Elysian City. Dev Notes
Archons, the time has come to introduce a brand new feature - Elysian City.
This feature will give you a huge range of possibilities - a new City, new Resource, new Buildings, new Agreements, new Units, and new PvE locations.
This guide will take you through the key mechanics and show you how to weave the Elysian feature into your strategy. Don't forget to share this information with your friends and fellow Coalition members! It might be the slim difference between glory and defeat.
Accessing the feature
Elysian City will only be available to players who have met all the requirements to discover it. These are:
1. Reach Level 60
2. Win at a Level 40 Persian Position
3. Sign the "Sparta" Agreement
4. Sign the "Cirta" Agreement
5. Sign the "Stymphalos - Lvl 5" Agreement
After you have met all of the above requirements, you will need to click the "Discover the Elysian City" button that appears at the bottom of the Requirements window.
This action will trigger quests that introduce the feature and some of its mechanics. In the “Quests” window you will also see a new list of tasks that will guide you through some of the more complex features, such as:
- Constructing and upgrading Elysian Buildings
- Signing and updating Elysian Agreements
- Activating Elysian Unit Abilities
- Engaging Elysian Positions
Discovering the Elysian City will give you access to the following:
1. Elysian City. Switch between your first City and your Elysian City by clicking a new button on your City interface.
2. New Buildings. Construct and upgrade a variety of Elysian Buildings. Some of these are for your new Elysian Resource and Elysian Units, while others will benefit your first City as well. You can boost all construction processes at the Elysian City using Drachmas or Elysian Boosts. You’ll also be able to construct Resource production and storage buildings for Timber, Bronze, and Grain.
3. Elysian Agreements. They can be found in the same window as your regular Agreements. Elysian Agreements improve your Elysian Units, unlock Elysian fortifications, and boost Moonstone production. You must collect the relevant Elysian Articles in order to start signing Elysian Agreements.
4. Elysian Units. Elysian Units are special Units that you can train after discovering the Elysian City and building the Elysian Agoge. They are special for three reasons: Firstly, they are effective in both Offensive and Defensive battles since their basic combat stats are equal. Secondly, they gain a 20% stat advantage in battles against non-Elysian Units. And lastly, they have special Abilities that provide significant combat bonuses when activated.
5. New Elysian Positions. Elysian Positions and Elysian Missions are new PvE locations that can only be completed using Elysian Units. Similar to Positions and Missions, winning at Elysian Positions will earn you powerful Rewards. These include Elysian Units, Moonstones, and Articles.
6. Moonstones. Moonstone is a new Resource that is required for training Elysian Units, constructing and upgrading Elysian Buildings, and signing and updating Elysian Agreements. You can produce Moonstones by building up to 6 Moonstone Quarries in your Elysian City. You can also get Moonstones by winning at Elysian Positions or by purchasing it at the Market. By constructing the Temple of Thea, you can increase Moonstone production. To store Moonstones, you need to build Moonstone Treasuries.
7. New Coalition Achievements. With the release of Elysian City, your Coalition will have new Coalition Achievements to complete. These will require your Coalition’s members to contribute points by training Elysian Units and winning at Elysian Positions.
Elysian City
If you have discovered the Elysian City and you’re eager to receive its benefits, what can you do to get started?
The first thing to do is to explore your new surroundings. Here is what you need to know about your Elysian City:
1. Your Elysian City does not have its own coordinates. It will not appear on the Map.
2. The Fortifications at your Elysian City increase the Defense Bonus of your first City as well.
3. You can switch between your City and your Elysian City from the navigation panel on the right-hand side of your screen.
These two Cities work as a single unit. This means that all the bonuses currently applied to your first City will apply to your Elysian City, and vice versa.
Elysian Buildings
When you first discover your Elysian City, there will be one Building already constructed – a Level 1 Moonstone Quarry.
You can see all the bonuses an Elysian Building provides by clicking on it, then opening the Building’s “Info” window. From there, you can see what the Building does at each upgrade level.
You can earn personal Achievements by constructing and upgrading Elysian Buildings. Coalition Members can also create Building Requests for Elysian Buildings.
All bonuses that influence your Construction Speed apply in both your first City and your Elysian City.
You must upgrade at least one of your Artisans to a Master Artisan in order to construct your first Elysian Buildings. Master Artisans can work on Buildings in both your first City and in your Elysian City. You can upgrade the first Artisan for free. Upgrading more Artisans will require Drachmas.
Please note that you can only upgrade Artisans who are not currently working on any Construction or Upgrades. You can have a maximum of 2 Master Artisans.
Here is the list of Elysian Buildings:
1. Moonstone Quarry. Allows you to produce Moonstones.
2. Moonstone Treasury. Allows you to store Moonstones.
3. Temple of Thea. Increases your overall Moonstone production with each upgrade level.
4. Elysian Agoge. Allows you to train Pezoi, Mamertines, Hamippoi, and Dimachae.
5. Elysian Fortifications.
You will also be able to construct one Elysian Forge, Elysian Lumberyard, Elysian Farm, Elysian Warehouse, and Elysian Granary. These buildings are similar to their counterparts found in your City, but they can only be constructed in the Elysian City.
Elysian Units
Elysian Units are special Units that you can train after discovering your Elysian City and building the Elysian Agoge. There are 4 new Units in total: Pezos (Light Infantry), Mamertine (Heavy Infantry), Hamippos (Phalanx), and Dimacha (Cavalry).
Elysian Units are suitable for use in both Offensive and Defensive engagements and will gain a 20% stat advantage in battles against non-Elysian Units. Their base Offense and Defense statistics are equal, although the Agreements for each Unit type allow you to tweak their statistics according to your strategy. They also have special Abilities which provide significant combat bonuses when activated.
To start training Elysian Units, you must first sign the Elysian Agreement for each Unit. Training Elysian Units requires both Moonstones and GPs. You can also receive Elysian Units as Rewards for winning at Elysian Positions and completing Elysian Missions.
You can boost your Elysian Unit Training Queue by using both Regular Boosts and Drachmas.
If your Elysian Units are defeated in battle, you’ll be able to revive a certain percentage of them in the Infirmary or in the “Healer” tab at the Market. The percentage of Elysian Units that can be revived using Drachmas depends on the “Infirmary Rate” Agreement for each Unit (this will be explained in more detail later) and the Level of your Infirmary. You can also revive a percentage of Elysian Units for free. These will appear in the “Revive Units for Free” section in the Elysian tab of the Infirmary.
Elysian Unit Abilities
Elysian Unit Abilities dramatically improve your chances in both Offensive and Defensive battles. Each Elysian Unit has two Abilities – one for Offensive and one for Defensive engagements – which can be activated only in specific types of battles. If the Ability is activated, it will apply to all Units in the battle, not just the Elysian Units.
The probability of an Elysian Unit Ability affecting the battle depends on its Activation Chance. The higher the Activation Chance, the more likely it is that the Ability will be activated. The Elysian Unit's Ability is also more likely to be activated if you send greater numbers of that Unit type to battle.
Activation Chance may change when you send different types of Elysian Units to a single location. Simply try some combinations of Units to find the selection that's best for you.
You can increase the probability of an Ability being activated by updating the relevant “Activation Chance” Elysian Agreement.
The Activation Chance of every Ability will be displayed in the Unit selection window before a battle, or at the War Council (for Abilities that can be activated during battles to defend your City).
Here is a summary of the Elysian Abilities:
Offensive Abilities
1. Movement Invisibility (Pezos)
This Ability gives you the element of surprise. When activated, Units sent to enemies will be hidden for the first part of their journey.
When you update the Agreement for this Ability, you increase the percentage of Travel Time your Units remain invisible for. At the maximum Level, Units will be hidden for 90% of their journey.
This Ability can only be activated during Raids.
2. Rapid Movement (Beast Riders)
This Ability increases your army’s Speed. When activated, your entire army will move at the Speed indicated in the “Send Units” window based on the Ability’s Agreement.
The more you update the Agreement for this Ability, the faster your army will become (up to a maximum of 50km/h).
This Ability can only be activated during Offensive missions sent to other Cities, Emporia, Pantheons, and Coalition Capitals.
3. Acropolis Raid (Hamippos)
This Ability improves your yield from Raids. When activated, you will be able to take Resources from an enemy's Acropolis.
Updating the Agreement for this Ability reduces the amount of Resources your enemies can protect in their Acropolises. As such, the Bonus indicated for this ability does not necessarily translate to how many Resources you can take.
Example 1: Your enemy has 10K of each Resource, and an Acropolis Capacity of 10K. If the bonus from “Acropolis Raid” is 2K, the Acropolis Capacity will be reduced to 8K for each Resource. This means you can raid 2K Bronze, Timber, and Grain.
Example 2: Your enemy has 8K of each Resource, and an Acropolis Capacity of 10K. If the bonus from “Acropolis Raid” is 2K, the Acropolis Capacity will be reduced to 8K for each Resource. This is still enough to protect all of the Resources at the City from Raids.
This Ability can only be activated during Raids.
4. Enemy Defense Bonus Decrease (Dimacha)
This Ability can help you do more damage to your enemies. When activated, their City or Pantheon Defense Bonus will decrease by a certain percentage.
If you update the Agreement for this Ability to the maximum Level, you can decrease enemy Defense Bonuses by 75% when the Ability is activated.
For example, if your enemy has +1000 City Defense, this will be reduced to +250. This will have a noticeable negative effect on their defensive forces
Defensive Abilities
1. Defense Bonus Increase (Pezos)
This Ability can help you improve the performance of your Defensive Units. It increases the Defense Bonuses at your City and your Coalition’s Pantheons.
At the maximum Level, this Ability will improve your Defense Bonus by 50% when activated.
For example, if your City Defense Bonus is +1000, it will become +1500 with the Bonus.
2. Assassin Protection (Mamertine)
This Ability will help soften the attacks of enemy Assassins. When activated, you will lose fewer Units when you are attacked with Assassins. Update the Agreement for this Ability to increase the percentage of Units that will be saved.
When this Ability is activated at the maximum Level, you won’t lose any Units at all.
This Ability can be activated both at your own City and friendly Cities where you have stationed Reinforcements. However, keep in mind the restrictions with the latter case (see below).
3. Army Cloaking (Hamippos)
When activated, a percentage of your army will be hidden in enemy Spy Reports. If an enemy Spy manages to destroy some of your Spy Units, your remaining Spy Units will still be hidden in the Report. Update the Agreement for this Ability to increase the percentage of Units that will be hidden.
At the maximum Level, all of your Units will be hidden.
4. Free Infirmary Rate (Dimacha)
Under normal circumstances, only Units that were destroyed defending your City are sent to the Infirmary’s “Free” section. However, this Ability allows you to extend the Free Revival mechanic to other locations too.
The Ability can be activated in Defensive battles at the following locations: friendly Cities with your Reinforcements, Pantheons, Emporia, and Coalition Capitals. Units that fall defending your City will still be sent to the Free Infirmary using the existing mechanics.
Update the Agreement for this Ability to increase the percentage of fallen Units that can be revived, up to a maximum of 10%.
Notes: Elysian Units
Remember the following points when analyzing your Elysian Units.
1. Abilities cannot be activated in Elysian Positions and Elysian Missions.
2. Some bonuses from the Buildings, Items, and Guardians active in your City will not affect Elysian Units. However, bonuses from your Offense/Defense Enhancer Items and Phylarch Skill Bonuses will benefit your Elysian Units as well.
3. When using Traps to defend your City, only Arcadian Traps can damage attacking Elysian Units.
4. Elysian Units cannot gain any Unit XP yet, as they do not have Ranks. We are planning to implement this later in an update!
Elysian Agreements
We have created a brand new tree for Elysian Agreements. This tree will allow you to improve your Elysian Units, unlock Elysian fortifications, and boost Moonstone production.
Agreements are divided into 8 groups.
1. Elysian Units (Olympus, Etna, Ida, and Lykaion)
This type of Agreement allows you to train Elysian Units. There are 4 Agreements of this type – one for each Unit.
2. Unit Offense/Defense (e.g. Pezos Offense, Dimacha Defense)
Agreements of this type increase the Offensive or Defensive statistics of the Units they relate to. When updated to the maximum Level, they make a massive difference to the power of your Elysian Units – increasing their combat statistics by 170%. This means that a Unit with a base Offense of 1000 will be boosted to 2700. In short, they are well worth investing Resources and time into.
3. Unit Revival Cost (e.g. Pezos Revival Cost, Hamippos Revival Cost)
Elysian Units are valuable. Training them from scratch can be slow and Resource intensive. Reviving your Elysian Units is essential to maintaining the strength of your army, and it’s faster than training new ones.
Each Level of this type of Agreement reduces the cost of reviving an Elysian Unit by the indicated percentage. At the maximum Level, it can save you 30% of the Unit’s full value in Drachmas. It is then multiplied by the discount already provided by the Infirmary.
Example: The value of an Elysian Unit in Drachmas is 100. Your Infirmary provides a 50% discount, and your “Revival Cost” Elysian Agreement provides a 20% discount. The calculation is as follows:
100 Drachmas – 30% (Elysian bonus) = 70 Drachmas
70 Drachmas – 50% (Infirmary bonus) = 35 Drachmas to revive the Unit.
4. Infirmary Rate (e.g. Pezos Infirmary Rate, Mamertine Infirmary Rate)
This type of Agreement increases the number of Elysian Units that will be sent to the Infirmary after they are destroyed in battle.
Update this type of Agreement to the maximum Level to increase its bonus to 100%. For example, if you upgrade the Pezos Infirmary Rate to Level 20 (maximum Level), 100% of your fallen Pezoi will be sent to the Infirmary, where they can be revived with Drachmas.
5. Offensive/Defensive Special Abilities (e.g. Movement Invisibility, Defense Bonus Increase)
As mentioned earlier, each Elysian Unit has two abilities – one Offensive and one Defensive (view the Unit Information window for each Unit to find out more). The benefit from the Bonuses of these Abilities depends on the Level of the relevant Agreement.
Once you have unlocked a Unit type by signing the required Elysian Agreement, you can begin increasing the power of their Ability bonuses. The higher the update Level of the Agreement, the more powerful the bonus is from an activated Ability.
6. Ability Activation Chance
Even the most powerful Elysian Unit Abilities are useless if they are not activated. You can improve the Activation Chance of each Ability in the Unit Selection window, usually by choosing a greater number of the specified Unit.
However, there is another way to improve Ability Activation Chance. By updating the Activation Chance Agreement for each Ability, you will be able to significantly increase the probability that the Ability will be activated.
7. Elysian Fortifications (Kynthos Lvl 1, 2, 3, and 4)
These Agreements allow you to build Elysian Fortifications in your Elysian City. The Level of the Fortification you can construct is equal to the update Level of the Agreement.
8. Moonstone Production (Othrys)
This Agreement allows you to construct the Temple of Thea. This Building increases your Moonstone production by a certain percentage with each update Level.
About Agreements
You can sign only one Agreement or Elysian Agreement at a time, unless you get an additional Emissary.
If you want to sign Agreements faster, you can reduce Agreement Signing Time using Elysian Boosts or sign one instantly using Drachmas. All bonuses that currently affect the speed of Agreement Signing will also apply to Elysian Agreements.
Points for signing Elysian Agreements will contribute to personal Achievements. Further, Elysian Agreements do not affect the 7% Resource Production Bonus. The Bonus is still unlocked by signing all the Agreements that do not require GPs.
Please note that free recall option is not available now for those who have Elysian City opened.
It was done as one of the Agreements gives Elysian Units a chance of receiving an additional bonus. If the free recall remained, it would give players a chance to send and recall Units until the moment when a special ability works and gives them the bonus. And cheat in this way.
Elysian Articles
To sign Elysian Agreements, you will need to collect the relevant Elysian Articles. You can get these in several ways:
- Log into the game. You will get 1 Elysian Article per day
- Purchase them from the Agreement Info window. There is no daily limit for purchasing Elysian Articles
- Win them at Elysian Positions. You can get a maximum of 1 Elysian Article from Positions each day.
- Exchange them in the Ephorate. Elysian Articles can only be exchanged with Archons who have discovered the Elysian City.
- Receive Elysian Articles from another player.
- Purchase them at the Market
Elysian Positions
Elysian Positions pit your Elysian Units against Xerxes' Ahura forces across Hellas.
The Units you will face are different to those found at regular Positions, so be sure to check their statistics to find out the most effective way of destroying them.
Only Elysian Units can fight at Elysian Positions, which means you will have to plan your strategy carefully. The way you progress through Elysian Positions is exactly the same as regular Positions. First, you must win at the highest available Level of Elysian Position. Then, after a certain number of Levels, you must complete an Elysian Mission. The latter will be the greatest challenge your Elysian Units will face.
The Reward system works the same way at Elysian Positions as it does at regular Positions. While the highest level Positions will yield the greatest Rewards, there is also value in sending weaker Elysian Units to lower-level Positions. You may just end up with a more powerful army than the one you sent.
This is particularly important in the early stages after discovering the Elysian City. You will need to upgrade a fair bit before you can train the most powerful Elysian Units, but you can still win them at Elysian Positions.
Along with Elysian Units, you’ll receive Moonstones as a Reward for completing Elysian Positions. This Resource is essential for training Units, constructing and upgrading Elysian Buildings, and signing Elysian Agreements.
Elysian Missions
Your first Elysian Mission will be available to you as soon as you discover the Elysian City. After this, a new Elysian Mission Position will appear after every 10 Levels of Offensive and Defensive Elysian Positions you complete. This means that the second Elysian Mission will only be available after you win at both Offensive and Defensive Level 10 Elysian Positions.
Moonstones
Moonstone is a brand new Resource in the game, unique to your Elysian City. You will need a reliable supply of Moonstones to train new Elysian Units and to make improvements to your Elysian Buildings and Elysian Agreements.
You can obtain Moonstones in several ways:
- From Moonstone Quarries
- As a Reward for winning at Elysian Positions
- By purchasing Moonstone Packs at the Market
Elysian Coalition Achievements
We have added two new Coalition Achievements to reward Coalitions that help their Elysian forces flourish.
1. Enyalius. This Achievement is for training Elysian Units.
2. Pallas. This Achievement is for attacking or defending Elysian Positions.
Archons, we hope this guide serves you well.
Remember, this is just the beginning of what’s coming up for your Elysian City. We’ll be adding exciting new improvements in the coming months.
We appreciate any feedback and suggestions that come from you. If you have any comments or questions, let us know.
Good luck, and may glory find you!