[PLAYER GUIDE] Prison and HOF guide

*Special thanks to Quicksilvers from K56 for contributing his game guide to us!

In the Dungeon:

The dirty and ugly part of the war. Any time that you eliminate (kill or wound) all the troops in the attacked castle, you capture their Lord. This is shown over the castle, so everyone can see it, by a little, brown chains-and-crown square. The significance of this showing is that the Lord who has that over their castles have the prison buff which can be up to 30% and likely the HOF (Hall of Faces) buff as well, which is 38% attack, defence and health (for a lvl 25 HOF tower). So if they attack you, they have that much buff. If you attack them, you might have that much against you. Also, they cannot bubble while holding prisoners. If they do, the captive Lords are automatically released. (exceptions from this are the game-generated bubbles, like during an update or AC match)

If, after capturing a lord or two, you go into your dungeon, you can see those Lords there, and a timer for each. It counts down until you can execute them. Lords under castle level 17 cannot be executed (no limit on Lord level). You can also set a ransom for them or just simply release them. 

On the right side, at the bottom, you see the prison buff, which depends on the highest level Lord in your dungeon. In this example, it is a mere 8 %, because the highest level of the Lord is just lvl 44.But it can go as high as 30% for a lvl 60 Lord (this buff doesn’t add up with more lords!). The buff lasts while that Lord is vacationing in your dungeon. The exact buffs for each Lord level are in the below table.

The execution time depends on the Lord’s level. The higher the Lord is, the longer the execution timer. After the timer reaches zero you have 4 hours to execute the Lord. As for the execution timer itself, it is from 2,5 hours for a lvl 4 Lord, up to 48 hours for a lvl 60 Lord - the graph shows the times:

*Lvl4 Lord - instantly revives after execution. Higher lvl Lord takes up to 20 hours to revive.

Hall of Faces:

After the Detention countdown reaches zero, the Lords can be executed. It may sound harsh, but it gives very big buffs and the Lords will revive max. in a day or so after the execution, so it is not final. The HOF bonus depends on your HOF level and NOT on the Lord level! For a lvl 25 HOF these will be as shown below:

The number of Lords executed lengthens the time while you have the HOF buff. For one Lord it starts at 24 hours and the maximum is 168 hours or one week.

The imprisoned Lord can drink poison (Tears of Lys - BD only pack every two-three weeks) and it kills them in 1 hour. If a Lord drank poison, they cannot be executed. After he dies, he can be revived instantly with the Summon of the Father item in the Diamond shop (1000 D) or returns normally in a few hours if the item is not used. During KvK, lords cannot be executed and return in 6 hours.

Conclusion:

If preparing for a weekend FFA, an AC match or a KvK event, one should start capturing Lords (2-5 of any lord level, but the lower, the faster) at least 24 hours before the event starts, so their execution timer would reach zero before the start. Then execute those lords to gain the HOF buff for the duration of the event. Just before the event starts, a higher level Lord (55+) should be captured and held in the Dungeon for the prison buff. If the event or situation requires to be bubbled for the start, like KvK, then as soon as it goes off, one such Lord should be captured and held for the buff. In an alliance, the not-fighting members can offer this Lord sacrifice for the fighters even during a battle, as the Lord, in this case, is not executed, but can be released back to them. For this, the helping player leaves the alliance, attacks the fighter with 1 troop and the Lord, which causes them to be captured. 

For the executed Lords, alts can be used regularly, if their Lord level is kept low, for fast execution. The best for this is a max lvl 4-10 Lord with a min. lvl 17 castle. Level 4 is where Melisandra stops being an annoying know-it-all and leaves the player to manage the account so its the minimum. After this point the alt should not gain any experience, meaning no quests, fights, training - only the levelling up of the necessary buildings for the level 17 castle. Once such an alt reaches the required level, it can be executed every 2,5 hours, as it revives instantly (after a login), so the max HOF buff can be maintained indefinitely with only a short time spent with no bubble.

With low-level alts (15-20) it takes 2-3 to maintain the same HOF level, staggering their capture and execution. Any higher level than 45 and the execution is taking too long (>1 day), easier to make low-level alts, as while one holds captured Lords, one cannot bubble, so can be attacked.

Dangers of holding a Lord captive:

Besides the obvious one of being unable to bubble while holding one are two main dangers.

The first is that while you hold someone’s Lord in your Dungeon, the game helpfully tells them your position on the map. They probably won’t attack you without their Lord - but they can tell it to others in their alliance who then can pay you a painful visit.

*This was the view from my alt after I captured it.

The second danger is when you release the Lord and the line from you to their own Castle also tells them and anyone else your position. The danger of this is that it takes time to release the Lord from castle view - dungeon - confirmation screens, etc and go to world map again because the game is NOT HELPFUL in this case. By the time you can randomly jump again (probably best do it from the castle view, through inventory), someone bigger might already be beside you, attacking - and during KvK it will probably happen. So releasing a Lord must be done as fast as the game allows and the random jump must be done fast as well.

Thanks for reading! Hope this guide can help you in game!

P.S.: This was first published on 2020-08-11.