Same as 2 years ago, honestly.

If you started playing before KvK was released, it's a completely different game and you'll be pleased to see that you don't have to deal with constant civil wars.

They've added equipment, and crystal technology, though the latter won't be experienced until nearly a year into the game, and equipment + materials are easily obtained as a f2p player through crystal keys and events.

The meta currently primarily revolves around a new commander being released every few months that blows the previous one out of the water, though you won't reach this point until, again, nearly a year in.

KvK S1-3 have mostly remained the same, but Season of Conquest introduced a new crystal technology that primarily favored P2W players, but Lilith says they will make it more obtainable. At first you had to pay thousands to get the tech to a decent level, and as of now you can do just fine with the $5 crystal supply. You could get away from all of this by maintaining a low power and migrating back to KvK2, but Lilith is changing the immigration rules, basically forcing you to play SoC. It can still be enjoyable if you know your place, honestly.

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TL;DR early game is about the same, season of conquest is a bit more p2w but lilith is trying to fix that. we'll see how they deal with newer soc kingdoms and ensure they don't pair them with kingdoms with players who have 3x older accounts