The Guides ◆ Kingshot ◆ Research
Research & Academy Guide
The Academy is a slow, permanent power multiplier. Neglect it and you'll plateau. Work it consistently and you'll outscale players with more raw power.
How the Academy Works
The Academy has three research trees: Growth, Economy, and Battle. Each tree has dozens of nodes that permanently boost specific stats — troop attack, construction speed, resource production, march capacity, and more. Research never resets and every node compounds on top of the last.
Only one research can run at a time (two if you've upgraded the Academy to unlock the second queue). Each node has a time cost ranging from minutes to days. Never leave the Academy idle. Even a 5-minute research is better than nothing queued up.
Speed-up items are the most important consumables in the game — the vast majority should go into the research queue, not construction.
Tree Priority by Stage
Early Game (TC 1–15): Growth First
The Growth tree unlocks higher troop tiers, increases your march capacity, and improves construction and research speed — all things that make every other system faster. It is the correct starting priority for almost every player.
Within Growth, target nodes that directly reduce research time and unlock your next troop tier unlock path. The compounding benefit of faster research means an early investment in speed pays back more than it costs.
Mid Game (TC 15–25): Economy Alongside Growth
Once your Growth tree is partially developed, interleave Economy nodes — particularly resource production, hospital capacity, and gathering bonuses. Resources are the bottleneck at this stage and Economy research directly addresses it.
Hospital capacity from Economy is underrated. Players who ignore it lose their armies permanently in large battles because their hospitals are too small to hold casualties — resulting in troop deaths rather than wounded.
Late Game (TC 25+): Battle Tree
The Battle tree is where your combat stats live — Infantry/Cavalry/Archer attack and defense multipliers, rally capacity increases, and march speed. It's expensive and slow, but late-game PvP outcomes are substantially determined by how far into the Battle tree each player has pushed. Make it your primary queue once your Growth and Economy foundations are solid.
High-Priority Research Nodes
| Node | Tree | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Research Speed | Growth | Compounds on every future research — highest long-term ROI in the tree |
| Troop Tier Unlock | Growth | Required path to T10 and eventually T11; major power jumps |
| March Capacity | Growth | More troops per march = more damage per rally; scales directly with power |
| Hospital Capacity | Economy | Prevents troop death in large battles; critical before any PvP involvement |
| Resource Production | Economy | Passive income that runs 24/7; early nodes have excellent cost-to-return |
| Gathering Bonus | Economy | Multiplies your farm march output; essential for F2P players |
| Infantry / Cavalry / Archer Attack | Battle | Direct combat multipliers; prioritize the tree matching your strongest hero |
| Rally Capacity | Battle | Increases how many players can join your rally — crucial for alliance warfare |
Accelerating Your Research
- Alliance Help: Request help every time you start a research. Each alliance member who taps Help reduces your timer. In an active alliance with 50 members this can cut hours off long researches.
- VIP Level: Higher VIP levels reduce research time by a flat percentage. VIP 6–8 is where the research bonus becomes meaningful.
- Research Events: Some weekly and monthly events give bonus points for completing research nodes. Time your long researches to finish during these windows to maximize event scoring.
- Second Queue: Unlock the Academy's second research queue as early as possible — it doubles your throughput permanently.
- Don't burn speed-ups on construction: Construction speed-ups are faster and more abundant than research speed-ups. Reserve research speed-ups exclusively for the Academy.