From Pixel to Block: League of Kingdoms

Welcome to a fantasy Middle Age, where Orcs and Golems walk side by side on plains stretching far into the horizon. These lands are full of rare resources: Gold, Stones, Wood and according to rumours, even Diamonds!

You have decided to brave the dangers and set up your castle in these wild lands.

In the distance you can see many stone blocks with red roofs, a signal you’re not alone in wanting to take advantage of the surrounding wealth. Who knows, maybe these new neighbors could be your allies? 

Not long after you settle into your home you hear trumpets sounding loudly and the ground trembles.. this has nothing to do with the hordes of Orcs you shot down the day before, you see an army of Knights, Archers and Soldiers coming towards you.

You prepare for battle, but the army continues on its way without even looking at you. Their goal is different: to reach a magical portal that will give them unique rewards!

Presentation of League of Kingdoms

Establishing a Kingdom in a fantasy medieval environment is the League of Kingdoms (LoK) scene. The game was announced in April 2020 with a very similar gameplay to Clash of Clans but League of Kingdoms sets itself apart from the globally popular app particularly in its decentralized aspect.

With the aim of initially using Ethereum as their blockchain, the game also claims to be “multi-chain” so potentially more blockchains will be used in the future, we can’t wait to see how this will develop and what it adds to the gaming experience!

After a successful first LAND presale phase in May, the game was available a few weeks later via web browser. After that it only took two months of waiting for the second pre-sale and then the game was released on iOS and Android. 

Today, several Alliances have been created which interact with each other, they either function to cooperate or to battle in order to claim more territory. And this is for good reason as each LAND generates DAIs according to its own level of development!

Therefore it’s in the interest of owners to invest in their territory and harvest as many resources as possible and above all, protect them from others!

Rule of the Kingdoms

To understand how League of Kingdoms works, we take a look at the different layers that govern the decentralization of the Kingdom.

There are five layers, the first is based on the blockchain and then evolves until reaching ‘Congress’.

• BLOCKCHAIN: Using Ethereum, League of Kingdoms originates using this transparent foundation. 
• LAND: LANDs are Non-Fungible Tokens adopting the ERC-721 standard to operate. It is therefore possible to trade them on secondary markets.
• KINGDOMS: LANDs are where it will be possible to develop and evolve your Kingdom. From generating an army to harvesting resources, this is the core of the game.
• ALLIANCE: Alliances are necessary to consolidate and above all protect the Kingdom. They also offer the option to participate in events where going alone will be guaranteed death!
• CONGRESS: Congress is the place where the leaders, elected by the Alliances, come together to decide on the policies of the continent.

This is the structure in which the game operates. While direction of gameplay is primarily decided at the Alliance and Congress level, in the end it will be the players who choose what they do or don’t want for the game.

Important points of Gameplay

If you’ve played Clash of Clans before, the League of Kingdoms gameplay should sound familiar.

Army

The game starts with a level 1 castle, you will need to erect buildings first to generate the games resources, Stone, Wood, Wheat and Gold in order to raise an army.

This army is made up from three types of units: Knights, Archers and Warriors. Each of these units has different characteristics: While Knights will be faster, Warriors have more health and Archers more strength.

To protect resources or send your troops to assist in your alliance, it will be necessary to correctly choose which divisions you are going to send out from your Kingdom!

Ressources

There are four basic types of resources in the game: Gold, Wood, Stone and Wheat. To gain these, two choices are available to you. The first is to collect resources regularly from inside your castle, the second is to send troops outside the walls to invest in the fields around your territory.

You will quickly notice that Wheat fields or Gold mines of different levels are spread across the world map surrounding your base. Each of these buildings has its own level, the higher it is, the more resources the building will have.
It will therefore require a number of soldiers who are specifically adapted for the level of that base otherwise several round trips between your base and the resources will be necessary.

These resources will be used for the lifespan of your Kingdom. Upgrading buildings, creating units or even starting research are all essential to your game evolution.

But these are not the only ones! There are advanced resources in the game: Diamonds can be used to purchase various bonuses or increase the speed of game improvements.

Although its possible to get these each day by completing daily tasks, its good advice not to use them to speed up build times but instead reserve them and get rare items.

League of Kingdoms Rare items

There is a whole arsenal of items in League of Kingdoms that have both passive and active powers. However, it can be quite complicated to obtain them as they are only available when opening a particular resource chest.

Both types of chest can be opened in the ‘Treasure House’ and depending on the level of the building, a greater or lesser number of chests will be available per day. Basic chests can be opened every five minutes while rarer chests every 48 hours. However, by completing the in-game quests it will be possible to get a lot more!

Each item has passive powers but an active power power can be unlocked above a certain level of enhancement. Passive powers increase your production or improve the characteristics of your troops while active powers allow instant harvesting or teleportation to another LAND without needing to use an item for it.

To obtain one of these weapons, you will need to collect quite a few pieces of them. If you’re in a hurry it’s possible to use ‘puzzle pieces’ to move the evolution faster.

If you use this method, take time to choose the power that serves you best! As the number of puzzle pieces is limited, you will only be able to upgrade a limited amount of items to a sufficient level!

What are Development Points?

Each LAND has a number of development points which define its level. Very concretely, this level implies a more or less important DAI reward for its owner! 

To increase its level of development, several solutions exist:

• Participate in events close to the Shrines
• Collect resources

The 36 “Shrines” are magical portals spread across the map and can be conquered by players. If your alliance wins an event to protect these places, it will be entitled to a special bonus for 15 days.

Each resource collected in your territory will make you earn a small number of development points. Otherwise, participating in the events around shrines will reward you with medals of honor that can be exchanged for more development points.

If you have a LAND isolated from your Alliance but still want to grow it, you will need to play regularly and stay alert for announcements of in-game events.

Its strongly recommended you participate because some events reward players according to two criteria: the number of losses in the opposing army ranks… but also losses of yours!

Wasting time and resources to rebuild your army can really slow down the development of your Kingdom, also causing delay on your significant opponents.

A successful blockchain game

League of Kingdoms has succeeded in launching a blockchain game where the underlying technology is completely invisible to newcomers. Only LAND owners should have some knowledge of Web3. Linking the in-game account to the Ethereum Wallet is mandatory to manage the decentralized assets.

Where the bet has paid off is that the Alliance leaders have managed to create an entire ecosystem to educate newcomers to the Crypto space.

Whether this is through a social token on their Discord or through a distribution of governance rewards in DAI chosen by all, many initiatives have been put in place to preserve and develop each Alliance.

Even though the daily rewards aren’t huge, having the opportunity to grow in the game without being blocked at some point by an obligatory purchase is certainly attractive.

More than that, having players from outside the Crypto world who will link up with the world of NFTs, perhaps without even realizing it, is another step towards ever wider adoption!