With 27 Commanders available in Rise of Kingdoms and a pretty difficult update mechanic – meaning that you won’t be able to max them all up, it’s important to know what is the best commander in Rise of Kingdoms. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in today’s article.

There is a small problem here, though. Commanders are randomly unlocked in the game, and even the starting ones can be different from player to player, since there are 8 nations to choose from and each comes with a different commander.

Side note: make sure to check out our best nations guide to make sure you start on the right foot!

So choosing the best commander in Rise of Kingdoms is usually done from the list of commanders you have unlocked. I can say, based on my own experience, that once you reach Headquarters level 7-8, you will have a fair number of Heroes to choose from and until then you’ll have to deal with what you’re dealt.

To make things a bit more complicated, some commanders are great when it comes to gathering resources, some are great leaders for your troops in battle, while some are better to defending your kingdom or alliance flags and so on. So we will need more “best commander in the game” categories since there’s no single commander to rule them all.

To make things even easier for you, with all these things in mind, our Rise of Kingdoms commanders guide will actually feature more commanders that are considered really good. I am listing them all below, with some notes on my side and letting you decide which one is the better choice in your case – and based on the ones you have already unlocked:

Best Rise of Kingdoms Commander for resource gathering

Since you will spend a large portion of your time collecting resources in order to build up your nation, the commanders who offer you a boost when it comes to the actual collection process are really solid and very important to focus on, especially early on. You have quite a few options, but the ones who stand out are:

Cleopatra VII

A bit more difficult to get, Cleoptara is great when it comes to collecting resources, being specialized in collecting stone starting with her second skill, but also offering boosts to other resources.

If you only want to use her as a gatherer, you should only work on unlocking her third skill – more than that is not necessary and you can put those resources to better use somewhere else.

Gaius Marius

Probably the easiest commander to get from our list, Gaius is a great resource gatherer, specializing in Food gathering, but offering boosts to other resources as well.

Just like it’s the case of Cleopatra, Gaius Marius shouldn’t be upgraded beoynd the third skill which increases the load capacity, therefore being able to gather even more resources.

Joan of Arc

Joan is a great support unit and one of the few in-game commanders that can easily fit two roles: that of a gatherer and support for another commander in battle. Therefore, she’s definitely one to work on, no matter what civilization you’re playing as.

As a gatherer, she makes it easier for you to collect resources, starting from the second skill which increases both the gathering speed and load of your troops. But all the other skills are great for support, so you should definitely work on her and use for that as well.

Best Rise of Kingdoms Commander for battle

Boudica (Barbarians)

I really like her as a truly offensive Hero and great for fighting Barbarians thanks to her second skill. You do have to work a bit on her in order to make her a really dangerous attacker in PvP as well, but it’s worth it and it’s easier to star her up than other rare commanders.

Cao Cao (Barbarians)

Giving amazing boosts to cavalry units, this Legendary Hero becomes extremely dangerous and valuable extremely fast. Great against barbarians mainly, but also in PvP, he is difficult to star up because of his rarity, but definitely worth focusing on.

Hannibal Barca (PvP)

This one is great a support, but also as a standalone fighter. He doesn’t have any additional bonuses against barbarians, but becomes extremely useful when it comes to attacking other players or alliance structures.

Because of his rarity, he is pretty difficult to star up, but again worth it. Make sure to get him to 3 stars and start pairing him up with other commanders in order to get a deadly Hero that all rival players will be scared of.

Best Rise of Kingdoms Commander for defense

Sun Tzu

With a solid boost offered to defending Garrisons and nice bonuses for infantry units, Sun Tzu is a great choice for a Hero to always keep at home, defending your castle.

There is no need to unlock his fourth skill, in my opinion as he is really good with three only and does a great job defending your resources.

Yi Seong-Gye

Another defender that can double up as a solid support hero for a main one. This one gets some bonuses to archer units and increases Garrison/Watchtower attack, so it’s good to have around when rival nations decide to attack.

I also believe that there’s no real need to unlock his 4th skill – instead focus on the first three and max him out like that.

Charles Martel

Finally, we’re rounding this list up with this guy who seems to have Thor’s hammer as a weapon. Apart from the visuals, though, he’s a good defender, even though he doesn’t really double up as a solid Support dude.

You’ll also want to star him up all the way to the top in order to have access to all his skills and work on getting them better and better to make him a real beast. Difficult, though, since he’s so rare!

There are some really good support commanders as well, great for pairing up with other commanders: Joan of Arc is a killer if you have her first skill maxed out, while Hannibal Barca is amazing too.

Finally, you should also invest in the Talents appropriate to the role that your commanders will have: the characters that will be mainly gatherers, for example, should work on the Pack Light (and below) tech tree, while the battle commanders should improve the talents that further expand their bonuses (for example, Cao Cao who already has a bonus to Cavalry units becomes deadly if you invest in Cavalry Attack branch talents).

This would be it – hopefully you have unlocked as many as possible listed above. If not, worry not – there are still other decent choices out there and in the end, if you are active enough and play a smart game, you can put even a slightly worse commander on the podium.

Just make sure to focus leveling up and starring up commanders that are already solid and you know you’ll be using long term. Otherwise, you’re just wasting resources which are pretty difficult to come by anyway!

And if you have just started to play the game, we have some extra help for you: check out or tips and tricks to get better at RoC!