From Zero to Hero: A One-Year Free-to-Play Challenge (Day 1)

From Zero to Hero: A One-Year Free-to-Play Challenge 

Welcome to From Zero to Hero, a one-year challenge where I’ll start a fresh account in Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming with no shortcuts or significant money spent. Initially I was thinking completely free-to-play, but I realized how much of an impact a few $ can have. Mode details later. 

My goal is to reach Nobility: Advisor 3 with 1 billion Power and 25 million Merit. It’s ambitious, especially for an almost-free-to-play account with no boost or outside help, but that’s what makes it exciting! 

Along the way, I’ll dive into unique stories about lesser-covered events in new kingdoms, like Night King and Essos, instead of focusing on widely popular events like Alliance Conquest or Arena of Honor. This journey isn’t just about max accounts or big spenders, it’s about rediscovering the joy of progress: completing quests, reaching milestones and building something from the ground up.  

So let's leave the whales in their natural habitat and enjoy a fresh experience many of us may have long forgotten. 

Starting Fresh 

I’ve set out to start from zero with a new account on Kingdom 484.  

My main is a “big boy” chilling in N0X on Kingdom 385 and is lately seeing little progress, this fresh start brings back the thrill of the early days. Every quest I complete and milestone I achieve has a big impact on my gameplay and power, something big accounts no longer have the benefit of seeing. This excitement that makes the game feel rewarding again instead of the endless grind for Simon or Sabrina. 

If you know me, it’s probably because of my lovely personality, not my PvP skills or my deep pockets. Because I have neither, lol. This journey isn’t about being the strongest or the richest, there are plenty of stories like that already. Instead, it’s about the joy of growth, learning and building something from the ground up and maybe even helping others have an easier time learning the game that feels extremely overwhelming at first. 

Overall Objectives and priorities  

• City 
• Rush Castle Level 25. 
• Rush Maester’s Tower Level 25. 
• Rush VIP 9 for the Lord XP bonus. 
• Reach Lord Level 60. 
• Army 
• Unlock T4 troops. 
• Assemble a full Gold, 4-star PvP lineup. 
• Obtain all PvP red weapons through free-to-play means. 
• Achieve 2 pages of full Gold refinement: 
• Economy: Training Speed, Hospital Healing Speed or Research Speed, Motivation Recovery, Army Size. 
• PvP: Troop Attack/Health/Defense and Army Size. 
• Reach an unbuffed army size of 666k (equivalent to 1 million with a 50% buff). 
• Rebel Leaders 
• Achieve a 3-shot on Level 4 Rebel Leaders to be allowed in a decent alliance. 
• Somehow get blue Enzo and at least purple Theon for Rebel Leader formations. 

1st Day in Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming

That being said, let's jump right in and see what we can do in our 1st day.

My objectives are simple, get as much progress as possible using the resources available at the start. To keep things organized, I’ll track milestones across several categories, similar to the game’s “Total Score” system but adjusted to rookie accounts. I'm thinking: Buildings, Research, Troops, Commanders, Dragon and overall Lord level.

• For buildings, I'm hoping to get Castle level up to 13-14 ? Maybe a bit too ambitious, but I’ve seen other accounts far ahead of that, so I’ll give it a shot.
• In research, my first priority is Building Speed. I’d also like to unlock T2 troops, or at least start the research. T3 troops are my real goal for the first week.
• No target for troop numbers. T1 troops won’t be very useful for long. The focus is to get to T4 as fast as possible.
• For Commanders, I’m going for a full 6 set lineup for the Weirwood. I'll need 3 tanks for the frontline, 1 healer and 2 DPS for the backline. I don't remember what choices are available at start, but it should be possible to achieve this or something similar.
• I'm also looking to grow my dragon as it is a huge power spike and mandatory for all types of gameplay. 
• Lastly i'm going for... let say level 20 on the Lord Level.

And with that... away we GO!

When was the last time Jon Snow graced your screen? It's probably been a while.

I quickly go through the tutorial, this wasn't something I missed.😅For an experienced player there should be an option to skip it as it has no value anymore.

In just a few minutes, I make it to Chapter 4. It's the perfect time to take a break. Varys is on his way and will join my forces in 8 hours, so I can put him to use later today. Meanwhile, my dragon egg is hatching, meaning I’ll have a baby dragon waiting when I return.

I’ve also queued up troops for training, started research and a Castle upgrade to level 7. Everything’s set!

Upon returning, I find myself stuck in a deadlock. I can’t progress in the Chapters because I need to clear more Weirwood stages, but I don’t have enough commanders to advance. To make things worse, I also need a higher Lord level to upgrade my existing commanders, but getting more XP requires clearing more Chapter.

I speed up my Castle to start other construction while thinking of solutions. This unlocks the Shelter. We'll use this a lot later😏

I take a look and see what other options I have available and find a quick solution in the Limited-time Event. I’ve already received 5 Jeane Medals as a login reward and recharging $1 grants another 5, enough to unlock her as a commander. Her shield might be what I need and there are several other benefits from the first recharge, I decide to go for it.

Now I also have access to Melisandre. She might be useful in the early game, but without upgrading her she'll fall off really fast.

I need to clear Stage 29 to finish Chapter 7, but I’m stuck on Stage 19 because I don’t have enough damage to get past Sansa. Her enormous heals make it impossible to het her HP down with my current setup. To get past this, I need to upgrade my commanders, which means waiting for Stamina to recover 😒

Luckily, I have a Spirit of the Weirwood item. Using it lets me collect 2x 60 Weirwood Tree Gains, just enough to upgrade Robb (my frontline tank) and Sheila (the best DPS I’ll have for a while).

With the upgrades done, I give Stage 19 another shot. This time, manually controlling commander abilities, I barely manage to take down Sansa through her enormous healing. I wish my Sansa healed like that. Oh wait, she does! 👍 That's how I'm able to progress this much in the Weirwood stages so early on.

Stage 20, Soren, is much easier, he goes down quickly. I unlock the Auto Challenge feature at the next level, set my minions loose. Time for another coffee break to see how far they get. I let them run amok at level 19, needing to get to level 29.

When I return, they’re stuck at Stage 35, not because they couldn’t clear it, but because the game doesn’t allow progress beyond Stage 35 without advancing the Castle level. Looks like it’s time to focus back on the buildings.

The game is starting to feel harder and I’m beginning to think it wasn’t designed for this much progress in a single day.

In Weirwood I now need to position my commanders strategically for each fight and time their abilities carefully. For example, placing Jeane’s shield on the weakest tank has made a big difference in surviving tougher stages. I would need to replace Haley as a tank but I don't have access to anyone better. I remember Gorell was good, but I don't remember where to get him from.

Construction and research times are also starting taking several hours. I’m take this time time to optimize my talents and prioritize the Building Mastery research, as these great value in the early stages of the game. I’ve also begun waiting for alliance help before using speedups and even used the Dragon Construction skill on the Castle to save time. I get level 9 and will continue my Weirwood progress.

It’s becoming clear that I’ll soon hit a point where I’ll need to let construction and research run overnight. But for now, let’s push a little more and see just how much progress we can squeeze out of Day 1!

I’ve started research for Tier 2 troops. Following my main alliance vote, I’ll be a Bow account. This wasn't my 1st pick and I'm somewhat reluctant to play Bows, but I welcome the challenge. However, since Bows take the longest to research, I’m starting with Infantry. They’re solid for the frontline until I can unlock T2 Bows.

Castle level 12 is another long upgrade, so I’ve queued it up to run overnight with alliance help to speed things along.

Meanwhile, my baby dragon continues to grow. With any luck, it’ll evolve tomorrow, something I’m definitely looking forward to!

Just before logging out, I notice a camp near my city. It’s a level 1 camp and I remember these have T1 troops, just like me, but they don’t have dragons, unlike me. 

Figuring it’s worth a shot, I decide to attack it. My hospital is empty anyway, so I might as well give it something to do overnight.

To my surprise, a few alliance members join my rally. Without speedups, I impatiently wait for everyone to join. Finally, I send the attack and… four seconds later, we fail miserably. 😣 Apparently they have a lot more troops then we did and my our baby dragons could not make up the difference.

No worries, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Tomorrow, with my new T2 Bows, I mean Inf, I’m confident I can win vs a level 1 Rebel Camp and take their Spoils Chests 😉

Closing Day 1

As per the objectives I had set when I started:

• Castle: Upgrading to level 12, somewhat below my estimation, hoping to get more progress tomorrow. I need to catch up.
• Research: Working on T2 troops. I would have loved to actually have T2, but starting the research is fine.
• Dragon: My baby dragon (Whelp) is growing into a Drake. Yeey, at least this is going exactly as planned.
• Commanders: Currently at level 18, blocked by my Lord Level. Tomorrow’s priority is reaching Lord Level 20 ASAP to evolve them. Without that, I won’t be able to advance in the Weirwood or move on to the next chapter in the quest.
• Weirwood: Stage 43. Their Jeane is apparently much stronger than mine, even at the same level (17), Not sure what I can do about that, I'll probably pass it with brute force, overleveling them.

Plenty to look forward to on Day 2!