Source of: Lord's Specialty: levels, branches, points

← Lord's Specialty: levels, branches, points

**Lord's Specialty** is the player's own development track rather than the heroes', and it
grows alongside the city. It runs forty levels, each with its own experience price, and each
level pays out a single skill point. Those points end up four times short of what the full
skill list costs, so the whole page comes down to spending them well.

## What a level gives

A level itself carries one kind of bonus, hourly production of [[virus-resistance|resistance]]
experience. The bonus grows in a straight line, and the gap between the ends of the scale
shows in the table.

| Level | Resistance experience per hour |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1,080 |
| 21 | 22,680 |
| 40 | 43,200 |

Level forty works forty times faster than level one.

## Two branches

The [[building-lord-statue|Lord Statue]] is what opens the Specialty, and until it stands the
track is closed. Room for the statue appears at Sanctuary level 10, while both skill branches open
only at Sanctuary level 14.

**Handyman** covers economy and support: instant production, free minutes of building and
research, lower resource costs, help for allies on build speed, research speed and clinic
capacity, and a shield for oneself or an ally.

**Legion Commander** covers war: barracks and clinic capacity, training speed, rally damage,
reinforcement speed, emergency healing and mines on the map. It also owns Military Supply,
which raises the daily plunder limit.

The choice is not final, since both the branch and the point spending can be reset, though only
for a dedicated item.

## Forty-four skills, forty points

Skills unlock by lord level, the first right away and then every five levels, with twenty-two
of them in each branch. Out of that comes the arithmetic that shapes the whole track. Most
skills have five levels, each level costs one point, there are 183 such levels in all, and lord
levels hand out forty points, one per level. Less than a quarter can be taken, so the choice
weighs more than the grind.

It helps that active abilities are the minority: twenty-eight skills are permanent passive
bonuses, eight are instant with a cooldown, four are placed on the map as banners and mines,
three are cast on an alliance member, and one grants a shield. Cooldowns on the instant ones run
from hours to days.

| Cooldown | Hours |
|---|---|
| Shortest | 2.8 |
| Usual for instants | 23.5 and 47.5 |
| Long | 71.5 and 72 |
| Longest | 95.5 and 119.5 |

Instant abilities save real hours of waiting, but with cooldowns measured in days they are kept
for the moments that matter. Passive skills work all the time, and they are what pays points
back best.

Four more skills in each branch are tied to levels 45 and 50, which do not exist in the current
age: lord levels stop at forty. That is groundwork for the next age.

## Related pages

- [[building-lord-statue|Lord Statue]]
- [[virus-resistance|Virus resistance]]
- [[time-and-queues|Speed-ups and queues]]