MMXX Labyrinth Guide UK edition - Milky Way Idle
by MonoclyMan. Last updated 26th April 2026 (Scroll Nerf Update).
This version of the guide is for users in the UK and other countries where imgur is blocked. If you can't see any of the images please try this version of the guide: https://rentry.co/mwi-labs-guide
Disclaimer: Your strategy will always be unique to you, subject to Torch/Shroud/Beacon count, ability levels, gear, Floor layout/RNG, and available coin. Take this as a recommendation, not 100% gospel.
TODO:
Token upgrade order?
Overview
Labs is a challenging solo area intended to reward generalists/Total Levellers and punish specialists. While technically optional for the hardcore combat main (aside from the relevant Elite achievement), there's some real nice XP and money to be made. It consists of a square grid of rooms, each with a different challenge that must be completed within 2 minutes. A sort of "DPS check" for all skills and combat styles. Each floor increases the difficulty by ~20 levels, but rewards stack up too.
All challenge rooms have a chance to drop a reward box equal to Floor * 1%, capping at 10% (Floor 10), Combat Rooms drop a Combat Box, Skilling Rooms drop a Skilling Box. Treasure Rooms have a Floor * 5% chance, capping at 50% (Floor 10), of dropping each box. Labs Refinement chests are granted upon reaching the exit room on Floors 6+.
The currently recommended strategy is to speedrun the earlier floors, push as high as possible, and farm the 2 floors below your "stuck floor". For example if your record is Floor 10 Room 1, your strategy should be to beeline for the exit on Floors 1-4, then path to search for treasure chests and farm rooms on Floors 5-7, use Shrouds and Beacons to get through Floors 8-9 and finally push into Floor 10. Don't search for Treasure rooms on earlier floors, but grab them if they're on the way to the exit.
Extensions
I would extremely strongly recommend installing the Labyrinth Clear Rate Calculator extension. Yes I dedicated an entire section to this.
Pre-Labs
Labs requires solid levels in everything if you want to make the most out of it. I would consider level 80 with a +5 Holy Tool in all skills to be the bare minimum if you intend to properly challenge labs, however you can skimp by with level 65 skills and gear if you just want the relevant combat achievement.
Having at least 1 T85 off-spec combat loadout is almost mandatory if you don't want to get stuck quickly. For non-rangers, speccing some cheap ranged gear is recommended as 3/10 enemies are weak to ranged. For rangers, go buy some melee gear and a spear.
Pathing
Each Labyrinth floor is made up of an even square grid of rooms. Each room can only be accessed and viewed by an orthogonally adjacent room (i.e. only from the top, bottom, left, or right.) This means that the optimal path to take can be somewhat unintuitive.

This path may be the path that first comes to mind. It's simple easy, and intuitive. Cut a diagonal line from one corner to the other for the shortest path. However, because we can only move orthogonally, not only is this path the same length as going straight down then straight across, it's actually worse because we're "doubling up" on scouted tiles.

Notice that in the second "L-Shaped" path we have the exact same amount of rooms visited but our scouted rooms goes from 13 to 23. This type of geometry is called "Taxicab Geometry" if you'd like to learn more.
Now that we've set our base path, we can figure out the best way to scout for Treasure Rooms while using as few resources as possible. Either you can burn a beacon to quickly reveal most of the remaining area, or you can use torches to path into said area.

Combat Rooms
Remember, no triggers
Any loadout you make for labs should run no triggers as you want maximum DPS within 2 minutes. There's no mana efficiency, no extra enemies, no nothing. Either you kill the enemy within 2 minutes, or you don't.
All Combat rooms in Labs are 1v1, so disregard your AoE abilities and only bring single target damage and debuffs.
Labs mobs work differently from normal enemies, having only a few explicit weaknesses while being incredibly resistant to everything else. Bringing multiple decent combat styles is essential for pushing higher rooms. This chart shows which classes you should bring to which enemy:
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Original chart by Orvel, colours and layout altered by MonoclyMan. Note that "Unwinnable" refers to floors 4+.
Loadouts
https://rentry.co/mwi-labyrinth-combat-guide
You'll see that for most loadouts, Critical Aura is offered as a secondary loadout choice. Critical Aura is amazing in lab because it can allow you to cheese/luck your way through a fight you shouldn't normally have the DPS for by hitting lucky crits. This of course only applies if you already have crit aura and a decent ranged level.
Note that as of 26/4/26 (Scroll Nerf) both crossbows have been buffed, meaning the optimal choice for floor 10+ Ranger is a crossbow and Manticore Shield. Enemies just deal too much damage without it, and you'll end up DPS racing most of the time with a Cursed Bow.
Token Upgrades
As of the 26th of April 2026, scrolls no longer work inside the Labyrinth. While this is a short term nerf to most high-tier lab runners, it was replaced by permanent in-lab upgrades that can be purchased with tokens. However, for the new lab runner these will conflict with the vital resource upgrades that are needed to push deeper in the first place.
Highest Priority:
- Shroud Capacity to max
- Beacon Capacity to 6
- Torch Capacity to 8
- Labyrinth Cooldown - 1 or 2
Provided you have the stats and gear, these upgrades will allow you to reach floor 12 on most runs.
High Priority:
- Critical Rate
- Combat Damage
- Skilling Success Rate
Medium Priority:
- Attack Speed
- Cast Speed
- Skilling Double Progress
Low Priority:
- Skilling Speed
- Skilling Efficiency
Optional:
- Floor Automation
- Experience
These upgrades don't provide any direct benefit to pushing deeper into the Labyrinth, but can be fairly nice QoL upgrades. Automation especially is very nice for combat mains in a party, as you can set Labyrinth into your first queue and have it automatically clear the first X amount of floors if someone unreadies.
Meta Strategies
Ranged
Acquire a full set of T85 melee gear (or T95 if you're balling), a spear, and a melee charm. The spear and armour require no melee levels to equip, and we can reuse Frenzy, Berserk, and Precision. Don't bother farming melee levels outside of labs, you'll just gimp your own money and progress. Instead, actively prioritise killing stab-weak enemies in earlier floors whenever you can. Labs enemies reward exceptional XP relative to the time it takes to kill them, so you'll be skyrocketing your melee in no time. Additionally, grab a decent Spiked Bulwark and the above listed Bulwark abilities. Once your melee is high enough (at least 80), acquire a slash weapon so you can take on the Pyre Hunter. This lets us easily kill 7/10 enemies with minimal time and money investment
Unfortunately, there's no easy way around the Magic requirement. You're just gonna have to suck it up and level Magic normally if you want maximum effectiveness. Note that with the Melee strategy and smart use of Shrouds, you can probably get away with minimal investment.
Magic
Acquire the cheapest crossbow, flail, and ranged/melee charms you can. Replace your Trident/Staff with the weapon, equip the relevant charm, then either farm a planet or convince a team to carry you. You'll still be using your normal loadout and constantly casting your 0cd ability while pumping full XP into ranged or melee. Sure you're gonna take a DPS hit, but the speed at which you can cross-level is phenomenal. After you've bumped up your other skills to 100 or so, grab the relevant armour, equipment, and abilities for labs and enjoy steamrolling through the combat rooms.
Mages have the highest potential in labs, but also require the most monetary investment as they'll most likely need to buy frenzy, berserk, and precision from scratch.
Melee
Melees have it rough. Unless you're lucky enough to already have a good ranged stat as the designated Crit Aura slave, you've just gotta bite the bullet and grind levels from scratch. You can grab a cheap secondary weapon and easily deal with the 3 melee-weak enemies, and same as Ranged buy a cheap wark for the Mimic, but as far as I know there isn't an easy way for Melee players to grind their other stats up.
Bulwark
Bulwark also has good cross-levelling potential. Similar to mages, you can just equip a cheap weapon and charm while keeping everything else the same and get full cross-level XP with your wark set, as most warks have high defence and Retaliation/Thorns already. The major weakness is that Bulwark is more reliant on generous teammates than a mage.
Flipmaxxing
Let your runs pile up to the limit, then buy all your gear then do every run in one or two days. After your runs are complete, list your gear on the market and resell for a small loss (or a small profit if you're lucky). This does require dedicating like 20 hours to playing MWI every 2 weeks but is by far the best way to run labs without having billions worth of gear sitting dead in your inventory. Mostly suited for people who have high amounts of liquid capital, such as dungeon runners or market flippers.
The One Strategy to Rule them All
Be in a party and ask your teammates if they're willing to boost you for a few hours. That's it.
CREDITS
- Orvel for most of the wark info and the matchup chart