What are the new crown icons that appear on the upper-left hand side of my screen?

The crown icon reflects that you are affected by the new Dominion buff added with the latest Shadow Cities update, ‘Advent of the Shadow Lord’. You can place your thumb over the icon and hold it there to read the effects.

What does the Dominion buff do?

The Dominion buff grants Vitality when you harvest a realm that receives ‘likes’ from other mages on the associated realm page. You will also gain a bonus to your Willpower if you are Shadow Lord over the harvested realm, which scales based upon the bid value of the realm.

How can I gain the Dominion buff?

Simply harvest any dominator attached to a realm that has received enough ‘likes’ to receive the bonus to Vitality. Similarly, harvesting a realm that you are Shadow Lord of will grant the Willpower buff.

What if I don’t have a realm near me?

Don’t worry! Enter a ticket on our support site and provide us details regarding your location. We’ll add your area to our checklist, and we’ll do our best to add one to your area. Please be patient as the process can take time!

What affects the potency of the Dominion buff?

The Dominion buff scales based upon the number of ‘likes’, in the case of the Vitality buff. The Willpower granted when you are Shadow Lord over the realm becomes higher as the bid value of the realm increases.

Is there a cap to the amount of bonus the Dominion buff will add?

The Dominion buff can grant a bonus of up to 50 Vitality, which means you could have a total of 125 if you were currently at the maximum of 75.

There is no cap to the amount of Willpower you can gain through increasing the bid value of a realm.

My Attributes don’t appear improved by the Dominion buff?

The Dominion buff will not show on your Character Screen, as we want mages to reliably see their actual attribute value. If one or both of the Dominion Buff icons are displayed on your screen, you are gaining the effects of the buff. You can refer to the ‘?’ on the associated realm, or check the realm pages to see the specific increase.

How long does the Dominion buff last?

The Dominion buff will last for 60-minutes, but can be refreshed the moment you harvest your Dominators again. The buff intentionally lasts longer than the time it takes to harvest to give you plenty of time to hunt spirits, raid and play with your friends!

What happens if I harvest another realm while I have the Dominion Buff?

The Dominion Buff will be overwritten every time you harvest a new realm and grant the bonuses displayed by tapping the ‘?’ attached to the realm.

Different realms may grant larger or smaller Vitality and Willpower bonuses when you’re the Shadow Lord. Having the new buff replace the current, allows for example to exchange a larger Vitality buff for one smaller, as a means to gain a larger bonus to Willpower.

Can you gain bonuses from harvesting a realm you don’t own?

You can gain the Vitality bonus by harvesting any well-liked realm owned by your team. You must be the Shadow Lord of a realm to receive the Willpower bonus, however.

How do you ‘like’ a realm?

We’ve released new realm pages that provide details and images of every Shadow Cities realm. You can share the link of the realm you want to improve with other mages, and ask them to hit the ‘like’ button found on the page. Remember, as the number of ‘likes’ on your realm go up, so does the Vitality buff provided when it’s harvested.

How do I Improve my Shadow Lord bonus?

The more you bid on your realm by tapping the realm’s mana potion icon, the more Willpower you’ll receive when it’s harvested. You can view the bid value of the realm as well as track the specific Dominion buff bonus by clicking on the realm’s ‘?‘ icon.

I've lost the Dominion buff because of a game error?

If you've lost your Dominion buff because of a crash, submit your crash logs directly to us so we can investigate further. We are working to resolve any outstanding issues with the Dominion buff.

Why do I receive a smaller Dominion vitality buff from my gateway than the last time?

The Dominion vitality buff is a relative number that is compared to other realms that have received likes. If your realm for example hasn't received any new likes for a while and meanwhile other realms have received more, you might see the vitality buff you receive from your realm to be smaller.

Edited by Khamos (Nov. 16, 2011 13:23:19)

More than likely you are harvesting from dominators attached to this realm to receive the Vitality bonus of 40.

http://www.shadowcities.com/world/realms/4164798/

Then other times you're harvesting from dominators attached to this realm and receiving the full 50 to Vitality.

http://www.shadowcities.com/world/realms/100290126/

"The Dominion Buff will be overwritten every time you harvest a new realm and grant the bonuses displayed by tapping the ‘?’ attached to the realm.

Different realms may grant larger or smaller Vitality and Willpower bonuses when you’re the Shadow Lord. Having the new buff replace the current, allows for example to exchange a larger Vitality buff for one smaller, as a means to gain a larger bonus to Willpower."