Every player begins the game with one castle. Other players can never occupy this first (or main) castle. Castles are major fame builders as well as having several strategic purposes.
You can gather resources and train troops faster with more castles as well as building your fame. You can also get castles near guild members allowing you to defend them quicker if you need it.
Castles take time to bring heroes to them in case you need to defend them. Try having them defended ahead of time.
Basic Resource Production
| Resource | Lumber | Ore | Sulfur | Crystal | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per Hour | 12 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 160 |
These can be increased by capturing mines and upgrading resource spells in the Magic Tower. Also, many items have buffs which will increase resource production by a percentage.
Castle Limits
The number of castles you can occupy is limited by your rank, which is determined by your Fame.
| Rank | Fame | Castles |
|---|---|---|
| Newbie | 0 | 1 |
| Knight | 2200 | 2 |
| Hero | 80,000 | 3 |
| Hero of Speed | 300,000 | 4 |
| Legendary Hero | 700,000 | 5 |
| The Immortal | 1,000,000 | 6 |
Renaming Castles
Castles can be renamed with a Renaming Card. Be aware that secondary castles can be permanently taken from you. Also, a secondary castle that is abandoned will lose its custom name and revert to the traditional name of "[race]castle".
Castle Durability
Since Rise Of The Guilds, castles have been given a "durability" rating. When attacking another player's castle, a successful attack will decrease the durability by 2 points (the amount was lowered last Mod). After the durability rating has dropped below 5, the castle may be occupied. If a castellan is appointed to the castle, the durability rating will rise 1 point every hour, up to a maximum of 100.
Siegers will reduce durability of a castle by one per an hour, making occupation cost less AP than with direct attacks. Castle durability can't go lower than 20 with siege only, so successful attacks will also be needed.
With the new durability system, overtaking another player's castle becomes much harder, making it more advantageous to enlist the help of friends or guildmates to attack the castle as a group. Since it could take up to 50 successful attacks to occupy a castle, AP requirements are very high. Also, since the durability only rises back 1 point every hour after successful occupation, holding the castle afterwards becomes much harder, as well.
NPC (unowned) castles can still be taken with one successful attack, no matter the durability rating listed.