Exciting changes are coming to Kingdom Maker’s endgame with the all-new Capitals & Guilds Update. A range of improvements will reward Alliance coordination, strategy, and territorial control like never before, with massive, shared buffs to make battling beneficial for the whole Alliance.

Here's what lies in store:

A Capital Idea!

A range of changes are coming to the capitals themselves that makes them very tempting targets. Previously, capturing a Capital benefitted only the player who occupied it. Now, controlling a Capital provides buffs to the controlling player and their entire Alliance. Conquering and defending Capitals is more important than ever, and holding high tier Capitals is a mark of power and prestige visible to the whole realm. Of course, once you’re on top of the heap, everyone will be sharpening their axes and eyeing your throne with envy.

The battle over Capital control promises to be quite the melee because ALL of Ardendale’s Capitals have been moved to the Capital region in the northern part of the map. The most powerful Alliances will find it most beneficial to vie for power over the highest tier Capitals the realm has to offer.

Types

There are two basic types of Capitals, in three tiers (from least to most powerful: tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4, but more on that later):

State Capitals - State Capitals occupy the central county of a State. These State Capitals offer stronger buffs for both the player who occupies them and their Alliance than other Capitals of the same tier do.

County Capitals – These are the Capitals of the counties that surround the State Capital. Just as with State Capitals, they offer buffs to occupying players and their Alliance mates, though they are weaker than State Capitals of the same tier.

Most of the buffs provided by Capitals don’t stack for an Alliance that holds several of them. An Alliance only directly benefits from the highest tier, strongest Capital they control.

Capitals provide bonuses to all kinds of traits:

•  Capital Buffs
• Unit Health
• Unit Damage
• Healing Speed
• Morale Increase

Alliance Buffs (Remember, these do not stack with other Capitals–though they will stack with similar buffs from other sources! Only your highest Capital provides these Alliance-wide buffs)

• Unit Health
• Unit Damage
• Healing Speed
• Reinforcement Speed
• Unit Speed
• Mining Rate

There’s one other set of buffs that these Capitals provide that is the exception to this stacking rule:

Capitals of a lower tier, provide a stacking buff that applies to attacking Capitals of a higher tier.

• Controlling the county Capitals that surround a State Capital grants stacking damage buffs to attack that State Capital
• Controlling State Capitals grants a stacking buff to attack the next higher tier of County Capitals.

By controlling lower-tier Capitals, you can set your Alliance up to ascend the ranks and capture ever more powerful Capitals. If you become strong enough, you’ll eventually control the tier 4 World Capital, earning its massive bonuses for your whole Alliance!

The Capitals have been arranged according to tiers, with many more lower-tier Capitals than high tier Capitals.

Tiers

29 Tier 2 Capitals - Level 20

• 3 State Capitals
• 26 County Capitals
• 87 Guilds (Guilds in this tier are level 15)

10 Tier 3 Capitals - Level 30

• 2 State Capitals
• 8 County Capitals
• 30 Guilds (Guilds in this tier are level 25)

4 Tier 4 Capitals - Level 40

• 1 State Capital, the World Capital
• 3 County Capitals
• 12 Guilds (Guilds in this tier are level 35)

Locking Up Capitals

Capitals will now “lock” and “unlock” on a predefined schedule. The aim here is to provide intense periods of warfare when Alliances vie to capture and control Capitals and Guilds, followed by a cool down where everyone can relax and enjoy the spoils of war. . . At least until the time for battle arrives again!

Simply put, when a Capital is “locked” it cannot be conquered by enemy players. A Capital can only be defeated and conquered when it’s “unlocked”, and the triumphant player and their Alliance will need to retain control of it until it becomes locked again. Capitals will lock and unlock on a schedule every week.

Whether a Capital is locked or unlocked will be displayed in a new UI element that floats above it. This UI will indicate how long a Capital will remain in a locked or unlocked state. There will also be a special visual effect surrounding a Capital that indicates whether it’s in an unlocked state.

When the Capitals & Guilds Update first launches, some Capitals may be locked. If so, they’ll unlock on a schedule shortly thereafter.

Get Those Guilds

Guilds are new locations that have been added to each county that contains a Capital. Guilds come in three types:

Merchants Guilds - Improve Trade Payout and Trade Speed at all trading posts within that county.

Miners Guilds - Improves Mining Rate and Mining Capacity on all mining nodes within that county.

Explorers Guilds - Improves Dungeon Payout and Dungeon Speed for all dungeons within that county.

Anyone who is part of the Alliance that controls a Guild (or Guilds) in a county can benefit from the buffs they provide, and all the buffs that are gained from controlling various Capitals & Guilds will be easily visible in a new UI:

There will be one Guild of each type in a county, but they’re not just valuable for the economic boons they provide. Guilds also fulfill a crucial role in warfare as well!

Guild Fortifications

Controlling the Guilds in a county will help an Alliance defend (or conquer!) the Capital in the same county by offering combat buffs that only apply when fighting on that county’s Capital to everyone who’s part of an Alliance with those who control the Guild. Controlling Guilds will offer different advantages depending on whether the controlling Alliance’s troops are attacking or defending:

 Attacker:

33% Troop Damage per Guild (Up to 100% Maximum)

33% Troop Health per Guild (Up to 100% Maximum)

Defender:

33% City Defense per Guild (Up to 100% Maximum)

33% Troop Health per Guild (Up to 100% Maximum)

Note that these combat bonuses are only active during combat on the Capital City. Since there are only three Guilds per Capital, this means up to three different alliances can have Guild bonuses for that Capital. The more Guilds in a county an Alliance controls, the more powerful their armies will be while fighting for the Capital.

It’s important to know who controls which Guilds in a county before tangling on the Capital, so the ownership status of Guilds has been added to the Capital City UI to help Alliances track the status of bonuses against that Capital City.

The left side is for the Alliance that controls the county Capital. The number of shields displays how many Guild buffs will apply to their troops in that Capital. 

The right side displays attack bonuses for Alliances that do not control the Capital. 

Each green banner indicates a Guild in that county your Alliance controls. It will apply attack buffs to your Army in the county Capital. 

A gray sword banner indicates that a different Alliance owns a Guild, but does not have ownership of the Capital. 

A gray gate banner indicates that a Guild is unoccupied by a player. 

War, War Never Ch- Oh Wait

There have been some key changes to how conquering works in the Capitals & Guilds update. Conquering has been updated to allow any Alliance member the ability to conquer a defeated Capital or Guild. This ensures that after victory is achieved, the Alliance can securely claim ownership of the objective. Morale penalties have also been updated to emphasize the tier level of a Capital or Guild over the Keep Level of the player that controls it. This means that players who are lower level than the Capital will use the Capital’s level for calculating morale penalties. For example, if a Keep Level 20 player has conquered and occupied a tier 3, Level 30 Capital, they will be treated as if they were a Keep Level 30 player for Morale penalties. That also means a Keep Level 32 player could attack a level 30 tier 3 Capital for no penalty.

Naturally, if a high Keep Level player controls a lower tier Capital or Guild, then the Morale penalty will be calculated using the greater of the two values. Overall, the goal is to prevent Alliances from unscrupulously trying to place low Keep Level players onto Capitals or Guilds to force Morale penalties on enemy Alliances.

Don’t forget that with today’s update, the Plague spell is now known as Pestilence. Its duration is now one hour regardless of the level it was cast at, but the cooldown to cast it again is reduced when it’s cast at higher levels. Pestilence reduces the combat effectiveness by 50% of any garrisoned troops and Armies lead by Nobles with the Pestilence trait. Pestilence is a powerful tactical tool, but won’t totally shut down your foes, so plan accordingly.

Join the Battle Now

Information is power, and now you know everything you need to know to march forth and add Capitals and Guilds to your Alliance’s conquests. Mighty rewards await, so assemble your armies and be ready to join your Alliance on the battlefield!