Construction

TL;DR

• Never use speed-ups outside of events — the same hours of speed-up deliver 2–5x more value in Hall of Governors or Strongest Governor event windows
• Run the pre-build ritual before every major upgrade: Double Time decree → Gray Wolf pet skill → confirm start within the 5-minute window
• Embassy is the hidden bottleneck — it’s a prerequisite at every TC level in the TC25–29 range; keep it current
• Alliance help cuts build time: a full active alliance can cut a 10-day build by ~24 hours
• At TC25+, Saul’s Resourceful skill passively cuts material costs by 15% when maxed

Build queue

F2P players have 1 permanent build queue. A second queue is the single highest-value low-spend purchase in the game ($2.99 or 500 Kingdom Stars) — even guides that cover strict F2P discuss it as a borderline exception worth making.

If you’re staying fully F2P, save 2,500 gems for a 3-day temporary second queue and use it specifically around TC 20+ upgrades or before a Hall of Governors event, not casually.

VIP 4 (reachable in ~40 days of free play) adds +10% construction speed. VIP 6 provides a second queue tied to active VIP Time.

Stacking bonuses before a major upgrade

All of the following stack. Apply them in this order before starting a long build:

1. Double Time decree (Court of Justice) — cuts 20% from base time before other bonuses apply, making it multiplicatively more powerful than a flat 20%. Must start the build within 5 minutes of activation. 23-hour cooldown, costs 800,000 Contentment.
2. Gray Wolf pet — Construction Aide skill — +5% to +15% speed (scales with pet advancement tier). 5-minute duration, 23-hour cooldown. Activate immediately after Double Time.
3. Confirm VIP Time is active if you’re maintaining it (+10% at VIP 4, +20% at VIP 9+).
4. Start the build while both active effects are running.

At TC25+, Saul’s Resourceful skill (always passive, not triggered): -15% construction material costs at max level. Not a speed bonus, but meaningfully reduces the resource wall at TC27+.

Event timing

Hall of Governors (HoG): Biweekly. Construction scoring = 45 points per Power raised (early stages) / 30 points (later stages); 300 points per 1M speed-up minutes used on construction during Stage 7. Queue your biggest pending upgrade to complete during HoG.

Strongest Governor: 7-day cross-kingdom event. Day 1 focuses on city development. 1 Truegold used on a building = 2,000 points; 1M speed-up minutes on construction = 30 points. Save Truegold for this event window.

Rule: TC upgrades give the best points-per-speedup ratio at events. Never burn speed-ups on resource buildings during event windows.

Construction research

Tooling Up (Academy Growth Tree, 7 tiers): Primary construction speed research. Max bonus +27.80% combined with Tool Enhancement. Recommended stopping point for F2P: Tier 6 of Tooling Up / Tier 5 of Tool Enhancement — balanced before sharp diminishing returns.

TL;DR

• Get the second construction queue (permanent $2.99 pack or 500 Kingdom Stars) immediately — it doubles your build throughput
• Maintain VIP Time consistently — inconsistent VIP (on/off) is worse than no VIP; bonuses disappear when it lapses
• Run the pre-build ritual before every major upgrade: Double Time → Gray Wolf → start within 5 minutes
• Align the biggest builds with Hall of Governors and Strongest Governor event windows for event point efficiency
• At TC25+, Saul’s Resourceful skill cuts material costs 15% passively when maxed

Build queue

Two permanent queues are the baseline for any meaningful spend. With dual queues, the percentage speed bonuses from VIP, research, and the pre-build ritual apply to twice the simultaneous build volume.

VIP 9 (+20% construction speed, requires ~$200–300 cumulative VIP spend or years of F2P) is the major speed milestone. VIP 4 (+10%) is realistically where most mid-spenders operate.

Max Tooling Up and Tool Enhancement research fully — with dual queues running, the combined +27.80% speed pays off faster than for F2P.

Stacking bonuses before a major upgrade

Apply in this order before any long build:

1. Double Time decree — 20% cut to base time, multiplicative with everything else. 5-minute window; queue both builds ready before activating.
2. Gray Wolf pet — Construction Aide — +5% to +15%. 23-hour cooldown.
3. Chief Minister appointment — construction speed bonus when held. Coordinate with your King if you don’t hold the title.
4. Confirm VIP Time — +10% or +20%.
5. Start both queued builds within the 5-minute window.

Event timing

Same event windows apply as F2P, but at higher build values the points differential between building during and outside events is larger. At TC27–29 and TG levels, a single upgrade can represent tens of thousands of HoG points — always align your biggest pending upgrades with an imminent event.

Truegold upgrades (TC30+) score 2,000 points per Truegold in Strongest Governor. Save Truegold for those event windows, not for random daily use.