Evony: Why can I only upgrade 1 subordinate city?

You can only upgrade the Subordinate City located in your keep in Evony, as other players cannot destroy or occupy it.

Evony: The King’s Return is a popular mobile game that invites players to build an empire from the ground up.

As its name suggests, this game is based on the classic video game, Evony, meaning you will experience similar content, mechanics, and features in the mobile game.

Players get the opportunity to create and select their monarch before stepping into the medieval world. This character allows you to control your city, train troops, build additional features in your keep, and source enemy territories.

Furthermore, your monarch allows you to gather resources, occupy Subordinate Cities, and defeat enemies.

What is a Subordinate City?

You can unlock and gain access to the Subordinate City in your keep once you have reached keep level 11. However, you can attack any non-player character’s (NPC) Sub City, anywhere on the map, even if your keep is below level 11.

Sub Cities are cities that you can take control of if your attack is successful. These cities can provide you with numerous benefits, including buffs, debuffs, general experience and production bonuses.

It is advised that you acquire and optimise a Sub City as quickly as possible, as it can speed up your progress in the game tremendously.

Evony: Why can I only upgrade 1 subordinate city?
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Evony: Why can I only upgrade 1 Subordinate City?

There is allegedly one problem with NPC Sub Cities, and that is their lack of strength. These buildings are not very strong, which means that they can be destroyed easily once you have captured them. You should thus not train your troops in the city, but rather, just use them for the buffs they provide.

Unfortunately, NPC Sub Cities cannot be upgraded, so their benefits cannot increase. For example, if the Sub City provides your keep with 10 percent additional defences, it cannot be increased to 20 percent additional defences.

Many players believe that the reason for this is that NPC Sub Cities can belong to anyone on the specific map. Specific resources are required to upgrade a building, and if you invest resources into an NPC Sub City, you are, essentially, wasting them.

This is because another player can simply attack the Sub City and occupy it, and you will then lose the Sub City and all the resources you invested in it if this happens.

On the other hand, you can upgrade and increase the level, strengths, and buffs of the Sub City located in your keep. Other players cannot destroy or occupy this city, as it is on your property.

For this reason, you can invest as many resources as you want into upgrading this building. The higher the level of the Sub City, the more benefits you receive.

You should note that you only gain access to the Sub City in your keep once you have reached level 11. If you are still levelling up your keep, it is advised that you collect many resources so that you can upgrade your Sub City once it is unlocked.

Which buffs can a Sub City provide?

Players should remember that both NPC Sub Cities and the Sub City in their keep can provide them with buffs. These buffs can be stacked if they are from the same culture, meaning that you can get up to 9 buffs because you can own up to 9 Sub Cities.

The buffs you receive are determined by the Sub City’s culture. The table below highlights the cultures and which buffs they provide:

Culture Buff
Europe It provides players with a construction buff and an increased experience buff when they kill monsters.
America These Sub Cities provide players with an increase in gold production and research speed.
Korea It allows players to gather more resources, which can increase the warehouse capacity.

Subordinate City rarity

There are currently 5 rarity levels a Subordinate City can be. The higher your Subordinate City’s rarity is, the more of the following benefits you can receive:

  • The speed of gold production in the city increases
  • The number of troops you can have in the city increases
  • The training speed of the troops increases
  • The effectiveness of the buffs you receive increases

How to upgrade a Subordinate City

Evony players should head to their Subordinate City in their keep to upgrade it. You have to open the menu where you will see an arrow to the right of the city’s name.

Clicking on the arrow allows players to upgrade their city, but they need to collect specific resources before they can commence the upgrading process. Furthermore, you may need to be on a specific keep level to upgrade your Sub City.

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