Growth tree first, Combat second. Queue Size and March Size are the two nodes that compound across every other system in Top Heroes. Most players research Combat first and fall behind because of it.
Research in Top Heroes: Kingdom Saga looks straightforward until about two weeks in. The Combat Expertise tree is the first one that unlocks. It has attack nodes, defense nodes, and obvious stat increases. Most new players start there because the gains feel immediate. The problem is those gains do not compound. Growth tree nodes do. A player who rushes Growth first and a player who rushes Combat first end up in visibly different positions by the end of the first month. This guide covers the order that works and the traps that waste time. Players can top up through LootBar.
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The Research Cottage and Why It Matters Early
The Research Cottage is the building that unlocks the tech tree. Its level determines which research nodes are available. Castle level gates the Research Cottage level. The upgrade priority chain is Castle first, Research Cottage second, Barracks third, Resource Mines fourth.
Getting the Research Cottage to its highest available level as soon as the Castle permits is the single most impactful early-game building decision. Every hour the Research Cottage sits underleveled is an hour where higher-tier research nodes are locked. Those locked nodes include the Growth tree entries that accelerate everything else.
The Growth Tree: Research This First
The Growth tree offers universal benefits that accelerate all other aspects of the game. Construction Speed, Research Speed, Queue Size, and March Size live here. These nodes do not make troops hit harder or tanks survive longer. They make everything else happen faster.
Construction Speed nodes reduce how long every building upgrade takes. That includes the Castle itself. A 10% Construction Speed boost applied at week one saves cumulative hours across every upgrade for the rest of the account's lifetime. The same node unlocked at month three has already missed hundreds of hours of potential savings.
Research Speed works the same way. Every research project after the Research Speed node is completed takes less time. The earlier this node is active, the more total time it saves. Waiting to research it means every other research project between now and then took longer than it needed to.
Queue Size increases how many actions can run simultaneously. March Size determines how many troops deploy in a single march. Both affect daily output in ways that compound over weeks. A larger march clears more content per action. A bigger queue means less idle time between actions.
The Combat Expertise Tree: Research This Second
Combat Expertise is the first tree that unlocks when the game starts. It provides general combat boosts: increased attack, defense, and HP for troops. The stats are useful. They are not urgent.
The reason Combat comes second is that combat stats produce linear returns. A 5% attack boost makes troops hit 5% harder. That is it. Growth nodes produce compounding returns because they accelerate the rate at which everything else in the account progresses. A player who reaches the same combat stats two weeks later but with a fully developed Growth tree is in a stronger overall position than a player who has the combat stats now but slower construction and research across the board.
Once the core Growth nodes are in place, pivot to Combat Expertise. The key nodes here are troop attack, troop defense, and troop HP. These are the stats that determine whether marches win or lose in Guild Duel, KvK, and world map engagements.
Faction-Specific Research: Wait Until the Decision Is Made
Top Heroes has three factions: Horde, League, and Nature. Each faction has its own research branch that unlocks powerful faction-specific bonuses. These nodes boost only the heroes and troops of that faction.
Do not invest in faction research until the primary faction is decided. Splitting research across two or three factions dilutes the investment and produces weaker returns than going deep into one. The decision should be based on which faction's heroes are the strongest in the current roster. If the best available heroes are League, invest in League research. If they are Nature, invest in Nature.
Changing factions later is expensive. The research investment does not transfer. Pick one, commit, and let the faction research compound alongside the hero investment in that same faction.
Arms Race Prep Tech: The Mid-Game Priority Most Players Miss
Arms Race is one of the three weekly events that define mid-to-late-game progression alongside Guild Duel and KvK. The Arms Race Prep nodes in the research tree boost rewards earned during the Arms Race event cycle.
Players who invest in Arms Race Prep tech see stronger returns from the same weekly event participation than players who skip it. The difference is not visible in a single week. Over a full month of Arms Race cycles, the gap in accumulated rewards becomes significant.
Arms Race Prep tech should come after core Growth nodes and basic Combat nodes are in place. It is a mid-game priority, not a day-one investment. But skipping it entirely means leaving weekly rewards on the table that cannot be recovered retroactively.
Season Research: Permanent Bonuses That Persist
Season 1 introduces a separate research tree with its own resource requirements. The Season 1 research nodes offer permanent bonuses that persist after the season ends. They do not reset. They do not expire. Anything unlocked in the Season 1 tree stays active across all future content.
That permanence makes Season 1 research a top priority when it becomes available. Nodes that boost Season 1 resource generation should be researched first so the resource income is higher for the rest of the season. Combat and utility nodes follow after the economy nodes are established.
Season 2 follows a similar structure. Each season's research tree adds another layer of permanent bonuses. Players who rush seasonal research consistently end up with a compounding advantage over those who treat it as optional.
Guild Help: The Free Research Accelerator
Every time a guildmate clicks Help on a research task, it shaves time off the queue. In an active guild where members log in throughout the day, a long research timer can drop by several hours just from accumulated Help clicks. No speed-ups spent.
This matters most in the early-to-mid game when Growth tree nodes have multi-hour timers. The gap between a guild that sends Helps consistently and one that does not becomes visible within the first week. A research task that takes 12 hours solo might finish in 8 or less with consistent Help clicks from an active guild roster.
Joining an active guild is not optional for research progression. The Help mechanic is a free accelerator that scales with guild activity level. A dead guild costs research hours every single day.
Common Research Mistakes
Researching Combat Expertise before Growth. The most common mistake. Combat stats feel productive because they show up in the power rating. Growth stats feel invisible because they accelerate processes rather than adding visible numbers. The invisible gains compound. The visible ones do not.
Splitting faction research across multiple factions. Every node invested in a secondary faction is a node that could have deepened the primary faction investment. Stay committed to one faction until it is fully developed.
Skipping Arms Race Prep. The weekly rewards from Arms Race are one of the most reliable resource sources in the game. Under-investing in the prep tech means smaller rewards every week with no way to recover the difference.
Ignoring Season research. Permanent bonuses that never expire are the highest-value research nodes in the game. Treating them as optional is the mistake that costs the most over a full account lifecycle.
Conclusion
Growth tree first. Construction Speed, Research Speed, Queue Size, March Size. These are the nodes that accelerate everything else and produce the largest compounding returns over the account's lifetime. Combat Expertise second for troop stats. Faction-specific research third, committed to one faction only. Arms Race Prep fourth for weekly event returns. Season research whenever it becomes available, treated as a top priority because the bonuses are permanent.
The order matters because compounding works in one direction. Early Growth investment saves time that cannot be recovered by late Growth investment. Get the foundation right and the rest of the tech tree builds on top of it. Players can manage their Top Heroes top up through LootBar.
