Hello everyone. Im reserching the stronghold lvl 23.
Should i invest in alchemy lab or better keep upgrading my iron storage to rush to HA?
Thanks in advance
Hey there,
The Alchemy Lab first, converting mats is very useful, and Alkashards can be used to create rare crafting mats, then Hunter’s Lodge second if your alliance is using harpoons. Some of the battle items in the Hunter’s Lodge are also very nice.
To support these buildings priority for me is Iron Mines and Farms to level 20 (you will need the food), then upgrade the storage units as and when you need them so that you can build and craft in the Alchemy Lab and Hunter’s Lodge then concentrate on upgrading the storage units. Every once in a while level up the Alchemy Lab and Hunter’s Lodge.
All the best,
3 Likes
I have been reading a little bit about people favourite levels.
I think i will stick to 1A at first because i have around 25k of common herbs
Im interested in 3A for backpacks too.
To what lvl should i update the lab before keep working on anything else? I mean is it useful past lvl 5-6?
1 Like
I am running AL2 and AL5 to upgrade the battle item only at the moment.
Other levels of AL maybe useful to specific needs of players, you will know which one you like.
HA is a good milestone, I run only HA3 for now because I have many heroes in the waiting list to level up. And ascension materials are not the problem to me.
2 Likes
AL convert mats and/or emblems is great, like @TheZoltar said.
But the priority IMO, iron storage and food storage, because it will give xtra food/iron from chests, and later we can Upgrade SH, etc without waiting the requirement. I already have all maxxed Iron Storage and Food Storage.
I was using AL 1B (because 1A is new AL), and 1B is cheaper ham.
But, after I research 1A, I switch it, because I need leather strips and large bone to craft minor mana.
So, for me 1A is the best resource with the same time, only the different is herbs requirement and ham/food. But because I use hevely mana for titan I choose 1A.
But now… my current base is, LA in progress to lvl-4, so I think I will continue to lvl-5, then do multiple Transmution, so that I can reach 1000 alkashard in ~10 days instead of ~20 days (without gems boost).
5 Likes
I may go against the flow and recommend focusing on Alchemy Lab first than any other structure. The rationale is that nowhere can you farm alkashard. The longer you farm it, the better since a thousand of them gives you the option to combine them to unfarmable ascension items (epic ones on a chance) or emblems (currently, 10 emblems cost 175 gems at the Shop) or legendary battle items. FWIW, I have researched AL3A (or AL5; I use this for getting backpacks), AL6B (or AL12; I use this as it provides the most alkashards per hour without paying gem at very minimal resources), AL10A (or AL19; costs 100 gems for 1,050 shards per week and has a chance of getting epic ascension materials) and AL10B (or AL20; costs 150 gems for 1,050 shards per week, replacing your surplus epic ascension material for another epic ascension material; I used this to transmute my excess Damascus Blade to another material of equal rarity; currently, 8 damascus blades vs 5 tomes of tactics).
Good luck.
4 Likes
I stopped upgrading my Alchemy Lab at level 4 when all buildings were at or near to max level. At level 4 Alchemy lab you can craft Rare Crafting Materials, this suits me.
I created an Alchemy Lab when most of my other buildings were at or near to max level, in fact truth be told I forgot about Alchemy Lab entirely which probably went in my favour, when my SH was 25, my Watchtower was max, Iron Mines and most Farms near max and Storage were near to max I started on my Alchemy Lab.
1 Like
I maxed all the other buildings except the Alchemy Lab so now I have a lot of iron to spare. Now I kind of regret I didn’t max the AL earlier. I find it really useful to convert battle items + crafting materials. Not to mention that my food and iron storages keep filling up on a daily basis. If you add the emblems / ascension materials (from alkashards), I think it’s a good deal.
P.S. I really love that by level 10 you can already have 3 transmutions at the time.
2 Likes
How important do you consider watchtower to the mix? Is the only building i have low lvl besides houses becaude i always managed to work with a few recruits 115 or so.
My other buildings are luckily updated. Now im working on my second advanced iron storage .
My mines and farm are all lvl 20 but two of each wich are advanced. I read that there is an important gap production within the levels for advanced mines and farms if one wants to go further advanced mine/farm lvl 1
The watchtower can get you some resources when maxed, but nothing too crazy. Honestly, considering that the advanced buildings can take up to 14 days to upgrade (at level 10), I wouldn’t upgrade the farms / mines. I would upgrade in parallel, a high level of an advanced building with a low level of a building. This way you’re not wasting any time & iron.
By the time level 10 of advanced iron storage (for example) finishes, you get to upgrade level 1 & 2 of an advanced food storage (again, for example).
1 Like
Level 5 will allow you to have 2 simultaneous transmutations, so you’ll want to get up to there. That will help farm for alkashards, even if you don’t need the recipes. When I’m done with the HA, I’ll complete it to 10 so that I can have 3 simultaneous transmutations.
3 Likes
Yes, the Alchemy Lab for Alkashards is worth it IMO – I trade mine to get emblems.
Make sure you hit level 5 (I think it’s level 5) to let you do 2 transmutations at a time.
Have a read here: A Guide to the New Alchemy Lab (v30, 2020-06-17)
Though personally, I run 1A over 1B since I would rather have more large bones over the 2* crafting materials (which I seem to have far more of than large bones right now for some reason 
)
3 Likes
Better to make minor healing potions and upgraden those to axes, small mana etc in AL
1 Like
I would advice you to build it till level 5, and then move on to other buildings. It’s great for farming emblems. I started with running 1A and 4B. With that I used to get about 10 emblems every 9 days. Now I have switched to 4B and 5B, and get 1000 shards in about every 8 days (that’s about 440 emblems per year, unless you get a few 4 star AMs in which case it will be lower). The levels that you run will totally depend on your inventory of materials and your personal needs, but whatever levels you run I feel it’s totally worth it. 
6 Likes
Which level allows that transmutation?
2b uncommon battle item
1 Like
As some have noted, Alchemy Lab is a good structure to farm for Alkashards, a thousand of which can be combined to produce an unfarmable ascension material or 10 emblems or 5 legendary battle items. This has been a better far cry from its previous iteration where you need 10,000 shards to be able to combine something useful. I cannot stress how important and valuable shards are and as such, the question of why build Alchemy Lab only to level 5 and limiting your shard production from 2 AL functions when you can max the building to level 10 allowing you to work on 3 AL functions for more possible shard production. Be reminded that emblems are one of the most important items in the game at your current game level and status that the more emblem sources you have and the faster you get them shards to a thousand, the better you are in improving more heroes in your roster, resulting to better heroes as they hit a bit harder and survive a bit longer in raids and in wars.
Just a point to ponder.
2 Likes
That is a fair point Ultra. The only thing that makes me want to move further is to retrain epic troops to finally get that elusive mana red troop and some niche HA levels (trainers, legendary) but those functions are nowhere near in time.
On the other hand i will unlock AL very soon
I have obtained 10 emblems crafting Arkhasands. Its quite slow but is something.
I’ll respond to this. Ideally I’d get it to level 10; however, my priority is to get the HA running and getting to level 5 is a compromise. When you only have 1 builder, you have to make some hard choices. Considering that it’ll take over a month to bring it from level 5 to 10, at least you can get some alkashards farmed in the meantime. Once, the HA is up and running, I can concentrate back on the AL.
1 Like