Chapter I
The Guild
Alchemists' Guild is an idle alchemy game with a collection of Potion NFTs on Robinhood Chain. You stir a cauldron, build a Lair that brews while you sleep, Ascend for Aether, and — when a run is strong enough — brew a Grand Vintage, which mints a brand-new potion.
It's built in the spirit of Cookie Clicker and Adventure Capitalist: a loop that is easy to start and never quite finishes. The potions you hold make your Lair stronger. The potions you brew are yours to keep, trade, or burn into something rarer.
Chapter II
The Potions
The collection begins with 3,333 genesis potions, sold on OpenSea. After that, every new potion is brewed by a player, and there is exactly one way to do it: brew a Grand Vintage. Each potion has a tier (how rare, how strong) and a school (what it strengthens).
The six tiers
The five schools
Set bonuses
On top of each potion's own bonus, collections unlock production bonuses. A Homunculus counts as holding its potion.
- Alchemical Balance — one potion from every school: +30%
- Complete Ascension — one potion of every tier: +50%
- School Mastery — all six tiers of one school: +25% each
- Convergence — all five schools at the same tier: +10% (T1) up to +400% (T6)
- Master Alchemist — one of all 30 potions: +200%
Chapter III
The Lair
Stir the cauldron for Essence. Five quick stirs start a combo that builds up to ×3. Every so often a Golden Potion floats through the room: catch it for a Frenzy (×7 everything for 25 seconds), a Lucky lump of Essence, or an Aether Mote. Folded Whispers offer a choice of three small permanent boons.
Buildings
Twenty buildings, from the humble Apprentice to the Philosopher's Stone, brew Essence every second. Each one has a chain of Masteries (×2 output at 1, 5, 25, 50, 100 … 500 owned) and gains +10% at each ★ milestone.
Research & Rites
Research is a list of one-off discoveries: stronger stirs, global ×2 production, and synergies where each building boosts the next. Rites never run out — every level costs more than the last, and there is always another.
Away from the cauldron
The Lair keeps brewing while you're gone: 60% of normal production for up to 8 hours, both improved by skills.
Chapter IV
Ascension & the Skill Tree
When a run slows down, Ascend. Your Essence, buildings, Research and Rites reset, and you gain Aether Motes — roughly the cube root of this run's Essence divided by a million (each Vintage you brew makes Aether 100× harder to distil, so that million becomes a hundred million, then ten billion…). Every mote you earn powers all production (25 motes ×2, 500 ×5.5, a million ×200), even after you spend it.
Motes are spent in the Skill Tree: 381 skills on ten paths spiralling out from the Heart of the Guild. Small skills stack, notables are bigger, a Keystone waits at the end of every path — and each path has three Unique skills that change how you play.
The unique skills
- Many Hands — +5% production per building type owned
- Slow Simmer — production grows the longer a run lasts
- Guild Standards — ★ milestones give +50%
- Stirring Familiar — a spark that stirs for you
- Critical Stir — 1 in 10 stirs hits ×10
- Familiar Pact — the familiar stirs six times a second
- Steady Rhythm — combos forgive a slower hand
- Frenzy Surge — Frenzies last twice as long
- Rolling Boil — stirring extends a Frenzy
- Long Night — 24 hours of offline progress
- Tireless Guild — offline at the full rate
- Welcome Home — a Frenzy when you return
- Lingering Glint — Golden Potions stay longer
- Twin Fortune — Golden Potions come in pairs
- Midas Brew — bigger Golden Potion rewards
- Patient Ear — Whispers wait for you
- Void Dividend — Whispers pay Aether
- Deep Listening — Whisper boons doubled
- Collector's Eye — +3% per different potion held
- Curated Shelves — potion bonuses +50%
- Grand Exhibition — set bonuses doubled
- Apprentice Stipend — runs start with buildings
- Retained Notes — Research survives Ascension
- Ancestral Estate — runs start with 25 of six buildings
- Aether Seep — a mote every 10 minutes of play
- Rebirth Surge — ×5 production after Ascending
- Transcendent Yield — double Aether from Ascension
- Tireless Quartermaster — buys buildings for you
- Research Clerk — buys Research for you
- Rite Keeper — levels cheap Rites for you
Chapter V
The Grand Vintage
The goal of every run. Gather enough Aether Motes and Essence and the Grand Vintage panel fills — then brew it.
- You mint a new Potion NFT of a random school. Tier odds: 60% I · 25% II · 11% III · 3.5% IV · 0.5% V. Tier VI is never brewed.
- All production doubles, forever. Vintages stack.
- Your run resets completely — Essence, buildings, Research, Rites, Aether Motes and the Skill Tree. You keep potions, Homunculi, achievements and Vintages.
The first Vintage needs 500 Aether Motes and 1M Essence in one run. Each Vintage raises the next one's needs (×10 motes, ×1000 Essence) and makes Aether harder to distil — but every Vintage also doubles your production, so each one takes about as long as the last and the brewing never stops. There is no cap on how many you can brew.
Chapter VI
The Crucible & Homunculi
On the Crucible page, three identical potions (same school and tier) can be burned into a Homunculus of that school and tier.
- A Homunculus gives five times its potion's tier bonus. The three potions only gave three times.
- It still counts as holding that potion for every set bonus.
- Burning is permanent. Every burn makes the remaining potions of that kind rarer — potions are the common coin of the Guild, Homunculi the rare prize, and the twenty Genesis Vintages the legends.
Burning lives on the website rather than inside the Lair, so the game stays about brewing.
Chapter VII
Questions
Where is my progress saved?
In your browser, on the device you play on. Clearing your browser data clears your Lair.
How often can I brew a potion?
As often as you can fill a Grand Vintage. The more you play, the more you brew.
Can I trade my potions and Homunculi?
Yes — they are NFTs on Robinhood Chain and trade on OpenSea like any other.
Can a burn be undone?
No. The three potions are gone for good.
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
Azure
Verdant
Crimson
Amber
Void