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Research · Defense

Barbicans

A killing ground before the gate is ever reached — raises troop defense.

Entity ID
barbicans
Branch
Defense
Stat buffed
defense — Defense
Bonus per level
+1.2%
Maximum level
8
Bonus at maximum level
+9.6%
Power per level
84
Power at maximum level
672
Base study time
35 seconds
Study time at maximum level
9m 58s
Prerequisites
Watchtowers at level 5

Cost, time and bonus at every level

Barbicans runs to level 8, adding +1.2% to defense and 84 power each time. Studying it out costs the four soft resources — the same amount of each — and takes 9m 58s for the final level alone. Gems are only ever the optional instant finish; the study itself is bought with what your fields already make.

Barbicans: what each level costs and what it grants.
LevelTotal defensePowerStudy timeEach resourceGems to finish
1+1.2%8435s3,00050
2+2.4%16853s4,20070
3+3.6%2521m 19s5,88098
4+4.8%3361m 58s8,220137
5+6%4202m 57s11,520192
8+9.6%6729m 58s31,620527

Taken from nothing to level 8 that is 28m 45s of raw study and 103,140 of each of food, wood, stone and iron — 412,560 resources in total.

Where it sits in the tree

Barbicans belongs to the Defense branch — the walls line — what an attacker has to get through before they reach your granary. It stays locked until Watchtowers reaches level 5. Nothing further in the tree depends on it, so it is a leaf: worth taking for its own bonus, never as a stepping stone.

The road here: Weaponry to level 3 → Armor to level 8 → Fortification to level 8 → Watchtowers to level 5 → Barbicans. That is 4 studies standing between a fresh Academy and this one.

What Barbicans costs before its own first level: the prerequisite chain, at the levels it demands.
PrerequisiteLevel requiredEach resourceStudy time
Weaponry313,08012m 40s
Armor8103,1402h 11m
Fortification8103,1402h 11m
Watchtowers532,8206m 36s
Total before you may begin252,1804h 42m

Guide: Research & the Academy · Research Priorities. Studied at the Maester's Academy. Index: all 66 studies · the whole database.

Rest of the Defense branch: Fortification · Siege Craft · Palisades · Stonework · Watchtowers · Moat Works · Battlements · Portcullis · Curtain Walls · Gatehouses · Counter-Siege · Murder Holes · Arrow Slits · Siege Engineering

Every figure above is generated from the shipped game code — the same constants and formulas the running game uses — and regenerated whenever the balance changes. Nothing on this page is hand-typed.

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