That’s why the way you manage your build queues and speedups ends up deciding how fast you grow compared to everyone else in your kingdom. In this guide I’ll go through how time actually works in Kingshot, how to keep your queues busy around the clock, when it’s worth using your speedups (and when it’s a waste), and a few free ways to shave time off your timers without spending a cent. Let’s get into it!
How Time Works in Kingshot
Before we get into the tips, it helps to know exactly what you’re working with, because Kingshot gives you several types of speedups and most of them only work on one kind of timer:
- Construction speedups only work on building upgrades.
- Research speedups only work on research in your Academy.
- Training speedups work on training and promoting troops.
- Healing speedups work on healing your wounded troops.
- General speedups work on any timer, which makes them the most flexible (and most valuable) ones you own.
On top of that, you start with a single construction queue, which means only one building can be upgraded at a time, and that’s easily the biggest bottleneck in the early game. You can unlock a second construction queue either by renting it with gems (1,000 gems for 2 days at the time of writing) or through a one-time pack in the shop, and even F2P players who save their gems for heroes usually make an exception here, because having two upgrades running at once adds up incredibly fast.
Never Let a Queue Sit Idle
This sounds obvious, but it’s the single biggest difference between players who grow fast and players who fall behind: an empty queue is time you’ll never get back, and no amount of speedups later on will make up for it. Here’s how I make sure that doesn’t happen:
- Queue before you close the app. Before you log off, check that your builders, your Academy, and your troop buildings all have something running.
- Match timers to your day. Start your longest upgrades before you go to sleep or head to work or school, and save the short ones for when you’re actively playing and can check back in.
- Don’t forget research and training. Construction gets all the attention, but research and troop training run on their own timers too, so an idle Academy is just as wasteful as an idle builder.
If you’re ever unsure where to put your resources, the priority most experienced players follow is construction first, then technology, and then troops and healing, since your Town Center level gates almost everything else in the game.
When to Actually Use Your Speedups
Here’s where a lot of new players go wrong: they use speedups the moment they get them, which feels great but is one of the most wasteful things you can do in Kingshot. A speedup saves the same amount of time whenever you use it, but several events also hand out points and rewards for using them, so saving them for the right moment basically gets you paid twice for the same item.
These are the events where your saved speedups give you the biggest bang for your buck:
- Hall of Governors (or Strongest Governor, depending on your server): construction progress scores extra points here, so it’s one of the best places to spend your construction speedups.
- Alliance Brawl: its stages reward different activities, including using construction, research, and training speedups, and your points count toward your whole alliance’s score.
- City Development, plus research and training events: these pay out for progress of their type, so check the milestone rewards and stop once you’ve cleared the last tier you care about, unless you’re pushing for a ranking spot.
- KvK: keep a healthy reserve of healing and training speedups for kingdom-versus-kingdom battles instead of burning them all beforehand.
My favorite trick for these events is to start a long upgrade, ideally your next Town Center level, a little before the event begins and not speed it up. That way, when the construction day kicks off, you already have a big timer sitting there to pour your saved speedups into, and every minute counts toward event points.
A few more rules I always stick to:
- Don’t overshoot the timer. Only use big speedups (like 8-hour or 24-hour ones) on timers long enough to absorb the full duration, and finish off the rest with smaller ones.
- Use specific speedups first. Put construction, research, and training speedups on their own timers, and keep your General speedups for when the dedicated ones run out.
- Ask for help before you speed up. Always tap the alliance help button first, since every help knocks time off for free, and only then top it up with speedups.
Free Ways to Save Time (No Gems Needed)
As an F2P player, anything that cuts your timers for free is worth its weight in gold, and luckily Kingshot has quite a few of these if you know where to look.
Alliance Help and Alliance Tech
Being in an active alliance is the best free speedup in the game. Every time a member taps help on your timer it knocks a bit of time off, and in a busy alliance that adds up quickly, so if nobody in your current alliance is helping, it’s honestly worth moving to a more active one. On the alliance tech side, push Cooperative Protocols (better help efficiency) and Treaties (more helps per timer) first, then Adaptive Tools for construction speed and Mechanisms for research speed.
Speed Research in Your Academy
In your own research tree, Tool Enhancement (research speed) and Tooling Up (construction speed) should be at the top of your list. A permanent speed bonus pays off on every single upgrade you do afterwards, so the earlier you get them, the more time they save you overall.
Daily Quests and Gift Codes
Daily quests are the most consistent source of speedups in the early game, so knock them out every day even when you don’t feel like it. Gift codes are another easy win, since they often include speedups alongside gems and resources.
Important! New gift codes usually drop on Kingshot’s official social channels and don’t last long, so redeem them as soon as you see them and save the speedups for your next big event. For more help with your city, check out the other Kingshot guides here on AllClash.
Make the Most of the Waiting Time
Even with two builders, maxed-out alliance help, and every speed tech researched, there’s no avoiding it: later in the game you’ll still be staring at timers that run for days, and there’s only so long you can watch a progress bar.
Personally, I like to use that downtime for something else. While your upgrades tick down, you can knock out a quick survey on HeyCash, a paid survey platform where you share your opinions and can earn small rewards for it. It won’t speed up your Town Center, obviously, but it’s a handy way to turn a few minutes of waiting into a little something extra on the side, and you can put it down the moment your next timer finishes.
Common Speedup Mistakes to Avoid
Before you go, here are the mistakes I see F2P players make all the time, and every one of them costs you time you’ll never get back:
- Using speedups as soon as you get them instead of saving them for events.
- Putting General speedups on timers you had a specific speedup for.
- Burning a 24h speedup on a 3h timer.
- Leaving a builder, the Academy, or a troop building idle overnight.
- Speeding up a timer before asking your alliance for help.
- Spending gems to skip short timers instead of saving them for Hero Roulette or for renting the second construction queue during a big upgrade push.
Make Every Minute Count in Kingshot
I hope this guide helped you get a better handle on your timers in Kingshot! To sum it up, keep every queue busy, save your speedups for the events that reward them, use the right speedup on the right timer, and squeeze every free minute you can out of alliance help, research, daily quests, and codes. Do that consistently and you’ll grow a lot faster than players who tap speedups the second they get them. If you’ve got your own time-saving tricks, let me know in the comments!
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