Highgrounds Commander Leveling Details

Put together by one of our community members, Impronoucabl

Every time you win a battle with a commander in your army, that commander earns XP. This includes campaign battles, ghost battles, random PvP battles, basecamp battles and battles that you initiate via the leaderboard. No XP is awarded for beating someone who you challenge directly via username or friends list, which is how the vast majority of games like Highgrounds work, mainly because of cheating as we’ve previously discussed.

Your first commander has a maximum level of 25. Once you’ve gotten your commander most of the way 25, a second Commander will automatically be awarded to you for free. That commander has a maximum level of 35, and once again, when you get that 2nd commander most of the way to his level cap, a third commander will be awarded to you for free. Each commander has a max level cap that is 10 levels higher than the previous commander (i.e. the max level is 45 for your third commander.) An active player will hit the cap on their first commander relatively quickly, and the end result should be a relatively powerful commander!

Each time you level up a commander, you’ll be randomly offered 4 changes and/or improvements to that commander. You can:

* Give the commander a new type,
* Give them a new ability (i.e. 1 wound),
* Increase an existing ability (i.e. 1 wound — 2 wound)
* Replace an ability (1 wound is replaced with 1 arrow.)

You could, in theory, also choose to decline an upgrade if you’re happy with the state of your commander and don’t want to make it any more expensive by changing it.

The summoning cost of your commander is automatically changed based on your upgrade choice. I’ve copied a bunch of abilities below for reference. Here’s an example to help you understand what you’re seeing:

“Generate Gold: 1, 2, 4, 6″ <– this means that adding 1 gold production to your commander will increase the commander’s summoning cost by 1. If you upgrade to 2 gold production, that will increase summoning cost by 2. But 3 gold production will increase summoning cost by *4* (total), and 4 gold production will increase summoning cost by *6* (again total). So if your commander is producing 4 gold and has no other attributes, it will cost 6 to summon.

= Free Commander Types =

Archer
Captain
Dog
Fighter
Giant
Harvester
Healer
Hunter
King
Matriarch
Paladin
Protector
Queen
Raider
Recruiter
Root
Royal
Shade
Squire
Thief
Totem
Troll
Veteran
Warlord

= +1 Cost Commander Types =

Assassin
Barbarian
Dragon
Farmer
Fox
Golem
Knight
Skeleton
Soldier
Spirit
Vampire
Vanguard
Wizard
Wolf

Upgrades you can give to both sides of your commander:

“Gold” — 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17
“Crystal” — 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17
“Wood” — 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17
“Transform” — 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8

Front row upgrades:

“Attack” — 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
“Defense” — 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
“Wound” — 3, 6, 9, 16
“Honor” — 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
“Arrow” — 4, 8, 17
“Rampage” — 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9
“Toxic” — 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8
“Steal” — 3, 6, 10
“Paladin” — 3, 6, 10
“Spearhead” — 4, 7, 14
“Bolt” — 5, 10

Back row upgrades:

“Healing” — 1, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 19
“Recruit” — 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4
“AtkSquire” — 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9
“Arrow” — 3, 6, 15, 24
“Defense” — 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 13, 13
“Protect” — 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
“Fireball” — 3, 5, 8, 12, 18

The total cost of a commander is equal to the combined cost of the abilities in either the commander’s front row or back row, whichever is higher. For example, a commander with 1 Bolt and 1 Attack in the front row (which costs 6 in total) and with 8 recruit in the back row (which costs 4) will have summoning cost of 6. If, when subsequently upgraded, the commander’s back row cost exceeds the front row in cost (for example, because the player adds 1 Drain to the back row), then the Commander’s cost will automatically be increased to match the new, higher back row cost.

EDIT: added this:

Your commander cost’s type is always the same as the primary resource for your city. E.g If you use the grotto, he will cost crystal. Commanders so far do NOT have hybrid costs, so your commander costs gold with the shadow pylon. (Idk why, but it arbitrarily is so)