Ultimate high score guide for Cookie Run Kingdom Guardian of the Rift event

The Guardian of the Rift is a new event in Cookie Run: Kingdom (CRK) where you battle waves of enemies and prevent them from overwhelming your screen. The gameplay is pretty straightforward. The more waves you clear, the more rewards you get. However, getting to the final wave is the trickiest.

That said, you are probably here for a guide on how to clear all the waves and get a high score in the Cookie Run Kingdom Guardian of the Rift event. Read on to find out how.

During the event, waves of enemies will appear on the bottom-left side of the board. Your task is to clear these waves by summoning cookies by tapping the Summon button. Keep in mind that the cookies you summon are randomized.

There are four rarities in this mode: Normal, Rare, Elite, and Hero. Each tier has stronger stats than the last, and higher-tier cookies often come with special abilities, such as attacking multiple enemies or slowing down targets. In other words, your main objective is to fill your board with the highest-tier cookies possible.

Every 10 waves, you’ll be given a choice to summon one cookie from a random selection of three. Occasionally, the third option will be a random high-tier cookie, though sometimes it may instead offer a specific Hero-tier cookie.

Duplicate cookies will merge into a random cookie of higher rarity. However, they will not merge into a Hero-tier cookie until you get specific combinations. Here is a quick rundown of how this works:

Bonds in the Guardian of the Rift event in CRK are special combinations that let you summon Hero-tier cookies. Once you’ve collected all the required cookies for a bond, you’ll unlock the option to summon a Hero-tier cookie. You can check all the bonds by heading to the Collection section in the event menu or tapping the Hero button while doing your runs.

At the end of each run, you receive Cookie Cards that you can use to upgrade your cookies in the collection section. If you have cookies to upgrade, you should see a “!” sign in the event menu.

The maximum level for each cookie is 10. Each level increases either their ATK or CRIT% stats. Once you max out all your units, you should have no problem clearing stages until Wave 40. Of course, you still need to be strategic about which cookies you need to have on the board.

During your playthrough in the Guardian of the Rift event in CRK, you can upgrade cookies on the board. There are three upgrades available:

The price for each upgrade increases. This means you need to consider how far you are willing to invest in each of the stats.

Aside from cookies, you also get to choose between five different tower cores. These cores can provide a range of buffs or debuffs like ATK boost, poison, slow, or stun. Here is a quick rundown of all tower effects:

Now that you know the basics, let’s go over how you can maximize your runs and clear Wave 40 of the Guardian of the Rift event. We’ll walk you through the early game until the late game and share some tips on what you need to do.

Before the game starts, you need to choose one of the tower cores. The best one is the Core of Fire for a lot of reasons. This core not only burns enemies for extra DMG but also buffs all active cookies on the board. This is perfect, especially in the early game, where you barely have any strong cookies that can carry.

Another good reason to choose this core is that most of the effects that other tower cores have are already covered by higher-tier cookies. Once you have Elite and Hero cookies, there are fewer incentives to have cores that apply debuffs to enemies.

For the first wave, spend all your points to summon as many cookies as you can. Sometimes, you get lucky and summon an Elite right away. However, most of the time, it will just be Normal and Rare-types.

Afterwards, see if this first group of cookies can hold back a few waves. If they can’t, do one or two ATK upgrades. Afterwards, focus on getting your SUMM% to Level 10. It is important to max out this one as soon as possible so you have a better chance of summoning higher-tier cookies. 

However, you need to consider if you have enough units to clear waves, especially on Wave 10, where there is a boss fight. If your active cookies can’t clear waves, consider stopping at SUMM% Level 6 or 8, then focus on building a good lineup. After you survive Wave 10, you can go ahead and max out your SUMM% stat. 

Once you get your first Speedy Boss Defeat Reward, don’t hesitate to choose the third option and pick a randomized Rare cookie. If it fails, you at least get extra points for upgrades or summons. 

Around Wave 15, you should have a solid lineup of Elites, and maybe even one Hero, if you’re lucky. Your next goal now is to keep upgrading your cookies to higher tiers. Position the ones with slow or stun abilities between other heavy hitters.

Don’t hesitate to recall cookies that have no Hero Bonds to make space for new summons. You can only have 14 cookies active at a time. This means your board will soon fill up the more waves you survive. When this happens, consider recalling cookies that have no bonds or have no duplicates on the board. This also applies to Elite tiers, as you need to have specific Elites that can help you summon a Hero cookie. 

For example, Cream Soda Cookie and Dark Choco Cookie both have the same ability to hit three enemies at once. However, they are not part of any Bonds. When you run out of space, you can recall them and hope to get better replacements.

When a boss appears, move your strongest Hero or Elite units around the board to follow the boss so they can keep hitting it. This lets you win the fight quicker than having them wait for the boss to pass in front of them.

There are two types of Bonds in the Guardian of the Rift, which can be confusing for players. The first Bond is the criterion to summon heroes. They are listed in the collection book for you to check.

The second type of Bonds is an achievement earned by summoning a specific group of heroes during a playthrough. However, this achievement remains hidden until you meet the required conditions.

To help you out, here is a list of Bonds you need to unlock for rewards in the Cookie Run Kingdom Guardian of the Rift:

That sums up our guide for the Cookie Run Kingdom Guardian of the Rift event. If you are in need of more resources, be sure to check out our list of codes for the game.

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