SH25 base setup - which building should I let go?

Hello,

I know this must have been widely discussed but could not really find anything…

My stronghold is almost at lvl25 which means I will get access hero academy within few days as well. At this point I have just one last forge left and I just realized I don’t have any spare building I could sacrifice with no tradeoff while I kind of need one…

I have two builders working 24x7 and lot of buildings that haven’t been maxed yet which means I won’t be able to convert freely without planning it through anytime soon.

Forge - want at least one left as I use it to spend some excessive iron creating stuff like dragon attacks or tornados on daily basis. It is also needed for some PoV tasks.

Barracks - this one I don’t use every day but again - would be best to keep it online for PoV.

Hunters Lodge - still upgrading this one, will want it online for harpoons and other items and it needs to be online so I can keep upgrading it.

Alchemy lab - it works 24x7 converting those useless training manuals I have thousands of into backpacks, swords, clothes and alkashards, Even after if I am out of manuals at some point there is plenty of other useless staff to throw at it for some more alkashards… I don’t even have time to upgrade it further…

So what should I sacrifice for hero academy? A farm? No way, I am short on food all the time anyway. A training camp? Well I could, but I would prefer not. But the only other choice seems to be a mine which means less iron which is far from perfect either. Am I missing sth?

We used to be given 4 forges 3 of which were completely redundant but now there is no redundant building left. What are you guys sacrificing for your hero academies?

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I only use the hunters lodge rarely (just for scrolls and hurricanes) and getting the skulls and hearts means I can go weeks without using it

So, you can actually put two advanced buildings on one of your forges, like I have, and swap between Academy and Lodge for free as long as you have a builder. I’ve stopped building now, so can do the switch anytime

I turned one of my TCs into the HA. I was running 2 of them at TC20 and already have plenty of dupes to feed into the HA10 meat grinder, so no great loss.

It still sucks to be limited to 1 forge, though. It really makes you plan ahead with your battle items. I wish they’d give us one more building or, barring that, introduce an advanced forge that lets you craft 2-3 things at the same time.

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I used a tc. With HA3 pushing out 2*s so fast, you won’t miss it (as far as I can tell, HA3 is the best xp/minute production available).

I have one tc11 storing recruits and two tc20 storing food and fixing to pop out Liana any day now. Another tc is not very useful
(I’m f2p, do no extra builder to flip alchemy lab)

I used a farm, as most times I have plenty of food, and not enough feeders. So far it’s working out (but I’m still months away from getting to HA10).

Once I’m done upgrading in a year or so, I can dual-use barracks and hunters lodge, as I don’t use both very often. (HL to craft harpoons when I have excess iron and no other place to use it)

I would lose the barracks. If you are still upgrading your base you probably don’t have a ton of food for troop training. You can still complete the POV skipping the few daily tasks related to troops. And if you do happen to have excess food that you are using for troops, it would be very easy to bank it in the alchemy lab or a training camp. While you are between upgrades, swap out the forge for the barracks, burn the food, swap back to a forge then start your next upgrade.

You will regret that at some point in the future. Bank the food now, you will need it later.

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I have 200 days in a TC20, and another 100 in 2 TC11. Currently limited by recruits for more storage. So far this is working for me. Will probably change the setup once I max my food storage and HA.

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Does anybody know what happens if you change your mind and change the academy back in order to sacrifice another building? Will you have to start building the academy from scratch or does the game hold your academy progress?

It hold your academy progress. Just like other buildings.
If you convert Barrack Level 10 to forge, then convert back to Barrack, Barrack will be at level 10.

2 Likes

You can’t run HA3 for too long without running out of rope, though. And it’s lots of fun when you discover that you can’t ascend a lower-grade hero without any rope. I only use HA3 selectively, when I’m trying to rush-upgrade a hero I need for a tournament or war.

I’m running 1 TC11 and 1 TC20 for food banking and (usually) producing gourmet feeders, and my third TC (also level 20) at TC2 for feeders. Even that is barely sustainable due to lack of backpacks - I’d run out before the end of the month if it weren’t for Atlantis Rising.

3 Likes

I’ve sacrificed 3 out of 4 Forges (keeping only 1 at level 20) and for the last advanced building I used a Farm.

Barracks are needed for leveling troops and in “Path of Valor” (even if you choose to play for free, for some daily challenges).

If you choose to convert back a building (degrade) this is a free and instant process (5 sec)
and the old building you will get will have the level that was before the conversion.

To clarify, the game remembers the levels for every building you had (even if you choose to covert them to something else). If you change your mind in the future and want it back it will be at the level you had it progressed. I’ve done this with Barracks and Hero Academy so to reclaim some of my farms. Then I converted 2 forges (that were at level 5) instantly to Barracks and Hero Academy without any cost.

If you don’t have farms, mines, food storage and iron storage maxed, I would do those before starting HA.

Personally I crafted a bunch of harpoons then put AL where I had hunters lodge ( on the 3rd forge) and didn’t have hunters lodge for awhile.

Once food storage and iron storage were maxed, I put HA on a farm. At that moment I was chronically stuffing food into tc20 and I didn’t miss the farm that much.

I’m back to hunters lodge now which is almost to level 10, and I’m soon to be built out. Once I’m to the point where there is always a builder available I’ll switch between barracks and hunters lodge and free up the farm.

My current setup, 4 forge, 3x level 5 and 1x level 20:

  1. Alchemyst Lab:
    1A (resource for minor mana), 3A (backpack), 9A (orichalum for tornado and as food storage)
  2. Hero Academy
    HA6 for iron storage, HA9 for complete my mana troop stack, after that I will switch to HA10
  3. Hunter Lodge (still upgrading lvl 10)
  4. Forge lvl 20, switch to Barrack if needed.

You don’t have to sacrifice buildings.

1 forge becomes permanent HA
1 forge becomes permanent AL

Remaining 2 forges flex between:

2 forges
1 forge and 1 barrack
1 forge and 1 lodge
Barrack and lodge

Converting takes only 10 seconds.

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Yes, converting takes only 10 seconds, but also requires a builder.

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This is working out pretty good for me also. If you have a TC bottlenecked with thousands of recruits, and thousands of days to drain… That winds up being inaccessible resource anyway…

When I have the ham and recruits, I convert the useless HA back into a training camp and work on unplugging the bottleneck.

My base is maxed and I have second builder. Despite that luxury position, it just requires good timing. Both lodge and barracks you only need for built sprints. You don’t need them continuously.

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No offense, but if you think HA is useless, you’re doing it wrong.

I’ve been running HA10 non-stop since I finished researching it. I also trained trainer heroes for a few weeks, because I had 2 5*s I needed to max. I’m now Training rare troops, because I need to boost the levels of my defense team troops.

HA is one of the most useful buildings in the game.

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This is exactly what I do!!!