New player here, question about those who don't wantbto buy anything.

[Banateanca]

I just started this game yesterday, and after filling up all the available space to built, and colected all the money available with the free game, I came to a stop. Unless I buy diamonds i can't see the option to expand my city. Is this it? Is this one of those games that you can only play if you purchase? (if that's the case i'm done playing). Any advice for a beginner will be appreciated, thanks.

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

No it is not. This is one of those games where no matter if you pay for diamonds or not, it's meant to be played over a long while. That's why productions for most buildings once you get higher up are one day. I played for over a year when I started as free to play.

 

[Graviton]

The game is not pay-to-play but if you don't want to spend diamonds you have to be patient.

My advice is to spend time reading through the forum. Lots of good information here. And keep asking questions.

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

This is a very long term game, (as mentioned) years. enjoy it, no need to rush, there is no place to get to anyway. Where you are now is just as much fun as the next Era. that is a lesson new players need to understand! So don't worry about what you do not yet have. Enjoy what yo have now and learn what else you can do! There are many things to do in Foe besides get the latest thing (just like real life) When you can Join a Guild, do so, Guilds are the most facinating part of Foe ... Endlessly interesting. !

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

And don't be afraid to ask questions!!!!!! Much easier to learn from previous players' mistakes than your own.

 

[Darkest.Knight]

As a distraction from the slow pace of the game I found paying attention to game pts and increasing them as quickly as possible worked pretty well, game pts change a lot quicker than your town will. Looking for BP's used to be a good distraction, I found a couple of high lvl players that didn't complain about less than .9 contributions for the 5th spot, collected a lot of them pretty early. The settlements are same difficulty for everyone, any lvl can get some great buildings early, I found that the Timeless Dojo was a great building before I put up an Alcatraz, the Japanese settlement is really quick and I ended up w/12 of them. Settlement emissaries were helpful early in the game, having done all the settlements I have 12 of them now.

If your patience wears a bit thin, can get a reasonable number of diamonds for not much cash; the game is free and u'll make it cost what u will.

Good luck!

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

As a distraction from the slow pace of the game I found paying attention to game pts and increasing them as quickly as possible worked pretty well, game pts change a lot quicker than your town will. Looking for BP's used to be a good distraction, I found a couple of high lvl players that didn't complain about less than .9 contributions for the 5th spot, collected a lot of them pretty early. The settlements are same difficulty for everyone, any lvl can get some great buildings early, I found that the Timeless Dojo was a great building before I put up an Alcatraz, the Japanese settlement is really quick and I ended up w/12 of them. Settlement emissaries were helpful early in the game, having done all the settlements I have 12 of them now.

If your patience wears a bit thin, can get a reasonable number of diamonds for not much cash; the game is free and u'll make it cost what u will.

Good luck!

@Banateanca please take the above advice with an extremely large grain of salt. Darkest.Knight is one of a very few players who thinking that ranking points matter and also one of the few who think hurrying up through the ages is a wise way to play this game. Experienced players almost without exception will tell you that rushing the ages is the absolute worst mistake you can make in this game. If you aren't going to spend money on the game (and you definitely don't have to), you will find yourself in one of the higher eras but woefully unprepared for it.

As far as ranking points, the reason most players don't think they matter is because they are highly skewed towards an archaic feature called Guild versus Guild, or GvG for short. GvG was one of the first major features outside the main city, and thus was very important early in the game's development. However, when the game became available on mobile, GvG was not then and is still not available except on PC (although it was available through one mobile browser for a while, it is no longer available that way.) Probably the only reason it is kept as part of the game is that there is a very small, but passionate, minority of PC players who still get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that until they fix the ranking formula to better reflect GvG's niche role in the game, most players won't care about ranking points.

 

[DevaCat]

Not to pile on, but talk about .9, Dojos and settlements and Alcatraz etc is pretty well worthless to someone who has played since yesterday.

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

@Banateanca please take the above advice with an extremely large grain of salt. Darkest.Knight is one of a very few players who thinking that ranking points matter and also one of the few who think hurrying up through the ages is a wise way to play this game. Experienced players almost without exception will tell you that rushing the ages is the absolute worst mistake you can make in this game. If you aren't going to spend money on the game (and you definitely don't have to), you will find yourself in one of the higher eras but woefully unprepared for it.

As far as ranking points, the reason most players don't think they matter is because they are highly skewed towards an archaic feature called Guild versus Guild, or GvG for short. GvG was one of the first major features outside the main city, and thus was very important early in the game's development. However, when the game became available on mobile, GvG was not then and is still not available except on PC (although it was available through one mobile browser for a while, it is no longer available that way.) Probably the only reason it is kept as part of the game is that there is a very small, but passionate, minority of PC players who still get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that until they fix the ranking formula to better reflect GvG's niche role in the game, most players won't care about ranking points.

GvG really only affects guild ranking points, Player Ranking Points are skewed towards battles yes (not GvG), but nowadays most of those come from GbG

 

[Darkest.Knight]

There is no correlation between game points, which represent overall progress and the silly continental GvG guild ranking pts. Guild rank is meaningless for myself and my 2 other guildmates, but my 423M game pts do matter; at least for myself.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

GvG really only affects guild ranking points, Player Ranking Points are skewed towards battles yes (not GvG), but nowadays most of those come from GbG

Yes, but if they implement the change to GBG that may not be true anymore. You can still get a lot of battles in GvG if you're in a guild that's active there, and if Siege Camps get nerfed like they might, the imbalance between GvG battles and GBG battles won't be as much of a factor.

There is no correlation between game points, which represent overall progress and the silly continental GvG guild ranking pts. Guild rank is meaningless for myself and my 2 other guildmates, but my 423M game pts do matter; at least for myself.

Yes, the key words being "for myself". For most players they are interesting, but not relevant to city development or game play choices.

 

[Snek]

I think this is drifting off topic. Yes, game points are a good goal to focus your efforts on, but they do not prove your skill or experience.

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

The way GvG and GbG affect personal points is fights. particularly in the top few Eras fights gain a huge number of personal points. And doing multi-thousands of fights for player in those Eras means millions of points added

 

[Ironrooster]

As you progress in the game, there will be the opportunity to gain some diamonds through game play.

In the beginning the Guild Expedition (GE) is the best place to get some diamonds. GE opens up in the Iron Age. You must join a guild (or start your own) to play.

My advice is to play through the Bronze Age into the Iron Age as quickly as possible The Stone Age is the tutorial, the Bronze Age is the practical exercise, and the Iron Age is really where the game begins. Once in the Iron Age, pause for a while as you learn much of what the game is about.

One of the nice things about FOE is there are no fatal mistakes that require you to start over again. So you can try out anything.

Good luck and welcome to FOE.

 

[Just An Observer]

Look up Iron Giant to see a way to make hay in GBG. The same setup also works very well in EMA, with you getting the advantage of access to the AD.

 

[mineseA]

Find a good guild. Do GE. Camp ages. It might take a while, but to be honest, it´s worth it. All of the players on here (including me) will tell you that slow and steady does actually win the race, while being fast and steady does not. Look for advice wherever you want to. YouTube, here, and even your guildmates could help you a lot. Now go have fun playing the game (and grinding for nearly two years to still have less than a million points)!

 

[Aleria Wrathborn]

All my suggestions are from the view of someone who does not care one bit about overall ranking and the cycle of spending/stocking hundreds of Forge Points (FPs) so take them as you will. I think I have spent less than $20 on my main account and have been playing almost 10 years, 5 on Beta only, and 5 more on my main account with occasional time on Beta.

This game is definitely a slow process. Once you get to Iron Age I would suggest staying there for a while. Do not research the Military Tactics to unlock PvP fights yet, especially if you don't think you can be online a lot. Instead, build several goods producing buildings and Archery Ranges since those are tiny and archers are a good unit. The forge points you would have spent in research should be going into other players Great Buildings (GBs.) Try to not waste them though. Aid everyone in your neighbourhood daily and guild hop for a couple of weeks or more to do the same, this also gives you a chance to get blueprints (BPs) for the GBs. Zeus and Lighthouse of Alexandria (LoA) are good easy ones to build to start with.

Once you have a decent stockpile of goods then I would suggest joining a good active guild who can help you with getting prints for higher level GBs. Arc is one that helps the guild and will help you gain BPs more easily, most guilds require this and Observatory at some point but most will help you get them. I also like Alcatraz and all the buildings that increase attack and make fights easier. If you decide you do not like fighting, then there are other GBs you can focus on instead. In an active guild you will most likely be expected to help with GBG and GE, it is for these that having a decent goods stockpile will help, also you will need to research the Military Tactics at this time to be able to contribute to GBG. Some guilds take part in GvG which is my favourite part of the game, but unfortunately you can only play it on a pc.

The recommendations for when to move to the next age will vary depending on who you talk to. I think I took a year to move to Late Middle Ages then moved fairly quickly to Colonial Age where I now permanently camp.

As for leveling GBs and gaining BPs, how to do this will depend on who you talk to as well. I had my Arc and Alcatraz built earlier (forgot which age) but didn't get them to level 80 until this past year or so because I am not in any rush. I have never bothered with 1.9 threads (which you shouldn't worry about until you have a level 80 Arc anyway) and the majority of my GB levelling and BP gathering has always come from friends and self levelers. Some people will push the idea of FP swaps and 1.9 really hard on new players, but I think they are a waste and take advantage of lower level/newer people. It is of course up to you if you want to use them, but be aware that you are potentially wasting hundreds of FPs for either scraps or nothing because the older/higher level players can afford much more than you and will take spots even if they don't need the prints because they want those FPs. Even if you find some nice people who want to help you get prints without spending more than you get back, you still may have to contend with others who are greedy. Don't let that discourage you, some of us do manage to stay off the radar of the greedy people.

I don't care too much about diamonds either, they are certainly not necessary to enjoy the game. Any of the diamond buildings you can build through the ages are usually outweighed by event buildings anyway. If you have enough goods then you don't need to use them on negotiations unless you really want to, the same goes for healing troops. There may be some events that you want more than one of the building, for this you would need to spend diamonds, also if you have really bad luck or can't complete the first building for whatever reason. Patience will get you the same building later on though, they tend to show up in the next year's event or sometimes in the Auction House. Unless you have a large amount of disposable income I would never bother with using diamonds to speed up your rank or compete with others (event leagues for instance) because someone will always spend more than you. Like with any game, think if the spending is truly worth it, and if you are prone to competitive urges or FOMO then don't let these things control you.

The most important thing is to have fun. If someone tries to tell you you "have" to do certain things to have fun, think about it first. If how they play is not fun for you then don't do it. I know if I had listened to a lot of the loudest people and tried to play their way, (namely the obsession with gathering large numbers of FPs only to spend them and gather them again) I would have quit a long time ago out of boredom. There are many things to do in this game and many ways to play it.

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

I seem to be in the gather large amounts of FPs to spend them leveling up Gbs so I can gather more Fps to .... endless repeat.
I enjoy that to some degree. It has allowed me to get into top Guilds in rank. Where I'm happier than in lower level Guilds with weak play.
I have only played two years nine months. but am doing very well.
The one point i most agree with previously made is do your own game. Read up and learn, but in the end the way to be happy with Foe is to play a game you enjoy doing. Not the game someone else wants you to do.

There is one exception to that 'do it your own way': Which is do not grab all the Great Buildings you can squeeze in as fast as possible. That is really a big mistake that becomes a dead end.

 

[CDmark]

To add to Aleria, work your tavern, keep building it.

Event buildings will be a great help. Wikia has all the past and current event(s). Look thru the questline and get familiar with the terminology. Then have your city set up so you can complete the quests. There is no guarantee to getting complete event buildings but completing the questline in very important to event success.

Settlements were mentioned, great buildings there but it takes time to complete.

And to add to Ebeondi and multiple GBs, space management is important and how you spend FPs. Zeus, CoA and CdM are your primary military GBs.

Now, you can guild hop to get more coin. I think coin is a small bottleneck in the beginning, then supplies will be scarce until you get your city in a groove. Guild hopping will fix the coin issue and get you blueprints (some and it is random). With the new "aid all" button, you can zip thru for coin. For focused BPs taking the 5th position on GBs will get you cheap BPs, best done in a guild. Back when I started, LoA was always placed in the city. Now, I am not sure it is that important. I know some younger players that dont have it and they do fine. Then those 16 tiles generate more FPs. And do GBG advances, it is a source of FP income.

In my opinion, once you can do GE L4 in Iron age, then you can consider advancing age.

Some may tell you to get a ToR, Temple of Relics. It is a good GB and made for GE prizes. The problem, it takes 6x6, 36 tiles. For it to reward, you need to do encounters and spend FPs to level it. To do encounters, those military GBs are important to L10. To get them to L10, you need FPs. To get FPs, you need space, like the space a ToR would take. So, things are interconnected in this game.

There is only one bad decision that 99.9999% of the players will agree, dont get a Colosseum.

I would learn about recurring quests. I am not saying get a CF, you need other things first, but you can still do those quests, even a few help. do them with your collection and when you get enough coin and supplies, you can do a few unbirthday quests.

 

[CherryButterfly]

I would also add that it is good to come here and read through the "Guides" sections, and also the threads on current Events, etc. Even if they all seem like total gibberish at first, with the endless abbreviations and nicknames for things, eventually you will find that you actually start to understand what people are talking about. You can search out different Guides on the Internet, and (not sure if I am allowed to suggest) going to You-tube also to watch videos on ANY part of this you don't get. There is SO much more to do here than it first appears, and only rule here is that there are not many rules. You can play any way you want to, and build and do with your city anything YOU want to.
I first started playing thinking it was more of just a city planning and design game, and soon found out there is SO much more than that. But, it is what you make of it. Period.