Complete F2P and Low Spender Guide for Kingshot

If you’re a low spender or completely F2P (free-to-play) in Kingshot, there are a few important things you should know to do well and be a valuable member of your alliance.

The priorities for F2P players are quite different from those of mid or big spenders, so it’s important to focus on what actually helps you progress.

This is a quick checklist of what you should keep in mind; we’ll go over each point in detail later:

• Join rallies instead of leading them. Since your stats won’t be strong enough to lead rallies or garrisons, your goal should be to become a good rally joiner.
• Unlock higher-level troops. Focus on upgrading your Town Center to level 30 as soon as possible so you can train T10 troops. Sending stronger troops helps rally or garrison leaders deal more damage.
• Decide how to spend your gems. Choose whether to save gems for VIP levels or use them in Hero Roulette to build a strong hero lineup for PvP events like Swordland Showdown, Tri Alliance Clash, or Alliance Championship.
• Research smartly. Focus on the right research paths in the Academy so you don’t waste time on things that don’t really matter.
• Upgrade efficiently. Know which buildings to prioritize so you don’t waste resources and time on less important upgrades.

Being a rally joiner

If you’re an F2P or low spender, it’s usually not a good idea to lead rallies or garrisons because your stats won’t be strong enough to make a big impact. Instead, focus on being a good rally joiner; it’s an important role and helps your alliance a lot more than you might think.

The first thing you should do is learn how rallies work and how joiners actually contribute. I’ve explained this in detail in my “Advanced Rally Guide” and “Joiner Hero Mechanics” articles. Reading those will help you understand which heroes to focus on as a joiner and how to stack them properly to give the biggest boost to the rally or garrison leaders.

Some must-have heroes for joiners are Chenko, Amane, Gordon, and Yeonwoo. These heroes are used in many expedition battles because they have strong first expedition skills — and remember, joiners only contribute the first expedition skill of the hero placed in their first slot.

So if you want to be a great joiner, focus on getting these heroes to 4 stars and leveling up their first expedition skill to level 5 as soon as possible.

Unlock Higher-Level Troops

Troops play a big role in your overall damage, and their higher base stats can easily turn a battle in your favor. That’s why, as a joiner, unlocking T10 troops should be one of your main goals.

These troops have the best base stats, and since joiners contribute both their troops and their first hero’s expedition skill to rallies, sending stronger troops directly helps your rally leader deal more damage.

To unlock T10 troops, you’ll need to rush your Town Center to level 30, since that’s where they become available. Focus on upgrading your Town Center and all the required buildings needed for it.

If you’re a low spender (not a full F2P), it’s worth getting the second construction queue; it makes the whole process much faster since you can upgrade two buildings at once.

As long as you keep gathering resources and keep both queues busy, reaching TC30 won’t take too long.

Make a Choice Between VIP Level or Hero Lineup

If you’re playing as F2P or a low spender, you’ll need to choose a clear path — either spend your gems on upgrading your VIP level or building your hero lineup through the Hero Roulette. You won’t have enough gems to do both at the same time, so picking one is important.

Going for VIP levels gives you good long-term benefits like an extra march queue, faster construction speed, and free General Mythic Shards every day once you reach higher levels (especially VIP 9).

But, this route won’t help much in alliance-based events like Swordland Showdown, Alliance Championship, or Tri Alliance Clash, since you’ll lack strong heroes.

On the other hand, if you focus on building a hero lineup through the Roulette, you’ll be much more useful to your alliance during those events; but you’ll miss out on VIP perks, and leveling up your VIP will take a long time since your only sources of VIP XP will be the alliance store and the daily free claim.

We discussed this a lot in our Discord server, and most players agreed that building a hero lineup is the better choice early on.

Another good option is to skip the Hero Roulette until Gen 3 (when Petra appears). During this time, spend your gems on raising your VIP level to level 8 or 9 so you can start getting free General Mythic Shards daily.

Once Petra appears in the Roulette, start saving gems for her; she’s a must-pull hero since she’s the first Cavalry hero with an attack widget and has very solid skills.

In short, it all comes down to your playstyle so decide whether you want to focus on building up your VIP or creating a strong hero lineup first.

Prioritize the Right Research Options in the Academy

You need to know which research topics to focus on in the Academy based on your playstyle. For F2P players, it’s recommended to focus only on the most useful ones and ignore the rest. This is what you should prioritize:

Growth Section

• Command Tactics
• Trainer Tools
• Construction Speed
• Research Speed

Economy Section

• Only focus on Gathering researches. Skip the ones that increase resource production from buildings — they’re not worth the time.

Battle Section

• Regimental Expansion

The list is short, but these are the most useful researches for F2Ps. Since your main role is joining rallies, your top priorities should be Command Tactics (for unlocking extra march queues) and Trainer Tools (to speed up troop training).

Construction Speed and Research Speed are also very helpful because F2Ps don’t spend money on speedups.

In the Economy section, stick to gathering research; the extra resources from buildings are minimal, so those upgrades are basically a waste.

In the Battle section, the only must-have research for now is Regimental Expansion, which increases the number of troops you can send when joining rallies.

Once you’ve maxed out these key researches for your current Town Center level, you can move on to other battle researches in this order of priority:
Infantry Health > Archer Lethality > Cavalry Lethality > Infantry Defense > Cavalry Defense > Archer Defense.

Also, it’s generally better to focus on research that boosts all troop types instead of specific ones. The ones that boost stats of all squads are:

• Survival Techniques
• Assault Techniques
• Weapons Prep
• Special Defensive Training.

Building Priorities

As a rally joiner, you should know which buildings to prioritize and which ones to ignore. For F2P players, the most important buildings are:

Prioritize:

• Training Camps
• Command Center
• Academy

Ignore:

• Resource buildings (Sawmill, Mill, Quarry, Iron Mine)
• Most other buildings not related to troop training or upgrades

As a joiner, your best strategy is to rush your Town Center. Once you reach Town Center level 30, you’ll start getting Truegold from Intel Missions and since Truegold becomes a major bottleneck later on, the sooner you start collecting it, the better.

Town Center 30 also unlocks T10 troops, which is another big reason rushing is worth it for F2Ps and low spenders. Your main goal should be to keep your construction queue busy, always upgrading your Town Center, its required buildings, and your Training Camps.

Spending $3 for the permanent construction queue is one of the best investments you can make. But if not, don’t waste your gems on the temporary queue, since you’ll need those gems for your hero lineup or VIP level later.

Just like with research, it’s best to ignore resource building upgrades; they take too much time and don’t give a good return. However, Clinic, Kitchen, and Houses are worth upgrading. They cap at level 10, don’t take long to finish, help keep your residents happy, and even provide free gold, which you’ll need for Academy research.

Some other tips

These are a few extra tips that can help you improve as a rally joiner:

• Learn the batch troop healing trick. It’s really useful during Castle Battles because it lets you heal your troops faster and get back into the fight quickly.
• Focus on just three gear sets — one for Infantry, one for Archers, and one for Cavalry. Equip them on your three main heroes. I’ve explained this in detail in my “Smart Way to Upgrade Hero Gear” article.
• Always use the Double Time Decree and the Gray Wolf skill before starting any upgrade; it’ll help speed up the process.
• Keep your troops busy gathering. Whenever you’re about to log out, send all your marches out to gather except one. Keep that last march free for rally auto-joins. This way, you’ll always have a steady flow of resources and won’t run into shortages.
• Take advantage of Desert Trial and Champions Way events. These are great sources of gems for F2P players. Try to do at least 10 rallies during these events to claim the main rewards, then keep hunting beasts to get Pouches and Clawshards.
• Participate in every event. Make sure you have enough materials to reach the gem milestone rewards in each one — then save your extra items (like speedups, forge hammers, governor gear/charm materials, and hero shards) for the next events.
• Use the last-minute arena strategy. To rank higher easily, do all your arena battles in the final minute before reset. Start a battle, hit pause, and retreat — it counts as an instant finish. Because most players aren’t attacking at that time, you’ll often end up with a higher ranking and better rewards.