Knight gear - updated

Been a while since original post.  Since then kabam has released lots of new gear.  Some specific to troop types such as militiamen gear, golden militiamen gear.  Some more advanced for multiple troop types.  Shadow gear, lionheart gear, gear of fame, wisdom gear, sacred gear, celestial gear, sainted gear.  Now they are releasing season of gear.  Season 1, season 2.

I won't go into specifics, but generally by now you will have 2 knights - an attack knight (maximise attack stats i.e season 1), and a defence knight (mix of celestial, wisdom, sacred).  Play with it to work it out.  No doubt by the time you read this new gear is out anyway.

In terms of what happens when you get this gear.  In is simply a matter of either unlocking it's attributes (by using charms (exploring in hero screen is a good way to get charms), or sacrificing other gear) and forging.  For forging you need dust and hammers.  There is now master hammers for guaranteed level increases - otherwise it is just a matter of chance.

Each wild is associated with a particular resource with the exception of Bogs and Plains. These wilds can be attacked to plunder those resources or conquered to provide a bonus to the City resource production.

• Bog - Nothing (Cannot be attacked)
• Grassland - Food (Drops Sheild)
• Hills - Stone (Drops Helmet)
• Lake - Food (Drops Weapon)
• Mountain - Ore (Drops Armor)
• Plain - Build Second and Third City Here
• Woods - Wood (Drops Pants)

All 5 wilds drops (Hammers and Enchantment dust)

Wilds Level 1-3 Drop Common Enchantment Dust (Best for wooden Hammers)

Wilds Level 3-6 Drop Uncommon Enchantment Dust (Best for Stone hammers)

Wilds Level 7-9 Drop Rare Enchatment Dust

Wilds Level 10 Drop Super Rare Enchantment Dust

The better the hammer the better the odds of forging.

Knight gear

Firstly it should be pointed out that the higher your knight level the better, it makes a big difference... But now so does knight gear.  As i write this the highest knight you can get is 250.

In the past the only way to get a high level knight was to win train with arthurs from merlin (or buy them of course). Nowadays kabam seem to give them out like candy in tournamemts.  Even as a low level non gemming player, you have a much better chance of getting a high level knight by winning grail trainings in alliance tournaments.

Note that Grail trainings give you instant increase to that level (so use it on a low level knight), mystic trainings are a one level at a time increase.  So for instance use a mystic 220 on a knight that is probably a 215 knight.

It should go without saying now that you should be attempting to upgrade one knight as high as possible in your troop city.

Now onto knight gear, kabams newest creation.  The gear you get for free is obtained by attacking wilds.  There are two types of chests won this way:

Common - gets you yeoman
Uncommon - gets you a chance to win squires gear.

In addition to gear there is also ability to forge your gear, for this you need hammers and dust.  The better the hammer, the better your chance of a successful forge. These are also won from wilds. The lower levels wilds is best for early levels of forging.
Forging increases the % levels

Types of gear:

Helms
Shields
Armour
Pants
Weapons

After the basic gear from wilds, other gear you get from chests and tournaments.
Other basic gear you win are called militiaman gear, battering ram gear, belvedere gear.

All of this basic gear affects specific troops types and levels.  Look at the specific stats for each and try to match them up.

Next focus on % boosts more than the base level increases, it's worth more.

Some gear has multiple attributes.  Access them by strengthening your gear. You will need to sacrifice other gear to access them.

Types of attributes:

Boost attack (crossed swords). Usually only seen on weapons
Boost life (heart)
Boost speed (wings)
Increase load (sack)
Troop limit (2 men). Send more troops

Finally there is advanced gear, that boosts all troops (unlike basic gear). These are shadow gear, crusade gear and lionheart gear.

Elevation

Elevating, is basically being able to go up to level 21 on certain buildings.

In order to elevate, you will first need to have your building up to level 10 (which can only be achieved using divine inspirations, which are either won through events or from merlin, or are bought.

Once a building is at level 10, in order to elevate you will need crystals.  An elevated building is shown using an asterix mark with the number *.  There are three types of crystals:

• Mystic - to go from *1 to *4  (2, 10, 50, 250 crystals for each lvl)
• Enchanted - to go from *5 to *7 (10, 50, 250)
• Wondrous - to go from *8 to *10  (10, 50, 250)

You will need a divine elevation to go to *11

Not all buildings can be upgraded, and some need elevating to unlock ability to elevate other buildings to a certain level.

Some popular elevations:

Rally point - extra 2k per level increase in troops to send
Barracks - ability to train T4 troops (see more below), speed up training
Cottages - extra 150 to population per level (note: higher levels require castle elevations)
Storehouse - protect extra 100k per level

Barrack elevation is best for increasing speed. If you do it to be able to train T4, then note that it takes a lot of resources (especially gold) to train T4 and requires level 10 of certain research and buildings.  Different cities allow ability to train different troops and a different elevation level is required:

• City 1 - Supply caravans (*4 barrack (also lvl 10 geo, feather, blacksmith))
• City 2 - Siege tower (*7 barrack (also lvl 10 geo, pois edge, blacksmith))
• City 3 - fire ballista (*10 barrack (also lvl 10 geo, fletch, workshop))
• City 4 - War wagon (*11 barrack (also lvl 10 geo, alloy hs, stable))

Kabam occasionally allow the ability to convert gems earned through surveying wilds into crystals (in the round tower). As such it is worth surveying wilds. This is achieved by leaving some troops at your captured wilds and hitting the survey button. It is however a slow process, and make sure you do not craft your gems. You need to keep them flawed (kabam currently have not given any benefit to crafted gems).

• Grasslands give you rubies, which can be converted into mystic crystals
• Woods give you emeralds, which can be converted into enchanted crystals
• Hills give you sapphires, which can be converted into wonderous crystals

Note: mountains give you diamonds. Can't currently do anything with them.

City setup

This guide is mainly for those with multiple cities, if you currently only have one city and no gems then your options are win one from merlin chance.  (Tip: get an extra token a day by going to Share, e-mail, save to draft, cancel - do this 10 times), or go cresting (more on this in another article).

Now, assuming you already have one city reasonably setup with lots of farms, as you discovered you needed lots of food to train, build and research... We will make this your resource city.  Your second city will be your troop city, so reassign all your troops to this second city, so that you maximise food production in your first city.

Go for a split resource method, so that you maximise wilds effect.  In other words go for farms and say sawmills in the first, with wilds captured that are grasslands or lakes (to increase food output) and forests (to increase wood output).  In the second build a split of quarries and mines, with wilds that are hills and mountains (for increased stone and ore).

Keep these two cities reasonably close together (but not next to each other), say 2 minutes apart (10 - 20 screens).

Also do not attack wilds around your cities.  Spread them out far and wide, so it is harder for wild-stealers to find.

Other buildings, depend on the stage of the game.  In the first couple of weeks build lots more cottages than barracks, and set tax to 45%. You will need the gold for research.  Later on deconstruct the cottages so that you have between 6-8 cottages.  Aim for at least 14 barracks.

You should build alchemist labs in both whilst researching.  Later deconstruct one of them.  You may decide to only build a watch tower in your attack city, as once built you cannot deconstruct it.

You only need one embassy, and you may decide to only have one relief station, in your resource city usually.  You can only build one round tower.

This should ensure your first two cities are setup well.  If you have 3rd and 4th cities, generally i recommend building no resource fields in order to maximise idle population which either enables less cottages and more barracks or build more troops in one go.  Make at least one a troop building city with 18 or more barracks.