How It Works

Quick Navigation

• Understanding Your Improvement Score
• The Optimizer (Recommended)
• Sequential vs Global: Real Comparison
• Understanding the Individual Components
• Game Mechanics & Formulas
• Red Gear Optimization
• Understanding Red Gear Scenarios
• How the Optimizer Compares Different Resources
• Resource Irreversibility System
• Tie-Breaking Logic
• How Imbuement Bonuses Are Valued
• Sorting and Display Options
• Presets and Saving
• When to Use Each Feature

Understanding Your Improvement Score

When you run the optimizer, you'll see two improvement percentages:

Main Improvement (Optimized)

Not all stats are created equal. To properly assess how stat investment will impact your gameplay, we assign weights to describe the relative impact of each stat. These weights are customized to different build priorities. For example, with a "Balance" build:

• Health on Infantry is weighted 1.2x (20% more valuable)
• Health on Lancer/Archer is weighted 0.8x (20% less valuable)
• Archer and Lancer have opposite weights when compared with Infantry

This score shows how much stronger your army gets based on what matters for your playstyle and beliefs about game balance and meta.

Raw Stat Gain (Unoptimized)

This treats all stats equally (all weights = 1.0). It shows the pure stat increase without considering your priorities.

This number is useful for comparing raw power, but the main improvement score is what actually matters for your gameplay.

Formula: stat x (1 + 0.1 x mastery) x weight

The main improvement uses your build's weights, raw stat gain uses weight = 1.0 for all stats.

The Optimizer (Recommended)

The The Optimizer is the most powerful feature - it optimizes all resources together (XP, Forgehammers, Mithril, and Mythic Gear) to find the absolute best allocation.

Why Optimization is Better

1. Optimizes the Multiplicative Formula

The final stat formula is:

Final Stat = (Base + XP Enhancement) x (1 + 0.1 x Mastery)

Optimization maximizes this entire product, not just one factor at a time.

2. Finds Synergies Across All Resources

The algorithm knows:

• Which pieces will get Forgehammers when allocating XP
• Which pieces will get XP when allocating Forgehammers
• Which red gear to ascend using Mithril and Mythic Gear
• How to maximize the multiplicative effect between all resources

3. Plans for Milestone Upgrades

Sequential approaches (XP first, then Forgehammers) can get "stuck" in locally good but globally suboptimal solutions. The optimizer looks ahead multiple upgrades to ensure resources are deployed for high-impact milestone upgrades (e.g., red gear imbuement levels at 120, 160, 200). Behind the scenes it runs several passes and keeps the best result, guarding against greedy "traps" where a cheap early upgrade would block a better one later.

Milestone Jump Strategy: The optimizer jumps directly to milestone levels rather than spreading XP incrementally:

• R108 -> R120 (12-level jump to capture +20% bonus)
• E100 -> R160 (60-level jump, skips R120/R140 if R160 is better value)
• R119 -> R120 (1-level completion to unlock milestone)

This focuses resources on high-impact upgrades. You won't see incremental spreading like R105->R106->R107 within milestone ranges.

Sequential vs Global: Real Comparison

Using test data: 400 Forgehammers, 171,930 Total XP (161,930 in gear + 10,000 in bag)

Sequential Approach:

• Step 1: Reforge (XP only): +4.9%
• Step 2: Forgehammers (on reforged): +13.2%
• Total Improvement: +18.1%

The Optimizer:

• XP + Forgehammers Together: Optimized
• With synergy detection: Yes
• Total Improvement: +19.7%

The Optimizer is +1.6% better! This might seem small, but it represents finding the true optimal allocation rather than a good approximation. Over time and with more resources, this advantage grows.

Understanding the Individual Components

XP Optimizer (Enhancement Levels)

The Greedy Algorithm

The XP optimizer uses a greedy algorithm. It always picks the upgrade that gives the most weighted value per XP spent.

Steps:

1. Calculate Value-Per-XP: Value per XP = (Stat Gain x Weight x Mastery Mult) / XP Cost
2. Pick Best Upgrade: Choose the piece with highest value-per-XP
3. Repeat: Continue until XP is exhausted

Key Insights:

• Weights matter: High-weight pieces get priority
• Mastery multiplies value: XP on high-mastery pieces is more valuable
• Diminishing returns: Higher levels cost more XP for less stat gain

Want to learn more? See our Greedy Algorithms Explained page for a deeper dive into how greedy algorithms work, when they're optimal, and edge cases where they can fail.

Forgehammer Optimizer (Mastery Levels)

Mastery Mechanics

Each mastery level provides a 10% bonus to the total stat gain provided by the enhancement level. This makes mastery extremely powerful for high-enhancement pieces!

Final Stat = Enhanced Stat x (1.0 + 0.1 x Mastery)

Steps:

1. Calculate Value-Per-Forgehammer: Stat Gain = Enhanced Stat x 0.1, Value = Stat Gain x Weight
2. Prioritize High-Enhancement: Mastery is a multiplier. Most valuable on pieces with high base stats
3. Consider Weight x Enhanced Stat: Example: Infantry Health at 1000 stat (weight 1.2x) beats Lancer Lethality at 1500 stat (weight 0.8x)

Best Practices:

• Enhance first, mastery second: Make the base large before multiplying
• Target 60+ enhancement: Don't push mastery high on low-level pieces
• Weights still matter: High-weight pieces get priority even at lower enhancement

Game Mechanics & Formulas

Stat Calculation Formula

Enhanced Stat = Base + (Level / 100) x (Max - Base)

Final Stat = Enhanced Stat x Mastery Multiplier

Example (Mythic):

• Base Stat: 0.15 (15% bonus at level 0)
• Max Stat: 0.50 (50% bonus at level 100)
• At Level 50: 0.15 + (50/100) x (0.50 - 0.15) = 0.325 (32.5%)

Note: Exact stat values vary by gear piece and are truncated to two decimal places. See Cost Tables tab for complete data.

Understanding Stat Gain in Results

The "Stat Gain" column in your optimization results shows the raw stat points you'll gain from an upgrade.

Example: Infantry Gloves (Mythic, Health)
Base = 10%, Max = 200%, Weight = 1.2

Stat Gain = 178.9 - 80.4 = +98.5 (raw stat points shown in results table)

Weighted Gain = 98.5 x 1.2 = +118.2 (Stat Gain x weight = value used for optimization decisions)

Why Weighted Gain matters:

• Higher weight = more valuable: A piece with weight 1.2 (e.g., Infantry Health) gets 20% more priority
• Lower weight = less valuable: A piece with weight 0.8 (e.g., Lancer Lethality in Balance build) gets 20% less priority
• The optimizer always picks upgrades with the highest Weighted Gain per resource spent

Reforge Mechanics

Availability: Reforging unlocks later in your Empire's progression, not at the very start. The exact unlock day is not yet known.

XP Reforge (Free up to once/day):

• Resets all Enhancement levels to 0
• Returns 100% of invested XP to your bag
• Masteries are NOT reset (keep all Forgehammer investment)
• Use this to redistribute XP optimally

Mastery Reforge (50% Loss Penalty):

• Resets Mastery levels to 0
• Returns only 50% of invested forgehammers
• Enhancement levels are NOT reset (XP investment is preserved)
• 50% loss makes it extremely expensive - rarely economical

Why This Optimizer Doesn't Support Mastery Reforging:

• The 50% forgehammer loss penalty is too high for most players
• Even "wrong" mastery investments are usually better kept than reforged
• Recommendation: If you've invested sub-optimally, simply follow the optimizer's recommendations going forward rather than taking the 50% loss

Detailed Cost Tables

For complete XP cost formulas, Forgehammer costs, stat bonus tables, and Red Gear imbuement costs, see the Cost Tables tab. All data is validated against multiple community sources and calculators.

Red Gear Optimization

Availability: Red Gear and imbuement only become available once Gear Ascension is unlocked in your Empire. Until then, treat this section as planning ahead. The exact unlock date is not yet known.

Red Gear (levels 101-200) introduces complex multi-step upgrade paths with four different resources. Here's how the optimizer handles them.

(E = Enhancement Level 1-100, R = Red Gear Level 101-200, M = Mastery)

Red Gear Exponential Scaling

Red gear (R101-R200) uses a different stat formula than Mythic (E0-E100):

• R101 = 50% stat bonus (same as Mythic E100)
• R150 = 75% stat bonus
• R200 = 100% stat bonus (DOUBLE the E100 value)

This exponential scaling makes high red gear extremely powerful. See Cost Tables tab for complete stat progression.

Red Gear Strategy: Progressive vs Conservative

The optimizer offers two strategies for Red Gear enhancement. Select your preferred strategy in the Red Gear Strategy toggle.

Progressive (Pre-Conquest Caps) - DEFAULT

Allows incremental Red Gear upgrades up to "pre-conquest" caps: R139 and R179.

How it works:

• Stops just before Conquest milestones (R140, R180)
• Allows gradual stat gain without "wasting" resources on Conquest bonuses
• Best for players who want steady progress while saving for Expedition milestones

Example path: R101 -> R120 -> R139 -> R160 -> R179 -> R200

Conservative (Expedition Milestone Only)

Only recommends Red Gear jumps to Expedition milestones: R120, R160, R200.

How it works:

• Never recommends intermediate levels (R121-R139, R161-R179)
• Focuses on big milestone jumps for maximum imbuement value
• Best for players who want to minimize locked XP until they can reach next milestone

Example path: R101 -> R120 -> R160 -> R200

Why Progressive is the default: Most players benefit from steady stat progression rather than waiting for large milestone jumps. The pre-conquest caps (139, 179) avoid spending resources on Conquest-only bonuses while still allowing meaningful upgrades.

Understanding Red Gear Scenarios

Scenario 1: Ascension (Mythic 100 -> Red 101)

What it does: Converts Mythic gear at level 100 to Red quality, unlocking levels 101-200 and imbuement bonuses.

Resource Requirements:

• Mastery 10 (prerequisite)
• 2 Mythic Gears

Critical Constraint: XP Lock - Once XP is added to Red Gear (level 101+), it CANNOT be reforged. That XP is permanently locked to that piece. Choose wisely which pieces to ascend!

Scenario 2: Imbuement Milestones (Unlocking Bonuses)

What they are: Red Gear provides percentage bonuses to troop stats at specific milestone levels.

Expedition Milestones (Optimizer Values These):

Conquest Milestones (Optimizer Ignores These):

These provide bonuses only in Conquest mode (hero-focused PvP), not troop bonuses for Expeditions.

How the Optimizer Handles This:

• Pushes toward 120, 160, 200 - Expedition bonuses provide high value
• NEVER recommends R140 or R180 - These only provide Conquest bonuses (hero health), zero value for Expeditions
• Common pattern: R139 -> R160 - Skips R140 entirely, saving 20 Mithril + 5 Mythic Gears

Exception: If you manually set gear to R140, optimizer may push to R160 from there. But it will never recommend going FROM R139 TO R140.

XP Banking Strategy (Passive)

Low-weight pieces often stay at Mythic 100 instead of ascending to Red. Why? Because XP in Mythic gear can still be reforged later! These pieces act as "XP banks" - you can recover that XP when you need it. Once ascended to Red 101+, that XP is locked forever.

Compound Upgrades (Active - When Reforge Enabled)

With allowReforge enabled, the optimizer may actively reforge low-value pieces to fund high-value red gear pushes:

• Reforge low-weight pieces (e.g., Lancer at E60, weight 0.8)
• Use recovered XP to push high-weight pieces to red milestones (e.g., Infantry E100->R160, weight 1.2)
• Only if net value gain > 0

Example: Losing 5 stat points on Lancer to gain 15 stat points on Infantry = net positive with weights applied.

Near-Miss Analysis (+10% Resources)

When enabled, the optimizer runs a second analysis with 10% more of each bottlenecked resource to show what upgrades would unlock if you had slightly more resources.

• Identifies bottlenecks - Shows which resource is limiting your upgrades
• Shows potential upgrades - What pieces could be upgraded with a bit more resources
• Helps planning - Know what to farm or save for next

If near-miss shows 0% improvement, your current plan is already optimal for your available resources. For deeper "what-if" analysis with custom resource amounts, use Plan mode.

Scenario 3: Mastery Gating (Must Master to Enhance)

The constraint: Red Gear enhancement is gated by mastery level. You cannot enhance beyond certain levels without sufficient mastery.

Mastery -> Level Unlocks:

Why This Matters: The optimizer enforces this constraint automatically. If a piece needs to reach level 160 (for Expedition bonus), it will calculate that mastery 13 is required and include that in the upgrade path.

Scenario 4: Combined Upgrades (Breaking Through Mastery Gates)

The Problem: Your piece is at level 130, Mastery 11. You want to reach milestone 160 (+60) for the Expedition bonus. But you can't level to 160 without Mastery 13 first! And mastery looks "inefficient" because the piece isn't high enough yet.

The Solution: The optimizer weighs the entire gate-crossing as one move - the mastery levels, the enhancement levels, and the milestone bonus together - against its total cost:

• M11 -> M12 -> M13 (mastery upgrades)
• Level 130 -> 160 (enhancement + imbuement)
• All resources counted together (XP + Forgehammers + Mithril + Mythic Gears)

A piece parked just below a milestone - where the next mastery level looks "inefficient" on its own - isn't left stranded: if crossing the gate is worth it overall, the optimizer plans the whole jump. This avoids getting stuck just short of a high-value milestone.

How the Optimizer Compares Different Resources

The optimizer uses percentage-based normalization to fairly compare upgrades that cost different resource types:

The Formula:

Value per % of Budget = Value Gain / (Resources Used / Resources Available x 100)

Example: You have 200k XP and 50 Mythic Gears

The mythic upgrade is better value because you have plenty of mythics (50), so spending one is only 2% of your budget!

Why This Works:

• Adapts to YOUR resources - F2P with 5 mythics vs whale with 200 mythics handled differently
• No arbitrary weights - Based entirely on what you have available
• Intuitive - "How much of my budget am I spending for this gain?"
• Prevents waste - Won't burn scarce resources on low-value upgrades

Resource Irreversibility System

The optimizer applies a 10x cost penalty to resources that cannot be recovered. This prevents wasteful spending on low-value locked upgrades.

Reversible (1x cost):

• XP in Epic/Mythic gear (levels 0-100) - free daily reforge

Irreversible (10x penalty):

• XP in Red gear (levels 101-200) - locked forever after ascension
• Forgehammers - 50% loss makes reforge impractical
• Mithril - cannot recover
• Mythic Gears - cannot recover

Why this matters: When a resource is 10x more "expensive" in the optimizer's calculations, it won't recommend spending it unless the value gain is very high. This prevents regrettable decisions like ascending low-weight pieces to Red.

Tie-Breaking Logic

When multiple pieces have identical efficiency, the optimizer uses fair tiebreakers to ensure consistent, predictable recommendations:

For Red Gear Milestones:

1. Higher efficiency always wins (primary decision)
2. If equal efficiency -> piece with higher imbuement bonus value wins (considers weights)
3. If imbuement values also equal -> uses piece position

Example: Infantry Gloves (weight 1.2, +20% Infantry Attack) vs Lancer Armet (weight 0.8, +20% Lancer Attack) at equal efficiency -> Infantry wins because imbuement bonus x 1.2 weight > Lancer bonus x 0.8 weight

For Epic/Mythic Gear (no imbuement):

1. Higher efficiency always wins
2. If equal -> uses piece position (Infantry->Lancer->Archer, Health->Lethality)

This ensures Infantry Gloves is upgraded before Infantry Helm when both have equal value, without arbitrary alphabetical bias.

How Imbuement Bonuses Are Valued

The milestone Expedition bonuses (+20% / +30% / +50% Attack or Defense at R120 / R160 / R200) are valued automatically - there's no setting to tune. The optimizer converts each bonus into the same weighted-stat currency as ordinary gear stats, then uses it as a tiebreaker: when two upgrades are otherwise equally efficient, the one that unlocks or protects the higher-weighted milestone wins.

Two guardrails keep this balanced:

• Same scale: bonuses are measured on the same scale as gear stats, so a milestone can't drown out ordinary stat gains.
• Close calls only: bonuses settle ties - the optimizer won't sacrifice raw stat value just to chase a milestone. This is why it will sometimes stop at R139/R179 rather than force a milestone that isn't worth it.

Conquest-only bonuses (R140/R180 - hero stats) aren't counted at all, since they don't help Expeditions.

Sorting and Display Options

Results Sorting

The optimization results table can be sorted in three different ways:

Weighted Gain (Default)
Shows upgrades ordered by total weighted stat improvement. Best for seeing which upgrades give you the most overall power for your build profile.

Efficiency
Shows upgrades ordered by value per resource spent. Best for players who want to maximize their gains from limited resources. This sorts by weighted gain divided by normalized resource cost (XP, Forgehammers, mithril, and mythic gear are all factored in).

Execution Order
Shows upgrades in the order they should be executed. For reforge scenarios, this ensures you reforge XP from low-value pieces before using that XP on high-value upgrades. Best when you're ready to apply changes and want step-by-step guidance.

Display Mode

Toggle between two display modes for stat gains:

Relative (+%)
Shows stat changes as percentages relative to your current totals. Useful for understanding the proportional impact of each upgrade.

Absolute (+pts)
Shows raw stat point gains. Useful when comparing specific gear pieces or calculating exact improvements.

Presets and Saving

Gear Presets

Save your current gear configuration as a named preset for quick access later. Useful for multiple accounts or farm characters.

What's Saved:

• All 12 gear pieces with quality, enhancement level, and mastery
• Resource inventory (XP, Forgehammers, Mithril, Mythic Gear)
• Preset name for easy identification

Upgrade Plan Presets

Save your upgrade plans in the Plan tab for future reference. Great for long-term goals or sharing strategies with friends.

What's Saved:

• Specific gear pieces you're planning to upgrade
• Target enhancement and mastery levels
• Starting levels (from your current gear or from scratch)

Share Codes

Both gear presets and upgrade plans can be exported as shareable codes. Use this to:

• Transfer your setup between devices (phone to desktop)
• Share your gear or plans with guildmates
• Back up your data outside the browser

Click the share icon next to the preset dropdown to copy or import codes.

When Presets Are Cleared

Your saved presets will be lost if you:

• Clear your browser cache or browsing data
• Use incognito/private browsing mode
• Switch to a different device or browser
• Uninstall and reinstall your browser

Storage: Presets are stored locally in your browser (localStorage). They persist across browser sessions and site updates. No account or login required.

Apply Recommendations

After running optimization, you can apply the suggested changes directly to your gear input:

Apply All: Updates all gear pieces with the optimized values in one click

Apply Individual: Click the apply button next to any upgrade in the results table to apply just that change

After applying, run the optimizer again to see what's next for continued improvement.

When to Use Each Feature

Use The Optimizer for:

• Planning your free Enhancement reforge + resource spending
• Finding the absolute best allocation across all resources (including spent ones)
• When you have multiple resource types to allocate (XP, Forgehammers, Mithril, Mythic Gear)
• Maximum efficiency and synergy detection

Use Individual Optimizers for:

• Understanding how each resource type works in a vacuum
• Educational purposes and learning the mechanics
• Already reforged and just got new Forgehammers
• Incremental daily upgrades (Next Best XP): Understanding if you can get a better return for the same investment by using the reforge feature