When you're in the battlefield screen there's a button with 1, 2, or 3 arrows at the bottom left, it starts on the single arrow, but you want to put it on the fastest setting and speed up your fighting animations. ESPECIALLY important for GvG, you need to fight fast. Once you set it to 3 arrows it will remain that way for all your fights unless you change it again.

Speaking of fast fighting, if you decide to click the auto battle from the battlefield (for example, after you tell your horse to stay back or move it to the safety of a corner,) next click the Results button in the top center of the fight screen, this skips all the animation and finishes the fight so that you can move on to the next one!

There is now also an Auto Battle option on most fight screens, before you even load the battlefield. You should only use this when the outcome for you is certain victory, e.g. when fighting an enemy siege (single army with 10 fights) or when a sector is down to all known armies and you are sure of the result. Fighting with 4 artillery and 4 rogue or 1 heavy and 7 rogue against certain armies is a guaranteed win and that's the time to use Auto Battle.

Making at least some of the moves manually will always take less injury, lose less troops, and get more points than Auto Battle because the AI is not that bright. Results from using auto can vary wildly from taking no injury to losing 2-3 troops on the exact same attacking and defending units setup; this is partly due to random terrain, random roll on your attack boost and critical hits, etc.

In the settings button (gears icon) below the 10 main icons, you can turn on Unattached troop marking, this lets you easily see which troops are attached to barracks versus earned (unattached) from a quest or Alcatraz. Turning this on also provides an unattached troop count when mousing over troops in the military screen. Unattached troops - those won from quests or generated by Alcatraz - have a gold/orange stripe on them.

Again, very important for GvG, you want to fight with Attached troops first, which you can easily replace by training more in your barracks. Once you lose an Unattached troop, it's just gone :( so always use attached troops first when possible - especially when placing Defensive Army (DA) troops in a sector. Injured troops auto-heal when placed in a GvG sector, so it's a good way to retire attached troops by placing DA's so that you can train more in your barracks before you logout, or to use up the troops before you sell the building.

In the upper right corner (browser version) is a little arrow to pull down the chat. It has 3 tabs, Global (everyone on the server) then your neighborhood, and the last one (shield icon) is our guild chat! This is where you can talk to everyone in the guild in real time, arrange trades, plan GvG fights - very important to check out and use the Guild chat! 

You can click on a name in the chat to whisper, which starts a private conversation with that person in a new chat tab. You can also visit cities or send friend requests from clicking a name in chat.

We also use the guild chat to do Power Leveling of GB's if we can get 6 people online at the same time to take spots, read more about that with Arcs and 1.9 contributions.

In the upper left of the Event History screen there is an icon for options to turn on/off history filters and search. The history can be filtered to guild, hood, friends, or by types of events like trades, attacks, aids. The search is very useful if you have friends you suspect have gone inactive, you can search the history for their name and use this to clean out your friends list form time to time. FoE helper also has a friends tracking feature, but you have to scroll through your new event history every day to capture it.  You can also filter on Battle Events and watch the play back when someone has attacked your city, then modify your city defense army as needed.

Everyone is allowed to send 140 friend requests; your friends list can have up to 141 friends (140 including yourself.)  It's usually not a good idea to friend people in your own guild, all that adds is visiting each other in the Friends Tavern; as guild members we can already trade with each other (for free, everyone else pays 1 FP per trade) and Aid each other's cities and donate to each other's Great Buildings.  Duplicating the same people on your guild tab and friends tab limits how many people you can interact with in the game.  Seek out players in allied guilds or other neutral guilds to add as friends.

CREATING TRADES - You can click into the box and type a number, you don't have to click the arrows 20 times to change the trade amount to 20. This also applies to the Guild Treasury screen, you can type a number, or use the arrows.

Also, don't trust the fair trade checkbox on the mobile app (the PC will also try to fill in trade amounts for you if you select goods in the an order that allows it to make assumptions.)  All the game does is set the ratio to the max allowed 2/1 or 1/2 regardless of the eras involved; for example, it will let you post 100 Iron for 50 Future goods and fill in that amount for you, though ~10 ages difference is clearly not a fair trade by any stretch of imagination.  Refer to fair trade ratios (and human brains) to post fair trades.

TRADE RATIOS - It costs different amounts of supplies and coins to produce goods from each age, and that's why we have trade ratios. Goods from the same age trade 1:1 always, and through LMA, goods trade 2:1 trading up to the next age, e.g. you need to offer 20 lumber for 10 cloth. From Colonial onward, goods trade 3:2 trading up one age, e.g. offer 30 tar for 20 coke. See our FAIR TRADE page for more detail. 

A handy fair trade calculator, from our own Loomysh: http://loomy.wheel.sk/foe-calc.php 

The easiest way to get blueprints (bps) for a GB is to motivate/polish buildings of that Age. If you mot/pol a Progressive era building for example, you get a random chance at either an Alcatraz or Chateau blueprint - the 2 GB's of that age. Aid all your guildmates and friends every day and you will soon have many blueprints. You can also win blueprints when Plundering in your neighborhood.

When you trade excess blueprint copies to get one you are missing, you have to trade 2:1 and the blueprint you get in return is RANDOM. Most of us were quite disappointed the first time we tried this, thinking we would get one of the ones we're missing not random copies of blueprints we already have, but keep trading duplicates and eventually you will get the missing one you need!

The surest method to get blueprints you want for a specific building is to donate to an already existing GB of that kind within the guild. You get blueprints as a reward for contributing Forge Points (FPs) and it helps your fellow guildmates with their buildings too! 

Always leave the last 1 FP for the owner to level up a GB. Most GB's are on a 24 hour timer, and people want to collect one more time before leveling, because when it levels they get to collect again. This is called "double collect" and it applies to all GB levels, except "in the mud/sticks" because there is no collection before the GB has reached at least level 1.

It's actually a hostile act to level anyone's GB's for them, though a newbie will think they are helping, missing out on a double collection and throwing the city collection times off is not helpful at all - let other players add the last FP themselves.

There are 4 exceptions: the Zeus, Temple of Relics, Terracotta Army and Flying Island can level up any time because they have only passive bonuses and no collections; these 4 GB have no 24 hour collection timer, so there is nothing to double collect and they can level up any time.

In Battlegrounds, if you are trying to time the hourly calc, you have to get everything done BEFORE the clock hits the hour.  Being late and taking a sector at :01 after the hour is kind of the worst thing we can do if we care about points; we've just guaranteed we'll only get 4 collections instead of 5, because no sector lasts for 59 minutes after unlock.

Of course taking any time is better than losing the pin completely.

Regardless, you have to have time to build camps as well, a 2 or 3 hour camp build time also needs to complete before the calc in 2-3 hours, and it won't if you built it at 1 minute after.  So we need to rid ourselves of "ON THE HOUR" thinking.  Start taking battleground sectors at 2 minutes before the hour and get camps built and everything done by the time the clock hits the hour.  EARLY IS ON TIME, ON TIME IS LATE!

MONASTERY - In the early stages of the game, around EMA, you'll want to follow and complete the Barbarians quest line to get a Monastery for your city. It provides 20% defense boost and will help protect you from any aggressive neighbors. You can also win Watchfires (1x1 size) in events, which provide 4% defense boost each for your city, or Ritual Flames (1x2 size) in the Expeditions, which provide 8% defense boost.  Both watchfires and ritual flames also can be upgraded to level 2 with an upgrade kit, which increases the defense to 6% and 12%, respectively.

CITY DEFENSE - The best way to protect your city from being plundered is to COLLECT YOUR BUILDINGS ON TIME! Set a timer on your device, login and collect.  Buildings that have been motivated are safe from plundering, but there are buildings which can not be motivated and are always subject to being raided (GB's, wishing wells, Statue of Honor are exempt.)  Protect your newer event buildings by using self-aid kits: The Winter Train, Harvest Barn and the Hippodromes tend to get motivated last.

Don't buy a city shield (tavern boost.)  Most players will note the time it expires and hit at that time, thanks to device timers. City shields are expensive and will drain your tavern silver.  I have used city shield once or twice just to get a 1 day break and change my collection time - because collecting on time is always the best defense.  Deal and Basil GB's also help with city defense, but I would not invest the space for them early in the game, and if you do build them, take them to level 60 and don't muck around.

If you have a persistent enemy in your Hood, watch the replay (Town Hall event history, filter on battle events) and change your city defense troops to counter what they used to attack.  A lot of players like to attack with heavy units and rogues, so lots of artillery is usually a good choice to put in city defense.  Include 1 drummer or 1 champion as well for an extra boost to your city defenders.

Change your city army each time after they attack, so they are always guessing for next time.   Use the blue helmet icon in the army screen to highlight 8 units to be assigned to your city defense, and then either don't use the blue ones for attacking or remember to set new units to defend your city if you do.

It's always ok to attack cities in your hood for points and experience; it's the plundering (sabotage) that gets people all worked up.  I hit my hood all the time and plunder most of them (UNLESS THEY ARE ALLIES) and sometimes someone complains, so then I hit them even more, LOL.  I have been called a thief and even had Bible versus quoted to me for a simple function of the game.  None of this is worth it, but I also don't taunt them and say I'll get you tomorrow too!  I think it's really classless to message players about PvP.  It's not personal until someone makes it personal with name calling.

Best advice about Hood PvP: Collect on time, change your defending city army often, and last but not least, fight back! The best way to deal with hood bullies is to show them they can be attacked and plundered too.  After a few days of this, most of them will find easier prey that doesn't bite back.

Make sure you take the time to develop your city to be able to fight in the Era you are in. An attack boost of 100 does not work well against a defense boost of 1000. Even if you are mad!

If you start a feud in your hood, that's really your problem to deal with because the guild can't help you, it's person to person.  If there happen to be other guild members or allies in your hood, you can share info with each other, but it's still up to individuals to act.  Some people do confuse PvP issues with whole guild issues and can take their retribution to other parts of the game; GvG is the most common outlet for that.  Watch your step and if someone seems really upset, decide if it's really worth blowing up the situation more.

Luckily, Hoods change every 2 weeks on Sunday night/Monday morning, and any hood feuds usually get a cool-off period when players are separated.

Medals are mainly used to buy more land for your city. Land is the most precious commodity in the game, and so the hunt for medals is competitive. You earn medals mostly from fighting and placing among the top 10 on the PvP towers of your neighborhood (participating in GvG helps a lot with this too!) Or you can get medals from some buildings like Shrine of Awe and Victory Tower, which you can win in events. Some GB's like Deal Castle, also produce medals daily. 

Medals are also a reward for contributing FP to other's Great Buildings, as long as you finish in one of the top 5 spots.  The Arc helps boost blueprints and medals won from GB donations too, not just forge points.  Arc rewards are the major source of medals later in the game.

Whatever guild you are in when Expedition (GE) or Battleground (GBG) or Quantum Incursion (QI) starts is the only place you can play for the rest of that week, or 11 days in the case of Battlegrounds and Quantum Incursions.  GE starts every Tuesday morning at 8 am game time and GBG/QI starts every other Thursday at 8 am game time.  

If you leave or switch guilds after any of these seasons has started, you will be locked out until the current cycle ends and not get any of the rewards payout.  You will also leave your guild with the goods bill and a 0 score to carry in Expedition competition for that week if you leave in the middle of one. If you have an absence or vacation planned, it's best to leave or move on the Monday between GE starts, or the Monday after a Battleground ends (i.e. before Tuesday morning 8 am game time when GE starts every week.)  If you leave in the middle of Battlegrounds or Quantum Incursions, there is no ill effect to the guild, but you miss out on the reward fragments and payouts at the end of the seasons.

Whatever age you are when Expedition (GE) or Battleground (GBG) starts is the age you get to play for the rest of that week, or 11 days for GBG.  Therefore, if you plan to move up an age, that is best done AFTER the new GE and Battlegrounds have started for the week.  Every other Thursday for going up an age gives you the most time to unlock research and get goods/troops started for the new age (1 week of GE at previous age and 2 weeks of GBG at previous age.)

Minimum Red and Blue attack/defense boost recommended per age (old guide for game prior to 2025 changes still gives you some idea of a goal):

• IA/EMA 190/140

• HMA/LMA 210/160

• CA/Indy 230/180

• Progressive 250/200

• ME/PME 300/250

• CE 400/300

• TE/FE 500/400

• AF/OF/VF 700/500

• Mars/SAAB/Venus 900/600

• SAJM 1100/700

• SAT 1300/800

• SASH 1500/1000

Those attack stats are recommended if you want to be able to fight through level 4 of GE without having to negotiate, and of course the better your stats, the more you can do in Battlegrounds and all other aspects of the game.  As of 2025: This is somewhat outdated now with the introduction of Trials in GE, but you should stick to Trial 5 and the Trials list the percentages of enemies you will face, it no longer varies by age but by Trial, and all ages need at least 1000% red and blue boost to be able to do Trial 5 comfortably.

Some buildings give higher attack or defense boosts when you age up; here is a list of those you may own and could use One Up Kits or Renovation Kits to get the better boost when you reach a certain age level. 

Below is a list of the ages (see Age abbreviations) when % boosts increase for each building:

• Abandoned Asylum:  EMA LMA IND ME CE FE OF SAM

• Alter of Artemis:  IA IND TE SAM

• Appleton Cottage:  EMA LMA IND ME CE FE OF SAM

• Botanical Rotunda: HMA IND PME FE VF

• Carousel:  LMA ME FE SAM

• Celtic Farmstead: HMA LMA IND ME TE AF OF VF SAM SAAB SAV SAJM

• Checkmate Square:  EMA CA ME TE OF SAAB

• Colossus:  EMA LMA IND ME CE FE OF SAM

• Eagle Reserve:  EMA CA ME CE AF SAM SAJM

• Fire Pagoda:  EMA LMA IND ME TE OF

• Governor's Villa: EACH ERA

• Great Wheel:  EMA CA ME TE OF SAAB

• Hippodrome Carceres:  IA HMA CA PE PME TE AF VF SAAB SAV SAJM

• House of Wolf:  EMA LMA IND ME CE FE OF SAM SAV

• Jolie Canal:  EMA LMA PE CE AF SAM

• Olympic Treasury:  EMA LMA IND ME TE AF VF SAAB SAV SAJM

• Pirate's Hideout:  HMA CA PE PME TE AF VF SAAB

• Royal Marble Gateway:  HMA IND PME FE VF

• Stage of Ages:  EMA LMA IA ME CE FE AF OF VF SAM SAAB SAV

• Winner's Plaza: EMA CA PME TE AF VF SAAB SAV SAJM

• Winter Train:  EMA CA ME TE OF SAAB SAV SAJM

The Guild Treasury is found in the global icon, next to the build menu, along with the Guild screen. Open the guild screen and the 4th tab is Treasury. Select the goods you can donate, input how many, and click Donate. Treasury is how we fight against other guilds on the global map in GvG, and compete against other guilds in the Battlegrounds and Expeditions every week, which gains us prestige and guild power to level up the guild. It all costs goods, so everyone is asked to help maintain the Treasury!

Managing our goods in the Treasury is an important individual responsibility. Certain buildings donate automatically to the Treasury when you collect your city, but we face shortages of certain goods in each age, and individual donations are the only way to make up the shortfall.  Battlegrounds is the first game feature that picks random goods from each age to be spent, Expedition costs evenly across all 5 good types in each age.

We need certain specific goods (whatever is lowest in each age and anything below 100,000 is a primary target to restock) and a Wish List is posted for needed goods in our Guild Treasury thread. Observe the Treasury and try to trade the goods you have in excess for those where we are in need.

Update: Since our guild has hit the guild level cap of level 100, these buildings are no longer useful to us.

These were important buildings for the guild; Hall of Fame is won in seasonal events and the Statue of Honor or The Great Elephant is earned from playing the Battlegrounds.  These buildings produce guild power every 24 hours, which is the best way to level up a guild and get more rewards: the higher our guild level is, the more forge points, reduced building costs, and reduced troop recruitment time we receive as guild perks for all members.

The Hall of Fame can also be upgraded to level 2 and the Statue of Honor/Great Elephant can be upgraded to level 8 for even more benefits and guild power.  There are some other special production buildings in the game that produce guild power as a production option (Upgraded Cider Mill, Magnum Opus, or Sleigh Builder being the most common.)

If you are in the final age, you get to fight NPCS (non player characters) as the age above you in the PVP arena, and these are known NPCs with known troops configurations to defeat.

PVP ARENA NPCS

• Arjun Harvey - 2 Arty 4 Heavy 2 Ranged

• Austin Newman - 8 artillery

• Calvin Archer - 4 fast 4 light

• Carlos Guerra - 4 arty 4 heavy

• Constance Copper - 8 Ranged

• Ebony - 4 arty 4 heavy

• Felix Hansen - 4 fast 4 light

• Harmony - 6 fast 2 arty

• Isaac Gordon - 4 Fast 4 Light

• Lillian Wonderbloom - 4 arty 4 heavy

• Penelope Moon - 2 Fast 2 Heavy 4 Light

• Renee Montgomery - 4 Fast 4 Heavy

• Savannah Sweets - 4 Heavy 4 Ranged

• Tanya Collier - 2 fast 6 light

• Yahya Tate - 6 heavy 2 arty

You can barter away unwanted items from your inventory in the Antiques Dealer.  After several weeks of GE and seasonal events, your inventory will be filled with duplicates and things you've won but don't really want to place in your city.  Barter with the Antiques Dealer to exchange unwanted items for trade coins and gems that allow you to purchase or bid on new items that you do want.

Six different items are offered for sale on the shelves in the Antiques Dealer every day, so be sure to check it daily; each item can be purchased only once and the shelf items refresh at midnight server time.  ***With the addition of the Castle system, make sure you buy anything on the shelf which requires just coins (and gems if the castle point return is worth it) every day in order to earn the extra castle points.  If the castle points offered are at least 3 times the gems cost, I go ahead and buy those items too to get the castle points, and recycle what I bought if I don't have any use for them in my city.  Buying items for castle points and recycling them nets back some coins and gems to do it again, albeit less than you spent, but it's an effective strategy to level the Castle up faster if you have the extra antiques currency to keep doing it.

Items up for bid change approximately every 2 hours, and auctions last for the same amount of time.

Production buildings are ridiculous sizes in most of the ages, for years I used cider mills (the base version 2x3) also fan shop is good (2x3) or beach bar (3x2) all these are in the Antique dealer or you might have some in storage.  That is best way to do small production buildings and save space, just upgrade the era on them every time you age up; now the fancy option is the Jumpin Pumpkin (Fall Event / made by shrooms from the Autumn Vineyard.)

Sleigh builders, magnum opus, sunken treasure are also small production buildings but they are hard to use with rush/finish supply production boosts because they have mixed production options and only 1 or 2 of the options are supplies.  Coin rushes work on the coin options, but everything else they make is a "special" production, even if its goods, and you can't rush them for quests.

If anything goes wrong in your game, submit a support ticket, they are responsive and help is available (it doesn't hurt to try or ask questions of the FoE team!) Right click anywhere in the background of your city and choose "Contact Support" from the popup menu.

For example: If you ever accidentally delete a unique building from your city (or have a horrible finger touch accident while logged in from your mobile device) you can CONTACT SUPPORT within 7 DAYS to get the building restored to your inventory. You can also get diamonds or antique dealer currency refunded if you make a mistake like clicking a popup you didn't mean to or bidding 300,000 when you meant to bid 30,000.  There will be limits on how many times you can ask for a do-over, but provided you are very sorry, explain your mistake and ask nicely for help to undo the error, support can help you.