Every season the race starts: to level the commanders as fast as possible to allow for best possible growth and battle readiness in case there are early skirmishes - no one wants to get caught with their pants down.
You can level up to 40 with PvE and after that you have to find PvP to level your commanders - aside from a small change that was made recently, .... , but keep reading - you will find out!
Ring Abilities
Before we talk about the different options to gain EXP in order to level up your commanders, we should have a look at what help the game gives you with the Ring Abilities.
You will not be able to use them right away, but it is good to keep this in mind and then make use of this as quickly as you can.
There are two skills on the ring tree that affect your EXP gain. "Considerable EXP", which gives 1% EXP per ring point to your commanders for everything that gives EXP, and "Combat Master", which will give you 2% extra per ring point for EXP you gain from sweeping Mobs.
In both cases you need ring level 30 first in order to be able to unlock it.
Taking Tiles
The most common way to gain EXP especially in those early hours/days of a server is taking tiles. You need to farm anyway to get a steady inflow of resources and for that you want to be able to hit higher tile levels. To get there you hit - you know it - tiles.
- Make sure to take only tiles that you can take comfortably. This retains your troops better and you don't have to wait for new troops to be produced
If you lose half your march on a single tile, this is clearly too much to keep you going.
During early days for a first tile of level "so-and-so" it is maybe acceptable, but not beyond that - Your spawn area is dried up? Farm from a fort. Reinforcement takes a bit longer (new options with forts now, an article on that will come soon), but it's doable.
Do NOT relocate for a handful of tiles to farm. You will need the relo for when you go to war.
If you are certain there won't be a front too soon, you might consider relocating to a better farm spot with less traffic and competition to the tiles
- If there are no tiles and you have exhausted other methods, you could always drop and retake a tile close to your base.
We did that in early seasons when servers were extremely overcrowded, but it shouldn't be necessary with majority of the servers these days.
If it is crowded and things are too soon to move other places, this is a work around solution if need be.
Sweeping Mobs
Not much to explain - kill these mobs. You get even extra stuff - like bait for bosses (see below) - and very rarely also an EXP tip in your tavern. These tips however are lower in EXP than they used to be. I have seen as high as 60k EXP while there used to be 120k on tips from level 40 mobs previously.
Same rule as for tiles applies to mobs as well: don't bite off a bigger piece than you can chew. Hit them at a level where you don't lose too many troops.
For mobs try to keep walking distance as short as you can. They respawn fairly quickly and are around plenty usually.
If you do not seem to find mobs of a certain level, try to search for them. Sometimes this might trigger one to spawn relatively close to your base. It does not work consistently, but there is a good chance it does. Especially in early game this can help you a lot with leveling.
For DD there is also a bit of a "cheat code". The commander damage does not scale on number of troops, so you can just go ahead and put 1 single troop on each. Play around a bit with how high levels you can beat. Commanders heal back quickly and losing 4 troops on a whole army is really not even worth mentioning.
Camps, Altars, Springs, Crossings
- Camps: Some camps are easy and give good Exp. Other camps can be tricky, watch out not to waste too many troops for too little exp.
The defenders vary from 2x level 15 (Hobbit Camp, 500 health) to 2x level 50 - Ruins: 2x level 25 defender (2x 18k EXP)
- Altars: 2x level 20 defender
- Springs: 3x level 30 - careful here though, make sure that you don't occupy all Springs around a structure and leave the other teams in your faction out cold. They are needed to build fortresses to occupy structures
- Neutral or (unguarded) enemy crossings/tunnels (2x level 20 / 2x ~9,500) are fairly easy and depending your level worth it to hit - careful here that you don't hit accidentally a pass, which is much stronger.
- Defensive Camps: Now, these you can hit only later in game once they have been taken. They do however give you EXP also beyond the confinements of other PVE, which means you can get EXP beyond level 40.
Rally Bosses
If you get bait for a boss, team up with others close to rally. You get exp from them too. However, they are not very popular anymore and you might end up struggling to find rally buddies. Try to make sure that people are available to join before you start rallies and allow for enough time for them to join.
Rewards from bosses are meagre, but the smaller ones especially are super easy to kill and give a fair amount of EXP if you kill off their lives.
Tavern Tips
So, you used to be able to get EXP from Tavern Tips.
If you were on a break from the game for a bit, you will be displeased to hear that this is not the case anymore:
Tavern Tips do NOT give exp anymore. However, there are random mobs that still throw exp tips every once in a while. Make sure to use those if you get lucky enough to receive one.
EXP Scrolls
1. Map Tips
Starting with server progress after finishing chapter 3 in the season the mob tips appear in the tavern.
You get six designated mobs every day. Three on your tiles near your base (could be faction or neutral tile too if not enough of yours are around) that are tied to one map tip each.
These are one Conflict tip each with up to 5x 30k EXP + 6x 10k EXP each by end of season if you unlocked the highest reward by taking a 260 or 300 tile at anytime in the season.
Then there are three mobs that also only you can see for the fourth map tip, but they do not have any indicator to point them out. You have to find them sitting on tiles owned by you, your team mates or faction mates. If you cannot find them, you can also choose to take random mobs on the map instead that have the minimum level required.
For the fifth map tip you just have to find three regular mobs to kill at a certain level or above
Killing the first 6 mobs gives exp, but I suggest you do that with your second or third army instead of your main as they are typically easier than what your main can manage. Don't waste your main formation's stamina on this. However, regular mobs while still levelling in early game you can (and should) do with your main.
2. Market & Merit Store
You can buy the scrolls also in your market. They refresh daily. The quality and quantity of scrolls available will upgrade based on your market level and seasonal progress
Once the Merit Store is available (server progress), you can exchange up to 3x for a purple EXP Scroll for your higher level commanders.
3. Summary
Daily/Weekly EXP Scrolls*:
- Tavern maximum:
3x (5) 30k + (6) 10k = 210k
1x (1) 100k + (9) 30k = 370k
1x (8) 30k = 240k - Daily Market maximum:
1x 100k for 100 gold ingot
4x 10k for 20 silver ingot (40 k / 80 S-ingot)
2x 30k for 60 silver ingot (60 k / 120 S-ingot)
2x 100k for 200 silver ingot (200 k / 400 S-ingot) - Weekly Merit Store maximum:
3x 100k for 40k Merit (300 k / 120k Merit)
That adds up to: 3,100,000* EXP from purple scrolls for levels 40-45 and 5,740,000* EXP from blue/green scrolls for up to level 40 per week.
*Please keep in mind that these maximum numbers are calculated on the highest server and market development and assume you took at least one 260 tile at some point in the season.
Mind Sharpener
It is not as effective anymore. However, before you let your commanders sitting and do nothing because you are busy in real life, might as well send them to mind sharpen.
You don't have a 200+? No problem. Send your march to the FS altar. It will give the same amount of EXP as you get from a 200/h tile.
Mind Sharpener on tiles below 200/h is not really worth it. Even then the gain is not that high anymore, which is why this should only really be used for times when you otherwise cannot be active. It is, frankly speaking, a waste of AP and Stamina if you could use these for other things instead.
If you know you will be unavailable for the day, respec your ring abilites so you can get the most out of it at least. And if able to, try to use the boost items to optimize the gain.
However, as I said a couple times, you should not do it at all, nor should you need this. The other options to gain EXP are way more effective and sustainable. This is really only a thing to do if you have super busy RL days and need to catch up while you are not really able to play. It's, so to say, an "emergency" workaround for desperate times when otherwise you couldn't play enough to level up
PVP
Once you reached level 40 with your commanders, none of the above will give you EXP anymore aside from the purple scrolls. The only way to level up to 50, which should be your goal, is to battle.
In battles you will get decent amounts of EXP for player armies you wound or kill. Here you get points according to the opponent's level. If the opponent is higher or equal level, you get more EXP than if they are (much) lower level than yours.
Sidenote:
If you're wondering why your commanders level at different speed, this might be because they do different damage. Those that do more damage will gain a few more EXP than the others. Often it is not significantly noticable, sometimes you see rather big discrepancies, but either way, you are levelling them and that is what counts.
Try to play smart, but don't shy away from fights with even results. You gain EXP with them (yes, the opponent will do so too) and you cannot avoid fighting completely since you need to level as quickly as possible. If you wait too long with it, you will end up under-levelled compared to others and then it will be even harder to level your commanders.
So, the sweet point is to find equal levels, which will give decent results in order for you to level quickly.
Conclusion
While it might seem daunting at first to level up your commanders - and four of them - it is really not too hard to get to level 40. Even catching up if you started a bit later is not really too hard.
After that you do have to work for it to stay on top of things and not fall behind. Beyond Level 40 there is not quick and easy fix anymore. It is a war game and war you have to do in order to progress.
Keep in mind: the main point is to enjoy your time. Try to enjoy the way to the goal as much as accomplishing it.
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