Combolands Items Guide: Heirlooms, Potions, Upgrades

The three official item lanes

The official store names 100+ passive heirlooms, potions, and upgrades. It also says upgrades can manipulate building behaviour and potions can manipulate the map. That gives us a useful way to organise a run without pretending that every item effect or acquisition route is documented.

Item lane	What the official listing supports	What still needs a direct check
Passive heirlooms	A large collection of passive run modifiers exists	Exact effect, stacking, timing, and acquisition
Potions	Potions can manipulate the map	Target rules, duration, cost, and interaction limits
Upgrades	Upgrades can manipulate building behaviour	Which building is affected and under what conditions

Keep councillors separate from this table. The store lists 13+ city councillors with their own progressions and abilities, but that does not make a councillor an item or prove that its progression uses the same rules.

A practical item-reading routine

1. Copy the visible name and description

Use the exact in-game wording. Do not shorten a description into a stronger claim. Words such as “next,” “nearby,” “passive,” or “map” may define when the effect is checked, and losing one of them can change the meaning.

2. Record the context

Write down the guild pair, board state, current week or scoring phase if visible, and the patch version. If a building chain was already active, say so. An item that looks responsible for a score may only have been present while another trigger fired.

3. Separate immediate and lasting results

Note whether the visible change happened on pickup, on the next placement, during scoring, or after a map action. Then test whether the item remains active. This is a note-taking method, not a claim about how every item works.

4. Link the item to the board question

If the item changes a building result, connect it to building combos. If it changes the map or placement context, connect it to trigger mechanics. The buildings hub should not absorb item-only observations.

Current patch context

The official v1.0.4 update says Heirloom and Crystal Ball will properly show week changes on the starting score animation. That is a useful version-specific UI and scoring clue, but it is not a complete description of either item. The exact current effect still needs a direct in-game check before it becomes a reference entry.

Older patch notes also mention Charcoal and paint changes. Because those notes are version-sensitive, record them on the updates page with their patch label instead of presenting them as timeless item rules.

What not to turn into a tier list

Avoid ranking an item from one run, assuming that “passive” means unconditional in every phase, or inferring an acquisition location from a single screenshot. A useful item note answers “what was visible, when did it happen, and can it be repeated?” If one of those answers is missing, label the result reported or needs verification.