Triumph In the Artifact Sanctuaries
In the forest surrounding the Capital in Iron Throne are the Artifact Sanctuaries. These offer an opportunity to fight, obtain important boosts, and collect gold.
Artifact Sanctuaries
There are six Artifact Sanctuaries, and occupying them offers unique boosts for your Alliance. To find the Artifact Sanctuaries, zoom out on your world screen. You will see them within the forest surrounding the Capital.
Ownership of an Artifact Sanctuary takes thirty minutes of continuous occupation, except during Capital War. During Capital War, ownership is given after 5 minutes. “Ownership” means that the boosts are active for the owning Alliance. It does NOT close the Sanctuary for battle.
Additionally, during Capital War, the Sanctuary boosts change to a Troop Attack buff, which stacks with the occupation of other Sanctuaries by friendly Alliances.
You can now shield while battling for the Sanctuaries as long as you’re inside the forest. The R5 or R4 must appoint a Hero of someone inside the Sanctuary to act as Guard Captain, or effectively there will be no defense. Once the Sanctuary is conquered, the Alliance holding it receives 3,000 gold every six hours. Half of this goes to the Alliance Leader and a half to the Alliance vault.
An Artifact Sanctuary Battle opens every 18 hours (that’s not within the Capital War Period). The Sanctuary War gives generous Gold rewards to each player who has more than 1 troop occupying at the end of the War, and the Alliance leader.
Sanctuaries will lock after the Capital War for 12 hours. During those 12 hours, the Alliance Leader of the holding Alliance can bestow Sanctuary Tribute Chests to Alliance members. These can only be given to members of your Alliance, unlike Capital Chests, which can be given to any player.
Sanctuary Boosts
A specific boost is granted for holding each one, and an Alliance can only hold one at a time. Choose your Sanctuary wisely based on what your Alliance members want to accomplish. The Artifact Sanctuaries have the following boosts when under control (not during the Capital War). These are quite useful, especially the Troop Training and Cost Reduction boosts. They may not seem like a lot, but they stack up quite well.
- Diadem Sanctuary: Research Speed +10%
- Blade Sanctuary: Troops Training Speed +10%
- Scripture Sanctuary: Equipment Crafting Speed +10%
- Chalice Sanctuary: Resource Production Rate +10%
- Staff Sanctuary: Equipment Crafting Cost Reduction +10%
- Aegis Sanctuary: Troop Training Cost Reduction +10%
Artifact Dragon Skills
There are six specific Essences (one for each Sanctuary), which must be filled to utilize the Artifact Dragon Skills. Filling an Essence takes approximately 24 hours, and they are named for their Sanctuary.
Once the applicable Essences have been filled, there are three Artifact Dragon Skills to consider. These skills are found under the Alliance/Alliance Wyvern/Dragon Skill. Each skill has a cooldown period, so be sure to account for this. The most commonly used Artifact Dragon Skill is the Enormous Shield. Many Alliances will put this to use to combat Infernal Breath or keep a member from being pillaged.
- Creator: Creates 20 Historic Sites in the area. This skill requires Staff Essence, and cooldown period is two days
- Enormous Shield: Gives a one-day Peace Shield to all Alliance Members in the affected area. This is handy if the ruling Alliance uses Dragons Breath on the hive, or if someone is being farmed for massive amounts of RSS. Keep in mind there is a hefty cooldown of 2 days 12 hours, so probably don’t use it for a small member with little to no troops… Required Essences are Aegis, Chalice, and Diadem. Purchase this Skill with gold if the required Essences are not available.
- Shackles of Disaster: All six Artifact Essences are required for this Skill. This Skill debuffs the march speed of the enemy Castles in the affected area for one day, and the cooldown period is three days.
Key Points Summary
- Take advantage of the Attack Buffs given during Capital War. Try to coordinate with your allies to stack these. If there’s a Capital War, it could give you an edge. You don’t have allies? Make some with your players in their guild.
- If you are Alliance Leadership, coordinate with your team (and Kingdom if applicable) to take the Sanctuary that’s most beneficial to your team. Communicate this with your players, so that they can take advantage of the boosts. It doesn’t help the team if they are unaware you have a training boost, for example.
- If the Sanctuary is full, send leveraged troops against your opponent, or rally them out if needed.
- If your Kingdom works together well, coordinate so that each Alliance has time to fill their Essence for all six Sanctuaries.
- Make sure an R4 or R5 appoints a Guard Captain if you’re going to leave the Sanctuary filled! If you don’t, there will be no Guard to protect the troops.
- Although you will have to revive or heal, take advantage of the fact your city cannot be hit (assuming you’re under shield in the forest), and practice/explore the game battle mechanics.
- Don’t “waste” an Enormous Shield on a player with no troops or minimal RSS. Once it’s on cooldown you will be stuck if you need it.
Artifact Sanctuaries are often overlooked by Alliances. However, the boosts they give are helpful and shouldn’t be underrated. Do you have any tips or tricks for the Sanctuaries? Let us know in the comments below!