The four-week shape
KvK runs once per 28-day cycle and unlocks once your kingdom is roughly 70 days old. Matchmaking pairs you with an enemy kingdom over the weekend closing week 3, the five scored prep days run Monday through Friday of week 4, and the cross-kingdom battle lands that Saturday. The Event Calendar projects the exact dates for your kingdom.
Matchmaking only pairs kingdoms of the same hero generation, rated on the power of their top 100 active players; inactive accounts don't count. Stripping gear, resetting heroes, or disbanding troops before the snapshot doesn't lower the rating, so don't bother. Kingdoms that can't find an opponent get a bye worth 100 Kingdom Coins and sit the cycle out.
Prep phase: spend on the right day
Each prep day scores a different category of spending, and the kingdom with more total points after five days attacks on battle day while the loser defends its own castle. The winning move is the same one Strongest Governor teaches: hoard for the whole cycle, then dump each resource on its day. You were going to spend the Truegold and speedups anyway; spending them mid-cycle just donates the points.
| Day | Theme | Biggest single scorers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | City Construction | Tempered Truegold (30,000 pts each), Truegold (2,000), speedups (30/min) |
| 2 | Basic Skills Up | Hero Roulette spins (8,000 pts each), hero shards, Master Emblems (6,000) |
| 3 | Pet Training | Advanced Taming Marks (15,000 pts each), pet advancements |
| 4 | Hero Development | Mithril (40,000 pts each), Forgehammers (4,000), troop training |
| 5 | Power Boost | Mithril again (40,000), gear rarity upgrades, everything unspent |
The personal daily chests cap at 200,000 points, and clearing the final chest each day is how you collect State Medals during prep. Your Gear Tracker, Pet Tracker, and Research Tracker all show what you have queued to spend; the only change KvK asks of you is when.
Battle Saturday, hour by hour
The battle phase runs twelve hours, 10:00 to 22:00 UTC. Cross-kingdom teleporters open at 10:00, the Castle Battle window runs 12:00 to 17:00 with all positions reset at its start, and the prep winner does the attacking in the loser's kingdom. Holding the castle 2.5 continuous hours wins it outright (the KvK window is an hour shorter than the domestic event's 6, and its hold requirement is half an hour shorter than the domestic 3). Three scoring streams run at once:
- Occupation: every 1,000 power holding the King's Castle or a turret earns 1 point per 60 seconds. Big garrisons parked early compound all day.
- Kills: 1 to 13 points per troop killed, scaling with troop level (level 1 and 2 troops pay 1 point, level 7 pays 7, and level 10 pays the full 13).
- Losses: your own dead troops score on the same 1-to-13 scale. Every exchange pays both kingdoms, so fighting always beats hiding.
Two targeting rules shape the day: you only earn kill points against players whose Town Center is within 3 levels of your own, and alliance buildings can't be attacked at all. Whales farming low-level cities earn nothing, so mid-power accounts matter more here than in any other event.
Turrets carry the same lethality ladder as domestic Castle Battle: +8% squad lethality for one turret, +12% for two, +15% for three, +20% for all four. The turret-first doctrine from the Castle Battle guide applies unchanged, and so do the rally mechanics in the joiner rankings.
Field Triage: why KvK deaths are cheap
Troops killed on battle day don't follow the normal death rules. Field Triage recovers 30% of them free, Medical Satchels raise that to 40%, and Rescue Orders from alliance mates add 1% each up to another 50%, capping recovery at 90%. Each member has 20 orders to give but can receive up to 50, so an organized alliance routes them to whoever fought hardest. Plan around the real cost: a full day of fighting burns about 10% of the troops you commit, and it pays loss points while doing it.
The cycle checklist
- From the moment one KvK ends, hoard: Truegold, Mithril, speedups, Taming Marks, roulette spins, and shards all wait for their prep day.
- Time your two-hour pet buffs and gear pushes so the power lands during prep, and check the gear and pet priority guides for where it lands best.
- On battle Saturday, pre-position before 12:00 UTC, garrison turrets early, and keep marches inside the Town-Center-within-3 band.
- Spend Rescue Orders on your heaviest fighters the same day; recovery only applies to battle-phase losses.
- Spend Kingdom Coins before the shop resets. It cycles every two weeks, and the winner's side of the shop carries the Mythic General shards and Truegold.
FAQ
Does losing prep mean losing KvK?
No, it means defending instead of attacking. The battle phase decides the event, and a defending kingdom that holds its turrets fights with the same +20% lethality ceiling the attackers want.
Do my own troop losses really earn points?
Yes, on the same 1-to-13 scale as kills. The design rewards showing up: a kingdom that fights and loses troops outscores one that shields through the day.
What are Kingdom Coins worth?
The Kingdom of Power shop opens after your first KvK and restocks every two weeks. Winning the event pays 50 coins against the runner-up's 15, and only the winning kingdom sees the exclusive stock: Mythic General hero shards, Truegold, and the Sky Guardian frame.
Does All Out stack with KvK?
The All Out kill event overlaps battle phases in the same cycle weeks, so kills on battle Saturday can score in both events at once.