Adventures of the Small Fighter:

Guide 2 - How to Create a Low Power Account

Hello everyone and welcome to another guide of mine! Today I will be talking about creating/managing an account that contains no additional power than necessary - meaning it only has pvp related research and maybe some other vital things, but nothing else that could cause an increase in power. The idea here is to stay as small as possible in terms of power, but to have high stats to cause trouble while fighting. I’ll go deeper on details, let’s dive into the topic!

First of all; why are we doing this? Well, there are two main strategies to play pvp in this game- you either need to be able to tank rallies even from bigger players (for which you will need very high stats no matter what), or you need to play zero castle. Since my guides are mainly for those who are at the beginning of this game and looking for some tips, or those who are free-to-play, it is hard for them to maintain a tanking account. On the other hand, anyone can play zero castle without worrying about bigger accounts roaming around. Keep in mind that, when I say zero castle, I don’t mean “somehow being able to zero out”. Using 6-7 marches to hide troops is not the same with the term I call zero castle. What I mean, is to have some amount of troops so that you can hide them just by using your shelter and a fake rally - maybe you can use 1 extra deployment if you need more troops, but that’s it! This means you will have something around 2m troops, maybe even less, but troops are not the only thing that determines the power rating of your account, it is mainly your research…

Let’s take a quick look at the advantages of having a low power - zero castle account;

• If you are fast enough and good at hiding your troops, you can avoid being hit in any case, even against the strongest players around.
• Even if you don’t feel like you have enough stats to compete, you can still play as a reinforcer/filler without any risks. 
•  If you have solid stats and you like to do pvp, or merit hunting, you can jump between kingdoms easily. Being able to change kingdoms just for 1 transnational relocation scroll is a blessing!
• You can play as a trap account. When you are low on power most of your opponents will just try to hit you without wondering what is inside. With good stats and a good setup (with the help of T1s), you can cap their lords easily.

The greatest example to this kind of an account is Meow Me0W, or with the old and more popular name of the account - theBlue. Low power, high merit, insane stats, can move to almost any kingdom just with 1 scroll, a total nightmare for the opponents. 

I will prepare another guide about playing zero castle also including some tactics but for now, let’s focus on creating the low power account. 

Most of you probably already know this, but I will mention it just in case; when you move your mouse right on to your power, you can see the details of it like in the screenshot above. As you can see some of these numbers are smaller than the others and do not affect your power that much. Two of the main aspects here that have a crucial effect are - your army power and your research power. 

Calculating army power is easier - for a proper zero castle account, let’s assume you have 2m troops with 1.5m of T4 and 500k of T3. This can change of course. If you do the maths such an army configuration will give you 66m power - (1.500.000 * 36) + (500.000 * 24). Keep in mind that your army power is the least dangerous one since you can remove/kill/train troops any time you like. In other words, you can modify your army power whenever you want. This is different from your research power as you won’t be able to get rid of a research once you completed it. So let’s keep on going with the more complicated section - your research power.

If you check the above screenshot one more time, you can see that the biggest part of the total power is coming from research. My account doesn’t have the proper setup, maybe you remember from my previous guides that this account was actually built as a gold alt, then I decided to turn it into a pvp account. Because of that, I have some extra research that I actually don’t need! 

So, which research is important and which one is not necessary. Let’s evaluate them according to the research trees below;

First things first, you need T4 :) This is not a topic for discussion. To be able to unlock T4 troops, the game requires you to complete Military and Production research trees completely! Well, let’s say with one exception; you don’t need the latest research on the Production tree - Diamond Prospecting. This is one of the examples where I get that “additional power” from my research which is actually not needed at all. 

This research increases your diamond gathering speed but trust me, it is not needed! You will be gathering diamonds only once in every month, after KvK - and this research will change only a couple of minutes of gathering time. Not worth having extra power just for this.

Since we are in need of Production and Military research trees no matter what, I just marked them with green ticks on the above screenshot. Let’s keep on going with another very important research tree - Expedition & Pacification. In my previous guides, I mentioned how important killing rebel leaders are, and this research tree helps you increase your damage and some other rebel leader related attributes of your account, so it is a must!

Next up - City Defense and Advanced Defense research trees. These are mainly about your wall defence and fortifications, and these have very small effects in your actual pvp defence. Also considering this guide is encouraging you to play zero castle, most of the time you won’t be defending at all - you will be hiding your troops. Also for that reason, you won’t really need your wall’s assistance. So these two research trees are crossed with an X.

In the Advanced Military tree, there is some research that I think can be useful, but not all of them. 

Pathfinding II is important, it gives you 30% extra marching speed. Training Mastery II gives 24% training speed - as someone doing pvp, especially as a zero castle, you will need to refresh your troops from time to time, sometimes you will need to train troops almost instantly during the action. Training troops is a constant part of the game so this research will give you a lot of benefit. Equipment Archive research allows you to save equipment presets, which will be useful not only during the battles but in your general GoTWiC life as well. Troop Formation research allows you to save army configurations - your commanders, troops, dragon.. It is also an important part of playing pvp. But keep in mind that Equipment Archive and Troop Formation research doesn’t need to be maxed, you can stop at the level you think is enough. Last but not least New Procedures I - it is used to unlock the 6th deployment for your account. Normally you can live without that research too, so I don’t say it is a must, but it can be useful in times.

In the Formations tree, again, some researches are important but not all. Training Mastery III is needed, same as Training Mastery II as mentioned before. Other formation related research you see there allows you to change for army frontline and formations, which is again very important for pvp. 

One optional group of research here, Army Armor, Weapon, and Physical Training upgrades - which in max level gives 10% of total defence, attack, and health. Stats are always important for a fighter, but these researches increases your power very seriously and they are very expensive in terms of speed ups and resources. I find them useful, but I will add them to the list as optional. 

In the Commandership Tree, there are 3 stat related researches very similar to the army research group we just mentioned above. This time you can get 10% of Fervor attack, defence and health, but keep in mind the same logic applies here too. They will increase your power quite a lot and will be expensive, but they are very useful too.

Since the Advanced Military, Formations, and Commandership research trees are all important but it is not necessary to upgrade everything related to them, I will mark them with a 50/50 sign - consider it like “a part of that tree is needed”.

Let’s keep on going with the next research tree - Refinement. This one is very important as refinement is one of the most important and easy parts of the game that you can get stats from. Refinement related research must be maxed no matter what! Only the last 2 researches here act a little bit different and they are not refinement related. Badge Master research allows you to unlock the 4th badge slot on your equipment, which is very important to further increase your stats - so you need this research as well.

About Badge Planning research, it allows you to save badge presets, similar to your equipment presets, and it is also useful and important. The only difference is, you don’t need to have this research maxed, so you can stop when you feel like you have enough preset options ready.

The remaining 3 research trees - I can say you don’t need them at all at the beginning, but they can be very important in the late game. I will explain them below;

• The Iron Defense tree is mainly about your wall and fortifications. There are 3 researches there that give additional bow stats, but if you are not a bow player you don’t need them at all (Bow players must have them maxed). The only special research here is the last one on the tree, Enhanced Defense, increases your maximum number of troops available in defence by 3m, but since this guide is for zero castle players I can easily say that you don’t need this research. So basically, you can just skip this research tree completely.
• Next, the Great City Military research tree, which mainly increases your stats and rally size while rallying Great Cities, this doesn’t work in normal battles! If you are not the main rally leader of your alliance, you don’t need any of the research in this tree.
• And finally, the Strangely-Garbed Army! This is where you unlock Ancient Foundry and T5 troops! At the beginning or even in the middle steps of the game, I suggest you not to bother with this research tree. Unlocking T5 is a very long process and it can be very expensive in terms of black diamonds. But in the later stages of the game, you should definitely take a look back at this research tree.

I marked Great City and T5 research with an X but it is because you won’t be needing them early in the game. Don’t forget to keep an eye on them later on. 

Before I finish this guide, I want to give a small tip. You can sell your extra commander weapons to drop some power. These small weapons add some power to your account slowly, but after some time you can find yourself 20-30m power higher than usual. 

I don't sell (and don’t recommend it) purple and gold weapons, but I strongly suggest selling green and blue ones. To give you an idea; a single green weapon adds 60k, and a blue one adds 100k power to your account. 

I haven't checked these weapons in a while and lost 38m power by selling them! Don’t forget to keep an eye here from time to time.

I hope this guide helps you with your account. It was mainly about research trees but don’t forget to check other parts of the game that add power as well. They won’t have the same effect as your researches but they can still be useful. To summarize, you can have a zero castle account somewhere between 300-400m power easily. I hope you can find a good balance in terms of power and stats. In the next guide I will be talking about some pvp strategies. Until then, take good care!