9 Kings: Three Paladins and Rainbow Perks Build Guide

To run the Three Paladins strategy in 9 Kings Update 0.9, establish a compact frontline of three upgraded Paladins to soak incoming damage, then prioritize offensive Rainbow perks to overcome the Paladin's low baseline offensive output. Stacking defense alone leads to stalemates against scaling enemy health pools and armor in late-game waves; Rainbow perks provide the necessary damage modifiers and retaliatory effects to break through opposing ranks.

Core Strategy: Why Three Paladins Work

Limiting your frontline core to exactly three Paladins concentrates defensive buffs, healing, and promotion investments into an impenetrable wall without starving your board economy.

Build Component	Core Role	Strategic Benefit
3x Paladin Core	Frontline absorption and lane lock	Overlaps defensive auras and holds lanes without cluttering deployment tiles.
Rainbow Perks	Damage scaling and multi-stat utility	Injects attack speed, true damage, and retaliatory procs to prevent damage falloff.
Deck Thinning	Draw pool refinement	Removes unneeded basic cards to maximize draws of duplicate Paladins.
Gold Reserve	Economy management	Funds targeted card removal and perk rerolls after boss rounds.

Relying on one or two Paladins leaves your formation vulnerable to flanking and focused debuffs, while deploying four or more dilutes your gold investment and clutters board space. Three Paladins maintain full aura coverage, hold primary choke points, and allow the rest of your board to support them safely.

Board Placement Rules

Paladins must remain clustered to share overlapping buffs and prevent individual units from being isolated by specialized enemy attackers.

Center Anchor: Place your highest-stat, highest-tier Paladin on the central frontline tile to absorb the primary wave impact.
Flank Guards: Place the remaining two Paladins immediately adjacent to the center unit. Angle them slightly forward or back depending on the direction of enemy approach paths.
Rear Tiles: Keep backline tiles clear for mana-generating structures, utility buildings, or ranged support units protected by the Paladin line.

Keeping all three units adjacent ensures area buffs and recovery triggers apply across the entire frontline simultaneously.

Perk Priorities and Deck Trimming

Paladins naturally withstand high burst damage, so drafting purely defensive regular perks yields diminishing returns. When drafting perks after milestone years or boss encounters, prioritize Rainbow perks that compensate for low clear speed:

Damage modifiers: Select Rainbow perks that grant attack speed, flat percentage damage increases, or multi-attribute bonuses that bypass physical armor caps.
On-hit and retaliation triggers: Choose perks that turn blocked hits into retaliatory shockwaves or strip enemy armor when your Paladins take damage.
Deck refinement: In early years, stabilize your income before investing heavily in Paladin promotions. Once your economy is steady, spend gold to remove low-tier cards, starter militia, and off-theme units from your deck pool. A leaner deck guarantees higher draw consistency for Paladin duplicates.

Countering Late-Game Enemy Scaling

The primary failure point of this build occurs when enemy health regeneration and armor-shredding debuffs outpace passive mitigation. If your frontline stalls against armored foes, adjust your draft toward percentage-based damage scaling and crowd control rather than additional base defense. Forcing enemies to take damage whenever they strike your Paladins turns aggressive enemy stat scaling into offensive pressure, allowing your three-man vanguard to outlast high-tier waves.

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Emily Johnson

Emily writes practical mobile strategy guides with a focus on resource planning, base progression, and the early decisions that shape a long-term account.