Kingshot's Academy has three research trees — Battle, Economy, and Growth — and the right order depends entirely on how you play. Here is what to unlock first for F2P, mid spenders, and high spenders, plus the event timing trick most players miss.
The Academy research system in Kingshot stretches across thousands of days of total project time. Nobody finishes all three trees, which means the order projects get queued determines what an account actually becomes. Wrong sequencing does not just waste time — it locks a governor into weeks of research that delivers zero return for how they actually play. A whale and an F2P player sitting at identical town center levels should not be touching the same trees in the same order.
Three trees exist: Battle, Economy, and Growth. Each unlocks from top to bottom, with early tiers completing in hours and deep tiers running weeks even with active speed bonuses. The framework below separates priority by account archetype rather than giving a single universal list that fits nobody well. Governors who keep their gem reserves ready during key research windows will find LootBar a reliable option for Kingshot top-ups without breaking the session rhythm.
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What Each of the Three Trees Actually Covers
The Battle tree handles all offensive and defensive stats across troop types — attack, defense, health, lethality, and deployment capacity. It is the deepest tree and contains the highest-value late-game nodes. It also contains the fastest early nodes, which matters for event strategy explained later.
The Economy tree splits into two categories: output skills that generate resources from town buildings, and gathering skills that increase how fast troops collect from the world map. Gathering scales better as the game progresses and should be the priority within this tree when it gets worked. Output skills generate protected resources but have a cap — the ceiling is low enough that they lose relevance once gathering becomes viable.
The Growth tree covers construction speed, research speed, troop training capacity, healing speed, and march queue unlocks. Tool Enhancement — the research speed node — sits here, as do Tooling Up (construction speed), Command Tactics (march queues), Trainer Tools (training speed), and Bandaging (heal speed). Despite being the least combat-relevant tree, it contains some of the most impactful early projects across all account types.
Projects That Apply to Every Account Type
Tool Enhancement comes first regardless of spend level. It reduces the time on every future research project, which means its value compounds across the entire account lifespan. A few percentage points off a 14-day project adds up across hundreds of future completions. Queuing this early — even before higher-priority combat stats — is the correct call.
Command Tactics unlocks additional march queues. More queues means more simultaneous gathering runs, more parallel troop training, and better output during resource events. The value kicks in immediately and never stops. Regimental Expansion sits in the Battle tree but belongs in every governor's early list regardless of archetype — increased deployment capacity benefits both rallies and gathering marches.
One mechanics note worth building the habit around early: research speed bonuses only apply when a project starts, not while it is running. Starting a long project before an active speed bonus is active wastes the bonus entirely. Waiting for a Scholar's Tower buff, a King title bonus, or an alliance decoration to go live before queuing a multi-day project is a habit that saves weeks of time over the course of a year.
F2P Priority Order: Growth First, Battle Held for Events
The core F2P insight that most governors learn too late: combat stats do not carry over into rallies that someone else is leading. Only the rally leader's stats apply to the full march. F2P players join far more rallies than they lead, which means weeks spent grinding Infantry Attack translates into negligible real-world benefit. The Growth tree provides compounding returns that apply every day regardless of who leads what.
The practical order for F2P accounts: Tool Enhancement first, then Tooling Up for faster builds, Command Tactics for march queues, and Regimental Expansion for deployment. Around Town Center 20, shift into Economy — skip the output skills entirely and go directly to Gathering Speed nodes. Trainer Tools and Bandaging follow to keep training and healing queues moving efficiently.
When the Battle tree eventually gets attention, start with all-troop nodes before any class-specific stat. Assault Techniques (universal lethality) and Survival Techniques (universal health) apply to every troop type fielded. After those, the order is Archer Lethality and Infantry Health, then Cavalry Lethality, then Archer Attack and Infantry Defense, and finally Cavalry Attack. Lethality and health are harder to source from other systems and consistently return more in combat than raw attack or defense.
Camp Expansion is worth grabbing early tiers to unlock deeper nodes, but the later levels take weeks for stat returns that barely register. Do not chase it.
Low to Mid Spender: Same Foundation, Slightly Earlier Battle Investment
Most of the F2P framework applies here. Growth tree first, gathering over output, lethality and health before attack and defense when the Battle tree opens. The difference is timeline — mid spenders host rallies more frequently than F2P, which means combat stats carry real value sooner. Do not hold the Battle tree as long.
A second builder changes the Tooling Up calculation — construction speed delivers more return when two queues are running simultaneously. Once buildings are maxed out though, the later tiers of that branch lose their value quickly. Stop chasing the bottom of Tooling Up when the building list is done.
Start Bandaging and infirmary capacity research earlier than a pure F2P governor would. Real resources are going into troops, and healing capacity protects that investment when wars or KvK rounds go badly. The cost of losing full infirmary capacity on an expensive batch of high-tier troops is significant.
High Spender Priority: Battle Tree First, Economy Nearly Last
The priorities essentially invert at the high-spend level. The Economy tree can wait — resource packs cover supply gaps, and gathering speed is only relevant during KvK competition. Output skills have almost no value at this spend level and can be left for cleanup later.
Tool Enhancement still applies. Even with maximum gem investment, the deepest Battle tree nodes run weeks. Research speed never stops mattering when the total project list runs into the thousands of days. Do it early, do not skip it.
Battle tree is the primary focus from the start. Same stat order applies — lethality over attack, health over defense, infantry and archers before cavalry — but the timeline compresses. High spenders are leading rallies regularly, meaning combat stats return direct value in every event from day one. Infirmary capacity and Bandaging are early priorities at this level given the troop investment involved.
The Event Timing Trick: Why Holding Battle Tech Is Worth It
Early Battle tree nodes complete in one to two hours. Each completion delivers a meaningful chunk of power, and that power converts directly into points on Research scoring days. This is the mechanic most governors miss early, and it is genuinely impactful for F2P and mid-spend accounts.
In Generation 1 and 2 kingdoms, the Hall of Governors runs a Research day where power gained from completed projects converts to leaderboard points. Holding a batch of fast Battle tree nodes and queuing them back to back during that day generates tens of millions of points without spending a single speed-up item. In Generation 3 and beyond, Hall of Governors is replaced by Strongest Governor, which runs monthly. The City Construction stage rewards power gained from research completions — the same batch-queuing strategy applies.
The practical implication: F2P and mid-spend governors should not casually knock out fast Battle tech between events. Hold it. The same projects are worth more as event scoring fuel than as marginal combat stats for a governor who mostly joins rallies. The value gap between using a fast node on a random Tuesday versus on a Research scoring day is significant over the course of a year.
Conclusion
Kingshot research is a long game where early sequencing decisions determine the shape of an account months later. Growth tree first covers the foundation across all archetypes — Tool Enhancement compounds on everything, Command Tactics opens march capacity, Regimental Expansion scales deployment. From there, F2P holds Battle tech for events and works gathering speed, mid spenders shift into Battle slightly earlier, and high spenders lead with Battle from the start. The event timing trick applies regardless of spend level and is worth building the habit around from week one.
Governors keeping gem and speed-up reserves ready for key research windows can manage their Kingshot top up through LootBar to stay stocked without stepping away from active progress.
