Special workers

There are five special workers that you can hire for your main base. They give you extremely powerful special abilities, and can only be purchased with real currency (e.g., Kreds on Kongregate). However, they will only provide their benefits for a certain amount of time. The burglar and collector can be renewed after the end of their contract for Gold, however.

These units are not always available; they can only be purchased in special sales. Some of them are usually also available as Battle Pass awards in the Intruder event. There are also occasionally "trial contracts" available in special sales which allow you to try them for a reduced time of 3 days.

When you obtain a special worker, they will begin wandering around your base (the Banker and Rifenthal usually hang around the empty area in front of your command center, the Burglar and Collector like to walk around the residential areas, and the Builder walks along the path next to the river. When their contracts expire, they will remain in your base, but you won't be able to do anything with them (other than renew their contract).

Banker
''The ability to get benefits where others don't find it, distinguishes a good Businessman from the poor. After coming to your service, gives 50 gold every day for 40 days. In the end, you will get a profit of 2000 gold.''

The banker converts your Kreds (or other money) into gold. You will get considerably more gold than if you just buy the gold directly, but it arrives more slowly. The banker's name is clearly a reference to John D. Rockefeller, the former richest man in the world.

When the banker has gold for you to collect, he will appear in your base with a gold icon over his head, and you can click on him to collect. Clicking on him after the end of the contract will give you the opportunity to renew his contract for Kreds.

Builder
''Only a real professional can build anything with tight deadlines and don't neglect the quality. Henry Armstrong is the best of the best. "I can build or upgrade up to two buildings at the same time for 30 days and by the expiration of my contract, the fortress will exceed your wildest expectations"''

The builder does pretty much what he says -- allows you to work on two new buildings or upgrades in your base simultaneously. His contract lasts for 30 days. Like the other special workers, he will wander around your base, but you don't need to click on him to activate his special ability -- just build or upgrade another building and it will automatically kick in. The progress bars for the buildings that are being worked on will appear over his icon.

Burglar
''"Providing excellent protection against intelligent methods, cylinder mechanisms quite weakly oppose to vandal hacking methods - drilling, kinks and especially knocking out: even the most burglar-resistant models are unlikely to resist sledge hammer blows. There are no locks that cannot be opened, there is only time which I have at my disposal to cope with them". - Burglar Ocean''

The burglar allows you to open chests that normally require keys (special, elite, and legendary chests) using only time. His contract lasts for 14 days, but after the end of the contract, you can renew the contract with Gold to regain his services, at the rate of 250 for 7 days, 500  for 14 days, or 750  for 30 days. His name is presumably a reference to Danny Ocean, the main character of Ocean's Eleven and its sequels.

To use the burglar, find him in your base and choose a chest to give him. Special chests take 1 hour, elite chests take 2 hours, and legendary chests take 4 hours. Like with regular chests, you can add more slots to the burglar's queue so he can open more at once, up to a total of 4, for the price of 249 Kreds per slot.

Note that if the burglar's contract ends while he is opening a chest, you will not be able to collect the contents of the chest until the contract is renewed.

Dr. Rifenthal
''"Technological singularity is inevitable - all we can do is turn it against our enemies". In our difficult time, even the brightest minds of mankind put their talents on the altar of War. Everybody with no exception will do whatever it takes to win, same goes to science and technology, no one is on the sidelines. Sponsor the research and Dr. Rifenthal will work with increased zeal within 22 days''

Rifenthal greatly increases the power of your scientific research. He allows you to queue up to three (which can be expanded to five) individual research items to be researched, up to three (which can be expanded to five) research items to be upgraded, as in the alchemy lab, and a queue to research up to two new technologies at the Academy. For full details, see the original announcement.

Once you have Dr. Riefenthal, he will start wandering around your base in the area in front of your command center (you may need to reload for him to appear). Click on him to access his window where you can research and combine research items. To research a second technology, go to the Academy as normal.

For regular research, Rifenthal works the same as the research at the Academy, except that the queue makes it much easier to ensure that he's always working on something. For combining research items to higher levels, Rifenthal has two advantages over the alchemy lab (in addition to the queue): first, he does not require any ionites to make the upgrade; and second, he is able to produce the 3-day research items (at the cost of two 1-day items), which cannot be made at the alchemy lab.

If Rifenthal's contract ends while he is studying an item, he will still finish all of the items in his queue (although of course you will not be able to give him new items), so it is recommended to make sure to fill up his queue with long items before his contract ends.

Collector
Allows users to collect resources from all buildings with one click.

The Collector does exactly what he says. His contract lasts for 22 days, but like the burglar, he remains in your base and can be renewed after the expiration of his contract for Gold, at the rate of 50 for 7 days, 125  for 14 days, or 200  for 30 days. Any resemblance to The Dude from The Big Lebowski is presumably coincidental.

When there are resources to collect in your base, a resources icon will appear over the Collector's icon; click on him and then the "Assemble" button to perform all of the collections.

Journal
Your journal has the following commentary about the burglar and banker:

Ocean the burglar ''The best burglar of the Western sector. What do we know about him?''

''He was born in a small town on the outskirts of the Steel Empire shortly before armed uprisings broke out. When spontaneous actions against the Emperor had began, detachments of suppressors arrived from the capital to put an end to them. They made a real massacre and killed most of the rebels, including Ocean's parents.''

''Changing one profession after another, he clutched at any chance of making a some money. He had joined the local gang at one point, just because he didn't want to die of hunger. A gang of pickpockets taught him their craft and together they had made more than a dozen thefts, until Ocean was caught during one of their sorties.''

''Nobody knows what happened after. Maybe, he cut a deal with the investigation, bribed the guards or just ran away - but he never got to prison.''

''Having drawn conclusions from the incident and not wanting to jeopardize his life anymore, he decided to retrain from a pocket thief to an experienced safecracker. He wanted to crack safes and chests obtained by other thieves without leaving his home.''

''Many years went by after that decision, and now Ocean likes to joke that if he came and offered his services to Commander Grant before the First Occult Wars, Commander would immediately send him to jail. But now, when the Resistance fights with the Crimson Dominion, his skills are truly irreplaceable. After each raid chests with valuable resources are delivered to &Ouml;sterberg for Ocean to open them.''

Banker ''Reynald Ockfeller was born during times of Old Monarchy in a noble family. His father didn't skimp on education for his son, and therefore Reynald had the best teachers and all the necessary means for studying. Since Reynald was the only child in the family, he understood that he would inherit the whole fortune over time, which means that he had to learn how to handle money for not to lose everything earned by ancestors.''

''Ockfeller got his finance degree and became a royal treasurer. The monarch had little interests in public affairs, preferring to spend time with pleasure. Reynald could administer the treasury as he thought was best. He could control the tax policy of the country just by himself: invest in the interesting projects, determine the amount of salaries, fines, bonuses... But this didn't last long - the Old Reich came to power as a result of coups d'etat.''

''When disturbances erupted in the country, Ockfeller fabricated documents and got hold of some finances from treasury. The Chancellor wanted to arrange a demonstration trial and execute everybody from Monarch inner circle who didn't manage to escape, but Reynald was able to pay off and therefore all charges against him were dropped. Since then, the road to public service has been closed to him. Then Ockfeller decided to go into banking.''

''A few years later, there was another coup d'etat in the Crimson Dominion, the Supreme Hierarch of the Dark Gods with thier puppet - Chancellor Doomerville, came to power. Then the war against the Iron Empire started. After it was over, Anna-Maria's people (the daughter of the executed Monarch) came to Reynald. All this time, the princess hid underground and developed a plan of revenge. In order to weaken Doomerville and Supreme Hierarch, the princess wanted to help the imperial Resistance to get into Western sector, thereby diverting the attention of the ruling elite of the Crimson Dominion and weakening it with a new military conflict. With the royalists' money, Ockfeller had to supply the Resistance with equipment, while receiving a percentage for each successful delivery.''

''Following the tip from Anna-Maria's people, Reynald came upon John Fox, the quartermaster of the Crimson Dominion troops in the Western sector. Ockfeller made him an advantageous offer and they began to supply the troops of the new Iron Empire. When Commander Grant gave the order to start the uprising, Fox turned over to the Resistance and became their quartermaster, realizing that his previous command would certainly have raised questions about where did the imperials got the dominion weapons and equipment.''

''Following commander Grant, Anna-Maria herself came out of hiding, openly declaring her claims to the throne. Fearing that his ties with the royalists would be revealed, Ockfeller decided to move to the Western sector after John Fox. Having found refuge in the Osterberg fortress, Ockfeller began to trade with Vendor, waiting for Anna-Maria to come to power so that he could safely return back to his homeland.''