Knights & Dragons: Rise of the Dark Prince is a fantasy RPG in which the player assumes the role of a heroic knight and builds a city, crafts armor and battles hordes of monsters to defeat the Dark Prince.
Players can create their character by customizing skin tone, eye color, hair color and hair style.
General Gameplay
In Knights & Dragons, players are tasked with rebuilding the castle which is in shambles. The player must gather resources to rebuild and construct buildings to access new features and level up, collecting funds from the money making structures. There are quests available as well as combat missions through dungeons where the player will earn experience points.
The player can also craft items and build armor through fusion. This can create better gear for the knights and increase their performance in combat.
Basic Meters
There are four main meters displayed at the top of the screen:
- Level Bar - Displays your knight's current level. As you complete quests and battle enemies you will gain experience which will raise your level and make your knights stronger in combat.
- Health Bar - Shows how much health your main knight currently has. It refills over time.
- Gold - Displays how much gold you have. Gold is the main currency in the game. It is used to construct buildings such as taverns, cathedrals, etc, which in turn will earn more gold for the player. Gold is also used for other tasks in the game.
- Gems - Shows the number of gems the player has. Gems are used to buy premium buildings which make things like health regenerating and castle rebuilding faster. Gems are earned by leveling up, through Chance Chests, or by purchasing them in the in-game store.
Quests
Completing quests is the most important part of the game, as it acts as a guide to building up your castle and opening up areas of battle. It's also a way to earn extra gold, experience and occasionally gems. Quest goals can include finding gold or items, crafting armor, building structures, or defeating certain types of enemies.
There are two types of quests: General quests and limited time quests, which are only active during a particular tournament. If two quests share a common goal (such as collecting a certain number of a specific item), then any progress made toward that goal will count for both.
Battles
You can enter a battle by either selecting a quest revolving around combat in your log or by selecting the location on the overworld that you would like to battle in. Battles take place from an isometric viewpoint, displaying your knights on the right of the screen and the enemies on the left.
Battles take place in a number of stages that range from Normal to Epic, pertaining to difficulty, concluding with a boss fight. Unleashing a Special Attack on enemies causes extreme damage as well as rewarding special items used for crafting new armor.
Elements affect combat. Every elemental type does extra damage to another elemental type, so keeping the types of enemies in mind with regards to the knights and armor you use is important. There are six different elements in the game and they are as follows:
- Fire - Strong against Spirit, but weak against Water
- Spirit - Strong against Earth, but weak against Fire
- Earth - Strong against Air, but weak against Spirit
- Air - Strong against Water, but weak against Earth
- Water - Strong against Fire, but weak against Air
- Starmetal - Strong against all, including itself
Arena (PVP)
Here you can earn gold and points by fighting other players. The Arena is a nice way for players to earn some gold and points, as even upon losing, players are still rewarded. It's a nice way to keep busy while you wait for health to refill or buildings to complete construction in your city.
Knights
You will unlock new knights throughout the game to join your army for battle. Knights vary in elemental powers and the types of armor they can don. For example, the Earth Knight will only be able to equip earth-elemental armors. You are also able to customize the name and looks of each Knight.
City Building
Constructing buildings and expanding the castle gives access to new features, and provides revenue for the player. By purchasing castle expansions, the player gains access to more plots of land to build upon. Buildings are the main source of gold in the game, with some serving other purposes as well.
Utility Buildings
Unlike other buildings, Utility Buildings cannot be sold. Each one has a specific purpose.
- Arena - Allows you to enter player vs player tournaments once you reach level 10.
- Chance Chest - Players can spend gems and use keys to open chests for random rewards. There are three types of chests: Silver Chests, Enchanted Chests and Dark Prince's Chests. The higher the chest type, the higher the reward.
- Fusion Master - Here, players can fuse two armors of different elements together to create one new armor, or enhance an armor using up to four sets of other armor.
Armorsmith
This is where players can forge new armors from items collected from monsters and bosses. Multiple Armorsmiths can be built to craft armor simultaneously, but each additional one costs more to build.
Income Buildings
These structures produce gold at different rates and have varying storage capacities. Once full, the gold must be collected before the structure can produce more.
- Fountain - A great and inexpensive source of gold during active play, but it reaches its maximum capacity quickly and must be collected from often.
- Guard Tower - Produces gold slowly but has a fairly large storage capacity making it better for gold production while away from the game.
- Cathedral - Produces smaller amounts of gold per hour than the Fountain and a smaller storage capacity than the Guard Tower.
- Tavern - Slightly less gold production than the Cathedral but a much higher storage capacity.
- Crystal Conservatory - Best used for active play, it's a great (though expensive) upgrade to the Fountain as it has a much larger storage capacity.
- Dungeon - A great replacement for the Tavern with a similar gold production rate but with a much larger storage capacity.
- Training Field - Overall the best income building for both active play and when away from the game as it has the largest storage capacity of all.
- Monster Nest - Surpasses the Crystal Conservatory as the highest gold producing structure during active play.
Armor
Armor is the center of fighting in the game. Every armor type has its own attack, defense and element values. The outcome of a battle is heavily influenced by the element of the armor, which is strong against armor of one element and weak against another, with the exception of Starmetal armors, which are strong against all elements. Every armor contains one or two elements.
You can increase the attack and defense levels of armor by enhancing them through fusion. Using the Combine Armor option combines two armors of different elements into one that uses one or two elements from the base armors. The amount that armor is leveled up is measured in Enhancement Points.
Creating new armor makes your knights more powerful and makes fighting easier.
Armor is also categorized by its rarity. Higher rarity armor requires more effort to obtain and is usually of higher strength.
Currencies
The two types of currencies in Knights & Dragons are gold and gems.
Gold is the more common type of currency. It is earned in the Arena, boss battles, guild wars, quest completion, revenue from buildings and chance chests. In addition to buying items from the shop, gold is also used to buy buildings and expansions, create guilds, craft and fuse armor and earn certain achievements.
Gems are rarer than gold and can be earned in the Arena, boss battles, guild wars, quest completion, chance chests, leveling up and purchased in the shop. The main purpose of gems is to speed up the process of crafting armor, finishing buildings and expansions.
Daily Bonus
Gold and gems can also be obtained in the Daily Bonus, which is rewarded for logging on to the game on a daily basis. Items and armor can also be obtained through the daily bonuses.
