palomar
Private
This thread is by way of a list of tips and hints to help play the questlines for events. It's put together from several sources, including hints other players have passed on over the years (sorry I don't know where most of these originated so can't give proper credit) and my own experience. There's a related guide, Ravenfre's Hints & Tips for Daily Challenges, that's also relevant for this (it has one or two things I will come back later and add here, but I think a lot of what I have to offer is also tailored to events and so you might approach some things slightly different for event than for the Daily Challenges).
I'm putting it here so it's available to all users on all worlds and I won't have to keep re-posting it in the guild threads on each of my worlds. There may well be things I've missed, or that others can do even better, so I'll keep an eye on the comments and edit as appropriate to improve this as a resource that you can refer to whenever you wish.
What this guide is "not", is about how to play the mechanics of any specific event. Every event has a questline, taking actions in the main game that generate some kind of "event currency". As you know if you've ever played any event, you need that event currency to play the event (mini-game) itself. That event currency may be footballs for Forge Bowl, or stars for the Winter event, or ingredients for the Fall bake-off, for example. But whatever the event currency may be, doing the questline easily is what this guide is for.
Using these tips and hints it is possible to finish the main questline on the first day of the event, if you have enough "rush" items to speed up production quests. Even in a brand new city, Iron age and maybe a couple of weeks old, I was able to complete the main questline within a few days (as a challenge when a guildmate claimed it wasn't possible to finish the event because her city was too new/small). I say this not to brag but to assure you that it is possible, and not too hard to do.
Many of these tips will help you to complete the main questline as quickly as possible. This means that early in the event you're in the best position to try for a daily special that appeals.
Pre-event preparation - Give yourself a head start!
- delay your regular daily collection so you can select individual buildings for quests to "gather/collect X coins/supplies/fp's/recruit troops" without having to wait up to another day for them to produce again
- let incidents accumulate for up to 24 hours (no longer, or they will expire before you can claim them) so that you already have plenty to collect if needed for an Event quest
- get productions started ahead of time, according to the first one needed for the Event. How would you know? Ask around - there's a good chance someone has a list, as it's already run on Beta. While there's no guarantees, in my experience it's very rare for Inno to change the quests between what happens on Beta and what happens when an event runs on the "live"worlds.
- don't rush into GE when it opens, you may wish to use some encounters to complete Event quests such as "Defeat X troops" or "Win X battles without losing". GE encounters can also be a useful way to complete quests to recruit units (although it's easier if you can collect from a troop production buiding). You can also use GBG for battles/negotiations, so:
- on day Event starts, don't use up too much GBG attrition early, in case you need more battle quests or negotiations to satisfy quests as the day goes on
- have empty space available in your city so there's enough room for "build X production buildings/houses etc"
- Get some cheap trades started in the Antique Dealer (e.g. self-aid kits), ready to collect as soon as you reach the first "Exchange X items" quest. As soon as you collect on it, start some more so they're ready when you get to the next such quest (I go for 2 hours on these to keep waiting time down)
- sometimes you can't avoid a "scout a province" quest (which can take days...) so make sure you have a fresh province ready to be scouted. If you start scouting before the event, don't go back into the campaign map until you're ready to 'collect' on the scouting or you'll use it up too soon!
- tavern quests (collecting silver, visiting X taverns) are easier if your friend list is filled with players who are active and empty out their tavern daily. So keeping your friend list reasonably full and replacing inactive players will help to complete such quests more quickly and easily.
- save up "rush" items and "finish all supplies" so you can use them on the longer production quests instead of waiting 8 or 24 hours for the productions to run their course. I find 2-hour and 6-hour rushes are very useful. Keep an eye out for them all the time so you have them in your inventory before the next event starts. They are available from the Antique Dealer and as rewards through normal game play, and often as rewards in the events themselves.
- many players like blacksmiths and/or sleigh builders to complete the "Finish X productions" quests. I prefer cider mills not upgraded. The basic (3x2) cider mill is your own era, unlike blacksmiths, so it's good for all production quests including those that require you to finish X productions in buildings of your own age. It also produces goods at every time interval - 5-minute, 15-minute, 1-hour, etc, but the sleigh builder produces other things like medals or goods, which you can't "rush" - you have to wait for the production to finish. This same drawback also applies to Terrace Farms, which can only be "rushed" on certain timings (although if you have them in your city, their usefulness in events is very much a side-issue). So I keep my eye out in the AD and pick up cider mills whenever I can. As with stocking up on "rush" items, this is something where regular attention will help you when the next event starts.
Once the event starts...tips for the different kinds of quests (in no special order)
General tip: most quests are set up with a choice, along the lines of "Do X OR Do Y". You will find some quests generally harder than others, the details depend on your era, playing style, what's in your city and so on. Avoid the harder ones if possible, so that you still have the resources needed, in the event that another quest later on asks for a similar thing but without giving an easy alternative. Example: if you don't have a lot of "spare" troops, then avoid a quest to "Delete X troops" unless you have no choice. Or if your friend list isn't very large, avoid tavern visiting or polish/aid quests. Or if a quest asks for some 24-hour productions, and your running short of "rush" items, you might prefer to choose the alternative. Don't use up resources if that will make it harder to complete another similar quest that comes up later on.
Increase population:
start a new building (other than houses!), delete it right away (no need to wait until it completes)
- repeat until quest is done
- can use something you already have in inventory and don't mind using up (because you can't store regular buildings such as military or goods buildings, only delete)
Increase happiness
- the simplest, if you have a spare "store building" item, is to store and rebuild an event building you already have in your city which gives enough happiness to satisfy the quest. Thanks to klods hans for this tip.
- upgrade roads (can put new roads over the top of roads from earlier ages, otherwise delete and rebuild them)
- use decorations for quick happiness (especially Stone age Memorial, as they're cheap and fast)
- can also use other decorations you might have sitting in inventory, like Face of the Ancient and Gate of the Sungod, and their upgrades, for quick increase to happiness. They can be deleted as soon as they're built if you need the space, or if you have enough "Store Building" items you can put them back in inventory to use again when needed
- if your city isn't already enthusiastic (happiness at 120%), there's a Tavern boost for it
- if the new event building gives happiness, don't place it in your city until you need to do a Happiness quest, and/or save some upgrades too
- keep an event building in Inventory that gives a decent amount of happiness and doesn't take long to build, and once the quest is satisfied, use a Store Building item to put it back for next time. My favourites for this are the Monumental Graveyard (gives me 5,000 happiness) and in lower eras I have a spare Butterfly House (gives 1,000) that I keep just for this.
Gather coins/supplies
start a new building, sell it ). Can sell it as soon as you start it, will get a portion of the coins/supplies back. Choose one that gives a decent number of the target resource. I find that military and cultural buildings tend to be good, but it depends what's available on your era.
- repeat until quest is done
- don't forget that aiding your friend list/hood/guildmates will give you coins too
Recruit troops
- if age not specified, build Bronze Age Spearfighter Barracks, quick and cheap to train
- build just one military building, train a couple of troops, then send them on a suicide mission in GE or GBG (send them out with nothing else in your attacking army). They'll die, freeing up the slots in the building so you can build more, until quest is done.
- first three levels of GE give troops at encounters 3,7,11 & 15
- some event buildings and special buildings give troops. Governor's Villa gives 4 troops per day, Knight's Pavillion gives 2, and so on. Also Traz, Egyptian Bathhouse, and some others. These all count for this quest. Save the daily collection on these buildings until you reach that quest.
- winning troops as rewards from other game features like GBG, Spoils of War (Himeji Castle), Diplomatic Gifts (SC) and GE relics, also fulfills these quests although it's not predictable
Build X production buildings/houses
- can use buildings (of correct era) from inventory, if you have them
- once they start construction, can delete, they still count
Finish X productions
- if it doesn't give a time (e.g. 1-hour, 15-minute, etc) then do 5-minute ones
Gather goods
- use "rotating/circular/loop" trades with guildmates: set up paired trades, e.g. 30 copper for 30 gold, and 30 gold for 30 copper, set to "Guild only". Guildmate takes both trades, you both wind up where you started (trades cancel each other out) so it costs nothing but satisfies the quest
Build X decorations
- if age not specified, build Stone Age trees (cheapest)
- or use whatever you have in inventory that you don't mind deleting right away (to make room for the next thing you need to build for a later quest)
Donate X goods to Treasury
- goods from Event buildings (e.g. SoH, Airship) count
- goods from Great Buildings (e.g. Observatory, Arc) don't count.
Win X battles, Defeat X troops
- can be in GE, GBG, PvP Arena, against neighbours, etc. They all count, including any combination. A battle is a battle. And as Ravenfyre mentions in his guide to Daily Challenges, "Defeat troops" can be satisfied without finishing the battle. With GBG it's possible to repeat (but not finish) the same battle over and over until you've killed enough enemy troops, without raising attrition, as long as the sector remains available for you to fight in.
Win X battles without losing/Solve X negotiations without losing
- if you break your winning streak, e.g. you win 2 neg's, but lose the next neg, the game will simply start counting again from your next successful one. As long as you keep trying and eventually satisfy the quest, no matter how many times you need to try, you will advance to the next quest.
- Such quests can be done over time. Other game actions won't reset the counter. So you might do a battle for the Daily Challenge, and that counts as the first one for the event quest too, but maybe you have to wait for a GBG sector to open up, or for the next GE attempt to appear, before you can do any more. The game system will continue the count where it left off regardless of how long or what else you do in the meantime. In other words, your progress in the quest isn't interrupted by doing other things in the game.
Solve X encounters in GE
- "solve" means win battles, negotiations, or any combination
Scout a province
- doesn't count until you go back into the Campaign Map when the scouting has finished
Buy Forge Points
- can use coins for this, don't have to spend diamonds ("real" money)
- using FP packs from inventory doesn't count
Activate X boosts in the Friends Tavern
- can use "cheap" boosts like 4-hour coin boost, or "quick" boosts like 30-minute attack boost or 15-minute Extra Turn. But even a long boost, like 24-hour attack boost or City shield will count for the quest as soon as the boost starts. The only issue with using long-duration boosts is that if you want to use another (whether for the event or not) you still have to wait for it to finish, or use diamonds to activate a second boost while the first is still running.
- I usually go for either a 30-minute or 4-hour battle boost as there's always a good sprinkling of battle quests, such as "win X battles without losing" or "defeat X troops" or "defeat this small/medium/large army". If I already happen to have a battle boost running when I reach such a quest it makes it that much easier to complete.
Collect X Tavern Silver
- don't collect from the Tavern until you need to do this quest - saves waiting hours and hours for more visitors to arrive
- unlike the Daily Challenge, it still works if it takes you more than 24 hours to get up to the total needed.
- remember visiting friend's taverns also gives a 20% chance of winning silver. Upgrade your tavern floor to increase the amount you might win with each tavern visited.
Visit X friend's taverns
- like collecting tavern silver, you can take as long as you need to complete this one. I've found that it's easier to finish this one if I start as soon as possible after 8am game time. It seems that many players empty their tavern soon after the Daily Challenge resets, making it easier to find seats in more taverns at that time of day. But at any time of day it's worth checking back if you can. Events usually start at 9:30am game time, but I rarely have trouble completing such quests even though I get to them several hours after "prime time".
- conversely, if you're trying to finish the entire Main questline quickly, and especially in a day or two, don't visit more than the number needed for the quest. Save the rest in case you get another similar quest later in the day. It's true some of them will fill up but others will probably open. But if you've visited every possible tavern early on, it will be much harder to find taverns to visit later that same day.
- This is one of the harder quests to do quickly because it depends on other players' actions. If there is an alternative task that's easier for you, select that one for preference. This leaves as many taverns as possible in case you get a tavern quest that can't be avoided later on.
Polish/Motivate X buildings
Avoid aiding players for 24 hours before the event starts, so you have as many as possible available for the event.
Don't aid more than the number needed for the quest - there may be another similar quest and you will need to have some more available if you wish to avoid waiting 24-hours.
I'm putting it here so it's available to all users on all worlds and I won't have to keep re-posting it in the guild threads on each of my worlds. There may well be things I've missed, or that others can do even better, so I'll keep an eye on the comments and edit as appropriate to improve this as a resource that you can refer to whenever you wish.
What this guide is "not", is about how to play the mechanics of any specific event. Every event has a questline, taking actions in the main game that generate some kind of "event currency". As you know if you've ever played any event, you need that event currency to play the event (mini-game) itself. That event currency may be footballs for Forge Bowl, or stars for the Winter event, or ingredients for the Fall bake-off, for example. But whatever the event currency may be, doing the questline easily is what this guide is for.
Using these tips and hints it is possible to finish the main questline on the first day of the event, if you have enough "rush" items to speed up production quests. Even in a brand new city, Iron age and maybe a couple of weeks old, I was able to complete the main questline within a few days (as a challenge when a guildmate claimed it wasn't possible to finish the event because her city was too new/small). I say this not to brag but to assure you that it is possible, and not too hard to do.
Many of these tips will help you to complete the main questline as quickly as possible. This means that early in the event you're in the best position to try for a daily special that appeals.
Pre-event preparation - Give yourself a head start!
- delay your regular daily collection so you can select individual buildings for quests to "gather/collect X coins/supplies/fp's/recruit troops" without having to wait up to another day for them to produce again
- let incidents accumulate for up to 24 hours (no longer, or they will expire before you can claim them) so that you already have plenty to collect if needed for an Event quest
- get productions started ahead of time, according to the first one needed for the Event. How would you know? Ask around - there's a good chance someone has a list, as it's already run on Beta. While there's no guarantees, in my experience it's very rare for Inno to change the quests between what happens on Beta and what happens when an event runs on the "live"worlds.
- don't rush into GE when it opens, you may wish to use some encounters to complete Event quests such as "Defeat X troops" or "Win X battles without losing". GE encounters can also be a useful way to complete quests to recruit units (although it's easier if you can collect from a troop production buiding). You can also use GBG for battles/negotiations, so:
- on day Event starts, don't use up too much GBG attrition early, in case you need more battle quests or negotiations to satisfy quests as the day goes on
- have empty space available in your city so there's enough room for "build X production buildings/houses etc"
- Get some cheap trades started in the Antique Dealer (e.g. self-aid kits), ready to collect as soon as you reach the first "Exchange X items" quest. As soon as you collect on it, start some more so they're ready when you get to the next such quest (I go for 2 hours on these to keep waiting time down)
- sometimes you can't avoid a "scout a province" quest (which can take days...) so make sure you have a fresh province ready to be scouted. If you start scouting before the event, don't go back into the campaign map until you're ready to 'collect' on the scouting or you'll use it up too soon!
- tavern quests (collecting silver, visiting X taverns) are easier if your friend list is filled with players who are active and empty out their tavern daily. So keeping your friend list reasonably full and replacing inactive players will help to complete such quests more quickly and easily.
- save up "rush" items and "finish all supplies" so you can use them on the longer production quests instead of waiting 8 or 24 hours for the productions to run their course. I find 2-hour and 6-hour rushes are very useful. Keep an eye out for them all the time so you have them in your inventory before the next event starts. They are available from the Antique Dealer and as rewards through normal game play, and often as rewards in the events themselves.
- many players like blacksmiths and/or sleigh builders to complete the "Finish X productions" quests. I prefer cider mills not upgraded. The basic (3x2) cider mill is your own era, unlike blacksmiths, so it's good for all production quests including those that require you to finish X productions in buildings of your own age. It also produces goods at every time interval - 5-minute, 15-minute, 1-hour, etc, but the sleigh builder produces other things like medals or goods, which you can't "rush" - you have to wait for the production to finish. This same drawback also applies to Terrace Farms, which can only be "rushed" on certain timings (although if you have them in your city, their usefulness in events is very much a side-issue). So I keep my eye out in the AD and pick up cider mills whenever I can. As with stocking up on "rush" items, this is something where regular attention will help you when the next event starts.
Once the event starts...tips for the different kinds of quests (in no special order)
General tip: most quests are set up with a choice, along the lines of "Do X OR Do Y". You will find some quests generally harder than others, the details depend on your era, playing style, what's in your city and so on. Avoid the harder ones if possible, so that you still have the resources needed, in the event that another quest later on asks for a similar thing but without giving an easy alternative. Example: if you don't have a lot of "spare" troops, then avoid a quest to "Delete X troops" unless you have no choice. Or if your friend list isn't very large, avoid tavern visiting or polish/aid quests. Or if a quest asks for some 24-hour productions, and your running short of "rush" items, you might prefer to choose the alternative. Don't use up resources if that will make it harder to complete another similar quest that comes up later on.
Increase population:
start a new building (other than houses!), delete it right away (no need to wait until it completes)
- repeat until quest is done
- can use something you already have in inventory and don't mind using up (because you can't store regular buildings such as military or goods buildings, only delete)
Increase happiness
- the simplest, if you have a spare "store building" item, is to store and rebuild an event building you already have in your city which gives enough happiness to satisfy the quest. Thanks to klods hans for this tip.
- upgrade roads (can put new roads over the top of roads from earlier ages, otherwise delete and rebuild them)
- use decorations for quick happiness (especially Stone age Memorial, as they're cheap and fast)
- can also use other decorations you might have sitting in inventory, like Face of the Ancient and Gate of the Sungod, and their upgrades, for quick increase to happiness. They can be deleted as soon as they're built if you need the space, or if you have enough "Store Building" items you can put them back in inventory to use again when needed
- if your city isn't already enthusiastic (happiness at 120%), there's a Tavern boost for it
- if the new event building gives happiness, don't place it in your city until you need to do a Happiness quest, and/or save some upgrades too
- keep an event building in Inventory that gives a decent amount of happiness and doesn't take long to build, and once the quest is satisfied, use a Store Building item to put it back for next time. My favourites for this are the Monumental Graveyard (gives me 5,000 happiness) and in lower eras I have a spare Butterfly House (gives 1,000) that I keep just for this.
Gather coins/supplies
start a new building, sell it ). Can sell it as soon as you start it, will get a portion of the coins/supplies back. Choose one that gives a decent number of the target resource. I find that military and cultural buildings tend to be good, but it depends what's available on your era.
- repeat until quest is done
- don't forget that aiding your friend list/hood/guildmates will give you coins too
Recruit troops
- if age not specified, build Bronze Age Spearfighter Barracks, quick and cheap to train
- build just one military building, train a couple of troops, then send them on a suicide mission in GE or GBG (send them out with nothing else in your attacking army). They'll die, freeing up the slots in the building so you can build more, until quest is done.
- first three levels of GE give troops at encounters 3,7,11 & 15
- some event buildings and special buildings give troops. Governor's Villa gives 4 troops per day, Knight's Pavillion gives 2, and so on. Also Traz, Egyptian Bathhouse, and some others. These all count for this quest. Save the daily collection on these buildings until you reach that quest.
- winning troops as rewards from other game features like GBG, Spoils of War (Himeji Castle), Diplomatic Gifts (SC) and GE relics, also fulfills these quests although it's not predictable
Build X production buildings/houses
- can use buildings (of correct era) from inventory, if you have them
- once they start construction, can delete, they still count
Finish X productions
- if it doesn't give a time (e.g. 1-hour, 15-minute, etc) then do 5-minute ones
Gather goods
- use "rotating/circular/loop" trades with guildmates: set up paired trades, e.g. 30 copper for 30 gold, and 30 gold for 30 copper, set to "Guild only". Guildmate takes both trades, you both wind up where you started (trades cancel each other out) so it costs nothing but satisfies the quest
Build X decorations
- if age not specified, build Stone Age trees (cheapest)
- or use whatever you have in inventory that you don't mind deleting right away (to make room for the next thing you need to build for a later quest)
Donate X goods to Treasury
- goods from Event buildings (e.g. SoH, Airship) count
- goods from Great Buildings (e.g. Observatory, Arc) don't count.
Win X battles, Defeat X troops
- can be in GE, GBG, PvP Arena, against neighbours, etc. They all count, including any combination. A battle is a battle. And as Ravenfyre mentions in his guide to Daily Challenges, "Defeat troops" can be satisfied without finishing the battle. With GBG it's possible to repeat (but not finish) the same battle over and over until you've killed enough enemy troops, without raising attrition, as long as the sector remains available for you to fight in.
Win X battles without losing/Solve X negotiations without losing
- if you break your winning streak, e.g. you win 2 neg's, but lose the next neg, the game will simply start counting again from your next successful one. As long as you keep trying and eventually satisfy the quest, no matter how many times you need to try, you will advance to the next quest.
- Such quests can be done over time. Other game actions won't reset the counter. So you might do a battle for the Daily Challenge, and that counts as the first one for the event quest too, but maybe you have to wait for a GBG sector to open up, or for the next GE attempt to appear, before you can do any more. The game system will continue the count where it left off regardless of how long or what else you do in the meantime. In other words, your progress in the quest isn't interrupted by doing other things in the game.
Solve X encounters in GE
- "solve" means win battles, negotiations, or any combination
Scout a province
- doesn't count until you go back into the Campaign Map when the scouting has finished
Buy Forge Points
- can use coins for this, don't have to spend diamonds ("real" money)
- using FP packs from inventory doesn't count
Activate X boosts in the Friends Tavern
- can use "cheap" boosts like 4-hour coin boost, or "quick" boosts like 30-minute attack boost or 15-minute Extra Turn. But even a long boost, like 24-hour attack boost or City shield will count for the quest as soon as the boost starts. The only issue with using long-duration boosts is that if you want to use another (whether for the event or not) you still have to wait for it to finish, or use diamonds to activate a second boost while the first is still running.
- I usually go for either a 30-minute or 4-hour battle boost as there's always a good sprinkling of battle quests, such as "win X battles without losing" or "defeat X troops" or "defeat this small/medium/large army". If I already happen to have a battle boost running when I reach such a quest it makes it that much easier to complete.
Collect X Tavern Silver
- don't collect from the Tavern until you need to do this quest - saves waiting hours and hours for more visitors to arrive
- unlike the Daily Challenge, it still works if it takes you more than 24 hours to get up to the total needed.
- remember visiting friend's taverns also gives a 20% chance of winning silver. Upgrade your tavern floor to increase the amount you might win with each tavern visited.
Visit X friend's taverns
- like collecting tavern silver, you can take as long as you need to complete this one. I've found that it's easier to finish this one if I start as soon as possible after 8am game time. It seems that many players empty their tavern soon after the Daily Challenge resets, making it easier to find seats in more taverns at that time of day. But at any time of day it's worth checking back if you can. Events usually start at 9:30am game time, but I rarely have trouble completing such quests even though I get to them several hours after "prime time".
- conversely, if you're trying to finish the entire Main questline quickly, and especially in a day or two, don't visit more than the number needed for the quest. Save the rest in case you get another similar quest later in the day. It's true some of them will fill up but others will probably open. But if you've visited every possible tavern early on, it will be much harder to find taverns to visit later that same day.
- This is one of the harder quests to do quickly because it depends on other players' actions. If there is an alternative task that's easier for you, select that one for preference. This leaves as many taverns as possible in case you get a tavern quest that can't be avoided later on.
Polish/Motivate X buildings
Avoid aiding players for 24 hours before the event starts, so you have as many as possible available for the event.
Don't aid more than the number needed for the quest - there may be another similar quest and you will need to have some more available if you wish to avoid waiting 24-hours.
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But it's not the only way, and if a player is running low on "store building" items they may not want to use this method. Players should also be aware that if you store a building that is already in your city, if it gives productions other than happiness, the timer on that will be reset when you place it back in your city.