Evony is a real-time strategy game known for its depth and complexity, challenging new players with a myriad of decisions from the moment they establish their first city. Without a clear path, new monarchs often struggle with resource management, troop development, and understanding the intricate alliance system. This guide provides a structured approach for beginners, focusing on core principles to establish a strong foundation, optimize city development, and navigate the early game effectively, ensuring a more rewarding and sustainable gameplay experience. To truly excel, you must learn to optimize resource acquisition and city development for sustained growth.
Foundational Principles for New Monarchs
Success in Evony's early stages hinges on consistent, informed decision-making. Prioritizing protection, efficient resource acquisition, and strategic development will prevent common pitfalls that can stunt growth or lead to early setbacks.
- Maintain a Peace Shield: For your first few days, a peace shield (often called a "bubble") is non-negotiable. This item prevents other players from attacking your city, protecting your resources and troops while you build up your defenses. New players typically receive initial peace shields, and more can be acquired through events or alliance gifts.
- Prioritize Academy Research: The Academy is your engine for progress. Focus on researching "Development" technologies first, specifically those that boost resource production rates and construction speed. These early investments accelerate your overall growth, allowing you to build faster and gather more efficiently.
- Join an Active Alliance Immediately: Alliances offer critical benefits for beginners. They provide a protective umbrella, access to alliance gifts (which often contain valuable speed-ups and resources), and the ability to participate in alliance-wide events like boss rallies. An active alliance also offers mentorship from experienced players.
- Understand General Roles: Generals are central to Evony. Early on, you'll need a reliable "Gathering General" to maximize resource collection and a "Defense General" to boost your city's protection. Do not invest heavily in every general; identify their primary role and equip them accordingly.
Pro Tip: Resist the urge to rush your Keep level without first upgrading your other essential buildings and researching corresponding technologies. A high-level Keep with weak infrastructure and insufficient troops is a prime target for more experienced players. Balance your Keep upgrades with your Academy, Walls, and resource buildings to maintain a robust, defensible city.
Optimizing Your City Layout and Development
Your city's layout and the sequence of building upgrades directly impact your resource generation, troop training capacity, and overall power. Strategic planning here is more effective than haphazard expansion.
Early Building Prioritization
Initially, focus on establishing a balanced economy. You will need all four primary resource types: Food, Lumber, Stone, and Ore. While your Keep level dictates the maximum number of each building, prioritize a roughly equal distribution to maintain steady production.
- Resource Buildings (Farms, Sawmills, Quarries, Mines): Build and upgrade these consistently. Food is consumed by troops, so ensure your food production or storage can sustain your army.
- Walls and Watchtower: These are crucial for defense. Upgrading your Walls increases your city's defense rating, and the Watchtower provides early warning of incoming attacks.
- Rally Spot and Barracks/Stables/Archery Range/Workshop: These are your military buildings. Upgrade your Rally Spot to increase the size of armies you can send out. Build at least one of each troop training building to access different troop types, but don't overbuild them early on; focus on quantity later.
- Academy and Research Factory: As mentioned, the Academy is vital. The Research Factory boosts research speed, making it a key companion.
Strategic Resource Management
Beyond production, effective resource management involves knowing when to gather, when to spend, and how to protect your stores. Always keep a portion of your resources in your "Warehouse" or "Storehouse" which protects a certain amount from being plundered. Use your gathering generals to send out troops to resource tiles on the world map regularly, especially overnight or when you're away from the game for extended periods.
Navigating Early Game and Alliance Dynamics
Evony is a social game; your interaction with other players, especially within your alliance, is paramount for long-term success. Understanding alliance mechanics and early game events will significantly accelerate your progress.
Alliance Contribution and Benefits
Actively participate in alliance activities. This includes:
- Alliance Bosses: Join rallies against alliance bosses. These provide excellent rewards, including valuable general experience, resources, and speed-ups.
- Alliance Research: Contribute resources to alliance research. This benefits the entire alliance and unlocks powerful buffs for all members.
- Help Requests: Respond to alliance members' help requests for building and research. This reduces their timers and earns you alliance points, which can be spent in the alliance shop for useful items.
- Alliance War: While beginners should avoid direct combat, understanding alliance war mechanics and contributing to defense or resource gathering for the alliance is important.
Event Participation
Evony runs numerous events constantly. For beginners, focus on those that reward resource gathering, building upgrades, or troop training. These events often provide significant boosts and items that are hard to acquire otherwise. Check the event center daily to identify which activities align with your current development goals. It is wise to explore the event center daily to find activities that match your current goals.
General Development and Troop Composition
Early game generals should focus on one primary role (e.g., gathering, defense). Level them up through experience gained from monster hunting, boss rallies, and using EXP items. Equip them with basic gear from the forge. For troops, train a balanced mix of T1 (Tier 1) troops of all types initially. These are cheap and fast to train, suitable for gathering and low-level monster hunting. As you progress, you'll unlock higher tiers, but T1s remain useful for various tasks.
Sustaining Your Empire
Consistency is key in Evony. Log in daily to collect resources, send out gatherers, and check on your alliance. Engage with your alliance members, ask questions, and learn from their experience. The game is a marathon, not a sprint, and steady, informed progress will yield the best results.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get more resources quickly?
Focus on upgrading your resource buildings, researching development technologies in the Academy, and consistently sending out gathering generals to resource tiles on the world map. Participate in events that offer resource rewards and ask for alliance gifts.
What should I do with my gems as a beginner?
Initially, use gems sparingly. Prioritize buying a peace shield if yours expires, or use them for critical building speed-ups that are holding back your Keep level. Avoid spending them on random chests or minor speed-ups.
When should I start attacking other players?
As a beginner, avoid attacking other players until you have a strong understanding of troop types, general skills, and sufficient power to withstand potential retaliation. Focus on building your city and troops first, and only engage in PvP when guided by your alliance for specific objectives.
