Playing Advice, Gift Codes & FAQ

🎁 Gift Codes — Updated Regularly

Century Games drops gift codes to celebrate milestones, holidays, and live events. Codes are time-limited — grab them while they're hot. We check for new codes every day and update this list automatically.

We scour the realm daily — scraping announcements, patch notes, and community posts so you don't have to. Bookmark this page and check back whenever a new event drops. Fresh codes appear here as soon as we find them.

Progression & Buildings

Why can't I upgrade my buildings past a certain level?

Your Town Center level is a hard cap on every other building. Nothing in your city can be upgraded beyond your current Town Center level. When you hit a wall, the answer is almost always: upgrade the Town Center first.

Should I rush Town Center or develop other buildings first?

Rush Town Center. It unlocks new buildings, higher troop tiers, and removes the cap on everything else. Develop other buildings alongside it, but never let Town Center upgrades sit idle while you tinker with lower-priority structures.

Is it worth doing the Chapter missions?

Yes — follow the main questline aggressively in the early game. Chapter missions unlock game features and award speed-ups that directly accelerate your Town Center progression. Don't skip them trying to play "optimally" — they are the optimal path early on.

Resources & Economy

How do I get enough resources without spending money?

Three levers: Economy research (gathering speed multipliers), heroes with gathering/expedition skills, and keeping all march slots gathering at all times. Unlocking Level 5 resource nodes is a major jump — they yield dramatically more than lower-level nodes. See the End Game guide for farm account setup.

What is Gold used for and why is it so hard to get?

Gold can't be gathered from map nodes like Food, Wood, and Stone. It comes from events, daily missions, PvP battles, and ranked arena rewards. Budget it carefully — wasteful Gold spending early game is one of the most common reasons players stall out at Town Center 20+.

My resources keep getting raided. What do I do?

Upgrade your Storehouse — it determines how much of each resource is protected from raids. Resources above the Storehouse cap are fair game. Use resources as fast as you gather them rather than stockpiling, and shield up when you're accumulating large amounts before a big upgrade. Being inside active alliance territory also significantly reduces raid frequency.

Heroes

How do I get more hero shards?

Intel Missions, Hero Hall, Conquest rewards, VIP Shop, and events — particularly Hero Roulette during the Hall of Governors cycle. The Roulette milestone system rewards 120 spins with a significant shard payout; if you're spending gems on heroes, aim for 120 spins in a single Roulette event rather than spreading them across multiple partial runs.

Should I invest in multiple heroes or focus on one?

Focus hard. You need one Infantry, one Cavalry, and one Archer hero — pick your target for each role and funnel all shards into those three. Six half-starred heroes consistently lose to three fully-starred ones. Spreading shards is the most expensive mistake in the game.

What is the joiner mechanic and why does everyone talk about it?

Some heroes are designed as "joiners" — their skills stack multiplicatively when multiple copies are present in the same rally. Two copies of a strong joiner can outperform a single copy of a higher-tier rally lead. This is why you'll sometimes see alliance members stockpiling duplicate heroes rather than diversifying. See the Heroes guide for the full breakdown.

Combat & Troops

My troops keep dying in Bear Hunt. What am I doing wrong?

Bear Hunt deals massive frontal damage that bypasses light infantry setups. Run the 80% Infantry / 20% Archer formation specifically for this event — your standard 50/20/30 PvP formation will hemorrhage troops. Also check your hospital capacity: if your hospitals are full when your march returns, wounded troops die instead of recovering. Heal between marches.

What does "getting zeroed" mean?

When an attacker kills enough of your troops to exceed your hospital's total capacity, the overflow troops die permanently rather than being wounded and recoverable. A zeroed account loses all excess troops with no way to get them back without retaining. Shield before sleeping during KvK and any period when you're a likely target.

Why do I keep losing to players with lower power than me?

Power is a rough total stat number — it doesn't reflect troop tier, hero star level, formation, gear, or research depth. A TC30 player with T10 troops, Gen 5 heroes, and proper formation will beat a TC30 player with T8 troops and spread hero investment regardless of the power number. Focus on the substats that matter: troop tier, hero stars, and Battle tree research.

Game Mechanics

What are speed-up items and where do I use them?

Speed-ups are time reduction items that instantly complete minutes or hours of queued construction or research. The rule: research speed-ups go into the Academy, construction speed-ups go into building queues. Don't use general speed-ups randomly — save them for active event windows where completing an action earns event points on top of the normal benefit.

What is the Island / Oasis Island?

The Oasis Island unlocks around Town Center Level 19. You collect Water Essence to construct buildings on the island, increasing its Prosperity rating which provides passive bonuses. Prioritize efficiency over aesthetics early — each decoration type has a count limit beyond which additional copies provide no bonus, so don't over-place.

What are VIP levels and are they worth paying for?

VIP levels unlock passive bonuses — construction speed reductions, research speed, extra daily resource chests, and Alliance Help increases. VIP 6–8 is where the research bonus becomes meaningful. VIP points accumulate from daily login rewards and purchases. If you're spending any money in the game, ensuring your VIP levels stay current is one of the better ROI decisions.

How do Alliance Help timers work exactly?

Every alliance member who taps Help on your construction or research request reduces your timer by a fixed amount (modified by VIP and research bonuses). There's a daily cap on how many Help taps each member can receive. In an active 50-member alliance, a single Help request on a 48-hour research can easily knock 10–15 hours off the timer. Always request Help, always give Help.

Alliance & Social

Can I play this game solo without an alliance?

Technically yes. Practically, you'll hit a ceiling by mid-game where alliances with proper coordination will outpace and out-raid you regardless of spend level. Kingshot is a multiplayer game masquerading as a mobile city-builder — your alliance is the most important "upgrade" you can make.

My alliance is dead / inactive. What should I do?

Leave and find an active one. The sunk-cost of loyalty to an inactive alliance costs you help timer reductions, rally access, event participation, and protection every single day. Check the alliance chat activity and member login dates before joining any new alliance.

What's the best way to communicate with my alliance?

Most serious alliances communicate primarily through the official Kingshot Discord or their own private Discord server rather than exclusively through in-game chat. If your alliance has a Discord, join it — real-time coordination during KvK and Bear Hunt is not possible through the game's notification system alone.

Where does Century Games announce new gift codes?

Officially through the Kingshot Discord (517K+ members), social media, milestone celebrations, and in-game mailbox messages during major events. We monitor all of these sources daily — the gift codes table at the top of this page is updated automatically whenever we find something new, so you don't have to chase them down yourself.