Dragonkin: The Banished City of Montescail Guide: Best Building Upgrade Order & Leveling Strategy

I’ll be blunt: most players in Dragonkin: The Banished don’t hit a wall because of bad gear—they hit it because their City of Montescail is a mess.

I’ve seen it over and over again. Players grinding Chaos Hunts, tweaking their Ancestral Grid for hours, blaming RNG… while their city is sitting there half-upgraded like an abandoned skill tree. In the current 2026 meta, Montescail isn’t just a hub—it’s your real progression engine.

After putting way too many hours into endgame farming and testing different upgrade paths, I’ve landed on a system that consistently shaves hours off leveling and makes high-tier content feel way more manageable.

Let’s break it down like real players do—not theory, but what actually works.

The Truth About Montescail (Most Guides Miss This)

Here’s the thing: City Points are your most limited resource early on, not gold, not materials.

You can farm gear. You can grind XP. But if you invest points into the wrong buildings early, you’ll feel it for dozens of hours.

That’s why I treat Montescail like a second skill tree: early game is about XP acceleration, mid game is about build stabilization, and endgame is about min-max scaling.

If you follow that mindset, everything clicks.

Early Game (Levels 1–10): Speed Is Everything

Your only goal here is simple: get strong fast.

Building	Why It Matters	When to Upgrade
Training Grounds	Global XP boost that accelerates all progression	First priority
Artificer’s Workshop	Unlocks gear potential scaling	Immediately after
Memorialist	Prevents weak grid setups	Early support

The Training Grounds is non-negotiable. Ignoring it slows your entire game. That XP multiplier snowballs hard and defines how quickly you reach mid and late game milestones.

Once that’s rolling, grab Artificer Level 2 as soon as possible so your gear doesn’t fall behind, then invest just enough into the Memorialist to avoid weak fragments clogging your grid.

One of the biggest early mistakes is spreading points everywhere. A few strong upgrades outperform a dozen weak ones every time.

Dragonkin The Banished Fragment Farming Guide: Best 1-Hex Locations & Ancestral Grid Meta 2026

Mid Game (Levels 11–25): Where Builds Start to Matter

This is where the game actually opens up and where most builds either stabilize or fall apart.

You’re no longer just surviving. You’re optimizing your playstyle.

Alchemist’s Laboratory
Wyrmling Kennel
Ring-Maker’s Forge

The Alchemist is one of the biggest hidden power spikes in the game. In the current meta, potions are not just healing tools—they are damage multipliers, defensive layers, and sustain systems.

Once you unlock advanced elixirs, your damage output noticeably increases. Prioritizing toxicity reduction allows you to chain buffs more effectively, which becomes critical in longer fights.

The Wyrmling Kennel is often underestimated, but it is essential for solo players. A well-developed Wyrmling provides aggro control, utility, and steady DPS. Support-focused Wyrmlings are currently dominant because they smooth out mid-game difficulty spikes and help with resource management.

The Ring-Maker’s Forge is where builds start to feel unique. Early rings offer basic stats, but once unique crafting unlocks, you gain access to powerful effects like cooldown reduction, area scaling, and synergy bonuses that define your build identity.

Dragonkin: The Banished – Tracker Targeting & Combat Guide (2026)

Endgame (Level 26+): Where Min-Maxing Begins

At this stage, the focus shifts from unlocking systems to amplifying them.

Building	Role	Priority
Enchanter’s Spire	Grid amplification	Very High
Tribute Wall	Passive global buffs	Medium
Library	Hidden damage scaling	Medium

The Enchanter’s Spire is the most important endgame investment. It allows your Ancestral Grid to scale exponentially by turning connections into multipliers rather than flat bonuses.

This system is expensive but absolutely essential if you want to compete in high-tier Chaos Hunts.

The Tribute Wall offers small percentage bonuses that seem minor at first but become incredibly impactful when stacked on a fully optimized build. These boosts often make the difference between struggling and farming efficiently.

The Library should not be ignored. Its Bestiary Knowledge system provides bonus damage against frequently defeated enemies, which becomes a consistent and reliable damage increase over time.

Best City XP Farming Method (2026 Meta)

If your City XP gain is inefficient, your entire progression slows down regardless of strategy.

Full dungeon clears to trigger Purification Bonus
Weekly Grand Bounties for massive XP bursts
Co-op farming for increased efficiency
Resource donations for passive gains

Always aim to fully clear dungeons instead of rushing bosses. The bonus XP is too valuable to ignore.

Weekly bounties provide one of the fastest ways to level your city and should never be skipped.

Co-op play increases efficiency significantly, especially when running optimized groups.

Resource donation is slower but useful for converting excess materials into steady progress.

Common Mistakes

Spreading points too thin across multiple buildings
Ignoring the Library’s hidden bonuses
Underusing potions and buffs
Treating the Wyrmling as a cosmetic feature

Each of these mistakes reduces your overall efficiency and delays your power spikes.

Recommended Upgrade Path

Stage	Focus
Level 1–5	Training Grounds
Level 6–12	Artificer and Memorialist
Level 13–20	Alchemist and Wyrmling
Level 20–30	Enchanter and Ring-Maker
30+	Tribute Wall and Library

This path provides a balanced and efficient progression that aligns with the current meta.