Evolution Paths — Every Known Unit Promotion

The most underrated line in Command An Army’s official feature list is also the most important for long-term planning: units have evolution paths. A unit is not what it is — it is what it becomes. This page is the running list of every documented chain, updated with verification dates as the community maps the full roster.

Every documented evolution chain

The chains confirmed at launch, from the game’s official feature description:

Both chains were listed in the game’s official materials as of launch week (September 2026). Anything beyond these two — additional stages, other base units, special-unit chains — is unverified until seen in-game, and this table only carries verified rows. If you have evolved a unit not listed here, the fastest way to get it added is our contact page.

How do evolutions interact with the other upgrade tracks?

Evolution is the third leg of the upgrade stool (the whole system is explained in the upgrading guide):

• Ascension fuses duplicates into a stronger version of the same stage.
• Mastery levels a unit toward 20 through play.
• Evolution promotes the unit to its next stage along the chain.

The design intent is clear from the Mercenary chain: you are not supposed to outgrow day-one units — you are supposed to grow them. Whether Ascension/Mastery investment carries 1:1 across a promotion is one of the first exact mechanics this page will verify and document (the rarity guide covers why that answer changes recruiting math).

How do you plan around a chain? A worked example

Take the headline chain: Mercenary → Squire → Knight. The planning logic, step by step:

1. Slot it now. The Mercenary is a functional early unit — it fills a frontline or flex slot from your first matches, so the chain costs you nothing while it matures.
2. Feed it deliberately. Duplicates you would otherwise treat as clutter become Ascension fuel for a unit you have already committed to (the economy logic lives in the rarity guide).
3. Play it constantly. Mastery to 20 runs in the background of matches you were playing anyway — this is why chains favor units in your core four over bench projects.
4. Promote at the natural moment. When the evolution condition is met, the unit you have invested in becomes a Knight — a heavy frontline form, according to the chain’s own naming.

The point of the example: chain planning is not a separate activity from playing. It is what you were already doing — committing to four units, feeding duplicates, playing matches — pointed at a known destination.

What is being verified next?

The open questions this page will answer as evidence lands, in rough priority order:

• Whether Ascension levels and Mastery progress carry 1:1 across an evolution or rescale
• The promotion condition itself — Gems, a level gate, an item, or automatic
• Whether evolved forms unlock new formation behaviors or purely stat changes
• Additional chains for the base roster (Cavalry and shield-line promotions are the community’s loudest guesses — guesses, not data, until verified)

When each answer is confirmed in-game, the row or section appears here with a dated note. Nothing ships unverified.

Why does a two-row table deserve a page?

Because in a four-slot army, the promotion ceiling of a unit is a recruiting criterion, and right now the honest answer for most of the roster is “chain unknown.” That gap cuts both ways:

1. Units with known chains get a planning premium. A Mercenary you recruit today has a visible path to Knighthood — you know what your investment buys (army building builds on exactly this).
2. Units without known chains are judged on current value. That is fine for a flex slot, risky for a core slot — if two units fill the same role, the documented chain is the tiebreaker.

As patches add units and players document promotions, this page becomes the reference table the whole site links to.

What comes next for this page?

Unit-by-unit evolution pages under this category as they are verified, starting with the two chains above. If you want to speed that up: play the chains, note the stage names and any promotion conditions you observe, and send them in — with a screenshot if possible (we only publish what we can see, the same policy that governs the codes page).

New to the upgrade system overall? Read the upgrading guide first, then the unit type overview for what each class is for — evolution answers “what does it become”, but roles answer “should it be in my four”.