🏗️ Complete Building and Progression Guide
Buildings are the foundation of progression in Lands of Jail.
Upgrading them unlocks new features, increases capacity, and opens the path toward research, stronger troops, and advanced progression systems.
However, upgrading every available building without a defined order can consume enormous amounts of resources and speedups without bringing your account closer to the unlocks that truly matter.
As your Prison advances, several parts of construction become increasingly demanding:
- Resource costs
- Construction times
- Prerequisite buildings
- Progression materials
- Planning requirements
The most useful question is not:
The better question is:
This guide explains how to organize your construction priorities, use speedups efficiently, prepare prerequisite chains, and avoid wasting resources during account progression.
🧭 Construction becomes more complex
During the beginning of the game, many buildings can be upgraded quickly.
Resources are easier to obtain, construction times are shorter, and prerequisites are relatively simple.
This changes as the account progresses.
One building begins to require another. That second building may require a third, creating an entire development chain.
A typical route may look like this:
Main objective → Prerequisite building → Secondary prerequisite → Resources → Construction time → Completed objective
Advanced players need to look several steps ahead because the visible upgrade is not always the complete cost.
🎯 Start with an objective
Imagine that you have enough resources to upgrade one building, but four different upgrades are currently available.
You select one at random.
Your Power increases, but you later discover that your next important Prison upgrade requires a different building that remains several levels behind.
Now you need to spend again.
This is one of the most common sources of wasted resources and construction time.
Before starting an upgrade, ask:
- Is this building required for my next objective?
- Will the upgrade unlock something important?
- Will I need this building soon?
- Does it improve a system I regularly use?
- Is another building currently blocking my progression?
If none of these answers is positive, there may be a better priority.
:::note tip
The easiest way to organize construction is to choose one clear objective and build the route required to reach it.
:::
For example:
Once the objective is defined, identify every requirement connected to it.
The route may include:
Prison → Required building → Additional prerequisite → Resources → Construction time
Instead of upgrading buildings randomly, you begin following a progression route.
🏛️ Use the Prison as a progression reference
The Prison is an important reference point for overall account development.
Advancing the main structure is often connected to new stages of progression, additional systems, and future unlocks.
A useful question is:
If the answer is a specific building, you have probably found your immediate priority.
This does not mean that every other building should be ignored. It means that upgrades should have a relationship with the direction in which your account is developing.
:::cards
:::item 🔓 Unlock buildings
Buildings that directly open the path toward a new Prison level, feature, troop tier, research stage, or advanced system.
:::
:::item ⚙️ Support buildings
Buildings that improve systems you use frequently, including training, research, capacity, resources, and military development.
:::
:::item 💤 Low-priority buildings
Buildings that currently provide little benefit to your objective and are not required for an upcoming unlock.
:::
:::
When you are uncertain about an upgrade, classify it into one of these groups.
⚖️ Advance without abandoning balance
Prioritizing the main progression route does not mean ignoring everything else.
Secondary buildings can affect:
- Troop training
- Research
- Capacity
- Resource production
- Military development
- General account progression
- Future prerequisites
If you improve only the minimum requirements and abandon every supporting structure, you may end up with an advanced Prison supported by severely outdated systems.
The ideal approach is to advance efficiently without destroying the account's overall balance.
Balance does not mean keeping every building at exactly the same level. It means preventing important systems from becoming so outdated that they limit your account.
🔗 Calculate the entire prerequisite route
Imagine that you plan to begin a major upgrade tomorrow.
You have the required resources and enough speedups. However, when you check the requirements, you discover that a secondary building must first be upgraded three times.
Your plan has been delayed before it even started.
This could have been avoided by checking the complete prerequisite chain in advance.
Before beginning, determine:
- Which building is required?
- What level must it reach?
- Does that building have another prerequisite?
- How many resources will the complete route require?
- How much construction time is involved?
- Will another requirement appear immediately afterward?
Do not calculate only the final building.
Calculate the route.
You do not need to memorize the entire progression system. Knowing your current objective and the objective immediately after it is already extremely useful.
While completing the current level, begin preparing:
- Resources
- Construction speedups
- Secondary buildings
- Future prerequisites
- Advanced materials
- The next progression stage
When the time comes, you will not need to begin preparing from zero.
📦 Prepare both resources and speedups
Time is not the only obstacle to construction.
The further you progress, the more resources an upgrade may require.
Having 500 hours of construction speedups will not help if you cannot afford to start the required buildings.
A major progression sequence usually requires two different reserves:
- Resources and materials to begin the upgrades
- Speedups to complete them more quickly
Without one of these reserves, the sequence may stop halfway through.
Before committing to a large construction plan, estimate:
- Total resource cost
- Total construction time
- Available speedups
- Remaining reserves
- Intermediate prerequisites
- Materials required for advanced progression
Resources and speedups need to be planned together.
🎒 Keep resource items protected
If you have resource items stored in your inventory, you do not necessarily need to open everything in advance.
Keeping those items protected until they are needed can prevent unnecessary exposure and help you control exactly how much you spend.
A useful sequence is:
Calculate the cost → Use available resources → Open only what is necessary → Begin construction
This prevents large quantities of resources from remaining exposed without a defined purpose.
:::note warning
Do not open every resource item simply because you plan to upgrade soon. Confirm the complete cost first and use only what the construction route requires.
:::
This principle becomes increasingly important as upgrade costs grow.
⏳ Give every speedup a purpose
Imagine that you have 400 hours of construction speedups.
That represents more than sixteen days of accumulated construction time.
You could spend ten minutes here, thirty minutes there, or two hours whenever you become impatient.
Alternatively, you could preserve a significant portion for an important unlock.
The difference is planning.
Before using a speedup, ask:
If the answer is:
It may be better to let the timer continue naturally.
A speedup has a clearer purpose when:
- It unlocks the next prerequisite
- It completes an important sequence
- It contributes to an active event
- It allows another construction to begin
- It reaches an important account objective
- It prevents a construction queue from remaining idle
Speedups are stored progression. Spending them without an objective reduces your ability to make a strategic jump later.
🌙 Use offline time intelligently
If you are going to sleep, work, or remain offline for several hours, begin a long construction.
The timer continues while you are away.
This is one of the easiest ways to save speedups.
The best free speedup is natural time.
Short upgrades can be completed while you are active and able to start another construction immediately. Long upgrades are better suited to periods when you cannot interact with the game.
A useful routine is:
- Complete shorter buildings while active
- Begin a long construction before going offline
- Check the remaining time when you return
- Use speedups only if finishing immediately provides a real benefit
This allows the account to continue developing even when you are not playing.
🕒 Keep construction queues working
If a construction queue is available and you have a useful building to upgrade, leaving the queue idle represents lost development time.
One hour may appear insignificant.
However, losing three hours every day creates ninety hours of idle time in thirty days. That is equivalent to three days and eighteen hours of missed progression.
Across several months, these small interruptions accumulate.
An efficient account attempts to keep useful construction active whenever resources and objectives allow it.
This does not mean starting meaningless upgrades only to keep the queue occupied. The construction should still contribute to progression.
🏗️ Coordinate multiple construction queues
When more than one construction queue is available, you can work toward two objectives simultaneously.
One queue may handle:
- The Prison
- A direct prerequisite
- A major progression building
The other may handle:
- The next prerequisite
- A secondary support building
- Economic development
- A future requirement
The two queues should ideally support the same broader objective.
For example:
Primary queue: Prison or current prerequisite
Secondary queue: Building required for the following stage
When the primary construction finishes, the secondary queue may already have prepared part of the next route.
That is significantly more efficient than using two queues on unrelated buildings simply because upgrades are available.
📊 Equal building levels are not always efficient
Some players prefer to keep every building at the same level.
They may upgrade everything to level 20, then everything to level 21, and later everything to level 22.
This looks organized, but it is not always efficient.
If a building is not currently required, it may be better to invest in something that:
- Unlocks progression
- Improves troops
- Supports research
- Increases an important capacity
- Serves as a prerequisite
- Strengthens a frequently used system
Balance does not require absolute equality.
Building priorities should change as the account develops.
A practical classification is:
Immediate priorities
Buildings required for your next major unlock.
Strategic support
Buildings that improve systems you use constantly.
Later upgrades
Buildings that currently provide little value and are not part of an upcoming requirement.
🪖 Make infrastructure support your army
If a building is connected to the training or development of an important troop class, allowing it to fall too far behind can weaken military progression.
Your infrastructure should support the army you intend to build.
Guide LOJ works with the three primary troop classes:
- Shieldbearers
- Bombers
- Shooters
If your strategy relies heavily on a particular troop class, the corresponding infrastructure should not be neglected.
This does not mean that every building must receive identical investment. It means that your construction decisions should support your formations and account role.
🔬 Connect building and research plans
Buildings and research are complementary systems.
You may have enough resources and speedups for research, but if the related building has not reached the required level, progression can remain blocked.
Accelerating research while completely abandoning construction creates a bottleneck. The opposite can also happen: advanced buildings may provide little immediate benefit if your research remains severely behind.
When planning your account, evaluate both systems together:
Buildings ↔ Research
A development-focused player may prioritize structures that improve economy, speed, and account progression.
A player entering a more competitive stage may need to accelerate buildings connected to:
- Troops
- Combat
- Capacity
- Research
- Healing and recovery
- Advanced progression
Your priorities should evolve alongside your account.
🎁 Combine construction with events
Some Lands of Jail events reward development actions.
This creates an opportunity to combine a planned construction with:
- Account progression
- Power
- Event points
- Additional rewards
If you already intend to complete a large upgrade and can wait without harming your account, an upcoming development event may provide additional value.
For example, imagine that you have enough resources and many speedups. Your next building is useful but not urgent.
Waiting for a relevant event may allow the same upgrade to provide both progression and rewards.
There is one important condition:
Do not freeze your progression indefinitely.
:::note tip
Event planning is most efficient when the upgrade was already part of your strategy. Avoid improving unnecessary buildings only to gain ranking points.
:::
The same speedups can create different returns.
Without planning:
Construction completed
With good timing:
Construction completed → Power gained → Event points → Rewards received
The resources are similar, but the return is greater.
🛑 Know when to stop during an event
Reaching one event reward does not automatically mean you should continue spending.
Before pursuing the next milestone, determine:
- How many additional points are required?
- How many speedups will it consume?
- What resources will be needed?
- Is the reward worth the cost?
- Will important reserves remain afterward?
- Does the next construction still support your plan?
If the next reward does not justify the investment, stop.
Saving resources is also a strategy.
For example, if you have 800 hours of construction speedups, you might decide before the event:
This preserves 300 hours for another opportunity and prevents the common reaction:
Set the limit before spending.
⚡ Let Power follow useful progression
Buildings increase Power, but that does not mean every available building should be upgraded simply to increase the number.
Prefer Power that comes with:
- A useful unlock
- A prerequisite completed
- Greater capacity
- Better training
- Improved research access
- Stronger military progression
- A real account benefit
Power should increase as a consequence of development.
There is a major difference between using an event to improve your account and improving unnecessary buildings only to climb the ranking.
The first approach is efficient.
The second can consume months of resources while producing very little meaningful progression.
If you have completed your important objectives, preserving the remaining resources may be the better decision.
🌱 Construction planning for F2P players
Construction speedups are especially valuable for free-to-play players because they are more difficult to replace.
Natural construction time should therefore be used as much as possible.
An efficient F2P account attempts to keep both construction and research active for as much time as possible.
The objective is to make the game continue working even while the player is offline.
Imagine that a construction will finish in two hours and you want to begin another immediately.
Is it worth spending diamonds?
Possibly not.
Those two hours can pass naturally. The diamonds and speedups may be far more important later when an upgrade takes several days.
As the account becomes more advanced, having reserves becomes increasingly valuable.
F2P players can maintain strong progression by combining:
- Active construction queues
- Offline time
- Alliance help
- Event rewards
- Carefully accumulated speedups
- Protected resource items
- Clear upgrade priorities
Efficiency is the greatest advantage available.
💳 Spending does not replace planning
Purchasing packs can accelerate progression, but it does not eliminate prerequisites.
You still need to know what to build and in which order.
Money can reduce waiting time.
Planning reduces waste.
These are different benefits.
If you are missing resources for a construction and are considering purchasing a pack, calculate the complete shortage first.
The pack may cover only a small portion of the route. Alternatively, you may already have enough protected items in your inventory.
Never purchase immediately just because the game displays an insufficient-resources warning.
First determine:
- The complete cost
- Your current resources
- Inventory resources
- The remaining shortage
- Whether the pack completes the objective
- Whether additional prerequisites will immediately appear
Knowing the real shortage prevents unnecessary spending.
🗺️ Build complete progression sequences
Imagine that your planned route is:
Prison → Prerequisite → Prison → Prerequisite → Prison
Do not treat each building as an isolated decision.
Create one progression sequence and estimate:
- Total resources
- Total construction time
- Required speedups
- All prerequisites
- Intermediate upgrades
- Advanced materials
- Remaining reserves
This prevents your account from becoming stuck halfway through the plan.
If you intend to advance several levels within a short period, begin preparing beforehand:
- Collect resources
- Save speedups
- Check prerequisites
- Prepare secondary buildings
- Protect inventory items
- Avoid unrelated spending
- Identify relevant events
When the right moment arrives, the account will already be prepared for the jump.
👀 Always look one stage ahead
You complete a major construction and spend almost everything.
Then you check the next level and discover that the remaining requirements are far beyond your current resources.
If you had checked in advance, you might have preserved some speedups, changed the order, or planned resource collection more effectively.
Always inspect at least one stage beyond your current objective.
Knowing the next step helps you avoid:
- Empty resource reserves
- Idle queues
- Missing prerequisites
- Misused speedups
- Unexpected material shortages
- Long delays between progression stages
Your current upgrade should also prepare the account for what comes afterward.
🔥 Plan Forticlad separately
As the account reaches higher development systems, Forticlad begins requiring specific materials and additional planning.
At this stage, traditional resources alone are no longer sufficient.
You must manage advanced progression materials that can be significantly harder to replace.
Major Forticlad upgrades deserve their own plan.
Before spending advanced materials, ask:
- Which level do I want to reach?
- What does the complete sequence cost?
- Will the upgrade unlock something important?
- Is another system a greater priority?
- How long will replacing these materials take?
- Can I complete the planned stage?
This is especially important for resources that may require weeks or months to accumulate.
🧮 Use the Forticlad calculators
Guide LOJ provides a dedicated calculator for Forticlad Prison progression.
It helps estimate how many materials are required to reach your objective.
[Button: Forticlad Calculator]
Instead of thinking:
You can work with:
This makes a major difference during long progression routes.
Forticlad Lab has its own progression and material requirements.
Guide LOJ also provides a dedicated tool for planning it.
[Button: Forticlad Lab Calculator]
Do not automatically combine the Prison and Lab calculations.
Although they are both part of advanced progression, their requirements and priorities should be evaluated separately.
🧱 Use consolidation periods
When the Prison becomes highly advanced, it is common to focus entirely on the next main level.
However, secondary buildings may still affect:
- Troops
- Research
- Capacity
- Production
- Training
- Future prerequisites
Review the account occasionally and identify buildings that have fallen too far behind.
Not every phase needs to be a race toward the next Prison level.
After reaching an important milestone, you can use a quieter period to improve relevant secondary buildings.
Think of this as a consolidation phase.
You have advanced the main progression. Now you strengthen the foundation before preparing the next jump.
⚖️ Avoid both progression extremes
There are two extreme approaches.
Only minimum prerequisites
The objective is to advance the main structure as quickly as possible while ignoring nearly everything else.
Every building at the same level
The objective is to maintain complete visual balance, even when many upgrades provide little immediate value.
Most players benefit from an approach between these extremes.
Advance the main objectives first, then correct the secondary delays that meaningfully affect the account.
The best construction depends on:
- Account level
- Current objective
- Available resources
- Active events
- Troop development
- Research progression
- Alliance role
- Upcoming unlocks
This is why rigid lists such as “always upgrade one building, then another, then another” eventually stop working.
A safer rule is:
🤝 Use alliance help before speedups
An active alliance is useful for more than events.
Member assistance may reduce development timers, making it valuable to begin major construction while your alliance is active.
If the help system is available, use it before consuming all your speedups.
A small reduction may appear insignificant, but repeated across dozens of constructions it can represent a substantial amount of saved time.
Saved time means fewer speedups consumed.
When possible, follow this order:
Begin construction → Receive alliance help → Check the remaining time → Use speedups if necessary
Using speedups immediately after beginning a long construction may waste some of the benefit that alliance assistance could have provided.
🚀 Prepare bonuses before starting
Before beginning an extremely long construction, check the bonuses available on your account.
Depending on your progression and active systems, you may have improvements related to construction speed.
The principle is simple:
Before a major construction, verify:
- Do I have all required resources?
- Have I activated the available bonuses?
- Can I receive alliance help?
- Is this the best building for my objective?
- Is there a relevant event?
- Do I know the next prerequisite?
- Will I have enough resources for the following stage?
Five minutes of preparation may save many hours.
🧠 Give every building a reason
Before beginning any major upgrade, you should be able to complete this sentence:
Useful answers include:
- It is required for my Prison
- It unlocks an important improvement
- I need more capacity
- It supports my military progression
- It prepares my next prerequisite
- It strengthens a system I use constantly
- It completes my event objective
If the only answer is:
It may be better to analyze the decision first.
💨 Build faster by wasting less
Players often ask how to construct buildings more quickly.
The answer is not limited to obtaining more speedups.
Efficient construction also requires:
- Keeping useful queues active
- Taking advantage of offline time
- Receiving alliance help
- Preparing resources
- Understanding prerequisites
- Using available bonuses
- Aligning upgrades with events
- Avoiding unnecessary buildings
- Looking ahead to the next stage
Speed is not only about reducing timers.
It is also about reducing waste.
🆚 Comparing two construction strategies
Imagine two players with the same resources and 500 hours of construction speedups.
The first player:
- Upgrades buildings whenever an arrow appears
- Uses speedups to avoid waiting
- Improves buildings that are not prerequisites
- Reaches the next Prison stage and discovers several missing requirements
- Runs out of resources halfway through the route
The second player:
- Checks requirements in advance
- Keeps two queues working on connected objectives
- Starts long buildings before going offline
- Receives alliance help before using speedups
- Protects resources until they are needed
- Saves materials for the next important unlock
- Looks at least one stage ahead
Both players began with the same resources.
The second player transformed far more of those resources into meaningful progression.
✅ Construction planning checklist
:::checklist
- Do I know which level I want to reach?
- Do I understand the prerequisites?
- Have I checked the intermediate requirements?
- Do I have enough resources?
- Do I have enough construction speedups?
- Will I still have a reserve afterward?
- Can I receive alliance help?
- Do I have an available construction bonus?
- Is there an event that rewards this upgrade?
- Have I already checked the next progression stage?
- If this is Forticlad, have I calculated the required materials?
:::
If several answers are no, it may be better to prepare further before beginning.
❓ Frequently asked questions
:::faq
:::item Which building should I upgrade first?
Normally, begin with buildings required for your next major objective or unlock. Afterward, improve the systems you use frequently or those that support your account's role.
:::
:::item Should every building remain at the same level?
Not necessarily. Some buildings have greater priority during specific progression stages. Balance means preventing important systems from falling too far behind, not maintaining identical levels everywhere.
:::
:::item Should I use construction speedups?
Yes, especially when they help complete a clear objective, unlock the next prerequisite, or provide additional event value. Avoid using them only because you are impatient.
:::
:::item Is it worth waiting for construction events?
If the construction can wait without harming progression, aligning it with an event may increase the return. Do not delay important development indefinitely for a small reward.
:::
:::item Should the construction queue always remain active?
When you have enough resources and a useful building available, yes. Idle hours accumulate over time. However, do not waste rare materials on an unnecessary upgrade merely to occupy the queue.
:::
:::item Should I open every resource item before construction?
No. A safer strategy is to calculate the complete cost and open only what is necessary to begin the upgrade.
:::
:::item Does Forticlad require different planning?
Yes. Advanced Forticlad progression uses specific materials that can be harder to replace. Calculate the complete route before spending them.
:::
:::item Can F2P players maintain good construction progression?
Yes. F2P accounts can progress efficiently by keeping queues active, using offline time, receiving alliance help, participating in events, accumulating speedups, and selecting priorities carefully.
:::
:::item Should I spend diamonds to finish short timers?
Usually, short timers can finish naturally unless completing them immediately creates a meaningful advantage. Diamonds and speedups often become more valuable during longer upgrades.
:::
:::
🏆 Final lesson
If you remember only one idea from this guide, remember this:
Use this progression sequence:
Choose the objective → Discover the requirements → Prepare resources → Prepare speedups → Activate bonuses → Begin construction → Receive alliance help → Accelerate only when necessary → Prepare the next level
When you begin working this way, construction stops being only a matter of waiting for timers.
It becomes a complete progression route.