peel). | | Flex | Dual-class or economy pieces | Answer the matchup (extra Frost, Burn, second wall, Shard loop). |

A board with three carries and no wall is not aggressive — it is unfinished. Browse Heroes when you are unsure which job a name actually fills.

First contact: the free win you keep giving away

Most early wipes are opener geometry, not missing legendaries.

Put a real body on the entry hex

Melee packs walk toward reachable heroes. If your only Nyx, Irini, or Aria sits on the dive tile, the opener deletes the win condition before ranks matter.

Default:

• Wall front-center (or on the lane the pack actually enters).
• Carry mid/back, off the first step.
• Fragile Mystics never solo the front row.

Soft targets attract trouble

Even when a tank is present, a squishy on an exposed corner can still eat pathing priority if they are closer or more “attractive” to the AI than the wall. After a loss, watch who took the first hit, not who had the highest Attack.

Pass condition: a disposable or dedicated frontliner absorbs the opening volley, and your carry is still acting when the pack thins.

Rows, pockets, and “dive tiles”

Think in three bands:

1. Front — walls and contact bruisers.
2. Pocket / second row — secondary melee, some Duelists, heroes who need to be close but not first.
3. Back — long-range Assassins, Mystics, channel Mages.

Dive tiles are hexes enemies leap to or path through first. Do not park your only healer or channel Mage there “because it looked centered.”

After a wipe, move one piece before you open the shop. If the same hero dies first three fights in a row, stop buying damage for them until placement and a wall are fixed — same rule as the fight-loss checklist.

Cast windows (Mages, Mystics, long channels)

Automatic combat still has timing:

• Mana has to arrive.
• The pack has to stand in the beam / field / cone.
• The caster has to be alive for the full channel.

Placement checks for casters

• Aria-style beams: aim down the lane packs actually occupy; re-angle after losses before rerolling relics.
• Field / zone Mystics (Pollen, Gustav): put the zone where bodies fight, not empty back corners.
• Supports (Grace, Fiona): survive long enough to cast — they are not frontline replacements.

Shop checks that look like “placement”

If the caster never fires, sometimes the fix is Mana Regen or Rush/Stall tempo — but never buy that while they still die on contact. Alive first, then uptime.

Facing, cones, and “the pack stood beside the plan”

Some kits care about facing or frontal geometry (Fault Line–style walls, cones, beams). Symptoms:

• Stun / smash never lands.
• AoE hits one stray instead of the clump.
• You “had the relic” but the replay shows empty air.

Fixes:

• Rotate the wall so the pack walks into the cone, not past it.
• Clump enemies with a real frontline instead of kiting yourself into a diagonal mess.
• For beam carries, treat geometry as a skill check equal to itemization — see Aria Stall Mage notes.

Adjacency without rewriting the adjacent guide

Many Shields, auras, and “exactly one neighbor” modifiers only work if hex neighbors are intentional.

Quick rules:

• Pair aura carriers with the ally who should receive the buff.
• Leave gaps when enemy cleave / splash punishes blobs.
• Do not expect adjacent text to work on a lonely island hero.

Deep catalog: Adjacent positioning.

Rush vs Stall is also a placement problem

Tempo engines assume a fight length:

• Rush boards want clean early kills and living Duelists — a dead Nyx is a dead clock. See Rush vs Stall.
• Stall boards want the pack to stay on the map — if your wall evaporates, Stall payoffs never cook.

Placement that lets the wrong hero die first breaks both clocks. Fix geometry before you buy a second Acceleration or Deceleration Unique.

A 30-second pre-fight checklist

1. Who is the wall on first contact?
2. Who is the carry, and are they off the dive tile?
3. Does any aura / adjacent line have a real neighbor?
4. If I have a beam / cone / field, does the pack stand in it?
5. If this is a Rush board, can my Rush pieces live long enough to trigger?
6. If this is a Stall board, can the fight last long enough to matter?

If you cannot answer (1) and (2), do not open the shop yet — move hexes first.

Common handbook failures

• Three glass carries, zero wall.
• Healer alone on the entry hex.
• Channel Mage aimed at empty space.
• Adjacent relic on a solo island.
• Buying Crit items for a carry who dies before the first auto.
• Changing placement, ranks, and relics after one loss (learn nothing).

Change one variable per fight when practicing: usually placement.

How to use Guildrun Hub with this handbook

• Hero pages: kit range, actives, and whether the fantasy is wall / carry / enabler.
• Classes: role shape before you lock a draft.
• Builds / Tier List: example formations that already name jobs.
• Keywords: when a relic assumes Rush, Stall, Shield, or Crit every combat.

Closing

Guildrun’s combat layer is unfair only if you treat auto-battle as “no decisions.” Your decisions are who stands where and who is allowed to eat the opener. Master that, and ranks and relics start looking like multipliers instead of lottery tickets.

Next reads: Growth route (Rank C→S) for how the board should grow between fights, and Getting Started if you still need the full Demo loop.