Part of the Progression Series:
- Rise of Kingdoms Beginner Guide: The full roadmap (Start Here).
- Power Levels Explained: What your number actually means.
- F2P Guide: Growth without spending.
Quick Answer
Power comes from four sources: buildings, research, commanders, and troops. Three of those are permanent. Troops are not — a bad rally can delete millions of power in ninety seconds. So the fastest sustainable way to gain power is to keep your Academy running 24/7, keep City Hall on the highest upgrade you can afford, and only train troops when you actually need them.
Overview
Every governor eventually hits the wall where power growth slows to a crawl. The wall is almost never a resource problem. It is a queue problem: empty build queue, idle Academy, commanders sitting at level 30, marches parked in the city.
Power is just the sum of what you own. The question is not "how do I get more power" — it is "which of my queues is empty right now".
The Four Power Sources, Ranked
1. Research (best value, most ignored)
Academy research is the highest power-per-resource in the game and it is permanent. Nobody can take research off you. It also unlocks troop tiers, gathering speed, march capacity, and every combat stat that matters later.
The rule: your Academy should never be idle. Not for an hour. If you are short on resources for the research you want, start a cheaper one rather than leaving the slot empty. An idle Academy is the single biggest silent loss in this game.
2. Buildings
City Hall raises the level cap for everything else, so it goes first — see City Hall requirements for what each level demands. After City Hall, upgrade whatever it needs for its next level, then Academy, then Hospital.
Resource buildings give power too, and they are cheap power. If you have spare builder time and nothing else queued, levelling farms and quarries is not wasted — it is just low priority.
3. Commanders
Commander power comes from levels, skills and talents. Commander XP comes overwhelmingly from barbarians and forts, which is why your action points should be spent daily rather than capped out and wasted.
Investing deep in one commander beats spreading sculptures across five. See how to level up commanders fast and the commander tier list before you commit sculptures.
4. Troops (last, and conditionally)
Troops are the fastest way to inflate power and the fastest way to lose it. A million power of troops looks impressive right up until someone rallies your city and it becomes a million power of nothing.
Train troops when:
- You need march capacity for gathering.
- You are preparing for a specific event or KvK phase.
- You have hospital capacity to survive a fight.
Do not train troops purely to make the number bigger. And do not train low tiers in bulk once a higher tier is close — see how to unlock T5 troops.
The Daily Routine That Actually Compounds
Fifteen minutes a day, done consistently, outgrows two hours a day done sporadically:
- Refill every queue. Build, research, and troop training if appropriate. Nothing idle.
- Send every march out to gather. Idle marches are the second biggest silent loss. Use gathering commanders on alliance resource nodes.
- Burn your action points on barbarians or forts. Action points cap and stop regenerating — capped AP is wasted commander XP.
- Tap alliance help and ask for help on your own timers.
- Collect every free source: daily objectives, VIP chest, tavern keys, alliance gifts, and current gift codes.
What to Do With Speedups
Do not burn speedups to make the power number go up today. Speedups are the resource that decides how fast you can rebuild after a real war, and how much you can push during a growth event.
The one exception: spend speedups when an event pays you for it. Construction, research and training events reward the same progress you were making anyway. Timing your big City Hall upgrade to land during a build event is free value — check the event calendar. Full detail in the speedups guide.
Common Mistakes That Stall Power
- Idle Academy. Worth repeating. This is the number one cause of slow accounts.
- Hoarding raw resources above the protected cap. Resources sitting in your city can be looted; resources spent on research cannot.
- Training troops you cannot heal. Check your hospital capacity before every fight.
- Spreading sculptures thin. Five half-built commanders lose to one finished commander.
- Not gathering overnight. Send marches out before you log off. Every time.
- Ignoring alliance help. In an active alliance this is hours of free speedups daily. See the alliance guide.
FAQ
What is the fastest way to gain power in Rise of Kingdoms?
Keep research running permanently and City Hall upgrading continuously. Those two queues produce more permanent power over a month than anything else available to a free-to-play account.
Does training troops increase power fast?
Yes, and it is the least durable power in the game. Troops are the only power source another player can delete. Train them for a purpose, not for the scoreboard.
Should I spend gems on power?
Only on things that stay: research speedups during a research event, or a City Hall push. Spending gems on troop training is how new governors end up with a big number and no resources. See how to get gems.
Why has my power stopped growing?
Check for an empty Academy slot, a parked march, or capped action points. It is almost always one of those three, not a shortage of resources.
Key Takeaways
- Research is the best power in the game — permanent, cheap, and it unlocks everything.
- City Hall gates every other building. Keep it moving.
- Commander XP comes from barbarians. Spend action points daily.
- Troops are power you can lose. Train them for a reason.
- Empty queues, not empty pockets, are what stall an account.