The fastest way to gain anything is to pay cold, hard cash.

If you don't want to do that, and to answer your second question, there are many ways to gain a few rubies, but you're not gonna get ruby-rich without paying. The cheapest way is to be in a strong BH and leech off of their brotherhood quests (where members of the #1 BH usually get 2k rubies each, #2 gets 1.5k rubies each, etc), but you're not likely to find one like that.

The worst way to go for the rubies, although it sounds attractive, is ruby islands. Very slow gain and big chance to lose plenty of troops quickly.

Got it, clear!

How about Potions, Pearls, Gears, Sketches, Upgrade Etchings, Relics?  How useful are they and shd I be actively pursuing them, or buying them? 

personally i've been doing just fine without potions.

Pearls are very usefull to speed up build times or units, but i wouldn't buy them, you get them for free by just leveling up.

Gears are only needed for a few types of units, so don't buy them unless you plan on building lots of those units.

Sketches are needed to master discoveries, i never bought any, not counting the ones that cost idols.

upgrade etchings are only used to upgrade certain buildings beyond level 20 and to upgrade discoveries beyond level 30, so don't bother with them yet, unless you can get them with 95% discount

Relics can give nice bonusses but you need a lot of luck getting the right ones and they can't be bought

i don't know if this is the best way to go, but i've been playing this game for 3 or 4 years now and the only thing i've spend on it so far was time

mkoprulu said:

How about Potions, Pearls, Gears, Sketches, Upgrade Etchings, Relics?  How useful are they and shd I be actively pursuing them, or buying them? 

That depends on your gameplay. Here are my opinions, which may or may not be good for you:

1. Potions, IMO, are not worth buying. I'm not even buying coils, as I find them to be far too expensive, effectively nullifying the very concept of potions for most of the players.
2. Pearls cannot be bought directly, only as part of money packs (or won through the game). Don't buy because of them, but do accept them as a nice bonus. Using them wisely, you can benefit from them (I suggest investing in training (not travel) speed, pardons cost if your BH has Presidios, and research speed).
3. Gears can be made from gold and lumber. If you are online often, click 1hr (or 2 or 4 hours, if you're away that long). IMO, not worth buying, unless you're a big money player.
4. Sketches... depends how fast you want to develop. Ask your BH if they can give away some that they don't need (especially those players who have all the discoveries) and trade those for those you need.
5. Etchings you'll need to buy at some point, but if you're still chasing sketches, it's probably too early for those (they're not connected, but the need for sketches speaks a bit about your haven's development level). When you do decide to buy them, wait for discounts.
6. Relics are, IMO, mostly useless. I sell them for res when I get them. Through time and battles, you'll collect those you find useful. In my case, it's those of unlimited lifespan and with bonuses I can actually use.

To add on to the above:

1. you get pearls in 2 ways - Some tournaments offer them as a reward but not very often. The main way is thru mission advancers in the lighthouse. This means going to your quests and clicking on the section that shows a specific prize you need to defeat which is you highest prize available. After you complete said prize go back to the quest window to claim your reward. If you fail to and do another advancer you can rip yourself off on gaining more. Each advancer generally gives you 2. A third way I don't completely remember is by leveling up.

2. Potions you get thru doing prizes, tournaments, and battles. 

3. Relics you get by doing lighthouse prizes and battles or the slowest and least reliable option is Relic Targets or Relic Treasure Islands. In the lighthouse though they suk. All you ever get are for the scouts. Sell those not worth it. The good ones come from battles. They vary in what they do: resource production increase, unit production boost, or increase to unit power.

4. Sketches you get one a day from the tinker. If you want more on your own then you can BUY one a day from the smugglers den. Otherwise ask members of your brotherhood to donate them to you. Or trade your spares in the market for the ones you need.

5. Etching don't worry about just yet. You aren't even close to needing them. For buildings they all need to be level 20 or for discoveries the specific discovery needs to be level 30 before etchings are useful.

Icy said:

1. you get pearls in 2 ways - Some tournaments offer them as a reward but not very often. The main way is thru mission advancers in the lighthouse. This means going to your quests and clicking on the section that shows a specific prize you need to defeat which is you highest prize available. After you complete said prize go back to the quest window to claim your reward. If you fail to and do another advancer you can rip yourself off on gaining more. Each advancer generally gives you 2. A third way I don't completely remember is by leveling up.

Be careful, though. As you go to higher prizes levels, your prizes get harder, so don't go too far.

You say "Sketches you get one a day from the tinker", what on earth is THE TINKER?  U hv to speak in plain English for new players!

mkoprulu said:

You say "Sketches you get one a day from the tinker", what on earth is THE TINKER?  U hv to speak in plain English for new players!

Tinker is the term from the game. For all practical purposes, it means "one random sketch appears every day out of thin air and you can find it in your Observatory".

Might wanna click help (question mark button in the top left corner) and read about sketches, Tinker, etc. That's where most of us learned this stuff in the first place.

redbeard said:

crowbar, if i remember correctly, you now can claim the rewards a BH got for achievements before you were a member, you can only claim a reward once and you have to be a full member(7 days in). so joining a BH that has a lot of achievements done can be very rewarding if you're new to the game

If this is true, it makes no sense to me. Getting rewards for stuff you never participated in winning? Even worse, loading every fresh alt with full pack of rewards? I really hope that you're wrong (but I won't leave my BH just to check :-)).

redbeard said:

crowbar, if i remember correctly, you now can claim the rewards a BH got for achievements before you were a member, you can only claim a reward once and you have to be a full member(7 days in). so joining a BH that has a lot of achievements done can be very rewarding if you're new to the game