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What is Dragon Arena

Dragon Arena is an event that comes around on an, as of yet, unspecified schedule, currently running about once or twice a week.  It was first released in December of 2019, and at this point is likely still evolving in terms of rewards and ranking, though I don’t expect the structure itself to change much more if past events are anything to go by.

DA is an event that all guild members can help out with, and unlike other events involves coordinated military action en-mass over the course of a one-hour match against another guild.  The rewards at this point are limited, but in my opinion it is the most fun you can have in the Lords Mobile universe.

I’ve seen DA participants, friend and foe alike, making some mistakes during the last few events, and thought I’d take some time to explore some of the basics for those still learning the ropes.  This is not meant to be an in-depth strategy guide, but will help get you on the correct path to make that journey yourself.

Are You an Active or Support Player?

I think someone on the DA design team was acutely aware of all the ways in which an event like this could marginalize less powerful players, and took active steps to avoid that.  The event was structured beautifully in that while high might players are going to lead the charge and dominate the battlefield, lower might players still have the ability to support and bolster those high might players through various means.  The beauty of this is that everyone is welcome in DA, and every additional guild member that takes part is a boon to their allies.

Active Players

If you are a high might player you’ll want to teleport to a strategically valuable location at the start and work to actively attack nodes, defend nodes, and rally enemies.  Your guild may have one or two players identified as commanders who will direct others.  If so, follow their commands and be sure to communicate so they know what you’re doing.  If not, try to communicate with your allies as much as possible and identify strategic targets.

The specifics of where and how to utilize your forces is beyond the scope of this post, and beyond my experience, so I’ll leave more advanced guides to cover that.  But master the topics below first, or you’ll be next to useless on the battlefield.

Support Players

If you’re not high might, or are just learning the ropes, don’t worry; you can still contribute.  Everyone starts in the ‘protected area’.  As long as you don’t teleport out, you are completely safe from attack.  You cannot return once you leave, so as a support player I recommend that you stay in this zone for the entirety of the event, especially at higher tiers when relocation is limited for your team.

Active players will go out and wage war on behalf of your guild, but if they’re doing their jobs right they will provide you with many opportunities to fill rallies, defend nodes, and help in a variety of more minor ways.  As a support player, try to concentrate on the following, in order of decreasing priority:

Fill Rallies

Taking nodes will be impossible for players to do alone in many cases, so rallies are key.  Contribute to every rally you can; even T3 troops can provide a valuable bump in strength.  When contributing be sure to look at the rally leader’s troop composition and contribute only the same types (and ratios) of troops as the initiator to take optimal advantage of their gear and talents.  And always watch your timing!

Defend Nodes

Your active players will need to jump around a lot waging war.  Help free up their troops by stationing defenders in nodes that your team owns.  Concentrate on those on a caravan path.  Troop tier is a force multiplier, but troop quantity is a force contributor; even T3 (and in some cases T2) troops can be useful depending on what troop and hero comp is on defense.

Speed Armies

I can’t speak for others, but before DA I had a reserve of over 500 winged boots collecting dust in my bags.  Nowhere will they be of more value than in DA.  As a result, your higher might players are going to run low eventually, and waste countless gems trying to replace them.  If you have extras, remember that you can speed allies’ armies to a rally so that they don’t need to.  Communicate this to your commander so they can coordinate, or keep an eye on rallies to help nudge those troops who aren’t going to make it under the timer.

Manage Timers

Timing is everything in DA, and the active players have a lot to keep an eye on already.  Keep watch on node timers, caravan movements, etc, and help communicate upcoming deadlines.  Specifically keep an eye on remaining time to node ownership along the caravan path.

Priorities

Like any well-designed game, DA priorities are fluid and context-dependent.  However, as a general rule, assume that:

Caravans > Citadels > Ancient Remains > Hot Springs > Outposts > Players

Nodes Over Players

Often, you will see players attacking each other in Dragon Arena.  This can be strategically valid given the right circumstances…but most times I see it, it’s a tactical mistake.

Most actives have their leaders out on attack or defending valuable nodes.  Troops that remain can be sent off for protection, and since there is no loot you may only waste your time and effort razing their castle.  On the flip side, if they decide to defend they can often get a huge number of allied troops stationed on defense very quickly, and your only chance would then be a rally…that’s committing a lot of time and resources of your guild just to hit one player.

Be sure you know what you’re trying to accomplish before attacking a player directly.  Most importantly, consider the opportunity costs (the things you could accomplish instead with that time and effort).  Remember, points come from nodes, so attack a player only when when it will lead to your team controlling more nodes for more time over the course of the event.

Some examples of valid circumstances in which to attack a player include:

• A quick strike (no rally, as that gives them warning) to capture a lightly defended leader when the player’s attention is focused elsewhere, keeping in mind that you cannot keep their leader for long.
• A quick strike (no rally, as that gives them warning) to kill troops with minimal losses of your own while the player’s main force is elsewhere.  Often not very worthwhile as troops heal free and many players have enough speedups to make it instant.
• A distraction rally to draw enemy troops to your target so they’re not defending more valuable positions.  Take care as this often doesn’t work, and you must clearly communicate this to your allies so they don’t waste their own troops on what is essentially a fake rally.

If you are unsure whether attacking a player is a good idea, just avoid it.

Caravans Over Nodes

Taking and holding nodes provides your baseline point income and is critically important, but caravans provide a substantial boost and are the key to victory.  Having control of a node when a caravan hits it can be worth more points than holding that node for 10+ minutes.  As such, always be aware of where caravans are heading, and take/defend nodes on that path even if it means sacrificing other nodes.

Be aware that caravans will stop and wait at a node that is ‘contested’ (the state a node stays in for 3 minutes after changing hands).  This can be used to hold up caravans for a long period if they’re on a path to many enemy controlled nodes, which can be strategically valuable especially late game, or give you time to prepare an offensive for the next node at any stage.

Ancient Remains & Hot Springs

I think it worth making a special note about these two special nodes.  As I said, priorities are fluid, and while the priority order above is valid in some contexts, if your team holds all of the citadels but the enemy holds all of the remains, your advantage will be very short lived.

Ancient remains provide a substantial offensive advantage to your troops that stacks.  So if your team holds four while the enemy holds none you receive a staggering 200% bonus to your offense.  This makes it much easier to take and hold other nodes on the board.  Or, if your team has none while the other team controls all, you’re going to find any military action extremely difficult; you must take back some of those remains!

Hot Springs, on the other hand, provide no actual gameplay advantage.  They speed up troop recovery time, but healing will require huge amounts of speedups either way.  It won’t make your troops stronger or get them on the board any faster.  Springs are definitely useful in that you’re conserving the resources of your teammates for long term survival, but always remember that they give no actual advantage within the arena itself.  Take them when you can, but if it’s a tough match focus on other priorities.

Timing Is Key

Points are gained for each minute a node is held, making timing important.  But caravans elevate that to a whole ‘nother level.  A few seconds can mean the difference between fifteen thousand points and nothing; equivalent to 10-20 minutes of holding a node.  This is also where I see the most mistakes in DA.

Rallies

Respect Rally Timers

When attacking a darknest, your troops probably don’t need to travel far to reach your ally, and if the coalition needs to wait a few minutes on you, few are likely to care.  In Dragon Arena, rally leaders often have a reason for the time they’ve chosen.  If you arrive even a few seconds late you could make the entire effort worthless, losing the time and resources contributed by all your allies.

Only contribute troops to a rally if you are able and willing to use winged boots to get them there before the rally timer expires.  If you cannot, don’t contribute troops unless you can find someone to speed you or your commander tells you to.  As a support player way back in the protected zone this could mean using winged boots III plus some IIs and Is, or a very sizable number of winged boots Is.  That’s normal.  You cannot be effective in DA without using a liberal number of winged boots.

Time Rallies Appropriately

On the flip side, active players must be sure to time their rallies appropriately.  I’ve seen rallies set to take a disputed node on a caravan path with two minute timers, even though the node will go to enemy control in 1m30s and the caravan will be captured.  Even if that rally takes the node they will have gained little of value for our team while tying up huge numbers of troops.

Before setting a rally determine what it is you’re actually trying to accomplish.  The most useful thing you can do in DA, by far, is capture a node on a caravan path before the caravan reaches it.  If you plan to start a rally to try to do this, look at the caravan travel time and the node dispute timer (if there is one).  Only start the rally if you can beat that timer when taking into consideration:

• The time it will take you to tap through all the commands to actually start the rally, plus any latency in your connection
• The rally timer itself
• The travel time from your castle to the target location
• An extra 5-10 seconds as buffer

Ill timed rallies are not just not useful, but are actively harmful to your team as your allies will have committed troops that could have been of value elsewhere, and used winged boots to get their troops there in time.

Node Defense

Travelling troops are less than useless.  They accomplish nothing while tying up one of your army slots.  As such, when planning to commit troops to defense, consider:

• How far away is the node and how many winged boots is it worth using.  Don’t travel across the whole arena unless you have something to gain from it.
• Is this a heavily contested node?  If it’s on a caravan path it’s likely to get attacked within 20 seconds of your team taking it without a large defensive force.  With a large defensive force assume 1.25 minutes.  Don’t commit your troops unless you can get there in time to help defend against that expected attack.
• If you’re planning to pull troops from a node, or you’re the defender and plan to send troops home, consider that travel time back home could take minutes, or cost several winged boots.  Especially if you plan to abandon a node, consider the cost you’re incurring to as many as 10+ teammates in doing so.  That doesn’t mean it’s the wrong decision, but weigh the costs vs the benefits before deciding.

Winged Boots

Winged boots are invaluable in DA.  Which means that management of your winged boot inventory is invaluable, especially if you plan to take part in every DA available.

Usage Order & Timing

Mathematically, it doesn’t make a difference whether you use WB3 or WB1 first…but that assumes one is used immediately after another.  This is not reality.  There is latency in your connection.  There is loading time as your phone moves from screen to screen.  There is your reaction speed.  Often, it will take 5 or more seconds between your first WB usage and your second.  As such, order does matter.

Use the higher level WB before any lower level ones you plan to use.  Assuming a 1m trip and 5s delay, using a WB3 and WB1, you’ll arrive 2.5s sooner using the WB3 first, which seems minor but can make easily make the difference when racing an enemy  That difference grows substantially as you use more boots on a single trip, and you could save yourself 10+ seconds regularly by using the proper order.  A small boost, but a completely free one.

Also, always use boots as early in a trip as possible.  If your troops are returning from a long distance and have a 4m trip ahead, a single WB3 will save you 3m if used immediately.  On the other hand, if you wait until your troops are 2m from home, that same WB3 only saves you 1.5m.  Try to immediately predict when you’ll need an army to reach its target more quickly and use the WBs as soon as it sets off.

Commit Troops Only When Useful

Try to anticipate attacks on nodes you’re planning to help defend.  If it is likely that an opponent will attack in the next minute (or an opponent has started a 1m rally), don’t commit your troops unless you can arrive in time.  Having your army turn around half way to help defend doesn’t just waste any WBs you used to speed it up, but requires even more WBs to get it back to base so you can put those troops into action again!

Don’t Waste Allies’ Winged Boots

If you are an active participant, you will take many actions throughout the course of the event that involve allies’ armies.  Defending a node, starting a rally, or requesting help defending your turf, will all involve allies using WBs to send troops to support you.  If ten allies each use an average of two winged boots to get armies to a node you’re defending, and you send their reinforcements home, you have cost your team 20 WBs, plus 20 more to speed those troops back home.

Try to follow these guidelines:

• If you are running a diversionary rally, planning to abandon a node after taking it, or doing anything else that would cause allies’ armies to be sent home, communicate that beforehand so allies know not to send their troops, or can at least make an informed decision.
• If you’re planning to get your troops and leader somewhere safe when an enemy rallies you, communicate that asap to your team so they can avoid sending reinforcements.  This can save not only WBs, but their troops (and thus healing speedups) as well.
• If you’re considering abandoning a node, consider what you accomplish by doing so.  Count up the number of allies on the number of WBs they’ve likely used to get their troops there, and ask if it’s worth wasting that many WBs to accomplish what you’re planning to do.  There may be teammates that can accomplish that goal just as effectively.  That’s not as exciting for you, but DA isn’t about you, it’s about your team.

Gear

I’m going to hope I don’t need to state the obvious about wearing your war gear as an active player.  But for support players, don’t forget about travel speed gear!  There are various pieces of equipment that increase your troop travel speed, and that applies to troops joining rallies and reinforcing nodes.  If you plan to sit in the protected zone and send out support troops this kind of gear can be invaluable!

This doesn’t need to require a lot of resources.  Even grey gear can provide over a 20% boost with a full set.  That’s equivalent to getting almost a free WB1 used on every army you send out!

So get out there and hunt those sabers, or consider a Noceros Mask for your farming set!

Points

Points serve two purposes in DA.  Guild points determine who wins the arena.  Personal points determine what extra rewards your get for participating.  Always focus on guild points over personal points when it’s an active choice, but once your team is far enough ahead (or far enough behind), make sure you get your personal points as well.

Guild Points

Remember all that’s been discussed above, and your team should fare well in DA.  For a quick recap, focus on these areas to get your guild the most points possible:

1. Fill rallies!  Seriously, don’t slack on this!
2. Take and hold (or reinforce) as many nodes on a caravan path as possible.
3. Take and hold (or reinforce) as many citadels as possible.
4. Try to take and hold ancient remains for the attack buff, but also…
5. Try to tie up enemy nodes whenever possible.  If an enemy node timer is about to run out and you can take (but not hold) the node, do it and abandon immediately.  If you can keep them fighting for nodes that keep changing hands, they never get the points or benefits from them.

Personal Points

Personal points perfectly represent each teammates’ contributions to victory in DA…

Okay, done laughing yet?  😛

In reality, the stars of DA can have trouble meeting their personal goals, while a player with 5 T1 troops can port in at the 5m mark, spend 1m in DA, and then sign off and still possibly blow away their personal goals.  This is too bad, and where I think the developers left the most room for improvement, but it’s what we’re forced to live with for now.

Happily, with a little bit of effort, everyone can meet their personal goals no matter what they spend 99% of the event doing.  Your personal points will come from two main sources:

• Troops reinforcing nodes for a long period of time
• Troops stationed at nodes when a caravan hits

Depending on your level, you should have at least 4-5 armies that can be out at a time.  Unless you’re a really heavy hitter, you are unlikely to need all of these.  I’m often a support player with a few hundred thousand T3 troops.  I can have my entire force out in 2-3 armies.  So use the others when you can to gain personal points for yourself:

1. As soon as your team owns their first nodes, station at least 1 troop in each of the closest until you have 2-3 armies out.  You can pull 1-2 of them back once citadels become attackable if you need more armies, but from the start you’ll begin accumulating quickly towards your personal goal
2. As soon as your team owns citadels, move your 1-troop armies to those, as citadels earn points more quickly than other nodes.  Two 1-troop armies in citadels for 40+ minutes can just about earn you your top tier personal goal.
3. If you still find you’re having trouble meeting your personal goals, take advantage of caravans.  You’ll spend most of DA working to take over and defend caravan path nodes anyway.  However, if you ever have a free army, and your team owns nodes on a caravan path (especially the citadel), get a 1-troop army into the node before the caravan hits and you’ll earn thousands of points for a few seconds of reinforcement time.

Pre-Event Checklist

I also wanted to provide a link to this Lords Mobile Craft post, which provides a very nice tldr overview of DA and a great checklist of important items for each stage of the event.  I keep it bookmarked for a quick refresher just before DA begins, at least until we do enough of these that it’s all adequately burned into my brain.

Have Fun!

Head out into the Dragon Arena and have fun!  It’s one of the only events that really lets you work directly with teammates for a prolonged period, which in my opinion makes it the most enjoyable part of Lords Mobile by a long shot.

If you see anything in this post that could be improved, or have a tip of your own you’d like to share or have me add, or just think I got something wrong, let me know in the comments.