There are so many different buildings in Rise of Castles, and more are being added with each major version of the game, and each building has its own purpose. While some buildings are optional, there are a few that are essential to upgrade first to become stronger as fast as possible.
This article will list the most important buildings to upgrade first in Rise of Castles: Ice and Fire, so you can speed up your gaming progress and avoid wasting resources.
15. The Castle
Obviously, the first thing you might think of is to upgrade your castle as soon as you have the resources to do so. The temptation is now even greater when we can upgrade the castle up to level 30, and you should start collecting Orichalcum from every possible source as you will need a lot of it after level 25. Of course, by upgrading your castle, you will unlock new buildings and technologies that will help you progress in the game.
But many players make the mistake of spending all their resources on upgrading their castle as quickly as possible, without taking into account the other important aspects of the game such as upgrading their troops and the other important buildings I will mention below.
Having a castle level 25 with t6 troops or lower is not going to do you any good if you get raided by a player with t8 troops.
So while it is important to upgrade your castle, you should also try to improve your troops as much as possible and push other buildings to match the current level of your Castle.
14. The Institute
The institute building is one of the most important buildings in the game. It is responsible for researching new technologies that will benefit your city in many ways. Each technology that you research will provide your city with a boost in one or more areas such as resource production, troop training speed, march size, and more.
At the beginning of your town’s development, you should first research the most crucial techs, to speed up the construction of your military buildings, increase the resource gathering speed and amount, and the rewards you’ll be getting from events.
The institute also goes hand in hand with the Military University, which will allow you to enhance or upgrade your existing troops to the next tier, making them stronger and more resilient on the battlefield.
13. The Exclusive Class Building
Each class in Rise of Castles, except Craftsman (Architect), has its own Exclusive Class Building, a special building that is only available for that class. These buildings provide powerful bonuses, and the higher the level of the building the higher the percentage of the bonus.
While the Craftsman class has no Exclusive Building, it does bring a crafting boost to your building process by saving you time and resources. Let’s take a look at what each of the Exclusive class buildings does:
| Class | Exclusive Building | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer | Farmer’s Guild | You can use its Bountiful Harvest perk to get a significant amount of resources instantly, every 12 hours |
| Raider | Raider’s Hall | Provides powerful buffs for your Class Legion such as Class Formation Resistance and Class Formation Might |
| Trader | Market | Allows you to buy extra resources for lower prices |
| Craftsman | None | No benefits |
I must say that the Farmer’s Guild is probably the best Exclusive class because it brings a lot of extra benefits besides the Bountiful Harvest perk that you can use to instantly collect a resources bonus.
These extra bonuses include resource production, gathering speed, and troop load, which means that the more you upgrade this building, the faster and more resources you’ll get from gathering.
12. Resource Production Buildings
The first thing you will need to do when starting your city is to build some resource production buildings. These are the buildings that create the raw materials needed to construct all the other buildings and train troops.
In the early game, you should focus on building Farms, Lumber Yards, Quarries, Charcoal Factories, Iron Mines, and Distilleries, and upgrade them as high as possible.
The most important one and the most difficult to get is Iron, produced by Iron Mines. The easiest to get is Food. You will have a lot of by the time you reach level 25 with your castle, so I would suggest not wasting too many resources in trying to maximize all your Farms.
Ale, produced by the Distillery is kind of useless. The only good use case, besides refilling the Tavern, is trading it for gold or other resources in the Trading House building.
11. Resource Storages
Once you have started producing more resources than you are using, the next step is to start building storage buildings to hold the excess. They are also required by other important buildings and also before upgrading your Castle at certain levels.
The maximum level that a Storage building can be upgraded is 10, but they are split into multiple parts. For example, once your first Iron Storage reaches level 10, you can build Iron Storage II, which will also have 10 levels.
As an example, by completing quests and receiving resources from events, these resources will be stored in your bag in the form of resource items, but you will need to use them whenever you don’t have enough resources in your Storage.
If the amount of resources from these resource items exceeds the limit of your Storage, you will need to upgrade your Storage before consuming these resource items. So it is important to upgrade these buildings as soon as possible.
10. The Bar
The Bar is used to recruit new Rise of Castles heroes by spending Recruitment Tickets. The more tickets you have and spend in pairs of 10, the higher the chances to get more or better quality heroes.
The Bar building can also be used to exchange your Hero Tokens in the Token Shop, for useful items such as Wisdom Medals or Courage Medals, and by purchasing Heroes Fragments. Once you have collected 200 fragments of a certain Hero, you can summon that Hero.
By upgrading the Bar building, the heroes from your Class Legion will get more experience after defeating Marauders (the giants you see all over your map). Therefore, the more experience your heroes receive, the faster they will level up and get stronger.
9. The Encampments
The Encampment increases your troop’s training amount and speed, as well as your march size. The more Encampents you have and maxed out, the better.
For instance, once your Castle is level 25, you can place up to 9 Encampments, and each Encampment building adds 245 troops to your max allowed troop training, and +16% training speed. The faster you can train your troops, the better, as this will allow you to have a constant flow of fresh troops, ready to be sent into battle.
8. Class Training Grounds
The training grounds are where you manage and equip your legions with the gear crafted by the Blacksmith building.
The Class Training is where you manage your main legion, and is the first Training Ground building that will be unlocked when you first start the game. It is also where you can refill your legion’s stamina (see the repair option in the above image).
Additionally, you can place three more Training Grounds buildings the more you level up your castle. This means you can have up to 4 legions unlocked in total, each legion being formed by 3 heroes and their chosen type of units, cavalry, archers, and footmen.
7. The Stable
The Stable building can be used for training Cavalry units. Upgrading the building will increase the building’s power, the number of received troops after each training, as well as unlocking new cavalry tiers. As a beginner, cavalry units are your best option for you because they have the fastest marching speed and the biggest carrying capacity.
6. The Cavalry War Room
By upgrading the Cavalry War Room you increase your cavalry units’ Resistance and Might stats. A Cavalry War Room level 25 will increase your cavalry troops’ Resistance and Might stats by 30%. This building should not be ignored if your legions mainly consist of cavalry units.
5. The Blacksmith
The blacksmith building is where you can craft equipment for your legions. Upgrading this building it will increase the material production speed, and unlock new equipment sets and additional Material crafting slots. There are 9 Material crafting slots available and to unlock the 9th slot, you need to either upgrade the building up to level 25 or research Furnace Expansion in the Institute.
4. The Town Hall
Town Hall building is where you can activate your stationing heroes and benefit from their development skills. Some skills are passive, which means they will continuously buff your City, while other skills are active and need to be manually triggered. For instance, the Sir Roguelin hero, who excels at leading cavalry units, has 7 skills that could significantly improve your cavalry units.
3. The Arena
The Arena building can be used to exchange your Hero Medals for Wisdom Medals. Wisdom medals are one of the most essential consumable items in Rise of Castles because they can be used to upgrade your heroes’ skills.
Each hero has 8 skills and each skill can be upgraded up to level 10. Upgrading the building will increase your daily exchange limit and the exchange commission cost. For example, a level 1 Arena has a -2% gold discount, while a level 25 Arena building has a -26% gold discount.
2. Medical Tents
The Medical Tent building is used for healing your wounded units from combats. Multiple medical tents can be placed and depending on each building’s level, a certain number of wounded units can be sent for healing. For instance, a Medical Tent level 1 can host up to 2,000 wounded units, while a level 25 Medical Tent can host up to 26,000 units.
Upgrading the Medical Tent building and researching its corresponding tech, will increase the Medical Tent capacity, which is crucial in constantly growing your army. Once the Medical Tents are full, newly injured units die instantly, which means you will constantly lose troops if you don’t have a high-capacity Medical Tent.
1. The Fortress
The Fortress is a vital building because the defense level of your city depends on it. Here you can garrison your troops to join the defensive combats ( while your city is under attack ), and also restore the durability of your city while in a burning state.
Upgrading the building requires Defensive Components, special items that can be purchased from the gift store with gems, and by doing so will increase the building’s power, siege defense might, and resistance, as well as the fortification ( the durability of your city while under siege ). Your legions will also receive a defense buff while the building is being upgraded.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Hero Tokens used for in Rise of Castles?
The Hero Tokens are used for purchasing Hero Fragments, Wisdom Medals, or Courage Medals. Once you have 200 fragments of the same hero, you can summon that hero.
How do I get hero tokens in Rise of Castles?
You can get hero tokens in Rise of Castles by opening the third chest in Hourly Challenge, and chests 3, 6, and 9 in Clash of Province event. The higher the level of your Castle, the more tokens you'll get. You should also try to research as much as possible the Zone Commemoration to double the number of tokens you get.
What happens if I already have the Hero and 200 fragments of the same hero?
If you already have the Hero and 200 fragments of the same hero, you will receive a Hero Medal of the same hero instead.
What happens if my Medical Tents are full?
Once the Medical Tents are full, newly injured units die instantly.
How can I repair my Castle once it is in a burning state?
If your Castle is in a burning state after being attacked by someone else, you can restore its durability by spending Gems. To do that tap the Fortress building and after that the Defense icon. At the bottom of the screen, you will see the number of gems required to repair the Castle.
How far can I upgrade a Resource Storage?
Each Resource Storage can be upgraded up to level 10.
