Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-26359879-20160316031113/@comment-36.73.158.185-20160323105550

I always, always bring my new swords to the PVP before bringing them to the battle maps--it's quick and safe as they won't break, and they levelled up to lv 5-10 pretty easily. I'm too lazy to train my swords from the ground up (e.g. bringing them to Era 1 or 2) so I usually bring them straight to my highest-leveled map not infested with KBC--for tachi/naginata/yari/oodachi it's map 5-1 (used to be 5-2 but then I made a mistake going to the boss node orz), for tantou/waki/uchi it's map 6-2 or 6-4 as I grind for Akashi (finally got him yesterday!) and Nagasone. KBCs are weaker in Era 6 so I personally don't have any problem bringing them to my KBC-infested map 6-2.

I train the new sword along with my mid-leveled (toku level - lv. 70ish) swords and use an Iwatooshi (lv80+) to babysit them; those in Era 6 I just set as the squad leader as the'd gain more XP and the team will immediately retreat to the citadel if the leader got heavy damage, no babysitting needed here. Once the sword training in Era 5 hits toku, it's straight to map 5-4 with them for faster XP.

The upside of this v. crude method is your swords levelled up pretty fast, but they'd get KO'd and lost troops a lot too. I don't do smithing so I don't mind spending resources + help tokens for repair, but this method isn't the most resource-friendly. I also only create troops using the recipe for catapults lately, bc 1) I'll get light cavalry/infantry from it anyway and 2) Era 6 loves to destroy my catapults. This is what I've been doing for quite a while :D