Serale’s guide touched upon kingdom leveling, and I thought I’d write a more extensive guide about kingdoms, since they are at the heart of the game.
What are kingdoms?
In Gems of War, the map is divided in regions, called Kingdoms. Each kingdom provides mana bonuses, a quest to complete, challenges, and the kingdom’s banner. You can use the banner to boost the troops of said kingdom (but note that you can use the banner of another kingdom than your home kingdom).
When you complete a quest, you also receive a card of epic rarity.
The first kingdom you get, Broken Spire, is free. You will have to pay to unlock each other kingdoms.
The first kingdom you’ll buy will cost 250 gold, then each following kingdom will cost 250 more gold than the previous one, up to 13 kingdoms (250 – 500 – 750 – 1000, etc.). After that, the increment is higher. I think it’s 500 gold, but I’ll be honest, by that time I forgot to take notes (in my defense, I didn’t think I’d feel like writing guides for the game! :P).
Unlocking a new kingdom gives you access to a new quest, a new set of challenges, a new epic card, and a new mana bonus.
Mana bonus are added to any match you make in the game with that colour. For instance, a +1 mana bonus to a colour means that if you match 3 gems of that colour, you actually get 4 mana. A +2 mana bonus means that if you match 3 gems, you will get 5!
Leveling up a kingdom grants you even more bonuses when battling in that kingdom.
A complete list of all kingdoms: mana bonuses, epic cards and kingdom banners
As of October 2015, there are 19 kingdoms in Gems of War. The following list is alphabetical.
I will list for each kingdom which mana bonus you get, and the epic card ability at level 15. This might help you decide which kingdom you want to buy next, whether it’s because of which colours they boost, or which epic you hope to get.
For each banner, the bonus is only applied to the troops belonging to the kingdom.
Adana
- Mana Bonus: Red +1 / Yellow +1
- Banner: +2 Armour
- Epic Troop: Sparkgrinder – gives an ally 5 attack and armour.
Broken Spire
- Mana Bonus: Blue +1/ Brown +1
- Banner: +1 Life and +1 Armour
- Epic Troop: Luther – gives all allies 5 attack.
Divinion Fields
- Mana Bonus: Purple +1 / Yellow +1
- Banner: +1 Attack
- Epic Troop: Atlanta – deals 6 damage to all enemies.
Forest of Thorns
- Mana Bonus: Green +2
- Banner: +1 Attack
- Epic Troop: Rowanne – deals 7 damage randomly split amongst enemies, boosted by her armour.
Ghulvania
- Mana Bonus: Purple +1 / Red +1
- Banner: +2 Life
- Epic Troop: Avina – deals 11 damage to an enemy and gains 1 soul.
Grosh-Nak
- Mana Bonus: Red +1 / Brown +1
- Banner: +2 Life
- Epic Troop: Dark Song – deals 10 damage to and enemy, deals double damage if they use Green mana.
Karakoth
- Mana Bonus: Purple +2
- Banner: +1 Attack
- Epic Troop: Ferit – deals 9 damage to the last enemy, and drains their mana.
Khaziel
- Mana Bonus: Brown +2
- Banner: +2 Life
- Epic Troop: Emperina – gives an ally 3 attack and 3 life, then cleanses and heals them.
Khetar
- Mana Bonus: Blue +1 / Purple +1
- Banner: +2 Armour
- Epic Troop: Alastair – gives all allies 5 armour, and removes all purple gems to boost the effect (boost ratio 4/1).
Maugrim Woods
- Mana Bonus: Green +1 / Blue +1
- Banner: +1 Armour and +1 Life
- Epic Troop: Scarlett – deals 10 damage to an enemy, deals double damage if they are a beast.
Mist of Scales
- Mana Bonus: Blue +1 / Red+1
- Banner: +1 attack
- Epic Troop: Raven – deals 10 damage to an enemy; gains most of the mana back if the enemy dies.
Pan’s Vale
- Mana Bonus: Green +1 / Yellow +1
- Banner: +1 Attack
- Epic Troop: Elwyn – destroys a row and a colums, and deals 1 damage for each yellow gem destroyed to a random enemy.
Pridelands
- Mana Bonus: Red +2
- Banner: +2 Life
- Epic Troop: Finley – transforms all skulls to the selected mana colour, and gains 7 gold.
Stormheim
- Mana Bonus: Blue +2
- Banner: +2 Life
- Epic Troop: Keghammer – deals 10 damage to an enemy and reduces their magic by 3.
Sword’s Edge
- Mana Bonus: Blue +1 / Yellow +1
- Banner: +1 Armour and +1 Life
- Epic Troop: Tau – gains 5 attack, and removes all red gems to boost the effect.
Whitehelm
- Mana Bonus: Yellow +2
- Banner: +2 Armour
- Epic Troop: Lady Sapphira – deals 6 true damage to an enemy, and gains 4 life and 2 attack.
Wild Plains
- Mana Bonus: Red +1 / Green +1
- Banner: +1 Armour and +1 Life
- Epic Troop: Sunweaver – increases the Attack, Armour, Life and Mana of another ally by 6.
Zaejin
- Mana Bonus: Brown +1 / Green +1
- Banner: +1 Armour and +1 Life
- Epic Troop: Brian the Lucky – increases a random skill on all other allies by 5.
Zhul’Kari
- Mana Bonus: Green +1 /Purple +1
- Banner: +1 Attack
- Epic Troop: Tyri – removes all gems of a chosen colour, and gains 10 gold, boosted by the gems removed (ratio 3/1).
Wow, that took ages to compile! ^^
I see the point in buying kingdoms, but why should I level them?
Leveling a kingdom grant you access to all kind of bonuses when battling in that kingdom, that is whether defending or invading. That means that even if Adana is not your home kingdom, if you leveled it, you will benefit from its bonuses when invading an Adana-based player!
When you buy a kingdom, it doesn’t grant you any bonus. Each level will grant you bonuses, up to level 10.
Here is a list of all the bonuses per kingdom:
- Level 1: +1% tribute
- Level 2: +1% tribute, +1 Armour
- Level 3: +1% tribute, +5 to all masteries
- Level 4: +1% tribute, +1 Life
- Level 5: +1% tribute, +5 to all masteries
- Level 6: +1% tribute, +1 Armour
- Level 7: +1% tribute, +5 to all masteries
- Level 8: +1% tribute, +1 attack
- Level 9: +1% tribute, +5 to all masteries
- Level 10: +1% tribute, +1 Magic, +5 to all masteries
Tributes? What are these?
Each kingdom brings you money on a regular basis. When you collect that money, you have a chance to also gain some tributes: souls, glories and extra gold. Increasing a kingdom level also increases your chance to get these tributes! Also note that several kingdoms can decide to give you tributes at the same time.
Tribute from a single kingdom can be:
- 10 glory points
- 250 gold
- 40 souls
When 2 or more kingdoms give you tributes, you will also get some gems and some iron keys, up to 20 gems and 4 keys for 5 kingdoms or more at once!
See, it’s useful to level them up even if you don’t do much invading.
Here is a beautiful map made by @Venan which clearly shows the different bonuses:
How do I level them then?
First thing first: do your quest and your challenges!
Doing all the quests increases the amount of gold the kingdom gives you per day, and adds 1 level to your kingdom.
Doing all the challenges, aside from the obvious soul gain, also adds 1 level to your kingdom.
Which means that by simply completing the quest and challenges, your kingdom is already level 2!
Then you gain a level for each troop you get to level 15. It doesn’t matter what the rarity of the card is: a level 15 common will grant you a new kingdom level, just as a level 15 legendary would. For this reason, it might be a good idea to start leveling up your common troops first: they are far cheaper. Please report to Serale’s General Guide for more info on the soul cost of troop leveling.
Should I focus on one kingdom or level all the common troops first?
Honestly, it’s up to you. I’d advise you to level up your home kingdom first, since your troops will benefit the most from its bonuses while defending.
But then, it really depends on how you want to spend your souls. I know that I started leveling up by card rarity (common then rares, ultra rares, epic and legendaries) simply because it’s the most cost-efficient option. But there are no wrong way to do it. You might get all excited about that new epic you got and decide to level it up first! I know I did a few times along the way. ^^
So that’s it for now - if you have any question or think I forgot some important information, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update the guide. 
16/10/15: Edited to add informations about the new kingdom, Wild Plains.
I think I’ll stop my crazy guide-writing frenzy for tonight! Have at it! ^^
