01 · PARTY
Can four heroes actually go?
Injury and away status truly sideline heroes. Worn heroes can be selected manually, but auto-selection skips them for a reason.
How to survive your first season
New guilds often survive the first dungeon and still lose the season: the best four return Worn, the replacements are weaker, the next settlement arrives, and one rushed expedition turns a shallow bench into a death loop. The answer is not perfect heroes. It is tempo.
Season rule: four fit heroes before one more deadline
Checked against v3.0.0
Five checkpoints, in order
- I
Read the opening position
Know what your charter gave you, what your permanent background and company multipliers reward, and how thin the roster really is.
- II
Protect one complete party
Your immediate floor is four usable heroes. A brilliant specialist on the bench cannot replace a missing tank, damage dealer or healer in the next party.
- III
Treat the first delve as information
Record who returned Worn, which attributes failed their jobs, and what the trip did to the next settlement. Do not answer every weakness with another immediate delve.
- IV
Use the quiet days deliberately
Recover heroes who crossed state thresholds; Train broad Ability gaps; Hone the one attribute that is blocking a role. Empty calendar space is a resource.
- V
Close the season solvent
A promotion is welcome, but a stable four-hero core, a non-collapsing settlement and a usable bench are the real signs that season two can begin.
Before advancing a day, run the four-line check
02 · BOOKS
What happens at the next settlement?
Wages, upkeep and patron stipend settle every six days. Know the recurring balance before buying another upgrade or contract.
03 · YARD
Are the limited slots doing useful work?
Recover a hero you need now; Train a broad CA gap; Hone a specific weakness. Unassigned heroes still receive the facility's smaller passive CA gain.
04 · DEADLINE
Is this activity mandatory?
Separate a real deadline from optional momentum. If the next step can wait, recovery and a solvent settlement are progress.
Roles before stars
The first-season roster is a coverage problem. Start with a party that can hold threat, deal damage and sustain the run. Then use the class and synergy pages to improve the shape. A high-potential recruit is a future asset; a fit hero who completes today's party is an operating requirement.
- Check class weights before Honing a stat that the role barely uses.
- Use the synergy planner as a bonus check, not a reason to field a Worn party.
- Protect at least one credible replacement as soon as the roster allows it.
Tools: class weights ·party synergy planner
Recurring costs beat exciting purchases
Gold from a delve is lumpy; patron stipend is the steady income. Roster wages and guild upkeep keep returning. A one-time purchase is affordable only if the next settlements remain survivable after it. Debt erodes patron confidence and can make the reliable-income problem worse, so read a small recurring deficit as an early warning rather than background noise.
After a bad delve, stop the collapse in this order
- 1
Count. Separate injured and away heroes from merely Worn ones.
- 2
Recover. Spend yard capacity on the heroes who restore a complete party.
- 3
Rebudget. Recalculate the next settlement before signing a rescue roster.
- 4
Resume. Return with role coverage, not just the first four names available.
Community reports repeatedly describe the same failure pattern after the first dungeon. That evidence identifies a real onboarding pain point, but it does not prove a hidden catch-up penalty or fixed death rate. This route addresses the controllable systems instead.
Since the 2.1 patches: what the game does for a new guild
The eleven patches from 2.08 to 2.18 softened the opening in specific, checkable ways. None of them removes the tempo problem above, but each one changes what a sensible first season looks like.
Where you start
You can found in any of the six divisions with a Lean, Fair or Full purse; higher starts bring a bigger hall, a deeper roster and a patron who pays for that division. The Backwater charter now opens with 300 gold (was 120) and Modest with 600 (was 300).
A softer first Trial
Every new guild meets a weaker guild in its division in its first Trial, and in the first year no event asks for more than a third of your gold. A hall in debt is only offered events that cost nothing.
Debt no longer empties beds
You get 30 days in the red before anything happens. After that, the unhappiest delver asks to be listed on the Market instead of walking out; refuse and their morale drops to 20. Morale still sinks on every red payday, so the grace period is time to fix the books, not a reason to ignore them.
Low morale refuses work
Below morale 25 a delver may refuse a delve or quest: 2% for every point under the line, never a Trial. Dutiful delvers never refuse. A miserable hero is a party hole you find out about at the send-off.
Pick a safer battle plan
Doctrines became five battle plans. While the roster is thin, Rearguard is the survival pick: the developer measured 40 to 60% fewer deaths for about 15% less damage. Blitz suits short delves and Trials; March helps on long delves and in dungeon conditions.
Know the transfer window
Buying from or selling to another guild only happens while the Archive's roll is open: the first eight days of each 30-day season. The Tavern and the Wanderers stay open all year, so they are the emergency route; plan guild-to-guild deals around the window.
Three traps that look like progress
Perfect potential
PA matters over a career. It does not make an unavailable hero fit for tomorrow's party.
Every facility at once
Each level adds upkeep. Build around the current bottleneck and recheck the settlement.
Another immediate delve
Optional momentum is not recovery. Quiet days can convert a damaged roster back into a usable one.
More guides
Training & Hero Growth7 min · Verified in current buildHero Growth & Potential8 min · Verified in current buildOaths & Renewals7 min · Verified in current buildRecruitment & Poaching8 min · Verified in current buildRace & Class Selection9 min · Current extracted weights + transparent methodGuild Hall Operations8 min · Verified in current buildTavern Quests8 min · Verified in current buildPatrons & Mandates7 min · Verified in current buildTroubleshooting5 min · Developer fixes + labelled community reports