SWORDLAND SHOWDOWN,
DEMYSTIFIED

Two scoreboards, the alliance's bracket and your personal tier, and one number that decides yours: 180,000. The strategy changes with the matchup; the target doesn't.

55 min a match two legions no losses, only injuries free recharging teleports

The checklist

The whole page, in the order you'll actually do it:

1
Monday — sign up
The signup opens; the R4/R5 team enters the legions. Easy to confuse with the second deadline.
2
Thursday — request battle
Confirm you're actually fighting. Skip it and you miss the participation rewards; there's no spectating.
3
Clear the infirmary
You can't enter with troops healing or any march queues running. Heal up, finish your marches, then queue.
4
Read your matchup
Favoured, even or outgunned: the game changes, the 180,000 doesn't.
5
Hold buildings, hunt points
Occupation alone caps at 165,000 in a perfect match. Everyone fights, scoops loot and mines the undercellers, you included: we want everyone over the line.
6
Out of troops? Leave
Score banner → leave button → 12 minutes → fresh army: the heal that costs nothing but the wait. Closing the app doesn't count as leaving.
7
Past 180,000? Step back
Leave crates and kills for the rest of the alliance — past the target there are no more rewards to collect.

The 180,000

The top personal tier sits at 180,000 points. Occupation alone can't get you there — the maths:

The maths

Six marches on the friendliest buildings, the shrine, both sanctums and three abbeys, is 3,000 personal points a minute. Hold all of that for all 55 minutes and you land at 165,000. Still short. And you can't even hold it that long: the shrine only opens around minute ten, troops take time to travel and capture, and six marches parked on buildings leave you none for anything else.

Combat is the relief valve. One teleport-and-full-send next to a single enemy, win or lose, can bank the rest of the 180,000 inside the first two minutes, especially as armies grow. The best personal results come from mixing occupation with kills, loot and undercellers, not camping one source.

TRY IT — THE 180,000 LINE

Minutes at max occupation 25

Enemy power you defeat while attacking 0

Enemy power you defeat while defending 0

75,000 personal points, 42% of the 180,000 line.

The toy stops where the published numbers stop: loot crates are randomised and undercellers are slower, so they're not in the sum; they're the bonus on top. The lesson is the top line: occupation alone caps at 165,000 in a perfect match.

Swordland is three different games, and the matchup decides which one you're playing. Read it first; the tactics follow. The 180,000 never changes.

FAVOURED You outgun them

Winning stops being the question, and a new one appears: if buildings never change hands there are no crates, and if nobody fights you, your personal points starve. The best tool here is the other team.

Anyone who's hit 180,000 steps back from crates and kills to leave them for the rest.
Teleport near their safe zone, even park a march in an encampment, to tempt them out.
Or just message them: trade points. Let them flip a building for the crates, let them hit you, remind them they can leave and re-enter 12 minutes later with fresh troops.
They're on course for the top of the loser's bracket anyway, and most will take the deal.

EVEN A real match

This is where Swordland is actually played: the buildings stay contested, the fights are decided, and sound strategy wins. Three lanes, one raid leader calling them over voice:

THE WALL Tank

Holds the outposts, sends reinforcements, leads the defensive rallies. Latest defence heroes with widgets; a strong tank can hold two or three spots, so don't spread thinner.

The tank's fine print

Don't park your city next to the building you hold: a burning city teleports you home and pulls every reinforcement off the map.

Two tanks working together reinforce each other's holdings, and each other's cities when someone teleports in for a quick burn.

THE BLADE DPS

Your strongest whale: solo attacks with the element of surprise. Hunt the enemy's strongest, look for clusters to make every teleport count, keep spare troops at home as bait.

The blade's fine print

Out of troops? Heal speedups, or leave and re-enter in 12 minutes with a fresh army. The whale's job is the most forgiving of losses.

Late in the match, shift to flipping long-held buildings: a shrine they've been squatting on is the juiciest, with two or three DPS hosting staggered rallies and looters ready underneath.

THE WINGS Support

The weakest players, the most judgment: reinforce the tanks, join the rallies, scoop the crates, mine the undercellers. Teleport near the players you support, not the buildings they hold.

The wings' fine print

Being a target is the job's tax. If a bigger fish comes for your city, shove your troops into encampments: no troops at home means no losses, and the burning city just returns you to the safe zone.

Teleporting recalls your reinforcements, so save it for high-value plays like a crate sweep or a rally you couldn't reach in time, and spend the free march speedups freely.

Roles flex as the battle evolves; anyone who's capped at 180,000 steps back from loot and kills to leave points for the rest.

OUTGUNNED They outgun you

If the win isn't coming and they won't cooperate, alliance points stop mattering. The whole match is personal points now, and Swordland rewards the offensive line. Don't sit in the safe zone waiting for an ideal moment that never comes.

Find an enemy you match, teleport next to them, launch everything. Losing still scores: points are for the power you defeat.
Their strong friends piling in just means more defence points. Burn, leave, wait out the 12 minutes, re-enter healed, go again.
If a remote win is still alive: a weakly held outpost with a big loot pile, captured solo, swept clean before they notice.

Read the game first. The target — 180,000 — never changes.

Most of Swordland is decided before the first march leaves.

MonSignupLegion registration opens: the R4/R5 team enters the lineups.

ThuBattle requestThe request opens: confirm you're actually fighting.

DayThe matchThree phases, 55 minutes, two scoreboards.

THE LINEUPS The roster

The top 20 alliances by power are in, and the R4/R5 team registers two legions of 30 main fighters each, plus 10 subs on standby: 60 players per alliance per cycle. Players vote on preferred battle times. Legion 1 decides the alliance's tier and alliance rewards; Legion 2 players still get personal rewards from their own match. The win/loss gap on the alliance side is small; what really varies is each player's personal bracket.

THE LEVER Register honestly

Only sign up if you'll actually show. A no-show is dead weight in the matchmaking power and a hole in the line; honest attendance is the single biggest lever your alliance has.

THE BUFFS What works inside

Pets, castle appointments and consumables all work inside. The rechargeable pet buffs are free, so take them. Castle appointments go to your strongest players, because buffs only touch the rally leader and solo marches. Consumables are pricey, but this is one of the few places they pay for themselves: two 2,000-gem squad buffs can flip a bracket worth thousands of gems back.

THE GATE The entry rules

No losses in Swordland, only injuries, and your infirmary is unlimited inside. But you cannot enter the battlefield with troops in your infirmary or any march queues running. Heal up, finish your marches, then queue in.

THE EXIT Leaving is the heal

Leave the battle and every troop heals instantly, at the cost of a 12-minute cooldown before you can re-enter. Speedups heal faster, but they cost resources better saved for events; Swordland hands out free speedups, so use those up first, and leave when the injured pile outgrows them. Leaving properly matters: open the score banner and hit the leave button; closing the game or heading back to your island doesn't leave the battlefield.

The exit's fine print

Leaving also resets your teleport cost back to one advanced teleporter. It's a weaker play for the players the match leans on, since a tank or whale out for 12 minutes is a hole in the map, though a wipe early enough makes the wait cheap and Swordland sets up some big late-game swings. Inside the arena, the free teleporter runs on a cooldown and stays free; advanced teleporters get you there off cooldown, but each one you use costs one more than the last.

Two scoreboards decide your rewards, and each runs on a different point total. Worth separating them before anything else:

THE ALLIANCE'S BRACKET The alliance with the most alliance relic points takes the winner's bracket; the loser takes the loser's. That single total decides it, not how long a building was held or who fought the most.

YOUR TIER Your personal relic points fix your own tier inside that bracket. They're earned at a different rate, sometimes by different activities, so chasing the alliance score and your own can pull against each other.

The reward sheet is where the surprise lives: the top tier of the loser's bracket beats the bottom two tiers of the winner's. Losing pays a bit better than half the winner's take, and the lowest personal tier is a quarter of the top one. So the real job is the same in every match: get as many players past 180,000 personal points as possible, win or lose.

Four activities make relic points. Three feed both scoreboards; one feeds only yours, and it's the one that usually carries you over the line.

Source Alliance pts Personal pts What it is

Buildings both half the alliance rate Capture pays an instant bonus to both scoreboards; occupation pays over time. The shrine and the two sanctums pay the most.

Arsenal loot both both Crates scatter when a building changes hands; the first march sent claims them. Amounts are randomised, and the longer a building was held, the bigger the pile. It costs a regular march slot, so send several at once.

Undercellers both both, same rate Late-match nodes roughly equidistant from the shrine. Gather like resources, slower than buildings.

Combat none personal only 80 personal points per 10,000 power you defeat attacking, 40 per 10,000 defending. The only source that's yours alone.

Read the matrix sideways: everything except combat serves the alliance, but combat is the fastest personal points in the game. Both scoreboards need feeding, usually by different people.

Buildings are the map's spine: first control pays a bonus to both scoreboards, occupation trickles in, and every flip scatters arsenal loot. The sword shrine is the big one — 1,800 alliance points a minute, about a quarter of the whole map's 7,560. It's a lot. It is not the match.

Sword Shrine1,800 alliance/minOpens around minute ten. The biggest income on the map, and a magnet for mercenary waves. Turtling here while giving up the rest of the map loses.

Sanctums ×2next-biggest incomeThe tanks' first targets. Hold both and the map tilts.

Abbeys ×4steady incomeThe rest of the map's occupation: easy to hold, easy to ignore, and it adds up fast.

Bell Towercapture speed upFirst control is worth about five minutes of holding. Capture faster and you win the race for every bonus.

Royal Stablesteleport cooldown downThe free teleporter is on a cooldown, and holding the stables shortens that cooldown for your whole team.

Hall of Reformationteamwide +15% damage, −15% takenA combat edge for your side, and since combat is the fastest personal points, it feeds both scoreboards.

Mercenary Campmercs at enemy garrisonsThose kills score no personal points. Useful, but the last priority.

Undercellerslate-match nodesGather like resources, slower, both scoreboards at the same rate. Points for whoever has spare marches.

Phase 1The mapSanctums, abbeys, bell tower and stables: the first fights.

Phase 2~10:00Sword shrine, hall of reformation and mercenary camp open.

Phase 3The endgameUndercellers appear; the shrine becomes the big prize.

Nobody needs the shrine to win. A team holding the bell tower, the stables and the hall can out-point a team camped on the centre.

SWORDLAND SHOWDOWN,DEMYSTIFIED

The checklist

Monday — sign up

Thursday — request battle

Clear the infirmary

Read your matchup

Hold buildings, hunt points

Out of troops? Leave

Past 180,000? Step back