TOC
1. The Forgotten Units
2. Reccommended Retrofitting
3. Plateau's
4. Espionage
5. FIDI
6. Research Order
7. Strategy & Playstyle
8. Heroes
9. Boosters
10. Items of interest

Abreviations
SOM - Sisters of mercy
Pop - population

Other guides

Avilyss - Shadows and Silence Guide
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?85779-Shadows-and-Silence-Forgotten

This guide is really well done and i reccommend everyone that likes my guide to check this one out as well. He has put so much time and effort into explaining the forgotten and many players have contributed to making it.

Efficient Cities by j.a.paisley
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?28694-Building-Big-Efficient-Cities-Borough-Streets-amp-Leveling-Districts

If your new to endless legend i really reccommend you skim through this guide. It's important to use the suggested layouts because it keeps your approval high while you expand your cities and increase your overall FIDSI tremendously.

Disclaimers
Permission to advertise was given by avilyss.

Efficient cities guide link belongs to j.a.paisley. Contacted before in my ardent mages guide.

Your basic starter unit, very weak at start and is invisible on the map. When you start rolling glass/titanium weapons and accessories assassins become incredibly scary. Assassins have the ability to freely walk through units and flank the weaker units. Combined with glory or death they can get really high morale which makes them absolute beasts. You can get anti-infantry and anti-ranged at the same time by duel wielding one sword and one axe. Recommended that you use iron claws from era 1-3 until you get glass/titanium or palladium weapons

Stealth = Invisible on world map unless adjacent to something.
Fast = +1 battle movement
Duel Wield = Can equip two weapons and the offhand weapon has -50% less stats.
Acrobat = Can walk through any unit on the battlefield.

Acrobat is the bread and butter for the forgotten, so long as you can attack first you can prevent players from getting reinforcements every turn.





Your standard archer, only he is invisible and duel wields cross bows for huge amounts of damage. Early on is fairly weak but gets stronger mid-late game. Recommended that you use iron bows from era 1-3 until you get glass/titanium or paladium crossbows. This unit is amazing for sniping heroes, high hp units and low morale units before they become a threat.

Stealth = Invisible on world map unless adjacent to something.
Duel Wield = Can equip two weapons and the offhand weapon has -50% less stats.
Predators Mark = Marks an opponent for two turns up to three marks. This ability when stacked can deal an extra 60% damage.










This unit is like an invisible haunt minus some hp. Very powerful flying unit that can chain strike several targets at once. You can use claws or a two handed spear for anti-calvary. This unit is a decent combat unit or pure scout, however archers with flying slayer just decimate them. I don't recommend using mysts against factions with archers. If you can get more initiative than your opponent than even fighting against archers you should kill them fast, maybe with some losses.

Stealth = Invisible on world map unless adjacent to something.
Faster than shadows = Does not work against fortified opponents and overrides base attack. What this means is it overrides retaliation.
When mysts strike they hit an opponent for normal damage and the damage is spread to every unit adjacent of the opponent hit.

Against factions that don't have archers mysts are like reapers on the battlefield. Highly mobile, able to finish off several weakend opponents at once.




Settler
Standard unit for settling towns only it has invisibility.







Minor Faction Bonuses worth using
Make do with what you get, can't expect to always get what you want.

-Hurnas
more attack is good, if you're playing aggressively and you should be. You might need to assimilate them if facing off against high defense opponents such as broken lords.

-Guran
more hp is nice but forgotten units have low base hp i don't recommend using unless you got a hero with hp boost 3 and/or some hp traits).

-Eyeless One
units are okay but i feel would benefit higher hp factions more than forgotten. The real bonus is the approval rating per villa to reduce penalties of expanding fast early on.

The minor factions that makes the most impact

-Delvers
Dust = research and everything else and you need this because forgotten really lack in terms of dust production when compared to roving clans and dust lords. You want at least 3+ villas if possible.

-Nidya [Very important in war focused games]
more initiative so you take less damage, flank opponents and position troops is a must.

Silics
If you can get 3-4 silics you won't ever need for strategic resources and this is a great boon for forgotten as you will be spending tons of glassteel and titanium for not only military but economy as well. Later you will be consuming multiple different ores such as paladian, admantian, hyperium and mithrite.

Rumblers
The extra -% reduction to industry build que's immensely helps when you need to expand your empire and build multiple improvements across several cities.

-Daemon
Influence is needed for spying and anything spy related. This is most useful early on when influence is harder to come by.

-Geldrius
more damage is amazing especially on this race as they do lots of it.

-Sisters of Mercy
if you can get 2++ villas of SOM spies won't die from roundups that don't insta kill or capture. This is a must if you didn't get the regeneration achievement from era 3. Health regeneration makes your spies notoriously hard to kill and keeps your armies alive.

Assassins
Weapons
From era 1-3 you should use claws as they deal more damage than duel wielding. From era 3++ you should be duel wielding glassteel or palladian weapons.

Armor
iron tier 1-3, mix of dust and palladian/adamantian/hyperium/mithrite if you can afford it.

Accessories
movement and iron ring accessories

Predator
Weapons
era 1-3 you should use the 2 handed bows instead of duel crossbows because you will deal more damage. At era 3-4 start duel wielding crossbows for pointblank, glass and paladium weapons.

Armor
iron tier 1-3, mix of dust and palladian/adamantian/hyperium/mithrite if you can afford it.

Accessories
movement accesories and titanium rings if you can afford it

Mysts
Weapons
If facing off against roving clans spears would be viable but for everything else stick to claws. Era 3-4 glass and palladian weapons.

Armor
iron tier 1-3, mix of dust and palladian/adamantian/hyperium/mithrite if you can afford it.

Accessories
movement/iron ring/glory or death/life drain accessories.

Era 1
Forgotten will be mostly ahead during this era we need to get to era 2 before second empire plan.
[endless turn 80, slow turn 60, normal turn 40 and fast turn 20]
Note: might not be correct feel free to correct me^.

Era 2
This is where forgotten will pitfall for awhile, our goal is to reach era 3 as soon as we can. We need to get strikes first or wayra sigo and an extra spy hero. If we get lucky and we can afford it try to get Eslek Tarosh (haunt hero) as your elite general. If not a forgotten/drakken/cultist general with good boosts will suffice.

Eslek tarosh can clear the map of ruins and give you that extra oomph in your dust production your going to need to push through era 2 as fast as you can. This hero also allows your mysts to skip retrofitting movement accessories and add more damage/defense. This will greatly increase your overrall fire power.

Complete faction quest to unlock zeima for a 3rd spy asap. If you know a rush or a war is incoming i suggest you steal/buy glassteel and titanium armor and weapon tech.

If your facing vaulters or necrophage this is the time you want to try and sneak in a truce.

Era 3
Most players skilled players will be reaching era 4 by the time you get 1 or 2 tech's from era 3.

In era 2 we prepared to get extra spies to steal tech. We need to steal and buy as much tech as we can to enter era 3 and get "learn from others". This way our spies will level fast and become lethal at stealing tech and everything else. Try to steal or buy dust refinery and dust alchemy as soon as you can as well. We need to be very focused on exactly how much influence we need to do this so that we can keep the empire plans we absolute must have.

Once we get "learn from others" try to get as many forgotten spies as you can but don't just limit yourself to that. Buy governors you would need for your city and slap them into your opponents cities to level them up and replace them as you get more forgotten spies.

This ideally would be wayra sigo, edra the listener, lore master semsanitnowana, duke unwin weybridge/John port "the shadow" and strikes first.

Era 4
By this point we are going to be harassing players that can't immediately kill us so that we can greatly increase our dust, strategics and luxury production. Keep your greatest enemies close and in check while you try to catch up or get ahead of everyone else.

First two techs your going to want in a military game ASAP
-GIOS
-Brigade system

Find the cities with the most production on it and put spies in every single factions industry city. Make sure you watch what they are making because if you see "GIO'S" or any other guardian you need to use your spy to shut the industry city down. Try to be the first player to get guardians rolling because our military won't be able to handle facing off multiple of these things.

If you are the most skilled player in the game by this point you will be likely killing everyone off while pillaging them for everything their worth.

Era 5

Era 6

In order to spy on someone you need to find them and have one of their cities within your vision. For this reason getting the iron ring trinket on your hero or units is absolutely necessary.
When you infiltrate a city your hero has -50% upkeep costs if its a forgotten hero with level 4 spying. Every turn after you infiltrate a city will generate around 10 security each turn unless increased by hero traits from leveling up.

Infiltration Leveling [May change if patched]
What i mean by 40% is the amount of security % the city you infiltrated has. Early on everyone excluding forgotten has 20% security. When they research the related tech and build the improvements they can reach 40%-60% or 40%-80% as forgotten.

Security affects spies aggressively by interrupting their actions. Cities with 30% security have 30% chance to interrupt spies which then breaks down into a % chance to wound, capture or kill the spy inside the city.

40% Security
1. 45
2. 90
3. 112
4. 422.2
5. 689.9

60% Security
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

80% Security
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

[WIP]

This means if your getting 10 Infiltration per turn with no winter and no seniority/security traits then it will take you about 69 turns to get security level 5. This is important to take note because if you are planning to steal most of your tech your going to need to have high level heroes to do so.

I have no idea what the exact # is for Infiltration per turn during winter and how it all calculates with/without traits so i'd like someone to help me out.

Spy hero traits that you need on your spies ASAP

Managed Torpor
-2 Assignment cooldown on hero and max -4 cooldown level 2.
very useful and you need it to advance down the trait tree anyways. Leave it at level 1.

Fast Healer [Important]
2x recovery speed and -20% buyout recovery costs and max 4x and -40% costs level 2.

Lord of Trance [Important]
+5 infiltration points per turn and 10 max level 2.

Double or Nothing [Somewhat Important]
+50% seniority bonus on hero for max of 100% level 2.

This trait is okay i guess, basically if you do a level 4 espionage action you get 2(50%) or 4(100%) more security per turn when you succeed/survive. Sadly this caps at 20 which means you can only get to security 5 at a fixed pace.

Without this trait lets say you do a level 4 steal tech action. After you succeed and you don't die or get captured you will start to gain 10 security +4 seniority +whatever traits you have per turn.

With double or nothing level 1 and you did a level 4 action you would get [10 + 4 + 2 + traits] per turn.
With double or nothing level 2 and you did a level 4 action you would get [10 + 4 + 4 + traits] per turn.

The only reason why i would get this trait is for the one step ahead trait to reduce the 30 turn jail to 15 or never.

One Step Ahead [Most important in slow game speeds and vs AI]
-50% jail time when captured and immunity to capture at level 2.

Choose one goal and stick with it to the end, for example supremacy or economic victory. Keep note of the factions your playing against and setup your game plan accordingly. You cannot produce more dust than roving clans or broken lords so you should be aiming to heavily harass them to buy some time. The forgotten excel at winning militarily because you have many tools at your disposal to cut your opponents down. Don't let vaulters, cultists, drakken and necrophage catch you off gaurd, make sure to keep them in check.

Do not research any more than the three most important tech's until you get to empire plan. Only reason to research 1 or more tech before empire plan is to check heroes or get an earlier seed mill as some starting regions lack food.

Research Village square, foundry mill and empire mint first then the rest of the tech after empire plan for +3 dust per population. The reason for this is because heroes are going to be cheapest during era 1 and 2. We need to get two heroes ASAP preferably a governor and war general. If we can get another spy then we're doing good.

If your playing against ai's you get a little more leeway to dabble in a few other things. If your playing PvP and especially against war focused players you need to make every move count towards having equal or stronger military than your opponent. Forgotten is unforgiving in that you cannot focus on everything at once you have to specialize or die.

AI's
Forgotten don't need to build science improvements and actually benefit more from rapid expansion than building tall. I'd get two settlers asap and then build those regions up. while training troops to harass, pillage and ambush ai's that leave their boarders. You should make it your priority to find another faction asap so you can get some easy ruins, pillage and do your faction quest to get a second hero. Other than military wins these guys aren't good at much else for the moment.

If you started in a heavily forested area i suggest you make starting hero a governor. The extra dust helps you get a 2nd hero and buy tech quicker. Especially if you get the ability to gain dust on forest tiles.
Your first hero is better as a spy to steal early tech from players this depends on the distance between you and them. Somtimes you won't find other players right away and in that down time you may end up using your hero to fight, scout and spy or govern.

You need to unlock ziema the faction quest hero as soon as possible as she is a powerhouse of a military general and gives some very powerful weapons for all your heroes. I suggest you stop the faction questline after you get the tower for the extra strategic resources.


First heroes should be
1. Wayra Siego or Strikes first or Exid The Chosen
2. War general [Eslek Tarosh, Drakken hero, Sable blade ayo adda]
3.Loremaster semsanitnowana or Edra the listener optional for influence. You could use these governors as temporary spies as well.
4. Forgotten spies or any spy you can get.
5. In longer matches Lord Peyton Quinn and Jasah Murdap = Dust efficiency best for pure dust cities.
Duke unwin weybridge/ John port "The shadow" = Dust boost and not as good in pure dust cities.
In desert regions will boost your dust and strategic yields greatly. These heroes are the "ardent mage hero" for science. Only for us science = dust ;-).
A cultist will suffice if you can't get these governors at the time.


Buy more governors as you expand and you need more. Make sure to buy heroes early because they become too expensive for forgotten later on.

Players

Forgotten don't need to build science improvements and actually benefit more from rapid expansion than building tall. I'd get two settlers asap and then build those regions up. You should make it your priority to find another faction asap so you can get some easy ruins and do your faction quest to get a second hero.

If you start near cultists, necrophage or vaulters i suggest training a stack of 6 troops retrofitted with strategics to rush and kill them asap. You should find the city with the highest industry and take that down first.

This does three things for you
1. prevent them from counter attacking by training more troops
2. Train troops of your own to finish them off.
3. Weakens the player so you can freely pillage them and if they leave the ai won't even attack you while you pillage.

If you win save a region or two of the player/ai so you can freely pillage their stuff and keep stealing and buying your way through the era's. If they don't have the alchemical alloys tech give it to them with a truce and kill any minorfaction villas they haven't pacified already.

You need to unlock ziema the faction quest hero as soon as possible as she is a powerhouse of a military general and gives some very powerful weapons for all your heroes. While zeima is recovering she makes for a good temporary spy as well. If you have better generals to use other than zeima use her as a spy.
I suggest you stop the faction questline after you get the tower for the extra strategic resources.

Your going to need to abuse diplomacy and find someone to help you survive into the mid-endgame. Don't even try to pillage players as that will only piss them off and force you to lose units. Pillage only when your at war or trying to start one. Above all try to remain unnoticed and hidden especially against roving clans, you do NOT want to get market banned.

Forgotten has stealthed units and we should make good use of it. Lets say we notice a player wages war and sends in an army. When we reinforce our towns with more troops they won't have any idea how many troops is actually there. We could fool them by emptying our garrisons and camping outside town for surprise ambushing. [This is assuming that their hero doesn't have detection. Although it's rare it's not impossible].

Have some scouts running around peoples territory and following their generals. If your facing off against cultists always keep them under super vision as it's really easy to kill them with spies. If they move out the main body of their troops you can walk into their territory, destroy all their fortification and eliminate them from the game in one turn.

Don't allow dust lords, necrophage and vaulters to grow out of control, stop their production in their major production cities and steal tech from the lesser cities. If you started near a broken lords or vaulter i suggest you focus your military as much as you can and take them out while it's still possible.

If you started near a necrophage i suggest you get glass/titanium equips and meritocratic promotion and attack them asap.

Drakken is a pain to deal with but since we can ignore boarders we can easily siege and take their cities combined with spies reducing their fortification or morale. Don't let them grow too much if you can help it as they can easily win a science, economic, expansion and supremacy victory. If you want them to war you, this is easily done by pillaging everything you can.

First heroes should be
1. Wayra Siego or Strikes first or Exid The Chosen
2. War general [Eslek Tarosh, Drakken hero, Sable blade ayo adda]
3.3. Loremaster semsanitnowana or Edra the listener optional for influence. You could use these governors as temporary spies as well.
4. Forgotten spies or any spy you can get.
5. In longer matches Duke unwin weybridge/ John port "The shadow" in desert regions will boost your dust and strategic yields greatly. This hero is our "ardent mage hero" for science. Only for us science = dust ;-).
A cultist will suffice if you can't get these governors at the time.

Forgotten has a very tight budget regarding dust in the early and mid game. You should only take the best technology of each era that will make the most impact. The technology i find to make the greatest impact in expansion and economy i have compiled below.

Research Village square, foundry mill and empire mint first then the rest of the tech after empire plan for the -20% reduced technology costs.

You vs AI
Mill foundry,
village square,
empire mint or aquatic pulvics,
open pit mine [only if you have boosters worth extracting]
cultivation,
Alchemical science,
merc market,
predator,
Sewers system,
imperial highways,
Glory of empire,
imperial coinage,
caudata sanctuary,
Alchemical alloys,
Alchemical armor,
myst [optional]

Steal advanced tech only
[if your in era 1 steal era 2 tech etc].
-buy learn from others asap
-buy/steal dust refiner and dust alchemy asap

Sometimes if you have lots of dust to spare it is worth it to research merc market first to get early good heroes. However the luck of the draw doesn't always bring in good heroes you want to buy early on in the game. If you see wayra sigo or strikes first buy them with out a second thought, they are the best governors you could possibly get as forgotten. If you get those heroes you'll notice the different as soon as you assign them to a city. Otherwise get yourself a good war general ASAP.

Prioritize dust technology and influence technology before industry so that you can maximize your empire plans and spy actions. Ai's are less aggressive than players so you can get away with not investing too much into military technology.

You vs Players

Research Village square, foundry mill and empire mint first then the rest of the tech after empire plan for the -20% reduced technology costs.

Balanced research order
Mill foundry,
village square,
empire mint or aquatic pulvics,
open pit mine [only if you have boosters worth extracting]
cultivation,
Alchemical science,
merc market,
predator,
Sewers system,
imperial highways,
Glory of empire,
imperial coinage,
caudata sanctuary,
Alchemical alloys,
Alchemical armor,
myst [optional]

War focused/Anti rush research order
Mill foundry,
village square,
empire mint or aquatic pulvics,
open pit mine [only if you have boosters worth extracting]
cultivation,
Alchemical science,
merc market,
predator,
Sewers system,
Training grounds,
Alchemical alloys,
imperial highways,
Alchemical armor,
Glory of empire,
caudata sanctuary,
myst [optional]

Steal advanced tech only
[if your in era 1 steal era 2 tech etc].
-buy learn from others asap
-buy/steal dust refiner and dust alchemy asap

Sometimes if you have lots of dust to spare it is worth it to research merc market first to get early good heroes. However the luck of the draw doesn't always bring in good heroes you want to buy early on in the game. If you see wayra sigo or strikes first buy them with out a second thought, they are the best governors you could possibly get as forgotten. If you get those heroes you'll notice the different as soon as you assign them to a city. Otherwise get yourself a good war general ASAP.

Prioritize dust technology and influence technology before industry so that you can maximize your empire plans and spy actions.

Depending on size of the map and whom your playing you may need to focus more military tech than economy tech. However to build a strong economy early when it matters most try to stick to the guidelines above.

If you know the player is going to try to rush you, make it your priority to rush glassteel/titanium weapons ASAP. For example ardent mage, necrophage, drakken, wildwalkers and cultists are good rushing factions.

(F) Food Forgotten are okay at producing food, with the exception of the Broken Lords, all races need food to increase their population. You only need enough food to get to pop 10-15+ increasing food indirectly increases FIDI through population.

(I) Industry [Important!] This is the biggest pain in the butt to increase. All races need to research extra industry tech in order to have reasonable production times. This mainly affect early game, where no one has the dust to be able to 'buy out' all their units and city improvements.

(D) Dust [Very important!] You need lots and lots of dust, however you should not focus so much dust that you neglect the next most important economical stat.

(I) Influence [Very Important!] You need lots more influence than you would need dust believe it or not. Your spies actually use quite a bit of influence early on and it adds up pretty fast. You want maxed empire plans at all times if possible so that you remain strong for the era your currently in to say the least.

Approval [Extremely important]

You want to make it your personal goal to remain at 60% approval rating or higher. The reason for this is because of the increased food, industry and dust you gain from it. Your cities will naturally grow quicker and you will have more resources at your disposal. If this means settling one or two less cities or researching tech for more approval then do it.

District upgrading
I reccommend you use the "stick" layout for your cities as they are easy to create in even the most disadvantageous terrain and you see faster results.

Triangle city layouts are even better if you have the space and tiles to make it worth doing.

For more information here
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?28694-Building-Big-Efficient-Cities-Borough-Streets-amp-Leveling-Districts

I did not make the guide above and all rights to the above information belongs to j.a.paisley.
this is just for an indepth look with images on how to make a "efficient" city.

Heroes

Heroes are important for all factions and most factions will need or use mostly the same ones. The forgotten race lacks dust, influence and industry so you need heroes to put you into good shape ASAP.

Starter hero

[Optional]
{From further testing this is by no means necessary but in a pure economic game it can help alot you early on. Hero is better off as a pure spy to quickly push through era 2.}

If you started in a forest region try to exploit as many anomalies as you can inside a thick forested area. Turn your hero into a governor/spy hero. There are two better heroes to make for a governor but they tend to be rare and hard to get. The main reason for this is because forgotten needs a war general ASAP as their army cannot function without a strong hero.

Heroes Better suited to be forgotten governor
Forgotten hero with doost boost 2/influence boost 2
Forgotten hero with dust boost 2/dust efficiency 2

Traits
1. Managed torpor
2. Aboreal Dust dowser (max)
3. Fast healer
4. Defender
5. Inspirational Leader
6. Cold operator
7. Inspirational Leader (max)
Invest however you see fit past 7.

If you have a tight budget and no luck finding a good hero to make a spy you can turn your starter hero into one of your main spies if you have to. This way you can still unlock zeima as a spy until she gets your glass weapons.

Traits if you can't get another spy
1. Managed torpor
2. fast healer
3. spy trait for +5 infiltration/turn (max)
4. double or nothing (max)
5. one step ahead (max)
7. Inspirational Leader
8. Cold operator

This is assuming you can buy another hero to use as a spy otherwise just make your starting hero a permanent spy. Spend points however you see fit past 8.


War generals

Forgotten hero: Sable Blade Ayou Addo
damage boost 2 and initiative boost 2
[No heal ability, however this hero has the highest damage and army buff potential in the game].
1. Managed Torpor
2. Fast Healer
3. Sang Froid
4. Ghost Force
5. Cold operator
6. Strength of the wild
7. Iron Task Master
8. Armor Engineer
9. Garb of Battle
10. Rallying Call
11. Iron Taskmaster (max)
12. Sang froid (max)
13. Garb of battle (max)
This hero has the potential to get the most army buffs in the game. You can literally stack every single possible buff onto one stack with this hero setup. Intiative and damage boost is fixed level 2 but the rest of your buffs depends on the items you use for boosts. If you get ring of unnatural hunger i recommend using that instead of attack boost because sang froid adds 30% attack maxed out to army.
The reason for getting ghost force is to include tanky MF units into your force. Guran, Silics, Haunts and daemons would make a wonderful addition to your army and ghost force turns them all invisible. If you feel you don't need or use minor faction units feel free to skip 1-5.

Drakken Archivist Nachampassesa II
-Hp Boost 3

1. Defensive Tactics
2. Keen Observer
3. No idle hands
4. Practiced Strike
5. Last Reserves
6. Armor Ergonomics
7. Cold operator
8. Last Reserves (max)
9. Practiced Strike (max)
10. Battle Hymn (max)
11. Defensive Tactics (max)

The benefit of using a drakken war hero is obviously the nice boost to HP and access to a hero that can heal units in combat. Drakken heroes used to level alot faster as well but that got balanced out with the current patch. This hero is the best war general hero in the game; However for forgotten sable blade ayou adou is better because of the inherent stealth. You will have to use an accessory trinket for stealth if you want to sneak up on people otherwise you can use the accessories for army buffs instead.

Sister of mercy hero vs necrophage [optional]
1. Strength of the wild
2. Iron Task master
3. No Idle Hands
4. Fast healer
5. Benediction of Sisters
6. Armored Engineer
7. Garb Of Battle
8. rallying call
9. ice in the veins
10. cold operator
11. Benediction of sisters (max)
12. Tend the flock (max)
13. Merciless wrath (max)
Forgotten units have such low hp that disease barely harms them. This hero is completely optional and is a powerful AoE buffer/healer and single target dpser. This hero has the potential to completely remove the chances of necrophage getting any battle born off you as well.


Governors

1. Wayra Sigo - Wild walker hero
-Food boost 2
-Industry boost 3

Trait tree
1. Functioning Insomniac
2. Woodland Forager
3. Natural Resources
4. Behemoth Tamer (max asap!)
5. Natural Architect
6. Cold Operator
7. Natural resources (max after cold)
8. Inspirational Leader (max after natural resources)

The reason why you max behemoth tamer ASAP is because it stacks with economic and industrial empire plan.
With prisoners slaves & volunteers, economic/industrial plan level 2 and wayra siego with maxed behemoth tamer you get.
-50% buyout cost and -57% reduced industry cost. What does this do? well it lets you build all the upgrades from era 1-4 in one turn for about 1000 dust give or take from a freshly built city. Or 1-3 buildings per turn depending on your industry and dust income.


2. Ozek the Chosen/Andom the seer - Cultist heroes
-Influence Boost 2/3
-Health Boost 2/2

or

Exid The Chosen
-Industry efficiency 2
-Army defense boost 2

Trait Tree
1. Impassioned Leader
2. Will of Akili
3. Proselyter
4. Inspirational leader
5. Cold Operator
Choose in the order you need
6. Inspirational leader (max)
7. Tools of the enemy (max)
8. Impassioned Leader (max)
9. Proselyter (max)
If you have learn from others researched when you get a cultist hero i recommend the attack and defense governor traits instead. Your hero will level really fast anywho and you don't gain any science from will of akili.

3. Strikes Far - Necrophage hero
-Food boost 3
-Industry boost 2

Trait Tree
1. Necrotic Agriculture
2. Slave Driver (max)
3. Road side picnic
4. Iron Constitution
5. Cold Operator
6. Cadaverous Pesticides (max)
7. Defender
8. Inspirational Leader or Face leader (max)

If you your not getting any luck with wayra siego this is your next best governor. This governor will make your population grow really fast by the way which doesn't hurt either. Combined with isolation science and nutrition chemistry it is possible to grow your cities to 30+ population with this hero. Dust lords can do this quicker but they aren't the only ones that can do this.

Slave driver reduces unit industry costs by -24% maxed which means you can mass buy out units in emergencies. After 8 put points wherever you see fit.

4. Loremaster Semsanitnwona [Good if playing against Roving clans]
- Influence boost 3
- Food boost 2

If your having no luck with cultist heroes this is the best pure influence governor in the game.

Trait tree
1. Irrigation Expert
2. Narrative Master (get to level 2)
3. Raptors Eye
4. Fast healer
5. Defender
6. Face Reader or Inspirational Leader
7. Cold operator
8. Narrative Master (max)
9. Friendly Banner
10. Inspirational Leader (max)

Spend points however you see fit after 10.

5. Lord Peyton Quinn, Jasah Murdap, Duke Unwin Weybridge or John Port "The Shadow"
Dust Efficiency 3 best for pure dust cities
Dust Boost 3 allows you to move pop around while still producing more dust

Dust boosts works well with forgotten because of "Learn From Others". However in a pure dust production city you will get tons more dust from dust efficiency than dust boost.

Your going to need at least 1-2 dust lords to help mass produce dust in your cities to buy tech, more heroes, buyout city upgrades and units.

Trait tree
1. Aquatic Dust
2. Dust Diviner
3. Mining Authority
4. Siege Engine
5. Dust Trickery (level 2)
6. Cold operator
7. Dust Trickery (max)
8. Dust miner or Mining Authority (max)
9. Dust miner or Mining Authority (max)
10. Dust Diviner (max)
If you have titanium/glass and paladium or adamantium i suggest you max mining authority first for the extra strategics. If you don't use the resources you can always sell/trade them off for more dust than what you would get per tile anyway. After 10 put points wherever you see fit.

6. Roving clan hero
- Dust boost or efficiency 2-3

1. Travelling Salesman
2. Safe passage
3. Fast Trader
4. Inspirational Leader
5. Cold Operator
6. Inspirational Leader (max)
7. Fast Trader (max)
8. Travelling Salesman (max)

If you got a region completely surronded by other regions a roving clan hero can increase your trade route income by a huge amount. Stacked with grassilk and empire plans you can easily reach 1k dust or more a turn from trade routes and this hero. After 8 invest wherever you see fit.

All factions have favorite and must have boosters and the forgotten is pretty easy to figure out what boosters you need. They need dust and influence LOTS of it so anything to boost it is a huge boon.

Era 1 luxuries

Wine +20 hapiness

Emeralds 30% fortification on cities

Dye
+50% influence on cities and + 5 hapiness

Gold
-50% city dust upkeep

Spice
+50% food and +5 hapiness

Era 3 luxuries

Titan bone
50% industrty and +10 hapiness

Blood crystal +30% attack on units and +10 hapiness

Grassilk
+100% dust from trade routes and +10 hapiness

Era 4 luxuries

Dustwater +50% dust on cities +10 hapiness

Hydromel
-75% hero upkeep +10 hapiness

Dust Orchid 20% food, industry, dust and science +10 hapiness

Faction Quest items

Shadowbrand
15 attack
4 defense
18 initiative
20 damage
30% attack
10% defense
30% initiative
30% damage
Shadowstrike trait: 30% more attack

Shadowbinder
15 attack
4 defense
18 initiative
20 damage
30% attack
10% defense
30% initative
30% damage
Shadowguard trait: 30% more defense

Interesting items

Ring Of the Boreal Owl [dust required]
camoflage on forest tiles. To get this accessory you need to research pillage in era 1.

Whispering bracelets [adamantian required]
fast learner 1-3
gives 20%/30%/40% bonus to exp gains.

Rare accessories from ruins

Star blade [Hyperium required]
105 attack
6 defense
64 damage
40% attack
10% defense
50% damage

Shard of icarael [Palladian required]
77 attack
6 defense
12 initiative
48 damage
40% attack
10% defense
20% initiative
30% damage

Nwere
grants ghost force for leading hero. Grants full party stealth

Ziiri's Band
Grants unit stealth when equipped.

Spying and Anti-spy accessories
requires palladian/adamantian armor tech 1-3

Scope of the adept [Adamantian is required]
+3/+5/+7 infiltration per turn and -15%/-30%/-45% infiltration costs

Register Series [Palladian is required]
+10/+20/+30 more security on governed city.