Greetings!

In this guide I will cover the basics as well as some advanced tricks to help you achieve your badass army faster. The guide is rather long, so please use the guide index to navigate to what you want to learn more about. I will include many links to the Forge of Gods Wikia in order to cut down the length of this guide somewhat.

Premium vs free player.
One of the first questions players may ask themselves when playnig a F2P game is "Where is the cashgrab, and how bad is it?" I am not going to lie, if you spend RL money in the ingame shop, you will get to the top faster than if you are playing this game for free. However, the game will hand you quite a bit of free premium currency from just playing, so with enough time spent you could technically, with some luck, get any unit you want. Additionally, the end of month log in reward is often a very useful unit that even premium players may find worth getting.

There are examples of players who spend no money and still get to the top 1% in this game by staying active and making smart choices. In that regard, there are certainly worse games out there than FoG when it comes to locking out free players.

I recommend that you read Panoramik's pinned post about this, or figure it out on your own through trial and error. I would like to add that you can click and drag damage skulls that drop in maps on your enemies.

This game is designed for the player to burn his resources, and then return to the game every 2-2.5 hours. As you move up in levels you can play for longer before having to wait for your energy to refill, so keep this in mind when you're starting out.

This game has quite a few resources and as a new player it can be challenging to keep track of them all. In this list you can click the resource you want to know more about, and you will be directed to the FoG Wikia.

Primary Resources

• Food. [forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Rage. [forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Gold.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Gems.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]

Secondary Resources

• Wood.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Stone.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Glory.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]

Special currency

• Soulstones.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Crystals.[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
  
• Pal points. [forgeofgods.wikia.com]

Promocodes
You can find codes on FoG Facebook[www.facebook.com] (daily) and Twitter page. (occasionally). To add a code click the friends icon --> Invite --> Enter code into chatbox.

Good resource managment is crucial if you want a strong army. If you checked out the links, I am sure you realized that you need ingame friends and a guild to get some of these resources. Luckily this is very managable, and we will get to that later in the guide.

At lvl 5 you will be able to add friends. Friends are very useful in this game for 4 reasons.

• Use your friend's warlord to clear stages
  
• Get free Pal Points that are used for summoning creatures.
  
• Get 5 bonus meat (food) from each friend daily. This adds up to a lot!
  
• Do training battles with friend to progress your win streak and replace opponenets.

How to add friends?
The first way to do it is similar to how you add promocodes. From map menu, click the "Friends" icon --> Click "invite icon" --> Type in the code of your friend. You can collect codes from the FoG community forums, or directly from players in chat.


You are welcome to add me to your list with this code: AUHHVJ
[This is my challenge mode F2P account with a cap of 2 downloadable content.] I always have room for new players because the game grants a special slot for you. If I have room I will accept active veterans as well. :)






Another way to add friends is by browsing players and clicking the infobutton next to their names. If you have friend slots available, an invite icon will appear in the bottom right corner. Click to invite.

A third option is by accepting the popup invite promt after a pvp match. I would not recommend this if you are looking for active players, but hey, you might get lucky.

More info about friends here. [forgeofgods.wikia.com]

Starting at lvl 10, you will be able to join a guild. Guilds are very important, and will contribute a lot to your increase of power.

Picking your first guild:
If you have low army power (250 or less), any rank I guild or higher with active members in it, is a decent pick. That will get you started until you can join one of the top 30 guilds.

What should I expect from my guild?
You should expect tons of rewards! Seriously! You get loot by clearing raids to certain thresholds and the rewards are quite substantial. Also, through guild wars you may increase your guild ranking in order to get fire crystals. These are used for the guild crypt, which may drop very powerful units if you're lucky. Then there is the social aspect. Some guilds actually chat with each other. :)

What do guilds expect of me?
I've picked out some guilds from a top 10 list. Do you see a pattern in what they are requesting?



An active player is a player that completes daily GvG and raids.

In guild versus guild the goal is to bring points to your guild in order to increase the guild's ranking. You gain points by attacking other players from the guild(s) you are in war with. You lose points when other players attack you, or if you attack someone and lose the fight. (gotta balance risk and reward). Your aim should be to always have a positive score. A guild may have up to 3 slots depending on its rank as illustrated on the table below. (Updated February 2017)


Guilds have different expectations of how many attacks you need to do. For top guilds this is usually at least 10/day (14 logins per week), while less active guilds may let you pass with only +5/day. (7 logins per week)

The amount of raids you need to do also depends on your guild. It is smart to ask your guild master how many raids (s)he expects from you, and what raids to prioritize. With coordinated efforts as a guild, you can get a lot more loot compared to guilds where everyone does as they want and every raid is halfway complete but nothing has actually been done.

If raids are too hard for you, try using time turners. These drop randomly from stages and if you use them carefully, you will always have enough. Just pick the auto option next to the regular crystal option when starting the raid. Do not waste time turners on easy stages, save them for stages that are too time-consuming to complete normally.

Gem donations
Some guilds request that you donate gems, and you should consider what they are offering in return. 50 gems/month is a reasonable request from a growing small guild. +50 gems/week is fair if your guild completes "Legend Mine" on a weekly basis which will provide you free 50 gems.
If you know that you will not be able to help your guild that much one week, you can ask your GM if (s)he is ok with you paying a few gems to get carried.

If you have ever played any RPG in your life you are familiar with this concept, but if you are not, check out this link. [forgeofgods.wikia.com]

The important part to know about XP is that your food and rage is replenished when you level up. Because of this, it is smart to use all your rage and burn your food low before you decide to go for the next level. You always know how much xp each stage give so it's easy to plan ahead. (add bonus % if you're using premium buff), Note that all stages in the daily hub give you 0 XP so spend the last food here if you're close to a new lvl.

If you are in a good guild, you will sometimes get a +2000 XP reward. I recommend that you save the reward if you are below lvl 36. From here on you can do the following trick:

Example: lvl 36 1/1000 XP --> Spend reward --> DING lvl 37 1001/1004 XP --> spend rage and food --> Clear a stage with 6 xp --> DING lvl 38 3/1006 XP with full energy and food.

Hit this link[forgeofgods.wikia.com] for more info about what to expect each lvl.

To build a strong army, you need to be familiar with some concepts. Click the titles to be redirected to the Wikia for additional information.

Terminology[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
Learn about "one-stepping", Tiers and Grades.

Evolution[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
I recommend checking out the link above to learn more about the difference between Elites and regular units. As you grow stronger, you generally want to sell normal units and only save elite units as their power is greater. For the best results, always evolve your creatures on Megaevolve day. Then you will get a 15% bonus instead of the regular 10%.

Fuse [forgeofgods.wikia.com] A nice way to max out your creature's lvl before megaevolving it.

Buildings[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
Buildings can give your units a % bonus in pvp. At the higher lvls the bonus is very useful.

Reborn[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
The Reborn system upgrades your tier 1 units into more powerful tier 3 units. Check out the full list above and decide which units you want to farm. It will take quite a bit of effort and time, so plan ahead. It is smart to ask veteran players if certain units are good. There are reborn guides on Steam, so I will not go further in depth in this guide.

Fruits[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
Fruits should primarily be used to boost your most valuable units. (NB: Not your warlord). They are usually wasted on units you just bring along for buffs as fruits will increase your army power which puts you at a disadvantage in pvp.

Set bonuses
Collecting certain units can grant you set bonuses, which range from insignificant to incredible buffs.

Synergy
When making your army, it's smart to think about what units fit together and where to place them. I have been up against several players who have brought units that buff a certain faction, like beasts, and then they put all their beasts out of the unit's buff range. Total waste.

Another rookie mistake is filling your entire army with melee units. This means that half your army is just standing there waiting to get killed instead of contributing to the fight. Don't be this player.

Warlord
You can change your warlord whenever without a loss to bonuses, and doing so may make evolution easier depending on what you have available. Some players upgrade their warlord as soon as they can. While this makes sense in PvE, it can put you at a severe disadvantage in PvP because it increases your army power way more than the actual usefulness. I recommend that you don't upgrade your warlord past grade VIII until you have a very strong army. I remember easily taking out players with ~2k army power and an X warlord with my ~1k army power VIII warlord army, since our units were about the same power.

PvP and army power (AP)
I have mentioned army power a couple of times. Why do you want to keep this number low? Basically, the higher AP you have the harder opponents you will face in PvP, daily challenges and guild raids. (For PvE this stops being a problem around 5k AP). If you have inflated your AP by fruiting your buffers or warlord, you will find yourself fighting armies with similar AP, but way more dangerous units. Also, in guild wars, you become be the easy and juicy target that everyone attacks for bonus points, and thus you end up with consistent negative points which may get you kicked from some guilds.

PvE vs PvP
Certain units are better in one gamemode. Healers for instance are great for PvE where they get a lot of time to heal up their comrades. In PvP however their usefulness is greatly decreased, since fights are often determined fast, and because of a stacking damagebuff that eventually leads to damage dealers one-shotting everything. Regarding tanks, it is generally more annoying to deal with defenders compared to stouts, but some stouts have very nice buffs which make them useful.

Claim your identity
If you have not noticed already, you can change your default ingame name by clicking the quill and paper when browsing your army. Rejoice, you no longer look like a complete newbie!

Crypts[forgeofgods.wikia.com]
Aside from the reborn system and creatures you get from rewards, most of your units will come from crypts.

List of creatures by tiers[forgeofgods.wikia.com]

Stone crypt
Free, but units are low tier. (T1-2)
Pal crypt
Also free, and you can sometimes get useful units. (T2-3)
Rankings and guild crypts
These are free, and sometimes drop T5! (T2-T5)
At 10k AP, 25k AP and 50k AP you get even better loot from these crypts.

Elite ruby crypt
Costs 285 gems, and the chance to get T5 is very low (1-5%)
Amber crypt
Costs 712 gems, but you are guaranteed at least one T5, with the chance of getting more.
Specific type crypts
"Beast Crypt", "Demon Crypt", "Human Crypt", "Ranged Crypt", "Blade Crypt". These work like Amber crypt but have more specific droptables.
Mega crypt
At 25k AP you get access to a very nice crypt which costs a lot of gems, but gives you high lvl units. Check out this youtuber's explanation for more infomation: Esquilo

Ruby crypt is a waste unless your life depends on getting a specific T3 unit. If you want T5 units, then Amber crypt is the best choice paired with specific type crypts if you only want a certain type of units. Also be on the lookout for special event crypts that may have units with unique aura effects like "x% more dmg vs beasts".

Example guild crypt, lucky T5 unit
Example most common result Amber Crypt with a guaranteed T5 and some T3
Example lucky Amber Crypt with a T5 G7 unit
Example lucky Amber Crypt with 3 T5 units 1x G5 and 2x G6
Example Mega Event Crypt. Click to enhance :)

Gems are rare. You spend a lot of time getting them ingame, or precious money to pay for them. Either way, you need to spend them wisely to get the most bang for your bucks.

The golden rule when spending gems: Always wait for a sale or special price.

I highly recommend getting:

1. Army slots (on the Friday 50% sale): How many depends on your army and what you need to collect to upgrade it. 200 slots is a decent start, and for most players 6-700 slots should be enough space.
   
2. Amber Crypts: Always use "Amber Soulstone" for a discount. Note that buying several crypts in a row reduces the price. For Amber, this is: 712-->675-->638-->638-->. Thus, it may be smart to save up for a big purchase, if you can afford to wait for upgrades.
   
3. Cameras (on sale of course): It is nice to have a few in your inventory for those times when you finally get a rare drop, but you get unlucky with the catch. Do not waste them on common stuff though.
   
4. Warlord: There are 3 premium warlords for 2000 gems each. Check out what type of bonus they give and consider if any of them fit well with your army.
   
5. Event Crypts: Some of the units that drop have unique abilities. Something to consider if you already have a strong army you want to enhance. Depending on RNG you may need many tries to get the unit you want, so be prepared for that.

Buying gems
Some deals are better than other. I recommend the starter offer, which gives you a very nice starter unit. The infernal DLC is also nice. Get it when it is on sale or through a free promotion. Also, the premium deal for 4.99$ gives you 40 gems/day for a month = 1200 gems. + bonus XP and gold. Compare that to the other deals in the bank and make your own conclusion.

Bonus gems
Small tip about gem quests: Sometimes you will get a daily quest that says "collect x gems". I suggest you do not pick up gems that drop on the map etc. until this quest show up. This way you can get some bonus gems from just waiting a bit.

As a new player you may find all the things going on a bit overwhelming. What to prioritize?
This depends on your goals, but here are some suggestions if you are wondering what to do.

• Get the daily log in reward.
  
• Send meat to all your friends. (If you do not do this regularly, friends will remove you)
  
• Log in for a 30 gem reward at a set time every day. (18:00 UTC/GMT)
  
• Collect daily or weekly rewards like guild crystals.
  
• Collect resources in your Castle and start new upgrades.
  
• Burn some food to start timer.
  
• Burn some rage in GvG or regular PvP to start timer.
  
• Complete your daily quests. they reset 09:00, 13:00, 17:00 and 21:00 (UTC/GMT +3).
  
• Complete the dailty hub, rewards are good.
  
• Farm creatures for reborn.
  
• Farm for XP.
  
• Do your daily guild raids unless you are capped for the week.
  
• Complete trials (These have 0 resource cost).
  
• Add promocodes
  
• Burn the remaining rage and food.
  
• Sell creatures over your army limit before they are deleted at 00:00 UTC/GMT +3.
  
• Always log out with a strong army in your defense slot to prevent getting ganked in PvP.

Thanks for checking out my guide! If you found anything useful, please rate it so that other players can easily find it too. Do you have any suggestions or questions? Just hit me up in the comments and I will try answer from time to time.

For additional info about the game, I recommend the Wikia or asking players ingame and on the discussion board.

Credits:
Sakriel: Tips about promocodes from his guide. I also partially agree with the gem management. :)
Panoramik: Pinned post about basic gameplay.
All the awesome contributers in the Wikia: Content when following Wikia links.

12.02.17 - Version 1.2.0
15.07.16 - Version 1.1.0