[PLAYER GUIDE] How to efficiently upgrade the Commanders to 4 stars (Update October 2025)

This guide reflects the author’s personal experience and the game’s content as it exists at the time of writing. Future updates may alter features or introduce new content.

Introduction to awakening

Awakening commanders is one of the most important things to do in the early and midgame. Without upgrading your commanders and eventually getting them to 4 stars, you will be unable to get their full potential in terms of battle stats, army size, Rebel Leader damage and especially synergy. Without those things it will be hard to compete with other players and so many people try to upgrade their commanders as fast as possible. In this guide I will show you how you can do this while still being as efficient as possible. Never spend more resources than you need, that should be the goal! 

What do you need?

To awaken a Commander, you need two things: Books of wisdom and 600 tokens of different types. 

Getting the books normally isn’t a big problem. You can get them by claiming Spoils Chests at the merchant, and when you need more, I would suggest you buy the “Random Book of Wisdom” Chests from the VIP shop. Those are 5x cheaper than buying the books directly with blue diamonds.

For most players the tokens are a bigger issue. While you can farm the tokens of a specific commander, most of the time you end up getting general tokens instead, which you can later convert into specific tokens.

There are 3 types of general tokens: Legendary, Epic and Elite, and most commanders need tokens from one of these types. Some though, have to be awakened by specific tokens who can not be converted

Where can I get Elite General Tokens?

Elite tokens are the easiest Tokens to get, but it is still time and resource consuming to get them in the required amounts. 

In total 23, commanders need Elite-type Tokens, mainly commanders you can get in the Weirwood Tree and in the Recruitment Pass Shop, but also Seg. This means you need 13,800 Elite type Tokens to max them all. But don’t feel demotivated; they can be farmed easily daily through various means.

Weirwood Tree

The most common and also the cheapest way (as it is basically for free) is to farm commander medals of commander you already have gold and then convert them to Elite General Tokens (8:1 ratio). The Weirwood Tree is the most obvious choice here.

In the Weirwood Tree you can get “Weirwood Tokens” you can use to buy commander medals in the Weirwood Shop. With 180 Stamina and your passive income, you can get up to 35k Weirwood Tokens every day. With those Weirwood Tokens, you can buy almost 18 medals a day for 2000, which is more than 2 Elite Tokens a day. Of course this does not include additional stamina you can get from Expedition Beyond, items or natural regeneration, which increases that number even further.

Weirwood Memories

Similar to the Weirwood Tree, you can use this event to get medals of commanders so you can convert them to Tokens. Although this event is not bad, the drop rate per stamina is worse than for the Weirwood Tree when you buy medals there with 2000 Weirwood Tokens. Weirwood Memories is more efficient though than buying medals with 3000 Weirwood Tokens, so when you buy out all the 2k medals each month, Weirwood Memories is worth it for you as well.

VIP Shop

Another way to get Elite General Tokens is to buy them directly. You can buy 20 of them each day in the VIP shop for 2k blue diamonds each. This is definitely an option for players who get a lot of diamonds from alliance gifts. For most players though, this is too expensive to be done daily, especially because there are free options to get them as well. I would suggest considering buying them when there are diamond spending quests like they are in Alliance Mobilization. Even then I would only buy them when I have no better options to spend a lot of diamonds in a short time on.

Seasonal Festivals

There are also some events where you can get them. The Anniversary Festival and similar daily log-in events which appear each year give you 15 Elite Tokens, which is not that much, but also adds up in addition to the Elite Tokens you can get from the events own shop

Best Effort

The best effort event appears once a month, depending on the kingdom and it allows you to get some elite tokens by using speed ups and gathering. Even with bad luck, this event gives 14 Elite Tokens a month.

Anglers Feast

A great way to get Elite Tokens is the Anglers Feast, where you can get up to 100 Elite Tokens per month, but the event gives so many other good rewards it is a tough choice. Also, buying diamonds to then buy Elite Tokens in the VIP shop is more efficient than buying them directly.

Valor Shop

Also, you can buy Elite Tokens in the Valor Shop, but with many other rewards in there that are more useful, like the Mengo, Bjron and Simon Medals, this is not something I would suggest you use.

Where can I get Epic General Tokens?

Compared to Elite Tokens, Epic Tokens are much harder to get and are the main bottleneck for every low and medium-spender, especially in the midgame. They are needed for most paid commanders, with a few exceptions. With many different packs, which include Epic General Tokens, it is even harder to decide on where to get them, so I will give you the highlights here, starting with the F2P methods.

VIP Shop

Like Elite Tokens, you can get Epic Tokens in the VIP shop. Five a day for 5.7k each sounds very expensive but is very good when you keep in mind the rarity of them without spending. This is one of the best ways to spend your leftover diamonds, so whenever you have diamonds you don’t need, this is the place to spend them.

Event rewards

You can also get them in the Valor Shop. Like Elite Tokens, buying Epic Tokens is not really an option compared to the other rewards you could get instead. They are also in Anglers feast, but just like Elites, getting diamonds there and buying Epics in the VIP shop is more efficient. Also you can get 10 per month from Weirdwood Memories

Packs and Black Diamonds

When you are willing to spend to make your commanders stronger, faster than without, there are a lot of different purchases you can choose. In general, I would classify a pack as decent when you can get an Epic General Token for 5 BD or less. Keep in mind though that since the Tokens are reasonably accessible F2P, spending on them should not be a main focus.

A very efficient, but also very slow way is to just get the first amethyst pack for one BD. That way, you will get one Token every three days for 3 BD.

The cheapest pack is the first stage of the “Harvest” Pack which is in the shop every Tuesday, especially when you have a 50% discount coupon. Then you only spend a bit more than 1.6 BD per Epic Token. The second stage is also worth it. There, you get one Token for 5 BD (again with a coupon).

Other packs that have the same value as the second “Harvest” Pack are the second and third stages of the “Beach Party” Pack and the second and third stages of the “Patch of Ascendance” Pack. For both, you need to buy the first stage, so they lose a bit in value.

The first stage of the Legendary Awakening Gift also gives you a Token for 5 BD if you have a 50% discount.

Recruitment Pass

Since June of 2023, the Recruitment Pass “Legendary Hero Decree", the third type of the pass, allows you to select tokens instead of medals as a reward. Currently, there are Tokens for all Epic Commanders besides Melisandre in the pass, but when you need the Tokens for one of those, the pass is absolutely worth it. With 200 BD, you get 120 Tokens (+ extra from the chest from level 100+), which has the same value as the “Harvest”-Pack stage one and so is one of the best ways to get commander medals with black diamonds, this one in much higher quantity though.

Medal Conversion

Another possibility is to convert your leftover medals to tokens with a 3:1 ratio. Unlike for Elite Tokens, this is much harder here. The normal packs disappear once you get the commander to gold, so it is hard to have many leftover medals. When you care less about Epic Tokens, you can get the Random Common Commander Chests in Weirwood instead of normal medals. These chests have a low chance to drop 16 rated commander medals, which, when you have them gold, can be converted into Epic Tokens.

Where can I get Legendary General Tokens?

The Legendary General Token is a very rare item and one that is only needed for the strongest and rarest commanders in the game. F2P, they are very hard to get, and even for spenders, they are not cheap.

The F2P options

Free to play, you can only get the Tokens in very small quantities. The only reliable income is the Day of Trade event, where you can roll Commander IV chests once your castle has reached Glory Level 10, giving 1 Token per Chest, so 12 per event plus plundering rewards. In addition, you can improve that income with some F2P Corolla attempts and the sporadic event “Crossing the North”.

Packs and events

When you are willing to invest money, you unlock a lot more options. A detailed sheet you can find below:

Generally speaking, the Highgarden Gift and the Monthly Special Pack give the best value, but the Lucky Dice pack is also an option. Everything above 17 BD per Token should be avoided at all costs and even some of the offers around 16 BD per Token are just for the impatient players.

(Highgarden Gift)

(Monthly Special Pack)

Where Can I Get Commander Specific Tokens?

Commanders whose Tokens can’t be gained by converting General Tokens require their specific Tokens. These commanders are the ones for whom you need to take part in a certain event to get their medals. To get their Specific Tokens, you need to get their medals and convert them, normally with a 1:1 ratio. Getting these commanders to 4-stars usually takes a lot of time and so should be started as early as possible. Since they all have different sources a general roadmap on how to get them is impossible

Here is a list of all the affected commanders and their conversion ratio:

1. Darius: Glorious Battle rewards (1:1)
2. Hector: Weirwood memories & Outstanding Commander Chests (3:1)
3. Bjron: Valor Shop & AC/SoW rewards (unclear conversion rate)
4. Mengo: Valor Shop (1:1)
5. Night King: King of Eternal Winter event (1:2)
6. Sabrina: Lord of Lords, Best Effort event & Ultimate Tournament (3:1)
7. Simon Backmyre: Valor Shop & AC/SoW rewards (1:1)
8. Tyrion Lannister: Elite Trials Shop & Daily Challenges (2:1)
9. Zhea: War of Kingdom rewards (1:1)

Who should I awaken first, and when should I go for a 4th star?

Once you have your commanders at gold quality, there are often questions regarding who should be awakened first when they all require the same type of Token. This is a question that can be complex and very specific for your individual build, but I will try to give some general tips:

• When you are still building up a fighting setup, it is usually best to upgrade all commanders in it to 3-stars before you upgrade one to 4-star. With the third star, you get the 60% stat increase, which will help you a lot in fights. The 4th star can be very strong, but usually getting 60% more stats from another commander for fewer Tokens is worth it much more. Exceptions are main synergy components, which, of course need to be 4-star first.
• When you are building up a synergy setup for fighting *always* get the main enabler of the setup to 4-star first. This means Leila Mormont for Female setup, Jaime + one healer for the Weakness setup and Sinara and Rhea for the bleed setup. If you don’t know much about these synergies, look for some other guides over here.
• When you upgrade your commanders for Rebel Leader damage, getting them to 2-stars is usually enough. While the third star can have decent value, 4-starring a commander with Epic Tokens for Rebel Leaders is not worth it unless you have already reached the endgame.
• Upgrading Commanders for tavern stats like combat rate and leadership is also a good option. Here, you only need the second star, the rest is worthless for this specific buff. You should still always keep in mind that having one more commander with 2-stars for tavern isn’t that much, so I would suggest you start doing this only when you have already awakened all the commanders you need for Battle and Rebel Leaders.
• If you did all of the above you can also work on 4-staring commanders with good passive buffs like Jeane/Russel for total health an defence and Sansa for hospital capacity

Conclusion

Upgrading your commanders to 4-stars is a very time-consuming task and requires a lot of thinking. Depending on the type of commander, you will need different types of Tokens and each has different ways to get them effectively. With new packs and events added, there will always be new ways to get these Tokens. It is important to stay informed to get your commanders up as fast as you can. Sometimes, though, you have to be patient for certain packs to get the best results. As it is a grind, you sometimes have to wait a bit to get your reward.

As this is a very complex topic, feel free to reach out to me if you have any unanswered questions.

Special thanks to Chronicler HotepRa for creating and sharing this guide with the community.