Game of Wallet: Maximising your gold pack purchases in Game of War: Fire Age

Aside from the gameplay, the biggest factor that stands out in Game of War: Fire Age is its aggressive advertising of gold packs. It’s the first thing you see before you even see your city view after the game has loaded, the flashing “5x Gold Sale!” next to your timers catches your eye, and the banners in the quest view flash at you, garnering for attention. The gold pack advertising is EVERYWHERE. Eventually, you will have to start thinking about parting with some of your hard-earned money if you want to grow quickly, and there’s no way to avoid it when you upgrade your stronghold to Level 21. Because MZ needs your money. But it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. There are ways to be smart about growing your empire in the most cost-effective way possible.

So you cave in and decide you’re going to buy a gold pack. First of all…

#1. Take note of the additional items on offer in the gold packs

After you get your stronghold to level 8, you have to either be extremely patient, or cave in to temptation and buy that $5.99 gold pack. But don’t rush in and get any old gold pack. Check out what other items are included. Desirable items to help you on your way include speedups, resources, dark energy, hero energy and peace shields. The Empire Builder/Research Super Sale is a good example of a gold pack with desirable items to help you out, especially if you’re only just starting out. You will need the speedups and resources to expedite building, research, troop training and trap building, and peace shields so that no one comes in during a kill event (if you do not plan on participating) and destroys everything you’ve built.

As the packs get more expensive, look out for the seasonal gold pack sales, as these are usually generous with speedups, advanced teleports, peace shields and the like. After you get to the most expensive one, the more you buy, the more generous each successive pack will become, especially after you upgrade your stronghold to Level 21.

Always check what other items are on offer with the pack. See anything in the pack that you need? More advanced teleports? That Instant Hero Execution, because your power level is not high enough to survive a hit from a 1 billion power “gelding” player and therefore you’re unable to keep a captured hero in your prison for the whole kill event? Need Material Chests to craft some bitchin’ gear for your hero so that he/she can become a badass monster slayer, or help your troops burn empires on the battlefield? If there’s nothing on offer that you need, wait until there’s one on offer that does. You will need to check regularly, especially during holiday periods such as St Patrick’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving etc and seasonal packs such as the Summer Super Sale.

#2. Use the Solo Events, Inferno Solo Events and Kingdom Events to your advantage

To the right hand side of your screen in the city view, below your boost icons, you will see the Events button. Tap on that button, and it will take you to the events timers. Tap on each event, look at what you need to do to earn points in each event, and check the prizes on offer in each one. See one that offers prizes that you need? Schedule your building, research and troop training around those events. Sometimes the Inferno Solo Events and/or Solo Events will earn you points every time you hit and kill the Dungeon Monster, so save your dark energy from the gold pack purchase for those events. You will also earn speedups, resources and special items each time you hit/kill the Dungeon Monster, so that’s an added bonus! Same deal when you earn points for hitting and/or killing monsters (especially during the Kill Events), so save your hero energy for then.

When you’re levelling up your buildings to earn points for increasing building power in the Solo/Inferno Solo event…

#3. Use your gold to buy special items to upgrade your prison, altar and Hall of War, stat!

Trust me on this. When you level up your buildings, don’t neglect these three. I levelled up my stronghold to Level 21 stronghold (finally) and got a lovely shock when I attempted to upgrade my academy to Level 21. (No one tells you about any of this. So I will.) Before this point, the next building you could upgrade after your stronghold (apart from your resource buildings) is your academy. Not so at Level 21. Before you level up your academy to Level 21, you first have to upgrade the following buildings in your city to Level 21:

• Storehouse
• Hospital
• Watchtower
• Marketplace
• Walls
• Hall of War
• Altar
• Prison

Yes, those last three are legit. You need to get your Altar, Prison and Hall of War to Level 21 before you can get your academy to level 21. Use your gold from Solo/Inferno Solo event wins and KvK gold tiles to buy these items when you can, and level up when you earn points for increasing building power. When upgrading your buildings, they need to be upgraded in the following order so that you meet the upgrade requirements:

Stronghold
Mine -> Forge -> Walls
Quarry -> Barracks -> Watchtower & Hospital
Logging camp & Farm -> Villa -> Gymnos -> Prison -> Altar
Quarry -> Embassy -> Hall of War

To make it even more expensive, you require the Master’s Hammer to upgrade each building to Level 21. They cost 2,000 gold a pop, but fortunately you only require one Master’s Hammer for each building.

And your academy needs to be at Level 21 before you can unlock your Tier 4 troops. So yeah, when your stronghold is at Level 15, it might be worthwhile to upgrade your Prison and Hall of War to Level 15 before you level up your stronghold to 16, eh? Oh, and make sure you build your altar as well. Because troop boosts from hero executions, that’s why!

#4 Make sure you collect your Alliance Gifts

Your alliance will receive gifts each time anther member of your alliance kills a monster, makes a gold purchase or helps your alliance earn points in the Alliance Event and Kingdom Alliance Event. The more active members in your alliance collecting these gifts, the faster your alliance gift level increases. When your alliance gift level is 12 or higher, you will receive items such as shackles (used to upgrade the prison), sacrificial daggers (used to upgrade the altar) and Books of War (used to upgrade the Hall of War), among other useful items. You may even receive small quantities of gold, depending on your gift level.

A gift box icon will appear on the top right hand corner of the alliance menu button on the bottom of your screen. Tap on the alliance button, and on the top right of the screen is your alliance gifts button. Tap on “Open” next to each one, and it will gift you all manner of goodies such as speedups, bookmarks (these are used to bookmark coordinates of your hive, enemies you want to attack, and even your kingdom’s Wonder), inventory slots (so you can hold more hero gear you’ve crafted in the forge), resource boosts, march recalls, resources and anti-scout boosts.

You will have to log in to the game regularly, because the alliance gifts expire after 24 hours. And if you’re a member of a large alliance, you have a lot to lose if your alliance gifts are 20 a day on average.

#5. Invest gold in the Treasury

After you upgrade your stronghold to Level 15, you will unlock your cemetery and your treasury. Invest a minimum of 10,000 gold in the Treasury, for 30 days. You will get an 85% return on your investment, and you can re-invest that gold as soon as it matures. Upgrade your Treasury to be able to invest more gold and get a higher interest rate on your gold investment. The Treasury requires special items to upgrade (war bonds), but the rest of your buildings are not dependent on your treasury being upgraded. If, for instance, you get enough war bonds from alliance gifts for an upgrade, do so. Your maximum deposit will increase and you get a bonus interest rate which increases at every upgrade. For instance, a Level 4 Treasury has a maximum deposit of 13,000 gold and will pay a bonus interest rate of 4% on maturity.

#6. Reset your Hero Skills and equip your hero with the right gear; Activate your VIP

You can reset your hero skills on the Hero Skills tree by purchasing a Hero Skill Reset from the alliance store (you can request your alliance leader or a Rank 4 to stock the alliance store with one) or buy one with gold. Add enough points to each block in the hero skill tree to unlock the next feature in the tree, and maximise building, research and training. This will reduce your building, troop training and research time, and when crafting weapons, armour and accessories for your hero, ensure you also equip your hero with items that reduce research and building time. This will reduce the number of speedups you need to use to expedite each task. Don’t forget to reset your hero skills and re-equip your hero for battle, when the time comes!

VIP is a feature in the game which boosts your construction time, adds extra quests and unlocks the auto-complete feature on alliance quests and daily quests. It also gives you a free speedup on building upgrades. The higher the VIP level, the earlier you can use your free speedup.

So there you have it. Be smart about how you use your gold packs, and they will go far.