Recruiting Active Members for Your Evony Alliance

TL;DR: Recruitment is a funnel, not a gate. Advertise where your target members hang out, screen for activity and attitude over raw power, enforce a 14-day probation period, and have clear criteria for promotion. The alliances that recruit well grow steadily. The ones that recruit poorly churn through members every month.

The recruitment funnel

Recruitment is not a single action. It is a pipeline with distinct stages:

1. Impression — a potential member sees your alliance tag, a world chat message, or a post
2. Application — they express interest (apply in-game, DM an R4, fill out a form)
3. Vetting — your R4s evaluate the applicant against your criteria
4. Probation — the new member joins at R1 with limited privileges for a trial period
5. Full membership — they pass probation and become a permanent member

Most alliances only think about step 1 (finding people) and skip steps 3-5 (qualifying them). This is why they end up with full rosters where half the members are inactive.

Where to advertise

Your target members are already somewhere. Meet them there.

In-game channels:

• World chat: post a short, clear recruitment message. Include your alliance tag, server, power requirements, and what you offer. Avoid all-caps and emoji spam — it signals desperation.
• Alliance mail to disbanded or merging alliances: if you hear an alliance is closing, reach out to their R5 about absorbing active members. This is the highest-quality source of recruits because you can vet the whole group at once.
• Direct messages to strong unallied players: if you see a player without an alliance tag who has good power and recent activity, send a polite DM. Do not spam — one message is enough.

External channels:

• Reddit r/Evony and server-specific subreddits
• Facebook Evony groups (still active for many servers)
• Discord servers dedicated to your server or region
• YouTube and Twitch Evony communities (for connecting with engaged players who already understand game mechanics)

What your recruitment message should include:

• Alliance name and server number
• Minimum power or keep level requirement (if any)
• What you offer (organized BoC/BoG teams, active rallies, Discord community, experienced leadership)
• How to apply (in-game or external form)
• One clear call to action

What it should NOT include:

• “We’re the best alliance on the server” (unverifiable and sounds like every other recruitment post)
• Long paragraphs nobody reads in world chat
• Requirements that are unrealistic for your server stage

What to screen for

Power is the easiest metric to check and the least predictive of whether someone will be a good member.

Screen for these instead:

Activity pattern:

• How many days per week do they log in? (Check their profile or ask directly)
• Do they play during your alliance’s peak hours? This matters for BoC/BoG timeslot coverage.
• Have they been in multiple alliances recently? Alliance-hopping is a red flag — it usually means they get kicked or leave when things get hard.

Attitude:

• How do they communicate? Respectful? Responsive? Do they ask questions about your alliance instead of just asking what you can give them?
• Are they willing to follow rally calls and fill when needed?
• Do they have a history of drama? Ask around on the server — Evony servers are small communities and reputations travel.

Contribution willingness:

• Are they willing to donate resources to alliance technology?
• Will they fill rallies during kill events and boss hunts, even when it is not convenient?
• Do they understand that alliance membership means showing up for BoC and BoG when selected, not just collecting alliance gifts?

Power (secondary):

• Set a minimum keep level or power that makes sense for your server stage, but do not over-index on it
• A 500M power player who logs in daily and fills every rally is more valuable than a 2B power player who logs in twice a week and ignores event calls

The 14-day probation rule

Every new member gets a 14-day probation period. No exceptions, regardless of power.

During probation:

• The new member has R1 rank (no alliance management permissions)
• An assigned R4 checks in at day 3, day 7, and day 14
• The new member is expected to: join Discord, introduce themselves, fill at least one rally, meet the minimum activity threshold, make their first alliance tech donation

At day 14:

• R4 reviews the probation checklist
• If all items are met: promote to R2 (or your standard member rank)
• If items are not met: have a conversation. Either extend probation with specific goals or part ways amicably.

Why probation matters:

• It filters out players who join alliances casually and leave after a week
• It gives the new member a structured introduction to your alliance’s culture and how you run events
• It gives your R4s a clear decision framework instead of “I guess they seem okay”

For details on handling the other end — managing members who become inactive after they have joined — see the inactivity guide.

Promotion criteria and tracking

For alliances managing a large roster, manual tracking of probation and activity becomes a bottleneck. Here is how to scale it.

Promotion criteria (R1 to R2):

• 14 days since join date
• Logged in at least 10 of 14 days
• Filled at least 1 rally or participated in 1 event
• Made at least 1 alliance tech donation
• R4 sign-off

Promotion criteria (R2 to R3):

• 30+ days at R2
• Consistent event participation (available for BoC/BoG selection, fills rallies during kill events)
• Regular donations meeting alliance minimums
• No warnings or issues

Removal criteria:

• 21 days without login and no response to outreach DMs
• Repeated failure to meet minimum activity after two warnings
• Toxic behavior (handled immediately, not on a schedule)

Alliance Studio’s recruitment pipeline tracks application stage, probation checklists, and auto-flags members who fall below activity thresholds. This removes the “I forgot to check on the new member” failure mode that manual systems suffer from.

The recruitment pipeline in practice

Here is a real workflow from application to full membership:

Day 0: applicant messages an R4 or applies in-game. R4 reviews within 24 hours. Checks their power, keep level, activity (how long since last login), and asks around about their reputation.

Day 1: R4 invites the applicant to the alliance at R1 and sends the welcome message with rules, Discord link, and their probation checklist.

Day 3: R4 check-in. “How are you settling in? Any questions?” Verify they have joined Discord and said hello.

Day 7: R4 check-in. Review activity metrics. Have they been logging in? Did they fill a rally or attend a boss hunt this week?

Day 14: R4 final review. If the checklist is complete, recommend promotion to R2. If not, discuss with the applicant and the R5.

Day 14+: promoted to R2. The R4 introduces them in the general channel. They are now a full member with standard expectations and eligible for BoC/BoG team selection.

This process takes about 15 minutes of R4 time per new member, spread across 14 days. It is not expensive. Skipping it is expensive — bad recruits cost more in drama and cleanup than the vetting effort saves.

Retention starts at recruitment

The members who stay longest are the ones who knew what they were joining. If you set clear expectations at recruitment, enforce them during probation, and maintain a consistent alliance culture, your retention rate will be high.

The members who leave quickly are almost always the ones who joined without understanding the commitment or who were never vetted against your actual requirements.

Recruitment is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing function that should have a dedicated R4, a documented process, and regular review of what is working and what is not.

For the full context of how recruitment fits into the R5 role, see how to run an Evony alliance. For managing the flip side of recruitment — when members stop being active — see managing inactive members.