9 Kings: Greedy King Mercenary Build Guide

To sustain a mercenary build using the Greedy King in 9 Kings, prioritize early gold-per-turn generation to create an income buffer before hiring high-cost mercenaries. Success relies on matching your gold reserves against recurring troop payroll turns so hired units do not desert or penalize your army.

Managing Income and Upkeep Costs

The Greedy King strategy relies on scaling gold income early to cover recurring unit upkeep. Standard play often encourages hoarding gold for late-game structures, but a mercenary composition requires active spending on income infrastructure before committing to expensive hired units.

To maintain a stable gold loop:

Build income generation early: Upgrade your gold-per-turn generation right after securing initial defensive units.
Maintain interest thresholds: Keep a liquid reserve of gold so passive interest offsets payroll costs during turn transitions.
Maintain an emergency reserve: Save an uncommitted gold cushion to absorb income-reduction events or sudden combat demands without missing payments.

Failure to meet payroll during income phases causes mercenaries to leave the board or turn hostile toward your remaining troops.

Roster Cycling and Payroll Sync

Mercenaries function best as temporary power spikes rather than permanent army units. Managing their payroll requires tracking individual unit turn counts and upkeep demands.

Stage	Focus	Action	Failure Point
Early Game	Economic scaling	Invest in gold-per-turn cards and initial basic units	Buying high-tier mercenaries before establishing net-positive income
Mid Game	Staggered deployment	Draft utility mercenaries (AOE, crowd control) and stagger deployments	Deploying multiple high-cost units at once, draining liquid gold reserves
Late Game	Quality transition	Dismiss high-upkeep mercenaries for permanent units and stat upgrades	Over-relying on high-maintenance mercenaries when upkeep caps outpace generation

Execution Steps

Draft mercenaries based on utility (such as area-of-effect damage or crowd control) rather than raw combat stats alone.
Calculate the net gold output for the upcoming turn before hiring new units.
Rotate out any unit whose upkeep exceeds your net gold gain before the next deployment phase begins.
Sync troop deployments across consecutive turns to avoid single-turn payroll spikes.

Transitioning to the Late Game

As unit costs scale late in a run, holding a full roster of high-tier mercenaries becomes economically unsustainable. Use the gold leverage built during the mid-game to transition your board state toward permanent strength.

Phase out low-value mercenaries: Dismiss hired troops that offer low damage-to-upkeep ratios.
Invest in permanent infrastructure: Purchase defensive structures, passive technology upgrades, or artifacts that do not carry periodic maintenance fees.
Buy permanent stat upgrades: Spend excess reserves on permanent stat boosts for retained core units to ensure combat power scales into the final boss encounters.