Two things in Dot Conquest grow stronger over a battle without you buying anything: dots that fight and live, and cities that sit in the middle of your land. Both are drawn bigger as they grow, so you can see them on the map, and both reward the same thing: not throwing away what you have.
Veterans
Every dot that fights gains experience. With enough, it gains a rank, and with each rank it becomes tougher, hits harder and moves a little faster. It is also drawn bigger, so a group of veterans is easy to spot, on your side and on a rival's.
What it means for you
- Fall back with a hurt group. A group that has won a few fights is worth more than its count. Losing it costs you those ranks too. Double right-click one of your cities to bring it home, let it heal or rejoin your main army, and send it again.
- Don't feed single dots into a fight. Experience goes to dots that fight and survive. A trickle of new dots dies before it learns anything.
- Respect a veteran rival group. A smaller group of big dots can beat a bigger group of small ones.
Cards and Doctrines that speed it
Veteran Corps doubles the experience from kills, at the price of slower cities:
And Sergeants gives a smaller boost as a card:
Veterans in the Gauntlet
In the Gauntlet, veterans carry over: after a win, some of your surviving dots come with you to the next battle.
That makes keeping dots alive matter across a whole run. See the Gauntlet guide.
City levels
A city grows with the land around it. The more of the nearby land you hold, the higher its level, and each level makes it produce dots faster. It is drawn bigger, too.
What it means for you
- Land is not only for the win. Holding land around your cities makes them faster. Walling in a pocket next to your capital is worth more than one far away. See flipping land by enclosure.
- A rival's big city is a big prize. Taking a high-level city takes its production from him and gives you a fast city, as long as you keep the land around it.
- Losing land slows you down. If a rival eats the land around your city, its level drops and it makes dots more slowly.
Both together
Veterans and city levels are why a careful player pulls ahead in the middle of a battle: their cities produce faster, and their dots are bigger, while a careless player keeps replacing small dots from small cities. Neither is hidden, and neither is random. Both are earned on the map.
Where to go next
- Who beats whom: the unit counter chart.
- Taking land: flipping land by enclosure.