Getting Started

Get a General

So you want to kill monsters. First, you need at least one general, preferably a pair of them. I have a guide dedicated to this. Your pair of generals do not need to be fully developed to start your monster hunting journey. You can start as soon as you get that first good mounted general. However, as you develop your pair of generals, you will find that you can do much more with the same troops. You will have to somewhat feel your way out and figure out what is and is not within your reach based on the generals you have.

Picking Troops

As you can guess from the fact that is the mounted general guide, you will be using mounted troops. Some tips here.

1. Use ONLY mounted troops.
   • Mixing troop types will almost always result in more wounded.
   • The only exception to this is that very occasionally when you add a few ranged to an otherwise mounted march, you can bump yourself over the edge and kill something that is otherwise outside of your reach. Doing it this way will involve getting wounded.
   • the Pans event will suggest using other troop types. Following its recommendation will allow you to kill bigger Pans sooner, but with enough mounted you can do the same thing.
2. Use ONLY one tier of troops. Depending on your culture, the names for each troop type and troop tier within each type change. The roman numerals for them do not. Thus we typically ignore the names and prefix these roman numerals with a ‘t’ for “tier”, using that in place of the name.
3. When joining a rally someone else started, send just one troop, and your general.
   • You will get the same rewards no matter how much or how little you contribute to the rally.
   • Due to the way rallies against monsters function, anything you send will operate semi-independently from the main force sent by the person who started the rally. You cannot actually help them unless they are close to losing entirely.
   • Thus sending more than one is simply asking for bigger numbers of troops to heal, without gain.

Equipment

1. You should be using mounted monarch gear. This matters a great deal.
2. You should be using the soul set of blazons for mounted.
3. Do not craft armor or weapons until you can craft a King’s set. Even then consider waiting until you can craft a Dragon Set.
   • You may want hang on to some of the armor that you win for free. This can be used as something to cheaply refine during events.
   • If you have free armor, go ahead and use it while waiting for the armor you want. Just do not invest any significant amount of gems or gold into it.
   • Set bonuses for multiple pieces of armor/weapons from the same set can matter a great deal. Pay attention.
   • Do NOT bother refining King’s gear.
   • It CAN be worth refining Dragon’s gear, even though it takes a ton of gems, and even though much of it will be either upgraded into Ares gear or replaced by Achaemenidae gear.
   • Most players who avoid spending a great deal will have trouble crafting full sets of civilization gear. Watch out for the impact of losing those set bonuses. You may want to hold off until you can craft at least two pieces.
4. Use the Bird of Hurricane until you have a fafnir (purple) dragon. Then switch to that.
   • Go ahead and level the spiritual beast up. Yes, it requires gems, gold, and medals. Everything in the game takes something that you wish you had more of.
   • Some players prefer the Pegasus over the Bird of Hurricane. The Pegasus is really a PvP beast, but will work for monster hunting also.
5. When you get the fafnir (purple) dragon
   • you need to feed it to make it be worthwhile.
   • refines on your dragon also matter. For monster hunting, you want four mounted attack refines.
   • activate the talents on the dragon. These can be leveled up as well. The siege talent on this dragon doesn’t help you.
6. Switching your beast or dragon requires a one hour cool down period. This means you have to plan well in advance of when you need that switch.