Updated 2021/9/24 – added the second half of the article

A basic guide aimed primarily at players below keep level 25.

Legend:
t10 = Tier 10 (Troop level)
k25 = Keep level 25

Basic Specifications

• At k27, an arsenal can be built, and once built, troops can be upgraded.
• Only troops above t10 can be upgraded. (10->11, 11->12, 12->13, 13->14)
• Troops under t9 cannot be upgraded.
• Upgrading requires resources.
• Upgrading is not instantaneous, it takes time. (Can be completed instantly by paying gems.)
• Barracks, Archer camps, Stables, and Workshops must be leveled up to the level you want to upgrade to beforehand. (For example, if you want to upgrade to t11 ranged troops, you need to raise the level of your archer camp to 27 beforehand.)
• The troops you want to upgrade need to be inside the castle. If they are outside the castle, they cannot be upgraded. (gathering resources, hunting monsters, rallying, ghosting, etc.)
• Wounded troops in the hospital cannot be upgraded. They need to be healed beforehand.
• When you start an upgrade, the monarch’s power is lowered by the amount of the target troops.
• When the upgrade is finished, the monarch’s power will increase by the amount of the target troops.

Which is more profitable, upgrading troops or creating new ones?

Creating new ones requires less total cost (resource).

For example
The cost of creating a new t11
is less than
the cost of creating a new t10 + the cost of upgrading from t10 to t11.

( In addition, the cost of the upgrade itself is less than the cost of creating a new one.)

Tips for upgrading

How to reduce upgrade time

• Equip the “Martial Crown” of the monarch gear.
• Assign a Duty Officer to the appropriate type of facility (barracks, archer camps, stables, workshops)

How to increase the number of troops that can be upgraded at once

• Assign a Duty Officer to a Keep

Note: Assigning a Duty Officer to a Barracks, Archer Camp, Stable, or Workshop will not increase the number of troops.

Effect on Score

Basically, since it is not treated as “training a troop”, there is no score associated with it.

Activity Scores

Does not count toward the score for “Troop Training”.

Monarch Competition Event Scores

If you finish an upgrade on a “Troop Training” day, it will not count towards your score.

If you finish an upgrade on a “Power Increase” day, it will count towards your score.
If you start an upgrade on a “Power Increase” day, you must finish it by the end of that day or you will lose the score.

IMPORTANT THOUGHT – Don’t create many below t9 (at first)

It is better to create a lot of troops at least from t10 (i.e. k25). If you can be patient, I recommend starting at t12 (i.e. k30).

The reason is that it is a waste of resources and speedups.

It is better to build only the minimum number of troops below t9, and use resources and speedups to get to k25 or higher as soon as possible anyway.

If you are up to K32 or so, having a large number of t9 and below troops will only get in the way when you are ghosting in PvP. (It’s more work to ghost them. Or you won’t be able to ghost them fully.)

Reference: Ghosting Complete Guide (Essential PvP Techniques)

In the end, when you get to the k33-35 class, it is normal to have so many troops for defense that you can’t ghost them all. When you reach this class, it is a good idea to increase the number of t9s and below.

Should I not upgrade?

If you are a heavily paying user, it is better not to upgrade.

However, if not, I recommend that you keep the minimum number of layers you need and keep upgrading up to t12.

(Leave t12 as it is, and create new t13 and t14.)

However, if you have just reached k32, you can upgrade only your mounted troops to t13. (Mainly for monster hunting)

It will cost you more in the end, but you will be able to kill stronger bosses faster. This means that you can get a lot of better items and rewards earlier. As a result, your growth speed will be faster.

Specifically, Witch 3, 4 & Warlord 3, 4 have a lot of resources and speed-ups (reference: bosses with a lot of speed-ups / bosses with a lot of resources).

If you are able to hunt a large number of these, your growth speed will accelerate.

It is difficult to defeat Witch 3 or Warlord 3 without t12 mounted troops, and difficult to defeat Witch 4 or Warlord 4 without a large amount of t13 mounted troops. (Reference: How Many Troops need to Defeat Boss?)

How many lower level troops should be left when upgrading?

If you are up to k32, it is enough to leave 50,000-100,000 troops of each type for t10 and t11 first.

In order to think about this, you need to think about what you will do with the number of troops in the castle in the future.

Number of troops in the city you should aim for first

Once you reach K33, it is recommended that you give up on ghosting all of your troops and start defending against k35 with a large number of troops.

First of all, you should aim for the following numbers of troops for each type of troop

t13 500,000
t12 1,000,000
t11-t1 100,000

After that, you should aim for the following

t13 1,000,000
t12 1,500,000
t11 500,000
t10-t1 200,000

However, since mounted troop is hard to use in defense, there is no big problem even if you have less at the beginning. First of all, it is enough if you can prepare the amount needed for attacks plus a buffer. (About 2 million total)

Depending on the strength of your buffs and debuffs, you can start to withstand attacks from k35 with this amount of troops.