Upgrade Strategy - Boost, Unit, or Money?

[Hello Kitty]

Now that I’ve built every gold building (defense, boost, money and unit) - just curious as to everyone else's strategy for upgrades. I'm finding that I have commitment issues! One week I’ll focus on “must get boosts!” The next week, “need units for boosts!” Third week, “need money for boosts!” So I am rotating, but think I have a shell of a plan.

Money – Not too into the IPH’rs contest, because it’s a calculated number that’s only as valuable as the lowest time increment you’re able to collect in a day. I'm looking to do more long term strategy with the 6+ hour payout buildings and now since it’s more difficult to keep unvaulted cash safe for the biggies. Not neglecting the higher frequency payout buildings for when events come, I’m in the game a lot and can collect.

Note: I take long term with a grain of salt since it’s like dog years in this game and forum; 1 month = 7 months, who knows where I’ll be with the game in a month or so.


Boosts – Been focusing on those lately. Near term to get everything to 5% then start rotating round the other types of buildings. Not sure about casualty and building cost buildings.


Units – Was gunning for some of the high honor units until I got smacked in the head with the nerf! So I did an analysis on stocking up my army with gold units focusing on defense because we don't have a defense boost building. I’m often tempted by the lure of gem units and buy those occasionally because I get impatient and too lazy to wait it out, but you really can build a solid army without real $.


Defense – Will upgrade these possibly last or maybe some of the low level ones to at least level 2 near term since they upgrade fast (especially now since I have the Holy Avenger 10% faster upgrades).
This discussion should be fun and with no wrong answer. I think every one has his/her own style and opinion and I respect that. Would love to hear about it!

[GetItOn]

I'm impatient so I take a mix of what will upgrade the fastest offsetted by a decent ROI time. Emphasis on money buildings.

[The_Legend_Shall_Live_On]

Wellll...I have the same attention span as to commitment for upgrade. Lol. I swear I committed to the boost buildings last month; somehow they haven't gone up. :(

But what I did finally do was get my lumbermill to 10. I stuck with that for the last 10 days. With a 10% off, it really noticeably affects the manor upgrades, lenders, and beast buildings. Silos are already at 7 each, and one set of hourly is at 7. At this point, I'm looking at going into manors to level 2 possibly 3 each (see? No commitment), then silos to 10, then hourly ones (both sets) at least to 8. Then work 2nd beast building to 6, then all boost unit buildings to 10. This will help keep my attack higher, can buy cannons for defense and attack, while having a good hourly that is real to collect. Then hit the manors to level 3 (if not earlier) or 4. Then....not sure.

[Hello Kitty]

LOL. It's good to know that y'all do the same thing I do! I was laughing about it from a discussion with another player and we said the same thing. Will be interesting if anyone really has a solid plan that stuck.

[Hobtuse]

i went the infantry+beasts strategy so my upgrade plan is kinda streamlined around them.

planning to alternate upgrades between manors, lenders and breeding den (barracks, coliseum and beast warren are done). breeding den levels 9-10 will be tough but at least the interim plan is to hit level 8.

unsure about boosts but i might entertain getting blacksmith and beast kennel up to decent levels after a while. majority of special units are from either infantry or beasts though

till now, i don't think water temple of healing works or has much impact so will upgrade it only after i get more information.

not touching defense buildings since it's insignificant

[Timbathia]

I am on a beast-only strategy. Have breeding den at level 5 and at the moment doing 12/24 money building upgrades while stocking up on basilisks. Once my vault is completed (at 165k and a half right now), I will look at upgrading my breeding den again. Probably wont upgrade the boost buidings for a while yet. Really hoping the mammoths come back soon, as my defense is suffering considerably compared to attack with the current strategy as cant access units with a def higher than 20.

[echus14]

I'm thinking that its really a multiprong strategy for most people (which probably explains the "commitment issues") ;)

At a given stage, one would generally choose a particular attack and defence unit (say, siege towers and paladins) and so you drive your unit buildings to that level.

To a certain extent, you also upgrade your silos, leatherworks, playhouses, etc, to fund the above. One thing I've noticed is its probably better NOT to upgrade your big money producers to the max UNTIL you definitely can defend them otherwise you just end up getting raided left, right and centre.

Boost buildings come in only after a sufficient strong army is in place, and which boost building (Attack/Healing) to choose really depends on your preference of play, and your threshold for losing units. That being said, I remain curious about the actual impact of the Temple of Water Healing. Until you reach much higher levels and are building manors and the like, the lumber mill is probably insignificant (HK - this might be worthwhile for you in combination with your 10% lowered build time ... like a double discount).

Agree with all that beyond a modicum to protect your high value money producers, the defence buildings are of least importance ... although that big green arrow that keep reminding me to upgrade my bunker to lvl 3 is like someone constantly tapping me on the shoulder! :)

[Timbathia]

... although that big green arrow that keep reminding me to upgrade my bunker to lvl 3 is like someone constantly tapping me on the shoulder! :)

Last week I moved my bunker so it is now only protecting a thin expanse of beach just within range of a fish market. This prevents me from seeing the stupid green arrow sitting over it without a significant amount of scrolling.

[GetItOn]

LoL. I've got that green arrow bunker too that I've been ignoring for awhile. I did just up my magical boost a lvl. Almost 50% of my D comes from magical so thought I'd give it a try.

[Bea]

Green arrows over my 2 L3 Taverns and I'm scared to upgrade them because I don't know how many more quests will be completed and how much XP that will 'earn' me.

Been concentrating on economy now that I'm happy medium term with the High Priest defense, but will be getting to the Breeding Den soon, I can feel the pull...

[Addyman]

Currently upgrading Lumbermill to level 10. Level 5 currently in progress, it's hard to keep disciplined as I really want to upgrade other buildings but I think it will pay off in the end (particularly when it comes to upgrading my manors to level 2 and lenders to level 3).

I always have my vault upgrading as well. I've built every building I can (excluding gem buildings) so after Lumbermill is finished I'm going to upgrade Silos to 10 and then once my vault is maxed I'll upgrade manors.

I use gold from PVE to buy units. Currently stocking up on High Priests (620 so far).

[d_nickels]

I suffer from lack of commitment on my strategy too.

The problem I have is I get a certain plan, but then when its time to upgrade my next building and I'm clicking around looking at the different costs and build times I get tempted by something else that seems like a much better ROI and change my strategy around. I also get influenced by what map I'm fighting on and how much supplemental income I'm getting from that, or by changing my mind about how many allies I think is best to have at a given level. I've gone from wanting to double my ally count to back to staying where I'm at several times and this makes me stop and start feeling like I need to significantly up my unit count. Reading these forums will also give me new ideas and change my mind. So yes, I think most of us suffer from short attention span strategy issues.

[whiterider]

What is ROI?
I am upgrading my buildings depending on time, so i can start the next upgrade at a reasonable time of the day. I am a little slow in upgrading the vault since at the beggining of the game I did not understand what is its importance. And I am trying to upgrade cheaper buildings when its time for next expansion tile, the last one I started was 50k.
I have a pretty good plan for a month that will bring 90% of my buildings to lvl 5 except playhouse and brothel. I am lvl 36 and cant build manors and lenders yet but they will wait.
After this month I will go for high priests to boost def a little bit, its currently 5k with 36 allies.
If I upgrade magic academy will the bonus apply to defense as well or it is just for attacking power?

[whiterider]

About lumber mill, i have it on lvl 5 and I pay the discount price for it.
I calculated that after all upgrades planned I will pay 11 343 gold less. Which is insignificant.
For the planned buildings I have to pay 770 948 in total, 5% less is 38 548 and I paid for the 5 lvl mill 27 205.
So I decided to get it to max when I start to upgrade lenders and manors. Cant imagine how the normal price mill is paid back in the game.

[Bronson]

Upgrading my breeding den at the mo lvl 5 will be finished today. Does anyone have the figures for the 8,9 & 10 upgrade???

[BooMan]

What is ROI?

Return On Investment

Like most others I change my mind based on time, cost and mood at the point of upgrade! Overall everything is (slowly) moving upwards so will probably be ok in the end!

[Crazy Canuck]

As you said HK there is no really wrong answer.

With that said my plan of attack since I can upgrade 2 buildings at one i am using 1 of the upgrades on 12+ hour collections (lenders at the moment) and the other on boost buildings (beast kennel right now). My goal is to get the beast kennel to lvl 10 for max boost since some of my best units are beasts (hydra, red consort and guardian) then will go to work on getting blacksmith to lvl 10 for my holy guardian and doom elemental. With money building will upgrade whichever 12+ hour collection one I can afford at the moment.

I know we heard CCM say there would be new (to KA) event coming soon and if those happen to be boss event I want to make sure I am strong enough and can afford to get 30 or whatever the goal will be wins.

Unit building I have all 4 of the 1st set already at lvl 10 and wi go to work on the 2nd set once I get boost buildings upgraded

[d_nickels]

What is ROI?


ROI = Return on Investment as has already been pointed out by BooMan.

I frequently look at the cost of upgrading a building and how long it would take me to recoup that cost using the additional income that upgrade would provide. This is a common way of looking at investments. An additional concept that is more difficult to quantify is the opportunity cost of the actual upgrade time. A longer upgrade time means you might have been able to upgrade two lower ROI buildings that in the end would combine to give you a larger ROI over time. The idea is to make the best investment possible for you over the long run and that often does not mean just upgrading the building that is quickest, cheapest, or has the largest single collection payout. All of this comes into account if you use normal business and economic principles.

This is the type of strategy that turns some games into "work" for many players but its what min/max players love!

[EthanQ]

Wellll...I have the same attention span as to commitment for upgrade. Lol. I swear I committed to the boost buildings last month; somehow they haven't gone up. :(

But what I did finally do was get my lumbermill to 10. I stuck with that for the last 10 days. With a 10% off, it really noticeably affects the manor upgrades, lenders, and beast buildings. Silos are already at 7 each, and one set of hourly is at 7. At this point, I'm looking at going into manors to level 2 possibly 3 each (see? No commitment), then silos to 10, then hourly ones (both sets) at least to 8. Then work 2nd beast building to 6, then all boost unit buildings to 10. This will help keep my attack higher, can buy cannons for defense and attack, while having a good hourly that is real to collect. Then hit the manors to level 3 (if not earlier) or 4. Then....not sure.

With your lumbermill at level 10, how much does it cost you to build a manor or upgrade it? Lenders too?

[RoyalMafia]

Hi all,

Sorry to stray from your topic, at least to start, but i have a question...

how come the Total Quantity of gold that you can purchase for X-amt. of really money fluctuates?


Now back to topic. Upgrades for me are whimsical, and usually dependent on what I can afford to upgrade as soon as it's available!
Usually i try to plan, so i try to save to have the total needed for the next upgrade wanted just before it comes available, but we all know how well that works out...

my current focus was on money buildings-
but im heavily leaning to switching back to lumbermill. currently at 6% and i think it will be very worth it to max that out.

Thx.
RI

[Everson25]

Upgrading my breeding den at the mo lvl 5 will be finished today. Does anyone have the figures for the 8,9 & 10 upgrade???Hey Bronson! I'm going the route. I'm upgrading my Breeding Deen. I don't know how long it will take but I will be patient with my plan.

At the same time I'm upgrading I will be adding some high priest to make sure no one comes to bother me with so much gold unprotected.

[marebear]

Hi Everson!! Saw your earlier post. Lol. I will take you on in ffn whenever you want. I promise to leave you some unvaulted cash so you can recoup some money I stole if you win. See what happens when you dump me for ffn and dont re-ally me ;) ... I have all my buildings/boosts and defense built too. All my 1st line units are up to 10. Then I started doing the short money buildings like the bazaars because I log in a lot. Think I'm going to concentrate on the 2nd tier of unit unlocks because I earn a lot of cash from raiding and during events. I'd like to to that so I can spend my cash on high end units rather than buying lower tiered ones just to replace them as better ones become available.

[Hello Kitty]

Wow. Great ideas. I didn't go into detail for my unit building strategy - I'm focusing on beasts and machines. Looking at units with high A/D stats and low loss rates. Magic was good for the high priest - shocked I actually lost one the other day in battle before any of my catapult varieties - happen to anyone yet? Given up on infantry, the only good ones are event or gem items.

So with that I'm upgrading the respective boost buildings, which for the two unit types I've picked respectively have the higher build times and costs, of course!

For money, I'm going to try to upgrade the mansion and lenders next since it'll get increasingly harder to keep over vaulted gold on hand. Subject to change on a dime though!

All - in my signature on the KA Spreadsheet link, I may some answers for some of the stats stuff like how long to upgrade, etc. I stopped collecting land build data so not sure what it looks like past square #32.

@mare - Hahaha. That's all I have to say. Hint: event.

[marebear]

:) Hey Kitty is your event prize working yet? I think mine isn't. I'm building my last arcane defense tower (9hrs?) which matches your sheet, and upgrading my shipyard but I don't see an upgrade time to check it against.

[Hello Kitty]

Lol mare - I feel like I'm chasing you around the forum to have a conversation. Cracking me up! My prize is working. Several folks posted that theirs is working too. I didn't create a column in the "Buildings" tab of the spreadsheet. Maybe I'll do that later today. It's only on the "My Kingdom" tab for planning.

[marebear]

@royal mafia, re money for money. I want to say it increases when you level up. I remember reading about it but not sure where. @ kitty, lol. Thanks. I usually double check my stuff on your spreadsheets. I tried doing my own but I mostly work from my phone and it was too much of a pain to go back and forth on my computer. I wish we had the modern war toolkit app for ka.

[The_Legend_Shall_Live_On]

With your lumbermill at level 10, how much does it cost you to build a manor or upgrade it? Lenders too?

Two manors to build and get to level 2 costs a total of 1.34m gold. So you save 134k to get it there. I haven't done too much with lenders so don't know.

[Crazy Canuck]

I need to boost manors up but they cost a lot to do. Will look at getting them to lvl 3 once I get lenders to lvl 5 (lvl 1 and 3 now) and playhouses to 7 or 8 (lvl 1 and 3 now)

[Dewsy]

Completed a few goals, level 7 wizards spire for High Priests was my first one and now just finishing the level 5 breeding den upgrade.

Then my goal is going to be a mix of the lumber mill (or whatever it is called - the lower construction costs) and upgrading the big payout buildings so it is easier to get the higher breeding den upgrades. My thinking being that with 330k vaulted if I can collect the 24/48 buildings in one go I can have the least money unvaulted for the shortest possible time. Currently have 2 level 5 gold mines which give a nice 18k per 24hrs and hoping to get them both to level 7, and then hopefully upgrade both my manors to level 2, it should be a lot easier to get the 330k+ upgrades.

Also in there need to factor in buying units!

[Everson25]

Hey Marebeer! I don't think I will be able to hit you or HK anymore. You too are becoming two big sharks...lol.

Hey HK! I posted on another thread that I lost 12 flaming catapts, 2 siege towers, plus others and just 2 catapults for a player who was much weaker than me. I hit the player 15 times but at the end I had to stop if I didnt want to have a loss. Btw, the player had almost 200k and most unvoulted...lol.

[The_Red]

Completed a few goals, level 7 wizards spire for High Priests was my first one and now just finishing the level 5 breeding den upgrade.

Then my goal is going to be a mix of the lumber mill (or whatever it is called - the lower construction costs) and upgrading the big payout buildings so it is easier to get the higher breeding den upgrades. My thinking being that with 330k vaulted if I can collect the 24/48 buildings in one go I can have the least money unvaulted for the shortest possible time. Currently have 2 level 5 gold mines which give a nice 18k per 24hrs and hoping to get them both to level 7, and then hopefully upgrade both my manors to level 2, it should be a lot easier to get the 330k+ upgrades.

Also in there need to factor in buying units!

I usually do a lower cost upgrade (farm, silo, caravan, etc) every other day... use the 1-2days of time to buy units and then do a larger upgrade (100k+). This way you're accumulating defense/attack while still upgrading constantly.

I'm close to my terminal units with 5 breeding + 7 spire... so I can then concentrate almost exclusively on income buildings. I don't really see much point right now in upgrading the den higher because the 5k unit is already expensive enough to buy many. 20 units for 100k. *blink* Im going to cry the first one that dies.

[Dewsy]

I usually do a lower cost upgrade (farm, silo, caravan, etc) every other day... use the 1-2days of time to buy units and then do a larger upgrade (100k+). This way you're accumulating defense/attack while still upgrading constantly.

I'm close to my terminal units with 5 breeding + 7 spire... so I can then concentrate almost exclusively on income buildings. I don't really see much point right now in upgrading the den higher because the 5k unit is already expensive enough to buy many. 20 units for 100k. *blink* Im going to cry the first one that dies.

Good idea, thanks! That's a valid point about not raising the breeding den any higher than 5, 5K is a lot for one unit. Might just concentrate on upgrading how you suggested.. mix up the big upgrades with a cheap one every now and then. Try and get some boosts and get my IPH above 10k (9k atm).

[marebear]

That's really smart Red. That's my issue in mw. I concentrate too much on buildings so my army density has suffered. I'm currently camping to remedy it and hopefully get my nanos done before I hit whale waters.

[Joie]

I have my level 7 wizard spire and my breeding den is upgrading to level 5 right now. Probably will work next on upgrading my lenders, maybe get silos to 10 and work on catapult/ basilisk offense army and continue my hp stockpiling.

[YLL]

...my army density has suffered. I'm currently camping to remedy it and hopefully get my nanos done before I hit whale waters.

You must be kidding, you have one of the best A/D per ally I've seen... Or were you talking about MW (and hence the reference to nanos)?

[marebear]

You must be kidding, you have one of the best A/D per ally I've seen... Or were you talking about MW (and hence the reference to nanos)?Yeah my mw density has suffered. I've learned from that mistake in my ka. Thanks for the compliment! Are we allys?

[YLL]

Yeah my mw density has suffered. I've learned from that mistake in my ka. Thanks for the compliment! Are we allys?

Yes, we are allies in KA. How could you forget me? :( ;)

[marebear]

Yes, we are allies in KA. How could you forget me? :( ;)I have the worlds worst memory (thanks mom) and I delete emails. Sorry. Off to visit your kingdom and check out your stats. You have a great unit density :)

[YLL]

I have the worlds worst memory (thanks mom) and I delete emails. Sorry. Off to visit your kingdom and check out your stats. You have a great unit density :)

I dispute that - it's me who has the world's worst memory, hehe. And thanks for visiting and the compliment. :)

[Bronson]

Yeah my mw density has suffered. I've learned from that mistake in my ka. Thanks for the compliment! Are we allys?

Yeah your lucky I didn't ally up to love tap you when came into the late 70s lol

My mission on KA is to get lvl 10 breeding den and I don't really care how long it takes or how much over vault I go as to be honest I haven't pressed the vault button on KA MW or CC for a very long time.

[marebear]

Yeah your lucky I didn't ally up to love tap you when came into the late 70s lolMy mission on KA is to get lvl 10 breeding den and I don't really care how long it takes or how much over vault I go as to be honest I haven't pressed the vault button on KA MW or CC for a very long time.I missed a love tap from Bronson. *cries* and I was so sure you were here to make a funny comment about me checking out YLLs great unit density. 😝

[Bronson]

I missed a love tap from Bronson. *cries* and I was so sure you were here to make a funny comment about me checking out YLLs great unit density. 😝

You had about 100 more allies but if your camping ill catch you up, what level are you and when are you gonna start saving for your nano???

Also its not my jokes you should worry about but Mr Mare catching you checking out another guys unit lol

[YLL]

You had about 100 more allies but if your camping ill catch you up, what level are you and when are you gonna start saving for your nano???

Also its not my jokes you should worry about but Mr Mare catching you checking out another guys unit lol

I like gals who like my unit. ;)

[GetItOn]

You have a great unit density :)

I hear that allllll the time. ;). Wait were you talking about a game..

[marebear]

You had about 100 more allies but if your camping ill catch you up, what level are you and when are you gonna start saving for your nano???Also its not my jokes you should worry about but Mr Mare catching you checking out another guys unit lolHaha I feel better now. I'm at 80 but close to being 81. You can hit me because I'm building up my unit density first. No reason to save for a nano when you don't have enough army to keep your cash. It will be a good test. P.s your signature makes me laugh. I can drop allies too. No biggie.