(More details in the chapter on "Upgrading Wonders")
Fixed number bonus type: For wonders of this type, the bonuses increase linearly, but the improvement only occurs every five levels.
Percentage bonus type: The "percentage bonuses" do not increase linearly; the increase decreases with each upgrade.
Bonus type dependent percentage value: The bonus of the wonder depends on external factors, e.g., troop size or upgrade of the main building.
Size: 4 x 4 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/fixed number of items
As a newcomer with enough space, you can build this wonder. The tool reward for completing chapter quests is quite good compared to the initial tool-making options. It is a matter of opinion whether or not to upgrade the tome for supplies. However, it is not really worth it.
While the tool bonus depends on storage capacity, WP production increases gradually with wonder levels. WP production starts at 1 WP per day and can reach up to 7 WP. In order to harvest a significant amount of WP, you first have to invest thousands of WP in the upgrade.
Conclusion: You can build it as a beginner to quickly get more provisions. But upgrading is only worthwhile to a very limited extent. In terms of tools, the yield is too low in the long run. For WP, it is more worthwhile if you want to play the game in the long term. All in all, the tome is one of the dispensable wonders.
This wonder has had a new application since 2025: it can be used well for the "Rune Forging" event quests. Almost everyone has enough runes for this, and we can usually easily free up the 4 x 4 space. Therefore, it is better not to build it and keep it in reserve instead.
Size: 3 x 3 Bonus type: dependent percentage value
The Golden Abyss is a MUST for players who want to build their city effectively, mainly due to its percentage population effect. The abyss quickly replaces several residential buildings and generates significantly more coins. Coin production corresponds to a percentage of the storage capacity of the main coin building. Population growth, in turn, represents a percentage of the working population.
Players with a dia culture should also build the abyss, as no dia building can compete with the abyss once you are in a later chapter and/or have upgraded it to a high level.
The Abyss is relatively easy to level up, as it does not require as many WP per level as other wonders.
The coin effect is very good, but not as important in later chapters.
The Mountain Halls can be seen as competition to the Abyss, as they also provide population, but have the secondary effect of increasing goods production. However, the Mountain Halls require more space and WP.
Conclusion: A real asset to any city and a MUST in later chapters at the latest due to the significant space savings. If goods are more important to you than coins, you could build the Mountain Halls instead. But even with Mountain Halls, building the Golden Abyss is still recommended.
Size: 5 x 4 Bonus type: Dependent percentage value
The Endless Excavation provides a certain percentage of the main building's storage capacity in tools every 24 hours. For this reason, the excavation can replace several workshops at higher levels, saving space.
The Towers of Plenty offer the same effect, but every three hours. So if you only have a few WP left for wonders, you should go for the Towers of Plenty and not level up the excavation.
The relic bonus for crafting mag. objects in the academy is also interesting for new players. Due to the tournaments, new players cannot get the same number of relics as "the old ones" for a long time, as their troops are still too weak (level 1 or 2) and their goods supplies are not that large. That's why relics are still very interesting.
For ranked players, however, they still make sense if you own the Thrones of the High Men.
Conclusion: Useful for saving workshops, but competes with the Prosperity Towers. Overall, this wonder is rather dispensable.
Size: 3 x 5 Bonus type: percentage
The Needles of the Tempest are very useful for fighters. On the one hand, they increase the strength of light ranged fighters, i.e. crossbowmen, archers, and rangers. On the other hand, they also speed up barracks production, which allows for faster recruitment of troops if you have sufficient supplies available.
Unlike other wonders, the Needle does not replace other buildings and therefore does not save space. In fact, the opposite is true. Faster barracks production means you need more armories (or the Dwarven Bulwark/ Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms wonders) to keep the barracks busy all day long.
Conclusion: This wonder is very important for fighters, especially due to the significantly accelerated recruitment in the barracks. Players who do not fight or fight very little do not need it.
Size: 5 x 5 Bonus type: percentage
The best combat miracle ever. All troops are improved, reducing losses in battle and making it possible to defeat larger hordes of enemies on the map or in tournaments. The cultural effect is also good and makes up for the high space requirement. The cultural effect could also be interesting for negotiators, but since a lot of XP is needed to level up, the Ruins of the Watchtower are more suitable.
Conclusion: Building this wonder is essential for fighters. For negotiators, the Ruins of the Watchtower are the better alternative – even better is to build both.
Size: 6 x 6 Bonus type: percentage
These wonders not only extend the duration of culture buffs, they also provide a small amount of additional bonus goods in the chests during the NBH. They do take up some space, but these buildings are useful for players who are aiming for culture bonuses. Those who do not need the culture bonus should build another factory on the space instead. This is significantly more effective than the goods effect.
If you don't do NBH and hardly ever get visited yourself, you can do without it completely.
Should be combined with the ruins of the watchtower.
Conclusion: Pure cooperative play wonder. Good for NBH players and culture players, superfluous for single players without much NBH. This wonder is indispensable for the bumblebee strategy (see Strategies).
Size: 4 x 5 Bonus type: percentage
If you are playing for culture bonuses and Neighborly Help you should definitely build the ruins. They increase the culture bonus of every polished building and also provide a decent amount of culture themselves. With good Neighborly Help, this allows you to save on a few additional culture buildings, which means you need significantly less space.
The wonder complements the Crystal Lighthouse/Bell Spire perfectly, which is why it should also be built.
Conclusion: Absolutely essential for culture players with good NBH. The culture effect is also interesting for single players.
Size: 4 x 6 Bonus type: percentage
This wonder is completely useless as a single wonder. For ranked players, however, it is one of the best wonders ever. The additional points gained at level 20 are 94 points per level of another wonder. So if you have a total of 74 levels from a few wonders, this wonder provides more ranking points per field than any other building in the game!
Useless for small players, players with few or no wonders, and players who don't care about the rankings. However, it is an absolute MUST for ranked players with multiple wonders.
In addition, the thrones provide culture, which depends on the upgrade level of the main building on the one hand and the sum of the upgrade levels of all other wonders on the other. However, the culture effect also makes it worthwhile for non-ranked players.
Conclusion: A MUST for ranked players with an additional culture bonus. Not really necessary for everyone else, but useful because of the culture. This can be obtained through the thrones at a comparatively low upgrade cost.
Size: 7 x 4 Bonus type: percentage
The Dwarven Bulwark provides a certain percentage of light melee fighters from the barracks every three hours and also increases the training size by a certain percentage. Both values refer to your own troop size and therefore also grow with research. Increasing the troop size also allows you to save on some armories. This wonder is therefore only interesting for fighters; pure negotiators do not benefit from it. With sufficient upgrades, the production of light melee fighters in the barracks becomes superfluous.
Conclusion: Very useful for fighters, but unnecessary for negotiators. Like the "Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms," it replaces armories in terms of recruitment size. Fighters save a lot of space if they can do without the points gained from armories and orcs. Then it's worth building both.
Size: 3 x 8 Bonus type: percentage
Like the Golden Abyss, this wonder provides additional inhabitants and is therefore very useful. The additional quantities for all factories are also very good and, for many players, a better bonus than the coins from the Golden Abyss. However, the disadvantages compared to the Golden Abyss are the significantly higher space requirements and the significantly higher WP requirements to upgrade this wonder to high levels.
Conclusion: If you have many factories and can spare VP, you should build the Mountain Halls instead of the Golden Abyss. If a few extra goods are not so important to you, you should go for the Golden Abyss. However, both wonders are so advantageous that it is best to build both.
Size: 5 x 4 Bonus type: percentage
Absolutely useful as a source of supplies. The effect is significantly higher than that of endless excavation with the same size and WP consumption. In addition, the effect of the "Enchanted Supplies" spell is extended.
It is therefore a pure supply generation wonder, which is particularly useful for players with many factories. Even fighters with high troop requirements can easily meet their supply needs with this wonder.
The high supply output means that the wonder can save on workshops. This makes the wonder interesting for both play styles.
Conclusion: Useful for every player and one of the most important buildings in the game. As a source of supplies, it is significantly better than endless excavation.
Size: 3 x 7 Bonus type: Percentage
For single players with few active neighbors, the reduction in merchant fees is interesting.
The portal bonus is quite small, but still relevant for power players who want to complete the chapters as quickly as possible.
The biggest advantage of this wonder is the huge amounts of goods that can be obtained with it. This is because surpluses of gold and supplies can be exchanged for standard goods in the Trader Guild.
Conclusion: Very interesting and almost mandatory for players with a permanent surplus of gold/supplies. Every player of medium size or larger has this surplus.
Negotiators in particular build their city on this surplus. That is why this wonder is the namesake for the "bumblebee strategy."
Size: 5 x 5 Bonus type: percentage
The Heroes Forge increases the damage of all heavy melee units, making it very interesting for fighters, similar to the Needles of the Tempest
As a second effect, you receive orcs, which are needed for negotiations or for training orcish combat units. The number of orcs depends on the size of the squad. Since the Hero Forge is the same size as a Level 20 to 23 Breeding Ground, it is an alternative to the Breeding Ground for negotiators. However, since negotiators tend to need the Breeding Ground more, this is only true in theory.
Conclusion: Ultimately only interesting for fighters, but very important for them. Negotiators can safely forget about the Hero Forge.
Size: 5 x 4 Bonus type: percentage
The shrine is the ideal complement to the Needles of the Tempest and should definitely be combined with them. Similar to the bulwark, the shrine produces archers/crossbowmen every three hours and increases the training size, which means that armories can be saved.
Completely uninteresting for negotiators.
Like the "Dwarven Bulwark," it increases the training size and thus extends the duration of troop production. Both save space by reducing the need for armories.
Conclusion: Only for fighters, but very useful for them. The biggest advantage is the space savings for players who forego rank points and orcs by having fewer armories.
Size: 4 x 7 Bonus type: percentage/linear
This wonder produces significant amounts of mana per tournament point. For active tournament players, this is one of the two most powerful sources of mana alongside the labyrinth.
In addition, the Embassy produces a very small amount of rune shards per week. Although this sounds tempting, the production rate of 1 shard (level 1) to 7 shards (from level 31) is not very high. Especially since this wonder comes quite late. Shards are easier to obtain in tournaments, but rune shards are not uninteresting for sale at the Tower Merchant.
Mana production per tournament point depends on the culture required. Since this is known to increase with each new or upgraded regular building (e.g., manufactories, armories), production grows steadily.
Conclusion: The Embassy is very important for tournament players. At higher levels, it can provide a boost of several million mana at the end of each tournament.
Size: 4 x 4 Bonus type: Percentage
The Flying Academy produces mages/priests every three hours and also increases the training speed of the mercenary camp. This makes it a valuable wonder for fighters who like to use mages/priests and also want to use the units from the mercenary camp, but have not done so much due to the long training times.
For players who do not want to fight, this wonder is completely superfluous.
Conclusion: The Flying Academy is more valuable to humans than to elves, as priests are significantly stronger than mages. However, both benefit from the considerable acceleration of the otherwise rather slow mercenary camp. This makes it similarly valuable to fighters as the recruitment accelerators "Needles of the Tempest" and "Source of Reflection." Those who primarily trade do not need this wonder.
Size: 5 x 6 Bonus type: percentage
The maze generates mana every three hours, but above all it reduces the decay rate. This allows you to build up mana reserves in the millions. Since the higher game chapters in particular consume immense amounts of mana, the labyrinth is a very helpful building.
Conclusion: Actually useful for all players. For active tournament players, Enar's Embassy is an alternative if you are willing to accept a 10 % loss of your mana every day. If you play tournaments and have enough space, it is best to build both.
Size: 4 x 5 Bonus type: percentage/dependent percentage value
The Dragon Abbey strengthens all magical units, making it beneficial for all fighters. It also produces a certain amount of mana per spell. This allows players to generate mana spontaneously, e.g. for quests. However, the amount produced is not as much as Enar's Embassy and the Labyrinth (it used to be better).
Conclusion: Effect 1 is very important for fighters, effect 2 is useful for all players. With a supply of several hundred spells (e.g., Dowry), it is possible to quickly generate over a million mana with sufficient expansion.
Size: 6 x 3 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/percentage
The Temple of Toads increases the damage of all heavy ranged units and produces a certain percentage of your troop size in heavy ranged units from the barracks every three hours.
Conclusion: Ultimately only interesting for fighters, but very important for them. Negotiators can safely forget about the Temple of Toads.
Size: 5 x 5 Bonus type: Dependent percentage value/percentage/percentage
The Trade Center generates divine seeds (percentage dependent on troop size) and extends and strengthens the "Fabulous Fabrication" spell. It therefore has a total of three effects.
Effect 1 (Seeds): This effect is interesting for casual players, as the collection bonus at the merchant does not come into play very often. For more active players, however, the quantities at the merchant are often sufficient (at least for some chapters) and the effect is then negligible.
Effect 2: The significant increase in goods production through spells is very rewarding, especially if you trade a lot in tournaments and therefore have a high consumption of goods.
Especially for players with many factories and a well-developed academy with sufficient "Fabulous Fabrication" spells, this wonder is a useful addition to your city. If you have fewer factories or spells, you need to consider whether the benefits justify the space required for the wonder or whether another factory would be more useful.
Effect 3: The extension of the spell duration is nice, but you quickly reach a point where you would have to set an alarm clock to be able to take advantage of it. A spell that works while you sleep is not particularly useful, as no one is harvesting.
Conclusion: Very useful for (tournament) negotiators and players with chronic goods shortages.
Of course, those who don't play many tournaments, don't explore much, or prefer to fight and therefore don't have a high demand for goods won't benefit as much from it, since their goods storage is already full.
Currently, only effect 2 is worthwhile under the right conditions (sufficient number of Manus and spells available). If the conditions are not right, the miracle should be avoided.
Size: 7 x 3 Bonus type: Dependent percentage value/percentage
This wonder allows you to find additional divine seeds in Neighborly Help crates (depending on troop size) and reduces the nightly decay of divine seeds. If you can't get by with the seed production of the merchant and other buildings, or if your play style only allows for irregular or rare harvests, then this wonder will help.
Conclusion: This wonder is mainly interesting for players who often have seed shortages due to their play style or lack of other seed producers, and that's almost all of us. Only with the fan curve does this change.
Size: 6 x 4 Bonus type: Percentage
The Victory Springs increases training speed in the training grounds and increases the damage dealt by light melee fighters. When upgraded to 21, for example, the recruitment speed in the training grounds doubles. This wonder is therefore indispensable for fighters. The higher damage caused by light melee fighters is somewhat less significant, however, as these troops usually suffer relatively high losses, which is why other troops are often preferred. Merchants can easily do without this wonder.
Conclusion: Only useful for fighters, but important for them.
Size: 4 x 6 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/percentage
The Pyramid of Purification provides heavy melee units from the barracks, depending on the troop strength, and is therefore advantageous for fighters.
The second effect is to provide sentient goods, always a certain percentage based on the number of orcs you collect, regardless of the source of the orcs. The sentient goods are always one of the bonus goods. Which one is decided at random. This effect also makes the wonder interesting for merchants. However, since there are usually many heavy melee fighters available from other sources and these also suffer fewer losses in battle (when used correctly), fighters can also do without it.
Conclusion: A nice wonder that appeals to both play styles – merchants and fighters. However, the sentient goods are usually not really necessary, which is why the pyramid is one of the more dispensable wonders.
Size: 8 x 3 Bonus type: Percentage
The Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood requires exactly what its name suggests: good neighbors or a guild that occasionally stops by for Neighborly Help. Without Neighborly Help, this wonder is ineffective.
The Lighthouse extends and enhances the duration and effect of the "Ensorcelled Endowment" spell.
It also increases the production of cultural buildings (buildings that produce a resource in addition to culture) as long as they are supported by magical dowry. So you need cultural buildings that produce such a resource (orcs, mana, seeds, unurium, community work, canned goods) to take advantage of the effect. A well-developed lighthouse can roughly double such production. This allows you to save on some event buildings or even wonders.
Conclusion: The Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood remedies a lack of culture, provided that neighborly assistance is received regularly on a large scale. The production of cultural buildings, e.g., mana and unurium, is significantly increased in some cases. This has a particularly strong effect if there are high-production cultural buildings. If you don't have any active neighbors or a fellowship and therefore don't receive any Neighborly Help, there's no need to build it.
Size: 3 x 6 Bonus Type: Percentage/Linear
This wonder increases the production of sentient goods and is thus the counterpart to the mountain halls. This bonus is particularly interesting for players who have many factories for sentient goods. The decay of the additionally produced sentient goods into normal goods provides additional normal goods.
The second effect shortens the time until a tournament province is playable again. This effect is beneficial for players who were unable to play all tournament rounds due to their playing times. The same effect can also be achieved with time boosters, but these are a limited resource.
If you have a fully upgraded Polar Bear and the Time Loop is well developed, features with a 24-hour duration, such as the Fire Phoenix, can be used for an entire tournament with just one feeding. However, this also requires playing through all tournament rounds during this time.
Conclusion: Mainly interesting for players with many factories for sentient bonus goods and for players who are short on time in the tournament. The latter gain more flexibility in their time management with the time loop. Typically, with a well-developed timewarp, three to four rounds per day can be played without time boosters, provided there is enough time. With the additional high-level event building "Polar Bear," the intervals between rounds shrink to about an hour. With enough time and motivation, two tournaments can be played during the duration of individual battle boosters.
Size: 6 x 5 Bonus type: percentage
The Simia Sapiens reduces the decay of sentient goods, making it interesting for all players who have a shortage of sentient goods. The second effect is that additional units are received when picking up units from the three military centers. This effect soon amounts to over 30 or 40 percent—troops that are given as a free bonus. This means a significant reinforcement for fighters and makes the Simia Sapiens one of the best combat wonders.
Conclusion: The goods effect is useful for all players. The troop bonus makes this wonder a must for all fighters.
Size 3 x 6 Bonus type: percentage
This miracle increases the production of sentient goods and complements the time loop. Together, they are counterparts to the mountain halls. This bonus is particularly interesting for players who have many factories for sentient goods. The decay of the sentient goods produced by the vortex into standard goods provides additional standard goods. The increased demand for sentient goods in the higher chapters and the demand in the Tower of Eternity make this effect useful for all players.
The second effect increases the storage capacity of guest races goods in the guest races portal and, in conjunction with the portal blessings, is not to be underestimated, because the miracle increases the yield of the portal blessings (each portal blessing provides a percentage of the storage capacity. If the storage capacity is greater, there are more guest races goods per blessing).
Players with sufficient space and factories, as well as a large number of portal blessings, can also do well without this wonder if they have no shortage of sentient goods and do not need the increase in portal capacity. This is especially true for endgame players who have enough time before the next gas route arrives and can therefore accumulate enough of everything. Here, this wonder helps at level 11 so that you can avoid the last huge expansion of the settlement.
Conclusion: Interesting for all players with a limited number of portal blessings.
Size: 7 x 3 Bonus type: percentage/dependent percentage value
The Thermal Spring increases the population of residential buildings and is therefore very useful if you don't just rely on event culture to attract inhabitants. This wonder allows you to save on residential buildings or event buildings, thereby gaining space. This wonder is particularly useful in Chapter 15 of Elvenar, where upgrades require many more inhabitants.
The second effect is a culture bonus (depending on the troop size). This is a similar effect to that of the Thrones of the High Menexcept that this wonder is also useful for all players due to its first effect. The second effect also helps to save space.
Conclusion: Very useful for all players, especially if you have many wonder levels.
Size: 4 x 6 Bonus type: fixed number/percentage
The Spire Library gives additional ranking points for each tower crystal that the entire community has unlocked in the Tower of Eternity. The maximum number of crystals per tower is 12. At maximum wonder level, each crystal gives 17.5 ranking points, so at the highest wonder level, you can get 210 additional ranking points per week. This may only be a few ranking points per week, but over time it adds up. In a year with complete tower ascents, around 11,000 additional ranking points are possible. However, to achieve truly relevant amounts of ranking points, you have to play for many years.
The second effect provides WP per day and thus has the same effect as the Tome of Secrets. Fully upgraded to level 35, you get seven WP per day.
Conclusion: You have to play for a very long time to achieve a significant ranking effect. If you place any other building on the space instead, you will earn the same amount of ranking points much faster. Nevertheless, the wonder can be attractive, as the library also gives WPs and you can gradually recoup the costs (again, we are talking about a very long period of time).
In the long run, this wonder makes sense for ranked players, but it's not suitable for short-term play. Most players can easily do without this wonder.
Size: 4 x 5 Bonus type: fixed number/percentage
The Tournament Arena produces Drone Riders depending on the size of the troop and thus joins the list of troop-producing wonders. This makes it interesting for tournament players, even though Drone Riders are mainly useful in scroll, wood, and, very rarely, magic dust tournaments.
The second effect consists of ranking points, which are awarded for each tournament chest obtained. When fully upgraded, you receive 17.5 ranking points, i.e., a maximum of 175 ranking points per tournament.
Conclusion: As with the Spire Library, the ranking effect is something for ranked players who are in the game for the long term.
The drone Riders are only useful in two tournaments. If you have well-developed wonders for ranged fighters or mages, you can do without the light melee fighters. This is because they often suffer heavy losses on their way to the enemy. Ranged fighters or mages are often a better choice. In addition, the tournament arena requires quite a lot of WP to upgrade, and the drone Riders are more specialized in fighting light ranged fighters. Therefore, priority should be given to upgrading other combat wonders that either strengthen units or, like the Bulwark, provide barracks units that are effective against two types of enemies.
Size: 5 x 4 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/fixed number of items
The Dragon Ark's first effect is to award a certain amount (depending on the size of the squad) of the sentient valuable bonus item as a reward for completing main quests. However, the amount is not very large, as the number of quests is limited and new chapters take longer and longer to complete.
The second effect provides combination triggers when you redeem the mystical object in crafting. There are now also buildings (sets) that provide combination triggers, so this effect is becoming less and less important.
Conclusion: Good if you have few other sources of combination triggers, but otherwise rather dispensable.
Size: 3 x 5 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/fixed number of items
The Oracle of Fortune's first effect is to reward crafting with a certain amount (depending on the troop size) of a random boosted sentient good. With a highly upgraded Oracle and frequent use of crafting, the daily amount is only slightly less than that of a manufactory.
The second effect gives 1 to 7 Royal Restorations per week, depending on the level. Since these are needed to level up event buildings and also to upgrade wonders, this effect is especially important for those who don't like tournaments.
Conclusion: This is especially important for players whose fellowships don't get very far in tournaments. Outside of tournaments, there are few sources of restorations (only the spire has small amounts). But even successful tournament players welcome a weekly addition of the always scarce restorations, especially when event buildings need to be upgraded in addition to wonders. All in all, the Oracle is useful for all players, even if it is not as urgent as some other things.
Size: 3 x 4 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/absolute percentage value
The Shrine of the Champion provides Orcs per tournament point, making it one of the main sources of Orcs for tournament players later in the game.
As a secondary effect, the shrine produces Ork warriors depending on the size of the squad, making it a nice addition to the force for fighters.
Conclusion: The secondary effect is useless for merchants, but Orks are needed for many negotiations and are often in short supply. Therefore, this wonder is also worthwhile for merchants if they play tournaments. It is also one of the smallest wonders.
Size: 7 x 4 Bonus type: percentage
The Temple of Spirits provides Unurium for each spire chest and also for each event currency collected. Since we are treated to events quite frequently and the spire is available every week, the Temple of Spirits is a good source of Unurium.
Conclusion: Thanks to the frequency of events, a well-developed Spirit Temple can cover your entire Unurium needs with regular spire activity. The Spirit Temple should therefore be located in every city.
Size: 5 x 6 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/percentage
The Vallorian Seal Tower provides unurium for taxes, depending on the amount of coins collected, and reduces its decay. Those with only a few residential buildings will not benefit greatly from the first effect. However, with many residential buildings, the Unurium production is considerable. Especially in times without events, the decay reduction should not be underestimated.
Conclusion: Thanks to the frequency of events, a well-developed Spirit Temple with regular spire activity can cover most of your Unurium needs even between events. If you have a well-developed Spirit Temple, you can do without the Seal Tower.
However, those who have many houses and play the spire only occasionally are better off with the Seal Tower and should build it instead of the Spirit Temple. With 30 fields, however, it is just as large as the Labyrinth.
Size: 4 x 3 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/percentage
The Tree of Enlightenment produces Rangers depending on the size of the squad, providing a very good light ranged unit, which makes it worthwhile for fighters.
As a secondary effect, the production of ascended goods is increased, which is beneficial for all players. This is because the demand for ascended goods for research and expansion increases significantly as the game progresses.
Conclusion: The most important feature of the Tree of Enlightenment is the increase in the production of ascended goods. It reaches well over 200 percentage points (without production bonuses). This means a net increase of approximately ¼ to 1/3. This makes it easier to get by with two factories per ascended good. The Tree of Enlightenment is therefore worthwhile for every player, but it is not one of the most important wonders.
Size: 4 x 7 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/percentage
The Ancestral Resting Place produces banshees depending on the troop size, thus providing a magical combat unit. It complements the unit-producing wonders.
As a secondary effect, it reduces the decay of ascended goods. Since the higher chapters sometimes require very large amounts of these goods, this effect is important. It makes it easier to build up larger stocks of ascended goods.
Conclusion: Reducing the decay of ascended goods is very helpful for all players. If space allows, you should build this wonder. The additional death fairies are advantageous for players who fight a lot.
Size: 3 x 5 Bonus type: percentage/fixed number
The Scouts' Tavern reduces the exploration time for provinces, which otherwise takes more than three days at higher levels. Without this acceleration, it can be difficult—or require a lot of time boosters—to explore enough provinces in time for research progress.
The increase in the number of Neighborhood Help Chests is a welcome bonus, but not really important.
Conclusion: Necessary for any player who wants to reduce the increasingly long running times of the Scouts.
Size: 3 x 5 Bonus type: dependent percentage value/dep. percentage value
The antique shop's first effect is to provide ascended goods when collecting community work. Its second effect provides divine seeds every three hours, with the amount depending on the size of the troop. This is naturally most worthwhile if you collect the seeds several times a day.
The amount of seeds is in the low to mid four-digit range every three hours, depending on miracle upgrades and research. With advanced upgrades and frequent harvesting, this can save you some seed-producing event buildings.
Conclusion: When used consistently for seed production, the Antique Shop can save more space than it needs itself. The additional ascended goods are a nice bonus. This makes the wonder useful, but only really important when there is a shortage of seeds.
Size: 8 x 3 Bonus type: Dependent percentage values
The Vallorian School of Sorcery provides heavy melee units. Like all troop-producing wonders, this makes it advantageous for fighters.
Two other features support the use of magic. Academy: It reduces the cost of ingredients for magic potions, allowing you to add a few more herbs to the potion. This increases the success rate and the chances of creating effective potions. It also speeds up the production of the magic academy, resulting in faster delivery of enchantments and combination triggers. This makes it the only wonder so far that addresses the magic academy.
Conclusion: The production of heavy melee fighters is useful for fighters who use these units frequently. The value of the other two functions depends on how much you use the academy. Those who use the cauldron intensively and/or are short on enchantments from the academy will benefit from the magic school. Otherwise, the wonder is rather dispensable.
Size: 3 x 7 Bonus type: percentage/linear
This wonder is the counterpart to Enar's Message. The Tournament Fan Curve produces seeds per tournament point according to the same formula (depending on the required culture) that is used for mana in Enar's Message. For active tournament players, the fan curve is one of the most powerful sources of seeds.
In addition, the Tournament Fan Curve reduces the decay of community work.
Conclusion: The fan curve is highly recommended for tournament players. Several hundred thousand seeds per tournament are possible with the appropriate upgrade level.
Together with the reduction in community work decay, it is a miracle that everyone should have on their list.
Size 6 x 3 Bonus type: dependent percentage value
This wonder produces Orc Strategists (percentage of troop size) and is therefore one of the unit-producing wonders.
The second effect provides seeds for completed spire crates. The calculation is analogous to the Temple of Spirits (percentage of culture required).
Conclusion: Interesting for fighters because it allows Orc Strategists to be produced without the use of Orcs. The seed yield is a good bonus for active spire players, but does not come close to the amounts available in the tournament fan curve.
Overall, quite interesting for fighters, but not a top wonder.
Size: 5 x 3 Bonus type: Percentage
The delivery service increases the production of standard goods and reduces the decay of canned goods.
Conclusion: Once again, a miracle that appeals to merchants because of its production bonus.
The decay reduction for canned goods is currently of little value, as hardly any player is likely to accumulate large quantities of canned goods. It may become interesting for later chapters. Most players should be able to easily do without the delivery service.
Size 3 x 8 Bonus type: percentage
The Unicorn Park provides dryads and increases the number of spell fragments you receive when dispelling spells in the Magic Academy.
Conclusion: The Unicorn Park is another unit-producing wonder that appeals to fighters.
Those who play spire regularly usually have enough spell fragments to cover the requirements for upgrading the wonder. Only those who invest heavily in the cauldron may find themselves needing more.
All in all, this is a wonder that you can do without.
The Path of Eternity is a special wonder that is placed outside the city area and therefore does not require any space.
While normal wonders require runes and WP to research higher levels, the Path only requires spirit orbs (which you win in the spire at the end of each of the three sections), which otherwise function like runes. You cannot help other players by making donations.
With the Tower of Eternity, you can select a bonus in the spire at the beginning of each section (e.g., damage bonus for a unit type, refund of negotiation costs), which is then applied to all spire encounters for that spire week. The bonuses increase as the wonder is upgraded. The second effect provides a free premium upgrade every five levels (at levels 1, 6, 11, etc.).
Conclusion: The miracle is only interesting for spire players (those who don't play spires don't have any spirit orbs to upgrade anyway). In any case, it is recommended to use all spirit orbs you have won and to upgrade the miracle whenever possible.
Descriptions of wonders up to "Tournament Arena" by former player Melios, continued by Cole6666 up to "Scout's Tavern." Editing and additions by Kapilo, Morpheus22, and Ilvesbach (all players from germany).
The question here is: Which miracles should you set up?
There is no universal answer to this question, as it depends on many factors. There are many ways to achieve the same goal. Ask yourself the following questions in this order:
Which play style (see below) suits me and does the wonder support it?
Where do I have a deficiency? Every wonder provides something that is “nice to have,” but you have to prioritize due to space constraints. So build those wonders that help eliminate an existing or foreseeable deficiency or that generally improve the game situation. The Categories section provides guidance on which wonders improve which productions.
What rating (in the individual descriptions and categories) does the wonder have? The rating alone is not everything (play style and needs are more important). However, since there are often several wonders that do similar things, the rating can help you choose the right wonder. The rating also provides suggestions as to which wonders generally help improve the game situation.
What strategies do you want to pursue?
Under Strategies, you will find some suggestions for using individual wonders or combinations of wonders for specific purposes. If you like a particular strategy, you can take it into account when selecting wonders and planning for the longer term.
Each wonder then has two (some even three) bonus types. Ideally, you can use both types.
There are several different characteristics of various playing styles that influence the need for/usefulness of miracles.
This is usually mentioned first when it comes to playing styles. It refers to whether you prefer to resolve encounters (in provinces, tournaments, and spires) through negotiation (trader) or combat (fighter).
Very few players are pure fighters or pure traders; most are a mixture. Nevertheless, many have a preference (e.g., more than 70% resolve encounters through combat).
Those who prefer combat will build significantly more combat wonders than those who prefer negotiation. The most important of these are those that increase hit points and damage and improve troop production. Wonders that directly produce troops are considered to be of lesser importance. A pure trader can completely do without combat wonders.
There are hardly any pure trader wonders. However, since traders need more resources (not only research and expansion, but also negotiations put a strain on the warehouse), traders build more wonders from the categories of basic supplies, manufacturing, and special goods than fighters.
Only the two extremes are described here. There is plenty of room between the two to find your own style.
We have gradations such as:
power player
ambitious
motivated
laid-back
It is important for a power player to achieve the optimal/maximum gain in resources (either to get through the chapters quickly or to constantly increase their own striking power – perhaps both) and to do so as quickly as possible.
This includes climbing to the top of every spire, achieving an above-average number of provinces in every tournament, or winning the main prize in every event.
Power players choose their wonders carefully. Anything that boosts their own power in spire and tournaments is just as sought after as anything that accelerates their progress and expansion (including from the categories of time bonuses and guest races).
A leisurely player knows that time is the most important resource in the entire game anyway. With time, you can get everything done, even without optimization and the ambition to chase every goal. “Haste makes waste” is the motto. In the end, the leisurely player achieves everything that the power player achieves, it just takes longer.
Such players tend to be reactive when it comes to setting up wonders. If something takes a very, very long time or you get stuck somewhere despite collecting resources, then you look for a wonder that will improve that aspect.
With the exception that all true power players have a high combat preference, any combination of ambition and handler/fighter is possible. to achieve the optimal/maximum gain in resources (either to get through the chapters quickly or to constantly increase their own effectiveness – perhaps both) and to do so as quickly as possible.
This includes climbing to the top of every spire, achieving an above-average number of provinces in every tournament, or winning the grand prize in every event.
Power players choose their wonders carefully. Anything that boosts their own power in spires and tournaments is just as sought after as anything that accelerates their progress and expansion (including from the categories of time bonuses and guest races).
Here, too, only the two extremes, between which there is a lot of room for maneuver, are described.
Strategists plan ahead. They have a plan for how they want to rebuild their city in the next chapter to accommodate larger buildings.
They also have future chapters in mind and know which wonders are coming and when, and decide in advance which ones they want to build. For example, if different wonders have similar effects, they check in advance which one is the most suitable. They also calculate when a wonder will pay for itself. Therefore, the data on the wonders is very important for a strategist.
A strategist knows all the wonder strategies listed under the link Strategies and actively decides which one to use.
Pragmatists make decisions when the time is right. A little data on the miracles can be helpful in supporting the decision, but in a pinch, intuition can also help. It doesn't have to be perfect. None of the miracles are harmful—in that sense, you can't go wrong. Strategic planning for optimization isn't something this group enjoys, so it's not a priority. Pragmatists approach miracles less strategically. They might pursue a certain principle, but then only in principle and without detailed planning.
Almost all combinations between the groups are possible. Fighters have it a little easier. You don't need to be a strategist to deploy the important combat wonders as soon as possible. Merchants have to think a little more carefully. High ambitions also require a certain degree of strategy. You don't have to be an absolute strategist, but if you're aiming for the optimal yield, a little planning is essential. Conversely, there are people who simply enjoy exploring strategies but otherwise prefer to play at a leisurely pace. Nobody has to fit into these three categories. The game should be fun.
This question, like so much else in Elvenar, depends on the available space. The different wonders also take up different amounts of space, so the sheer number of wonders can't be a measure. Looking at the statistics for the old farts in ElvenStats, cities in the lower chapters use an average of around 8 % of the available space for wonders, those in the middle chapters around 11 %, and those from 20+ reach values of up to 17 %.
Rule of thumb: Start by placing every other wonder on average. This doesn't mean placing exactly one of the two new wonders in each new chapter. It could be both or none at all.
Then comes the point where you can replace other production buildings (e.g., residential buildings with coin or population wonders, workshops with tool wonders, cultural buildings with cultural wonders) because the space requirements of the wonders (with the same or better yield) become smaller than the space requirements of the constantly growing production buildings.
With this strategy, you can increase the percentage of placed wonders (relative to the researched wonders) turn by turn. Endgamers will eventually reach values of 75 %.
Categories of wonders
Below is a categorization of the benefits of wonders into main categories and subcategories. The corresponding wonders are listed in the order of research for each subcategory. Since each wonder provides two (some even three) different bonuses, a wonder can be classified into multiple categories.
Regarding typography:
Wonders that provide a bonus indirectly rather than directly (example: the tome itself doesn't produce tools; these are only obtained indirectly by completing chapter quests) are printed in italics.
Indirect wonders therefore have the disadvantage that their benefit isn't continuous, but only becomes apparent when dependent tasks are completed.
For indirect bonuses, be sure to read the description of the wonder to find out exactly how this indirect effect works and what you need to do to trigger it. Such a wonder only makes sense if it can be triggered frequently enough.
The top wonders in a category are printed in bold.
Health: Martial Monastery (Elves) / The Sanctuary (Humans)
Damage: Needles of the Tempest (light ranged), Heroes Forge (heavy melee), Dragon Abbey (Mage), Temple of Toads (heavy ranged), Victory Springs (light melee)
Training Speed: Needles of the Tempest (Barracks), Flying Academy (Mercenary Camp), Victory Springs (Training Grounds)
Training Size: Dwarven Bulwark, Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms
Troop Production: Dwarven Bulwark (light melee from Barracks), Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms (light ranged from Barracks), Flying Academy (Barracks Mages), Temple of Toads (heavy ranged from Barracks), Pyramid of Purification (heavy melee from Barracks), D222-z Simia Sapiens (all), Tournament Arena (Drone Riders), Shrine of the Champion (Orc Warrior), Tree of Enlightment (Ranger), Ancestral Resting Place (Banshee), Vallorian School of Sorcery (Vallorian Guard), Altar of Eternity (Orc Strategists), Unicorn Park (Dryad)
Coins: Golden Abyss
Tools: Tome of Secrets, Endless Excavation, Prosperity Towers
Culture: Martial Monastery / The Sanctuary, Watchtower Ruins, Thrones of the High Men, Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood, Thermal Spring of Youth
Population: Golden Abyss, Mountain Halls, Thermal Spring of Youth
Neighborhood Aid: Crystal Lighthouse (Elves) 5 x 5 / The Great Bell Spire (Humans), Scouts' Tavern
Production Bonus: Mountain Halls (standard goods), D111-a Time Warp (sentient goods), Vortex of Storage (sentient goods), Tree of Enlightenment (sentient goods)
Goods: Crystal Lighthouse / The Great Bell Spire (standard goods), Pyramid of Purification (sentient goods), Dragon Ark (sentient bonus good), Fortune Oracle (boosted sentient good), Maman Le Pré's Antiques Shop sentient goods), Fabulous Delivery Service (standard goods)
Decay Reduction: D222-z Simia Sapiens (sentient goods), Ancestral Rest (sentient goods)
Preeminent Vendor (Trader): Prosperity Tower
Improve Fabulous Fabrication: Trade Center
Orcs: Hero's Forge, Shrine of Champions
Mana: Enar's Embassy, Maze of Dark Matter, DragonAbbey, Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood
Seeds: Trade Center, Sunset Towers, Maman Le Pré's Antiques Shop, Tournament Fan Curve, Altar of Eternity
Unurium: Temple of Spirits, Vallorian Seal Tower
Decay Reduction: Maze of Dark Matter (Mana), Sunset Towers (Seed), Vallorian Seal Tower (Unurium), Tournament Fan Curve (Community Work), Fabulous Delivery Service (Canned Goods)
Production Bonus: Prosperity Tower
Storage Expansion: Vortex of Storage
Tournament: D111-a Time Warp
Provinces: Scouts' Tavern
Extend Enchantments: Prosperity Tower (Enchanted Supplies), Trade Center (Fabulous Fabrication), Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood (Magical Dowry)
Magical Academy: Vallorian School of Sorcery
WP: Tome of Secrets, Tower Library
Relics: Endless Excavation
Rune Shard: Enar's Message
Combo Trigger: Dragon Ark
Royal Restoration: Oracle of Fortune
Ranking Points: Thrones of the High Men, Tower Library, Tournament Arena
Spell Fragments: Unicorn Park
Battle Wonders are important for players with a combat preference. At a minimum, the subcategories of hit points, damage, and training speed are fully set up, as well as a selection of training size and troop production.
For basic supplies, a selection based on needs is sufficient for most styles. Since players with a merchant preference set up more manufactories, they usually also need a bit more population.
For strategists, there are a few more options (e.g., the bumblebee strategy).
Wonders from manufacturing/goods production are somewhat more important for players with a merchant preference than for those with a combat preference. Both have research and upgrades to complete, but merchants also need goods for negotiation. A fighter needs a selection (especially decay reduction), while merchants will find what they need to increase production.
All of the special goods are needed for research. Everyone will need a selection here (at least for mana, seeds, and unurium).
Traders even need more of them, as the special goods will eventually be needed for negotiation. Power players especially value wonders that indirectly distribute special goods for tournaments and spires; leisurely players prefer those with direct production.
The guest race wonders are interesting for players who want to quickly progress through a chapter's research.
The time bonus wonders are particularly interesting for power games. The spell extensions also help traders.
The "Miscellaneous" category contains wonders that don't fit into any other category. They also can't be assigned to any play style. They are chosen when the bonus is important to the individual player.
This raises the question: How far should wonders be expanded?
To do this, you have to differentiate between the types of bonuses a wonder provides. A few wonders provide a fixed number of items, which increases every five levels (1, 6, 11, 16, etc.) (examples are the WPs in the Tome or the relics in the Excavation). The majority of wonders have percentage bonuses, although these are either fixed per level (example: Needles – the additional damage is the same for all cities at the same level of development) or depend on another factor (example: Abyss – the number of coins depends not only on the Abyss's development level but also on the storage capacity of the main building – those with a more highly developed main building receive more coins at the same Abyss's development level).
For fixed-number wonders, bonuses increase linearly, but the improvement only occurs every 5 levels, i.e., upgrading from 1 to 6 provides the same improvement as upgrading from 26 to 31. A further upgrade from 31 to 35 provides no benefit.
The "percentage bonuses," on the other hand, do not increase linearly; the increase decreases with each upgrade. For example, a wonder at level 10 (or 11) already reaches 50% of its maximum bonus value, and at level 20 (or 21) it reaches 80%. Further upgrades become increasingly expensive but yield less and less. Aside from the understandable ambition to fully upgrade one or two wonders to level 35, it makes little economic sense to upgrade individual wonders to very high levels. Instead of further upgrading one wonder at level 30, it's better to upgrade two wonders to level 20 (the latter is cheaper and yields more).
Also, keep in mind that percentage bonuses can depend on other factors (most commonly storage capacity and squad size). Instead of upgrading the wonder itself, you can also increase the wonder bonus through other measures (upgrading the main building to its maximum / researching all optional upgrades to squad size).
General tip: Don't just quickly upgrade the highest-rated wonders to the highest level possible. First, consider which wonder upgrade currently offers the most value for your game strategy relative to its cost, and where you currently have the greatest shortage (this changes over the course of the chapters). Often, a wonder is very valuable and you don't want to miss it, but the bonus from the current level is more than sufficient.
The Bumblebee Strategy is primarily designed to achieve a large surplus of coins and provisions. This strategy was originally invented by the player gergerw. Romilly adopted this idea and led the discussion in the old forum [german players].
This is a slightly edited quote from a chat with Romilly: "The bumblebee strategy is based on a very high culture bonus, which is primarily provided by the Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood. This allows you to receive a bonus of up to 12 percent in the culture bonus for each polished magical dowry. Furthermore, you need the Crystal Tower or Bell Spire to ensure that the Neighborly Help lasts a long time, the Prosperity Towers to ensure that the enchanted workshops produce plenty of supplies, and then, of course, the bumblebee (a flourishing merchant guild) to be able to buy regular goods from the merchant multiple times with the supplies and gold generated this way. This means you hardly need any regular Manufactories anymore—I only have one of each type in Felyndral."
Of course, you still need manufactories for sentient and ascended goods. However, the surplus of tools and coins quickly becomes so large that repeated purchases become somewhat tiresome, and you can also store workshops. The surplus supplies and coins can also be used to upgrade the witch's cauldron. Or use them in the spire and tournament.
What do you need for the bumblebee strategy?
The "Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood" and "Crystal/Clock Tower" wonders
Many buffable buildings (build codices and frozen flames)
A merchant guild
Frequently run Neighborly Help
Replenishment of magical dowry
Occasionally use the magical dowry
You can try to save on regular buildings by using wonders. Normal production buildings grow larger from chapter to chapter, while wonders (even when upgraded) do not change their size. In middle and higher chapters, it's worthwhile to partially replace buildings or to rely on wonders instead of building additional production facilities.
Residential Buildings
Wonders in the basic supply/coins and population categories
Workshops
Wonders in the basic supply/tools category
Manufactories
Almost all wonders in the manufacture/goods production category
Armories/hatcheries
Wonders in the combat/training size and special goods/orcs category
Disadvantage (especially during events and quests): You cannot cast spells/blessings (e.g., increase production, time boosters) or perform a specific production (e.g., produce 10x better tools) on wonders.