Be the King Retainer Guide: Everything about Them & How to Upgrade Them & Best Retainers

Retainers are extremely important in Be the King, as they are the main source of your empire’s power. They have various stats, skills and attributes and managing them effectively will give you massive benefits. Therefore, I have decided to share with you a complete guide to the be the King Retainers in this article.

I have also published an article with tips and tricks for fellow players – make sure to read that as well for additional advice. But now let’s focus on today’s topic and let’s check out below a complete Be the King guide for Retainers!

What are Retainers & How to get more?

These are the core of your Kingdom’s Power, their attributes having a direct influence over various aspects in the game. Therefore, having strong Retainers is a must if you want to be a top player or at least be able to be competitive in Be the King.

Getting more retainers is relatively easy and you will unlock more by being active. Simply completing some missions, achievements or reaching certain milestones (like a specific character level or Power meter) will unlock more Retainers. You can also get some very good ones by making in-game purchases with real money.

Either way, you will always have a ton of retainers to choose from and many that will influence the way your Kingdom goes.

Overview of Retainers (Guide)

Your Retainers have a general set of Attributes (which directly influence your Power), but also Aptitudes and Skills.

Aptitudes vary from Retainer to Retainer and upgrading them is a very difficult process. However, doing so will increase your Retainer’s Attributes, so it’s worth doing it often. The rarer the Aptitude (higher number of stars indicate rare ones), the more difficult it is to upgrade it. Play with the various options available in order to get the best out of the potential upgrades.

The Skills can be leveled up after the Retainers spend time in the Institute studying. You can normally send just 1 to study at a time, but I recommend unlocking the next two slots as well in order to keep a steady flow. Keep sending your main Retainers for combat (those with high Strength attributes) since they will be the ones you’ll use in fights and the most important in your line-up.

Why is strength so important? Because it has a direct effect over various events and things that happen in the game – from defeating enemy bosses to completing the challenges in the Dungeon, helping your Allieance members and finally defeating opponents in your Academy.

But things are not that easy: all the other attributes a retainer has will influence various aspects of the game. Therefore, you should use all your items in the inventory to power them up in all areas in order to get the added benefits (like more troops, gold or food from the mansion and so on).

My recommendation is to only focus on two-three retainers early on – especially their strength and battle skills, then increase the number as you go up the levels and become more powerful. It is better to have a few very good ones that a bunch of mediocres overall.

Best Retainers in the game

When selecting the best retainers in the game, I took into consideration two things: how easy it is to unlock them early on and how good they are at military-related stuff.

Your list might look a bit different if you unlock other Retainers, but most importantly it can be changed by the Confidants (Wives). These, once they reach level 10 in Intimacy, start having a direct influence over the Retainers, increasing their power.

Therefore, if one of your Wives increases the Strength attribute of a specific General, then he might end up being better than the ones I’m recommending below.

But even so, my main recommendations are great to focus on early in the game in order to get the lead and a slight advantage in battle:

Chen Jinnan – You unlock him early and has Strength as a main attribute, grows nicely and has two good attack Aptitudes.
Xiao Jian – Another Strenght-only Retainer, this one has slightly less impressive skills than Chen, but is good to look at early on in the game.
Hong Chengchou – Even though he also has Intelligence as a Speciality, he’s a good general to invest in early on

This would be today’s guide on the Be the King Retainers. If you have additional questions about them, don’t hesitate to let us know by commenting below.