Forums → Game Walkthroughs → The King of Towers, guide for Equipment and GS/Gold Farming By omegaprototype

Equipment usage, improvement and GS/Gold Farming

Equipment is one of the many features in the King of Towers (KoT) it serves multiple purposes, the first is to increase Hero’s Life, Strength, intelligence and agility stats in order to have a better performance in the Tower Defense. Also, equipment can be used to increases the overall Battle Power (BP) and to gain an advantage in Player vs. Player (PvP) interactions. However, boosting your equipment can be really expensive in terms of materials cost-efficiency, for that sometimes it’s better to aim for a better profit ratio. There are many options regarding equipment availability, some based on their in-game rarity and other, sadly, based on the purchase with real money.

The following guide will make a quick summary of concepts in regard of equipment and an explanation of a high-profit but tricky method known as the Grindstone (GS) and game currency (gold) farming using the Essence Solvent Disassemble feature.

If you are only interested in the farming part of the guide, please scroll down to it.

***** Equipment labels *****

In order to avoid confusion it is important to be clear on the labels used to describe equipment. Equipment is initially given in the tutorial; however they are mostly earned in daily tasks such as Boss Clash and Blitz Acres (BA); by forging them, by playing certain events or directly buying them with premium currency (diamonds which need real money).

*Note: All the Heroes (Knight, Archer, Mage and Bomber) can equip either the axe, staff, whip, dagger, bow or etc., regardless of the Hero Class as long as they have the required Hero Level.

 Equipment Enhancement Level: This is improved with gold and/or GS, the higher the Enhance Level and the Rarity level, the most expensive it becomes. Enhancement boosts stats and can be a task for certain Game-Events, It is capped by your Kingdom Level (KL) and it is not dependent of the Hero Level. This can be done inside the Hall of Heroes -> view -> enhance.

 Equipment Rarity level: as other items in the KoT equipment go on a scale of colors with ranges such as Gray (common), Green (special), Blue (Elite) Purple-ish (Wicked) and Orange (Legendary). After the expansion there has been some confusion on these labels, for such this are some notes on this confusion:

1. While Wicked used to be equal to Purple items, in the current game there are Orange Equipment that have the same Enhance Value of a Wicked gear.

2. Purple gear does include other categories of wicked such as Event-exclusive gears or “Of the Brave” (Brave) gear. While they are all technically the same Rarity, they have different individual qualities: for example at a given same level, some have more BP but less stats or vice versa, or have special stat bonuses if the full set is equipped.

3. Orange was originally an exclusive Player feature, but there is high-end gameplay equipment with an Orange background without being Legendary (and so, being wicked).

*Said considerations are very important at the moment of calculating profit when using an Essence Solvent

 Equipment Hero Level: As it name hints, it is tied to your hero current level, meaning that in order to be equipped to your hero it has to be the said level or higher. In later expansions the Forge building (initially: Combine and Armory) got a new feature called: “Technology Factory” with 2 options:

1. Research – For a cost, it allows you to upgrade to the next Rarity level. E.g.: from Elite to Of-the-Brave; or from Wicked to Slaughtering

2. Smelting – For a cost, it allows you to upgrade to the next Hero level. E.g.: from a Wicked Orc Armor (20) to a Wicked Ceremonial Robe (30).

***** GS/gold Solvent Farming *****

Part 1: Introduction to the mechanic

You won’t get the full profit of your equipment until you reach KL 80 or higher, this may sound silly but there is a good reason for it, just let me go in order:

As said above in “Equipment Hero Level” the new mechanic “Research” - The chance to upgrade your hero equipment rarity provided a whole new use for the Essence Solvent, in short: you invest materials to upgrade an Elite (Blue) gear, and get the refund of a Wicked/Of-the-Brave (Purple).

Special thanks to the user: ExSpL0Si0N for creating the wiki calculator - The following chart uses the information from the calculator to illustrate the cost-profit ratio:

As noticed in the picture the GS profit caps at Enhance Level 80, for such it is advised to start the farming once KL 80 is reached (reminder: enhance level is capped by your own Kingdom level). Keep in mind that gold profit keeps increasing per level, so the more you wait the better the results, just be aware that collecting GS may take long.

Part 2: How to do it

You will use your GS to upgrade exclusively 1 Elite(Blue) equipment until Enhance level 80. Then, you will go to Forge (building) -> Technology Factory -> Equipment Research -> Select your Level 80 Elite and upgrade it for a cost of 10 Moonstones (MS), 5k gold, 5k Honor Stars (HS) and 1 Dark Soul Crystal (DSC).

Note: Before using your solvent use an Invisibility Charm to protect your gold from the Prison Building (offline punishment).

After all this is done, you will receive an “Brave” equipment, successfully jumping from an Elite(Blue) to a Wicked(Purple) rarity item. Finally, you will go to the Equipment menu inside the Hall of Heroes and use and Essence Solvent for a 100% Wicked rarity refund. The Wicked refund provides more gold and GS than the ones used to upgrade the Elite.

*Note: MS used are also refund, both the 5k HS and the DSC are lost, but at this level it is expected that you can afford to lose them.

Re-do the process until you get another Elite to level 80+, then use the residual profit to either enhance a new equipment or invest it on other parts of your Kingdom.

Part 3: Investment and profit considerations

The farming main goal is to gain GS but the huge amount of gold earned can be used to do a quick emergency high investment for an upgrade that requires a lot of gold; for example Heroes Rank Up. For such, even when your GS needs are fulfilled you may still save some Elites 80+ as your Gold-Bank.

Keep all your Essence Solvents obtained before this point. The Solvents have an estimated value of 30k gold based on their late level Dark Trade (DT) value. They are cheaper in (DT) at low levels, can be obtained in other events and 1 is given for free every month (if you logged/ signed-in daily). Yet, the overall agreement is to consider them as a 30k gold worth item and for such must be used wisely.

Technically, every Elite(Blue) equipment can be used for the Farming but given we will stick with it for a long time it is advised to use your highest Hero Level Equipment (50 or 60). This way you can equip it and benefit from the BP and stats it provides while being enhanced.

You will save as much GS as possible and enhance exclusively one elite equipment, this of course doesn’t yield as much BP as upgrading multiple cheaper gears, but given the GS cost keeps growing you need to at least maximize 1 item. In case you managed to get at least 1 equipment ready (80+) you can continue with a 2nd elite, this way you can save some Enhance timer cool down.

GS can be obtained by Manor Planting, Daily Task, opening High level BA chests, sometimes dropped by your prisoners, or earned in some events. Overall you need plenty of them, so the farming may still be mandatory at some point.

Solvents are mostly exclusive used in this mechanic; however you also gain MS by using a solvent in Wicked+ rarity equipment. Currently the highest profit is 5 MS per wicked or 40 per Keel. Please note that keel is obtained on very late game and can be obtained in Boss Clash even by free players but only those with very strong BP and soldiers.

***** Equipment Usage *****

As said above, good equipment is not cheap and for such you have to be aware of your profit for every upgrade. The most advised strategy is to be patient and save your resources for the actual farming while you wait for the best available equipment. In the mid time, this is an overview strategy of how to rotate your equipment.

*Gray (common) and Green (special) gear

Do NOT use GS to enhance neither of them. While it takes a while for you to start gaining Blue (Elites) equipment, do NOT fell into the temptation to enhance lower rarity items as you need to save as much GS as possible.

*Blue (Elites) and BA Shards

Do not forge(Armory - create) elites from BA shards, you can directly gain Elite Gear from Late BA levels, so it is better to forge(Armory - combine) Elite shards to gain Wicked Shards and then attempt to Forge(Armory - create) a Wicked equipment.

Note* Reminder that BA levels are unlocked with your Hero level (not Equipment Hero Level, this time literally the Level of your Hero).

Once you gain your Blue (Elites) gear, you can safely equip them on your heroes and being to enhance and set up for the GS/Gold farming.

*Purple – Early Wicked Gear

With the BA shards you can create the following equipment:

• The entire Wicked Orc Set (Helm, Armor, Weapon, Amulet)
• The Wicked Staff of Vigor (Weapon) and the Wicked Shoufa (Helm)
• The Wicked Thorn Whip (Weapon) and the Wicked Shining Skull (Amulet)

In summary: you have access to the Helm (30) the Armor (20) and both the Weapon and Amulet (40). For such, Forge –> Factory -> Smelting is the earliest route a Free Player has to get powerful wicked armors over level 20.

Note: This a huge source of BP for early equipment as the only materials it requires are Stone(regular) and a few GS

* Wicked vs. Brave, Road to Slaughtering

Both gear can be Researched into Slaughtering (Slaugh) but their enhance nature yields different cost-profit. The Research cost is: 20 MS, 10k gold, 10k HS and 3 DSC. Difference relies:

1) Wicked can be directly turned into Slaugh but previously enhancing said Wicked had a big GS cost.

2) Brave could be first enhanced as an elite (having a reduced GS cost), then Researched into Brave, and later Researched into Slaugh, saving GS but greatly increasing the cost of MS used (from 20, to 30).

* Keel equipment, Purple or Orange? The Fake Legendary

Keel is the latest free-user equipment added to the game, however calling it for “Free” may be tricky, while there is no real money needed to gain it, and said user strength must be almost equal of a payer user. Keel is found as a drop% chance in the Boss clash for enemies Level 100, 106, 112 and 118. However these enemies have 1.8 Million, 2.38 Million, 3.33 Million and 5 Million BP!!! Currently there are no records of a player defeating the 5 M BP Boss, and very few players can win against the 3.33 M one. Not only said battles are extremely hard but the Equipment Hero Level requirement of Keel is 90, and can be upgraded to 100 and 110. They have both Huge BP and Hero stats, making your heroes extremely OP.

***** Final Remarks *****

Given that there aren’t many active Wiki editors, it has been hard to collect all the info available to compare Premium and Free to play Gear. However for the sake of documentation I invite you all who have screenshots of both in base form and fully upgraded form equipment such as event items and/or premium such as Frost, Havoc, and Keel.

Thank you very much for visiting my guide, If you want to add your commentary please make your entries both fully detailed and clear to reduce spam in the thread.