Rushing to advance Stronghold to level 20 advice needed

Hello.

I’ve read some different players strategies and would like to hear from so of you that made it to Stronghold 20. I’m looking for your opinion, your advice, facts, etc.

I can see how there really isn’t a single blanket strategy for advancing or maybe there is and I haven’t figured it out yet. I have read where it’s best to level up your farms as soon as you level up your Stronghold and you can leave your Watch Tower a few levels back if you worry about being attacked often during raids. I can see and a few people in my alliance have shifted strategy lately and are making a rush to upgrade Iron Storages and whatever is needed to get their Stronghold maxed out so they can build their training camps to produce Epic and Legendary hero’s.

Is there a strategy that shifts once you unlock the few extra building at level 15 to then leave farms, Forges, Training Camps etc and just focus on Iron and Stronghold advancement. Is this a recipe for some short comings I’m not aware of?

That’s why I’d like to hear from the guys that have already been there to hear your advice from your personal experience.

I’m currently at Stronghold 16 and my Farms are level 16 but my food storages and Forges are level 15, train camps level 13 and watch tower level 12. Should I rush my Stronghold to max level now or catch up my other buildings first?

Thank you in advance for taking time to read this long post and possibly give me your insight.

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Your farms are bigger than most of mine and I’ve had sh 20 for months. You’ll need all iron storages at 18, but no higher. Your watchtower is also bigger than mine. Sh training camps and a forge are what I would worry about

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Was about to say the same about farms. I have SH 18 and farms at lvl 7-8. And I’m never lacking food and training a lot.

Edit: I checked again, turns out my farms are at lvl 8-9. I didn’t level them in over one month.

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There only thing that made me only level my stronghold was, so I could get traning camp Max. But in the end we will all get a maxed out town. So if there is something you want to have fast then prio the stronghold.

I agree about the Farms. Your Farms, Food storages, Forges and Watchtower are very well developed already for someone who has not yet completed their Stronghold (SH) to lvl 20. Your Watchtower can wait. Mine was lvl 5 until I had my SH done. Yes, there is a strategy. Your forges are also very developed for someone who has not yet reached SH lvl 20.

You can leave your Farms, Forges, food storages and Watchtower where they are until you are done with your Stronghold. I think my Food storages were level 10 until I completed my SH. I had 1 forge at lvl 15, 1 a lvl 8 and the other at lvl 10. My farms ranged anywhere from lvl 10 to 13 with most of them 10 until my SH was complete.

Ok, with this being said: I don’t believe you ever stated what level your Iron Storages were currently. Let’s assume they are lvl 16. If all of your iron storages are lvl 16, then you have enough storage to get to Lvl 18 SH. At any point if you get all of your Iron storages to the same level, it is enough storage to produce a SH two levels higher. This means that you currently would have enough room to hold iron for a Lvl 18 SH with the above assumption. Get your SH to lvl 17, then to lvl 18 immediately. It is a very long wait, but that’s the way it is. As soon as your SH is Lvl 18 bring all of your Iron storage to Lvl 18. At that point you are completely done advancing your iron storage. There really is no reason to improve them past lvl 18 except for achieving the reward for making an Iron Storage lvl 20. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather work on my training grounds to produce higher level heroes than have the 30 gems for making a lvl 20 Iron storage. Now that all of your iron storages are lvl 18, push for SH lvl 20. This is a VERY long wait. That’s my Advice.

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Thanks everyone. Sounds like it’s best to push for Stronghold 20 from here on out.

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Is for just about everyone.

Though the people stating farms aren’t needed, are probably hunting lower than their team power would permit. If you do ever push cups while you’re still building heroes, you’ll want those farms but they can wait till after SH 20 is gained.

I’m at SH 20 and building out farms as quickly as I can actually, way before anything else at this point on my main… desperately trying to get the alternate ham economy going before I’m requested to move to 2400 cups which will probably happen at some point in the future =/.

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I went for a very lean build to rush stronghold 20 As quickly as possible. The real purpose is to get training camp 20 as soon as possible for the chance of pulling 5* troops. In terms of logistics, you need all 5 iron storages at level 18 to build SH 20, and need all 4 food storages (1 of which you get at SH 20) at level 12 to research legendary training.

As long as you are farming and raiding consistently, farms and mines aren’t crucial. Mine are at 11 and 8 respectively and I am almost always full on both resources. I also left my crafting at level 4 for antidotes and arrow attacks but nothing more. In my opinion this is the fastest build reasonably possible.

The two important points before SH 20 are SH 11 and SH 18. 11 opens up a new building area, and unlocks extra low cost training which is the most efficient training for feeders. SH 18 is where you need to prep for a final push to SH 20 by getting all your iron storages up to max. Anything else you want to upgrade is unnecessary, but can help make the climb easier.

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Well do you have enough food and iron for your needs. If you do, then sure rush 20. Usually there is no need to level all farms and mines before upgrading SH. They can lag a bit behind. SH20 gives one more farm, so that is a great reward too.

Revelate, sorry but sure I understand. What do farms have to do with cups? And hunting = raiding, or something else?

Higher cups = fewer targets to raid for good food supply.

So leveling farms becomes the alternstive.

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Thought so, but wasn’t sure. Still, I do press ‘Roll’ quite a bit, don’t target based on food, and I have enough food. So unless you need to roll 30+ times for each attack, I still don’t understand why you’d need more food.

For me it isnt the re-rolls that are the primary ham-sink. Training heros, leveling heros, training troops, crafting materials. Thats what eats all my hammies.

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It would be interesting to see what the true bare minimums are past Iron storage 18 and Farm storage 12.

You also need troop storage at least to 100 I think to actually train at TC20, and there’s likely a sweet spot for food and iron where you aren’t always at max capacity - that is one lesson I wish I learned earlier. More food and iron production can only be so useful.

Looks like iron production 5 and food production 7 or so are mentioned here. I’m sure there is math on the troop storage as well.

But like most things it is a balance - what are you sacrificing? I don’t know that I could finish advanced in the challenge events without a craft 18 for time stops. In fact, I know I probably couldn’t clear stage 10 without them. The rewards on advanced for completion are typically worthwhile to someone in our shoes (I am researching legendary training as we speak).

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I find forges 8 for axe attack are helpful. I start my titan battles with an axe atttack and an arrow attack to let my healers build up mana and my attackers to apply debuffs. At team power 2800 the combination seems to dramatcially increase my damage per alliance energy.

Training camp 13 allows elite training which can store food if you like to hoard food ( Hoarding recruits and food ).

On a side note, many of my alliance fellows recommend leveling at least one training camp alongside your stronghold to prevent the shock of reaching stronghold 20 then having to wait forever to level at least one training camp 20.

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The benefit of getting the extra buildings at SH20 is important, particularly that fourth TC. Don’t build up buildings you don’t need, like tracking the TC up.

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I am in the final 10 hours until my lvl 20 SH is completed. For the past month and a bit all i have been upgrading is Iron storage and SH.

IMO, you should always level your Iron Storage to the Max level you can before lvling your stronghold. For example, I made sure all my IS were level 17 before I started the lvl 18 SH upgrade even though I could have covered the cost of SH17->18 with lvl 16 Iron storages. If you reroll for raiding a lot, this will save you ham, only reason.

Secondly, I am ALWAYS iron capped because there are not enough iron sinks in the game when you have bottlenecked mats to craft with and have gaps of a week where you are upgrading a building… so I found no reason to level my mines past lvl 8… one is still lvl 4.

Farms are lvl 12 as you can always bank extra food.

Food Storage and Houses don’t really need to be leveled much at all. My houses are leveled just enough to be able to meet the 70 recruit needs for lvl 13 training…and wont need to be upgraded until I have a lvl 20 camp. I use a lvl 4 (or 11) training camp to store recruits with extra long/cheap training, and I use lvl 13 camps to store food. Don’t bother wasting time leveling those buildings until after you cap your SH.

That’s my 2c from my exp

I did like this:
I have ugraded Strongholdh and maxed iron storages according to SH (until lvl 18)

I upgraded training camp(s) when eligible to the following key levels: 4, 11, 13 (iirc). Getting the “extremely cheap” training option on all tc’s isn’t mandatory, but very convenient and something you’d want sooner or later anyway. And as others have stated, epic training is good for both training and storing food.

I upgraded (a) forge to key levels: 4, 6, 8, 10, 17.

I got farms to a respectable level (I have taken them to 12/13, and never regret that)

I got food storages to key levels (you’ll need the capacity of 4 @ lvl 12 or so to research epic training). My mines are lvl 12, which is probably well above needed level.

When I got SH 20, I upgraded my fourth food storage to achieve required capacity, while my highest tc was @ 15. Now I’m getting this tc to lvl 20, and it’ll start spewing out 5*'s like there’s now tomorrow in 20 days (including research). :slight_smile: Before this I got my fourth tc to lvl 4.

All in all, you can only rush things so much without missing out on things and some game depth. For instance, I prioritize items for titan battles to make up for my heroes shortcomings, therefore I upgraded forges and farms (food intensive potions). I have had some luck with Tc 13 as well, and have continuously been upgrading heroes since I started playing.

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For mines, it depends if you want to stock up on high level battle items - time stop and tornado both require ~100k iron each (give or take a bit each way), so if that’s what you’re wanting to stock up on, you’ll want your mines higher.

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All good points. I definitely am missing out on some power by not improving my crafting. I just think it is a small price to pay for faster access to top tier heroes, especially since you get a decent flow of battle items from wanted missions, titans, and quests.