News

Great Buildings Prestige: Overview

FAQ

The Great Buildings Prestige update arrives on November 5th, 2026!

The long-awaited update is here! When Great Buildings Prestige arrived on Beta earlier this year, it quickly became the most discussed feature in the community, and thanks to your comments, numbers, and criticism, the original design has significantly changed. We've based this release on the most common feedback topics you raised during Beta-testing, but kept the core of the feature intact.

We designed Great Buildings Prestige to reinforce and support these unique Buildings, keeping them and your investment into them relevant for longer. Prestige introduces new distinct progression milestones, with special building effects as a reward.

But what Prestige is exactly? Some Great Buildings can now be leveled into a higher tier - Gold Tier, that comes with a new fresh set of Bonuses on top of the existing ones. With this update a few buildings already receive the new "Gold Tier" while all the other ones remain on the same familiar "Copper Tier".

Here's a short summary of what changes:

Introduction of the Prestige Tiers:
- All GBs under level 100 are considered as Copper Tier now.
- Gold Tier: GBs that receive the new Gold tier, are considered "Copper" until level 100, after which they turn to Gold. These buildings can be leveled up indefinitely.
- Copper Tier: GBs that have not received a Gold tier yet will remain on Copper past level 100 and their levels will be capped at level 200.
Great Buildings Bonuses reworked:
- Copper Tier Bonuses: effects your GBs have today. They grow within the first 200 levels, and some were slightly redesigned.
- Gold Tier Bonuses: brand new GBs effects. They unlock at level 101 and keep growing as you level up.
Contribution Boost reworked:
- Current Arc's Contribution Boost works only on Copper Tier Great Buildings.
- New Gold Contribution Boost (received from Gold Tier Arc, Gold Tier Shattered Horizon Siphon, Stellar Age: Discovery technologies) that works on Gold Tier Great Buildings.
Great Buildings leveling changed:
- The total Forge Points cost to reach new milestone (level 500) is much lower.
- Contribution Rewards System are calculated differently.
- Great Buildings Unlock level costs has changed.
New Blueprint Refinery to turn Copper Blueprints into Gold ones.
Updated Great Building interface.
Updated Ranking Points, plus a new Great Buildings Legacy Ranking.
Migration of all Great Buildings to the new system.

Follow the article to read the full details on what has changed.

How Does Prestige Work?

Prestige Tiers create a new system of progressive milestones for Great Buildings that comes in addition to normal leveling. When an eligible Great Building reaches the Gold Tier, it unlocks a new, upgradeable building effect on top of the ones it already has. That effect grows with every level, so your GB ends up with multiple boosts instead of a single one.

With Great Buildings, we’ve always aimed to give you a meaningful long-term goal that matches their monumental nature and Tiers continue this tradition. Don't expect quick results and think of them as a target worth planning for.

This update introduces two Prestige Tiers: Copper and Gold.
1cfa4d458ef084b61af975a92de2af82

Here's how's to read this graph and how the system works on practice:

	Copper Tier	Gold Tier
Who has it	Every Great Building	Great Buildings that can reach Gold
Examples	Tower of Babel, Notre Dame, Oracle of Delphi, Cape Canaveral, Temple of Relics	Statue of Zeus, The Arc, Alcatraz, Himeji Castle, The Blue Galaxy
Active from	Level 1	Level 101
Effects grow until	Level 200	Keeps growing, with gains shrinking as they near their ceiling
After that	Stop growing, keep applying in full	—
Levels 101–200	Both tiers grow together and each level improves your Copper and your Gold effects	—
Maximum level	200, if the building has no Gold Tier	No cap, past 500 you still earn Ranking Points, contribution rewards, and keep your 1.9/2.0 threads going
Rewarded contributor ranks	Top 5	Top 7

Which Great Buildings Are Updated and How?

With this update, Prestige Tiers become a core part of the Great Buildings system, so every Great Building moves to the new system. What that means for yours depends on whether it receives the Gold Tier.
A selection of Great Buildings receives the Gold Tier right away, along with new building effects. All other GBs are capped at level 200 and stay in the Copper Tier until a new Tier can be added for them.
In the absolute vast majority of cases, this update will mean either a buff to your GBs or no change at all. Here's what changes for each group.

21 of the Great Buildings receive the new Gold Tier. Already leveled GBs will retain their level and receive the new effects automatically if it's level is in the Gold Tier.

Gold effects aren't meant to compete with Event buildings. Instead, they offer evergreen multipliers, unique resource mechanics, and bonuses that tie into playing with others.

Great Building	Gold effect	What it does
Statue of Zeus	Multiplicative Attack and Defense for Attacking Army (Guild Expedition)	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense for Attacking Army bonuses in Guild Expedition and adds the result to your total.
Colosseum	Military Ally Boost	Enhances Military Historical Allies, the same as gaining extra levels on an ally. It can raise an ally's effective level past 100.
Aachen Cathedral	Multiplicative Attack for Attacking Army (Guild Battlegrounds)	Multiplies your existing Attack for Attacking Army bonuses in Guild Battlegrounds and adds the result to your total.
St. Mark's Basilica	Goods Production Boost	Increases the Goods produced by your buildings by a percentage.
Castel del Monte	Multiplicative Attack for Attacking Army (Quantum Incursions)	Multiplies your existing Attack for Attacking Army bonuses in Quantum Incursions and adds the result to your total.
Deal Castle	Multiplicative Attack for Defending Army (Quantum Incursions)	Multiplies your existing Attack for Defending Army bonuses in Quantum Incursions and adds the result to your total.
Royal Albert Hall	Goods Reserve	Produces Goods every 24 hours, randomly chosen from any type of Goods building placed in your City.
Alcatraz	Multiplicative Attack and Defense for Attacking Army (Guild Battlegrounds)	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense for Attacking Army bonuses in Guild Battlegrounds and adds the result to your total.
Alcatraz	Attack and Defense for Attacking and Defending Army (Guild Battlegrounds)	Attacking and defending units in Guild Battlegrounds have their Attack and Defense values boosted by a %.
Château Frontenac	Heroic Tavern Quest Reward Boost	When you get rewards from Heroic Tavern quests, you receive an additional percentage on top.
Lotus Temple	Science Ally Boost	Enhances Science Historical Allies, the same as gaining extra levels on an ally. It can raise an ally's effective level past 100.
Lotus Temple	Multiplicative Attack and Defense for Defending Army (Guild Expedition)	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense for Defending Army bonuses in Guild Expedition and adds the result to your total.
The Arc	Contribution Boost (Gold)	Increases your contribution rewards when you contribute to Gold levels of other Gold Great Buildings
Arctic Orangery	Enhanced Critical Hit	Grants a chance to deal 150% damage against enemy units from any Age except your unit's Age. Doesn't apply to Rogues.
Seed Vault	Improved Helping Hands	Adds a chance of getting a better reward when you aid other players.
Seed Vault	Multiplicative Attack and Defense for Defending Army (Guild Battlegrounds)	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense for Defending Army bonuses in Guild Battlegrounds and adds the result to your total.
The Kraken	Second Strike	For your first few battles, there's a chance to kill one enemy unit at the start of the second wave.
The Blue Galaxy	Quantum Incursions Double Collection	For your first few collections in your Quantum Incursions settlement, there's a chance the collection is doubled. Excludes the settlement Town Hall.
Terracotta Army	Multiplicative Attack and Defense for Attacking and Defending Army (Guild Expedition)	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense bonuses for both armies in Guild Expedition and adds the result to your total.
Himeji Castle	Enhanced Spoils of War	Adds a chance of getting a better reward when you win fights in your main settlement.
Himeji Castle	Multiplicative Attack for Defending Army (Guild Battlegrounds)	Multiplies your existing Attack for Defending Army bonuses in Guild Battlegrounds and adds the result to your total.
The Virgo Project	Missile Launch - Second Wave	For your first few battles, there's a chance to kill half the enemy units at the start of the second wave.
The Virgo Project	Multiplicative Defense for Attacking Army (Quantum Incursions)	Multiplies your existing Defense for Attacking Army bonuses in Quantum Incursions and adds the result to your total.
Space Carrier	Special Goods Production Boost	Increases the Special Goods produced by your buildings by a percentage.
Space Carrier	Multiplicative Attack and Defense for Attacking Army (Guild Expedition)	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense for Attacking Army bonuses in Guild Expedition and adds the result to your total.
Observatory	Guild Goods - Adjacent Eras	Produces some of each Good from the previous, current, and next Era for your Guild's Treasury. Can only be collected while you're in a Guild.
Observatory	Multiplicative Defense for Defending Army (Guild Expedition)	Multiplies your existing Defense for Defending Army bonuses in Guild Expedition and adds the result to your total.
Shattered Horizon Siphon	Contribution Boost (Gold)	Increases your contribution rewards when you contribute to Gold levels of other Gold Great Buildings.

Copper effects

Besides adding the new Gold effects, our Game Designers adjusted a number of Copper effects to fit the 200-level Copper Tier. Along with the values, we've also reconsidered the effects of some GBs.
You'll find all effect values on our Wiki once the update is released. One more change worth mentioning: the Shattered Horizon Siphon's Copper effect changes.

Shattered Horizon Siphon:

Great Building	OLD Effect	NEW	What it does
Shattered Horizon Siphon	Attackers & Defenders - Attack & Defense	Multiplicative Attackers & Defenders - Sword & Shield	Multiplies your existing Attack and Defense for Attacking and Defending Army bonuses and adds the result to your total.

Goods Production
Great Buildings with a Good Production Bonus now always produce Goods from your current Era. Unrefined Goods are no longer produced by Great Buildings.

Leveling costs

To help you reach higher Great Buildings levels, we have rebalanced their leveling costs, making highest levels much more accessible.

Taking a Gold Tier GB to level 500 now costs more than 80% fewer Forge Points than it does today. Here are a few examples:

Great Building	Tier	Current state (Level 500)	NEW (Level 500)
Alcatraz	Gold	6.117.216.945	755.832.405
The Arc	Gold	7.149.036.622	755.880.935
The Blue Galaxy	Gold	8.549.363.315	755.944.845

Unlocking levels on Gold Great Buildings now takes Goods (from the Great Building's Age), Supplies, Coins, Medals, and both Copper and Gold Blueprints. This change is also rooted in our wish to decrease the costs.

We understand if it makes you think about Forge Points you'd already invested. Bridging this gap for all affected players would create thousands of scenarios that may be dangerous to handle in a legacy game like Forge of Empires. To keep the server stability intact and ensure this investment still sets you up for a success, we decided to balance the difference with added costs of a different kind. If you'd already leveled your GB to the Gold Tier, you will skip these costs, while receiving all the new building effects.

You'll also notice that the costs don't feature Special Goods. Great Buildings don't require them anymore! That means players from any Age can build and level them, as long as you have friends willing to trade you the Goods you need. Happy trading!

In the table below, please find the FULL costs for all GBs upon the update, rounded to the nearest 1.000 (if applies). Please note that the costs in the game may differ minimally from this table and use the game data as the primary reference.

Gold Tier Great Buildings
Great Building	Max level	Forge Points	Goods	Coins	Supplies	Medals	Blueprint sets (copper)	Blueprint sets (gold)
Statue of Zeus	500	755.725.990	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Colosseum	500	755.740.095	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Aachen Cathedral	500	755.756.655	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
St. Mark's Basilica	500	755.774.620	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Castel del Monte	500	755.787.935	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Deal Castle	500	755.802.020	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Royal Albert Hall	500	755.823.150	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Alcatraz	500	755.832.405	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Château Frontenac	500	755.832.405	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Lotus Temple	500	755.852.635	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
The Arc	500	755.880.935	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Arctic Orangery	500	755.929.465	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Seed Vault	500	755.929.465	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
The Kraken	500	755.944.845	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
The Blue Galaxy	500	755.944.845	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Terracotta Army	500	755.962.810	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Himeji Castle	500	755.962.810	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
The Virgo Project	500	755.978.095	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Space Carrier	500	755.993.475	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Observatory	500	755.774.620	23.787.750	8.934.466.550	8.934.466.550	4.467.225.700	5.200	2.400
Shattered Horizon Siphon	500	756,777,300	23,786,760	8,934,466,550	8,934,466,550	4,467,225,898	5.200	2.400
Copper-only Great Buildings
Great Building	Max level	Forge Points	Goods	Coins	Supplies	Medals	Blueprint sets (copper)	Blueprint sets (gold)
Tower of Babel	200	5.358.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Lighthouse of Alexandria	200	5.508.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Hagia Sophia	200	5.674.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Galata Tower	200	5.716.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Notre Dame	200	5.835.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Cathedral of St. Basil	200	5.997.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Dresden Frauenkirche	200	6.148.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Capitol	200	6.313.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Space Needle	200	6.622.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Atomium	200	6.622.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Cape Canaveral	200	6.740.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
The Habitat	200	6.740.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Innovation Tower	200	6.864.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Voyager V1	200	7.024.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Truce Tower	200	7.024.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Rain Forest Project	200	7.178.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Gaea Statue	200	7.412.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Atlantis Museum	200	7.576.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Star Gazer	200	7.890.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Flying Island	200	8.210.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
A.I. Core	200	8.367.000	0	0	0	0	400	0
Saturn VI Gate CENTAURUS	200	10.003.000	7.240.000	72.400.000.000	0	0	400	0
Saturn VI Gate PEGASUS	200	9.406.000	5.430.000	54.300.000.000	0	0	400	0
Saturn VI Gate HYDRA	200	10.594.000	9.050.000	90.500.000.000	0	0	400	0
Stellar Warship	200	19.148.000	11.312.500	0	72.400.000.000	0	400	0
Cosmic Catalyst	200	16.876.000	13.570.500	0	0	0	400	0
Temple of Relics	200	5.350.000	0	0	0	0	300	0
Oracle of Delphi	200	5.354.000	0	0	0	0	300	0

Tiered Blueprints and Refinery

To level your GBs in higher Tiers, you will need new Tiered Blueprints. The higher the level, the more full sets of the necessary rarity you will need to level up. As mentioned, Prestige update also means all existing Blueprints are now called Copper to correspond to the first Tier.

You can gain Copper Blueprints in all the usual ways, including:

Forge Points donations to other GBs;
Premium purchases;
Various reward sources;
2:1 Trade.

Gold Tier Blueprints are available from:

Contributing Forge Points to Gold Tier Great Buildings (check a level's contribution rewards to see exactly which places award Gold Blueprints).
The new Blueprint Refinery.
2:1 Trade within a Gold Blueprints: just like with Copper Blueprints, select two and press Trade 2:1 to get a new random one
Premium purchases.

The Refinery helps you use up your Copper Blueprints and kickstart your Gold Tier progress. To open it, go to the Great Building's level-up window and click the button next to the regular 2:1 Blueprint trade:
c0a3540c5649cc1fca6cc96c878f7c06

In the Refinery, you can exchange one set of Blueprints for a single random blueprint of the higher Tier Blueprint. This works per building: 1 Copper set (of 9 individual Blueprints) will yield you 1 random Gold Tier Blueprint of the same Great Building. Prestige Tiers are designed as a long-term, high-impact addition to your City, so each refinement costs resources that go up with every use, and you can refine 5 times per 24 hours.
This new Refinery window also allows you to easily switch between Great Buildings that have available Gold Blueprints. Simply click the drop-down list above to select a GB and manage its Blueprints without leaving the Refinery. Much like previously in the Inventory, you can only view Great Buildings this way if you have at least one Blueprint already available for it.

In addition, each refinement costs Goods of the GBs' Age and resources that go up with each refinement that day:

Refinement	Each Good	All 5 Goods	Coins	Supplies
1st	20	100	6,000	6,000
2nd	40	200	12,000	12,000
3rd	80	400	24,000	24,000
4th	140	700	42,000	42,000
5th	200	1,000	60,000	60,000
Daily total	480	2,400	144,000	144,000

Copper-only Great Buildings

GBs on the list of Copper-only Great Buildings will have their first 200 levels reclassified as the Copper Tier. Due to the lack of higher Tiers, the evolution of those GBs will stop at level 200 for the time being. Leveling beyond level 200 can then resume if new Tiers are added for such a building.

All Great Buildings are updated in order to fit the new system. Copper-only GBs, the maximum effect at level 200 stays exactly the same, but the effect and cost of individual levels may change. This comes from a general recalculation of how buildings scale. Only the distribution of values across levels changes, so any difference compared to before evens out as you keep leveling.
The biggest change for this group is the level cap: Copper-only GBs can't grow further until a new Tier is added for them.
Note: in extremely rare cases, Copper-only Great Buildings upgraded to uncommonly high levels will be reduced to level 200 (their new max level). Owners of such GBs will be compensated with Forge Points, Goods, Resources and Blueprints proportional to the number of levels they lost. The compensation will be send directly to Inventory.

Great Buildings Ranking

With the release, the Ranking will be updated to include Tiers and new mechanics and will be accessible by default from the Ranking window. Following the update, you may notice a change in your Ranking points. It comes as a result of Great Buildings costs being adjusted with the update, so new Ranking points aim to reflect that costs.

The addition of Prestige Tiers fundamentally changes the feature, so we decided to preserve the current Great Buildings Ranking and make sure your achievements can find a reflection in the game.

Click under the ranking list to access the classic Legacy ranking. The new ranking will pick up where we left off and continue evolving – now in the new Prestige era.

Migration and fairness

Due to changes that are going to be applied to the Great Buildings, the migration of the Great Buildings is required. To keep it fair, the migration process follow the rules:

For Great Buildings that receive the Gold Tier:

All your GBs will retain their current built levels, since the Gold Tier is not capped.
All currently unlocked levels reset to the current level +1. All resources spent on unlocking will be refunded.
In-progress levels will be reset, and invested Forge Points will be refunded to the owner and the contributors accordingly.

For the Copper-only Great Buildings:

Due to the Copper Tier cap at level 200, all levels above it will be truncated and the invested resources will be fully refunded (Forge Points, Goods, Blueprints). Note: contributor investments are NOT refunded in this scenario, since they are already completed and rewarded.
Same as with the Gold Tier, all currently unlocked levels reset to the current level +1. All resources spent on unlocking will be refunded.
Same as with the Gold Tier, in-progress levels will be reset, and invested Forge Points will be refunded to the owner and the contributors accordingly.
Same as with the Gold Tier, cost difference for levels unlocked with previous balancing will not be refunded due to the general buff of GBs and balancing out the Forge Points price reduction with extra Goods investment.

With this, we wanted to make sure everyone can benefit from the new system, and that there's no added value in learning about it early.