Kingshot War Academy Guide
Updated October 12, 2026
The War Academy adds powerful research bonuses and unlocks Tier 11 troops, but unlocking them is only part of the investment. Truegold Dust, Gold, and ongoing resource consumption all shape your progress. This guide covers access requirements, research priorities, complete cost figures, and practical spending plans.
Unlock Requirements and Building Upgrades
You need a server age of 220 days or more and a level 30+ Town Center. After reaching the age requirement, wait for your server’s first Internal Castle Battle. The building appears in your city’s southern area on the following Monday.
Two materials support progression:
- Truegold Dust: Required throughout War Academy research.
- Truegold: Used for building upgrades and selected research nodes.
Reaching Truegold Level 5 is mandatory for T11 unlocks. Upgrading the Academy from Level 1 through Level 5 requires 1,135 Truegold, with a combined 2.5% Research Speed bonus.
If T11 is your committed goal, completing those upgrades upfront lets more subsequent research benefit from the speed increase.
Getting Truegold Dust and Truegold
The Top-up Center offers the Truegold Dust Weekly Card and Truegold Dust Pack. The weekly card offers better value. Truegold purchases include the Truegold Weekly Card and Truegold Pack.
Inside the Academy, the Truegold Dust Exchange refreshes daily:
| Payment per exchange | Dust received | Daily exchange limit |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 Gold | 1 | 20 |
| 10 Truegold | 13 | 200 |
Avoid routinely converting Gold into Dust if you intend to unlock T11. The troop unlocks themselves require substantial Gold reserves.
Research Rows and Recommended Priorities
The Academy’s six research rows combine army-wide improvements, troop-specific bonuses, and T11 unlocks.
| Row | Research focus | Priority or requirement |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Truegold Battalion | Three deployment nodes; each caps at Level 5. Completing all grants +3,000 Squads Deployment Capacity. |
| 2 | Health and Lethality | Infantry: Health before Lethality. Archers: Lethality before Health. Cavalry: balance both, or favor Lethality. |
| 3 | Truegold Legionaries | Each of three nodes reaches Level 12 and adds 33,500 Rally Capacity. Completing all adds 100,500. |
| 4 | Attack and Defense | Infantry: Defense before Attack. Archers: Attack before Defense. Cavalry: balance both, or favor Attack. |
| 5 | T11 access | Unlocks Truegold Infantry, Truegold Archers, and Truegold Cavalry individually. |
| 6 | T11 support research | Improves healing time, training resource costs, and healing resource costs. |
Start with deployment capacity: it is valuable regardless of spending level. Then prioritize the stats supporting your main troop type. Rally-capacity research becomes especially attractive when expanding the force you can lead.
For each T11 type, you need War Academy Truegold Lv. 5, plus its corresponding Attack and Defense research both at Lv. 12. The final unlock node alone consumes 2,236 Truegold Dust and 1,000,000 Gold.
After unlocking a troop type, three specializations become available:
- Truegold Aid: Shortens healing duration.
- Truegold Training: Lowers training resource expenditure.
- Truegold Healing: Lowers healing resource expenditure.
Prioritize the two resource-saving paths. Truegold Aid is less urgent when you have access to the monthly card’s instant-healing feature.
Total Research Budget
The final unlock price is not the full investment. Use these totals when planning prerequisite research and later specializations.
| Research scope | Truegold Dust | Gold | Truegold cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| One T11 type | 13,421 | 3,974,000 | 10,324 |
| Three T11 types | 40,263 | 11,922,000 | 30,972 |
| Extra research, one type | 13,953 | 4,066,000 | 10,733 |
| Extra research, three types | 41,859 | 12,198,000 | 32,199 |
| Complete T11 research package | 82,122 | 24,120,000 | 63,171 |
Keep the Academy’s building-upgrade budget in mind separately when mapping your progression.
T10 Versus T11: Healing Expenses
T11 units have stronger stats and better combat performance, but healing generally consumes about 150% more resources, or roughly 2.5× the T10 amount. A healing budget of 1 billion therefore becomes approximately 2.5 billion.
The following figures retain the listed units; K means thousand. Time entries are gem-equivalent measurements.
| Troop | Expense | T10 → T11 | Added cost | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archer | Food, K | 1.7 → 4.3 | 2.6 | 152.94% |
| Archer | Wood, K | 2.5 → 6.4 | 3.9 | 156.00% |
| Archer | Stone | 430 → 1,000 | 570 | 132.56% |
| Archer | Iron | 140 → 350 | 210 | 150.00% |
| Archer | Time, gems | 7 → 13 | 6 | 85.71% |
| Infantry | Food, K | 2.7 → 6.7 | 4 | 148.15% |
| Infantry | Wood, K | 2 → 5.2 | 3.2 | 160.00% |
| Infantry | Stone | 490 → 1,200 | 710 | 144.90% |
| Infantry | Iron | 100 → 250 | 150.00% | |
| Infantry | Time, gems | 7 → 13 | 6 | 85.71% |
Average resource increases are 147.88% for Archers and 150.76% for Infantry. The Archer comparison is labeled 2.4×, although its percentage more closely supports the general 2.5× budgeting rule. Infantry is likewise approximately 2.5×.
T10 Versus T11: Training Expenses
Training follows the same broad pattern: approximately 150% higher resource costs, equivalent to 2.5×.
| Troop | Expense | T10 → T11 | Added cost | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archer | Food | 17,430 → 43,570 | 26,140 | 149.97% |
| Archer | Wood | 25,790 → 64,480 | 38,690 | 149.98% |
| Archer | Stone | 4,330 → 10,810 | 6,480 | 149.65% |
| Archer | Iron | 1,400 → 3,490 | 2,090 | 149.29% |
| Archer | Time, gems | 94 → 111 | 17 | 18.09% |
| Infantry | Food | 27,880 → 69,700 | 41,820 | 150.00% |
| Infantry | Wood | 20,910 → 52,280 | 31,370 | 150.02% |
| Infantry | Stone | 4,880 → 12,200 | 7,320 | 150.00% |
| Infantry | Iron | 1,020 → 2,530 | 1,510 | 148.04% |
| Infantry | Time, gems | 94 → 111 | 17 | 18.09% |
The resource averages are 149.72% for Archers and 149.52% for Infantry, both approximately 2.5×. Time increases fall around 18–86%, considerably below the resource increases.
Choosing a Plan for Your Budget
Free-to-play: Avoid making T11 your target. Unlocking and maintaining these troops is expensive. Complete the three deployment nodes, then strengthen your main troop type through Health, Lethality, Attack, and Defense research benefiting your T10 army. Possible future T8 Truegold troops are speculative, not a confirmed progression option.
Mid-spenders: Aim for at least one T11 type matching your specialization, such as Infantry. Its combat advantage is meaningful, but prepare resource supplies first. At least one farm account is strongly recommended. Follow the unlock with training- and healing-cost reductions.
High-spenders: Pursue all three types and the full tree. Packs accelerate Truegold and Dust acquisition, while a farm account still helps sustain frequent fighting.
Quick Tips
- Finish deployment-capacity research before chasing expensive prestige upgrades.
- Reserve Gold for unlocks rather than routine Dust exchanges.
- Budget for repeated healing, not merely your first T11 batch.
- For KvK’s Increase Power stage, activate a Training Capacity buff through City Bonus or Noble Advisor.
- Begin T10-to-T11 promotions on Day 1 or 2, allow timers to progress naturally, and collect on Day 4.
- This promotion schedule can preserve 2–3 days of speedups while placing the power gain inside the scoring window.