Tag Archives: Build & Battle

Swagbucks: Call of Dragons

December 12, 2025 Kasanje Leave a comment

Upgrade buildings and technologies, train troops, gather resources, expand your territory. Command your dragon and lead your allies to victory in massive fantasy warfare.

Reaching the 3M goal is achievable, so a possible $69.20 in rewards, before expenses.

Complete stated goals in 30 days to earn up to $1,406.20. (https://www.swagbucks.com/games/apps/1666338/call-of-dragons?rb=69384823)

My Progress

Day 4: Closing in on 1M power now. It looks like the VIP 7 honor exclusive will be around $25, considering the increase in cost from ranks 4-6. My Alliance mates have posted several good guides that I have included here. Best Pet, Commander Pairings, and HQ Requirements.

Day 3: I went ahead and made two additional purchases. I bought a 99 cent pop up deal and the 9.99 Insight Rune for Titans Legacy. Unfortunately, these purchases did not count towards the Purchase Payback, so I did not get more Velyn tokens. I am up to VIP 6 now.

Day 2: I am on day 2, with 380k Power. The 1M power objective is unlikely. I’ve spent $20 and received $19 in reimbursement. I still need to buy the VIP7 chest, but that provides $25 in reimbursement. My goal will be 3M power and Tier 3 Troops.

It is likely impossible to complete the 10M/20M goals in the timeframe given. Engage at your own peril.

Offer Terms

Must be installing Call of Dragons for the first time to receive SB.
In-app purchases and upgrades are available.
Award will pend for 10 days

Objective	Reward
Upgrade your city to level 8	0.70
Reach Power 300k	2.00
Reach Power 500k	2.50
Purchase Efficiency in Market’s Worker Support (5 Days to complete)	6.00
Bonus: Reach Power 1M (3 Days to complete)	10.00
Reach Power 1.5M	5.00
Purchase Growth Fund (10 Days to complete)	10.00
Reach Power 3M	30.00
Make First Purchase	3.00
Purchase Honor Exclusive after reaching VIP 7	25.00
Reach Power 10M	300.00
Reach Power 20M (30 Days to complete)	900.00
Reach Tier 3 Troops (30 Days to complete)	12.00
Reach Tier 4 Troops (30 Days to complete)	100.00

Strategy

Some players, on Reddit, report being only able to reach 5M power after 30 days of game play and heavy spending, while others have said they reached 1M+ in 3-4 days.

Reaching 20 Million Power in Call of Dragons involves massive troop training (especially T5), completing all research at the College of Order, upgrading buildings to high rank (Level 25), leveling heroes, acquiring War Pets, and maximizing speed-ups and resources.

Tip: New players are encouraged to build out Magic Heroes + Archers for ranged DPS. They can be used to support melee armies in your alliance, while also being easier to maneuver away from combat if you are targeted. The Fire/Frost legendary heroes are easily acquired.

Armies are limited to a single unit type and will typically synergize with the abilities of the hero and deputy hero. Multiple armies can be deployed in unison covering each type (infantry, archer, tank, cavalry).

Cavalry units don’t become become available until Sanctuary level 10. They can however be gained earlier by trading with Camps. These initial cavalry units are meant for gathering and have a high load capacity.

In the event panel, you may swap units of the same tier. I swapped my infantry/tank units for the Tier 1 Cavalry to increase my gathering efficiency.

Key Strategies for High Power Growth

Troop Training: Train high-tier troops (T4 & T5) for massive power gains; T5 troops give 100 points in events like Strongest Lord.
Research: Finish all research in your College of Order as quickly as possible, as this adds significant power.
Building Upgrades: Upgrade every building in your city to level 25 for substantial power boosts.
Heroes & Pets: Level up your heroes and acquire powerful War Pets.
Resource Management: Use speed-ups and resources efficiently to accelerate all these processes.

This video goes over all of the methods for increasing your power rating.

Offer Spending

Some of the goals require a purchase, which may be a good choice given the limited 30 day offer terms.

The Honor Exclusive may be a bit costly. Typically, high VIP levels in mobile games is one of the most lucrative avenues for monetization.

At each rank of Honor, you are prompted to purchase an exclusive pack that includes Liliya’s Tokens. This is the method to upgrade the Legendary starter hero from the First Purchase.

Objective	Reward	Cost (USD)
Efficiency in Market’s Worker Support	6.00	4.99
Growth Fund	10.00	9.99
Reaching VIP 7	Daily Prize	Spend Gems
Honor Exclusive at VIP 7	25.00	?

A workaround will be logging in daily to receive a small amount of Honor points, and by swapping your Gems for Honor experience points.

Any remaining levels may be acquired through the extra worker and growth fund purchases.

Purchasing the extra worker will fulfill the requirements of “Purchase Payback” which provides an additional legendary hero (Velyn), and 20 Keys to summon more heroes.

Rank	Honor (Cumulative)	Exclusive Cost (USD)
0	0	Free
1	200	0.99
2	400	1.99
3	1,300	1.99
4	3,500	4.99
5	6,000	4.99
6	11,500	9.99
7	17,500	9.99
8	35,000
9
10

Power Levels

Power comes from Buildings, Heroes, Pets, Artifacts, and Research. Your basic recruited hero and their equipped pet and artifact will provide a moderate amount of power.

The Citadel provides 91,451 Power at level 16.
Tier 5 troops are worth 10 Power each (2M Tier 5 = 20M Power).

At high ranks (4-5 Stars), a hero may provide a power score around 250k. It will would likely be difficult to gain such powerful heroes in just 30-days.

While a building at max level can provide around 725k power, we will not be reaching those levels in the course of this offers timeframe.

Our first mission will be to complete the level 8 town upgrade on the first day. This can be achieved by using some of the free resources and speed up items new players receive.

On the first day we can also buy the extra worker and the growth pack to clear both of those objectives.

Strategy 1 (Long-term): Save your gems for purchasing VIP points. At VIP level 8, we get a permanent 2nd research slot which will speed up our power gain.

Strategy 2 (Short-term): Gems should be used to exchange for Gold Keys. In the early game the fastest way to reach 1M power by day 3 is to summon heroes.

Upgrading the castle from 8 (town) to 16 (citadel) takes 385 hours or 16 days. You will need 6,072,100 Gold and Wood, and 2,507,790 Stone to complete the upgrades to the main building alone.

There will be additional resource requirements to upgrade pre-requisite structures. Expect to have all other buildings upgraded to level 15.

Buildings do not provide much power until they reach level 21. At levels 20+ buildings provide 30-50k power each when fully upgraded.

Using Gems

Farming Gems

Farming gems can be easy or hard, based on how many players are on your server. After you learn Gem Prospecting in Internal Affairs, you can send heroes to gather gems. But with many players, competition can be tough. New players should focus on permanent technologies and other resources first, and start gathering gems once they reach max technology and city hall levels.

Events and Quests

Many events and quests provide gems as rewards. To gather gems over time, it’s important to complete as many of these as possible. Examples include special events, NPC battles, and daily quests. Joining a whale alliance, where spenders buy bundles and give out free chests with opportunities to win gems, can also help.

Buying Packs

Spending real money on packs usually includes gems. Bundles like Growth Fund, Monthly Pack, and first purchases in the Gem Market can give you many gems. Growth Fund is especially good as it offers a large number of gems, but you need to reach upgrade milestones to receive the rewards.

Growth Fund $9.99
Monthly Pack $2.99 or $4.99
First Purchase $0.99

CoD Redemption Codes

Codes expire 7-30 days after being released. Check the official Facebook page for new codes.

image displays the location of the settings menu option to redeem a game code for a prize.

TIP: The codes are not case sensitive.

Code	Expires	Contents
CODTHX1127	12-31-25	1x Universal Artifact Key, 2x 60-Minute Training Speedup, and Level 2 Choice Resource Chest
SSSVIP8888		2x Silver Key, 150k Gold, 150k Wood, and 112.5k Stone.
SSSVIP7777		60-minute speedup, 60-minute building speedup, 150k Gold, 150k Wood, and 112.5k Stone.
SSSVIP6666		1x Silver Key, 60-minute training speedup, 8-hour enhanced gathering, and 1 Epic Medal.
PLAYCODPC		30-minute training speedup and 8-hour enhanced gathering.
SVIPDRAGON		2x Silver Key, 150k Gold, 150k Wood, and 112.5k Stone.

Community

The Facebook and Discord pages will often feature contests and game trivia. It is easy to get small rewards for participating in these activities.

This was my entry for Ruby’s Christmas Outfit.

Heroes

Call of Dragons was developed by the same company as Rise of Kingdoms and the heroes in both games are essentially the same. The combat system is also the same.

You will have a primary hero that leads the army and a deputy hero that provides Skill (attack) based bonuses. The deputy hero does not lend their talents to the fight, only their skill effects.

Make sure you save the Blue Tokens to improve the skills of your lower tier heroes. New skills unlock every 10 levels.

Upgrade Legendary heroes first to improve your battle efficiency, but afterwards upgrade the blue heroes. They can provide around 70k Power each with maxed out skills and artifacts equipped.

Hero Specialties

Each hero has 3 specialties which may include:

Gather
Support
Overall
Marksman
Peacekeeping
Precision
Magic
Skills

Fighters

Combat Heroes excel at PvE and PvP combat. Their skills deal direct damage to foes and include a finisher in most cases.

Gatherers

These economic heroes get a bonus to gathering specific resources and these bonuses can be improved upon in the Talent Tree.

Heroes with the Gather specialty, will have a skill that improves gathering speed in general and also boosts a specific resource gathering speed.

For example, Pan’s Tier 2 Skill, “Secret of the Trees,” provides the following bonuses when upgraded.

Gather Speed (%)	Wood Gather Speed (%)
1	4
2	6
3	8
4	10
5	12
7 (awaken to unlock)	15 (awaken to unlock)

Expeditions

This is the idle reward portion of the game. It includes a mini auto grid-battler system with room for 6×6 fights.

Each squad can have two heroes, a pet, and a single unit type. The units should complement the heroes being deployed.

At mission 11, players can activate the double speed option. At mission 30, the multi-battle option can be toggled, which automates the expedition. It will keep fighting until you lose a battle.

The chest on the main screen can be tapped to claim current accumulated rewards which include gold, wood, stone, exp tomes, and hero tokens.

Expeditions are independent of world map battles and can be completed while heroes are out gathering or fighting.

Wall Map

The floating compass above the city wall takes you to the storyline game. This works similar to the expedition but requires you to navigate the heroes on a mini-map and battle enemies in real-time.

You can use any of the heroes you have unlocked and raising their levels will improve the success rate for these missions.

Missions are gated by the level of your Sanctuary (Citadel).

HQ Upgrade Requirements

◈ CH2–3: None
◈ CH4: Lv.3 Wall
◈ CH5: Lv.4 Wall, Lv.4 Mint
◈ CH6: Lv.5 Wall
◈ CH7: Lv.6 Wall, Lv.6 Swordsmen Camp
◈ CH8: Lv.7 Wall, Lv.7 Alliance Center

(Unlocks T2/Unlocks 3rd Legion)

◈ CH9: Lv.8 Wall, Lv.8 Lumber Mill
◈ CH10: Lv.9 Wall, Lv.9 College of Order
◈ CH11: Lv.10 Wall, Lv.10 Ballista Factory
◈ CH12: Lv.11 Wall
◈ CH13: Lv.12 Wall, Lv.12 Alliance Center
◈ CH14: Lv.13 Wall, Lv.13 Mana Refinery
◈ CH15: Lv.14 Wall, Lv.14 Storehouse
◈ CH16: Lv.15 Wall, Lv.15 College of Order

(Unlocks Flying Unit/Unlocks T3/Unlocks 4th Legion)

◈ CH17: Lv.16 Wall, Lv.16 Abbey
◈ CH18: Lv.17 Wall
◈ CH19: Lv.18 Wall, Lv.18 Storehouse
◈ CH20: Lv.19 Wall, Lv.19 Alliance Center
◈ CH21: Lv.20 Wall, Lv.20 Alliance Market

(Unlocks T4/Unlocks 5th Legion)

◈ CH22: Lv.21 Wall, Lv.21 Knight Camp
◈ CH23: Lv.22 Wall, Lv.22 College of Order
◈ CH24: Lv.23 Wall, Lv.23 Celestial Temple
◈ CH25: Lv.24 Wall, Lv.24 Alliance Market

(Unlocks T5 Units)

The Best Pet for your Hero

Commander Pairings

In this decree, the best hero pairings are listed. Feel free to do your own research as well on google.

Note: An “x” in the number of the skill means it doesn’t matter since the skill is not relevant to the open field.

Magic Legions

✿ 5×51 Liliya + 5111 Velyn
✿ 5×51 Liliya + 5111 Waldyr
✿ 5511 Waldyr + 5111 Velyn
✿ 5511 Waldyr + 5111 Alwyn
✿ 5511 Waldyr + 5111 Theia
✿ 5111 Hosk + 5555 Liliya (for the whales)
✿ 5511 Atheus + 5111 Theia (flying units)
✿ 5511 Atheus + 515x Kregg (flying units)
✿ 5111 Theia + 515x Kregg (flying units)
✿ To make any magic march a bit more tanky, you can add a 5×22 Eliana as a secondary.

Infantry Legions

✿ 5×11 Garwood + 5×22 Eliana
✿ 5×11 Garwood + 551x Bakhar
✿ 551x Bakhar + 5111 Nika
✿ 551x Bakhar + 5×22 Eliana
✿ 5111 Kregg + 55×1 Ordo (only for engineering purposes! And make sure to have Kregg with engineering talent tree)
✿ I don’t add Madeline here because we haven’t had her Fortune Wheel, but she is OP, if you do get her at a later stage, use her as primary with any commander above or Hosk.

Cavalry Legions

✿ 5×11 Emrys + 5×11 Bakshi
✿ 5×11 Emrys + 51×1 Alistair
✿ 5×11 Bakshi + 51×1 Alistair
✿ 5×11 Bakshi + 5×11 Emrys
✿ 5×11 Alistair +5×22 Eliana
✿ Sorry cavalry mains, there are not many options for you to use.

Marksmen Legions

✿ 5111 Kinnara + 5×11 Gwanwyn
✿ 5111 Kinnara + 5111 Nico
✿ 5111 Nico + 5×22 Eliana
✿ 5111 Nico + 5511 Kregg (good for pvp and engineering!)
✿ 5111 Nico + 5111 Hosk (for the whales)
✿ 5×11 Gwanwyn + 5511 Kregg
✿ 5×11 Gwanwyn + 5111 Nico

HQ Upgrade Rewards

Gaming

Game Guide: Mecha Domination

June 30, 2024 Kasanje Leave a comment

“For centuries, this world has been plagued by wars and massacres, until you, a valiant commander emerge.”

Got a new Build & Battle title available through Swagbucks for $61.25 in total rewards. (This is a low reward. Best wait until it doubles or triples in value).

We do have an advantage though. This title is actually from the same developer as Puzzles and Conquest, Survival, and Chaos.

Level 30 is the end game and we are not likely to reach that stage within the 30-day time limit on this offer. The level 26 stage may be possible, but will likely require the spending objectives to be completed.

It is a play on the post-apocalyptic, State of Survival style games but instead of zombies, you have these Dinosaurs with robotic parts. It looks like someone in development really liked Transformers: Beast Wars.

There are two purchases required for the full prize. The current valuation for this offer is low, and it would probably be better to wait for a better reward tier list. The final two goals are $30 and the purchases are $20, so you will only get $11.25 from this offer if you don’t spend money on it.

So we know what to expect to some degree.

Warning!

There are AI bots actively trying to scam players into stopping this game. This is discussed on both the Facebook and Discord channels for the game. Some of the Alliance Leaders you encounter in the game will be bots.

If your Alliance leader says you need to add them on Discord to stay in the Alliance, this is a scam. The bot will send you a faked screenshot of server maintenance taking 15 days to complete. It will then try to get you to play a different game. The bot uses AI and may seem like a real person.

Offer Terms

Must be a new user of the app to earn SB.
Reach all levels listed below within 30 days of installation to earn Up to 6,125 SB.
The award will pend for 10 days

Direct link to offer: https://www.swagbucks.com/offer?oid=24262&rb=69384823

Goals

Goal	Reward
Install	0 SB
Reach City Hall Level 5	25 SB
Reach City Hall Level 9	50 SB
Reach City Hall Level 12	100 SB
Buy the HQ Level-Up Pack within 24 hours after Level 12	500 SB
Reach City Hall Level 15	150 SB
Buy First Top-up Deluxe Gift	1,500 SB
Reach City Hall Level 18	300 SB
Reach City Hall Level 20	500 SB
Reach City Hall Level 26	1,000 SB
Reach City Hall Level 30	2,000 SB
Total	6,125 SB

Offer Goals

Strategy

We have limited time to reach our goal, so we will want to stock up on resources and speed boosts. You can find these items in the Shop and other menus throughout the game.

Resources can be gathered by your troops on the World Map or by attacking other players. It may be a good idea to get some 8-hr Shields for the Killing event that usually takes place in these games.

You can spend Diamonds (premium currency) to buy resources for cheap in the VIP shop. I saved my first initial 8,000 Diamonds and used them to unlock the Advanced Supply Pack. This will pay me back my Diamonds over a week and I get various other items as a bonus.

I used maybe 4,000 Diamonds to upgrade my VIP rank to 2 for the extra economic bonuses and access to additional VIP Shop items. I was able to buy some VIP Points in the Alliance Shop.

Unfortunately, you don’t get VIP time extension items without paying money or Diamonds. There is a free boost, so you will have maybe 3 days of VIP.

I would suggest saving up to get the 30 days of VIP.

Effect	Cost (Diamonds)
24h VIP	600
7d VIP	3,600
30d VIP	12,000

VIP Activation Costs

2nd Builder: To unlock the second building queue you can either make a purchase in the shop for 4.99 USD or you can spend Diamonds to “rent” the extra slot for 48 hours for 1,200 Diamonds.

Alliances

As with any multiplayer game, you will benefit from joining an Alliance and taking part in group activities. You can get some construction timer discounts from fellow members as well as free items from everyone completing daily tasks. In addition, there are many Alliance-based events to take part in.

The Alliance Glory tab will include some prizes that become available as your members complete their goals. Gold buttons on your taskbar (bottom-right) are shortcuts to Alliance functions such as Help, Building, and Battles.

Player

In addition to setting your Avatar image, you can change your character model. This is purely ascetic and will not affect gameplay. In the Settings panel, you can disable notifications, enter game codes, and access your game achievements.

Stamina: Your bar will display as full at 200 points of Stamina. Each day you can get a refill of 80 points from the Airship building. There is no maximum or cap on the amount of Stamina you can accrue. The highest amount of Stamina I reached was 620 points.

Commander Gear: At HQ level 22 you gain access to crafting and equipping gear for your commander. Six pieces of gear can be made and equipped. They boost the stats of your combat troops.

Heroes

Unlike the other games in this genre, we do not have people as heroes, instead we get mecha dinosaurs. The game uses a merging mechanic to upgrade the dinos to higher tiers (colors). You will mostly capture dinosaurs on the world map and then use the copies to upgrade your main unit.

Dinosaurs have both Exploratory and Military bonuses that will impact your city and armies. These can be upgraded with Skill Manuals.

Capturing is always a success up through level 7 beasts, but starting at level 8 you will need to use a “net” item with a varying success rate. These can be collected by completing your Daily Tasks. Level 8 and higher beasts are likely to be Blue or Purple rarity.

Tip: The Sickleclaw has a Passive ability that increases construction speed. At max rank, you get 15% off. You will want to hunt the Sickleclaw to get extra copies for upgrading.

Pyodra can increase Research speed by a maximum of 20%.

Caesar is only available in Advanced Hunt or through purchases. You may find Caesar on the World Map, however capturing it requires a Beast Lab at level 20.

Upgrading Dinosaurs

The process is pretty straightforward. Your dinosaurs start as Green and you will need three (3) additional green copies to upgrade the dino to Blue. Once you hit Blue you just need an extra Blue to make a Purple. To upgrade a Purple, you need four (4) more Purple copies.

This will get you your first Orange dinosaur. My first orange beast was the Dune Crawler. An early game event gives you a bunch of Purple copies.

CORRECTION: After 9 Orange pips, the cost increases to 2 Orange copies per pip, for a total cost of 15 Orange copies to reach Red.

Base	Upgrade	Quick Alter
4x Green	1x Blue	40x Green = Orange
2x Blue	1x Purple	10x Blue = Orange
5x Purple	1x Orange	45x Purple = Orange (1* T3)
15x Orange	1x Red	45x Orange = Red2

Each completed Star (*) represents an increase in the dinosaur’s stats.

If you consistently complete your daily capture task, you can likely upgrade 1-2 dinosaurs up to Red during this offer. But it is not necessary to complete the deal.

HQ Upgrade Requirements

I skipped the Tutorial levels for the following chart. I forgot to screenshot some levels. My building time numbers may differ some from yours based on timer reductions from bonuses.

A player in chat lamented that the upgrade time from HQ 22 to 23 was almost 8 days!

Note: I was not scrolling down on the upgrade screen, so the list is missing the Oil amounts for levels 12 through 19.

My construction Speed bonuses increased over time, and I received a 50% boost at level 22. This took 3.5 days off the timer.

Level	Buildings	Resources	Time (Approx.)
7	Alliance Hall 6	48k Food/Water	00:16:19
8	Rider Grounds and Beast Lab 9	131k Food/Water	01:27:15
9
10	Rider Grounds and Beast Lab 9	482k Food/Water	07:24:57
11
12	Beast Lab 11	1.96M Food/Water and 67.2K Steel	10:34:58
13
14	Rider Grounds and Beast Lab 13	2.97M Food/Water and 216K Steel	15:41:36
15	Ranged Ground and Beast Lab 14	4.62M Food/Water and 458K Steel	19:07:58
16	Research Institute and Beast Lab 15	6.6M Food/Water and 867K Steel	1d 01:10:49
17	Fighter Grounds and Beast Lab 16	9.68M Food/Water and 1.76M Steel	1d 09:36:07
18	Rider Grounds and Beast Lab 17	13.5M Food/Water and 2.64M Steel	1d 19:41:32
19	Ranged Grounds and Beast Lab 18	17.8M Food/Water and 3.63M Steel	2d 08:00:58
20	Research Institute and Beast Lab 19	23.1M Food/Water, 5.17M Steel, and 887K Oil	3d 05:49:09
21	Fighter Grounds and Beast Lab 20	29.9M Food/Water, 7.15M Steel, and 1.54M Oil	3d 23:53:15
22	Rider Grounds and Beast Lab 21	38.1M Food/Water, 9.79M Steel, and 2.53M Oil	5d 12:47:20
23	Ranged Grounds and Beast Lab 22	49.3M Food/Water, 13.8M Steel, and 4.07M Oil	7d 12:22:02
24
25
26
27

HQ Leveling Requirements (up to Level 23)

The Headquarters Level-Up Pack will display on-screen after finishing the HQ 12 upgrade. If you close the window, you can reopen it by tapping the countdown timer on the right side of the screen just below the Events button.
The Deluxe First Top-Up is priced at $19.99, but we only get back $15. I decided not to buy it.

Town Layout

I found another player using this layout, so I did my best to copy the design. It is much easier to upgrade the resource buildings with this layout.

Airship

You can collect 80 Stamina points from the Airship facility each day. Additionally, the facility will provide 5-minute speedups periodically throughout the day. I placed it near the center of my base to make it easier to select and see.

Each day you may also claim a Secret Crate bonus by entering the correct code. The Airship should give you the code in the dialog, but this is not always noticed. Your best option is to check the World Chat log to find the code or ask other players in your Alliance.

Codes

You can find codes for the game both on the official Facebook page and their Discord server. There are links to both in-game.

To enter them just tap on your Avatar and then go to Settings and “Gift Code.”

If you are playing on iOS, you will need to use their code redemption website since the Apple Store no longer allows apps to include code redemption options in-game.

The following codes were active when I started playing (July 2024).

Codes are Case Sensitive
MCDBEER2024
DC15KFANS
DC20KFANS
DC25KFANS
FB50KFANS
FB60KFANS
FB70KFANS
FATHERS2024
Mother’s Day and Children’s Day codes are Expired
They said an 80k Facebook Fans code would be released

Mecha Domination Codes

If you have access to either Facebook or Discord you should make sure you enter all of their contests on those platforms. You will need your UID which can be found in your settings.

The rewards can be useful when completing offers. I know for Sea of Conquest the Facebook rewards came in really handy near the end of that offer.

Bugs

There are a few UI bugs, most notably that the Military and Exploratory categories are backward. You’ll also notice the chat window does not separate the text, so you will see World Chat and Alliance Chat on the same screen.

Final Result

I was partway through the upgrade to HQ level 23 when the offer expired. I did not make any purchases. I earned a total of 11.25 USD for my time. Not really worth the 30 days I spent working on the offer but perhaps you will do better or maybe they will raise the reward.

Gaming

Game Guide: Empires and Puzzles

November 30, 2023 Kasanje 2 Comments

As of 12-29-23, this offer is Early Crediting.

Empires & Puzzles (EP) is a Zynga mobile game similar to the “Puzzles &” series of games I have created guides for. I would say, though, that EP is most likely the archetype for those other games. The most marketable functions of the game are clearly present in the other games. However, EP is a far more challenging game and needs thoughtful consideration.

Upon reaching Castle Level 2, the rewards for 3 and 6 went pending immediately. The level 11 reward also went pending at Castle Level 8, and the level 21 reward was pending after completing the Castle Level 14 upgrade.

Direct Link to the offer: https://www.swagbucks.com/offer?oid=21843&rb=69384823

Special Tip

The offer allows for 60 days to complete. I purchased the 30-day VIP pack for $4.99 after 9 days of play. The VIP gets you a Second Builder, which is very important once Castle upgrades begin to take days to complete. I reached Castle Level 14 after 29 days.

There are no speedup items; you have to spend Gems, which can get expensive quite fast. You literally have to sit around for days waiting for the upgrade to finish, unless you buy the 2nd Builder.

You will also face Resource bottlenecks where your Storage Capacity cannot handle what you are generating. But the upgrade costs can, at times, exceed your capacity.

The objectives were credited to me early. I received the Level 3+6 rewards after upgrading to Castle 2. The level 11 reward went pending at level 8.

I don’t think the 30 VIP counts as a Gem Purchase. There is a login gift for accessing the Official Website every day for a week. This rewards Universal Trainers (Hero EXP) and Food Crates worth 500k each. If you miss a login day, though, you lose the streak and cannot get the crate. You can easily log in to the website by clicking on any link in the “in-game” mail system.

The offer terms

Strategy

I spent all of my Iron resources and most of my Food attempting to strengthen my troops and upgrade some unnecessary facilities. Unlike the “Puzzles &” series, here your primary source of resources is from the Farm and Mine. Be mindful of your spending.

That said, there are more options to collect resources. The Watchtower will generate resources once built. You get them from fighting on the Map, PvP battles, and purchasing them from the Shop using Gems.

The Stronghold needs to reach level 21 to get the full reward. Your HQ and all other buildings need Iron to be upgraded. The only exceptions are the Mine and the Watchtower, which can only be upgraded using Food. You will also need your Food to level up Heroes and to train new ones.

Buildings

Heroes

There are 5 colors to match each of the tiles. Each color has a large list of corresponding heroes and a mixed selection of Class types. Fighter, Ranger, Monk, Paladin, Barbarian, Wizard, Sorcerer, and Rogue.

The heroes are ranked using a star system, including 1-5 stars. There are limitations on the maximum level of a hero based on its star rank. A single-star hero can reach a maximum of level 20. However, you can still upgrade the otherwise capped hero to improve their Special Skill.

Training Camp

This facility is used to generate both new heroes and Troops, which are attached to heroes instead of equipment, such as in other games. At the first stage, the building will be able to make Common (1-star) heroes. Further upgrades to levels 2 and 3 will unlock Uncommon (1-star and 2-star) heroes, and a faster process to generate Common heroes. At level 20, the building will make Epic and Legendary units.

Ascension

You will see a partially filled chevron on each hero; this is the Ascension rank of the hero. When a hero has maxed out its experience points for a rank, you will be able to upgrade it to the next tier, and the chevron will fill in accordingly.

The tutorial will have you upgrade and ascend Sharan (Red, Ranger), who will be your Healer for most of Season 1. After leveling her up to 10, you will be instructed to ascend her to the second chevron.

Skills

The best way to improve Special Skills is to use duplicate heroes during the leveling process. You will see that you only get a 2-4% chance of Skill improvement when selecting generic heroes as fodder for leveling. If you use a duplicate hero, you will get a 25% chance of Skill improvement. This is increased to 100% if the target hero has been fully Ascended.

Battles

Combat uses the standard Match3 style. There should be little difficulty with this, except perhaps in PvP. Notably, the combat system in EP includes the ability to craft and use Potions and other items during PvE combat to heal, buff, or debuff. You could potentially use items to clear stages if you had the spare goods available. The Forge can be upgraded to craft many useful potions.

Raids (PvP)

A feature unique to EP is the Raid function for PvP battles. The Watchtower building in town will generate resources for you over time. These resources can be collected once every hour, but are susceptible to theft by other players attacking you in Raid battles. Importantly, only the resources generated by the Watchtower can be stolen. Your primary resources are safe from attack.

The “Find Opponent” function does not match players based on their relative ranking. In the early game and beyond, you will encounter extremely powerful players in the Raid function. You can ask for a new opponent by paying Food. Be careful not to spend all of your food attempting to locate a suitable opponent.

Gaming

Game Guide: King of Avalon

March 5, 2022 Kasanje Leave a comment

2024: This guide was written for older offer terms. The new offer is $295.80.

Most game functions remain the same. Notably, level 18 was the previous final goal. The new requirement is level 32, which is unachievable within the available time.

I would suggest going for the level 22 reward and completing all spending requirements. This should earn you $18.80.

Offer Link: https://www.swagbucks.com/offer?oid=24749&rb=69384823

It’s a fairly generic medieval city simulator. Lots of resource collecting, mini events, both friendly P2P interactions and PVP. Everything is time based and you get items to speed through the boring bits.

The walkthrough though wasn’t quite accurate. The fellow was on an earlier version of the game that had functions that are no longer available for strictly free play.

You’ve got a (Green) Stamina bar which lets you take actions like attacking monsters or barbarian camps. Other actions like gathering resources or attacking other players is free. You also get a (yellow) Stamina bar for a mini game where you lead your dragon knight through a dungeon.

Your Stamina will regenerate slowly over time. The bar is Full at 100 points and you get 1 point back every 5 minutes, it take 8.5 hours to completely refill from zero.

In the Skill Tree “Balance” you can put Lord skill points into Stamina Recovery 1 (5% Max), and Tier 2 (20% Max). In the VIP perks there is a Lord Stamina recovery boost that will speed up the recovery rate. One of the Blue Heroes you can get “Sir Gaheris” has a talent that will boost your Stamina Recovery Rate.

For the resources I would strongly suggest starting a farm town and placing it next to your main city. You can raid it for resources that you need. Alternatively you can attack other players, abandoned towns, or ask your Alliance members to send you resources.

The high level Alliances get lots of Gifts that may include Gold or big resource items. You can use Gold to pay for anything you are missing.

All actions give you experience for your Lord and add to your Power rating. Certain game functions like equipping much needed armor are not available until you reach higher Lord levels.

The Swagbucks offer says you need to reach a level of 16 but doesn’t specify if this is Lord level or Stronghold level to get the points. The resource requirements go up tremendously each level, far beyond what you city can produce. You are expected to buy your way there or go crazy on PVP. Ransacking nearby cities will get you the resources you need but takes a long time.

Right so, at Stronghold level 16 you get access to the vault which help out as you can boost your Gold for premium purchases (pay-wall) and the Marketplace where you can buy speed boosts and more resources. If your Lord level is 16 at this point you can wear equipment which will add like 1.5 million to your power rating per piece.

To move from stronghold level 16 to 18 you need around 18 million of food/wood and 4-8 million Iron/Silver. The most I could gather at this point was 600k resources and even that took 1-2 hours per run.

Most of the videos I watched said to make another city and then raid it for resources which I did naturally. With a farm account parked right next to my city I was able to attack it and got around 4 million wood in 30 minutes. I had do lots of missions on the other account to replenish those stores for the next attack but it was much mote efficient than doing Gathering or real PVP.

During the tutorial you are prompted to join an Alliance which is where most player to player interactions occur. I didn’t want a lot of pressure and so opted to make my own alliance at this stage. However when I woke up the next day the guild was full to capacity. The open enrollment option is on by default so I had a bunch of teammates suddenly. Pressure.

If I had to do it all over again I would definitely pay the dollar to get the First Recharge pack. The hero included gives major bonuses to construction that would make the 4-5 day completion possible. Having the right Economic heroes set in your Council makes the game playable. The Military heroes are of less use if you are just going for the point reward.

Gaming

Game Guide: Puzzles & Survival

October 22, 2021 Kasanje 4 Comments

This is a variant of Puzzles & Conquest but with Zombies.

Update 2023: I am updating this guide to match the current offer terms on both Swagbucks and MyPoints. You have 30 days to complete the offer. It utilizes the Tiered Objectives method, allowing you to stop at any point you decide.

You may have read my guide to Puzzles and Conquest; this one is a reskin of that game, or maybe the other way around? If you have completed the other offer, you won’t have any trouble completing this one.

The rewards shown below are using the MyPoints calculation of 150 points = $1.

Unlock a 5-star hero = 500 points ($3.33)
HQ Level 11 = 1,700 ($11.33)
HQ Level 16 =4,250 ($28.33)
HQ Level 23 = 20,400 ($136)
HQ Level 31 = 34,000 ($226.67)
Total Reward = 60,850 ($405.67)

Puzzles & Survival offer terms and conditions from the MyPoints website as of year 2023.

My total spending on this offer

If you are not already a member of Swagbucks, MyPoints, or InboxDollars, I strongly recommend signing up. These sites are a great source of extra income for spontaneous purchases.

Game Strategy

Put most of your Talent points into the Economy skill tree. The Fast-Build ability will reduce construction time by a considerable margin. Make sure you first activate the ability and then start the construction. It also works with Research timers.

Alliances

Find an alliance early on and don’t fret about jumping to a different one if there are not many active players. If the alliance leader has not set a custom name or their power level is lower than your own, you may need to either switch alliances or depose them and take over the alliance yourself. Construction speed boosts and Shields may be purchased through the alliance shop. These are useful for completing the offer.

Don’t worry if there is no one online when you want to raid. The game will provide assist marches to your raid, allowing you to successfully solo Monster Lairs.

You just need enough troops to win the battle. Hero fragments for Chester, Otto, Flint, and Requiem can all be acquired from battling monsters on the world map.

I would advise you to focus mainly on the raids as they provide Chests that contain large amounts of Player EXP. You can also save your chests to open only during events that require you to collect specific resources or hero fragments. Often, having a cache of chests available will make the difference in reaching the highest tier of Daily or Weekly events.

Hero Types

Just as with Puzzles & Conquest, I really want to stress that you need to focus on your Economy heroes. They will reduce your construction resource costs to zero; the same goes for Research. You will get a bonus to your Lord’s experience gain, Free Time on building speed-ups, and big boosts to resource-building outputs, as well as gathering speed and marching speed.

You will need 10 fragments to unlock and add a hero to your collection. Skill unlocks are based on hero level (31, 71, 131).

The strength of the skills is based on the Enhancement Tiers shown here.

Unlock = 10 Fragments
First Enhance = 10 Fragments
Second Enhance = 20 Fragments
Third Enhance = 35 Fragments
Fourth Enhance = 50 Fragments
Fifth Enhance = 75 Fragments

Special Hero List

Got a nice visual display here to help. The heroes you want to focus on are as follows:

Kento (2 Star): Take Kento to level 31 and stop. Enhance whenever you get enough fragments or whole pieces.

Xavis (2 Star): Take Xavi to level 31 and stop. Enhance whenever you get enough fragments or whole pieces.

Flint (3 Star): Take Flint to level 31; you can even go to 71 if you want the extra bonus. Enhance whenever you get enough fragments or whole pieces.

Chester (3 Star): Take Chester to level 31, you can even go to 71 if you want an extra bonus. Enhance whenever you get enough fragments or whole pieces.

Otto (4 Star): Take Otto all the way to 71. He is also good at the Campaign.

Varvara (4 Star): She is also good to take to 71 and get the full bonus. As a 4-star, she will fight well in the Campaign.

Anahita (3 Star): She gives Free Speed on timers. The only other way to get this benefit is by getting higher in your VIP rank.

Other Economy heroes can be leveled to either 31 or 71 as needed. Your Combat heroes, including Fighters, Riders, Shooters, and Vehicles, don’t necessarily need to be leveled up. You should select a team of five to serve as your primary heroes for all battles. These heroes you will want to level to the max as resources permit.

Strategy Continued

This guide was originally for doing the offer without spending money. However, the current offer terms do require spending some money, in my opinion. I would suggest spending $4.99 on both the Builders and Researchers gear sets. They will reduce the Resource costs for all construction and research up through Headquarters level 16.

In my first attempt at this game, it took me 5 days and all my resources and speed-ups to get to HQ level 15. Sadly, I missed out on the extra bonus at the end of the Beginner event. I still got my 5-star hero, but not the extra fragments to enhance him. It takes 2 days to upgrade from 15 to 16, with about a 14% Construction Speed boost. You get the War set of Gear for free initially and can start crafting Gear at Forge level 16.

I would strongly advise not using the Recycle option to try to unlock a 5-star hero. The stat bonuses you can get from your 2 and 3-star heroes are worth more than the combat advantages a 5-star hero may impart in the early game. Also, after the beginner event ends, 5-star heroes can be acquired through weekly events and various minigames.

Something else to note: the 5-star hero unlocked through the beginner event can be upgraded if you manage to reach HQ level 17 before the event ends. This will require rushing the construction, as the building time exceeds the time limits of the event.

Fox’s Test

Fox’s Test is an event that occurs 3 times a week at set intervals. Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Here are a portion of the potential questions and the corresponding correct answers. This list is by no means exhaustive. There is an unsorted mess of a list available at AppGamer.

Question	Answer
Why do mosquitoes need blood?	Lay Eggs
Where was the first stamp issued?	UK
Ice skating was first intended to be..?	Vehicles
What constellation is Altair located in?	Aquila
What happens to the speed of a falling object the longer it falls?	Faster and Faster Until It Lands
Which of the following is not an available function in the game?	Super Weapon Refinement
Which of the following is true about an Alliance showdown?	Attempts will not be returned once quitting the quest.
In what country is the Pyramid of the Moon located?	Mexico
How many types of talents does a commander have?	3
What does Freon cause?	Damage the Ozone Layer
Which country hosted the first FIFA World Cup?	Uruguay
What will you get upon resetting a Hero?	All
What deficiency causes Scurvy?	Vitamin C
what will you need to use to clear stages during a campaign?	AP
Who invented the telephone?	Alexander Graham Bell
What happens if you convert items in your bag?	Items will turn into diamonds or resources
Which of the following items can you not use diamonds to purchase?	Troop Training Cap Up
Which of the following is not a function of the bank?	Resource Transport
What is Mars’ career?	Auto Racing
Which of the following positions does Fox hold?	President of the National Association of Medicine
What does Chia-hao want to do?	Save more people
Which of these is the greenest energy source?	Solar
What is the first organ to age in the human body?	Thymus
Which of the following is true about the Trials of Survival?	Grant EXP Bonus upon unlocking Path to Glory
What color is the blood of an earthworm?	Red
What is the nature type of Tomoyo?	Purple
Why did Marshall become permanently lame?	Saving His Son
What’s the relationship between Chae Seoyun and Nam Hayul?	Adoptive Mother and Daughter.
Which of these is not a Nobel Prize Category?	Mathematics
What hero will you encounter in Eclipolis?	Barbie
Where is the Ugly Duckling from?	Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairytales
How much does an adult human brain weigh?	1400g
What is the most recently established Nobel Prize?	Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
What inspired William G. Morgan to invent volleyball?	Basketball
When can you embark upon a Hero Challenge in the Ruins?	Monday
Which of the following is not a function of a research lab?	Obtaining Hero Fragments
What is the largest organ in the human body?	Skin
Which of these best describes the origins of the marathon?	Wars
What is the most northerly capital in the world?
What did Griffin wish to do?	Always be there for his daughter.
Which country invented tanks?	UK
What was Marshall’s official designation?	Machine Gunner
What is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust?	Aluminium
Who was key in developing a vaccine in The Last of Us?	Ellie
Who is the sheriff of Glinton?	McCarty
What is the birthplace of the Olympic games?	Ancient Greece
How did McCarty finish the bandits off?	Gun
What’s Chester’s weapon?	Three-Way Valve
What does Chester like to do?	Smoke
What is the component of gastric acid?	Hydrochloric acid
What country does Greenland belong to?	Denmark
What is the largest island in the world?	Greenland

Answers to Fox’s Test

Other games in this franchise include Puzzles & Conquest and Palace & Puzzles.

Gaming

Game Guide: Puzzles and Conquest

October 10, 2021 Kasanje 7 Comments

There are varying versions of this game offered on Swagbucks and other platforms. This guide is for an older offer, but the gameplay tips are still very valid.

Puzzles & Conquest is a Build & Battle mobile game that incorporates Match3 mechanics for story progression.

This one is potentially a money maker, although you can do it without a purchase if you’d like. Puzzles & Conquest can be found in the SB Live app and it should be listed for at least 1,981 SB.

Offer Terms

Offer Terms require you to reach Castle level 15 and to acquire a 5-star Hero to get the full reward.

Total spending for the offer

P2W

Very easy. After you complete the tutorial there will be a pop-up offer to buy Lucifer Hero for $4.99, he is a 5-star hero.

Beyond that, you only need to reach Castle level 15. You will get a large cache of Gems when you buy the pack, which can be used to speed through building upgrades to reach castle level 10.

F2P

If you are going for the full reward and don’t intend on spending any money on packs or heroes this is what you’ll want to focus on.

Your Economy heroes will give big discounts on Building/Researching Costs, Construction Timers, Troop Training Capacity, Gathering Speeds, and Resource Output Speed.

Our goal is to get the Castle up to 15 ASAP and clinch the 800 points in the Beginner Event: Saurland’s New Dawn. This will earn us our first 5-star hero.

Summoning

You will need 10 Fragments to initially summon the Hero. The bonus the hero provides is based on their Level and Enhancement Rank.

Heroes can achieve 8 Ranks from collecting Fragments; however, the Economy heroes only go to 5th rank.

For this offer, you will want to collect Scarlet, Harald, Sakhir, Albertus, Lamassu, and Elros.

You get 5 free summons per day at the Basic level and 1 free rare. You also get 1 free Deluxe summon every 2 days. Playing in the Campaign will also earn you basic summon tokens as well as Blitzing the campaign missions for rewards.

Several events will play out in the first week that will provide additional summoning opportunities.

Tips & Tricks

You should wait until you have 9 tokens available and then do the discounted (10x) summon option.

You will get both Fragments of Heroes and also have a chance at a “whole” hero. Since we don’t need to clear many levels of the Campaign for our strategy you won’t need to only level up Good heroes.

Just focus on getting your Economy Heroes all up to level 31 and then Enhancing them with your collected fragments.

Recycling

In the Hero tab under Bag, you can Recycle hero fragments that you do not need.

You will get points for each recycled fragment and these in turn can be used to get the Economy fragments. If you exchange your Military fragments for Economy, you will get a large amount.

Hunting

You can Hunt Monsters on the world map to get Scarlet and Nilesh fragments.

Monsters levels 1-9 will drop Scarlet and 10-19 have a chance at Nilesh or more likely Scarlet. Getting Scarlet to max rank is easy due to the numerous drops of her fragment in the game.

Hero Bonuses

Economy Heroes and their bonuses, at level 31 Rank 5:

Scarlet: +500 Troop Training Capacity, Research Iron Cost -100k.
Harald: Gold gathering Speed +30%, Hunt March Speed +30%.
Elros: Gathering Troop March Speed +30%, Gathering Speed +10%.
Sakhir: Free Time Speedup +10 (mins), Building Iron Cost -100k.
Lamassu: Gold Output +10%, Building Food Cost -100k.
Albertus: Hunt March Speed +10%, Research Food Cost -100k.

My Progress

Offer Terms

Strategy

Key Strategies for High Power Growth

Offer Spending

Power Levels

Using Gems

Farming Gems

Events and Quests

Buying Packs

CoD Redemption Codes

Community

Heroes

Hero Specialties

Fighters

Gatherers

Expeditions

Wall Map

HQ Upgrade Requirements

The Best Pet for your Hero

Mages

Infantry

Marksmen

Cavalry

Commander Pairings

Magic Legions

Infantry Legions

Cavalry Legions

Marksmen Legions

HQ Upgrade Rewards

Warning!

Offer Terms

Goals

Strategy

Alliances

Player

Heroes

Upgrading Dinosaurs

HQ Upgrade Requirements

Town Layout

Airship

Codes

Bugs

Final Result

Special Tip

The offer terms

Strategy

Buildings

Heroes

Training Camp

Ascension

Skills

Battles

Raids (PvP)

My total spending on this offer

Game Strategy

Alliances

Hero Types

Special Hero List

Strategy Continued

Fox’s Test

Offer Terms

Total spending for the offer

P2W

F2P

Summoning

Tips & Tricks

Recycling

Hunting

Hero Bonuses

"…for Fun and Profit…"