Prison, ransom, Shelter and Soul Sanctum

Quick answer: if your whole army is wiped out in a fight, the winner can lock your leader in their Prison. You get the leader back by paying the ransom the captor set, by a rescue, or by waiting: if the captor does nothing, your leader escapes by itself. To keep your leader out of reach, put it in the Shelter.

How a leader gets captured

A leader is captured when a battle ends with the losing side’s troops all dead and the winning side still standing. The captor must also meet these rules:

• The loser’s Castle is level 10 or higher. Leaders of lower-level castles can never be captured.
• The winner has a Prison (it unlocks at Castle 10) with a free slot. Slots by Prison level: levels 1-9 hold 1, 10-19 hold 2, 20-24 hold 3, 25-29 hold 4, level 30 holds 5. If the Prison is full, nothing is captured.
• The leader is not in the Shelter.

While your leader is captured it gives no bonuses to your army, and you cannot change leader until it is freed.

What the captor can do

Every prisoner has the same execution wait: 72 hours, minus a reduction from the captor’s Prison level, and never less than 6 hours. The reduction is 15 minutes at Prison level 1, 4 hours at level 5, 14 hours at level 10, 24 hours at level 15, 34 hours at level 20 and 54 hours at level 30. At Prison level 5 the wait is 68 hours.

If the captor does nothing, the prisoner escapes 24 hours after the execution wait ends and goes home.

The captor can:

Action	What it does
Set ransom	Names a price. Ransoms are taxed 30%; the captor gets the rest as Pending Rewards.
Release	Lets the leader go for free, with no reward.
Execute	Kills the leader after the execution wait ends. The captor gets a 24-hour army buff (see below).
License to Kill	An item that executes a prisoner immediately, without the wait.

Execution and License to Kill only work if the owner’s Castle was level 17 or higher at the moment of capture. Leveling up later does not change this. A prisoner from a Castle between level 10 and 16 can only be ransomed, released, rescued, or escape.

What does the captor gain?

Execution buff. Executing a leader gives the captor’s armies +ATK, +DEF, +HP and faster march speed for 24 hours. The size depends on the Prison level: +1% ATK, DEF and HP at level 1, up to +30% ATK, +20% DEF, +20% HP and +24% march speed at level 30. More executions extend the timer; the bonuses do not stack.

Holding boost. While the captor holds a prisoner, all their armies get a small ATK, DEF and HP boost. Only the highest-level prisoner counts, and the boost grows with the prisoner’s lord level (0.5% for lords below level 10, up to 30% ATK and 20% DEF/HP at level 60).

Execution reward. Only leaders bound to Hero Coin have an execution pool, and the game says Hero Coin is launching soon. Leaders bound to Gold or any other asset give no reward when executed.

How to get your leader back

Open the Prison and go to My captured heroes. You see the timers (Executable in, Escapes in) and the options that are open to you.

1. Pay the ransom. If the captor set one, tap Pay ransom. You pay exactly the amount shown, in the currency shown next to your balance. The hero then travels home from the captor’s castle; the trip takes longer the farther apart the castles are.
2. Wait for the escape. If the captor never sets a ransom or releases you, your leader breaks free 24 hours after the execution wait ends (so 92 hours after capture if the captor’s Prison is level 5). If your Castle was below level 17 at capture, you cannot be executed at all and this is guaranteed.
3. Post a bounty. Under Bounty, offer a reward to any lord who rescues your leader. Your coins are held until a lord frees the hero and claims it. A posted bounty cannot be canceled; you can only raise it. If the capture ends without a rescue, the held coins go back to you.
4. Use a Devil’s Cap (only if your Castle was level 17 or higher at capture). It poisons your own captured leader: it dies 24 hours later, so the captor cannot execute it and gets no buff. You must use it at least 24 hours before the execution wait ends. It costs Devil’s Caps, no coins; the number needed depends on your level, and higher levels need fewer. You can still pay the ransom before the poison timer ends to save the leader. A dead leader respawns after a wait or can be revived instantly.

Does execution burn my hero NFT?

No. An executed leader is marked as dead; it is not burned. A dead hero comes back after a respawn wait, or at once if you pay for an instant revive. Execution, License to Kill and a Devil’s Cap poison all end the same way.

“I have 115 AURO but can’t pay a 100 AURO ransom”

The 30% ransom tax is taken from your deposit balance. For a ransom of 100:

• You need at least 30 in deposit balance.
• Deposit plus matured rewards must add up to 100 or more. Pending Rewards do not count.

A total of 115 made of Pending Rewards, or with less than 30 deposited, is refused with “Not enough” and your balance. Check the Wallet, deposit the missing amount, and try again. See Deposits.

Items

Devil’s Cap and License to Kill are sold in the Store for 20,000 and 22,500 Gems, or the same number in AURO. AURO pays from your available (unlocked) AURO. If the game says “AURO payments have ended. Your AURO was converted to USDT in your wallet.”, pay with Gems. Check the Store for the current price.

Shelter: keep your leader and troops out of fights

The Shelter unlocks at Castle 8. Open it, then:

1. Choose leader. Your leader must be at home (active or stationed), not out on a march. You can also shelter troops without a leader.
2. Choose troops. The total cannot exceed the Shelter’s capacity.
3. Choose duration: 1, 4, 8 or 12 hours, then Shelter now.

Rules:

• A sheltered leader cannot be captured, and sheltered troops stay out of battles. Everything outside the Shelter can still be attacked.
• One shelter session at a time. Tap Recall to bring the leader and troops home immediately; otherwise they return when the timer ends.
• Capacity starts at 500 troops at Shelter level 1 and reaches 300,000 at level 30. A high-rank leader adds a bonus (+80 up to +10,000 troops).
• Troops that are out on a march, reinforcing an ally, healing or already sheltered cannot be sheltered, and they do not show in the Choose troops list. They are not lost. Armies out on the map come home on their own, so check your marches if your numbers look low after leaving the Shelter.

Soul Sanctum: get lost troops back

The Soul Sanctum heals troops, not leaders. It unlocks at Castle 10. After a battle, wounded troops that do not fit in your Infirmary are split:

• 10% go to Spirit Return. They come back over time and you claim them free.
• 70% go to Soul Revival. You revive them at once with Soul Essence: 1 per Tier 1 troop, 2 per Tier 2, and so on.
• 20% are lost.

Fortress battles are not protected. If the Sanctum is full, the extra souls are lost, so claim or revive often. Soul Essence builds up over time, even when you are offline, and from daily Soul Rites; it stops building when storage is full.

If something goes wrong

• “Ransom payment failed - the amount may have changed.” The captor changed the ransom while you were paying. Reopen the Prison, check the new amount, and pay again.
• Devil’s Cap says “Too late”. It must be used 24 hours before the execution wait ends, and only works for Castle level 17+ at capture.
• Your leader is gone and none of this fits (no ransom, no timer, hero missing): open a ticket from Setting → More → Support. Send your player name, the time of the battle, and a screenshot of the Prison screen. See Contact support.
• Ransom or Pending Rewards amounts look wrong: open a ticket with a screenshot of the ransom screen and of your Wallet.
• You cannot find a close button on the Prison window. The window has one. If it is out of reach on your screen, reload the game and try again; if it is still missing, open a ticket with your device and a screenshot.
• Shelter Recall is hidden behind the upgrade bar. On short screens the upgrade bar used to sit over Recall. The current game keeps Recall clear of it. If you still cannot tap it, reload the game and open a ticket with a screenshot.