We’ve already walked you through your keep’s different Building Types & Purposes. Now we’ll get into some of the details about building up your stronghold in a way that strengthens your power within the kingdom.
Enhancements
On most of the city buildings in your keep, you’ll find an Enhance option. This is a permanent way to strengthen different statistics that is always active no matter what gear you’re wearing or what heroes are in your small council.
Different Types of Enhancements
Since Enhancement materials are scarce, planning out your allocation of them according to your gameplay and understanding where each benefit lies is essential. Make sure you fully understand how these stats function and the benefits of each before you invest materials into a building. For more information on how & when your stats function, you can read through our guides on Viewing & Understanding Statistics and PvP gameplay.
General Troop Boosts apply to all troop types in your army. However, since these gains are given to all troops, the value for each troop affected is less than that you would gain with troop specific stats. These are excellent enhancements for players who have multiple strong troop types and like to remain flexible with which to use.
These can be found in your Keep, Shrine, Maester’s Tower, & Dragon Pit. The Dragon Pit applying only when your army is accompanied by your dragon at a Seat of Power.
Troop Specific Boosts apply only to one troop type but work against all troop types. The gains are larger than general boosts, so if you are focused on using one or two these will be a better investment for you since you gain more boost per troop for your investment!
These can be found in your Wall, Storehouse, Barracks, Range, Stable, & Workshop.
Boosts vs Counter help to neutralize the effects of your troop type’s intrinsic weakness toward one troop type. For instance, Cavalry troops will be less effective against your Ranged troops if you enhance Ranged Defense vs Cavalry.
These can be found in your Rookery, Barracks, Range, Stable, & Workshop.
Boosts vs Strength on the other hand maximize the built-in advantage of a troop type against the troop that is weak against it. For instance, Infantry troops will be even more effective against Cavalry troops if your Infantry Attack vs Cavalry is enhanced.
These can be found in your Smithy, Barracks, Range, Stable, & Workshop.
Boosts vs Same Troop Type lastly strengthens your troops against like-troops. Your Infantry will be stronger against Infantry troops if your Infantry Attack vs Infantry is enhanced. This is a great investment for those who only have one specific troop that they favor. If your army is stocked full of Ranged troops, you won’t need to call in the Cavalry to defeat other Ranged players.
These can be found only in your Great Hall & Training Yard.
March Speed Boosts
are fairly self-explanatory! If you feel your troops are just too lazy and hindering your performance, you may feel the need to invest in speed.
Invest in your Shrine if you need more speed toward Seats of Power, Maester’s Tower toward resources (including Strategic Terrain), and Watchtower for speed reinforcing, creatures, and for a general march speed boost in all situations!
Wall Damage Bonus can also be boosted further through Maester’s Tower enhancement. This helps your Siege become more effective at taking down enemy walls.
Increasing Gains
These enhancements may seem like small drops in the bucket when you start, but the boosts you gain with each enhancement grow at each level. You can view the total boosts available to you by tapping the blue progression button
on the top right-hand corner within the enhancement menu.
Because of this it may be very beneficial to invest in one enhancement at a time & take it as far as you can before moving on to the next!
Slate & Marble
These are unique materials that are only used for enhancements! Slate
can be bought with gold if you are short but Marble
can only be gained through Events, Deliveries, Rewards & Recipes. Slate is used in all enhancements but Marble is only required on most at certain levels.
Prioritizing Your Building Upgrades
Moving on to Upgrades, some offer varying benefits of their own which we go into detail on in our Building Types & Purposes guide, while others may only be useful to you as a stepping stone to other builds. Be sure to study and understand what each offers so you can strategize your building plan on your own based on the resources you have available to you. If you only have enough resources for one upgrade, look at which buildings offer you the biggest gains first while you save up for larger pushes toward a certain Troop Tier or Maester’s Tower level.
Cultivating Your Fields
Choosing which rural buildings to focus on & keeping a good balance can have a big effect on your game play. We’ve touched on the importance of your Medical Tents & War Camps in our Managing Your Military guide. We’ve also gone into detail there about allocating your resource plots based on choosing your Troop Type Focus, whichcan have a big effect on your resource stores. Pay attention to what you need the most of in your gameplay style and dedicate as many rural plots as you can to them.
It is worth noting that for all rural tents, the gains for each upgrade are equal at every level, so be sure to always upgrade your lowest level building of the type you wish to increase first.
Building Materials
Be sure to study up on the most efficient ways to gain basic & advanced materials for your builds in our Farming Resources guide. You’ll want to stockpile & keep goals for yourself based on what you wish to achieve, whether it be larger march or rally capacity, unlocking new research abilities, or higher-level troop tiers to boost your army’s strength. You’ll also want to take advantage of the tools available to you to cut down on these costs.
Construction Speed
The labor-intensive process of building up your holdfast is not only costly in resources but takes time to complete. As you get higher and higher in building levels, the new advancements and complexities take more and more time. However, don’t give up, there are lots of methods of reducing this aspect too!
Maximizing Your Building Efficiencies
These costs can seem daunting, but there are so many ways to cut down on time & resources and stockpile quicker.
Taking Advantage of Events
Before you do any big building pushes, check if there is a Building Event going on during the week. Always wait for these events whenever possible, as you’ll gain extra resources as you go to stretch what you have further.
Production Boosts
Temporary Production Plot boosts can be placed on any resource plot in your fields to double your output. If you are active in the game and events, you’ll find you have a good number of these to use on a regular basis given through various rewards.
Titles
There are several available at different Seats of Power that will help you Build. Even some smaller seats can offer big reductions in construction speed and resource production! Check our Seats of Power guide for more information on which could be useful to you.
Gear
There are several options for gear to boost Production gains and cut down on Construction times. See our Advanced Forging & Armory guide for more detail.
Research
Researching in Economies & Logistics can offer permanent gains in Production, Gathering, & Construction Speed.
Adjusting your Small Council
Some Heroes offer benefits in Resource Cost Efficiency when building and enhancing, as well as Speed! This is currently the only way to increase your Construction & Enhancement Resource Efficiencies!
Even small reductions can have a larger effect over time, so take a glance through the heroes at your service and adjust your small council a bit to who best can advise you on matters of Construction & Resource Production and Gathering!