Total Battle hands you four kinds of coin and never explains which one pays for what, so it is easy to burn the rare ones on things a cheaper coin would cover.
The short Total Battle currency breakdown: gold buys revives, blueprints, tar, and timed bonuses; silver trains guardsmen, specialists, and engineers and crafts standard equipment; master coins from the Cursed Citadel craft unique, tournament, and Emperor's Wrath equipment; and dragon coins from chests, tournaments, and clan rewards pay for monster troops.
| Currency | Spent on | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Reviving troops, great architect blueprints, tar for crypts, timed bonuses | Many sources — see every gold source in Total Battle |
| Gold ingots | Kingdom taxes — the king spends the treasury on kingdom-wide bonuses | City Capital, under Taxes |
| Silver | Training guardsmen, specialists, and engineers; crafting standard equipment | Not covered in this guide |
| Master coins | Crafting unique, tournament, and Emperor's Wrath equipment | Attacking the Cursed Citadel |
| Dragon coins | Training monster troops (alongside silver) | Chests, tournament unlocks, clan tournament rewards |
What is gold used for in Total Battle?
Gold pays for the things you cannot rebuild your way out of: reviving troops, buying great architect blueprints, buying more tar for exploring crypts, and buying timed bonuses. It is the most-spent currency in the game alongside silver.
The bonus use is the one players overlook. If you want, for example, more valor points for a day or for seven days, that boost is bought with gold. Because gold is also the revive currency, spending it on revives instead of bonuses is the classic trap — the troop-stacking guide explains why you should rebuild with silver instead. If you are short, our list of every gold source in Total Battle covers where it actually comes from.
What are gold ingots and why pay kingdom taxes?
Gold ingots are a separate pot of gold that lives in your City Capital, and paying taxes sends them to your kingdom's treasury. You never spend them directly yourself.
To see how many you have:
- Click your City Capital.
- Open Taxes. The screen shows your current gold ingots.
- Pay your taxes to send those ingots to the kingdom.
The reason to pay is that the king accumulates every player's ingots in the treasury and spends them the same way you spend personal gold — on bonuses — except the king's bonuses apply to the entire kingdom. Paying taxes is also one of the steps in the daily routine from the new player guide.
What is silver used for?
Silver trains your non-monster troops — guardsmen, specialists, and engineers — and pays for crafting standard equipment. Together with gold it is the coin you will spend most.
Standard equipment is the baseline gear. Every other equipment type (unique, tournament, Emperor's Wrath) costs master coins on top, which is what makes silver the entry-level crafting currency rather than the only one.
How do you get master coins and what do they buy?
Master coins drop from attacking citadels — specifically the Cursed Citadel — and they pay for crafting the better equipment lines: unique, tournament, and Emperor's Wrath. "Better" is relative; each line does its own job.
| Equipment line | What it is good for | Extra requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Unique | Unique abilities for melee, flying, and mounted units | Master coins |
| Tournament | Boosting guardsmen, specialists, and your entire army | Master coins |
| Emperor's Wrath | Top-end pieces such as the Master of Destiny ring | Master coins, materials from epic crypts, and a material that only drops from the Clash of the Throne tournament |
That last row matters: if you do not take part in the Clash of the Throne tournament, you will never obtain the material needed to craft Emperor's Wrath equipment, no matter how many master coins you hold.
Attack the Cursed Citadel even if you will lose
Fully defeating the Cursed Citadel pays out all of its bonuses plus a clan chest. But if you are not yet strong enough to clear it, your army will perish and you still receive some master coins. Some recipes do not need a huge pile — around 15,000 master coins, for example — so a losing attack is a perfectly good way to top up.
The best time to do it is during the Ruthless Slaughter tournament, because troops lost there can be revived with silver rather than gold.
The ordinary citadel gives dragon keys, not master coins
Do not confuse the two targets. Attacking a regular citadel grants a dragon key for a rare crypt of the same level: hit a level 10 citadel and you get a level 10 dragon key for a level 10 crypt. Only the Cursed Citadel drops master coins.
What are dragon coins for and where do they drop?
Dragon coins are required, together with silver, to train monster troops. Despite the name they unlock every monster type, not just dragons — beasts, giants, dragons, and elementals, as the breakdown of Total Battle troop types lists.
You get them from three places:
- Chests.
- Tournament unlocks — certain items inside tournaments.
- Clan rewards — if your clan finishes in the top 100 of a tournament you can earn a bundle of dragon coins. In the Ragnarok tournament, for example, the top-100 clan rewards are red books, clan chests, and dragon coins.
Which currency do you spend the most?
Gold and silver — followed by dragon coins, then master coins. That order is also a decent guide to how carefully to hoard each one: silver flows constantly, gold is scarce and has the most competing uses, dragon coins gate your monster army, and master coins are only needed when a specific recipe calls for them.
Where to start
Check your City Capital for unpaid gold ingots today, stop spending personal gold on revives, and send a march at the Cursed Citadel during the next Ruthless Slaughter tournament whether or not you can beat it. That alone covers the two currencies most players leave on the table.