Viking Rise: How to Research and Unlock Higher-Tier Troops

To unlock higher-tier troops in Viking Rise, you must level up your Chief Hall, upgrade your Academy, and complete every prerequisite node leading to the tier unlock in the Military research tree. Advanced troop tiers increase march defense, squad health, and combat lethality, but accessing them requires coordinating building upgrades with targeted research.

Prerequisites for Higher-Tier Troop Research

Troop research cannot be rushed independently of your city's infrastructure. The Academy's level is capped by your Chief Hall level, and high-tier military nodes remain locked until the Academy reaches specific milestones.

Before starting a new tier research project, align your builders with your research queue using these building relationships:

How the Military Tech Tree Works

The Academy’s Military tree is arranged in sequential tiers. You cannot unlock a higher tier—such as Tier 2 (T2) or Tier 3 (T3)—without first completing all preceding nodes in that specific branch.

Each unlock node acts as a capstone that requires specific baseline combat upgrades, including:

• Basic unit attack and defense proficiencies
• Squad march speed and load capacity
• Troop health and general survivability

The Military tree splits into four distinct unit branches:

• Infantry: Frontline units focused on survivability, physical defense, and damage absorption.
• Pikemen: Melee units specialized in counter-cavalry defense and focused melee damage.
• Archers: Backline ranged units built for burst damage and siege attacks.
• Cavalry: High-velocity units focused on flanking maneuvers and rapid strikes.

Spreading research evenly across all four branches early on delays your progression. Focus your queue on the primary unit type that matches your strongest hero commanders. Once your primary frontline unit reaches the target tier, upgrade a secondary unit type to complement your march.

Cost Management and Unit Promotion

Higher-tier troops require significantly more Food, Wood, Stone, and Gold to train and heal. Rather than building higher-tier units from scratch, use the promotion system in your training facilities to save time and resources.

1. Promote existing troops: Upgrading an existing Tier 1 or Tier 2 unit to Tier 3 costs only the difference in time and resources between the two tiers. This keeps your barracks productive without discarding earlier investments.
2. Request Tribe assistance: Press the help button immediately after starting long research timers so tribe members can reduce the duration.
3. Equip research buffs: Secure territory runes and activate village titles that grant research speed reductions before starting an Academy project.
4. Reserve healing resources: Casualties from higher-tier combat scale up hospital treatment costs. Maintain surplus Food and Gold reserves before sending top-tier marches into active combat.
5. Develop the Economy tree: Alternate military milestones with economic research nodes that boost gathering yield, resource output, and construction speed to sustain future Academy requirements.