Cultural Settlements enable the player to explore new cultures of humanity’s past during the different ages of Forge of Empires. As the main game has already moved beyond those times, Cultural Settlements are introduced as a new way to explore and experience those rich cultures of our history.
These settlements are separate from the player's main city, themed according to the culture the player has chosen. Only one Cultural settlement can be active at the same time. Each Cultural settlement can be replayed multiple times, offering different rewards for each finished settlement. Finish a settlement within a certain time frame to gain additional rewards!
This page offers general information about Cultural Settlements, more detailed information can be found on the settlement pages.
Start
Cultural Settlements are unlocked with the Iron Age technology Plowing. After unlocking it, the player will find a boat near their city that will bring them to their new settlement. The boat displayed after the settlement was started will be different for each culture.
Currently three settlements can be chosen - the Vikings, the Feudal Japanese, and the Ancient Egyptian. The player can select other Cultural Settlements on the screen.
Start the settlement and set sail to a completely new map to build up a settlement as the new ruler!
Settlements
| Culture | Settlement Rewards | Time Reward | Boat |
|---|---|---|---|
 Vikings |  Yggdrasil Lvl. 1 Yggdrasil Upgrades 6 Emissaries 3 Emissary Slots
|  Fragments of Greater Runestone | 
|
 Feudal Japan |  Shinto Temple Lvl. 1 |  Fragments of Timeless Dojo | 
|
 Ancient Egypt |  Royal Bathhouse Lvl. 1 |  Fragments of Ancient Obelisk | 
|
Building the settlement
When the player enters a new settlement, they will be guided through building up the settlement and gaining the trust of the people in the form of a quest line. The player will need to gather new resources and will have new resources available that are only functional within the settlement. After collecting enough resources, the player will be able to unlock new buildings or expansions for the Cultural settlement. Once the quest line of a settlement is completed, the people will completely trust the player and the settlement is finished.
Each settlement can be abandoned at any point. Abandoning a settlement will not change the existing Impediments nor will it change the prices in certain goods for the Embassy advancements.
If you abandon the settlement without completing any quests there will be no waiting time to start the next one. If you have completed at least one quest the waiting time will be 24H.
Be careful though, whenever a settlement is completed or abandoned, all resources, advancements, buildings and expansions (including the premium ones), are reset again!
Impediments
Building up a settlement is not as easy as one may think, as impediments, unmovable rocks in the settlement, block part of the city grid, making it harder to arrange buildings, since buildings need to be placed around the impediments. Also, to gather resources, large amounts of cultural coins are needed, making it even more important to use the given space as efficient as possible.
With each start of a new Cultural settlement, the impediments will be arranged differently in the city. Abandoning a settlement will not rearrange the impediments.
Embassy
The embassy gives access to the embassy advancements and shows the player's stock of cultural goods. The embassy can be moved to another location on the city grid, but cannot be sold. Click on the embassy (or the 'Develop' button) to open the 'Embassy Advancements' window.
Embassy Advancements
Cultural Goods and Diplomacy
Embassy Advancements have to be unlocked in order to build new settlement buildings and to be able to unlock the next advancement. Embassy Advancements can be unlocked by paying a certain amount of cultural goods, while having the requested amount of diplomacy.
Although the total amount of cultural goods and the type of goods is the same for every player, the amount of each good can be different.
Using Diamonds
When lacking cultural goods or diplomacy to unlock an advancement, the player can use diamonds. The amount of diamonds needed depends on the amount of cultural goods and diplomacy still needed to unlock the next advancement. Each
1 diplomacy costs 
1 diamond, each 
1 cultural good costs 5 diamonds.
Example: the first Viking advancement costs 
10 axes and requires
55 diplomacy, the total diamond cost will be 10*5 + 55 = 105 diamonds. A player has 7 axes in stock and
50 diplomacy in their city, missing 3 axes and
5 diplomacy. This will cost 3*5 + 5 = 20 diamonds to unlock the advancement, plus the 7 axes in stock.
Warning: before using diamonds, be aware that when finishing a settlement (or abandoning one), the settlement will be reset and all buildings, goods in stock, advancements and expansions will be lost, including those unlocked with diamonds.
Building Menu
The building menu consists of four types of buildings and an expansions window:
-
Residential buildings
- Cultural Goods buildings
- Diplomacy buildings
- Roads
- Expansions
At the start of the settlement, the player will have one of each type of building available in the building menu. All other buildings become available by unlocking embassy advancements.
Ancient Egypt also have 
Military buildings in the building menu with three buildings available from the start.
The building cost of each settlement building depends on the player's era and consists of resources from the main city: coins and supplies.
All resources gained from the settlement, stay in the settlement. Players cannot trade cultural goods with other players.
Residential Buildings
Residential buildings provide settlement population and cultural coins. Population is needed to build cultural goods buildings and some of the diplomacy buildings. Cultural coins are needed to pay for the cultural goods productions in Vikings and Feudal Japan. In Ancient Egypt cultural coins are used for the training of Egyptian military units and road costs.
Cultural Goods Buildings
Cultural goods buildings provide cultural goods. These are needed to unlock embassy advancements and expansions.
Cultural goods buildings provide an amount of cultural goods, from 5 to 20, depending on the chosen production time. The production is similar to goods production in the main city, but requires a resource that the player gathers in the settlement: cultural coins. Except for Ancient Egypt where Loot, won in Egyptian battles, are needed instead. Unlike main city goods, the player cannot trade cultural goods with other players.
Diplomacy Buildings
Diplomacy buildings provide diplomacy and some of them also produce cultural coins. Diplomacy is needed to gain the trust of the settlement and unlock embassy advancements. Although diplomacy seems similar to happiness, it has no effect on the settlement population or on settlement productions.
Roads
All settlement buildings except some diplomacy buildings require a road connection to the embassy.
Expansions
To expand the settlement, the player can buy a number of expansions with cultural goods. The cost of the expansion depends on the number of expansions already bought and the culture you are playing.
There is also a number of expansions that can be unlocked with diamonds. These cost 500 each.
The number of expansions that can be bought with cultural goods or diamonds may vary between the cultures.
Warning: before using diamonds, be aware that when finishing a settlement (or abandoning one), the settlement will be reset and all buildings, goods in stock, advancements and expansions will be lost, including those unlocked with diamonds.
New Buildings
Vikings
| Building | Size | Function | Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
 Greater Runestone |  2x2 | Special residential building Provides  coins and up to  +2% attack boost.Provides double coins and additional  medals,  1 good and up to  2 Forge Points when motivated and can be plundered.Can only be obtained by collecting fragments of the Greater Runestone Selection Kit.Requires completing a  Viking settlement within a given time frame.
|  Yes |
| Yggdrasil | 3x3 | Special residential building Provides coins and up to +30% attack boost.Provides double coins and  supplies and additional up to 8 Forge Points and up to 20 goods when motivated and can be plundered.Requires completing a Viking settlement.
| Yes |
Feudal Japan
| Building | Size | Function | Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
 Timeless Dojo | 3x3 | Special residential building Provides coins.Provides double coins and additional medals, up to 5 good, up to 4 Forge Points and up to  1 random Military Unit of your age when motivated and can be plundered.Can only be obtained by collecting fragments of the Timeless Dojo Selection Kit.Requires completing a  Feudal Japan Settlement within a given time frame.
| Yes |
 Shinto Temple | 3x4 | Special residential building Provides coins, supplies and up to  +25% supply boost.Provides double coins and supplies and additional up to 12 Forge Points and up to 50 goods when motivated and can be plundered.Requires completing a Japanese settlement.
| Yes |
Ancient Egypt
| Building | Size | Function | Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
 Ancient Obelisk | 2x2 | Special residential building Provides Coins and up to  +6% Defense Boost.Provides double coins and additional up to 4 Goods and up to 2 Forge Points when motivated and can be plundered.Can only be obtained by collecting fragments of the Ancient Obelisk Selection Kit.Requires completing an Ancient Egypt Settlement within a given time frame. | Yes |
 Royal Bathhouse | 3x4 | Special residential building Provides Coins and up to 12 Forge Points and up to 30  Guild Goods.Provides double coins and additional up to 10 random Military Units of your age when motivated and can be plundered.Requires completing an Ancient Egypt Settlement. | Yes |
Emissaries
Open your cities Town Hall to enter the emissaries window. Here you can add and change emissaries to gain their boosts and unlock additional emissary slots, using 800 diamonds per slot. Earn your first emissary and your first free emissary slot by completing any of the settlements two times. There are currently 8 emissary slots that can be unlocked. Five of these can be unlocked by completing the settlements - additional slots can be unlocked using diamonds.
Town Hall Emissaries Window
Vikings Emissaries
There are 6 Emissaries in total available in the Vikings Cultural Settlement.
| Emissary | Bonus |
|---|---|
| Harald Hardrada | 1 Forge Point
|
 Erik the Red | Medals
|
 Leif Erikson | Supplies
|
 Freydís Eiríksdóttir | Coins
|
 Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir | 1 Military Unit of your age |
 Aud the Deep-Minded | 2 Goods of your age |
Japanese Emissaries
There are 4 Emissaries in total available in the Feudal Japan Cultural Settlement.
| Emissary | Bonus |
|---|---|
 Oda Nobunaga | 1 Forge Point
|
 Takeda Shingen | 2 Goods of your age |
 Tomoe Gozen | 1 Military Unit of your age |
 Oda Oichi | 1 Forge Point
|
Egyptian Emissaries
There are 4 Emissaries in total available in the Ancient Egypt Cultural Settlement.
| Emissary | Bonus |
|---|---|
 Euclid of Alexandria | 1 Forge Point
|
 Mentuhotep | Supplies
|
 Hemetre | 3 Goods of your age |
 Maatkare Mutemhat | 2 Military Units of your age |
See Also
- Vikings
- Viking settlement
- Feudal Japan
- Feudal Japan Settlement
- Ancient Egypt
- Ancient Egypt Settlement
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