Welcome to part 5 of the beginner’s guide to The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth! Click here to go back to part 4 of the guide.
You can’t attack another kingdom if they have what looks like a bubble over them, which is beginner’s protection. You have beginner protection as well, which lasts either the first 7 days that you play the game, or until you decide to attack another kingdom. Attacking a wild or a goblin camp has no effect on the beginner’s protection. Your endgame with attacks is to take over a wild, or to loot supplies from and destroy the troops of other goblin camps and kingdoms. With goblin camps you can also steal relics. When you steal relics, you add them to various relic collections which, when completed, can earn you a special buff, a second city deed, or other prizes.
Once you join an alliance, a whole new dimension of gameplay is opened up. You can communicate with, and plan strategies with the leadership and other alliance members, and even volunteer to let your city’s muster point be used as a place where the alliance can station troops in order to attack and destroy other kingdoms.
The mail button in the lower area of the screen is where you can receive various messages in the game. They can be received both from the administrators of the game, your alliance members, and when you scout another territory, your scouting report shows up in the mailbox. If it doesn’t show up right away, try shutting the game off and turning it back on in order to get it to appear.
Gollum’s riddle is the game of chance that you can play daily with Gollum’s Tokens. You get one free token a day (two during special occasions), and you can earn various prizes, such as buffs, second city deeds, large batches of troops and resources. If you want to buy more Gollum’s Tokens, you can buy them using Mithril. The premium game of chance opens up once you reach level 10, which will allow you to play for even better prizes.
The rank button will have players and alliances ranked using three different metrics. One of them is the total might, which is the sum of all of the troops a player has, multiplied by the amount of might each troop, both offensive and defensive, is worth. Settings will allow you to change sound and notification settings, while “share” will allow you to connect to Facebook (which earns you 10 free Mithril to do so).
Finally, the “shield” icon in the upper right hand corner will allow you to purchase different kinds of “buffs” which are limited edition power ups. You can buy them all using Mithril, or use any of them that you have won from this screen. Buffs include increasing attack or health of troops, increasing gold from taxes, resource production, or blocking enemies from receiving any information when they scout you.
That’s all for the beginner’s guide to The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth! Enjoy the game!