This guide is aimed at players looking to join the action in the big guilds while remaining free 2 play (F2P) using a good strategy and plenty of patience. This guide will kick-in from 120 to 150 million might or running up to T4. I am assuming you are familiar with the mechanics of the game and that you have figured out and acquired the basic sets for Gathering, Research, Building and Familiar.
1. Career paths in Lords Mobile[]
There are in my opinion a limited number of ‘career paths’ you can take in Lords Mobile that keep the game interesting over the long run. You can either become a Rally Leader, a Warrior, a Supporting Warrior or a Farmer.
A Rally Leader, is a P2P player that will be starting rallies against a target. The main selection criteria for a Rally Leader are his heroes, stats, gear (sigils) and familiars that will be transferred to every troop participating in the rally. Hence, this implies the Rally Leader is a big spender with a good amount of levelled up P2P heroes and gear.
A Warrior is a P2P player with as main focus participating in rallies and solo battles and usually he is aiming for high troop kill stats. You can spot them by looking at the ratio of might to troop kill. If the troop kill is above or equal to half his might you are looking at a Warrior in my definition. These players will be spending as well to have decent gear and army stats. Some might even purchase a P2P hero but they will not go all the way to becoming a Rally Leader (They may do so in time). Another ambition shared by most Warriors is the desire to have enough troops to eat a full T4 rally. With the Familiars now joining the battle this ambition has become a lot tougher. Solo or Rally Traps would also be considered in this category.
A Supporting Warrior is a F2P player that wants a piece of the action. Thanks to his research and lucky drop rates he has ok battle stats to attack and solo not too big players but mostly he is looking to join big rallies while monitoring troop losses. His ‘Kills to Might’ ratio hovers around 10% but his Enemies Destroyed (Might) stat is good. His sense of accomplishment comes from the fact that thanks to cunning and strategic play, he manages to play in the big league without spending a dime.
A Farmer is a F2P player that does not enjoy the rally and battle part. He plays for the fun of achieving the non-war accomplishments such as maxing out research and buildings, trading resource, scoring well in certain events etc. He is characterised by being a F2P player and because of his relatively low troop count, he is not too distressed in case he forgets his shield as everything fits in his infirmaries most likely.
In case I have overlooked a career path, I apologise, but in general I would say that if you do not fit into one of the 4 categories you are either wasting your time or your money and in the worst case, maybe both.
This guide is written mainly for the Supporting Warrior type.
2. Setting yourself up for success and key decisions to take[]
In order to continue to advance successfully as a F2P player, it is essential that you get into a good guild. For your current level of might (120 to 150 million) you should try to aim for 20 billion + guilds. You want to benefit from a guild that has a high number of Monster Hunt Boxes and potentially also a bit from the P2P players’ purchases in the form of boxes. These have a good drop rate amongst other in Pay to Win (P2W) building materials as you head up to T4 but remain also very good for materials (including ultras), shields and of course gems. To give you an example, my guild with just under 30 billion might, allows me to get on average 55.000 gems per week with Treasure Trove almost maxed (45.000 gems without Treasure Trove) and roughly 50 days of speed-ups per week (research and normal speed-ups combined but excluding merging and troop training). ==== As with most things in life, there is no free lunch. Staying in these good guilds will require time and effort on your part for example during events but potentially also daily monster hunting, paying resource to the bank or other requirements. Most high level guilds will require Solo 3 at KvK, 1300 to 1700 points in Guild Fest (depending on Gauntlet) and participation in Guild Bash with 60.000 points per player (these numbers could change of course as the game evolves). In practice, as a F2P player this means you will need to save-up a bit outside of the events in terms of gems and accelerators and plan ahead of the events to maximise your points without risking of falling short (and thus needing to spend money to meet your targets). I will elaborate on how I usually get through a Guild Fest in the Events Management chapter.
A first decision that you need to make - and one I would highly recommend - is setting yourself up as a Resource Hyper. This will make you a valuable and contributing guild member. T4 battles cost a boatload of resource to heal and to train and an active 20 billion+ guild will eat through a lot of resource. There are plenty of guides available on resource hypering so I will not go into detail on this here but essentially it means you build 1 farm, 1 quarry, 1 mill and 1 mine. The remainder of your resource building will be a single resource of your choosing, either stone, wood or ore. I’ve been a stone resource hyper for the better part of my first 2 years which allowed me to deliver over 40 billion in stone to my guild’s bank and teammates. You will be appreciated for any of the three but ore seems to be the hardest to come by. For example, if you look at same level tiles, wood and stone come at the same rate but ore will be lower indicating that ore comes at a premium. In addition, it is believed that the infantry + cavalry troop line-up is one of the favoured set-ups in LM. Both troop types require ore which adds to the premium effect for ore. Hence, if I had to recommend a resource hyper for a F2P player, you might as well make it ore. I am now an ore hyper after my first 2 years of stone hypering to reflect this line of thought.
A second decision you need to make in the game is which troop type will you favour. In general, you will keep a relatively even amount of each troop type (except for siege of course) as your aim is to participate in rallies. However, as a F2P you will not be able to develop a powerful and dedicated gear + jewel set for every troop type. Hence, your best course of action is to focus on 2 troop types in order to reach a satisfactory level of gear. Acquiring a nice gear set (level 50 gear and above so using ‘Ultras’ and taking them up to Blue for example) as a F2P will require some luck in the drop rates. You could pick any combination you fancy or you could let luck help you a long a bit.
When analysing statistical drop rates as published by IGG on their websites it becomes clear that the Mega Maggot, Blackwing, Guargantua and Mecha Trojan have a higher drop rate of Ultras. Followed by Hell Drider and Frostwing with medium drop rates of Ultras and then Queen Bee, Bon Appeti, Tidal Titan, Saberfang, Snow Beast, Jade Wyrm, Terrorthorn and Grim Reaper with a low to very low drop rate of Ultras. So looking more closely at the monsters with higher drop rates, one can see that Mega Maggot favours Ranged troops, Blackwing Ranged and Cavalry, Guargantuan Cavalry (and Siege) and last but not least Mecha Trojan Infantry, Cavalry (and Siege). Hence, focusing on Cavalry and Ranged as a F2P player does not seem like a bad strategy as this will probably be your best ticket to getting some decent level 50+ gear purely based on Ultra drop rates. In addition, Frostwing gives some good complementary gear supporting all 3 troop types and is in the medium drop rate category. I have been fortunate on Queen Bee drops which is in the low drop rate category but provides excellent gear for Cavalry and Range. The good news is that in my opinion you do not need to start crafting the level 50+ gear from the start. If you don’t have T4 yet, stick to level 40 gear as usually this does not require Ultras. Once you’ve reached T4, check which Monsters you have been lucky with in the drops. Maybe you have a high number of Ultras for Bon Appeti, Tital, Saber, Snow Beast or Grim Reaper and Infantry would make perfect sense to you. Statistically speaking however, I doubt it.
Below table provides an overview:
| Monster | Ultra | Drop Rate | Troop Preference 1 | Troop Preference 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackwing | Glowing Eyes | 10% | Ranged | Cavalry |
| Mecha Trojan | Ancient Blueprints | 10% | Infantry | Cavalry |
| Mega Maggot | Corrosive Toxin | 9% | Ranged | Infantry |
| Gargantuan | Gargantuan Eye | 7,9% | Cavalry | Siege |
| Frostwing | Frostwing Heart | 6% | Infantry | Cavalry |
| Hell Drider | Mutated Brain | 5,5% | Ranged | Infantry |
| Snow Beast | Festive Bells | 4% | Infantry | Ranged |
| Saberfang | Blood Sucker | 4% | Cavalry | Infantry |
| Grim Reaper | Cursed Skull | 4% | Ranged | Cavalry |
| Bon Appeti | Glowing Halo | 3% | Infantry | Ranged |
| Jade Wyrm | Jade Orb | 3% | Ranged | Siege |
| Tidal Titan | Glistering Pearl | 3% | Infantry | Cavalry |
| Terrorthorn | Terrorthorn Seed | 3% | Infantry | - |
| Queen Bee | Queen Venom | 3% | Cavalry | Ranged |
3. Getting to T4[]
Patience is a virtue and focus is the key to success. It is clear that all of your gems will have to go into buying the needed materials to upgrade your P2W building such as your Battle Hall, Embassy, Prison and Altar. As mentioned earlier, a good guild will also provide you with a healthy drop rate of these materials.
Aside from the required buildings, your main challenge will be with the research. By now, you will have figured out that you need your Economy tree (except gem gathering) and Military Tree maxed. As a F2P player, the Economy tree should have always been in your focus so it is not such a pain to finish this one off. The Military Tree is maybe a less obvious one but the Army boost will eventually also be worth it. The last levels of Economy and Military offer you the possibility of grabbing some Watcher and Chaos Dragon Medals usually by combining 2 researches within the same hour or day. Which is another benefit of a guild that can supply 30 helps in an hour. Be patient, wait for the right hell events and then collect the medals and additional benefits (gems, speed ups etc.) while finishing the needed researches. I usually finished all my researches at this stage with speed-ups having collected enough in between watcher hell events. Gold is a real issue for F2P players with all infirm setup trying to unlock those last Military researches. I have found that when you are a loyal and relatively long time member of the guild, you can get the gold needed from your fellow guild mates. In addition, you can offer to exchange for the resource you are hypering.
As a side note, whilst you are running up to T4, resist the temptation of training too many T3 troops. Once you unlock T4 and you are in a decent guild, you will not be using your T3 that often as all rallies / Darknest are T4 driven. They still come in handy to gather and to absorb T4 losses.
I went through the process of unlocking T4 without the existence of Familiars at the time. I can therefore not comment on how they fit into this picture. I could imagine a nice benefit of Pact 3 Familiars such as Gemming Gremlin, Goblin, Trickstar and Magus providing additional gems, gold, research speed and completing your research help bar. I do however not know to what extend it is realistic to have these unlocked while working up to T4. More on Familiars on the dedicated chapter further below.
4. After T4[]
The main relief after T4 is that you do not need to spend gems on those bloody P2W building materials anymore (except Treasure Trove). T4 troops are incredibly expensive to produce. This means your Gold worries are not over. All other resource should be fine.
As unlocking T4 is a major milestone for most players - one you have probably worked months for to achieve - you are in need of a new target to reach. I personally went for getting Watcher to gold as next milestone. The Watcher Hero is as close as you are going to get to Champion gear providing an amazing boost to your Army Stats and a 20% Troop Training Speed.
Building-wise, your main focus will be on getting your Treasure Trove maxed while finishing most likely your hyper resource buildings to level 25 and your Familiar buildings. Not that many options left here anyway.
Research-wise, the choice is more interesting. As a F2P player and especially if you are pursuing Watcher medals, research will be your main source of might increase. If you are not aiming for Watcher medals, you may wish the skip the next part of this guide but the conclusion will most likely be the same.
For Watcher medals through Research you are therefore looking for the research that is maximising your might increase in order to complete the Watcher hell events for the least amount of gems spent. [With gems spent I mean the amount of gems that needs to be paid after the research has started (so not including resource needed or missing to start it) and after having received the maximum allowed helps of 30 from your guild. As a reference, with my gear 1 minute that needs accelerating is roughly 1 gem.] Excluding the Economy tree and Military tree as they are already completed and also excluding the Sigils and Wonder Battles tree as not really in the focus for a F2P, the order of research trees providing the best return on investment are (from best to worse – calculated with my research boost but the relative differences are expected to hold for any research level): Monster Hunt with 27 might increase per gem spent, then ex aequo Familiars, Upgrade Military and the better part of Army Leadership with 18,24 might per gem (excluding the Army Offense II, Defence II and Health II which has one of the lowest returns on investment with 9,12 might / gem). Followed by Upgrade Defences with 18,06 might per gem, then Defence with 15,8 might per gem and Military Command with 15,2 might per gem.
Below table summarises the numbers:
| Research Tree | Might / Gem |
|---|---|
| Monster Hunt | 27,00 |
| Familiars | 18,24 |
| Upgrade Military | 18,24 |
| Army Leadership | 18,24 |
| Upgrade Defences | 18,06 |
| Defence | 15,8 |
| Military Command | 15,2 |
| Army Leadership - Army Buffs | 9,12 |
When I was at this stage Familiars did not yet exist so I opted to focus on my Monster Hunting research. Given the above figures, I believe this is still a good option as the might gain per gem spent is the highest and the Monster Hunting research is very relevant. However, with Familiars in the picture and the might gain to gem spent being the second best option, I would also unlock Familiars up until Pact 3 if not already done. It is not so challenging or expensive and allows you to get some really decent familiars.
Other paths of priority in Research are definitely valid depending on what you wish to achieve. Just keep in mind that you are better off being able to finish a research all the way to level 10 as the last levels have the biggest impact than taking everything up to level 5 first for example.
5. Ideal troop numbers and warfare[]
As a Supporting Warrior your main objective is to be able to join in on the big rallies. In order to do so, you would ideally need a full march of T4 troops or 200k of each T4 troop type so that you can follow in whatever troop type is called. However, there is a delicate balance between on the one hand joining the rallies and sharing in the excitement, fun and kills and on the other hand limiting your losses.
As a F2P and especially in an all infirmary set-up your troop training speed is low and you will not be boosting troops using hard cash. Which means that if you blow through your T4 in a short span of time you will be on the side line for a couple of months while you build back up. As an example, I can train 9.500 k T4 in just over 4 days. If I lose 100k T4 (meaning dead) I need 40 days to retrain those numbers. Losing 100 k T4 could be a matter of 3 to 5 tough rallies.
In order to limit T4 losses, players tend to use so called ‘meat shields’. Those are T3 or T2 troops of the same type that take the blunt of the hit so to speak and die first limiting your losses on the T4 side. Hence, a better combination of troops to send when joining a rally is about 170k of the T4 troop type requested topped off with 15k T3 and 15k T2 of the same requested troop type, assuming a max 200k army size.
The minimum troop level for a Supporting Warrior therefore looks as follows: you need 170k of each T4 troop complemented by 15k T3 and T2 of each, 600k in total. This troop count allows you to participate in every type of rally while minimising your potential losses.
The maximum desired amount of troops is also an interesting question. You want to be able to limit the losses when caught off guard or when you are stuck in the crossfires of battle as losing too much troops in 1 blow as a Supporting Warrior will set you back tremendously. Also, you will never be in a position to eat a full T4 rally without important losses. There will always be a decent Rally Leader outclassing you even with 1M reinforcements from your guild. Hence, there is no point in pushing past a certain troop number. The question then becomes: How much troops can you carry so that in case you end up in a tight spot you can avoid losing them?
The first part of the answer lies in the Infirmaries. In an all Infirmary setup you can fit 600k troops in total without boosts (Research and/or Familiars). In case you research Bigger Infirmary I to level 10 and have the Mole Shaman Familiar skill Natural Remedy up to level 10, you can add an additional 72k to your Infirmary total. There is also a Bigger Infirmary II research somewhere down the Wonder Battles research tree but as a F2P the chances of reaching it are slim. A realistic number for your Infirmary is therefore 672k troops. Following table summarizes the Infirmary contribution:
The second part of the answer lies in your Shelter. Your base Shelter capacity is 200k, adding a Rank 8 Leader will raise that number by 10k. Researching Shelter Expansion I to level 10 will add 50k and developing the Cloud Cover skill of Familiar Harpy to level 10 will add another 50k. Your Shelter can therefore hold a further 310k troops when fully developed and including your leader. The following table summarizes your Shelter capacity:
A third part of the answer is related to your maximum number of Armies. In case you have 5 Armies available you can Fake Rally and/or Garrison 4 of them with 5 Heroes each for 250k troops a piece. (Note that this assumes you have 21 Rank 8 Heroes meaning all F2P Heroes + either Watcher or Chaos Dragon, 20 Heroes to boost your 4 Garrisons and 1 Hero for your Shelter.) Your 5th Army can than only take 200k troops anymore as you are out of Heroes at this stage. The total amount of troops you can put out of harm’s way by sending them off is therefore 1,2 million. In case you have unlocked Bigger Army I, you can add another 200k for your 6th Army. Bigger Army II and III exist but they are a stretch for a F2P player. The following table summarises your number of Armies contribution:
Hence, imagine you get a 5 minute rally started against you while participating in battles at the enemy Hive. Your easiest solution is porting back to your hive. Put the maximum amount of highest tier troops in your Shelter (with Leader) and Garrison/Fake Rally/Reinforce using all your Armies filled with highest tiers. In case you have 5 Armies available, you have managed to secure 1.510k troops in this way. All troops on top and with a maximum amount of 672k will end up in your Infirmary. It is therefore possible to carry 2.182k troops (2.382k with the 6th Army unlocked) and survive a rally without casualties but with your Infirmaries full. If these are T1-T2-T3 it is ok. If you have 672k T4 in your Infirmary it is going to cost you quite a lot of resource to heal them. Anything on top will be dead.
It is possible to push these numbers further by deploying an Army Size boost of 20% or 50%. This will increase you Shelter capacity and your Army sizes but will not affect your Infirmary. Using the same example as above with 20% Army Size boost your maximum troop number becomes 2.484k with 5 Armies and 2.724k with 6 Armies. With a 50% Army Size boost these numbers go up to 2.937k with 5 Armies and 3.237k with 6 Armies. However, these Army Size boosts are not that easy to come by and of course they are limited in time hence building your defence strategy around them is risky. At this stage, your margin of error is zero. Meaning: in case of error, you could get zeroed. Note that even with 3.237k you will still not eat a full T4 rally launched by a decent Rally Leader.
The example above is kind of a best case scenario where you have time and can port back to your hive with all friendly castles where you can hide your troops. If you really want a piece of the action it might be more prudent to adopt a less risky defence strategy. My recommendation would be the following: When heading into battle, make it a habit of sheltering the troops which you are not using with your Leader. In case of imminent attack, you Fake Rally a castle or Darknest which is done quite quickly, the remaining troops going to your Infirmary in case of a hit. You can safely carry 1.232k troops in this way. Another benefit is that you can afford to port next to the rally leader when joining rallies (saving on your Squad Travel Time reducers) without fearing too much from enemy retaliation as worst case you will not lose anything. You also do not need to rely on Army Size boosts.
Hence, in my opinion the ideal troop number for a Supporting Warrior is a minimum of 600k troops of which 170k of T4, 15k T3 and 15k T2 of each troop type so as to be able to join every type of rally and a maximum number of roughly 1.250k so that you can join in on the battles at the enemy hive without having to worry too much about getting zeroed. Pushing past 1.250k troops - although possible - I believe will only increase the stress of safely managing your troops in battle without increasing the gameplay experience.
In practise, and if you actively participate in rallies, your total troop numbers should not swell too much. I have had a hard time exceeding 210k T4 troops of each type as at some point a bad rally or defeat will weigh down on troop numbers.
Be warned about Wonder Wars and Fort battles as a Supporting Warrior. They are great fun but the venom is in defending them. Unlike with other attacks or rallies, when defending a Wonder your casualties will break down into Wounded and Dead just as if you were the attacker. Hence, your T4 will take a beating accelerated by the fact that most guilds do not allow ‘meat shields’ in Wonder battles.
6. Familiars[]
There are a couple of dynamics you need to fine-tune in order to maximise your Familiars.
Firstly, in the Gym, the more Heroes you add to train a single Familiar, the less experience points contribution they will provide. This means that in theory in order to maximise your Familiars experience gain, you need to spread your Heroes as much as you can. Given the Gym mechanics, this implies you need to build multiple Gyms.
A second dynamic, also in the Gym, is linked to the training time. You will want your training time to at least cover your night’s sleep.
A third dynamic is linked to the Spires. You want to be able to create the number of pacts that allow you as a minimum to sleep through the night.
Bringing all the above together this means that you start with 3 Spires and 1 Gym the rest being Springs. This will allow you to create pacts overnight while you are in the Pact 1 phase. Based on your Heroes levelling, if you can go for 2 Gyms while ensuring you can train overnight than do so and sacrifice a Spire. This will also be a good set-up for Pact 2.
Keep the same set-up for the beginning of Pact 3 until you levelled up the Magus Familiar to a decent stage which gives additional pact merging units with one of its skills. When possible time-wise, sacrifice your second Spire for an additional Gym, the Magus Familiar compensating for some of the pacts lost but still allowing you to create overnight. You should now be with a set-up of 1 Spire, 3 Gyms and the rest being Springs.
After unlocking Pact 3, there is a research called Gym Membership giving you a training time bonus. Only when that one is at a decent level you can tear down a Spring for a fourth Gym while unlocking Pact 4.
As a F2P player you are more interested in the turf improving Familiars than the combat related familiars. Credits to Mark’s Angry Review for providing the rating of Pact 1 to 3 which I agree with almost everywhere. I have done the same for Pact 4 on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being top notch.
Pact 1 is pretty boring with the exception of Aquiris (8,5/10) and Territe (8/10). Don’t bother with levelling up the rest. In Pact 2, Harpy (6,5/10), Totempest (5/10) and Tempestite (6/10) are of interest. Mark finds Bonehead great with a 7,5/10. I am not really that interested in the Colosseum but the Anima skill is good so I give him a 5,5/10.
Pact 3 is when things become interesting. You might consider speeding up to unlock this stage before spending too much time on Pact 2. Great Familiars are Trickstar (6,5/10), Gemming Gremlin (8,7/10), Magus (8,5/10), Goblin (9,5) and Noceros (8,2). In between, you can go back to Pact 2 to finish Harpy, Totempest and Tempestite as well as Territe. Gryphon (7,8/10) is worth it but takes a lot of time so get started with the others first.
Pact 4 has good stuff but that is no surprise. My rating is the following:
- Hoarder (9,5/10): Additional Treasure Trove deposit and the random Jewel every 3 days makes this a top Familiar
- Snow Beast (7/10): Interesting but not the first one I would develop
- Saberfang (8/10): Hunting Ground skill is good basically allowing you to kill 1 monster one level higher than your usual level.
- Mega Maggot (8/10): I really appreciate the increased Barracks ability
- Hell Drider (9/10): at Elder stage, free T4 troops. Great.
- Tidal Titan (6/10): ok but not in the focus
- Grim Reaper (8/10): there has been a lot of controversy about the Elder ability of killing highest tier troops but it is bloody expensive to fire that thing
- Mecha Trojan (6/10): so so.
A Warrior will definitely rate these differently as there are a handsome amount of Army buffs in the Pact 4 Familiars.
There are also some other Familiars you can buy or win: Frostwing (4/10), Blackwing (9/10), Huey Hops (1/10), Queen Bee (1/10) and Gargantua (1/10). I am only rating their first ability as a F2P player will most likely never unlock them any further. Their other abilities are pretty decent however. They are all level 5 Familiars.
7. Event Management[]
This section will cover Guild Fest, KvK and Guild Bash
a. Guild Fest[]
If you are in the Master Gauntlet, you get 10+1 quest and 27 reward tiers. Unlocking tier 27 requires 188.000 points. This means a 1.880 points target for a 100 member guild. Unfortunately, all guilds carry their ghost players but a lot of guilds will settle for a 1.700 or 1.750 points target for individual players in the hopes of maximising Master Gauntlet pay-out. 1.750 points as a F2P player is doable but requires careful planning and you will need the 175 points bonus quest.
The bonus quest consists of 3 randomly generated quests at the beginning of Guild Fest of which you can complete only one for 175 points. Sometimes they are ok but usually they are tough and expensive. Also IGG did not foresee an ‘intelligent random generator’ for these quests. It is perfectly possible that out of the 3 quests you get 1 ‘Increase might by 25 M’ and another ‘Increase Troop might by 24M’ which are basically the same. Hence, the bonus quest is treacherous and will usually be the one that breaks the bank.
If you are in a guild requesting 1.750 points in Guild Fest you might want to reconsider if this is the place for you as a Supporting Warrior. Sooner or later, you will run out of luck on the bonus quest and jokers in your bags. On the other hand, it would appear most guilds are reducing their expectations a little as the final tiers (25, 26 and 27) do not always bring great rewards but cost a lot of resource even to their top players. A guild fest minimum between 1.300 and 1.500 is perfectly doable for a Supporting Warrior.
In practise, it is not a bad idea to alternate your Guild Fest style. If you have the gems and speedups, go for a might boosting guild fest focusing on hell events completion, gain research might, spend gems, troop training etc. topped up with some easy administrative quests such as using Admin or Guild Quest scrolls or Darknests. The next Guild Fest go for a more administrative one focussing on Monster Hunting, spending Guild Coins, using Fragments, merging Skill Stones, using Holy Stars and so on so as to let your Gems and Speed-ups build-up again for the next Guild Fest. This implies of course that outside of Guild Fest (or other events) you minimise your use of all of the above.
Some of my recommendations for a successful Guild Fest:
- When you go for a might boosting Guild Fest, already start a +960.000 might research in the week running up to Guild Fest. This way you can immediately aim for a high points quest. If on the other hand you go for an administrative Guild Fest, avoid starting a high might research just before Guild Fest. Keep it rather low so you can do easy quest such as do X number of solo events.
- Save up your Turf Quests, Guild Coins and Bravehearts. Turf Quest can allow you to take Gain Might (Quests) or Gain 2,4M Might quests. Good points without sacrifice.
- Gathering quests with 6 (or 7) Armies is far more comfortable.
- If you want to assist a guild mate with a help quest, tearing down your Farm is your best option provided your Prison is at level 25 as otherwise you still need it.
- Know before Guild Fest how many days of each speed-up you have: Research, Normal, Troop and Merging.
- Combine when possible: on a 30 day Research it is possible to combine first a quest to use 16d speed-ups and afterwards use 25.000 gems for example to finish it.
- When hitting Monsters for Guild Fest quests, you can also opt to hit with only 1 gray Hero in combination with the multi-hit option. This will save you time but of course you will loose killed Monsters for your guild. The alternative however is sometimes very time consuming: doing a 170 hit monster quest in Master Gauntlet where 1 hit = 1 kill can take you up to 1h!
- For a spend Fragments quest, you can level up your Familiar with the exact number of Fragments you need to finish the quest instead of wasting them through the skill increase route.
- An underestimated feature of the Gryphon Familiar is that the skill stone does not require Ancient Cores to make, only resource and Anima. Hence, during Guild Fest this is an easy one to take the ‘Merge Skill stones’ quest with good points. The skills itself is also pretty good in case you are in a tight spot allowing you to recall all troops in 6 secs and random out of there.
b. KvK[]
The other event worth discussing is KvK. For a F2P player this is a great event with absolutely spectacular rewards providing an important source of Monster boxes and basically your only source of Champion Materials. The main downside is that it takes place during the weekend, usually on Saturday with varying start time and that it only lasts for 24h. So if you already had something planned it becomes a little challenging. KvK usually alternates between an event with a Solo 3 target of around 3.000.000 points with great rewards and an event with a Solo 3 target of roughly 1.800.000 with good rewards.
A great way to get a good head start is trying to be online at the start of the event. Immediately port into the other kingdom and smoke all those tiles people forgot to call back. It is not the most honourable way of doing your Solo level 3 but damn it is effective. Most guilds do not allow tile hitting in normal gameplay but an exception is often made for KvK so you may as well take advantage of it. After the first 10 to 15 minutes of KvK a major part of the tiles will have been picked clean and you can try your luck with the castles.
If you cannot join KvK from the start you will have to do the event the hard way. By the time you manage to join, all tiles and castles will have been visited. Your only option is either to farm resource tiles or hit castles and tiles from the other kingdom in your own kingdom. For the 1.800.000 Solo 3 KvK’s this is doable, for the 3.000.000 one it is challenging.
If your guild is active enough and goes for a base or fort than this is by far the best way to reach your Solo 3 when joining KvK at a later stage. It is not needed to remain next to the Wonder. Reinforce it and random out if you want. Also taking the Wonders in your home Kingdom counts as ‘Occupying a Wonder’ and will get you the same points. If you reinforce multiple Wonders, the points add up.
c. Guild Bash[]
Guild Bash is not particularly challenging but it is quite fun and the rewards can be good. Reaching all 6 Monsters requires 6.600.000 points as Guild hence most guilds will ask for 66.000 points per member. These are roughly 4 hell events (16.000 points each) and your daily monster hunting. The unfortunate part with Guild Bash is that only the rally leader gets points for doing the Darknests. All the supporting players get zero points.
8. Gears & Jewels[]
There are some very decent guides available on Gears and Jewels both for F2P and P2P so I will not elaborate too much on this topic.
As detailed in the part on Key Decision to make there is a high chance for a F2P player to end up with Ultras favouring the Ranged and/or Cavalry troop type. This will allow you to create a War set for Ranged and/or Cavalry that can be brought to a decent level (all Blue, some parts even Purple or Gold). Hence, it makes sense to develop a full F2P Infantry set to complement your existing Ranged/Cavalry set. This Infantry set can be boosted with gear from Monsters favouring the Infantry type once the Ultras become available.
Obviously, your best Jewels are mounted on your preferred set, in this case Ranged/Cavalry.
9. Tips & Tricks[]
Aside from the obvious Tips & Tricks you can find almost everywhere on the web, here are some less commented Tips & Tricks:
- If you are going for Watcher Medals there are plenty of chat rooms on Line, Discord, Kik and other chat apps that are ‘No Chat’ and just post Watcher events notifications. They are great for getting a heads-up just before the start of a Watcher event. Same exists for Chaos Dragon by the way.
- If you are in the Master Gauntlet, be careful with the bonus quest of 175 points. That is usually the one that blows a hole in your resource / gems / speedups. It is possible to do 1.550 points with 11 quests and without unlocking the bonus. If your guild has a Guild Fest minimum that is above that (eg 1.750 +) then it is a stretch.
- The Tempestite support skill called Fresh Air which at max gets you 20.000 random T1 troops every 3 days is fun but also a major trap. As you do not really use them actively for combat before you know it, you have 200k of each (except siege, which you would just destroy). In case you take a big hit your infirmaries would be filled with these T1 troops. At a second hit, all your wounded troops – in this case T3 & T4 – would be killed since the infirmaries are already full. So bottom line, do something fun with those T1 like attacking castles but if you are ever in a tight spot do not hesitate to destroy them before taking a hit.
- There is only one way to use the Treasure Trove and that is for 30 days at max gems deposited.
- Only use your Holy Stars when there is an ‘Special Event: Labyrinth Alert’ going on meaning that some Monster invaded the Labyrinth as they will be dropping a lot of Ultras for your gear. The normal Monster (a Frostwing look-a-like) will not drop a lot of Ultras. The Labyrinth Alert event is on a fixed rotation system and can therefore be consulted in advance.
- My personal experience when joining rallies in the heart of the enemy hive is that when I was between 200 and 300 million might I would have rallies started on me or even a solo hit. Since 300 million might, I see the enemy is already hesitating a lot and I seldom get a rally started. Of course, Anti-scout and War Gear enabled at all times when joining rallies and ideally Talent set switched to Warfare.
- In the Kingdom Tycoon, it is worth spending 720 or 2x720 gems buying Lucky Tokens if you believe this gives you a fair chance of reaching the Gemming Gremlin at the end. You will usually get at least 1.200 to 1.500 in gems back from the Gremlin so worst case you are break-even.
- You may not have paid attention to it too much earlier in the game but when training T3 and especially T4 troops make sure your Talents are set to include Training Speed. My peace-time talent set includes Training Speed, Research and Building Speed and the remaining goes into boosting my hyper resource, starting with the highest level first and working my way down. Also the Hardrox equipment set offers 2 pieces of equipment that boost Training Speed and can be produced as a F2P although it takes time to level it up. Every bit helps.
- When you need to heal troops in the Infirmary put on you Training gear and make sure your talents are set to include troop training. This will positively impact the time needed to heal.
- If you need Gold you can sell the excess Hero materials which could just provide you that little extra.
- When increasing the skills of your familiars start with the highest Pact Familiar you have in mind. So for example, the first skill increase of the day should be done on a Pact 5 familiar, then Pact 4, Pact 3 and so on as every time you increase a skill it in increases the cost of the next.
- Once all your Heroes are levelled to max, use your Stamina in Normal, Chapter 7. This will give you 10 min x 10 of Speed Up for 60 Stamina, the best ratio of all chapters Normal or Elite.
- Phantom Knights (or similar): If you want to milk the max out of them, only hit with 1 gray Hero for 25 successive times so that you have your maximum successive hunt bonus enabled. From then on, only hit with 1 gray hero and maximum energy hits. Monster Hunt gear can be mounted for the speed but does not really matter for the outcome. This implies you (or your guild) manages to get one alone.