The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth: Top 5 tips and tricks for building an empire and forging alliances

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth strategy guide: Everything you need to know to defeat orcs and rivals without spending tons of real cash!

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth is a top-grossing game on iOS based on the popular fantasy franchise. Players build varied structures, upgrade them, apply research to unlock new units or improve the performance of existing ones, and outfit familiar heroes to lead armies into battle. There’s a whole lot to this game, and it’s a bit overwhelming at first, but these tips should help you get started quickly, not to mention do well enough to not need to spend a ton of money on in-app purchases.

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1. Forge alliances

One of the central themes in The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth is joining and supporting an alliance. This is pretty common for cross-platform city builders and holds true here. You can do this once you build an embassy at level 3, and cruise through the list of alliances after tapping the button at the bottom of the main screen. The X or checkmark next to the name of each alliance will show whether or not you meet their prerequisites for membership.

After tapping an alliance you like, you'll have the option to leave your submission. Send help when requested in alliance chat and communicate often. Not only will this translate to others helping your empire grow, but you’ll also have a lot more fun playing the game.

2. Start with the recommended quests

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth quests

The recommended questline provides a strong foundation when you’re first starting off. It will guide you through the steps of building a consistent economy and take you through the core game elements. Just tap the Quests on the bottom bar of the main screen, and the recommended quest should be at the top of the screen.

3. Log in daily

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth Galadriel daily reward

There are free resources and prizes doled out every day, so log in often. Moon runes are available throughout the day via the icon on the left side, while you get a free spin at Galadriel’s Gift once a day. Tap the Chance button along the bottom if it doesn’t pop up when you log in for the first time during the day. Your daily rewards also increase based on how many consecutive days you log in; tap the calendar icon on the right side to check your progress and make sure you’re checked off for today.

4. Focus on food

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth food propd

Unlike other resources, your food is constantly being consumed to feed your troops. It works in your best interests to have a large surplus of food in order to support a growing army. Tap the resource bar at the top to make sure your production outspeeds your upkeep. Also, tap items at the bottom of the main screen and the My Items tab at the top. Sort by Resources, and make sure to use up the one-time consumable resource power-ups as you get them.

5. Get a second city as soon as possible

A second city might seem a long ways off, but it should be your first goal. The most straightforward way of going about this is earning Second City Relics, which are acquired by raiding other players, or goblin camps between levels 6 and 10. You should be able to get these by putting a few hours into the Necromancer campaign. At level 7, you can build a Sage’s Tower which increases the quality of the relics you find. The one bottleneck here is that you can only engage in so many campaign battles a day, so make sure you check each one to see if a relic is a potential find before diving in.

Once you earn 100 Second City Relics, you can trade them in for a deed, and you’re good to go. If you’re ready to dive right in, you can buy enough mithril to get your second city deed through an $20 in-app purchase. You can also earn mithril by watching ads or participating in affiliate programs, accessible at the bottom of the mithril purchase list.

Your top tips for The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth?

That should get you started in The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth. If you’ve poured a lot of time in this game, feel free to drop a comment with your strategies!