What's new in 5.0

Each settlement controls the ground around it, called its Reach. The 3 by 3 around the seat is the Heartland, where the first guard wave fights at full strength. The rest of the Reach is the Frontier, where the garrison fights at 85%. Anything outside every Reach is the Wilds, held by a single Militia Polbie at 70%.

The farther out a square is, the more land a winning attacker takes: up to 9 squares in a Heartland, 25 in a Frontier and 49 in the Wilds.

A settlement climbs a tier by holding enough land and spending Influence. Each Capital tier also raises Influence across the whole Land by 5%, up to 25% at Imperial City. Towns field a second guard wave and Metropolises a third, and an Imperial City's Walls make its guards 10% stronger in a siege.

A Capital has to reach Town before its owner can found a city. A Town allows one city, a City two, a Metropolis three and an Imperial City five. Each step needs more land (60, 150, 300 and 600 squares) and more Influence per city. A city must sit at least 6 squares from its owner's other seats and 3 from anyone else's. When it is besieged, the Capital's first wave helps defend it.

The Capital can be changed, or a seat moved, once every 7 days. A move costs a quarter of the seat's tier cost in Influence.

A guard wave is a team of five Polbies: one guard at a Hamlet, five at a Village. Empty slots are filled by Militia, which are your strongest Polbies that aren't guarding, fighting at 70%. Guards still play PvP, Rifts and the other modes, but they can't attack other players' land.

Walking onto a free square claims it, unless the setting is turned off under Settings, Gameplay, Territories. A free square touching your land can be claimed from anywhere for one Conquest Token, and free land farther away has to be visited in person.

An attack in person is a duel that needs three knockouts, with Auto-battle available. A Raid spends one Conquest Token to hit a square that isn't a seat from anywhere, and a win takes only that square. A clean win, losing one Polbie at most, takes the most ground; a close win or an Auto-battle win takes one ring less. After a loss you can try again in 30 minutes. Once you have beaten the same player five times in a day, further wins take only the square fought over.

Players who have been away for 14 days are defended by Militia alone, and after 30 days all of their land counts as Wilds.

Attacking a seat is a siege. You fight its waves in order and your squad keeps its HP between them. After each wave you choose to press on or retreat, and once per siege a Rally replaces a fallen Polbie. Every cleared wave banks land around the seat, and clearing the last one sacks it: the seat and the land around it change hands, with a 500 Influence bonus.

A sacked settlement drops a tier, and a sacked Hamlet is destroyed. If a Capital falls, its owner's highest-tier city becomes the new Capital, and a player who loses everything can found a new one for free. After a sack the defender's seats get a 12-hour Siege Shield, and the same settlement can't be besieged again for 24 hours.

Old territory was converted automatically. Each player's Capital went where their squares were most concentrated, up to City tier, with extra cities at the next densest spots. Polbies that sat on squares went back to their collections, and each garrison was filled from its owner's PvP defense team. Every seat started with 72 hours of Founding Peace, and a Capital can be moved once for free in its first 14 days. Fighting over territory needs version 5.0.

On polbielytics, Territory now says how each square changed hands: an attack, a raid, walking onto it or claiming it from afar. The territory and Global Power boards are still the game's own.