Castle Age Invader Strategy Guide

Castle Age Invader Strategy Guide by Sophia Dragonhunter

What’s an Invader

Player vs. Player (PvP) in Castle Age is subdivided into two different options: invading and dueling. An Invader is a type of PvP player who focuses on the invading part of battles. Invading will attack the opposing player with your whole army (up to 501 members) and that opponent will defend their castle with their whole army (again, up to 501 members). When invading, you also get to bring one soldier, one weapon, one item and one spell for each army member you have (again, you guessed it, up to 501). For every 5 army members you have, one of your generals will also join the fight (up to 101). This is why you should always buy the monthly general (more on this later in the guide). Invading favors players with a large army count, and an even distribution of soldiers, weapons, items and number of generals. Your attack and defense will also drastically affect the battle, because these stats are multiplied by your army count when invading.

Why should I make an Invader

The Invader is the most strategy-oriented build in the game. You have to plan your attacks, your income, your level-ups, what you buy with your money, etc. Also, the battle ranks are more oriented towards the Invader than the Dueler, as the rewards for achieving the highest rank in each tier are soldiers, weapons, items and spells; all of which are much more useful to an Invader than to a Dueler, who has better options. The Invader is the type of character build who uses the most features in the game. In fact, they use them all (you probably won’t be dueling other people, but you’ll get attacked by Duelers, so that counts ^^).

How should I build an Invader

I have found three ways of building an Invader: the Offensive Invader (OI), the Balanced Invader (BI) and the Defensive Invader (DI). You are probably wondering which one of these is the best overall. Well here are two little tables, showing who will win between two players with the same amount of stat points distributed in Attack/Defense, and with the same high-end equipment, when attacking or when defending:

Also, all of them should be able to win against specialized builds, such as pure Dragon Hunters and pure Questers, even the Defensive Invader, as defense is also calculated in the battle formula. They will also win when attacking Duelers, but will lose when being attacked by them (except for Defensive Invaders, see below).

As you can see, the OI is 3/3/0 (win/loss/tie), the BI is 2/2/2 and the DI is also 3/3/0. The reason the attacker wins more often than the defender, as is the case with combats between OI and DI, is because most of the good soldiers, weapons, items, spells and generals have better attack stats than defense stats. Valor Knight is 22/18, Archangel is 25/20, Lightning Storm is 15/7 and Malekus is 28/18 (while the best defensive hero is Ambrosia, at 23/23). So if both players had the same amount of stats distributed in an opposite way (attack vs. defense) and high-end units, the attacker would win.

But there’s something important to note: a DI will level up much more slowly than an OI or a BI of the same level, and thus will more often than not have better stats for its level than the other builds, thanks to daily blessings. This probably counters the fact that most units, items, spells and generals have better attack stats than defense stats and will make it very likely that a DI will win against an OI of the same level, when defending. So this puts the DI at 4/2/0 and the OI at 2/4/0.

However, there are two tricks an OI (or a BI, to a lesser extent) can use to aid them in their progression: chain-attacking and hiding. Chain-attacking briefly consists of finding a good target and attacking it until you run out of stamina or that person’s health drops below 10 (and possibly bookmark them for later usage). Hiding (it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!) consists of damaging yourself (preferably when attacking and winning) and then logging off from Facebook when your health has dropped under 10. During that time, you are protected from attackers until you log back in, and your health, energy and stamina all regenerate during that time. Players trying to attack you will basically get the message: “your opponent is dead or too weak to battle” and won’t be able to attack you. It’s a very useful trick, but some people, mostly old-schoolers, consider it a cowardly tactic. Use it if you want, I’m just providing you the knowledge and the usefulness of that trick. I personally consider it fair game. Both of these strategies make it so that the OI is still a very strong Invader build, even with stats of 2/4/0, because if you hit a wall, you can just change your target until you find a good one, chain-attack, hide and log off. If you are against one or both of these tactics, then this build is probably not for you.

The second Invader build is the DI. The thing about this build is that you will level up very slowly, which is a good thing as long as you’re under level 80, because you can get more daily blessings, but once you reach the Gauntlet, you’ll be having a hard time as players of more than twice your level will be able to attack you, unless you adapt and change your strategy. However, since you’re going to be leveling very slowly, you’ll have time to amass great income, great units, and will even be able to defend properly against Duelers of the same level. The problem is getting people to attack you, but there are ways for that. This build, being more passive than active in nature, might not be the type of build for you, as most of the time you’ll just sit there, waiting to get attacked instead of playing the game (you can still attack smaller armies and have good chances of winning), but if you like a good win/loss ratio score, then it is a good build for you.

Finally, there is the BI, which is the hardest to rank of these three Invader builds. The reason to this is because we don’t know how everyone else in the game built their characters. It’s easy to say that an all-attack character will win often when attacking, or that an all-defense character will win often when defending, but whether a balanced character will win or not when attacking or defending is hard to guess. I think most old-schoolers use this type of build, where they stopped increasing defense once it hit somewhere around 300 and put their remaining points into attack. It may work for them, because they can attack pretty much anyone with their high attack scores (700+) and defend against new-comers who have just entered the Gauntlet, but for a newer player, this might be a tough build to play. However, against the more focused builds, the BI will probably lose. Attacking a player with 1,000+ defense, or being attacked by a player with 1,000+ attack will be a challenge, even if your combined attack and defense are more than one thousand. The advantage of the BI is that you can get the best of both worlds: you can use the chain-attack and hiding tactics, and you can get free battle points for repelling an attack. It is important to note that you win more battle points for winning a fight than you lose for losing a fight, depending on your and your opponent’s ranks. In my opinion, the key to a successful BI is to start up as a DI and once you pass the Gauntlet, start increasing your attack stat. That way you have time to increase your income and get good units / equipment / magic spells and will be able to level up faster than a DI once you reach level 80+. If you’re one of the older players and this build is working great for you, then by all means continue that way, but if you’re a new(er) player, you might prefer one of the other two builds, the OI and the DI.

Invasion battle formula

When attacking: (army size up to 501) * (attack stat + 70% defense stat) + (total attack of units, weapons, items, spells and generals) + (70% total defense of units, weapons, items, spells and generals) + % luck factor

When defending: (army size up to 501) * (70% attack stat + defense stat) + (70% total attack of units, weapons, items, spells and generals) + (total defense of units, weapons, items, spells and generals) + % luck factor

As you can see, most of your power comes from stat points and army size, another reason why it is very important to increase them. The combined attack of 501 archangels, commander plates and champion’s auras is equal to about 35 stat points in attack, or 7 levels, and their combined defense is equal to about 30 stat points in defense, or 6 levels, for a total of 65 stat points, or 13 levels. Units are good when your stats are not so high, but you’ll eventually reach a point where they hardly matter. However, it is still a good idea to invest into them, as every power boost counts.

Stats

Attack: Everything else
Defense: 1 (+5 Training Grounds)
Max Energy: 105 (120 with level 4 Elizabeth Lione)
Max Health: 100
Max Stamina: 15 – 120

Most of your stat points should go into attack, as it is the most important stat for an OI. As an OI, you want to be able to attack someone and win automatically. The more points into attack, the better your chances are of reaching that goal. Defense should be left at 1, because it is not used as much as attack when attacking other people. They say the best defense is offense. Well in this case, it’s true, because if you attack enough people to drop your life under 10 hit points, then you’ll be able to hide and will be protected for as long as you stay logged off. This is also why you should have 15 – 120 max stamina points. The more stamina you have, the more you can attack and the more you can attack, the fastest you will be in “hiding mode”. 15 is the bare minimum stamina you’ll ever need, assuming your life bar is full, you win all fights and you’re being dealt the maximum amount of damage possible when winning a fight (which is currently 6). However, getting fifteen 6’s in a row is highly unlikely. Assuming average damage, 26 max stamina would be optimal, but for such a small scale, you can never be sure of anything, so I suggest around 30 max stamina (also allows you 1 more power attack on monsters than with just 26). That way, you have pretty good chances of getting down to less than 10 hit points after using up your entire stamina bar. 90 is if you feel very unlucky and want to be sure you’ll be able to hide every time you empty your stamina bar, or if you want to be a better monster hunter, because as an OI, you’ll be a very good monster hunter thanks to stat synergies. 120 is if you want your stamina to fully recharge at the same rate as your energy. You should get to 120 energy, as that’s the maximum energy required for all quests, and if you persist doing quests every time your energy permits it (preferably while in hiding mode so you have time to invest/stash your money), you’ll gain a lot of free stat points. Health should be left at 100, because that way, it will be faster for you to hide, and if you fail (or don’t want to hide), it restricts the number of times you can be attacked to a minimum. If you ever need health for some reason, you can always go see Celesta in your keep and get healed to your maximum health for next to nothing.

Demis

What demi-power should you pick? Well, Aurora and Corvintheus are out of the question, as their stat bonuses are useless to you. While Aurora offers good items for dueling (Corvintheus’ items are crap), you will never duel anyone and if you are attacked by a dueler, you will lose anyway, no matter what. Her items can also be brought in an invasion, but they only play a very minor role. Most of your power comes from your attack stat, because for each army member you have, your attack stat is multiplied by that number. So if you have a max army of 501, then every stat point you put into attack equals to +501 attack power.

However, Ambrosia’s case is different, since you’ll need to increase your energy stat to 120 anyway. The only difference between using a level-up stat point (or a quest stat point) and getting a stat increase from a demi-blessing is the 100+ free demi-points you get. So by using 40 level-up stat points to increase your energy instead of taking Ambrosia’s demi-blessings, you’ll miss out on free bonus attack points from items you could have gotten by taking Ambrosia’s demi-blessings, instead of quickly increasing your energy with level-up stat points. The difference is slight, but it can mean winning instead of losing in a battle. Increasing your energy with stat points and your attack with demi-blessings, or increasing your energy with demi-blessings and your attack with stat points is basically the same thing, except you get free demi-points for taking the blessings. So it is better to get your last 40 points or so from Ambrosia than from stat points, because it leads to getting the Tempest Storm faster than from daily battle points, which will then make you a better battler.

Of course, you may ignore all of this if you intend to play for more than 450 days, as you’ll get these items for free by just getting your daily amount of demi-points for battling (and even faster if you fight monsters). If it’s your case, then put points into energy as soon as possible so you reach that 120 mark, as that will allow you to gather free stat points as fast as possible by completing quests and subquests.

Azeron’s case is the same as Ambrosia’s. First, decide what your target max stamina will be (between 15 and 120), then how long you’ll be playing the game. If you intend to play for more than 450 days, then just use your stat points from level ups and quests, that way you can reach your target number faster. However, if you don’t take the blessings, it will take more time for you to get those nice demi-items. In the end, the results are pretty much the same.

After you have attained your target stats for stamina and energy, just pray to Malekus forever, as his boost to attack will be very useful.

Gameplay

– Increase your army size
– Attack highest ranked players you can find
– Get your daily amount of demi-points for each demi-power (Malekus less important)
– Get to 120 energy as fast as possible (or 60-65 if you intend to take Ambrosia’s blessings)
– Get to your desired amount of stamina (or take Azeron’s blessings if you don’t think you’ll play Castle Age for more than 450 days)
– Put all remaining stat points into attack
– Complete quests and subquests to gain bonus stat points
– Work on your income until you are at around 1M per level
– Get 501 Tree Ents early on (or less if you got Gift Angels, Dragons and Phoenixes)
– Follow this guide to know how to upgrade your army
– Log off when under 10 HP

Monsters

As I said previously, the OI can also opt to hunt monsters, thanks to his high attack and semi-high stamina stats. With the new update, attack now affects dragon fights. What does this mean is that without even trying, you’ll be a very good monster hunter. Here’s a list of why you’d want to fight monsters, as an Invader:

1. Dragons offer the best ratio of exp and gold per stamina point in the game.
2. Fighting Dragons is the only way to make the most powerful helm in the game, the Helm of Dragon Power [30/30].
3. Keira, a very strong general [15/23], is only craftable by collecting pieces awarded for defeating Keira, the Demon Realm boss fight.
4. Cronus drops the best units in the game: Cronus, the World Hydra [60/60], Prometheus [35/25], Hellslayer Knight [29/33], Hellkite Minion [32/27] and Atlas [23/28].
5. Lotus Ravenmoore drops the best gloves in the game: Death Touch Gauntlet [12/12].

So fighting monsters after you’ve got your daily limit of demi-points is a good idea. Remember, also, that you can use Cronus as a hiding trick, because he deals a great amount damage. After 10-11 hits, you’ll probably be under 10 hp and will be safe to log off.

Stats

Attack: 1 (+5 Training Grounds)
Defense: Everything else
Max Energy: 105 (120 with level 4 Elizabeth Lione)
Max Health: 100
Max Stamina: 3+

The single most important stat for a DI is defense, obviously. With a high defense stat, you can still be able to invade other people and win, because defense still plays a major role in the battle formula, albeit at a penalized percentage. With a full army, you could probably win against anyone with an army size smaller than 333 (or 300 to be on the safe side). Leaving your attack skill at 1 doesn’t mean you won’t be able to play offensively. At first, attacking other players is in fact a very good idea, and one of the few ways at your disposal to help making yourself a prime target.

Demis

Building a DI takes time, and as such you’ll have plenty of demi-blessings to take. There are two important things to get if you want to be a good defender: high defense and good items. If you focus solely on defense, you might get crushed by Duelers during the first 20 levels or so, especially by the lucky ones who got Mephistopheles on their first treasure chest. If you focus solely on getting good items, then the OIs may beat you. It is very important you take your time, and accumulate as many demi-blessings as possible. For your first demi-power, I suggest Aurora. Why Aurora, when her stat boost is the worst of all for an Invader? Because you’ll be adding stat points from leveling into defense and will have a big army, so your major threat at first is going to be the Duelers. Praying to Aurora allows you to get some of the best items in the game, and will help you to properly defend against these Duelers. Her life boost is not going to be as harsh for you as for others, because most opponents will lose when attacking you, so you won’t get chained too much. Also, having higher life means you can get attacked more before being too weak, which means you’ll get more experience and battle points for winning more fights.

Gameplay

Tips for making yourself a prime target

1. Increase your battle rank. People tend to attack players with higher battle ranks, because they award more battle points.
2. Click on every name you see on the battle list. It will send these players a notification saying you spied on their keep. Sometimes, it will make them want to strike you back.
3. Build your army size. Some people, especially Duelers, will think that because you have a big army, you do not stash your gold. And it’s true, but let them believe they can steal yours.
4. Taunt your opponents by leaving a message on their wall, such as: “thanks for the battle points, you were an easy prey”. It will frustrate them and they might want to hit you back.

Until this portion of the guide is completed I invite you to check avsquare’s Quick Guide to PvP.

Stats

Attack: Varies
Defense: Varies
Max Energy: 105 (120 with level 4 Elizabeth Lione)
Max Health: 100
Max Stamina: Varies

The BI is a very personal build, and should reflect your own preferences. It is hard to set strict rulings on how to be a good BI. However, there are two stats that should always be the same, for almost every BI, and those stats are Energy and Health. Increasing your energy to 120 is super important, because it allows you to obtain more stat points for completing quests and subquests than you had to use to increase it to 120. However, 120 should be the absolute maximum for a pure BI. Even legends such as Luxor the Moonprince have admitted they regret having more than 100 energy (when 100 was the maximum energy required for a quest). Hybrid players may feel otherwise, but this is not a guide for the hybrid, but rather for the Balanced Invader, and as such you should not increase your energy over 120. Health should stay at its starting value of 100. The reason to this is very simple: it does not directly contribute to battles. Sure, it means more attacks, but Celesta can fully heal you for a very low price.

Favor Points

A) How do I get favor points?
We’ve seen this question too many times on these forums already. When you first add the Castle Age application, you are given 20 free favor points. Unlike most other Facebook games, you are not awarded favor points for leveling. Instead, you can get them by accumulating demi-points of each demi-power, slaying monsters, completing not-so-free surveys and buying them. If you are not interested in buying them or completing surveys, then your best bet is to amass favor points by hunting dragons. They offer the best ratio of favor point/stamina invested of all 4 monsters (Gildamesh doesn’t give favor points).

B) What should I buy with favor points?
In the Oracle page, you have the choice to buy many different things with your favor points, such as a name change, stamina/energy/health(!?) refills and extra army members. However, if you scroll down a bit, you’ll see that you can buy a general and three different units/items/spells. Because you can only buy so many generals with your gold, it would be wise to save your favor points to buy these special generals, as there is a different one each month. Currently, that general is Lucius, with good stats of 15/14. Some of the best generals like Mephistopheles and Sylvanus, however, can only be obtained through the treasure chest, and are extremely rare. There is only a 5% chance you’ll get one of the 4 epic generals, but you can still get some nice stuff. If you’ve already bought the monthly general, then you should save 55 favor points and buy 3x treasure chests, because it’s the only other way to get more generals. For those who buy favor points or are of higher level, then stamina/energy refills are a better use of favor points, because one level up can be equal to +2505 attack or defense, which is more than 80 times better than a monthly general when invading. Just wait until you’ve reached the Gauntlet, as that’s when you’ll want to level fast.

Dueling

A) Dueling as an offensive tactic
Sometimes, when attacking a player, you’ll find that you are losing the battle, even if you thought your stats were good. It may not be because your stats are too weak, but rather because their army size is bigger than yours. Increasing your army size is extremely important, but it may take a while at first. Here’s where dueling becomes an useful strategy. When dueling, you bring your selected general, equipped with one of each part of equipment: one weapon, one shield, one helmet, one armor, one amulet and one spell. You have to manually equip your best general for better results, but the game automaticaly picks your best equipment. Your battle stats will also greatly affect the outcome of the battle. So if you have good stats, but a small(er) army, then dueling would be your best option, until you increase your army size. For more information about dueling, read The Dueler Strategy Guide.

B) How do I defend myself against a Dueler?
I’ve also seen this question quite a few times. As stated in the Defensive Invader section of this guide, there are two ways to increase your probabilities of winning against a Dueler. The first one is to increase your defense stat, obviously. If your battle stats are superior to your opponent’s, you shouldn’t have too much problem winning. However, in the case that your stats are sensibly the same, or if you want to put all odds on your side, then you’ll also want to acquire good items. The best items for dueling are obtained through demi-rewards, or in the case of the Helm of Dragon Power and the Death Touch Gauntlet, from monsters (Dragons/Keira and Lotus Ravenmoore). Here’s a list of the best equipment, for defensive purpose:

Equipment
Top 3 weapons: Excalibur 25/13 (Mephistopheles), Berserker Axe 20/13 (Malekus), Blade of Vengeance 17/15 (Azeron)
Top 3 amulets: Moonfall Amulet 40/40 (Aurora), Amulet of the Tempest 10/11 (Ambrosia), Amulet of Cefka 6/12 (Quest)
Top 3 armors: Holy Plate 18/20 (Dark Legions), Lionheart Plate 10/25 (Corvintheus), Moonfall Robes 15/20 (Aurora)
Top 3 off-hands: Sword of Redemption 50/30 (Azeron), Moonfall Shield 10/15 (Aurora), Lionheart Shield 7/15 (Corvintheus)
Top 3 helmets: Dragon Helm 30/30 (Dragons), Berserker Helm 12/10 (Malekus), Cowl of the Avenger 12/7 (Azeron)
Top 3 magic: Atlantean Forcefield 10/17 (Sea Serpents), Tempest Storm 17/10 (Ambrosia), Lightning Storm 15/7 (Quest, 80 energy)
Top 3 gloves: Death Touch Gauntlet 12/12 (Lotus Ravenmoore), Holy Gauntlets 4/6 (Dark Legions), Atlantean Gauntlet 4/4 (Sea Serpents)

As you can see, Azeron offers two very good defensive items (one of which is the best off-hand in the game), and so should be your first choice if all you wanted was to fix your weakness against Duelers. Praying to Azeron will boost your stamina, which will help you fight dragons and Keira to obtain parts for the Helm of Dragon Power and Lotus Ravenmoore to obtain the Death Touch Gauntlet. So it’s basically a 4-for-1 deal. Lionheart Plate and Moonfall Robes have the same combined stats, but Corvintheus’ armor is his only high-end piece of equipment. If you wanted to further improve your defensive prowess against Duelers, you’d pray to Aurora, as her Moonfall Amulet is incredible and her Moonfall Robes are almost tied for the best armor.

Items

In general, you’ll want to equip your army with the best soldiers, items and spells you can buy (Archangels, Commander’s Plates and Royal Seals). However, you can get better soldiers, items and spells in bulk from monster battles:

Soldiers superior to Archangel [25/20] {39.00/37.50}:

• Spartan Phalanx [70/70] {119.00/119.00}
• Cronus, the World Hydra [60/60] {102.00/102.00}
• Hellslayer Knight [29/33] {52.10/53.30}
• Prometheus [35/25] {52.50/49.50}
• Hellkite Minion [32/27]*{50.90/49.40}
• Atlas [23/28] {42.60/44.10}

Items superior to Commander’s Plate [7/7] {11.90/11.90}

• Helm of Dragon Power [30/30] {51.00/51.00}
• Death Touch Gauntlet [12/12]*{20.40/20.40}
• Moonfall Mace [8/11] {15.70/16.60}
• Raven Cloak [10/8] {15.60/15.00}
• Onslaught [15/1] {15.70/11.50}
• Lionheart Blade [8/7] {12.90/12.60}
• Sun Blade [10/5] {13.50/12.00}

Spells superior to Royal Seal [5/5] {8.50/8.50}

• Atlantean Forcefield [10/17] {21.90/24.00}
• Lightning Bolt [8/6] {12.20/11.60}
• Wall of Fire [7/7] {11.90/11.90}
• Wolf Spirit [7/5] {10.50/9.90}

Follow chupacabra’s Invasion guide for more info.