Buildings — What to Upgrade and When
Updated 7 Aug 2026 · 5 min readThe building menu can feel overwhelming at first. Lots of structures, lots of upgrade requirements, never quite enough resources or speed-ups for everything. The good news is the priority order is actually pretty simple once you know what unlocks what.
Below is what each building does, followed by how your priorities should shift as your HQ level climbs — because "upgrade everything" isn't a real strategy, it's just a way to run out of resources.
Headquarters (HQ)
The gatekeeper. Your HQ level determines what everything else can be upgraded to. This is why you always upgrade HQ first — not because someone told you to, but because you literally cannot upgrade other buildings past your HQ level.
Laboratory
Controls your research speed and what nodes are available. Keep it close to your HQ level. Falling behind on lab means falling behind on research, which compounds badly over time.
Military Center
Controls your troop march size and training capacity. If you're in an active fighting alliance, this one matters more than most other buildings.
City Walls
Affects how hard your base is to attack. More important the stronger your server gets. In early game it's less critical but don't neglect it entirely.
Farmhouse
Your main food producer. Upgrade when you can but it doesn't need to race ahead of your HQ. Just keep it reasonable.
Lumberyard
Produces wood — the resource you'll always be short on. Worth keeping upgraded since wood is the bottleneck for almost everything.
Arena
Used for specific in-game events and hero progression features.
Bar
Boosts hero recruitment and provides special buffs for your base operations.
Black Market
Exchange resources and items. Check daily for deals on hard-to-get materials.
Bookstore
Provides research boosts and technology knowledge items used in the Laboratory.
Dawn Tower
A defensive structure that provides protection bonuses to your base.
Never let your HQ timer run out. It sounds simple. Players still do it constantly. Set a phone reminder if you have to. An idle HQ is the most expensive mistake in the game.
Priorities by HQ Stage
Early Game (HQ 1–10)
HQ first, every time, no exceptions — a beginner speed-up spent on any other building is a beginner speed-up wasted. Keep Lumberyard and Farmhouse at a basic level so gathering has something to top up, and don't bother much with City Walls yet since threats are lower this early.
Mid Game (HQ 10–30ish)
HQ is still the priority, but now the Laboratory needs to stay close behind it — falling behind on lab level starts blocking research nodes you actually want. Military Center becomes worth investing in if your alliance is active in fighting events, since march size caps how many troops you commit per rally. City Walls also starts mattering more as raiding gets more common around this stage.
Late Game (HQ 31+)
HQ upgrades slow down and cost far more, so plan speed-up spend carefully rather than firing them off reactively. This is also when supporting buildings like Bar, Bookstore and Black Market pay off more since your base has the resource surplus to actually use their outputs. The cost curve jumps twice in a way you can feel: at HQ 28 costs go up roughly 50–60% over the previous level, and at HQ 31 roughly 110–115%. Both figures are approximate, but plan your stockpile around them.
Common Mistakes
- Upgrading random buildings instead of HQ. Every other building is capped by HQ level, so this is almost always a wasted move. Fix: check HQ first, always.
- Letting the HQ timer sit idle. The most expensive mistake in the game because that time never comes back. Fix: set a reminder, start the next upgrade the moment the current one finishes.
- Max-leveling resource buildings way past what's useful. Passive production loses hard to active gathering. Fix: keep Lumberyard/Farmhouse reasonable, gather actively instead.
- Ignoring the Laboratory while racing HQ. Falling behind on lab restricts research access and compounds badly. Fix: keep lab within a few levels of HQ.
- Neglecting City Walls entirely. Fine super early, risky once raiding picks up mid-game. Fix: start investing once you notice more incoming scouts/attacks on your server.
- Forgetting supporting buildings like Black Market and Bar exist. Missed daily deals and recruitment bonuses add up over time. Fix: check them as part of your daily login routine.
Building Priority Table
| Building | Priority | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Highest — always | Caps every other building's max level |
| Laboratory | High | Gates research nodes; compounds over time |
| Military Center | High if active in fights | Controls march size and training capacity |
| City Walls | Medium, rising mid-game | Defense against raids as server toughens up |
| Lumberyard / Farmhouse | Low-medium | Gathering beats passive production once past basic levels |
| Arena / Bar / Black Market / Bookstore / Dawn Tower | Supporting | Daily-use utility, not core upgrade priorities |
Frequently Asked Questions
Headquarters, always. Every other building's max level is capped by your current HQ level, so an idle HQ timer is the most expensive mistake in the game — nothing else can outpace it.
No, not past a reasonable point. Passive production from maxed resource buildings is far weaker than what active gathering marches bring in. Keep them at a sensible level and focus resources on HQ and combat-relevant buildings instead.
It's almost always an HQ level gate. Check your HQ level against the building's requirement — you likely need to upgrade HQ first before the building unlocks its next tier.
It controls your troop march size and training capacity, so it's a priority building if you're active in fighting-focused alliance events, since bigger marches mean more troops committed per rally.
Yes — keep it close to your HQ level. Falling behind on lab level restricts which research nodes you can even access, and that compounds against you over weeks.
Check them daily rather than obsessing over their upgrade level. The Black Market for deals, the Bar for hero recruitment, and the Bookstore for research knowledge items — they're supporting pieces, not your main upgrade priority.