NOYZZING

Written by: Noyzzing

Understanding troop interactions is crucial to success:

• Infantry: Counters Archers, weak against Cavalry.
• Cavalry: Counters Infantry, weak against Archers.
• Archers: Counters Cavalry, weak against Infantry.

Pro Tip: Always scout your enemy's troop types before attacking to ensure your troops have the upper hand. Effective scouting ensures you exploit counter vulnerabilities, maximizing damage and minimizing losses. Never attack blind.

Your castle is the core of your kingdom, but not all upgrades directly translate to battlefield strength. To progress efficiently, prioritize resources for combat infrastructure:

• **Speedup Management:** **Never use green speedups for building.** These speedups are purpose-built for troop training and production; reserving them strictly for barracks ensures you maximize their value during training events.
• **Castle Level Thresholds:** While Castle Level unlocks features, raw power comes from research and troop tier. Focus on balancing building upgrades until you reach critical military thresholds, such as **Level 22** to unlock T8 troops and essential Unit Tactic Skills.

Remember: A high-level castle is a large target. A high-level castle with weak troops is an easy target. Focus investment where it matters: raw troop power.

Once you reach Castle Level 22 and upgrade your Barracks, mass troop production becomes the priority. Large troop numbers act as a vital shield and ensure sustained participation in key events like BOS and ME.

• **Monotype Focus:** Prioritize producing your main troop type (Infantry, Cavalry, or Ranged). Mixing troop types dilutes the effectiveness of your hero and gear buffs, significantly weakening your overall march strength.
• **Event Preparation:** Always save your accumulated troop speedups (especially the green ones) to use during production events. This maximizes the rewards you gain for the effort invested.
• **Combat Sets:** Aim for at least **six full sets** of your main troops. This capacity ensures you can send multiple, full-strength marches or participate in several rallies simultaneously during major alliance vs. alliance (AvA) events like BOS and VC.

True troop strength is the sum of many small, consistent upgrades across key castle components. Focus on these six pillars for maximum combat enhancement:

Institute Research: The Foundation of Buffs

The Institute is where permanent, compounding buffs are secured. Your primary focus must be on **Military Research**, specifically maximizing the Attack, Defense, and Health boosts for your designated main troop type. Only once your main troop research is maxed or hits a Castle Level ceiling should you pivot to the secondary troop types or economic research. Research provides the foundational percentage buffs that multiply all other sources of strength.

Gear: Specialization and Promotion

Gear provides specialized, direct boosts to your troop type. **Infantry** players must prioritize gear enhancing Infantry Attack, Defense, and Health. The most efficient path is:

• **Promotion Priority:** Prioritize promoting the **two pieces** of gear that offer the largest direct attack buffs to your main troop type. Promotion is resource-intensive but offers the highest return on investment.
• **Enhancement Strategy:** Use Spinels and Shards to promote and enhance the remaining gear. Maintain a balanced enhancement level across all pieces after securing the two critical Attack promotions.

Gems and Saurgems: Slotting Power

Gems and Saurgems provide substantial stat enhancements directly impacting combat performance. **Always give first priority to gear upgrades and enhancement items** (Spinels/Shards) before investing heavily in Gems.

• **Troop-Specific Focus:** Equip Gems and Saurgems that boost Attack, Defense, and Health for your main troop type.
• **Saurgem Enhancement:** Upgrade Saurgems strategically, maintaining a focus on Attack boosts. While defensive stats are valuable, offensive power often dictates rally success.

Warsigil: Might and Defense

Warsigil offers a powerful, passive boost to your might and core stats. Concentrate on developing the **three sections** that most directly align with and boost your main troop type's stats. Even moderate focus on Warsigil development significantly boosts your displayed might, which is important for alliance recruitment and deterrence.

Saurgil: The Luck Factor

Saurgil is a long-term, high-variance investment primarily driven by luck and accumulated Crystal savings. **Strategy here is patience.** Save your Enhance items for Saurgil that offers maximum Main Attack buffs. Look for Shards in events like Neptune that specifically promote your primary troop attack type.

Talent: Situational Switching

Talents are your most flexible buff source. Utilize your free Talent resets (unlocked at **VIP 10**):

• **Balance (Default):** Use the Balance Talent set when inactive or performing resource maintenance (healing, training).
• **Military (Combat):** Switch to the Attack/Military Talent set immediately before launching a rally or engaging in major AvA combat to receive maximum attack buffs. You can even launch the march and immediately switch back to a Balance/Production talent to benefit from both sets in quick succession.

Hero Buffs and Combat Deployment

Hero selection is paramount. When sending a combat march, you must use **five heroes**. Use four heroes focused on your main troop type (e.g., four Infantry heroes) and one **Combo Hero** (like Aleria) to ensure maximum buff activation. **Never use five heroes of the same troop type, as one hero's buff will not stack.**

• **Key Level Thresholds:** Heroes unlock critical buffs at specific evolution levels: 2-Star (Level 31), 3-Star (Level 71), and **4- and 5-Star (Level 131)**. Failing to reach Level 131 on your top 5-star heroes means missing a major attack buff.
• **Upgrading vs. Enhancing:** **Enhancing** a hero (using fragments) provides new troop skills and massive power jumps, while **Upgrading** (using XP potions) only increases the level. Focus fragment collection on your main hero type for maximum impact.
• **Hero Recommendations (4-Star Focus):** For efficient growth, focus on easily obtainable 4-star heroes: Fuga (Infantry), Deeode (Ranged), and Apollo (Cavalry).

Economy and Passive Buff Heroes

Do not neglect your economic and passive heroes once your main combat heroes are established. Economic heroes provide free, passive buffs even when not actively leading a march. Upgrade these to max level (and enhance them) to unlock all passive benefits, which include Rally Size, Training Speed, and Infirmary Capacity.

• **Rally/Troop Size:** Heroes like **Lira** and **Ammon** provide essential rally size buffs. Troop size heroes such as **Anubis** (Trial Challenges), **Nilesh**, and **Hart** directly boost damage output.
• **Resource Management:** **Ryska** (Training Speed/Cost) and **Horus** (Infirmary Capacity/Heal Speed) are vital for long-term resource efficiency and troop survivability.
• **Passive Troop Attack (Overlooked):** Some Economy heroes provide passive troop attack buffs that are always active. Look for and develop heroes like **Void Walker**, **Nephthys**, **Maigret**, and **Ebony** to permanently increase the base damage of your main troop type.

Curios and Runes: The Finishing Touch

Curios and Runes provide flexible, late-game buffs dependent on luck and careful crafting. Epic Curios generally offer the best troop strength boosts. The stats you gain depend heavily on which Hero Curio is crafted, making this a luck-dependent process. Runestones, obtained from events like Hell Fortress, should be prioritized for maxing out your primary troop type's Sauroi Military Skills.

Final Words

Focusing on your main troop type, optimizing research, and developing heroes are the keys to sustained success in Puzzles and Conquest. Troop strength is not just about raw numbers, but about the synergistic quality of your heroes, gear, and research. Good luck!

- Noyzzing