Players who don’t know how to run the game properly think that the best players are collecting so many resources by running multiple accounts. They think that if they set up 4 different accounts using different proxies or computers (one at home, one at the library, one at school, etc.) that would bring them to the top.

Nothing could be further from the truth: Instead of pushing them through, this strategy ends your Travian experience with a temporary ban and some major setbacks.

The best players have high ranks because they have built a lot of buildings. They built them using other players’ resources collected by raids. By concentrating their energy in a village, constructing only the necessary buildings to be able to train troops, and using the NPC’s golden trick to use ALL their resources to build troops to attack, they approach Travian in an honest way and dominate him without fear being suddenly banned.

These top players have a double or two running the count with them. A dual is another player who, like you, has the username and password (but doesn’t have access to email) to run the account when you’re away (or at the same time). The best dual is a player who can run the game while you sleep. While 2 players on one account is perfectly legal, one player with multiple accounts is not.

Ironically, this interesting twist on words is one of the biggest factors that makes the difference between a top-tier player and one who is about to quit out of frustration.