With the ridiculous amount of new research MZ is releasing, it's becoming harder for players to decide which trees they want to focus on with the limited resources they have. Choosing which research tree you want to complete with your limited resources is once again a matter of play style.
If you aren't rich with a ton of money to spend completing each tree, then you should make your decision based off of these factors:
Overall the bonuses that make you strongest are combat boosts like cavalry defense, troop attack, troop health etc. Although, some people like to use traps a lot, so researching trap attack and defense would make them a lot stronger.
Here are some examples of questions you might ask yourself:
Do I do a lot of solo attacks by porting and trying to catch people offline or off guard? Then you might be interested in March Speed. If you only join in on rallies, march speed isn't important to you.
Am I going to research all the way up 5 pieces of core? Then you should do the crafting tree. After talking to a few core experts, they agree that relics are roughly equivalent to core up to 4 pieces.
Am I going to power surge by training millions of troops? Then you should work on the restorative tree so you need less resources when training troops.
Do I want to zero my enemies extremely quickly with rallies? Then you should work on the March tree so you can get rally reduction, increased rally speed, presets, and a bunch of combat bonuses.
Don't research random bonuses just to research them. Try to focus on getting the resources and speed ups to reach high levels of research that are most helpful to you. Especially since as you research higher levels of one bonus item, the amount of bonus you get increase significantly. For example, if you wanted to research cavalry defense, the progression is: +1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 40
If you are just starting the game, I recommend you start with the normal combat tree first, then the strategic tree. We've proven here before that strategic troops are better, but you have to research normal troops first unfortunately. At the same time work on completing the construction and the resource production bonus of the resource you are hyper farming from the economics tree.
What I have done below is list all the items in every research tree, but I put the most popular/attractive items on the right side of the table so you can more easily identify the important items in each tree. This is my slightly subjective opinion, so be sure to look at all the items in the tree before making your final decision on which one to progress through next.
Possible Popular Core mastery level 1 Level 1 crafting refinement Gathering II Piece Gathering Core Mastery level 2 Troop load II Level 2 crafting refinement Core mastery level 3 Core gathering Crafting cost reduction Level 3 crafting refinement Crafting speed Core mastery level 4 Fourth gem slot in core & relic foot armor 4th piece crafting slot Level 4 crafting refinement Duration Core crafting luck Fourth gem slot in core & relic helm Core mastery level 5 Fourth gem slot in core & relic armor equipment Crafting cost reduction II Level 5 crafting refinement Crafting speed II Fourth gem slot in normal foot armor Duration III Core crafting luck II Core mastery level 6 Fourth gem slot in core & relic weapon equipment Level 6 crafting refinement Fourth gem slot in normal armor equipment Fourth gem slot in normal helm equipment Fourth gem slot in normal weapon equipment Fourth gem slot in core & relic accessory equipment 5th piece crafting slot Accessory slot no 2 4th gem Fourth gem slot in normal accessory equipment 6th piece crafting slot Accessory slot no 3 accessory 4th gem
Possible Popular Tier 1 cavalry-ranged-infantry-siege resource training cost Tier 1 trap salvaging Tier 2 cavalry-ranged-infantry-siege resource training cost March speed Tier 2 trap salvaging Resource generation Tier 3 cavalry-ranged-infantry-siege resource training cost March slot Altar bonus duration Tier 3 trap salvaging Troop training capacity Trap building II Luck Training Speed Tier 4 trap salvaging Tier 4 cavalry-ranged-infantry-siege resource training cost Relic Duration
Possible Popular Monster mastery level 1 Hero energy recovery I Hero march speed Hero critical hit I Hero attack streak I Monster mastery level 2 Hero energy cost reduction I March slot hero Hero energy recovery II Hero attack I Hero critical hit II Monster mastery level 3 Trap attack Hero maximum energy limit I Trap defense Monster mastery level 4 Training speed II Monster defense debuff Hospital healing speed Hero attack streak Hero attack II Hero energy cost reduction II Monster mastery level 5 Troop attack Troop defense Hero maximum energy limit II Monster mastery level 6
Possible Popular Scouting Training speed Infantry-Ranged-Cavalry attack Infantry-Ranged-Cavalry defense Hoplites Skirmish archers Light cavalry Siege attack Ballista Siege defense Armored pikeman Guardians Companion cavalry Troop health Siege tower Troop defense Immortals Marksmen War elephants Onagers
Possible Popular Spearmen Hunters Chariots Strategic Infantry-Ranged-Cavalry attack Strategic Infantry-Ranged-Cavalry defense Peltasts Rangers Scythed chariots Strategic troop health Phalangite Stalkers Lancers Strategic troop defense Legionnaires Dianas Cataphracts
Possible Popular Trap building Spikes Archer towers Boiling tar Trap defense Trap attack Snares Turret Steam cannons Caltrops Catapults Burning rocks Spiked barricades Trebuchets Greek fire
Possible Popular Iron bricks Rolling wall Longbow tower Pitfall Strategic trap defense Strategic trap attack Arrow wall Sentry tower Flaming carts Pendulum Defense tower Poison swamp War barricade Ballista tower Smoke bomb
Possible Popular Construction Stone-Food-Ore-Wood production Troop load March speed economics Gathering Gold gathering
Enjoy!
Navi
