How VIP Works

VIP is an important part of Game of War. If you use it properly you can help yourself move ahead quickly.

VIP Points

Each day that you log in, you get a number of VIP points. Logging in ten times a day doesn't speed it up; you just need to log in once every 24 hours to get those points. You start at VIP Level 1, and if you log in regularly you'll get VIP points each day. As they add up you'll reach Level 2, Level 3 and so on. And of course higher levels provide greater bonuses.

You also need to be aware of streaks. The more days in a row that you log in without missing a day, the more VIP points you get each day. Keep your streaks going as long as possible! If your VIP streak is in danger because you haven't logged in today, you should get a push notification on your phone saying so.

You can also buy VIP points with gold from the Store under "Special", or get them free from Empire Quests, Secret Gifts or other prizes.

VIP Activation

However, regardless of your current VIP level, your VIP bonuses are turned off by default. They are only activated under certain conditions. First, when you gather enough points to reach a new VIP level. Each time you reach a new level you automatically get 24 hrs of active VIP. That means that all of the bonuses for your level are turned on and helping you for 24 hrs.

The other way to activate VIP is to use items like the 30 Minute VIP, 1 Hour VIP, 1 Day VIP etc. These can be bought in the store for gold, and you can also get them from completing Empire Quests, from collecting the Secret Gift and other ways. When you use one of those items, your VIP benefits are turned on for the specified amount of time.

When your VIP is turned on, you get a bunch of bonuses. First, the free 5-minute construction bonus that you always have gets longer. VIP 2 increases it to 7 minutes. Level 3 makes it 9 minutes, and so on. If you have a lot of small buildings to upgrade, doing it while your VIP is active can speed things up immensely.

Second, you get more quests. If your VIP is active when your quests refresh, you will get extra quests to complete based on your VIP level. They add up over time.

Third, once your level gets high enough, you'll start getting quest autocomplete. For example at VIP level 7, your Daily Quests will have a button that says "Autocomplete". Click it and the quest is done. You get paid immediately, no waiting. At VIP 8 you get the same for Alliance Quests as well.

Finally, the resource production in your city goes up by a certain percentage when your VIP is active; the higher your VIP level, the bigger the percentage. This can help you to rebuild quicker after getting hit, or speed up the process of saving up resources for a big upgrade.

Using VIP Effectively

One trick I like to use is to activate a 30 Minute VIP like 29 minutes before the next quest refresh. You'll immediately get the couple of extra quests that come with your VIP level. Try to complete those in the next 29 minutes or so. Then, since the VIP will still be active (for another minute) when the next refresh comes, you get all the extra quests again. And they don't disappear when your VIP ends - you can do them at your leisure.

Quest autocomplete is great, and the best way to get the most value is to save up your Daily and Alliance Chances. Once your VIP is active you can use all your chances in a row, getting extra quests and autocompleting them in seconds. You can quickly burn through a stack of Chances this way and get a lot of stuff.

What do you do with VIP? Leave a comment.

Troops

Troop Types

The Basics

There are four classes of troops available in Game of War: Infantry, Ranged, Cavalry and Siege. You can see the strengths and weaknesses of each by going into your Barracks and clicking on a troop type. For instance Swordsmen are strong vs. cavalry and siege, and weak vs. ranged and wall traps. Each troop type has its strengths and weaknesses, and most people use a mixed force. Siege troops are useful for attacking cities, especially destroying wall traps.

At the early stages of the game you can only train first tier troops: Swordsmen, Slingers, Outriders and Battering Rams. These are the lowest level troops, and are usually called Tier 1 or T1 troops. Swordsmen are T1 Infantry, Slingers are T1 Ranged, Outriders are T1 Cavalry, and Battering Rams are T1 Siege.

T1 troops are useful at the beginning stages if you are fighting people at the same level. But one of your biggest goals should be to get your Stronghold to level 8 ASAP, when you can get T2 troops. As you might imagine, T2 troops crush T1. But remember that when you get to level 8, T2 troops are not automatically available - you have to do combat research in your Academy in order to unlock them.

At stronghold level 15 you can get T3 troops, and finally, at level 21, you can get T4. They're brutal.

Upkeep

Is your food number flashing red at the top of your screen? That means you are producing less food than you are eating. Who eats all that food? Troops! Every troop you train eats a certain amount of food per hour. For example you can go into Barracks, click on Swordsmen and click on the Stats button. Upkeep is how much food each Swordsman eats per hour. It should be 1.

So if you have 5,000 Swordsmen, you need to bring in 5,000 food per hour to stay even. You can see your current food status by clicking on your Stronghold. Under Food Production, you will see how much your city produces, and how much is being consumed. As an example, I have a level 13 city which produces 36,000 food per hour (Overall Income). However my 60,000 T2 troops are eating 120,000 per hour (Upkeep of 2 food per hr per soldier). Obviously that's a problem. How do you fix it? Mostly by gathering. A lot. The farms in your city probably won't be able to keep up with the monster army you're building, so get used to seeing that food number flashing red and doing lots of food gathering.

There are Items you can buy that reduce Upkeep for a period of time. Under the Items button, under the Special category, you will find Items like the 24 Hour Small Upkeep Reduction, which reduces your Upkeep costs by 25% for 24 hours for a cost of 500 gold. I haven't used them or the other Upkeep Reduction Items available yet.

Load

Load refers to how much stuff each soldier can carry. Swordsmen can carry a load of 7, Slingers can carry 6, and Outriders can carry 5. You can see these numbers by going into the Barracks, clicking on a troop type, and then clicking the Stats button. Troop Load is important. When you go out gathering or attack a city, your troops' Load capacity will determine how many resources they can carry back home.

To increase your troops' Load, you can do research in the Academy. Under the Economics category you will find Troop Load on the left side. There are also Gems which can help.