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Wilbur Climbs the Guild Ladder tips: how to reach all four goals

Wilbur Climbs the Guild Ladder is a free medieval life-sim board game you play in your browser, alone against the computer or with 2 to 4 players on one screen. Every week you get one candle of hours to work, study, have fun and keep yourself fed. This guide explains the four goals, the candle, every house in town, the jobs on the guild ladder and the diplomas, with 8 tips to win in fewer weeks.

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The four goals

You win by reaching all four goals before your rivals. Playing alone, the aim is to do it in as few weeks as you can. The bars at the top show how far you are.

• Silver: 450 in a short game, 1200 in a normal game. Silver in the bank counts too.
• Happiness: 60 or 80. You start at 30.
• Knowledge: 3 or 4 diplomas from the Abbey School.
• Guild rank: a job of rank 5 or rank 7 on the guild ladder.

A short game takes about 19 weeks, a normal game about 27.

The candle: your hours for the week

Every week starts with a candle of 80 hours. Everything costs hours: walking costs 1 hour for every house you pass, going inside costs 1 hour, and the well in the middle is 2 hours from every house. Working and studying take 4 or 8 hours at a time. When the candle is out, the week is over.

• No food at home? Next week's candle is 15 hours shorter. Buy bread at the Bakery.
• No water? 10 hours shorter. Fetch a bucket at the well.
• Ill? 12 hours shorter every week until the Apothecary cures you.
• A beeswax candle from the Candle Maker burns 8 hours longer next week.

The houses in town

Thirteen houses stand in a ring around the well, and every new game shuffles them, so look at the map before you plan your week. Tap a house to walk there.

• Guild Hall: ask for a job, and buy a licence for a sword.
• Abbey School: enrol in a course and study for your diplomas.
• Tavern: your first home (rent 40 a week, +5 for every guild rank above 2), a feast for happiness, and a job washing dishes.
• Tower Room: a nicer home for 90 a week (+5 for every guild rank above 2), and +3 happiness every week.
• Bakery: bread and pies (a pie also cheers you up).
• Smithy: a cudgel or short sword against robbers, and a water barrel that holds water for 4 weeks.
• Tailor: clothes, which better jobs ask for. They wear out after some weeks.
• Bank: keep your silver safe from robbers.
• Candle Maker: beeswax candles for a longer week.
• Bathhouse and Theatre: a bath or a play for happiness.
• Apothecary: a cure when you are ill, and herbs that keep you healthy.
• Gambling Den: the wheel of fortune, higher or lower, and the cups. Fun, but you can lose your silver.

Climbing the guild ladder

The guild ladder has nine ranks. At rank 1 the guild always hires you: Bellows Boy, Bath Attendant, Dishwasher or Dough Kneader. Every job after that asks for some of these: diplomas, hours of work experience and good enough clothes. Hours in the same house count in full, hours anywhere else count half. From rank 4 every job asks two diplomas. The higher the rank, the better the wage. At the top is the Guildmaster, who needs Letters, Reckoning, Trade and Philosophy.

The guild does not have every job open every week, and it picks the best candidate. Extra diplomas, more experience and finer clothes raise your chance. In good times the guild hires more easily. You climb at most two ranks at a time, a new job comes with a 2-week trial period, and an interview costs 3 hours and a 5 silver tip (rank 1 stays 1 hour). Skip work for a whole week and you drop a rank. From rank 5 the guild expects a visit to the bathhouse every 2 weeks: unwashed, your chance is much smaller and you earn 20% less.

Diplomas at the Abbey School

Pay the fee to enrol, then study at the school until the course is done. Three courses need another diploma first.

• Letters (40 silver, 36 hours)
• Reckoning (50 silver, 36 hours)
• Craft (50 silver, 36 hours)
• Wax Lore (90 silver, 44 hours), after Craft
• Trade (100 silver, 44 hours), after Reckoning
• Philosophy (140 silver, 48 hours), after Letters

8 tips to win in fewer weeks

1. Take a job in week 1. A rank 1 job is always yours, and every hour you work counts as experience for the next job.
2. Walk less. Houses are shuffled every game. Plan a round past houses that are close together, and do several things in one visit.
3. Never skip food and water. A hungry and thirsty week costs you 25 hours. A meal at the tavern also counts as food for a week (but you cannot keep it). A water barrel from the Smithy saves trips to the well.
4. Pay your rent yourself. Take it to your landlord every week. Unpaid rent becomes a debt: half your wages go to it, and the reeve may put you in the stocks.
5. Bank your silver. With 40 silver or more in your purse, robbers may jump out on the street. Bank it, or buy a cudgel or a sword (a sword needs a licence from the Guild Hall).
6. Study early. Letters and Craft open most of the better jobs. Start a course in the first weeks, when there is still little to spend your silver on.
7. One treat a week. The first feast, bath or play in a week gives the most happiness; a second one adds only a little, and the same outing as last week gives only half. Going home to bed with hours to spare also cheers you up.
8. Dress for the job you want. Better jobs need an apron, a wool cloak or a velvet cape. Buy them in time, and replace them before they wear out.

Surprises in town

Not every week is the same. Some weeks start with a choice, like helping the baker for silver. The townsfolk ask small favours for a reward, and owners you visit often become friends and give you a discount. A fair can camp on the square, the king can visit, and a house can catch fire and close for two weeks (you can help put it out). Times in town go from hard to booming, which changes wages and how many jobs the guild has open.

Other ways to play

• Town of the day: everyone plays the same town today. Share in how many weeks you reached all four goals.
• Richest of Tiltwick: a leaderboard of the most silver anyone had in one game.
• 2 to 4 players: take turns on one screen, with or without computer players.
• The Big City: win a Normal game first. Then a long game (about 50 weeks) opens with a second square by the harbour, 12 new houses, a guild ladder up to rank 12 and five university diplomas at the Notary. At the Candle Maker you can also buy wax there: your next two candles burn 20% slower. You can also have a house of your own: buy the Merchant's House (with a mortgage from the Notary if you like) or have the Master Builder put up a house on the building plot in three weeks. Your house counts towards your silver and makes you happier every week. At the Stables you buy a horse (with hay you get around faster), at the Harbour Warehouse you send out a ship with wool or salt, and at the Notary you insure yourself against shipwreck and robbers. You can fall in love there too: court Hanna, Isolde, Tobias or Jasper in four different weeks, ask them to marry you and wed in the Cathedral. Married you are happier every week, and with a room or house of your own children may come (a romantic evening at home helps). What you do builds your fame. Every 15 weeks the town chooses a mayor: with enough fame you stand at the Court of Justice and campaign at the Market. In winter a room or house of your own must be heated with firewood from the Market. And sometimes something big happens: a flood, the plague, the king's palace or a foreign fleet in the harbour.
• Tutorial: new to the game? The tutorial walks you through your first week.

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More guides: Sugar Plop · All Blocks Out · Gotcha Gumdrop

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