The live tree runs three branches — Development, Territory, and War — each a chain of passive techs gating capstone Alliance Skills (actives an R4/R5 fires on cooldown). Every route below obeys the same laws: depth beats breadth (never strand a 3/5 node), the empty-category rule (fill the lane your roster lacks), and the season clock (a buff that arrives after the fights it was for is a buff wasted).
Alliance troop bonuses are additive inside your category sums — so an alliance +5% attack is worth +5% real damage to a fresh member (T = 0) but only +2% to a spender at T = 150. A support alliance’s mid-game roster converts War-tree donations into MORE real combat power than the whale alliance gets from the same tech: the empty-category rule at roster scale, and the reason the Main route goes War-first.
Per-level percentages for War/Territory stat nodes are not reliably published: treat “I” nodes as ~1%/level and “II” tiers as the larger cumulative tier, and verify the live tooltip before committing credits. Known quirk: Cavalry/Siege Attack I are not actually enforced as prerequisites for Assembly Charge I.
Every member gets 20 donation attempts, refreshing one per 30 minutes. Resource donations cost trivial personal RSS and pay ~100 Individual Credits each, with a chance of a 2–3× recharge on STARRED techs. Treat the 20-cap as a fixed daily budget: every attempt spent on a low-value node is one taken off the war chain.
KvK1 runs Alliance Forts → Crusader Camps → kill/burn goals → Ancient Ruins → passes → Altars. Each chapter rewards a different lane of the tree — a buff that finishes after the fights it was for is a buff wasted:
| KvK chapter | Techs that pay here |
|---|---|
| Forts & crusader flags (early season) | Building Durability I/II, Conqueror, Rapid March, Skillful Craftsman, Artisan’s Spirit |
| Ruins, passes & city fights (mid–late) | Assembly Charge I/II, Unite As One, Fast Rally, the Attack/Defense tiers |
| Continuously, all season | Troops Healing — quietly one of the season’s highest-value techs |
Fortress 1 ≈ 0.9M alliance credits, Fortress 2 ≈ 4.5M, Fortress 3 ≈ 9M (before Architecture discounts) — and construction pays members up to 20,000 credits/day. Research Architecture before the fort-building chapter, and slow-build structures so more members bank construction credits.
| Tech / Skill | Branch | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Together We Rise5 levels | development | Raises the time each Alliance Help removes; at max, the per-help floor rises from 1 to 3 minutes. |
| Great Alliance I/III: 5 levels · II: 10 levels | development | Raises the member cap (flags also add 1 slot per 10 built). |
| Troops Healinglevels | development | Members' troop healing speed — the attrition-war tech.Quietly one of the season's highest-value techs. |
| Fully Loaded / Nature's Gift Alliance Skill capstones | development | Active gathering boost (8 h) / active resource-point summon.Nature's Gift is disabled inside the Lost Kingdom (1.0.39) — skip for KvK. |
| Rapid March I/II · Territory Guardian I/III: 5 · II: 10 | territory | March speed / troop attack inside alliance territory. |
| Building Durability I/II · ConquerorI: 5 · II: 10 | territory | Allied structures resist burning longer / enemy structures burn faster.Pays at the KvK fort-and-flag chapters. |
| Flag Quantity · Architecture · Artisan's Spirit · Storehouse Expansionlevels | territory | Flag cap / cheaper alliance builds / faster flag construction / bigger alliance storage. |
| Unbridled Progress / Skillful Craftsman Alliance Skill capstones | territory | Active: +damage to neutrals & march speed / active: greatly accelerated flag construction. |
| Inf/Arch/Cav/Siege Attack & Defense I, III: 5 · II: 10 | war | Troop attack / defense by type; II tiers sit behind Books & Battles.Magnitudes ~1%/level for I tiers [C]; verify live tooltip. |
| Assembly Charge I/II · Fast Rally · Unite As Onelevels | war | Rallied-troop march speed / shorter rally prep / larger rally capacity vs. cities. |
| Books & Battles / Counteroffensive Alliance Skill capstones | war | Commander EXP + troop attack (gates Tier-2 attack techs) / active alliance-wide shield + defense. |
A0 — Finish what is in flight (pre-war week)
Fully Loaded → 5/5; City Construction II, Technology Research II, Regular Army II, Talented Commander II → 10/10. Bank the compounding economy base while the season is still in prep — never strand a 3/5 node (Theorem 9).
A1 — War tree, the empty category
Inf/Arch/Cav Attack I → 5/5 (Siege only as the nominal gate) → Assembly Charge I → all four Defense I → Books & Battles → Inf/Arch/Cav Attack II → Assembly Charge II → Inf/Arch/Cav Defense II → Fast Rally + Unite As One → Counteroffensive.
A2 — Territory, parallel minor stream
Building Durability I/II + Conqueror (fort/flag wars) → Rapid March I/II + Territory Guardian I/II → Flag Quantity only to actual crusader-flag need → Skillful Craftsman / Artisan's Spirit for the fort-building chapters. Durability/Conqueror/Rapid March pay at the fort-and-flag chapters; Assembly Charge, Unite As One and Fast Rally pay once ruins, passes, and city fights dominate.
A3 — Development remainder
Great Alliance II (standing passive star), Troops Healing to max (quietly one of the season's highest-value techs), gathering nodes last; skip Nature's Gift for KvK — it is disabled inside the Lost Kingdom.
A0 as Route A, then the offense chain
Assembly Charge I → Attack I set → Books & Battles → Attack II set → Unite As One + Fast Rally → Assembly Charge II before any Defense tier.
Territory: race gear
Conqueror before Durability, and Skillful Craftsman early for the flag race.
The explicit trade
Garrisons and reinforcement anchors run thinner for the first half of the season — acceptable only because the support alliances (on Route A) carry the defensive lane. A coalition where every alliance runs Route B has no one holding the line; complementary routes across the coalition are the empty-category rule at coalition scale.
Development first and deep
Together We Rise and Great Alliance II maxed — member capacity and the help economy compound longest.
Gathering & healing
Gathering II set, then Troops Healing.
Territory economy
Architecture, Storehouse Expansion, Artisan's Spirit — leaving War for the next pre-season window. This is the correct route exactly when the season clock says fighting is not imminent, and the wrong one the moment it is.
20 per member, refreshing 1 per 30 min; resource donations cost trivial personal RSS; each donation pays ~100 Individual Credits with a chance of 2-3x recharge on starred techs.
Play it: Treat the 20-cap as a fixed daily budget: every attempt on a low-value node is one off the war chain. Starred techs pay more — keep exactly one star.
Cost doubles with every consecutive donation to the same tech (2, 4, 6, 8… pattern per item).
Play it: Resources, not gems, for routine research; reserve gem-dumping for a genuine race (e.g. finishing Assembly Charge the week rallies start).
Free; caps at 10,000 individual credits/day, but keeps cutting timers past the cap; with Together We Rise maxed each press removes up to 3 minutes.
Play it: Mandate help-pressing in alliance rules — it is the only zero-cost speedup in the game.
Fortress 1 ≈ 0.9M alliance credits; Fortress 2 ≈ 4.5M; Fortress 3 ≈ 9M (before Architecture discounts). Construction pays members up to 20,000 credits/day.
Play it: Research Architecture before the KvK fort-building chapter; slow-build structures so more members bank construction credits.
Stocked by officers from alliance credits; members buy with individual credits.
Play it: Pre-KvK stock order: Territorial/Targeted Teleports → healing speedups → universal speedups → Peace Shields.
KvK1 runs Alliance Forts → Crusader Camps → kill/burn goals → Ancient Ruins → passes → Altars. Each chapter rewards a different lane of the tree — a buff that finishes after the fights it was for is a buff wasted:
| KvK chapter | Techs that pay here |
|---|---|
| Forts & crusader flags (early season) | Building Durability I/II, Conqueror, Rapid March, Skillful Craftsman, Artisan’s Spirit |
| Ruins, passes & city fights (mid–late) | Assembly Charge I/II, Unite As One, Fast Rally, the Attack/Defense tiers |
| Continuously, all season | Troops Healing — quietly one of the season’s highest-value techs |
Fortress 1 ≈ 0.9M alliance credits, Fortress 2 ≈ 4.5M, Fortress 3 ≈ 9M (before Architecture discounts) — and construction pays members up to 20,000 credits/day. Research Architecture before the fort-building chapter, and slow-build structures so more members bank construction credits.
A0 — Finish what is in flight (pre-war week)
Fully Loaded → 5/5; City Construction II, Technology Research II, Regular Army II, Talented Commander II → 10/10. Bank the compounding economy base while the season is still in prep — never strand a 3/5 node (Theorem 9).
A1 — War tree, the empty category
Inf/Arch/Cav Attack I → 5/5 (Siege only as the nominal gate) → Assembly Charge I → all four Defense I → Books & Battles → Inf/Arch/Cav Attack II → Assembly Charge II → Inf/Arch/Cav Defense II → Fast Rally + Unite As One → Counteroffensive.
A2 — Territory, parallel minor stream
Building Durability I/II + Conqueror (fort/flag wars) → Rapid March I/II + Territory Guardian I/II → Flag Quantity only to actual crusader-flag need → Skillful Craftsman / Artisan's Spirit for the fort-building chapters. Durability/Conqueror/Rapid March pay at the fort-and-flag chapters; Assembly Charge, Unite As One and Fast Rally pay once ruins, passes, and city fights dominate.
A3 — Development remainder
Great Alliance II (standing passive star), Troops Healing to max (quietly one of the season's highest-value techs), gathering nodes last; skip Nature's Gift for KvK — it is disabled inside the Lost Kingdom.