Manage your city, earn gold and compete against other players in epic battles
Way of Citizen is a free browser strategy game: build up a city, manage an economy of gold, food and steel, raise a tactical army, and measure yourself against other players on the world map – diplomacy, espionage and alliances included. Here's an overview of every system.
Gold, food and steel accrue minute by minute instead of just once an hour – your city produces around the clock, even while you're offline.
6 troop classes counter each other in a circle: Muscle beats Ranged, Ranged beats Recon, and so on – smart composition beats raw troop numbers.
Diplomats spy, sabotage and steal in enemy cities – undetected, or with consequences if the enemy's customs officers catch them at the border.
Team up with other players, run joint research, defend sectors on the world map, and bail each other out with gold.
A zoomable world map with size-scaled cities – find targets, plan attacks with real travel time, and defend your territory.
10 research lines with up to 20 levels improve trade, growth, build speed, defense, water and food consumption and more – permanent bonuses that make your city and army stronger over the long run.
Trade gold, food and steel directly with the state or on the open market with other players – at fair, dynamic rates.
Capture a three-part fortress in the 24-hour Paladin Event, survive the Verdammnis with corruption zones and a world boss, or chase wandering meteors in the Sternenfall for exclusive gear - server-wide events with their own rewards.
Measure yourself against every player in seasonal rankings and secure your spot at the top.
Every building plays its own role – from pure income sources to defense bonuses to prerequisites for your army. Level them up individually to shape your city around your own strategy.
The heart of every city: unlocks every other building as its level rises and cuts build times by up to 50%. From level 20 you can found a second city.
Increases your maximum population – more citizens mean more tax income. From level 5 you can specialize into high-rises (more capacity) or a quiet villa district (less crime).
Your most important source of gold income. Specializable into a trading empire (+30% income) or a risky smuggling route (+60%, but more crime).
Produces the food your population needs to survive – if supplies run short, your city loses citizens. Specializable into a large farm or an organic farm.
Lowers your city's crime by up to 8 points per level and hour and actively works existing crime back down - fast at first, slower towards the end. This cuts the ongoing gold loss from crime.
Improves your trading terms and lets you exchange gold, food and steel with the state or other players.
Provides a trade bonus and trains customs officers who intercept enemy diplomats right at the border – your first line of defense against espionage.
Collects your citizens' taxes: +5% tax income per level, up to +100%. The more residents your city has, the more it pays off.
A defense bonus that applies to every attack on your city, no matter which troops the attacker sends.
A safe reserve: 5,000 gold per level cannot be plundered – a full 100,000 gold at level 20.
Arms your citizens: in an attack, 1% of your residents per level help defend – big cities become much harder to crack.
Shells approaching attackers: 1% of the attacking troops per level fall before the battle even starts – attacks get more expensive, even when they succeed.
Shows what is heading for your city: from a rough troop count up to the exact units of approaching attackers.
Reduces how much gold and how many citizens a successful attacker can loot – up to 30% less loss in a raid.
Raises the attack power of your entire army – the higher the level, the harder every single unit hits.
Officially a diplomatic outpost, actually your espionage headquarters: trains diplomats who scout, sabotage or rob enemy cities.
No lab, no research: this building is what opens the research lines in the first place, level by level. Every level also speeds up all research by 0.5% – in every city that has a lab.
The ultimate prestige building for developed cities: +50% population growth, -50% crime growth and a strong influence on alliance sector control.
A prerequisite for basic army training – unlocks Muscle, Ranged and Recon units depending on its level.
Produces the heavy weapons for Siege and Sabotage units – from level 5 you can train your most dangerous infiltration troops.
Produces steel, the third resource alongside gold and food – needed for mechanized units, and unlocks the Weapons Factory from level 3.
Your city's high-tech armory – unlocks mechanized units like attack helicopters and armored personnel carriers, which cost steel in addition to gold.
Required to recruit your commander – a single elite unit with far higher attack, defense, and carrying power than any regular troop.
Unlocks purchasable equipment for the commander – helmet, pistol, kevlar vest, steel-toe boots, and backpack boost not just him, but your entire army.
The primary water source for every city, buildable from Town Hall level 1 – if water can't cover population demand, citizens die off just like in a famine.
Increases the city's water storage capacity, so your well doesn't produce more than can be stored.
A second, late-game water source for cities with high demand that a single well can no longer cover on its own.
6 combat classes counter each other on a rock-paper-scissors basis, each with an offensive and a defensive variant. Plus diplomats for espionage missions and customs officers for counter-espionage – the further you build out your military buildings, the more units become available.
The entry point into the army: cheap melee attackers that overrun ranged defense in the rock-paper-scissors system.
Your basic city guard – the cheapest and fastest defensive unit, the one every army starts with.
Hit recon units from a safe distance before they can evade – the answer to fast, mobile opponents.
Defends from an elevated position with long-range firepower – hard for attacking Muscle troops to break through.
Fast enough to catch even heavy siege troops by surprise before they can react.
A mobile, flexible defense unit that reacts quickly to threats at the city border.
Heavy weapons with pure destructive power that overwhelm even well-hidden saboteurs.
Massive fortifications that withstand even the heaviest attacks.
Infiltrate enemy lines and cripple even heavy cavalry units from within.
Detects intruders early, before they can do any damage.
The strongest attack unit in the game – breaks through Muscle formations in a storming assault. Requires the Weapons Factory and costs steel in addition to gold.
Heavily armored, mechanized defenders – the backbone of a high-tech army. Requires the Weapons Factory and costs steel in addition to gold.
Officially in the diplomatic service, actually your spy: carries out recon, sabotage, gold theft or targeted unrest in enemy cities.
Intercepts incoming enemy diplomats right at the border, before their espionage mission even begins.
Weak combat power, but available early and with high carrying capacity for gold, food and steel looted from raided cities.
Barely armed, but with high water-carrying capacity – without a tanker truck in the raiding party, the target city's water stays untouched in a raid.
Weak combat stats, but the highest cargo capacity in the fleet – perfect for hauling off large amounts of gold, food and steel during a raid.
Unmanned, on target faster than any other unit and with the highest attack value in the game. In exchange it is useless on defense and has almost no room for loot.
Account-wide, permanent bonuses across all your cities – every line has multiple levels: the higher, the stronger the effect, but also the more expensive.
Secure trade routes make every exchange of goods noticeably more profitable – more gold from every deal at the marketplace.
Refined defensive formations increase your troops' defense power on every attack against your city.
Improved ammunition and tactics push your entire army's attack power forward in 15 small, plannable steps.
Sophisticated defense strategies make every layer of your city wall more effective, across 15 levels.
Better infrastructure permanently speeds up the natural population growth of all your cities.
More residents per housing building, without laying a single new brick – up to double the space in existing houses, across 15 levels.
New tools and blueprints shorten the build time of every building across all your cities.
Well-hidden treasuries protect your reserves – even a successful attack only loots a portion of your wealth.
More efficient tax collection makes every single citizen noticeably more valuable to your city treasury.
Optimized distribution and more efficient use lower your entire city's water consumption, across 20 levels.
Airtight monitoring of distribution routes prevents spoilage before food reaches citizens – less food consumption by the population.
The most important answers before you dive in.
Yes, the whole game is free to play. There's an optional Premium subscription with extra features and convenience, but it's not required to progress fully through the game.
No. You can jump right in as a guest, with no email or password at all. Your progress is kept via a browser cookie; registering later (by email, Google or Facebook) permanently secures your account and gets you a free week of Premium.
After your first login you found your first city and build up the Town Hall, a Residential Building and a Farm – the foundation for everything else. In-game quests guide you step by step through the most important systems.
Yes – join the same alliance or found your own. Alliances can jointly control map sectors, bail each other out with gold, and coordinate attacks in the war room.
Way of Citizen runs right in the browser on desktop, tablet and smartphone – no download needed. On mobile devices, the game can also be installed as an app on your home screen.
