Look, let's be honest, the regular season 'Roses and Thorns' of Game of Thrones: Kingsroad has just wrapped up its third-week schedule. Now, there is only a single week left until the season finale. For players pushing desperately for a rank promotion until the very end, the 'Season Worm Road' and elite hideouts are looking like practically the only ladders left to climb.

The Season Worm Road brings a cheeky twist

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad rolled out the new Altar of Memory 'Basilisk of Greywater' and the final chapter of the Season Worm Road, 'Infinite Space', in last week's update. At the time, the publisher called these two contents the ultimate variables to shake up the rigid season ranking structure.

Well, a week later, that prediction turned out to be only half right. First of all, the Altar of Memory failed to become any sort of meaningful variable. That is because the boss difficulty simply failed to keep pace with the power creep of top-tier players. Looking at the Altar of Memory rankings, there is practically zero deviation, with the 1st place recording 31 seconds and the 100th place recording 40 seconds.

Still, the Season Worm Road turned out to be a solid variable indeed. While the 1st place in the rankings scored 12,725 points, the 10th place sat at 10,700 points, creating a massive gap of over 2,000 points right at the top. If you widen the scope to the top 100, the deviation is close to 10,000 points, thoroughly proving its ranking discrimination power.

Meanwhile, this week brings a 'Season Ranking Dungeon Score 50% Buff' to the Season Worm Road, elite hideouts, and Beyond the Wall Expedition. Among these, the core battlegrounds with clear score deviations are definitely the elite hideouts and the Season Worm Road. If you are aiming for a last-minute rank promotion, the developer advises focusing your firepower squarely on these two pieces of content.

House changing is strictly a choice for the Iron Armor tier

Season House changes are supported until September 24 at 8:59 AM. Players can change their house only once during this period, but they must shoulder the penalty of cumulative score losses. Therefore, this feature is practically useless for players aiming for the Chief or Greatsword tiers.

Instead, if the Iron Armor tier is what the player is aiming for, a house change can be a cracking solution. Depending on the ranking server, users flock to specific houses, creating situations where competition in the Iron Armor tier becomes fiercely cutthroat. On the server the author belongs to, an overwhelming number of users chose House Rowan, resulting in the Iron Armor tier cutoff score differing by nearly tenfold. That is precisely when a house change becomes the ultimate fix.

A week with zero momentum changes for the top spot

A highly unusual phenomenon was spotted in the ranking metrics over the past week. The score of the 1st place player in the momentum ranking completely froze without changing by even a single point. That user recorded 377,486 points and briefly stalled, marking the very first time such an incident has occurred since weekly ranking data collection began.

However, an update is scheduled for September 30 to expand accessory slot enhancement stats and introduce a brand new amulet. Thanks to this, the stagnation of the momentum ranking leader is unlikely to last long.