Rise of Kingdoms: the civilization and commander choices that shape your first month

Rise of Kingdoms is a 4X strategy MMO from Lilith Games where you grow a city, level historical commanders, gather on an open map and fight as part of an alliance. The PC client makes the management side comfortable, but the game quietly rewards or punishes choices you make in the first few weeks. Two accounts that start on the same day can look wildly different a month later based on nothing but resource discipline. This guide keeps your early account on the efficient path.

Before you start

• Do not spend gems randomly; hold them for VIP progress, key commanders or a second builder.
• Do not train more troops than your resource income can support.
• Avoid moving your city into someone else’s alliance territory.
• Keep your starter commanders; you will use at least one of them for a long time.
• Set your account to an active state before logging off: shield up if you have one, marches home.

Step 1: Choose a civilization for the economy

For a first month, an economy or build-speed civilization does more for you than a combat one, because faster buildings and better resource production compound every day. A build-speed bonus in particular helps you push your city hall up through the mid levels sooner. If you pick wrong, the game gives you one free civilization change, so the choice is not permanent — but use the free swap thoughtfully rather than burning it early.

Step 2: Invest in two or three commanders only

The single most common beginner mistake is spreading commander experience, stars and sculptures across everyone you unlock. Pick a small roster: one commander for farming resource nodes, one for fighting barbarians and open-field, and maybe one for defense. Pour everything into those. A few well-invested commanders clear content that a wide, shallow bench cannot touch, and you can always develop more once your core is strong.

Step 3: Level commanders on barbarians

Barbarians on the map are the cheapest reliable commander XP. Pair the commander you want to level with a strong peacekeeping commander in the same march so the fights are efficient and cheap on healing. Run barbarian hunts whenever you have spare action point stamina, and use the XP books you earn to top up your priority commanders rather than sitting on them.

Step 4: Never leave a queue idle

Your builders and your academy are your progress. An idle builder or an empty research slot is lost time you cannot get back. Before you close the client, line up the next building and the next research so something is always cooking. Getting a second builder — through gems, events or the pass — is one of the best early investments because it roughly doubles your construction output.

Save your speed-up items rather than burning them the moment you get them. They are far more valuable spent on a long city hall upgrade, or during an event that rewards power gained, than shaving a few minutes off an early building. The same goes for resource items: keep them in your bag until you actually need to build or train something, so raiders cannot take resources you have not “banked” by using them.

Step 5: Join an active alliance and use it

An alliance gives you construction help that shortens every timer, territory you can teleport into for safety, alliance resource points, and backup in fights. Pick one that is active in chat and where members actually press each other’s help buttons. Contribute to alliance builds and events even at low power; the rewards and the protection are worth more than anything you can do solo.

Step 6: Plan around VIP and events

VIP level grants permanent quality-of-life bonuses, including extra builder time and daily rewards, so spending free VIP points and cheap value packs to climb the early VIP tiers pays off steadily. Alongside that, read each event’s requirements before it starts and aim your troop training, building and commander upgrades to land inside event windows so the same actions earn event points too.

Key takeaways

• Pick a civilization with an economy or build-speed bonus for your first month; you get one free change if you regret it.
• Invest experience, stars and sculptures into two or three commanders, never a dozen.
• Farm barbarians with a peacekeeping pairing to level commanders cheaply.
• Keep both builders and your research queue working at all times.
• Join an active alliance on day one and use territory teleports and help requests.