Swordland Showdown

The marquee Alliance vs Alliance event. A one-hour capture-point battle for Relic Points, with no permanent troop losses.

Swordland Showdown is the game’s marquee Alliance-vs-Alliance event: a fixed one-hour battle window where two alliances fight head-to-head on a dedicated capture-point map. Two Legions of registered combatants plus substitutes each represent your alliance; the side with the most Alliance Relic Points at the buzzer wins the bracket.

The defining mechanic — and the reason every active alliance member should join, regardless of spend — is that troops cannot die during the battle. Every casualty is sent to a battlefield infirmary with unlimited capacity, then healed instantly and for free when you leave the map. There is no rebuild bill the next morning. March speedups and a free Advanced Teleporter recharge on a timer during the hour, so most of what you’d normally hoard for PvP is provided for you.

Eligibility is gated to a snapshot of top alliances by power, and you must be in the alliance before the registration phase closes to participate at all.

The map and how scoring works

The map has four classes of buildings. Three generate points; one cluster provides battlefield buffs.

Building	Role	Notes
Swordshrine	Top point generator (center)	Highest yield on the map. Locked until the second phase of the hour
Sanctums	Mid-tier point generators	Two on the map, flanking the Swordshrine. Holding both is the standard priority
Abbeys	Low-tier point generators	Four around the map. Steady trickle, available from the opening
Undercellars	Gathering nodes	Spawn in waves later in the hour. Big personal and alliance point boosts when mined

Buff buildings — Bell Tower (faster building captures), Royal Stables (faster teleport recharge), Hall of Reformation (alliance-wide damage buff and damage reduction), and Mercenary Camp (NPC strikes on enemy buildings) — generate negligible points themselves but reshape the rest of the fight. Royal Stables and Bell Tower unlock early and are universally taken first; Hall of Reformation and Mercenary Camp unlock alongside the Swordshrine.

Two scoring tracks run in parallel:

Alliance Relic Points — decides which bracket your alliance lands in. Winner’s bracket pays more across the board
Personal Relic Points — decides your individual reward tier inside whichever bracket you ended up in

Both tracks earn from the same actions: the first capture of a building (large one-time bonus), continuous occupation while you hold it, looting Baggage Trains that drop when a building flips, and mining Undercellars. Personal points also count enemy soldier power your marches defeat, with offensive kills worth more than defensive kills.

One mechanic is worth understanding before the fight starts: while you hold a building, half its point generation accumulates visibly on top of it as a Baggage Train. If an enemy seizes the building, those banked points scatter and any march can scoop them up. A long-held Swordshrine becomes a high-value target precisely because the banked loot is so large. This is the single biggest swing on the map.

Across every reasonable scoring model, node control beats kill counts by a wide margin. Holding buildings wins matches; hunting players for kill points does not.

What’s different about combat here

A few rules only apply during the Swordland battle hour. Knowing them changes how aggressively you can play.

No permanent troop losses. Casualties go to a battlefield infirmary with unlimited capacity and heal instantly and for free when you leave the battlefield. There is a respawn cooldown before you can re-enter
Batch healing doesn’t apply during the event. Heal speedups still do, if you want a partial heal mid-fight
Free march speedup tokens accumulate during the hour, capped at a small stack. Use them as they come in
Free Advanced Teleporter recharges on its own timer (faster if your alliance holds Royal Stables)
Spawn safe zones are one-way. You can attack out; enemies cannot attack in. Enemies in their own safe zone are untouchable to you as well
The standard defensive move is the troop encampment dance: if your city is about to be hit and you can’t shield, send your troops out — to a garrison, a rally, or even an adjacent empty tile. The attacker hits an empty castle and gets nothing

TL;DR

Sign up and show up. Troops can’t die, so the cost of a bad fight is a short respawn cooldown, not a rebuild
Play Joiner/Support: garrison buildings, fill rallies, mine Undercellars, sweep Baggage Trains
Save heal speedups for partial heals mid-battle. You don’t need a stamina or speedup hoard — most of what you’d normally stockpile is free during the hour
Clear your infirmary and pull troops off gathering before registration closes
Defensive PvP yields personal points too — hunting attackers off your garrisons is real scoring, not just chip damage

Prep

The work is logistics, not stockpiles.

Clear your infirmary and confirm no troops are out gathering or marching when the battle starts. Troops in the wrong state at entry time are excluded from the fight
Save healing speedups for mid-battle partial heals. Batch heal won’t work
Confirm your Legion with leadership and what role they want you in. Legion 1 results drive alliance rewards; Legion 2 still scores you personal rewards

You don’t need a speedup or teleporter stockpile. The hour gives you free march speedups on a timer and a free teleporter that recharges itself.

Role on the field

Garrison captured buildings. Sit your top three heroes inside; the defensive bonus from being in the garrison is significant. Most of your scoring will come from buildings your alliance is holding, not from buildings you personally captured
Join rallies rather than soloing buildings. A solo hero against a defended garrison loses
Loot Baggage Trains when buildings change hands. When a Sanctum or the Swordshrine flips, the banked points scatter — sweeping those up is some of the easiest personal points on the map
Mine Undercellars when they spawn. Pure point gain at low risk
Defend against attackers on your held buildings. Defensive kills score fewer points per kill than offensive ones, but the risk is much lower and the points add up

When to commit troops

Default to garrisons or adjacent tiles. Empty city = unattackable city. Only break that pattern when leadership calls a coordinated push — solos against a defended building don’t connect.

If you die, treat the respawn cooldown as a reset, not a punishment. Heal, swap gear if you need to, and redeploy with a target in mind.

You don’t need top-tier heroes or fully-built gear to contribute. Alliances need bodies on points; a half-built garrison sitting in a Sanctum is still generating Alliance Relic Points for your bracket.

TL;DR

You’re carrying the offensive load. Lead heroes, rally power, and gear/charm investment are the levers that matter — not consumables
Play Attacker (spearhead captures, lead rallies, hunt enemy garrisons) or Tank (anchor Swordshrine/Sanctums as the rally captain others join)
Gem-bought combat buffs apply for the full hour. Use them on coordinated push windows, not chip damage
Counter Recon before the battle to hide your troop count from enemy scouting
Avoid spending gems on heals — heals are free at the cost of a respawn cooldown

Prep

The lever is account strength, not consumables. Most of what spenders hoard for normal PvP is provided free during the battle hour.

Gear and charm tier on your top three heroes is the single biggest contributor to rally power. This is where pre-event spending lands hardest
Battle Tech research is the third Squad Power input and feeds into matchmaking; advancing relevant tech before the registration phase shifts the matchup math
Counter Recon before the battle so enemies can’t scout your city for soldier count
Pre-event damage and defense buffs bought with gems apply through the hour; queue them for coordinated push windows
Confirm your Legion assignment with leadership. Legion 1 is where you want to be if rewards matter — that result drives alliance-wide payouts

Role on the field

Attacker — spearhead building captures, lead rallies on enemy garrisons, hunt cities during PvP windows. Burst damage roles pay back here because lead heroes set rally power for everyone joining
Tank / Garrison Captain — anchor a major building (Swordshrine or a Sanctum) as the captain whose rally other players join. The buff from a strong lead hero in the garrison scales the whole defense

The two roles aren’t exclusive — most spender accounts rotate between offensive rallies and anchoring defense as the phase changes.

Gem usage during the hour

Combat buffs (damage, defense, march speed) timed to coordinated push windows. Multiple short buffs on the right windows beat one long buff burning through quiet stretches
Counter Recon refreshes if leadership expects sustained scouting
Don’t spend gems on heals. The leave-battlefield button heals everything for free at the cost of a respawn cooldown. The math doesn’t work to pay gems for what time gives you free

Alliance coordination

Above a baseline power threshold, coordination decides the match.

Honest registration. Only sign up members who will actually show up. Inactives drag matchmaking power up and roster slots down
External voice or text comms. In-game chat is too slow for live calls
Role split. A common framework is roughly thirds — attackers, tanks/defenders, and support — but the right ratio depends on your roster
Squad organization. Split active members into squads of 3–4 players, each led by one of your top-15 players. Squads move together — capture a building, garrison it, push the next adjacent node as a unit. A squad with a strong leader can lock down a quarter of the map; the same roster scattered into solo plays can’t hold anything

R4/R5 calls during the hour usually follow a pattern:

Opener: Royal Stables first (faster teleports help everyone), then Bell Tower (faster captures), then both Sanctums plus an Abbey for early Alliance Relic Points
Mid-hour: decide whether to contest the Swordshrine immediately at unlock or let the opponent take it and farm the banked Baggage Train when you flip it
Late hour: dispatch lower-power members to mine Undercellars while combat continues elsewhere
Close-out: all hands on the highest-yielding nodes. If you’re ahead, defend what you hold. If you’re behind, look for a Swordshrine flip to scoop the banked points

The other rule top alliances follow: pre-decide which fights to take and which to skip. Constant pressure on every node is a losing strategy. Picking spots wins matches.

Common mistakes

Skipping the event because “I’m F2P and I don’t PvP.” Troops can’t die during the battle. The downside risk you’re avoiding doesn’t exist here — and your alliance needs bodies on points to win the bracket
Not garrisoning early. Buildings without a garrison hold for less and flip easily. Sit your top heroes in the building as soon as it’s captured
Solo-attacking a defended garrison. Rally instead. A single hero into a defended building loses; the rally power from multiple joiners doesn’t
Leaving your city full of troops during a known incoming attack. Send them out — to a garrison, to a rally, even to an adjacent empty tile — and let the attacker hit an empty castle
Trying to batch-heal mid-event. It doesn’t work. Use the leave-battlefield button for a full instant heal at the cost of a respawn cooldown
Ignoring Baggage Trains. When buildings flip, the banked points scatter. Sweeping them up is some of the easiest personal points on the map
Wasting free teleports without Royal Stables control. The base cooldown is brutal; coordinate teleport usage with Stables status
Treating Legion 2 like a B-team. It doesn’t drive alliance-wide bracket rewards, but its players still earn personal rewards — and matchmaking math reflects both Legions’ power