Help
Achievements
Throughout the game you can earn achievements.Clicking on the achievements button on the main interface (1) will take you to the achievements menu (2). The current achievement score will also be displayed on the button.
Achievements can be unlocked by completing their associated tasks (3). When completed they will award you with a certain number of achievement points (4).
Comparing achievements is another side of this feature.By clicking on a friend’s portrait you can select “Compare Achievements” (1). This will take you to a side-by-side window (2), in which you can see your achievements paired with your friend’s.
You can also publish your achievements on social networks by pressing the “Share” button in the achievement interface (3) .
Adventures
1. Adventure name2. Story of the adventure
3. Difficulty level
4. What you have to do in the adventure
5. Maximum players
6. Available time
When you want to start an adventure
1. Open the star menu
2. Click on the adventure to open the adventure window
3. Click on ‘start adventure’. You can only have one adventure active at a time, but you’ll always be able to join another player’s adventure, even if you currently have one active yourself.4. Most adventure types require you to send your generals and armies to the adventure zone. To do so…
a) Click on the adventure quick start menu — a context menu will open. Click on ‘send army’.
b) Select the general you want to send on the adventure, and click the OK button. Repeat until you have sent all the generals you want to send on the adventure.5. Click the adventure quick start menu again, then click ‘visit’ to switch zones
Generals need up to 30 minutes to travel between islands, so don’t panic if they’re not there when you arrive. Open the star menu to see the time remaining until their arrival.
If you need to resupply your generals with more units from your home island, you can order them to return in a similar way. Follow steps 4 and 5 while you are on the adventure island, but instead of ‘send army’, click ‘send army back’.
Adventures can be obtained in different ways
1. Buy them at the merchants in exchange for map parts or gems.
2. Send your explorers on adventure searches.
3. Complete travel guides or fairytale books on board the Excelsior.
4. A few adventures drop follow-up adventures.
5. Trade with other players.
6. Some events hand out special adventures in unique ways.
1. Scenarios are special adventures that do not feature military conflict.
2. You will find a quest chain on a scenario island. It details your tasks, and will lead you through the story.
3. Some quests also spawn collectibles, which you’ll need in order to finish the scenario.
4. You can either use these collectibles, or your own resources, to produce buffs.
5. You can find these production options in a special tab in your provision house on your home island. This tab will only be visible when a scenario is active.You cannot take left-over scenario buffs or resources into another scenario; they will get deleted if that scenario uses the same elements.
Ventures (1) are a combination of missions and scenarios.
You will have to send generals and armies to defeat bandit camps, and also produce and apply buffs in order to complete your quests.Because camps on venture islands can contain either enemy units (2), or elements that can be defeated by applying buffs (3), be sure to double check their frames and backgrounds to know what you’re dealing with.
Certain adventures are classified as fairytales. Not only is this theme reflected in the stories they tell and the enemies you’ll fight (1), but they also reward you with a special currency!Magic beans can be exchanged for various rewards in the merchant’s «epic items» category (2).
Furthermore, the fairytale castle you find there can convert your magic beans into magic beanstalks, if you upgrade it (3). These beanstalks can then be traded for even more exclusive rewards!
Campaigns are a series of three or more adventures that tell a longer story.
Upon completing one of them, there is a chance to find one (or more) of the next adventures in your loot.Some campaigns even guarantee you’ll unlock the follow-up. These also offer special rewards for beating the whole series!
Not all campaigns have a linear story; a few of them follow branching paths, with multiple possible next adventures.
Adventures are categorized into three main types, based on the means by which you have to overcome their challenges. You can identify an adventure’s type by the small symbol on its icon.The majority of adventures are missions (1) that focus on military challenges. Your generals and armies will have to defeat certain enemy camps.
There are two sub-types of missions marked by certain features. Mini-missions (2) are particularly short missions. Co-op missions (3) require the help of your friends to complete.Scenarios (4) do not require any combat forces. Instead, the challenges focus on finding collectibles, as well as producing and applying buffs.
Ventures (5) combine missions and scenarios. Your armies must fight enemy camps while you simultaneously tackle a variety of other tasks.
The majority of adventures are «missions». (1)
All missions are based on simple quests that revolve around defeating certain enemy camps with your generals and units.
You will not need anything besides your armies to complete a mission, although certain buffs can make the task easier.
Remember assign units to your generals on your home island and then send them to the adventure. You can also send these generals back to your home island later to fetch more units.Other than generic missions, there are also two specific sub-types mini-missions (2) and co-op missions (3)
Mini-missions work exactly the same way as regular missions, but they are much shorter. That means you can tackle one in less time and with fewer units than usual.
For co-op missions, you will need the help of other players. Every player’s generals land in different sectors of the adventure island and cannot easily get to each other.
Sometimes, players will have to defeat the leader camps in «their» sectors to remove barricades and other obstacles from their allies’ paths. (4)
Buildings
The building menus are available via the building buttons in the main action bar.1. The building menu for the first city level.
2. In the menu, all buildings for this city level are displayed. If an icon is grayed out, then you do not meet the required level.
3. When you move the mouse cursor over an icon, you can see the building’s name and its description…
4. …the resources consumed and produced…
5. and the construction costs.
1. The upgrade area2. Production area here, you’ll find the resources consumed and produced, the total production time, the pause production button, and a notification of whether a settler is working in this building
3. Building description
4. Remaining buff time
When you click on a building in the building menu, a green area appears. This marks the space in which this building can be placed.
1. If the building is darkened (i.e. the area is not green), it cannot be placed where it is currently situated
2. If the building is highlighted, it can be placed in its current position
3. If you want to leave the building placement mode, click the «cancel action» button
Your settlers can construct only one building at a time, but you can order several buildings, which will be built one by one. When a building is in the building queue, you will see the following information1. The building’s icon
2. The completion percentage for the building
In addition, the following functions can be found in the building queue
3. Finish the building instantly
4. Scale the building queue
5. Buy a temporary slot to add to your three standard slots
6. Buy a permanent slot from the merchant in the black market category.
You can find your storage details by clicking on your mayor’s house or one of your storehouses.1. In your storage, all of your resources will be displayed. The green bar shows how much of your available storage is already being used by each resource.
2. Mouse over one of the resources to see the exact amount and total available storage.
3. In the tabs at the bottom of the window, you can switch between the resources of the different city levels.
1. Open the star menu2. Click on the buff you want to use (the number on the button shows how many buffs are in the stack)
3. The cursor will change to the buff cursor (the number on the right button shows how many buffs are in the stack)
4. Click on the building you want to buff
When the buff cursor is in use, every building you can buff will be highlighted.
In the provision house, you can transform resources into buffs, deposit refills or other resources.
1. Click on the provision house
2. Select what you want to produce. At the bottom of the window, you’ll find three tabs, one for each type of item. A small number on each item indicates how many units of this item are already in production.
3. In the detailed view, you can adjust the amount of items in production, and the stack size. Beneath the sliders, you can see the costs and the time required.
4. By clicking the «Accept» button, you can confirm your order, and it will be transferred into the production queue.
5. In the production queue you can see all of your stacks, adjust the work order, cancel a single stack, or instantly finish the current item’s production. Hovering your mouse cursor over a stack will let you see the remaining production time. Next to your orders, there are further buttons
6. You can spend gems to instantly finish the current production.
7. The other buttons let you change the order of items in the queue or remove entries.Items will be produced in stacks. This means when you produce five fish plates in a single order, the whole stack has to be produced before you receive them.
Every item you produce will take up a certain amount of time. By clicking the gem icon next to the bar, you can instantly finish the item production.
To make use of the ore deposits your geologist finds, you need to place a mine on them. Each mine needs its own deposit. When the deposit is empty, the connected mine will collapse.The number of deposits of any one type is limited. This means you can only have a certain number of mines.
Tip To produce more ore, you can upgrade your mines.
Tip Refilling an ore deposit before it’s empty will help you avoid having to search for a new deposit and build another mine. You can find refill items for all deposits at the merchant’s.
You can obtain refill items from both the provision house and the merchant.1. Open the star menu
2. Click on the refill item
3. Look for a deposit you want to refill
4. Use the refill item on the deposit
Tip
Refilling an ore deposit before it is empty will help you avoid having to search for a new deposit and build another mine. You can find refill items for all deposits at the merchant.
1. Click on ‘invite friend’ in the friends list, or on the left hand side of the friends list.2. Write the name of the player you want to invite in the text field
3. Select the player in the list
4. Click the OK button to send the invitation.
1. Click on ‘invite friend’ in the friends list, or on the left hand side of the friends list (a new browser window will open).2. In the new window, click on ‘Invite a friend’
3. Write your name in the text field
4. Write the name of your friend in the other text field
5. Fill in your friend’s e-mail address in the final text field
6. Click on ‘Send invitation’.
Farms work in a different way than the other workyards a farm collects the grain from a wheat field. Wheat fields are also buildings which you have to place. More than one farm can collect wheat from one field. Wheat fields can also end up empty, at which point you’ll have to build a new one.
1. Click on the building you want to upgrade
2. You can upgrade a building with normal resources, which may take minutes, hours or days depending on the upgrade level.
3. However, you can also upgrade the building instantly using gems.
4 & 5. When you upgrade a building, it will produces more but also consume more.
1. Unbuffed production cycle
2. Buff effect
3. Production cycle buffedWhen a building is buffed, its production output will increase by x%. This boost is indicated by the +x% text. The increase is based on the normal output of the non-buffed production building. The boost is added on top of the initial output.
You can claim a clear sector by placing a storehouse in that sector1. Open the first building menu
2. Click on the storehouse button
3. Place the storehouse
You can now place other buildings in this sector.
In the resource bar at the top of the window you can find your remaining building licenses. You’ll need these licenses for most buildings, except for merchants, wells, wheat fields or garrisons. All others consume one license per building. When you tear down a building, you get the licenses back.
Mines are a special case. When a mine collapses you instantly get the license back, so you won’t get a license when demolishing a depleted mine.
To unlock trade you have to reach level 12 and build the trade office, which can be found in the building menu or in the shop. You can enter the trade menu above the scales, right next to the economic overview. Here you can buy and sell whatever you like. There is also a search function, and a filter for quickly finding the goods that you are interested in. Note that trade is limited to the server. You cannot trade with players from other servers.
1. Click the scales at the bottom of the screen to enter the trade menu. In the buy window, you can see offers from other players. On the right-hand side you can filter which offers are displayed.
2. If you want to make an offer yourself, click «Place offer» in the sell tab. Here, you choose which item you would like to sell, the quantity and price. If you want to make an offer several times, you can use multiple lots.
3. You can sell anything you want, for example an adventure, a buff, or a resource.
One offer is free. After setting your free offer, you can buy additional slots for gems or coins.
The economic overview helps you visualize your economy.
1. Click on the slide rule at the bottom to open it.
2. A window appears listing all your resources.
3. Clicking on a particular resource displays a resource tree on the right, detailing all resources involved in this chain and indicating whether the current state is positive (green), neutral (gray), or negative (red).
Note if one of your resources is yellow, it means another resource in the chain is negative and needs to be checked.
4. Click on any of the resources in the chain to see all building types producing or consuming the resource in question. Clicking on the type shows a list of all the existing buildings of this type on your home zone.
Note The results you see reflect the current circumstances, including buffs that may only be temporary.
1. To access the toolbox, just click on the building menu on the bottom left of the screen.
2. On the far right on the building menu you will find the toolbox. Click on the toolbox icon to open the toolbox menu.
3. Build street build streets between your buildings for no cost (decorative purpose only).
4. Demolish street tear down the streets you have built for no cost.
5. Demolish building tear down a building and get back a certain amount of the resources you used, including the resources and building license.
6. Move building move a building for a certain amount of resources or gems, depending on the building type and upgrade level.
The book binder lets you create books.
1. Select the book binder by clicking it.
2. Select the type of book you want to produce. The costs of your chosen book, and the next book in line will be displayed. Confirm your selection by clicking the button below.
3. When you confirm the production, the button vanishes and the produced book appears.
4. Once the production is completed you can pick up the book from the book binder by clicking the button next to the book icon.
The prices for books increase the more books you produce. Simple books need to be refined in order to create more advanced books.
Sometimes there are events, influencing certain production chains on your island. The affected buildings can differ from event to event.
As soon as an event week starts, you’ll receive a message near your Avatar. All influenced chains will be marked in the relevant building window. There will be a star icon and a highlight surrounding the progress bar (1).
When you click on the details tab, the influenced value will be written in green, alongside the star icon (2).
When you hover over the star icon, you get a tooltip giving you additional information about the benefit this production chain gets.
The sectors to the south and east of your main island can be explored and annexed in a way similar to the other sectors.1. To start, send out your explorer by selecting the “Explore far away sector” option.
2. If the sector contains any bandit camps, you’ll first have to defeat all the leader camps. Transfer your general’s garrison to an already annexed archipelago sector to start your attacks from there.
3. Since these sectors are technically not a part of your island, you will need to purchase a deed from the «black market» category at the merchant. There are two kinds of sectors that require different deeds
a) “Sector deeds” are used to claim the majority of the sectors forming the connected archipelago.
b) “Island deeds” unlock the bandit-free islands flanking the main archipelago.4. Once purchased, select the deed from the star menu and apply it to the sector.
5. Finally, build an island storehouse to annex the sector and connect it to your main island.
Cultural buildings have the ability to apply zone-wide buffs to your home island. To apply a buff, click on a cultural building to bring up the menu displayed above. Then, perform the following steps
1. Select the buff you want to apply.
2. The resource costs of the selected buff will be displayed, along with its cooldown time (see below).
3. Check the description of the selected buff.
4. Pay the costs and apply the buff by clicking the checkmark button.Using a cultural building will trigger a cooldown period. During this time, the building cannot be used again, and the checkmark button (4) will be replaced by the remaining cooldown time and a different button (5). You can click that button to skip the cooldown time, in exchange for a number of gems.
Once Captain Graham has anchored her airship, the Excelsior, on your island, you can invest crystals or gems to earn various rewards in the Forge of Truth. You either receive generic rewards like resources and buffs, or unique text segments, which you can collect to get exclusive quests and adventures.
1. Earn crystals by logging in once per day and by completing daily quests.
2. Click on the Excelsior.
3. Select the text category you want.
4. Select the specific text parts you want to try to earn.
5. The previous choices influence which rewards you may receive.
6. The costs for using the forge are displayed here. If you do not have enough crystals, you can make up for any shortfall with gems. Use the arrow buttons to increase your investment, and earn more rewards.
7. When you’re satisfied, click the big purple button to start the process!
8. When you’ve collected enough text parts, you can complete the text to receive one of these rewards.
PvP — Colony Conquering
In order to claim new islands, you now have access to some specialized troops and buildings. You can only use these units to conquer a colony.(1) First, you’ll need to produce new weapon types, which can be ordered from the Combat Armory.
(2) With those weapons you can build your new troops. You can do that in your Combat Academy.
(3) You’ll also need to acquire a new kind of general, which is called a marshal. You can acquire different kinds in the tavern, or buy them in the shop.
A new game mode has been unlocked Colony Conquering!
In this mode you can send out special, new troops to find and conquer islands from other players, which are rich in resources. Also, an alternative combat system and brand new challenges await you!Take and defend what is yours!
The Colony mode uses a different combat system than you know from your kingdom or adventures.(1) The biggest difference is that combat is now conducted in real time. Enemy camps will be occupied by different unit types. In combat, one stack of unit types will attack another, until one stack is defeated. If you defeat your opponent’s stack, a new, randomly chosen stack from the camp will be deployed. You can decide which unit type you want to lead into battle next.
(2) There are three basic unit types infantry, cavalry, and ranged units. Each of those unit types is good vs. one and bad vs. another, meaning it will deal (or receive) bonus damage. You should always try to match the right unit type against your current opponent.
(1) Your most important goal is to defeat the sector boss camp. When you defeat this camp, all other enemies in the same sector will flee — whether they are currently engaged in combat or not.(2) Normally standard camps only contain one unit type. Boss camps are mostly well guarded and contain several different unit types, along with a sector boss. These camps will require your full attention, so always be sure to match the right unit type against them.
(3) You can select a unit type by clicking on the battlefield UI element, which shows the next unit to be deployed out of your stack. You can change it at any time, but remember It will only change once either your unit, or the enemy stack has been defeated.
Hint You can see the next enemy unit to be deployed in the equivalent element on the opponent’s side.
In order to succeed in conquering colonies you can try to make use of a tactic called «blocking». This tactic is extremely risky, and is probably best suited for advanced players — but if you get it right, you can save a lot of troops, and their associated production costs.Since enemy units in a sector will flee once their sector boss has been defeated, you can use this to your advantage. Normally, a marshal would be intercepted once they pass through the red attack area of a camp. Once the camp’s been engaged in combat, though, the attack area vanishes, and other marshals may pass through.
As your heavy units can take a lot of damage, and can last a long time, you should attack every camp in between you and the sector boss with these, in order to disable their attack areas.
Attack units on the other hand will finish off a camp quickly. Thus, you should use these to defeat the sector boss.
In the given example, you would (1) block the cavalry camp and (2) the melee camp with your heavy units and then (3) defeat the sector boss with your attack units, utilizing your three Marshals.
Optimizing your timing here will mean you lose fewer units.
This is the defense mode of your island. You can use it to build defenses, and close the weak spots you discovered while conquering the island. Other players will try to steal the island from you, so be sure to prepare a nice surprise for them.(1) You can build additional defense camps from the building menu on the expedition island. Building these defenses costs defense points, which you automatically receive when conquering the island.
(2) These defensive outposts can be built in the provided building slots.
(3) As you can see, the buildings you can construct differ from the ones which are populated by bandits. Explore the different kinds of buildings and see what they can do! Once set, you can populate them with mercenary troops of your choosing, which you can also acquire by spending defense points.
Important Information PvP Expeditions & MaintenanceBefore starting an expedition, please make sure you have enough time to finish it. Expeditions will not be prolonged during maintenance.
Maintenance announcements are posted on the website.
One of your marshals has been defeated in combat! But luckily, you can help your troops recover faster.(1) You can produce expedition medipacks in your Provision House. Apply these on a marshal’s garrison to instantly revive him and continue fighting.
Note expedition medipacks can only be used on marshals on expedition islands.
(2) Be aware you can only use a limited amount of medipacks per island. On every expedition island there is a medipack counter. It shows you, how many medipacks you’ve used, and how many you’re allowed to use in total.
This video explains everything you need to know in order to start competing with other players for control of colonies.
It shows you how you can search, attack and defend a colony.You will also find out information about the new combat system how does it work, what are the new buildings you need and what are the new troops you will use to conquer new islands.
The video gives useful tips on how to attack colonies efficiently, using the bonus damage of units and even how to efficiently «block» using heavy units.
You can also learn on how you can defend the colonies you conquer and reap the rewards most efficiently.
In the overview page of the PvP level screen, you can find the colony tier and strength point display.Strength points determine the tier at which your explorers will find expedition maps. The higher the tier, the more difficult the island, but also the more yield it will produce and the more rewards you will receive. You’ll also play against other player’s which are in the same tier as you are.
Whenever you successfully conquer an island from, or defend it against another player, you will receive some strength points. But beware — if you get defeated while attacking an island, you’ll lose points instead.
Also, please note
As soon as you reach tier 3, you will be participating in ranked matches. From here on in, you can compare all your victories and defeats against other players at tier 3.
The path tracking tool is a garrison you can place on expeditions to check out the path the marshal will walk. So you can plan the position of the garrisons at the beginning before you conquer the sector.
In the building menu (1) you can find the ghost garrison (2). You can place this garrison anywhere in the zone to see where the marshal will walk. (3) You can place up to 5 garrisons.
If you want to delete any placed ghost garrisons, use the erase tool (4) in the building menu.
As the great leader of the expedition forces, you have been awarded a water castle. This water castle shall be a symbol of your experience. You can place it in the lake in the middle of your island, so long as you’ve freed the sector from bandits, and have a storehouse in the sector. This is the only place you can build it. The castle starts as a small tower, but remember, with every 2 PvP levels you gain, it will increase its size — and your kingdom’s glory.
This is the PvP progression window. It shows your PvP level and everything related to it.The PvP level works like your player level. You need to gather PvP XP in order to level up. You can earn XP by defeating enemy units on expedition Islands.
Furthermore, the PvP progression window also shows your current strength level, and allows you to collect the PvP rewards you gain per level. Check this panel regularly to collect all your rewards.
Rankings are leaderboards for PvP. If you reach tier 3 difficulty and play further PvP maps (player owned maps), your progress will be ranked.
If you want to see your ranking, you can click on the ranking button (1) in the main button bar. A new browser tab (2) will open with the current rankings.
You can compare your rank worldwide, or within the instance you’re playing on. (3) You can also change the type of ranking. There are seven different types
— Efficiency The efficiency value compares the number of enemy units you defeat to the number of units you lose.
— Average Time (small, medium, large maps) The average time is a calculated average of time spent on all PvP expeditions. All canceled or lost expeditions count as 3 hours.
— Time (small, medium, large maps) The time ranking reflects your fastest run.
The ranking screen always shows the top 10 players, and at the bottom, you can see your position (4) plus one above and one below.
The rankings will be reset every month, but you can go back and see the rankings of the previous month.
Guild
In order to found a new guild1. Build a guild house (you can find the guild house in the second building menu or at the merchant).
2. Click on the guild symbol in the main button bar. In the Founder window, enter…
3. …the name of the guild…
4. …the tag, and…
5. …your chosen guild banner.
6. When you’re ready to confirm your selection, click the «Found Guild» button.
Step down
A leader can choose to hand down his leader rank by pressing the ‘Step Down’ button. The Rank will then be offered to the next guild member in the succession order.Succession order
The guild leader can assign succession ranks to his guild’s members. This indicates the order in which players will be asked to take over leadership if the leader chooses to, or otherwise becomes inactive.
An automated succession request is deployed after 15 days of inactivity to avoid leaderless guilds.
Accepting guild leadership
A player that receives a guild succession request can choose to accept or decline the request, but has to own a guild house in order to lead a guild. The player has 7 days to accept the request. Should they not accept, the request will be forwarded to the next member in the succession order. The inactivity timer and succession request will start over if no player accepts the request.
Players that are not yet member of a guild can apply to join a guild of their choice by selecting a guild from the guild list, accessing the guild’s page, and applying using the ‘Apply’ button.
The guild’s leader has to accept their application in order for them to become guild members.
Main page
The main page contains guild stats, a message of the day that is also displayed in the guild chat, an editable description of the guild and the guild log.Administration
Here the guild leader can customize the ranks of his guild, their rights and the guild’s emblem.Member list
Lists all members of the guild, their guild quest completion states and whether they were online in the last 48 hours. The guild leader can also adjust the member’s succession ranks here.
Military
If you obtain a new general, you must first place their garrison on the map
1. Open the star menu
2. Click on the general of your choice
3. Place the garrison on your island
1. Click on the garrison to open the garrison menu
2. Assign the units you need for the battle, and click the OK button to confirm your selection
3. Click on the attack button and …
4. …Click on the bandit camp you want to attack
5. Your general will move to the camp and start attacking it
All enemy camps have an attack area. If your general walks through one of these areas, they will first attack this enemy camp, followed by the camp you selected.
Every enemy sector has a leader camp. Leader camps are marked with a crown.
If you destroy the leader camp, the other camps will automatically collapse. When the leader camp is defeated, the sector is free.
Note if the leader camps containing a strong unit, it is marked with a skull wearing a crown.
You can open the garrison menu by clicking on either the garrison itself, or its general’s portrait in your star menu. From there you can assign units to the garrison, and perform various other tasks.
1. Click on the attack button followed by an enemy camp to initiate an attack.
2. Click “Combat Preview” followed by an enemy camp to see an estimate of the outcome of the fight.
3. The “Transfer” button is used to move your garrison. Simply click it and select a new location on the current island.
4. Use the retreat button to cancel an attack and recall your general to the garrison. This can only be done before the general arrives at the enemy camp.
5. If you have an active adventure, you can click this button to send the general and all attached units from your home island to the adventure zone or vice versa. Note that this journey can take up to 30 minutes.
6. Clicking this button recalls the garrison to your star menu. The building will be removed from the island, and all assigned units will return to your reserve, ready for reassignment.
7. If your general is not idle, the task it is currently performing will be displayed here.
8. This bar shows how many different books have been invested into the general’s skill tree. The button on its right side opens the skill tree window.
9. Use these panels to assign units to the garrison. Assigned units will participate in the general’s battles and join him on adventures. Move the sliders to choose your preferred units and confirm your selection with the checkmark button, or cancel with the X button. The other two buttons switch the view between standard and elite units, and set all sliders to 0 respectively.
Like your general, your enemies also have a garrison, called the enemy camp. These camps are divided into two different types
1. Leader camp — the camp leading the particular sector, marked with a crown. When you defeat it, all other remaining enemy camps will be destroyed.
2. Regular enemy camp.
3. Contrary to leader camps, regular camps have an aggro range. When you enter it, your general will be intercepted, and will attack this camp instead of the one you chose to attack.
4. To get information on camps, just click on them. The camp window will show which units are there, and in what quantity. Mouse over the units to see further information about them.
Note Sometimes the camp is marked with a skull. This means that very strong units, or unit combinations, are deployed in this camp. Leader camps marked with a skull and crown contain a very strong unit.
When your general’s army gets defeated in combat, (s)he will retreat to his/her garrison and must recover before accepting new tasks. Generals hired from the tavern need 4 hours to recover, but most others are faster. You can monitor the remaining recovery time in his/her garrison or the star menu.
To avoid being stuck waiting for recovering generals, you may acquire additional ones from the tavern or the merchant, or use medipacks, which are also sold by the merchant.
The combat preview shows the player the outcome of a fight with a particular enemy camp.
1. Open the garrison with which you can attack.
2. The second button in the menu is the combat preview.
3. When you click it, you will see crossed swords with a question mark.
4. By now clicking on an enemy camp, you get a preview of what will happen when you attack with this deployment. When you attack special camps, you get a special window displaying tips on how to defeat this camp.
When you want to save resources in adventures, there are two techniques you can use, known as «locking» and «blocking».
«Blocking» involves attacking a camp in order to disable its attack area, so that another general can pass unnoticed. With this technique, you’ll lose the units of the general you’re blocking with, but you also won’t have to destroy this camp completely.
You can generally block all camps which are near other camps. (2) The timing here is important. In order to have the largest possible time frame you should use either a general with large amount of HP, or a general that fights slowly (like i.e. the tavern general). (1) With red flags showing the move path of your generals, (3) you can determine the necessary positions and attack timing of the generals. The goal is to keep your distraction general fighting the camp for as long as it takes for your main general to get by. (4) This is tricky to get right, since the slightest mismatch in timing might cause the block to fail. If your main general gets intercepted despite your efforts, don’t hesitate to order a retreat to avoid the unplanned battle, and try again later.«Locking» works similar to «blocking», however the goal is a bit different. «Locking» means to block a camp for as long as possible, so that another general can defeat the sector leaders’ camp before the battle is decided (2). When all leaders’ camps in a sector have been defeated, all ongoing battles will be cancelled and counted as a successful fight, without losses. This means when trying a locking maneuver, you should use a general who fights slowly, or a general with a large amount of units. The same caveats apply here, however should the battle at the leader camp take too long, the locking general and his units might be defeated, so you should only use this method when you’re sure you can defeat the leader’s camp in time.
Even though both of these methods have a certain risk attached to them, you’ll be able to save a lot or resources once you master them.
Note any losses you suffer using one of these methods will not be refunded!
The Elite Barracks (1) recruit powerful units called elite units. These units are very strong but come with a downside — their specialized training renders them unable to fight in a mixed army alongside non-elite units.Each of your generals (2) can either command a non-elite or an elite army at any given time. You can switch between the two modes by clicking the “Switch Units” button in the general’s garrison. (3)
Every unit’s combat capabilities are governed by a set of attributes and abilities that can be checked in its tooltip.Attributes are values that are shared by all combat units
1. Hit points If the unit takes this much damage in combat, it is defeated.
2. Accuracy The unit’s accuracy reflects the probability its attacks will deal the higher of its two damage values.
3. Attack damage The damage the unit’s attacks inflict is randomly selected from these two numbers.
4. Initiative Units with a faster initiative type attack before slower ones, and may defeat them before they get a chance to strike. The three initiative types are, from fast to slow First strike, normal and last strike.
A unit may also have one or more of these special abilities that can be beneficial in or after the combat
5. Flanking The unit always attacks the enemy with the fewest hit points, disregarding normal targeting rules. Your generals cannot be flanked.
6. Splash damage After this unit defeats an enemy, excess damage carries over to one or more additional targets.
7. Demolition The unit’s attack damage is doubled when tearing down a camp after all occupants have been defeated.
Generals have a few additional attributes that apply to their whole garrison
8. Travel time This is the time it takes the general to travel to or from an adventure zone. If these times are different, they will be separated by a slash (“/”).
9. Capacity The number of units that can be assigned to the general’s garrison.
10. Recovery time The length of time for which the general will be disabled after being defeated in combat.
11. Combat time The duration of every round of a battle initiated by the general. The higher this value, the longer each fight will take.
All units are grouped into unit types. These types give you a rough overview of the unit’s relative capabilities at a glance. You can check a unit’s type in the top-right corner of its tooltip.
1. Defense units have many hit points relative to their attack damage. More often than not, they protect other units by getting targeted by enemy attacks first.
2. Offense units have high attack damage, but few hit points.
3. Swift units have first strike, and therefore attack before most other units. As a rule of thumb, they have few hit points and deal less damage than offense units.
4. Heavy units have last strike, so they attack after most other units. To compensate, most of them have many hit points and high attack damage. To target enemy heavy units, your units will often have to defeat all other units first.
5. Bosses are fearsome enemies with attributes tens or even hundreds of times higher than those of other units. Luckily, most camps include only 1 or 2 bosses, if any. Many bosses hide behind the backlines of their army, so you will have to defeat all of their subordinates before attacking them.
6. Combat generals are your army’s leaders. Your units will protect them above all else, so they will never get attacked until your other troops have been defeated. Not even flanking enemies can get at them.
7. Quartermasters are specialized in transporting armies to adventure zones. They cannot participate in combat at all.
The different units in your army, or an enemy camp, will attack in a fixed formation. This dictates the order in which they will both get targeted by, and attack their enemies.
For example, your militia will not get attacked while you still have recruits participating in the battle.The portraits shown above a garrison, or a camp, when moving the mouse cursor over it will tell you the order of engagement at a glance. The left-most units will get attacked first, and the right-most ones last.
Watch out for enemies with the flanking ability though! They will ignore this rule, and will attack your units with the fewest hit points instead.
Targeting order of your standard units
1. Recruit
2. Militia
3. Soldier
4. Elite Soldier
5. Cavalry
6. Bowman
7. Longbowman
8. Crossbowman
9. Cannoneer
Targeting order of your elite units
1. Swordsman
2. Mounted swordsman
3. Knight
4. Marksman
5. Armored marksman
6. Mounted marksman
7. Besieger
This is a detailed break-down of the combat mechanics for players who want to know exactly what goes on behind the scenes.One combat round is a sequence of three initiative steps First strike, normal, and last strike (1). During each of those steps, all units with the respective initiative values attack once. Even if such a unit gets defeated during this step, it will be granted this final attack.
By default, a unit selects its target from all undefeated enemies by a priority system, which is displayed when moving your cursor over the garrison or enemy camp. The left-most units will get attacked first (2). Units with the flanking ability always target the enemy unit with the fewest hit points instead. Generals never get flanked.
After choosing its target, the unit will deal damage to it. Almost every unit has two attack damage values, one of which is chosen randomly for each attack. The unit’s accuracy attribute reflects the probability of it dealing the higher of the two damage values.Damage dealt is subtracted from the target’s hit points. If your target’s hit points drop to 0, the target will be defeated. Excess damage is usually wasted (3). However, if the attacker has the splash damage ability, any excess damage is dealt to another opponent (selected in the same way as the original target). It is possible for one attacker to defeat multiple enemies this way (4).
After all eligible units have attacked, the same process is repeated for the next initiative step and, eventually, the next combat round. Defeated units are of course unable to attack in future steps.
Combat ends when all units on one side have been defeated. If you’ve won, your remaining units will destroy the camp. Check the entry on «Bandit Camp Demolition» to learn more.
After one of your armies has defeated all the enemies in a bandit camp, your remaining units will start destroying the camp itself. (1)Each unique unit type (e.g. Recruit, Militia or Cavalry) that remains in your army will deal its maximum attack damage to the camp every combat round.
Cannoneers and Besiegers also have the Demolition ability, which lets them deal double damage against camps! (2)Just like when fighting enemy units, the length of these combat rounds depends on your general’s combat time attribute. (3)
Camps have hit points just like units, and their destruction is complete once they run out of points. Afterwards, your general will either return to the garrison, or continue to the next camp.
Specialists
1. Open the star menu2. Click on the geologist
3. Click on the type of deposit you want to search for
4. Confirm your selection by clicking the «OK» button
Specialists require time to complete every task, and some will require additional resources.
Use the explorer to search for treasure, e.g. coins, wood or marble. When you reach a higher level, you will unlock longer treasure searches, with more valuable resources to be found.
1. Open the star menu2. Click on the explorer
3. Click on the treasure search icon
4. Select the type of treasure search and confirm your selection
5. When the explorer has finished his treasure search, you’ll find the loot in you mailbox.
6. Opening the explorer’s mail and accepting the loot will transfer the resources to your star menu.
In the tavern you can hire specialists.
1. The icons of the specialists
2. The names of the specialists
3. The cost per specialist (which increases after every purchase)
4. The button for buying the specialists
Tip 1 The merchant has specific additional specialists which are not available in the tavern.
Tip 2 You can have multiple specialists.
1. You can send your geologists to find deposits.
2. There are two different kinds of deposits deposits you have to build a building on (i.e. mines) and deposits for which you have to place the building as near as possible (i.e. stone or wood).
These deposits are used by all related buildings. You do not need one deposit per building.
All deposits contain a certain amount of resources before they are depleted. To prevent them from being emptied, you can refill them in the following ways
3. Buy refillers from the shop.
4. Produce refillers in the provision house.
In the shop you’ll find more different types of refiller than in the provision house, including a universal refiller which can refill any deposit you want. Additional ways to get refillers are through adventures or quests.
Skill trees allow you to improve certain of your Settlers’ abilities. You can enhance several factors of your economy or improve your Specialists’ skills.Produce books at the Bookbinder and spend them on your skill trees.
1. To open a Specialist’s skill tree, select him in the Star Menu
2. In his Specialist window, click the skill tree button.
3. The skill tree opens.
1. Invest books in the Skills you want to improve. A tooltip explains the conditions and effects of the skill. Click a Skill to invest a book. Finalize your choice via the Confirm Button at the bottom.
2. To the right of the tree you can see how many books of each type you currently possess. More advanced skills require more advanced types of books.
3. You can reset a Skill tree and get back half of your invested books via the Reset Button. You can buy back all your books via the Buy Back Button.
Sometimes there are specialist related events. During this time specialists execute most of their tasks faster.
This can apply to either all, or just a specific type of specialists (1) and differs from event to event.
All affected specialists are marked with a star in the star menu (2).
All active tasks can be influenced by the event (3). This includes deposit searches, treasure searches, sector exploring, adventure searches and general travel times.
As soon as an event like this starts, you’ll receive a notification near your Avatar.
Interfaces
In the left upper corner you’ll find your avatar. Here you can get information about the following things
1. Quest book button opens your quest book.
2. Experience bar shows your level progress. The green stars you gather during the game, called XP (Experience points), are stored here. You can see the amount of XP you have and the amount you need to level up by moving the cursor over this area.
3. After collecting a certain quantity of XP, you gain a new level. With each level, you unlock new features such as new buffs, buildings, or military units.
4. Log out button clicking this button logs you out of the game and returns you to the «The Settlers» home page.
The star menu is your inventory, and has six categories.
In the first tab, you’ll find all the items that are in your star menu. For a better overview you can switch between tabs
1. Specialists (here you can find all your geologists, generals, and explorers)
2. Resources (refill buffs and resources)
3. Buffs (including, for example fish plates, settlers sunrises or love potions)
4. Buildings (buildings with effects and simple decorations)
5. Adventures (all types of adventures)
6. Misc (including, for example building licenses, mystery boxes)
1. To access basic audio options, click on the button to the left of the logout and full screen buttons.2. This button toggles the background sound on and off
3. This button toggles the sound effects on and off
Your settlers are collectively referred to as the «population». You need settlers in order to train military units, and to work in or on the majority of your buildings. You’ll get one additional settler every 15 minutes. Unlike normal resources, they are not consumed when used, but are simply made unavailable for other tasks.1. In the resources bar, if you mouse over a settler icon, you’ll be given a detailed tooltip containing all the information about your settlers.
2. If you’re in immediate need of settlers, you can «produce» them in your provisions house.
3. Alternately, you can buy settlers at the merchant, or buy a potion to speed up settler production
1. You can access the merchant via the treasure chest in the bottom right corner.2. He has a wide range of items on offer, divided into several categories.
3. Most items cost gems. If you don’t have enough, you can buy more by clicking on the icon of a diamond with a plus.
4. Each item’s gem cost is displayed next to its icon.
5. Apart from buildings and resources, you can also buy adventures, and lots more besides. However, a lock on an icon means you do not currently fulfill the requirements for buying it.
6. When you click on an item, a window will open with further information about it. Some items have limited availability, so keep an eye on the top right hand corner for a red icon with a number.
In the barracks (short cut «B») you can train your military units. When you first start out, you’ll only be able to train recruits, but as you level up you’ll unlock more units.
1. Open the barracks by clicking on the building or by pressing «B».
2. Choose the unit you want to train.
3. A window will appear, which shows you the required resources. Use the sliders to define the amount of units you want to train and the number of stacks. Beneath the sliders you can see the cost of your order and the amount of time required.
4. You can train only one stack at a time. Over in the waiting loop you can check the remaining time, adjust the production order, cancel one or all queued stacks, or instantly complete the current stack in exchange for gems.
5. The numbers on the unit buttons show you how many units of that type are currently in production.
Military units do not consume settlers, but instead block them. However, when your military unit gets defeated, you’ll have to reproduce this settler again.
When you need help, or simply have to wait for a resource to be produced, you can use the time to chat.
You will find the chat function in the lower left corner of your screen. (1)
By clicking the bar just below it (2), you can write your message and click «Enter» to send it. You must have reached at least level 5 to send chat messages.There are many different channels for you to use
3. The general chat channel is for talking about anything you want, and for finding new friends.
4. The help channel enables you to ask questions or give answers.
5. Players use the trade channel to advertise their goods or otherwise look for trade partners.
6. The whisper channel allows for private, one-on-one conversations with other players. These conversations will only be visible to you and your chat partner
7. The news channel is where you can see the latest information about your home zone.
Note If you need help regarding chat commands type /help.
8. If you have problems reading the text because of the colors, you can use this button and all text colors will change to white.
9. To prevent the chat scrolling automatically when a new message appears, use this button.
1. By clicking on the quest book button…
2. you can open the quest book.
3. The quests are divided into several categories, such as Main and Side quests. Some of them can be canceled if you do not want to complete them.
4. Here you can see the story of the quest…
5. told by an NPC (Non Player Character).
6. Below the quest text you can see the goal you have to reach for completing the quest. These differ and can have multiple elements.
7. Here you can see the reward you will get for completing the quest.
To make navigation a little bit easier, you have the possibility to use shortcuts. In «The Settlers online» you can use the following ones
«B» For the barracks
«H» for the Mayor’s house (storage)
«P» for the provision house
«X» for the bookbinder
«F11» for full screen mode
«+» and «-» for zooming in and out
Furthermore, you can use W,A,S,D to scroll in the certain direction as well as the number 1 to 9 for the different sectors. The arrangement of the sectors is as on the num pad on your keyboard (the beginning sector is sector 1, the sector to the right is sector 2…).
At the top of the screen is the resources bar. Here, you’ll find the most basic information about your economy
1. Your population (mouse over the number to get a detailed view)2. Your remaining building licenses
3. The number of zone-wide buffs active on your island (click on it to open the zone-wide buffs window).
4. Your basic resources for constructing buildings.
5. The amount of gems you have. By clicking on the ‘plus’ icon, you can add gems to your account. Clicking on the gem icon opens the shop.
The daily login bonus is a reward for regular play.
1. Each day the player enters the game for the first time, the daily reward window will appear.
2. It contains a short overview about the amount of days in a row the player has logged in, and what random reward he/she got.
3. On the 7th day of consecutive log-ins, the player will receive some Gems, and the cycle will restart from the beginning.
4. If the player missed a day, a red cross will be displayed and the cycle starts from the beginning.
5. Once the player reaches level 21, all random rewards, except the one on the 7th day, will be replaced by Crystals. Crystals are used for the Excelsior.
You can check your remaining Premium time in the zone-wide buff window. (1)
To add more time, you can go to the merchant and buy more time, under the «Premium» category. (2)
To add the time to your account, simply go to the star menu and use the Premium item. A window will open summarizing the benefits of the Premium time (3)
+ 50% XP from adventures
+ 50% resources and buffs from adventures
+ one additional daily quest
+ 10% buff time on friend zones
+ one additional building queue slot
Any additional loot you get from your Premium status will be displayed separately in your loot mails. (4)
1. Collectible Items can be picked throughout the map – they appear in the areas you have explored.
2. Once clicked on, they will go into your storage and will count towards your Collection completion.
3. Collections can be found in the Mayor’s House Collections tab. They are unlocked based on your level.
4. Once you have all the ingredients you can start producing a Collection.
5. Once completed, you must open the Mayor’s House interface to gain the reward which will be stored in your Star Menu.
6. You can use the item from there to buff your appropriate buildings or take advantage of any other effects it might have.
If you have problems finding the collectibles on your island, you can ask a friend for help1. Any friend that comes to your island can see the collectibles that you have not yet found.
2. Once clicked on, the collectible will be highlighted to make it easier for you to pick up.3. Alternatively, you can use the «Fairy Fire» buff from the shop to highlight them briefly («Fairy Light» for adventure maps)
Once you reach level 80, all the XP you’d normally earn from quests and adventures will be converted into Star Coins.
You’ll also see these changes reflected in your quest book.
Sometimes, certain Events will influence the production efficiency of your barracks/combat academy and/or the provision house. During these events, the production of certain items and units will gain special bonuses.All influenced items and units are marked with a little star on the upper right corner (1). When you click on one of the affected items and change to the detail view, the positively affected attribute will be marked with the star icon (2) and a green font.
When a barracks/combat academy or provision house building Event is active, you get a small avatar message when logging in for the first time.
If a buff can be applied on several unit types, or inhabitants of buildings, a special interface will be used. The interface works like this
1. Hover over the building.
2. Click the unit you want to apply a buff on, and a new interface will appear.
3. If you hover over a buff, a slider appears, where you can define the amount which should be used. With a click on the buff, the selection will be confirmed and the buff will be applied.
Throughout the home island there are mountains of various sizes that can be destroyed to create more building space. They are sorted into three different categories, Rubble, Rocks and Mountains, each of which requires a dedicated expert.
1. The shotfirer and demolition crew are items that can be used on the different types of mountains.
2. Use an expert on a mountain of the right size and he will start preparing the demolition.
3. Once he’s done, he’ll await your signal to trigger the detonation. Select the prepared mountain to launch the demolition.
Note sometimes even more building space can be freed up, if mountains standing close to one another are both removed.
The advanced options screen contains a lot of useful functions to help improve the performance of the game on your computer, and to customize your experience. Here you can1. Tweak the volume of the music.
2. Tweak the volume of the sound effects.
3. Load half sized graphics (increases performance).
4. Turn buff animations on/off (influences performance).
5. Turn sector markers on/off.
6. Turn the icon that appears over the generals & marshals while moving on/off.
7. Turn the display of generals & marshals names on/off.
8. Turn walking settlers on the map on/off (influences performance).
9. Turn wildlife on the islands on/off (influences performance).
10. Turn smoke effects on/off (influences performance).
11. Turn icons that warn about missing settler population on/off
12. Turn icons that warn about missing production resources on/off
13. Turn icons that warn about resources at full storage capacity on/off
14. Turn icons above buildings that have had their production manually stopped on/off
High level players can earn a resource called Star Coins for performing various activities.
Star Coins can be spent on various interesting rewards like buffs and adventures. You will find these offers in the «epic items» category of the merchant.
Certain buffs do not need to be applied to buildings. Instead, you apply them to a whole zone (island). Whether you’re on your own home island, an adventure or expedition, or visiting a friend, you will buff the zone you’re in when you use the buff from the star menu.
1. All zone-wide buffs have a green border.
2. The number of zone-wide buffs active on the current zone is displayed at the top of the screen.
Move your cursor over the icon for additional information.
3. Click the aforementioned icon to bring up a window with even more information. This window also allows you to cancel buffs early.