The Best strategy for Season 4 Growthing

Welcome to the guide for Season 4 – Golden Kingdom! Whether you’re a veteran or a newcomer, this season brings new challenges and rewards. Many commanders wonder which faction to join, how to handle Copper Wars, or when to expand territory.

In this guide, we’ll cover all key changes, stage by stage, and share practical tips to help your alliance gain the upper hand. Get ready to turn these strategies into victories in the Golden Kingdom!

 

Preparation

You should already know by now that all Seasons share a few facts:

• There are going to be Seasonal Buildings that need to be leveled up, therefore skills and technologies that lower construction costs and increase construction speed are really important
• Hero return tickets heroes return recruitment ticket usually provide seasonal resources, so you should spare them at the end of the previous season, they will be stored in the inventory in off-season periods
• An SSR Hero will be promoted, making purple shards important items to purchase waiting for the new season
• A base skin usually provides some bonus buffs during the Season
• A lot of stamina is needed to kill world zombies and to participate to new seasonal game-plays

Season Store

Here a few important points you should take into consideration before using your Season medals:

• The Season Store NEVER closes, it will always be available, even during off-season, so don’t rush to use season medals and make smart decisions
• The Season Store resets the availability of the items at each Season start. So for example if you need Mythic Gear Blueprints, make sure you purchase all those available before the new Season starts

At the end of Season 3 a new base skin will be shown in the Season Store, but it will not be available until Season 4 starts. Below the images available already at week 8 of Season 3. Check out here the updated Season Store of Season 4!

Alliance technologies to prioritize

Ask your R4/5 to give priority to alliance tech “Veteran Craftsman” to have a lower building cost for seasonal buildings also regarding seasonal resources. The buff applies also to Oil and season resources.

It’s also important to ensure that you have the full building speed increase through the Alliance Tech “Quick Construction”, but I would expect all alliances to already have it maxed out at Season 4.

Skills to acquire

At the beginning of a Season, given that usually there are no wars in that stage, it is highly suggested to use Engineer instead of War Leader. This also allows you to take advantage of some specific skills to lower costs and increase building and research speed.

These are the MUST have in my opinion to push your growth at the season beginning.

You should have these skills maxed out since the very beginning of the season, and you should also prepare to have them available right away when the season starts, without having to wait for their cooldowns.

Fast growth

The first days of Season 4 is a struggle because of stone shortage and low virus resistance, all these activities will help you to grow faster.

Generic suggestions:

• Move your alliance if your position is weak or surrounded by unfriendly neighbors to reach level 6 cities.
• Use War Fever for all attack-based activities to increase power by 1% (not at the very start due to shields).
• Rally leader’s Virus Resistance applies to all participants—use this for Digging Strongholds.
• Low Virus Resistance allies can start rallies with weak squads; high Virus Resistance allies join to defeat Doom Elites for first-kill rewards.
• Send electricians to allies to boost their Light status and Virus Resistance.

Purchases:

• Buy the Season Battle Pass immediately, and the Weekly Pass as soon as Quartz Workshops are unlocked (progress bar filled in the event Research: Quartz Workshops).
• Purchase stone packs early; they’re available from the season start but only during the first week. Despite showing “1” availability, you can buy multiple packs, with each subsequent pack roughly doubling in cost and stone amount (~5/10/20/50 $).
• If possible, get the “Year of the Dragon” decoration, as it provides the Season 4 boost described in Season Boost.

Stone and Quartz:

• Start Season 4 with radar missions stacked to get an Izakaya Bar radar mission immediately (stone reward).
• No Alliance Resource Tiles for Stone/Quartz in Season 4; instead, send electricians to alliance members.
• Don’t do Doom Walker right after reset—wait for Season 4 start and kill the highest level you can daily for first-kill stone rewards (level 190 gives 207k stone).
• Upgrade Quartz Workshops sequentially: max each to level 15 to unlock the next, then level 16, 17, etc.
• Capture Digging Strongholds ASAP for hourly stone; always claim rewards via Alliance → Alliance Cities → Digging Strongholds → Claim All Hourly.
• Kill small zombies up to level 3 immediately for first-kill rewards; consider type-based damage debuffs.
• Day 2, Week 1 Blood Moon Descend: occurs 3× a day for 30 min; kill world zombies and Doom Elites for first-kill rewards and tactics cards.

Collect extra Stone and Quartz:

• After capturing a Digging Stronghold: go to Alliance → Alliance Cities → Digging Strongholds.
• After 7 days, the Alliance Center adds a Stone Warehouse that produces Stone.

 

Rules and suggestions for land capture

Season 4 has some news regarding the map: you will find cities, digging strongholds and trade posts and they are a different amount than those in Season 3.

Cities are similar to Season 1/2/3 cities, they unlock following the S4 City Clash event.

Go to Alliance button -> Alliance City to see the Digging Strongholds and City you own, and to see limits of capture.

Digging Strongholds

Digging Strongholds are locations on maps that allow to dig stone. They are similar to dig strongholds of Season 3.

They are protected by Oni Samurai / Oni Dōji / Oni Tengu. The higher the level of the Digging Stronghold the stronger the protector.

Digging Strongholds Capture Requirements

Digging Strongholds are open for capture since the beginning of the Season, you are limited to capturing them because you need to increase your virus resistance to be effective against the Onis.

The first alliance territory must be a level 1 Digging Stronghold

Digging Strongholds Capture Rules

• Maximum Dig Sites you can own is 6, regardless of city count.
• You can capture up to 2 Dig Sites per day.
• To start a capture, defeat the Oni with enough Virus Resistance; multiple rallies are required.
• After the Oni is defeated, reinforce the Stronghold with up to 10 squads.
• The first alliance to reach 100% within 4 hours wins the capture; otherwise, it fails.
• If the capture fails, the site stays neutral or with the previous owner.
• Once captured, the Stronghold enters 36 hours of protection with guards.
• You can attack or reinforce multiple sites, but after your second capture, you cannot continue and squads are removed.
• A failed attack does not count as a daily capture for the defending alliance.
• Your first territory must be a Level 1 Stronghold, then you can capture adjacent ones.
• If your territories are split, you can expand from either cluster.
• Abandoning a Stronghold takes 1 hour and makes it neutral, but protection must expire before it can be recaptured.
• There will be no cross-warzone captures in Season 4.

Virus Resistance in Rallies

When a rally is started, the virus resistance of the rally leader is applied to all rally members, unless they have a higher virus resistance, in which case it does not change for that single member.

This is an amazing feature that can be used to capture sooner Dig Sites, just ask your highest virus resistance ally to start the rallies

Participation rewards

To earn participation rewards for first time digging strongholds capture it is enough to do 1 of the following:

• Participate in a rally to attack the Oni with your high power squad (so a normal rally)
• Participate or start a rally to attack Oni with a 1 low power hero squad (a participation rally)
• Reinforce Digging Stronghold during capture even just for 2 seconds

If you did on of the above actions you will receive this mail, with both member and participation rewards

Initial Captures

Onis have high virus resistance, so not all alliances can capture a level 1 Digging Stronghold on day 1.

If you capture one, you cannot take another level 1 the same day. Level 2 Strongholds are corner-adjacent and open from day 1, but only whales can handle their high virus resistance.

Digging Strongholds are open from the start of the Season, but your virus resistance limits progress. The first territory must be a level 1 Stronghold. By the end of day 1, strong alliances may hold one level 1 Stronghold, but no more.

Since cities unlock only from day 3, alliances can try for adjacent level 2 Strongholds to expand, then later move into other level 1 Strongholds.

As the Season continues, alliances will spread through corner-adjacent strongholds while city levels are still locked.

 

Copper war

In Season 4, cross-warzone wars work like Season 3 with two opposing factions, but with some changes.

In week 3, Warzones choose a faction through the Faction Award Event, and in week 4 these factions face off in the Copper War Event.

Important Changes in war logics for Copper wars

• In Seasons 2–3, alliances could only attack opponents in the same rare soil/spice bracket, often leading to strongest vs. weakest matchups.
• Now, in Copper Wars, the grouping range narrows each week.
• Alliances in the same Declaration Group can fight each other, forcing closer power matchups as the war progresses.
• In Season 4 Muse’s Skill removed and new Butler Skill added: Tesla Coil

Alliance Center Re-location requirements/limitations

Centers must now be at least 11 tiles apart, measured from the center point.

Relocation spots can be attacked while under construction, not just when fully built.

Faction Awards Event

The purpose of the Faction Awards (week 3) is to divide Warzones into two factions: Kage no Sato andKoubutai.

In the upcoming Copper War, the two factions will battle to capture the Copper reserves from each other’s alliance centers.

Faction Awards phases

Phase 1: Faction Leader Selection Stage

• Starts Monday, Week 3 reset.
• Two Faction Leaders chosen based on overall Warzone strength (after migration, factoring player power, activity, past events).
• Leaders assign factions (Kage no Sato or Koubutai) by coin toss within 24h.
• On Day 2 reset, faction assignments are announced and locked for 24h (no action required).

Phase 2: Select Faction(2 days, starts Day 3 Week 3 reset)

• After leaders are set, other Warzone presidents choose a faction (Kage no Sato or Koubutai).
• Each switch has a cooldown (12h, same as Season 2/3).
• If a faction is full, presidents can use Force Join to displace a random Warzone to the other side (leaders’ factions not affected). Cooldown applies.
• 4 Warzones per faction. Faction choice affects Copper War declaration order.
• Faction choices remain hidden until the announcement stage.
• Presidents may Reveal Identity early, granting all Warzone players 500 diamonds. Once revealed, it cannot be hidden again.
• If no faction is chosen, assignment is random at countdown end.

Phase 3: Faction Notice(3 days, starts Day 5 Week 3 reset)

• No actions required from Warzones.
• Final faction groups are announced.
• Record log shows all presidents’ faction actions.
• Season 4 leaderboard updated to display each Warzone’s faction.

Copper War Event

Copper Wars begin on day 1 of week 4. In Season 4 there are no cross-warzone city or dig site captures, and battles are strictly tied to the two factions, Kage no Sato and Koubutai. These factions take turns acting as attackers and defenders. Whenever the attackers win a round, they plunder a percentage of Copper from the defending alliance; the exact percentage will be confirmed once the event opens on early servers.

Each declaration round flows through clear stages: first comes the waiting for declaration period, then declaration, invitation, preparation, the war itself, and finally the end of war stage. In total there are eight rounds, with two rounds taking place each week. The event begins in the fourth week and runs until the end of the season.

Once the Copper War starts, the event detail page becomes available, showing countdowns for each stage. On Mondays, this will display the timer for the waiting for declaration stage.

Timeline of the Copper War Events

 

Conclusion

Season 4 – Golden Kingdom offers new mechanics, tougher battles, and opportunities for smart alliances to rise to the top. By understanding the phases, making strategic faction choices, and coordinating effectively in Copper Wars, your alliance can maximize rewards and dominate the battlefield.

For the latest updates and detailed announcements about Season 4, make sure to follow LDShop. We provide timely news, event previews, and safe &  so you won’t miss any crucial information to stay ahead in the Golden Kingdom.