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Research · Defense

Deep Cisterns

Water and grain enough to outlast the besiegers' patience — raises troop defense.

Entity ID
deep_cisterns
Branch
Defense
Stat buffed
defense — Defense
Bonus per level
+1.2%
Maximum level
6
Bonus at maximum level
+7.2%
Power per level
102
Power at maximum level
612
Base study time
55 seconds
Study time at maximum level
6m 58s
Prerequisites
Moat Works at level 5, Counter-Siege at level 5

Cost, time and bonus at every level

Deep Cisterns runs to level 6, adding +1.2% to defense and 102 power each time. Studying it out costs the four soft resources — the same amount of each — and takes 6m 58s for the final level alone. Gems are only ever the optional instant finish; the study itself is bought with what your fields already make.

Deep Cisterns: what each level costs and what it grants.
LevelTotal defensePowerStudy timeEach resourceGems to finish
1+1.2%10255s3,00050
2+2.4%2041m 23s4,20070
3+3.6%3062m 4s5,88098
4+4.8%4083m 6s8,220137
5+6%5104m 38s11,520192
6+7.2%6126m 58s16,140269

Taken from nothing to level 6 that is 19m 4s of raw study and 48,960 of each of food, wood, stone and iron — 195,840 resources in total.

Where it sits in the tree

Deep Cisterns belongs to the Defense branch — the walls line — what an attacker has to get through before they reach your granary. It stays locked until Moat Works reaches level 5 and Counter-Siege reaches level 5. Nothing further in the tree depends on it, so it is a leaf: worth taking for its own bonus, never as a stepping stone.

The road here: Weaponry to level 3 → Armor to level 8 → Fortification to level 5 → Stonework to level 8 → Moat Works to level 5 → Deep Cisterns. That is 5 studies standing between a fresh Academy and this one.

What Deep Cisterns costs before its own first level: the prerequisite chain, at the levels it demands.
PrerequisiteLevel requiredEach resourceStudy time
Weaponry313,08012m 40s
Armor8103,1402h 11m
Fortification532,82035m 10s
Stonework8103,14024m 39s
Moat Works532,8207m 42s
Total before you may begin285,0003h 31m

Numerically twinned with Concentric Castles. Same cap, same rate per level, same study time, same power — the figures on those pages match these exactly. What separates them is the flavour and, more usefully, what each one gates: this one opens nothing further, while Concentric Castles opens The Long Memory. If you only want the bonus, take whichever is cheaper to reach; if you are building toward something, take the one that gates it.

Guide: Research & the Academy · Research Priorities. Studied at the Maester's Academy. Index: all 79 studies · the whole database.

Rest of the Defense branch: Fortification · Siege Craft · Palisades · Stonework · Watchtowers · Moat Works · Battlements · Portcullis · Curtain Walls · Barbicans · Gatehouses · Counter-Siege · Murder Holes · Arrow Slits · Siege Engineering · Concentric Castles · Bombardment Doctrine

Every figure above is generated from the shipped game code — the same constants and formulas the running game uses — and regenerated whenever the balance changes. Nothing on this page is hand-typed.

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