[Player Guide] What can I be? (Playstyle classes guide)(Updated on 2022/11/23)

"Game of Thrones Winter is Coming" is an open-world real-time strategy. Such games don’t have a definite end goal but rather players set one for themselves and build their game character and account based on that. At first it may be a bit confusing for some, but with some time, players should realize that this type of game concept  will allow them to enjoy the game even more as there are no restrictions regarding their playstyle. In this guide, we'll try to help and introduce different characters and goals you can have in this game.

To do so, playstyles will be divided into 7 main classes and then subclasses will be introduced. There isn’t a limit on how many classes and subclasses can be assigned to one player. Players can have multiple goals and focus in-game.

1. Builder

The first and main class of players is called the "Builder". For these players, the main goal is having a higher battle rating (Power). Builders are the players who try their best and are mainly focused on growing their account’s Power and can be less interested in other game aspects if that would help them with their goal (for example PvP events where they could lose troops).

Builders will have a harder time changing kingdoms because when their battle rating and their rank in the target kingdom is higher, they need more translocational scrolls and it becomes expensive fast (1 scroll = 810k alliance coins).

Depending on which stage of the game the Builders are at, theycan be categorized into 3 subclasses:

• Constructors are the players who are focused on buildings. This is the early game phase that everyone must pass as a new player. Pretty much after all your buildings are level 25, this phase shifts to upgrading your glory levels. They are a bit harder to max out but still not impossible for the average player as long as they’re active. While working on glory levels, constructors usually pick up another class in the meantime.
• Researchers, as the name suggests, are people who are focused on upgrading and advancing their researches. The main first milestones are the Expedition and Refinement trees. Followed by T4 troops, Advanced Military for extra deployments and different buffs. Next they would focus on getting Fervor and Reduction bonuses. And lastly researchers will also go after wall and fortification researches unlike players who don’t want to increase their power too high so they could change servers easier and cheaper. However, the ultimate goal for researchers is to max everything out at 100%, including T5-s, so it’s a long and tedious road ahead of them.

• Trainers are people who like to build troops excessively. It’s advised to have 3m Royal troops when participating in events like Alliance Conquest and Siege of Winterfell so you could help your alliance the most you are able to. You need 15m troops to have a max defense when your castle is under attack. Any troops you train after that are reserved army or addition to battle rating. In such cases the game would first take your 15m highest rated troops starting from T5 and going down to T1. Trainers are not necessarily better fighters and that will be discussed more later on in another class.

2. Collector

Collectors are players who like to finish certain sets in-game and obtain collectibles. Lord Equipment Sets, Troop Appearances, Commanders and Awakening, Dragons and Dragon Skills, Album Photos, Refinement, Tavern, Castle and Marching Exteriors, Lord Titles, Avatar Frames, Message Frames etc. the list goes on and on, … The main goal for such people is to get their hands on such sets of collectibles and get all of them. Next comes taking them to a max level if there is such.

As just mentioned, there are many collectible sets in the game that players can focus on. These sets can add buffs and bonuses in different ways to players and that is the main reason players are working on them. In some cases, the reality is, the amount of buffs and bonuses you can get from these sets reduces as you spend more and more on them, for example - friendship and lord gear. While in other cases it’s more beneficial to focus on a current set or part of a set, to get all the bonuses it offers, for example - commanders and getting them to gold quality.

However, collectors are not necessarily working on a set because of the buffs and bonuses. Players might like commanders – just because they like them. Other players might like to focus on the lord's equipment as it’s what they can show off on their profile page. Some may want to be different in chat rooms and want more variety with their message and avatar frames. Or they could just want troop appearances and a nice looking dragon for their Army Profile page.

A rather recent addition to the game that helps a lot of collectors are some of the tabs in the Combat Ability Assessment tab. There collectors can see their progress on different types of collectibles and also get pack suggestions to help them progress faster.

3. Farmer

These players are the ones providing the resources their alliances need for wars and events as well as personal castle development. Players who usually hyper farm resources from their account and send out gatherers back to back to fill their alliance banks. Farmer as a main class player doesn’t have a certain endgame goal. But that doesn’t make them any less important. Farmers are a vital part of every alliance’s economy.

Farming resources can be done in two ways:

A) Hyper farmers: who use their outer city buildings to produce resources. These players create only one type of resource building (for example all Iron mines) except 1 that’s a Grain farm because that way they can produce more of the specific resource. They also work on the commanders and their awakening that will increase that production. Also setting up talents and using buffs in the Sept of the Seven can increase hyper farming speed. Lastly they can use Lord Gear and some castle exteriors to push that further. All those buffs grant a farmer huge bonuses when they have only the type of production building they’re buffing.

B) Gathering: Resource nodes spawn when another resource node is finished. Gatherers use their marches to take the gathering nodes one after another. Things that can help a gatherer are  the Dragon’s instant collection skill, Dragons gathering skills (either general ones or resource specific ones), Soren awakening, Sept of the Seven buff, Lord Gear and talents and sometimes a buff from KL.

During the early game, gatherers are some of the first people that manage to max out their Champion equipment set for the lord. Even later on, it will still be important for different game events. Gathering in an enemy kingdom is one of the ways to score points in a kingdom vs kingdom event too.

4. Residents

"Residents" is a class of players whose main motivation for playing the game is the game community and its social aspect. As an international game with a large player base, there are many interesting people who you can engage with and become friends with. Such games often offer a wide variety of characters, ambitions and ideals and that’s exactly the motivation some people need to keep on playing.

Residents of Westeros are the players who are most engaged with the community, are here to promote the game, are here to help other players and of course to chit chat with others. Chroniclers, Moderators, and all the active players on platforms like the game’s Official Discord, Forums or Facebook page are all parts of this main class.

Nearly every player in this game plays it because of their alliance, kingdom, and friends. The survivability of the game depends on the health of this community we build for it.

5. Strategists and Leaders

Strategists and leaders are the fifth “engine” that drive this game and the rest of the players. A leader’s goal is to see their group succeed as per definition. But we can also add in this case that a leader’s goal is to make sure everyone they’re leading is feeling comfortable and happy in the environment they’re in.

To lead a battle, event, alliance, or kingdom, one must know how the game works. Whether it’s game mechanics, optimal plays or even just knowing your opponent, having knowledge and experience in a game like this isn’t free. It will take a lot of time and effort for someone to master the skills of leading in a competitive game like this. One of the hardest things in the game is finding those experienced players. And what makes it even harder for them is to keep on going despite not being paid, and in some cases even not being appreciated enough for the job.

At the same time, some people love to lead and be strategists and play this game for that reason. Planning the battlefield and putting everyone in the correct position is like playing chess. To be able to lead players and direct them, leaders require certain social skills and talents as well. If a leader has those skills, they can figure out a similar minded team from their alliance to appoint to help them out with the hard task. Usually that’s how an alliance’s leadership is formed.

6. Champions

Champions are the class of players who mostly care about becoming the victor  of events and battles they aim for. "Game of Thrones Winter is Coming" offers a lot of game events such as Alliance conquest, Ultimate conquest, Siege of Winterfell, All-out War, Glorious Battle, Kingdoms vs Kingdoms, Champion city siege, Lord of Lords, Alliance Mobilization, Elite Trials and the list goes on and on…

Champions are players who pick their battles and focus on their tactics and strategies to win a higher place in events of the game. There are alliances in-game that are well known for their brilliant performances in events like Alliance conquest because of their unique strategies. There are players who are always in the top 3 of Lord of Lords just because their speed up economy is on a top level. There are players who save up their marching boot items so they could be faster in killing enemies in KvK for a higher score…

Ultimate Conquest, Champion City Siege, Glorious Battle and All-out War are the most intense battlegrounds for different alliances. In Ultimate Conquest, top alliances of the alliance conquest season will play each other in a double-elimination system to prove their power and coordination. In Champion City Siege, all alliances from the matched kingdom will enter a small area and fight each other to kill and conquer the ultimate throne. For Glorious Battle and All-out War (that are 2-4 week long events), a really big number of kingdoms face each other on a separate map to prove who deserves to be crowned a champion.

 7. Fighters

To fight is to play with adrenaline rushing in your veins. Fighters in this game can be classified into two subclasses that can overlap (one player can be in multiple groups):

a)    Rally leaders: When you’re running a rally, only your buffs and bonuses will apply in battle. To be a rally leader you need to have great stats and be trustworthy and experienced enough so your alliance mates can trust you with their troops. Rally leaders should work on their rally size in addition to buffs and bonuses as well. A rally leader with a low rally size will not be able to deal a lot of damage. Also a rally leader with a big rally size but below average stats won’t be able to deal a lot of damage. Rally leaders have to be a dedicated collector too, as they need to be as strong or stronger than their enemies. All sorts of the collectibles we discussed previously, would help out, mostly commanders and gear. Stronger rally leaders are the ones that take great cities and objectives during events like AC/UC and can hold them from the enemies.

b)    Rally Fillers: The power of an alliance in battles is mainly based on the number of participants they have. The more willing players are to risk their troops and the more available dragons to fill rallies and reinforcements, the more chance they have for winning the battle. There is a great honor to be a legendary warrior. There are a lot of great warriors in this game, who participate in every battle even if they’re free to play players. Rally fillers are the people who directly help out the Rally leaders. A Rally leader without a filler is nothing and a Rally filler without a leader is also nothing. Another proof that this game relies heavily on your teammates and their actions.

On the other hand, both rally leaders and rally fillers can be:

a)    Zero castle fighters: Rally leaders and rally fillers can decide to keep low enough troops that they can hide when they are attacked. This will help them to concentrate their firepower on enemies they can defeat and to dodge attacks from enemies that will defeat them. Being a zero castle fighter means you can’t be a Trainer (from the Builder class) as you need to keep your troop count low to be able to hide them. Zero castles have an easier time porting to new kingdoms which makes them a great choice for merit hunters. Here is a complete guide about how to play as a zero castle.

b)     Tanks: Tank is a term used for characters that will shield the damage from the enemy in different games. In this game, tanks are players who build their accounts in a way that is more suitable for standing against enemy rallies. They look quite “juicy” to enemies hence they get rallied more often. Tanks need to have maximum troops to be able to stand a chance against a high rally size rally leader. They will also need a good sustainable amount of frontline reinforcement from their allies that will help them in tanking the damage and will increase their buffs with dragon’s skills and stats. Tanks can’t play as a lone wolf and they need their allies no matter how strong they are. A Tank would also need better stats than average.

Fighters can play for different endgame goals but the main goal is to see war. For fighters, this game is created to be a battleground. “In the game of thrones you win or you die.” Some fighters are more focused on conquering as in the Champion class, some like to see their enemies bleed and lose troops even if it’s not during an event and some others play to show off their kill and merit points. Merit is a special point given to players who kill or lose T3, T4 and T5 troops when they are fighting players who unlocked Knight nobility rank or are higher (Knight 1 nobility rank unlocks when a player reaches 30m power for the first time). The term merit huntermeans a player or group of players/alliances that raid other kingdoms to kill their troops and gain more merit. To avoid getting raided by merit hunters or invaders when you’re offline, always bubble your account before leaving the game or have a protector who will do it for you.

What is the best class?

There is no best class. This is an open-world real-time strategy. Choose your playstyle and work toward it with no shame. As we said in the beginning, you’re not limited to 1 class only, you can have several classes within your playstyle.  Play the way you like and enjoy.

Why does it matter?

You need to know what you want to do in-game before playing the game in a non efficient way. After all, there are a lot of microtransactions and you would want to get the best out of your hard earned money and time. Players with the most troops aren’t the best fighters. Players who collect all commanders don’t have the best stats. On another hand, you need to find people who appreciate your play style and to join alliances that share the same goals you do.

I hope you all enjoyed my guide and that it will help you to decide your goal in the game.