Alliance Tech Routes
Three research routes for three alliance roles — War-Competitive, Rally Spearhead, Economy & Rebuild — with the donation economy priced out.
Pick the route that matches your role, not your ambitions
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.
Spending the 20 donations
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.
- Keep exactly ONE tech starred — stars concentrate the whole roster’s attempts and pay bonus credits.
- Resources, not gems, for routine research: gem donation costs DOUBLE with every consecutive donation to the same tech (2, 4, 6, 8…).
- Reserve gem-dumping for a genuine race — e.g. finishing Assembly Charge the week rallies start.
- Alliance Help is the only zero-cost speedup in the game: it caps at 10,000 credits/day but keeps cutting timers past the cap — mandate help-pressing in alliance rules.
The season clock: when each tech pays
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.
The tree, surveyed live
| 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. |
The three routes
War-Competitive
- For
- Top-3 support alliance entering KvK; the paper's default recommendation.
- Prioritises
- War stats + rally speed/capacity, structure durability, healing.
- Trades away
- Gathering & flag-count economy until post-season.
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.
Rally Spearhead
- For
- The coalition's #1 main alliance, whose rallies must land first and hit hardest.
- Prioritises
- Assembly Charge, Attack tiers, Unite As One, Conqueror — offense-first.
- Trades away
- Defense tiers and Durability arrive later; riskier garrisons.
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.
Economy & Rebuild
- For
- Off-season, post-KvK reset, or a farming/feeder alliance.
- Prioritises
- Development tree, gathering, member cap, help economy.
- Trades away
- War readiness — do not enter a season on this route.
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.
The alliance economy’s price list
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.