Rise of Kingdoms Commander Talent Tree Guide: Liu Che First, Zhuge Liang Second

This is the order to level your Rise of Kingdoms commanders first, talents included, for an account that already has months in it. Version 1.1.11 landed on August 27 with the 8th anniversary and two new legendaries, William Marshal and Ivan IV, and the smite-damage meta they join has been rebalanced since spring. None of that moves the top of the list.

You will read one ranking, then one numbered tree per commander. Only the primary commander's talents apply in a march, so every build below is written for the primary slot, and you need level 60 for all 74 points. The wider picture, platforms, VIP and KvK, lives in the pillar. This page only answers where your next gold head goes.

Liu Che first, Zhuge Liang second: the order that holds at KvK

Liu Che is the first commander you take to 5/5/5/5, and his tree starts in Infantry. Zhuge Liang comes second, Hermann Prime third. Nobody else touches a gold head until those three are done.

Infantry is the march every KvK asks you for, and Liu Che carries it alone. His first skill hits several targets and slows their march, so he already works with William Wallace, an epic you own, before you ever pull Gorgo.

Zhuge Liang has the higher ceiling, but he needs a partner to reach it. Alone, he pairs with the Yi Seong-Gye most accounts already have. With Hermann Prime he becomes the archer march the current lists agree on, which is why Hermann is third and not fourth.

I rebuilt a Season of Conquest account from a fresh kingdom this summer. Liu Che with a free Wallace held the field for me before I had a second legendary. My Zhuge Liang on that account sat in the city until Hermann Prime arrived.

Rise of Kingdoms commander talent tree guide: Liu Che and Zhuge Liang, point by point

Prerequisites: a level 60 commander for all 74 points, and the primary slot. A secondary commander's talents never apply. Below 60, follow the same order and stop where your points stop.

Liu Che: Infantry tree first, rage second

1. Take Infantry to Elite Soldiers, Iron Spear and Hold the Line. Those three are the attack, defence and health your front line lives on. 2. Continue to Undying Fury for rage, then Double-Headed Axe for damage. 3. Put what remains into Attack for skill damage.

Zhuge Liang: Skill tree to Feral Nature, then Archer

1. Start in Skill with Burning Blood, then Rejuvenate. Rejuvenate gives rage back on every cast; it is the talent that makes him fire. 2. Finish the Skill tree at Feral Nature before you place one Archer point. 3. Spend the rest in Archer: Venomous Sting, Full Quiver, Razor Sharp.

I reset my Zhuge Liang once. The Archer-first tree looked stronger on the stat sheet and cast less often over the same run of level 5 forts. The reset cost gems; the order above cost nothing.

Hermann Prime and Sun Tzu talent trees: the archer pair and the free front line

Hermann Prime takes the primary slot and Zhuge Liang goes behind him. That is the pair the current tier lists rank at the top for open field, and it is why you build Hermann's tree, not Zhuge's, for it.

Hermann Prime: Archer first, rage second

1. Archer tree first, through Razor Sharp. It is the archer buff and the rage he lacks in one line. 2. Then the rage talents in his second tree, Rejuvenate above all. 3. Move Zhuge Liang to secondary. His skills still count there; his talents do not, so his tree can wait.

Sun Tzu: the infantry tree that costs no gold heads

1. Skill tree to Rejuvenate first, so his active fires often enough to matter. 2. Infantry tree next: Elite Soldiers, Iron Spear, Hold the Line. 3. Stop there. He is your Liu Che until Liu Che shows up on the wheel, and he costs XP and tomes, nothing else.

Two marches on the field at once is where I moved to the PC client for KvK. On my phone I lost the archer march to a rally I never saw coming; on one large screen both marches stay in view.

Free accounts stop at Sun Tzu and Liu Che, and that is not a defeat

A legendary costs about 690 sculptures to expertise, by the community counts, and the free sources pay in single digits. Expedition returns eight legendary sculptures across its 80 challenges. Champions of Olympia pays two per event once you hit 12 activity points. VIP 10 adds a gold key and a sculpture a day, and free accounts reach it slowly.

Keep spending on the three above if:

• you already own Liu Che or Zhuge Liang at 5/5/5/1 or better
• your kingdom's KvK needs a second march from you, not a bigger first one
• you are past VIP 10, so every day pays one key

Stop at Sun Tzu and Liu Che if:

• your only legendaries are wheel leftovers below 5/5/5/1
• you will not buy VIP, and your gold heads arrive one at a time
• the game you want is this genre without the paid ceiling

The second group has not lost anything. Sun Tzu plus Wallace is a full march that costs XP and tomes, and every account in the first group started there.

Three things that move the talent order: the rework, the reset, the two new names

The talent rework is the one reason to hold a reset. The smite-damage meta has been rebalanced this year, and further tree changes are announced. Place fresh points in the order above now; it costs nothing. Spend a paid reset only on the commander you run as primary, after the change lands.

A reset costs gems; fresh points cost nothing. That is the whole economics of this page. Every build above is written to be placed once, from the first point of the tree, without a second pass.

William Marshal and Ivan IV are not in the ranking on purpose. Both arrived with version 1.1.11 on August 27 and live on the wheel only. I do not rank a commander I have not run for a season. They go in once they have held a KvK on my account.

If you are waiting for the rework before you spend, the date and the commanders it touches are tracked in the news piece below.

Ranked by what one full talent tree buys you today. Only the primary commander's talents apply in a march.

Read next

• The full Rise of Kingdoms overview
• The talent tree rework, date and commanders touched
• Rise of Kingdoms on PC, the 5 GB client
• Games like Rise of Kingdoms without VIP tiers
• How free PC games actually make money
• Which espers to level first in NTE