Endless legend city building guide

When I started playing this game I had a hard time at first because the tutorial is lame and there is no ingame encyclopedia and I needed to google a lot of questions and watch a lot of very long videos.

I want to spare that pain for new players because this is an amazing complex game that deserves to be enjoyed by people who love 4X turn-based-strategy games. Once you have the basic game concepts it is really quite addictive.

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Only 14% of players won a game on easy or higher difficulty according to global Steam achievement statistics.

Obviously you need to know what you are doing if you hope to survive on the planet Auriga! Let's try to increase those stats shall we.

I want to regroup in a single guide a lot of information that took me several hours to gather from different sources and I thank all the people who published the info that helped me get started.

2 years ago I tried to run this game on what I thought was a high end 32 bit OS. I think the minimum specs on the steam store page are too low for this game.

I experienced ''endless'' frustration (pun intended) and out of memory errors and crashes.

On a modern 64 bit system it runs as smooth as silk with 2560x1440 resolution. The interface allows you to get large text so you don't have to strain your precious eyes. Not a single crash except for the tutorial and it seems it is a known issue.

Just make sure your game resolution settings match the native screen resolution otherwise some parts of the image may be outside the screen borders.

I read that if you set details to ''fantastic'' it enables (forces) 8xAA which can decrease overall game performance so I chose the video setting just below that and it looks great to me.

Now you may think you are a genius because you are sooo good at Civilisation or other strategy games but for your first games please choose ''easy'' difficulty level, not normal or higher. Thank me later. If you are new to strategy games there is a setting even easier called ''newbie''. I know its not very flattering for your ego but only you and I will ever know and the important thing is to learn the game and have fun doing it. This is not Dark Souls where enraged people are expected to hurl their controllers at the monitor.

Settings: normal game (300 turns) normal world size should be fine. To spice things up you can choose random planet type so you may end up on a massive single continent or an island or one of a few large land masses. If you are stuck on an island you have to research shipyard building and your settlers and military will be able to embark on water. Don't worry there are no sea monsters on Auriga. (unless you buy the DLC for those)

EDIT 2021: Now I play EL on Linux POP_OS, with Steam Linux client installed, and with Steam experimental Proton enabled and it runs beautifully at least as well as it did in Windows.

There are 3 factions I would recommend for new players.

I chose the Vaulters (illustrated above) for my first game. They have a science advantage and have a shot at a science victory. Their marines are an amazing range unit and with proper gear they can shoot the enemy before it gets close enough to hurt them. They can get by with a small army and teleport from city to city that they own, even across the sea as long as they have a holy resource activated. (see resource section) Mezzari are a different skin of vaulters but have the same properties.

Wild Walkers are often recommended to new players because they have amazing forest advantages and if they set up their cities in forests they have amazing industrial output early in the game. They can grow and expand very fast.

Broken lords have been described by some as broken in the sense they are too good because they have amazing income generating skills and you can buy buildings, military units, heroes. Some people say that when you are rich you can do anything.

Necrophages: insectoid units that feed on corpses, they have an agriculture penalty but they use corpses for food and every 8 corpses (killed villagers, roving armies, rival troops) gives them a food stockpile they can use to grow their cities fast. Their ranged unit infects enemies with a parasite that resurrects enemies as zombies and creates huge armies. They have a way to deal with unhappy cities: create happiness by killing one population unit! They get even more food from conquering local independent towns and a city with 3 vassal towns in its territory plus a necrophage provincial governor can grow HUGE. Their units also poison fleshy enemies doing poison damage to their hit points every turn. If you have necros as your neighbors beware. Kill the bugs before they grow out of control. Unleash the inner monster.

ADDENDUM 2024: Suggested army composition: 1 Proliferator, 3 necrodrones, 4 foragers + Necrophage hero with heal army perk outside your territory. The proliferator will create 1 to 3 battleborn from the dead enemies each battle and create huge armies of poisonous bugs. The battleborn serve as cannon fodder but become unkillable as your army grows in power. You kill everything you meet to grow your army. No parley. You use the food stocks from corpses to grow your biggest cities. Prioritize industry. In winter just transfer workers to food production to avoid population loss. Last game I only made 1 settler. Initially you may have to sell some of your battleborn until you can generate enough dust to support your army.

Roving clans are experts in commerce. They are not able to declare war on the other factions. They can win an economic victory. If they want to wage war they have to wait until some other faction declares war on them or they must research the tech allowing privateer armies which can attack other factions but do not fight with the flag of a faction and this is not seen as an act of war. (other factions can also play dirty and attack their own allies with privateers without consequence)
You may be playing the game and you researched the market tech but you are unable to use the market to buy resources, heroes, mercenaries or sell items for profit. This is not a bug, it's a feature. It's the fault of those guys. Market ban: so infuriating. You can give in to the odious blackmail and bribe them with resources, currency, tech or whatever else you can give them to make them unban you or you can wipe their faction off the face of Auriga. Decisions, decisions.

Drakken: dragon race that are masters of diplomacy and can win a diplomatic victory. They know every other faction's starting location on the map. They can force a truce if they are attacked. You may need a privateer army if you want to attack them. Why not befriend the drakken in early game and give them a few things in the diplomacy interface so they exchange maps with you and now you know where all the other factions are located!

Cultists: tired of managing many cities? well join the cult. They only have one single city. No need to research trade or diplomacy. They can not settle new cities. They can only raze cities instead of capturing them but they gain resources and science from razing. Converting minor factions villages gives them all the resources of the central hex and surrounding hexes. They grow a massive fortified city. Put every population in the influence column. They must destroy their opponents evenly to prevent an expansion victory. They must destroy the roving clans quickly because a market ban will really hurt.

Ardent Mages: Edit 2024: It took me a while to understand how to play this faction, but when I did, I found them awesome (but probably not for beginners) Initially, they are glass cannons. They do amazing damage but have low damage resistance. They evolve into a formidable fighting force able to use a battle spell to stun lock enemies in the center of a hex and the surrounding hexes for 1 turn while tearing them apart with the infantry and flier units and doing AOE damage with their ranged unit to one single target and adjacent enemies.

Their flier unit is awesome: fast, brutal, high damage unit, it lays an egg if mortally wounded and regenerates after battle if the egg is not destroyed by the enemy. Imagine the enemy must choose between trying to kill all the HP of a non-combating egg instead of your living units!

They use pillars: Research unlocks Science pillars in Era 1 (and defense battle spell) , Influence pillars Era 2 (And the AMAZING BATTLE STUN SPELL), Dust pillars era 3 and damage battle spell (as if you needed that at that point) , Food pillars Era 4 + regeneration battle spell. Pillars also have 3 tiers of power unlocked by research (Arcana Levels) that make them more powerful. The first 2 tiers are unlocked by research and the third tier is unlocked by the faction quest. THE FACTION QUEST #5 THE SECRETS OF DUST UNLOCKS THE WINTER VERSION OF PILLARS (COLD ENGINEERING). You can see by yourself the effect of pillars on cities by zooming in, toggling on the FIDSI button (right lower corner below end of turn button). Last game, I captured a huge Cult city and cast several dust extraction pillars around the city (Arcana Level 3 Pillars which cover 2 rings of hexes around the central pillar instead of the default 1 ring) I wish you had seen how the amount of dust exploded with each pillar cast and the overlapping effect of 2 hexes around each pillar. The highest Dust value on a city hex was 81 and on a water hex 39 ! I used to wonder about pillar usefulness, not anymore. Even the normal pillar will produce their resource in non-city, non-exploited hexes as soon as you cast them and you can view this immediate effect if the FIDSI button is on as soon as you cast the pillar.

Strategy for the ardent mages: Science and dust are your first priorities. Getting Era 2 INCANTATION OF ENERVATION (STUN BATTLE SPELL) and enough dust to cast it in battle will greatly help your troops before they reach their full potential. Also you need influence to get a decent empire plan. You will be starved for food. Deal with it.

Heroes for Ardent Mages: Vaulter heroes with long range 4, combined with 3 or 4 ranged Ateshi zealots is amazing (they actually extend the range or your ranged units by 1). Add one melee Telsem warlock, one sister of Mercy for melee or heal support or another fast melee unit such as cavalry from another faction to keep the enemy busy while your ranged units rain down AOE death on the enemy. The ranged units use the weapon that slows the enemy on hit. (and combined with the stun spell, they can't do much harm to your troops).

It seems Steam limits the content of each section, so here is the rest of my guide on the ardent mages.

My favorite heroes for Ardent mage armies are Vaulters with Range 4 applying to the amazing ranged Ateshi Zealots.

Necrophage heroes are great for ardent mages food cities and can heal armies between battles but they are a bit tricky to level because the most useful perks are on different sides of the tech tree.

I found the Ardent Mage governors excellent for governing science cities. In battle, they move too slowly to hit enemies and mostly buff their own units. They may get a great battle staff but rarely hit enemies with it.

Influence cities: Cultist governors

Industry cities with forests: Wild walker governors

I find Broken lords, Roving clans, Drakken heroes not as useful for Ardent mages. A Broken Lord hero I got from a quest made a great tanky melee unit and fine army leader.

FIGHT ALL YOUR BATTLES MANUALLY WITH THE ARDENT MAGES. DO NOT USE AUTO COMBAT. READ MY GUIDE SECTION ON BATTLES AND WATCH THE LINKED YOUTUBE VIDEOS.

I hope you will enjoy the Ardent Mages as much as I did. They require finesse, attention to details, city placement and development, ability to adapt to different situations, map layouts, strategies and proper use of pillars. I found the following victory conditions to be easiest to achieve: Supremacy, Score, Quest, Wonder, and the hardest Influence, Dust.

I highly recommend their faction quest because it adds very useful steps to help your progress.

You may see 3 factions that are on the bottom with a light gray veil and nothing happens when you click on them. You need to purchase 3 DLCs: Shadows (Forgotten) Shifters (Allayi) Tempest (Morgawr) I read very good comments on those expansions and it would seem they are worth it even at full price.

Now it is time to found your first city. There is not much time. your funds are running low and it is best to found the city in the first or second turn.

The bottom right corner has a little grey tab with a center logo of 2 superposed hexes; this allows you to toggle the FIDSI of terrain hexes on or off.

The upper left corner of the screen shows a series of icons : Empire, cities, research, quests, academy, armies, diplomacy, market. (noticed market is grayed out becuase it hasn't been researched yet. You will use those icons a lot.

A city base production is the total of all 7 hexes. Population just adds to the total depending on their role. City production consists of food, industry, dust(currency), science, influence. FIDSI
When population increases you can drag and drop population units to the proper city slot to increase the FIDSI component you want to prioritize.

Only one city can occupy a region.

A city produces military units or buildings. You mostly focus on buildings that will boost your FIDSI and units that will help defend and conquer.

Exploration of ruins and temples is important to find dust and quests and special rewards.

Minor factions must be pacified by force or diplomacy to prevent them from producing roving armies and for the benefit they give you when you annex them in the city build queue. Also they give you a special military unit for each minor faction and your empire can assimilate a maximum of 3 minor factions once you have done the prerequisite research.

Faction quests can lead you to a faction victory by building a wonder. Side quests can yield luxury or strategic resources, dust or great weapons for your heroes that will turn the tide of battle. The quests greatly add to the game's sense of wonder and discovery.
Just have a look at this beauty!