Saladin is a legendary commander in Rise of Kingdoms. He is one of the strongest conquering commanders in the game thanks to his powerful active skill which makes a quick work out of his enemies. Saladin specializes in cavalry, conquering, and support talents.
Saladin |
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Title: The Egyptian Eagle |
Civilization: Arabia |
Base Power: 1,200 |
Rarity: Legendary |
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Saladin Summary:
- Deals massive damage up to 1,700 each time he activates his active skill.
- Reduces enemy target’s march speed and healing effect by 50%.
- Cavalry attack and defense increased by 20%.
- Cavalry march speed by 5%.
- Skill damage taken reduced by 30%.
- Counterattack damage taken reduced by 20%.
- Damage increased vs. cities by 15%.
Why Saladin is the Best Commander?
- Powerful conqueror with superior zone of control.
- Great attacker that will make a quick work out of razing your enemies to the ground.
- Awesome counter to nuking garrison commanders out of cities.
- Diminishes healing effects, which makes him ideal choice against Richard I & Constantine I.
- Improves march speed, allowing Saladin to mobilize on the map quickly.
- Cavalry troops gets 20% attack and defense bonus, making them stronger.
Background Information

Saladin was the first Muslim sultan of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, a Palestine, the founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty, and one of the most-famous Muslim heroes of all time. Saladin fought against the Christian Crusaders, most notably against Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade. In 1187, Saladin inflicted a crushing defeat on the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and recaptured the holy city which had been occupied by the Franks for nearly nine decades.
In contrast with the bloodbath the Crusades had inflicted on Jerusalem, Saladin acted with great magnanimity to the city´s Christian and Jewish residents. He allowed women, the old, and the poor to leave without paying a ransom. Saladin has been considered by many to be the ideal of a Warrior-King: terrible in battle yet generous to his enemies. Despite their different beliefs, Saladin was highly respected by Richard, who praised him as undoubtedly the greatest and most powerful leader in the Islamic world.
In 1192, Saladin and Richard signed a truce. Saladin died the following year – after giving away much of his personal wealth to his subjects – but the Ayyubid dynasty continued to rule in Egypt and Syria for many generations. Widely revered by Muslim admirers and Christian foes alike, Saladin´s legend still lives on today.
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Introduction
Welcome to our in-depth Rise of Kingdoms guide for Saladin. This informative guide was created to help provide an overview of Saladin skills, talent trees, gameplay, strategies, and guides in Rise of Kingdoms. The purpose of this overview guide is to help new and experienced players understand how to play Saladin right and maximize strategic advantages.
Saladin is a very powerful legendary commander and has the nationality of Arabia. He is by far a superior choice to Baibars, and specializes in cavalry which makes him one of the preferred commanders for any civilizations that have cavalry and speed traits. Because Saladin only can be unlocked after the kingdom becomes 120 days old.
Once he becomes available, you will need to gather 10 Saladin sculptures which then you can summon him via Commander selection tab. If you are looking for a legendary commander that can lock down the enemy target, reduce their combat effectiveness and make a clean kill, Saladin is best for these types. Stick around with us to learn more about his skills and talent builds.
Best Saladin Skills
Saladin excels in dealing direct damage factor and that’s a no secret. But, he is also cavalry-focused which means he will perform the best when you roll pure cavalry build with this commander. Therefore, in this part of our best Saladin commander guide, we will explain each skill and how you can take advantage of them to maximize his combat potential during the battles.

Hold Fast |
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Rage Requirement: 1000 Deals direct damage to the target, then reduces target march speed and decreases healing effects received for the next 5 seconds. Upgrade Preview: Direct Damage Factor: 600 / 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1400 |
Hold Fast is a very powerful active skill that deals direct damage factor. Not only is this active skill incredibly strong, it also cripples the enemy target’s march speed AND healing effect. Which means Saladin is able to negate their healing effects, allowing the troops under his leadership to maximize carnage. A solid active kill if you want to prevent enemy forces from recovering during the battle.
Ghulams |
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Increases cavalry units’ attack defense, and march speed. Upgrade Preview: Cavalry Defense Bonus: 8% / 10% / 12% / 16% / 20% |
Simply put, Ghulams is a passive skill that increases the cavalry’s attack and defense by 20%. March speed is also further increased by 5%. Great for moving around on the battlefield quickly enough to deal significant blows.
Bond of Fate |
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Reduces skill damage taken from enemies and reduces counterattack damage taken. Upgrade Preview: Skill Damage Taken Reduction: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% |
If you like the idea of being able to mitigate enemy’s active skill and counterattack damage. Then, you will love Bond of Fate. Basically, Saladin reduces the amount of incoming damage from active skill and counterattack. Which strengthens his position as a tanky commander.
Generosity |
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Increases damage dealt to city garrisons. However, Saladin’s army is unable to plunder resources when attacking other governors’ cities. Upgrade Preview: Damage Bonus: 3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% |
Generosity is a somewhat interesting passive skill and a bit of disappointment. But it does make sense given the fact that Saladin is a generous commander and falls in line with the history. The damage bonus that he deals to enemy garrisons is quite large. Although, you can’t plunder resources with Saladin at all. Secondary commanders do plunder resources, however.
Praise the Creator |
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Deals direct damage (Damage Factor 1700) to the target, then reduces target march speed by 50% and decreases healing effects received by 50% for the next 5 seconds. |
Praise the Creator is an enhanced skill that simply improves the active skill damage to 1,700, march speed reduction and healing effects reduction by 50%. These buffs are definitely a big upgrade.
Best Saladin Talent Trees
In the next part of our best Saladin commander guide in Rise of Kingdoms, we will talk about the best talent builds for this legendary commander. There are at least 3 talent builds that we highly recommend using. Which will depend on your gameplay and strategy for playing Saladin. Without further ado, let’s find out the best talent builds for this legendary commander.
Conqueror Talent Build

The Conqueror talent build focuses on expanding Saladin’s combat capabilities to deal direct damage towards enemy garrisons. Not only that he becomes an effective conqueror, but portion of the points goes into building rage fast enough to maintain high uptime debuff on the enemy target. Great for destabilizing your oppositions into chaos.
PvP Talent Build

Saladin does make a great commander for PvP battles and that’s no secret. Invest all of your points into Cavalry, except for the right one as you do not need to maximize march speed. Because he is fast enough, it is optimal to invest points into health, defense and attack that are a huge game changer. Plus, this talent build helps Saladin generate more rage which makes him an incredibly powerful attacker.
Field Talent Build

If you ever want to have a solid support commander that can clamp down on your enemy targets. This talent build is just incredibly awesome. While Saladin already has an active skill that does slow down enemy target movement and reduces healing effects. This talent build further reduces enemy movement and gives you additional protection against their active skill damage. Not only does this talent build great for crowd control, Saladin is able to build rage just as fast as the other two talent builds.
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Star Level & Talent Point Upgrade Priority
In the next part of our Best Saladin commander guide, I am going to talk about star level & talent point upgrade priority to maximize your commander’s combat potential. Here’s how to prioritize your Saladin effectively:
Conqueror Talent Build:
- Keep Saladin at 1 ⭐ until you max out his first skill.
- Level Saladin to 4 ⭐ and max out all of his skills.
PvP Talent Build:
- Keep Saladin at 1 ⭐ until you max out his first skill.
- Level Saladin to 2⭐ and max out his second skill.
- Level Saladin to 3 ⭐ and max out his third skill.
- Level Saladin to 4 ⭐ and max out all of his skills.
Field Talent Build
- Keep Saladin at 1 ⭐ until you max out his first skill.
- Level Saladin to 2⭐ and max out his second skill.
- Level Saladin to 3 ⭐ and max out his third skill.
- Level Saladin to 4 ⭐ and max out all of his skills.
Best Commander Pairs
Just like every other commander, there’s several ideal combos to pair Saladin with. While he is a solid commander for crowd control and dealing heavy blows. You will want to pair him with commanders who have similar focuses as he does or is flexible enough to tailor specifically to his combat style. Here, we have compiled some of the best secondary commanders to pair with Saladin:
Takeda Shingen

Takeda Shingen is the second best cavalry commander in Rise of Kingdoms, which closely rivals Attila. You will definitely want to pair Saladin with Takeda because he will be able to provide massive buffs to the cavalry troops. Takeda can increase cavalry troops’ attack by 40% and improves their march speed by an extra 30%.
Not only that he makes the army move around quickly, he can cause the target to take increased damage by 50%. This helps Saladin a lot because then he can whittle his targets quickly before they even get to land a punch. The Takeda + Saladin combo is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Mehmed II

Saladin takes the role as a secondary commander when pairing with Mehmed II when he is using Pure Army talent build. Simply because he will expand the size of troops and skill damage. Mehmed II comes with skills that are flexible and will easily work with Saladin’s cavalry specialization.
When you do this pair, Mehmed II will be able to deal wide damage up to 5 targets while Saladin clamps down on a single target, allowing for this combo to finish them off quickly to maximize their losses.
However, if you do not have Mehmed II, then an alternative option is Baibars who has movement-impairment active skill and stands to benefit the most from pairing with Saladin. Optionally, you can roll with Osman I as he has a similar setup to Saladin.
Genghis Khan

Saladin takes the role as secondary commander when pairing with Genghis Khan. Simply because you want Genghis Khan to be able to maximize his active skill damage and take advantage of lighting fast rage generation builds. This pair is an incredible powerful nuke.
Genghis Khan is able to whip out massive amounts of damage within a matter of seconds. In addition to that, Saladin can severely slow down enemy targets to make it easier to execute them. If you like the idea of being able to maximize your enemy’s losses, this is the ultimate combo.
But, if you don’t have Genghis Khan just yet… Go with either Pelagius.
Attila

If you are looking for a strong commander that can debuff your enemy forces even further. Then look no further because Attila is your man. He is outfitted with an active skill that reduces enemy attack and increases their damage taken.
This combo will be able to focus on weakening the enemy even further to maximize assaults. Plus, Attila will increase your troops’ damage by 100% on a small chance. If you max Attila out, he will be immune to silence which will render enemy Hermann useless and get obliterated with this pair.
However, if you don’t have Attila yet. Belisarius is a good choice.
Baibars

If you do not have any of these legendary commanders above. Then you should start exploring epic cavalry commanders. Luckily, Baibars is one of the best epic commanders that specializes in cavalry and he is darn good. His active skill can hit up to 5 targets and each does 1,000 damage. Plus his active skill slows down targets’ movement, allowing Saladin to deal final blows.
On the battlefield, catching enemies can be quite difficult. Which is why Baibars comes with increased march speed so that cavalry troops can catch your targets quickly. Saladin will also be able to benefit from Baibars’ superior conqueror abilities. A perfect combo to roll with in the game.
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Best Saladin Equipment Set
Equipment | Name | Stats |
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![]() | Vanguard Halberd |
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![]() | Expedition War Helm |
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![]() | Windswept Breastplate |
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![]() | Windswept Bracers |
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![]() | Vanguard Greaves |
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![]() | The Scarlet Hounds |
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Total | Set Bonus:
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Equipment | Name | Stats |
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![]() | Heart of the Saint |
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![]() | Abyssal Visage |
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![]() | Dark Lord’s Blessing |
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![]() | Iset’s Sufferance |
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![]() | Gladiator |
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![]() | Cloud Racers |
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Total | Set Bonus:
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