Economy guide: how gold works and what to build

Conqora guide · updated 2026-10-14

Everything you build, sail or launch in Conqora costs gold, and gold decides who wins the long games. This guide explains every source of income, what each building costs and does, and the order that works in most matches.

Where gold comes from

Land. Every tile you own pays a small amount every second. More land, more gold; it never stops.
Trade ships. A Port sends out trade ships to other players' ports. Each ship that arrives pays 100,000 gold plus 100 per tile of distance, multiplied by a bonus for how many ports you own (up to three times with many ports). Trade ships are the biggest income in a normal game.
Trains. A Factory links to your cities and ports by rail and runs trains between them. A train that reaches one of your own stations earns 10,000 gold; a train to another player's station 25,000; a train to an ally's station 50,000. Higher-level factories run longer trains.
Hotspots (hotspots mode only). A gold mine pays its holder 7,500 gold every five seconds, about one and a half times a player's base income.
Captured trade ships. A Warship that catches an enemy trade ship takes its cargo.

What buildings cost

Building	Price	What it does
City	125K, doubling each time you own one more, capped at 1M	+250K troop capacity per level; station for trains
Port	125K, doubling, cap 1M (counts your factories too)	Sends trade ships; builds Warships and Carriers; station for trains
Factory	125K, doubling, cap 1M (counts your ports too)	Runs trains to your cities and ports; longer trains at higher level
Defense Post	50K, +50K each, cap 250K	Land within 30 tiles is five times harder to take; your attacks there move three times faster
Missile Silo	1M	Launches Atom Bombs, Hydrogen Bombs and MIRVs; one launch, then a 75-second cooldown
SAM Launcher	1.5M, +1.5M each, cap 3M	Shoots down nukes (80% hit chance) and bombers (85%) in range
Warship	250K, +250K each, cap 1M	Patrols the sea, sinks boats, captures trade ships
Aircraft Carrier	1.5M, +1.5M each, cap 4M; one per three port levels	Air Raid (150K) destroys a building; Nuke Bomber (750K) drops an atom bomb
Atom Bomb	750K	Small blast (radius 12–30 tiles)
Hydrogen Bomb	5M	Huge blast (radius 80–100 tiles)
MIRV	35M	Splits into many warheads over the target

Because prices double, the fifth city costs 1M, the same as the sixth and every one after it. Upgrading a city or port (middle click, or the upgrade button in its window) raises its level instead: a level-2 city gives two cities' worth of troop capacity, and a level-3 port counts as three ports for trade bonuses and carriers.

A build order that works

Minute 0–2: expand into empty land; buy your first City as soon as you can afford it.
Minute 2–4: first Port on the coast; a Defense Post on the border facing your strongest neighbour.
Minute 4–7: second City, second Port. Trade income now outpaces land income. A Warship if boats keep landing on your coast.
Minute 7–12: a Factory between your cities and ports once you have three or four stations; rail income is strongest when it runs to an ally's station, so build toward allies. A Missile Silo once you have 2–3M banked, mainly as a threat.
Late game: SAMs on the side facing the biggest nuke user, upgrades instead of new buildings, Hydrogen Bombs for whoever is near 80%.

The "Fast economy" and "2x/3x gold" quick-game modifiers change the timings above (faster building, more gold) but not the order. "Instant build" removes construction time entirely.

Spending rules of thumb

Gold sitting in the bank earns nothing, just like troops at the cap. Early, every 125K should become a city or port within seconds. Later, keep a reserve equal to one Hydrogen Bomb (5M) when someone is approaching the win line, and spend the rest. Never buy a Missile Silo before your second port: the port pays for the silo; the silo pays for nothing.

Next: nukes, silos and SAMs.

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