Great Buildings Prestige redesign: FAQ

On October 8th, Great Buildings received their big Prestige update, which sparked an active discussion. We’ve prepared this FAQ based on the most commonly asked questions since the update. 

Note: This list is intended for players on BETA only. If you’re playing on a LIVE server, you haven’t experienced Great Buildings Prestige yet. For the LIVE release of the feature, we’ll prepare an updated announcement covering all the most important information.

Dive in!

Q: Why did you decide to introduce new Tiers instead of simply adding new effects to Great Buildings?

A: The key reason was to give players new, specific goals to reach instead of infinite progression. We view Tiers as level-ups for Great Buildings: by reaching the Gold Tier, you don’t just get new effects, but also new mechanics and goals that can influence your strategy.

New challenges can be a good thing not just for players, but for the overall health of the game. New effects and mechanics, even when created for a specific purpose, have the potential to be used in new rewards and even features.

The idea of tiered progression has evolved as we rebalanced the Prestige feature, and we’ve now settled on one Tier instead of the original two. Since the Gold Tier is uncapped, you can still keep growing your GBs like you did in the past, while also making use of the new mechanics.

Q: What is the reason behind the Copper and Gold Tier overlap?

A: The overlap helps you access new effects much more quickly.

Let’s consider a scenario where the Gold Tier starts at level 200. Even with the new reduced Great Building costs, reaching it would still take a considerable amount of time for an average player. With the Gold Tier starting at level 100, that time is cut in half. We also wanted to give players the satisfaction of growing multiple bonuses with a single level-up, and the transition levels between 100 and 200 aim to provide just that.

Q: Will we get the full list of Great Building effects in the game?

A: The current design lets you preview effects for your Great Buildings. We’re currently not planning to add a full overview of bonuses and costs to the game itself, to avoid further UI clutter.

The new GB balancing (effects and Forge Points costs) will be available in full on our legacy Wiki with the LIVE release. Here’s a sneak preview:

Important! The BETA market doesn’t have its own Wiki instance, so the updated Great Building pages will only become available with the LIVE release. Separately, we’re preparing a broader update for the Wiki, as much of the general information about game functionality there is outdated. However, you can still use it as a reference for building stats.

Q: How exactly will the Prestige Tiers change all current pre-Prestige Great Building milestones/max values? Why did these values have to be changed from their state on LIVE servers?

A: With the new update, Gold Tier Great Buildings received an overall buff compared to the current balancing on LIVE. Our priority was to make sure you don’t lose the bonus effects you’ve worked for. Since the end values for buildings are now different, the growth curve changes as well, i.e., the bonus values on some individual levels in between might end up lower. This should be rare, and the discrepancy will smooth out as you progress through the levels.

If you notice that bonus values are significantly lower than they currently are on LIVE, or a Gold Tier Great Building seems significantly nerfed, please report it on Discord or send us a support ticket.

Q: Why aren’t Great Building effect values displayed with decimals? Can it be changed?

A: Unfortunately, it can’t be changed due to technical constraints, largely caused by the game’s age and the challenges that come with it.

Q: Why was a certain building effect not added, even though it would seem logical?

A: If you feel like certain boosts (Multiplicative bonuses, for instance) are missing from a GB, keep in mind that they might be added in the future. We’re looking into expanding effects for Copper-only Great Buildings and strengthening GBs overall over time.

Q: How exactly does the Contribution Bonus work now with the Copper and Gold Tiers?

A: Please note that this information is also covered in the original feature announcement.

The Contribution Bonus is provided by two Great Buildings: the Arc (Copper and Gold) and the Shattered Horizon Siphon (Gold only). In addition, three of the Stellar Age Technologies also provides a Gold Contribution Bonus.

Simply put, to know whether the Copper or the Gold Contribution Bonus applies to your investment, look at the Tier of the target Great Building.

For example:

• You’re investing in another player’s Gold Great Building (i.e., a Gold Tier GB at level 100 or higher): the Gold Contribution Bonus applies (provided you have a Gold Arc or a Gold Shattered Horizon Siphon).
• You’re investing in another player’s Copper Great Building (i.e., any GB below level 100 OR any Copper-only GB): the Copper Contribution Bonus applies (provided you have an Arc of any level).

Q: Why did you decide to add extra Coin, Supply, and Medal progression costs for Great Buildings that received the Gold Prestige Tier?

A: These additional progression costs are indeed intended for Gold Tier GBs from level 100 onward. Due to a bug, they also appeared on levels below 100 in the original BETA release. This will be fixed before the LIVE release.

Note: this doesn't apply to the new Shattered Horizon Siphon. To balance out its significant bonuses and the high Age, extra costs for this GB start at level 11.

One of the main reasons for the extra costs was to improve resource flow. Resources like Coins, Supplies, and Medals, which are now required for GB progression, often sit unused in player Cities. This is especially common among higher-level Forgers, who also tend to be the most active with Great Buildings. By creating more uses for these resources, we hope to restore their value and bring new resource management challenges to our players.

Q: What is the reason behind requiring Previous Era Goods for Great Building progression as well? Will you make them easier to get, for instance, by updating the Market system?

A: In our view, resource management remains one of the cornerstones of Forge of Empires. Over time, this aspect has naturally lost some of its focus due to powerful new buildings and features. By making Goods necessary for Great Building progression, we want to create space for new strategies and renew interest in the social aspects of the game, such as trading.

We understand the game needs new sources of Previous Era Goods, and in response to your feedback, we’ve added the Royal Albert Hall to the list of Gold Great Buildings. With the corresponding buffs, this GB is now a solid source of older Goods.

Of course, a single Great Building can’t cover this need on its own. We’re constantly looking for more ways to introduce new sources of older Goods. While we can’t share anything specific yet, we can confirm that resource and City management are firmly on our priority list.

Q: What is the purpose of the bigger Forge Points packages added with this update?

A: As part of the Prestige update on BETA, Great Buildings had to be migrated to their new state, which meant some players needed Forge Points compensation. In some cases, players had to receive thousands of Points. Putting these FPs into much bigger packages meant fewer actions were needed and made the whole process quicker, smoother, and less error-prone.

We currently introduced the 100 Forge Points Package on the Contribution Rewards and don’t intend to use the rest of them anywhere else. The bigger FP packages were created purely as a practical compensation solution. You’ll still receive regular-sized FP packages as rewards.

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We hope this list answers your questions. As always, we invite you to share your feedback and discuss the update with thousands of fellow players on our official Discord server.

Sincerely,
Your Forge of Empires Team

Related articles

• Great Buildings Prestige postponement and FAQ
• Great Buildings Prestige: Contribution Rewards Rework
• Great Buildings Prestige, redesigned: the feature overview
• Great Buildings Prestige: what to know before the Live release
• What is happening with Great Buildings on Beta?