Quick Answer
City Hall sets the ceiling for your city. To upgrade it, finish the named prerequisite buildings and pay the resource cost. City Hall 25 directly requires Wall 24 and Trading Post 24, plus its resources and a Master's Blueprint. The larger Academy 25 dependency chain comes later; it is not the requirement for pressing the City Hall 25 upgrade button.
The useful milestones are T2 access at City Hall 8, T3 at 16 and T4 at 21, each with the appropriate Academy research. Extra dispatch queues unlock at 5, 11, 17 and 22, giving two, three, four and five queues respectively. See troop capacity and march queues for the distinction between more marches and more troops in one march.
City Hall Requirements by Level
These are direct prerequisites, not every building further down their dependency chains. Resource figures are rounded community planning values; K means thousand and M means million. The game displays the exact amount for your upgrade. Food and wood are separate costs, even when equal.
| Target City Hall | Required buildings | Food | Wood | Stone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starting level | — | — | — |
| 2 | None | 3.5K | 3.5K | — |
| 3 | Wall 2 | 6.5K | 6.5K | — |
| 4 | Wall 3 | 11.8K | 11.8K | — |
| 5 | Wall 4, Hospital 4 | 21.3K | 21.3K | — |
| 6 | Wall 5, Scout Camp 5 | 36.3K | 36.3K | 12K |
| 7 | Wall 6, Storehouse 6 | 54.4K | 54.4K | 19.2K |
| 8 | Wall 7, Barracks 7 | 81.8K | 81.8K | 30.8K |
| 9 | Wall 8, Alliance Center 8 | 122.8K | 122.8K | 49.2K |
| 10 | Wall 9, Academy 9 | 184.3K | 184.3K | 78.7K |
| 11 | Wall 10, Hospital 10 | 277.5K | 277.5K | 120K |
| 12 | Wall 11, Storehouse 11 | 417.5K | 417.5K | 180K |
| 13 | Wall 12, Archery Range 12 | 627.5K | 627.5K | 270K |
| 14 | Wall 13, Alliance Center 13, Trading Post 13 | 942.5K | 942.5K | 405K |
| 15 | Wall 14, Scout Camp 14 | 1.4M | 1.4M | 607.5K |
| 16 | Wall 15, Academy 15 | 2.1M | 2.1M | 912.5K |
| 17 | Wall 16, Hospital 16 | 3.2M | 3.2M | 1.4M |
| 18 | Wall 17, Storehouse 17 | 4.8M | 4.8M | 2.1M |
| 19 | Wall 18, Stable 18 | 7.2M | 7.2M | 3.1M |
| 20 | Wall 19, Alliance Center 19 | 10.8M | 10.8M | 4.7M |
| 21 | Wall 20, Academy 20 | 16.2M | 16.2M | 7M |
| 22 | Wall 21, Hospital 21 | 24.3M | 24.3M | 10.6M |
| 23 | Wall 22, Storehouse 22 | 36.5M | 36.5M | 15.9M |
| 24 | Wall 23, Siege Workshop 23 | 54.8M | 54.8M | 24M |
| 25 | Wall 24, Trading Post 24; one Master's Blueprint | About 82.2M | About 82.2M | About 36M |
The table follows the community City Hall reference, cross-checked against Pocket Gamer's level table. Published late-level base times and rounding are inconsistent. Use the current upgrade panel for an exact timer rather than turning a disputed reference value into a speedup budget.
Plan Two Upgrades Ahead
Suppose you are at City Hall 20. City Hall 21 needs Wall 20 and Academy 20; after that, City Hall 22 needs Wall 21 and Hospital 21. If you only watch the current button, the Hospital chain can become a surprise immediately after you reach T4 access.
Use one builder on the immediate blocker and the other on the next required branch where practical. Open each prerequisite's own upgrade panel: a Trading Post upgrade can have a Goldmine requirement, and the Wall has its own dependencies. The table above is the start of the chain, not its total cost.
Keep useful economic upgrades running when they improve your actual bottleneck. “Rush City Hall” does not mean leave the Academy idle, ignore healing capacity or refuse an Alliance Center upgrade that helps long timers. It means avoid spending a week decorating the upgrade queue with buildings that do not advance your current goal.
Make Long Timers Cheaper
Collect the available building-speed effects before starting a long construction. Once it is running, request alliance help and allow the available help to arrive before finishing the remaining timer with speedups. Use the displayed remaining time for the final calculation.
Match an event's scoring rule to the upgrade. Some rewards depend on finishing or gaining power during the stage; starting a timer during an event does not automatically score it. Keep resources in unopened items until you need them, and leave a buffer for normal training and healing.
City Hall 25 Is Not T5
After City Hall 25, you still need Academy 25 and the military research dependencies for the troop type you want. Castle books, Watchtower arrows and the other building branches can hold that route up. Follow the T5 guide before spending all your remaining speedups on construction.
FAQ
How many march queues does City Hall 17 give?
Four. City Hall 22 unlocks the fifth.
When does the Trading Post unlock?
At City Hall 10, with its building prerequisites. It is the transfer building used by a farm character.
Do all buildings need to be 25 before City Hall 25?
No. Its direct building requirements are Wall 24 and Trading Post 24. Academy 25 has a separate, much longer chain.
Why does my timer differ from a guide?
Published tables usually describe base times. Your bonuses affect the starting timer, and alliance help changes the remaining time. Budget from the value on your account.
Sources and Review
Source review: 9 September 2026. Game mechanics are drawn from the references below; spending priorities and play examples are editorial recommendations. This is source-reviewed guidance, not a claim of independent in-game testing.