Tuesday, 7 June 2016

Warlords upgrade system

Hi folks!

After we've got an overview of the different unit types last time, let's take a closer look at the upgrade system today.

Battalion upgrades

In order to upgrade the battalions, we need the respective upgrade items, and cash. The items come from crates, the marketplace and, mostly, winning battles.

Levelling up the battalion via XP gained from battles opens up new upgrade paths.

There are three stats that can be upgraded:

  • HP - amount of damage each unit can take before they are disabled
  • Damage - amount of damage each unit dishes out
  • number of soldiers in the battalion
Each upgrade level has four items, and once all four are purchased, you get a bonus, which is often considerable.

Upgrades cost cash, which is non-purchasable with real-world money, but has to be won in battles.

Upgrades take a while to complete - the higher the level, the longer the wait. Given that there are five classes, there's heaps of upgrading to do, and waits can be skipped using the secondary "diamonds" currency.

Avoiding spending real money on those (you won't really get many, unless you put some serious cash into them) is a matter of scheduling. Quickly check occasionally if an upgrade has finished, and start another one, even if you don't plan to battle. Only takes a second, and you'll be constantly upgrading, improving your units.

Upgrade priority

Upgrades are pretty balanced - you'll need all three (health, damage and soldier count). Personally, I put a slight priority on soldier count, but they're almost equally important.

A bigger factor is the bonus set. They're equal across units in terms of soldier count, but e.g. Guardians get better bonus HP, Archers get high damage output etc. - so keep the roles in mind, and go with your favourite units.

Hero upgrades

A secondary upgrade system is the hero level, counted in "stars". You collect "shards", via the premium crate, special battles or rare loot. Levelling up the hero increases offence/defence capabilities massively, and allows for better gear.

Gear levels follow the usual pattern (gray - common, green - uncommon, blue - rare, purple - epic, orange - legendary). Someone has clearly been playing "Need For Speed" :).

There are three types of gear:
  • Weapons - these can have critical damage or magical damage, which can easily double a hit
  • Armour - increases physical and magical resistance. I usually go with physical primarily, since mages are fairly easy to snipe, and they're the only unit dealing magical damage.
  • Banner - increases offence, which is weighed against the enemy's defence stat, to determine how much damage is caused, with other factors. Can also give critical hit chance.
So higher level, higher gear. Gears themselves can be upgraded for gold - higher level gear can be upgraded higher as well.

Getting shards

You get shards from the premium chest, which shows up every two days for free. You can buy them for diamonds, which is a decent investment, since you'll get some other stuff (upgrades, gear) as well, but it's a game of chance.

You get shards from the battles in the "Brigand Island" - three shards for every level you win. I recommend saving these up for when you unlock the secondary units, and you're in the situation of having to quickly level up, say, another archer unit. Since you can chose which unit gets the shards, they come in rather handy.

You can get shards from the loot wagon in special "Brigand" battles - make sure to have the unit you want shards for the most collect the wagon. That can be a tactical challenge by itself occasionally, since you have to collect it before you kill the last enemy unit.

Very rarely, you get shards in regular battles. Lastly, you can buy them for diamonds in the marketplace - that's probably the best investment for your diamonds, since you can control what you want to buy. Look out for more than one on offer, since they're discounted.


That's it for today. Next time, we'll have a look at battle strategies.

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