Age of Empires Mobile Beginners Guide

Introduction to Beginners Guide

Age of Empires Mobile throws you into the heart of a sprawling empire, tasking you with building a thriving city, commanding legendary heroes, and conquering vast territories. But if you’re a newcomer to mobile city-building games, the sheer amount of features and strategies can feel overwhelming. This Age of Empires Mobile beginners guide is designed to equip you with the essential knowledge and strategies to establish a powerful empire, navigate the complex gameplay, and avoid common pitfalls.

Whether you’re a seasoned Age of Empires veteran or a complete novice to the genre, this guide will provide valuable insights to accelerate your progress, master the art of war, and rise to dominance in the world of Age of Empires Mobile

Getting Started on Age of Empires Mobile

When starting Age of Empires Mobile, you will automatically be placed in a new kingdom. Choosing to play on a new server is important, as all players will be starting at the same time, giving you equal opportunity to engage in beginner events and milestones. On older servers, players have already significantly progressed, putting you at a disadvantage – so unless you are joining to play with friends, it is best you start on a new server (the one you automatically join will be the newest available server).

You will then need to choose one of eight available civilizations: Chinese, French, Byzantines, Romans, British, Egyptians, Japanese, or Koreans. We recommend in our civilizations guide that for the early game you should choose either the Chinese or Korean civilization. If this is your first Age of Empires Mobile server, you should probably pick the Chinese civilization. Don’t stress your civilization too much though – its easy and cheap to change later!

City Building and Resource Management

The Town Center is the most important building in your city in Age of Empires Mobile. No other building can surpass the Town Center’s level, acting as a cap for all other structures. We recommend rushing the Town Center to level 17 as quickly as possible. This is because you unlock another hero slot at this level, allowing you to field an army with three heroes, significantly boosting your attacking power.

As you progress and upgrade your town center, remember to keep resource management in mind. You gain resources over time from structures like farms and lumber mills. You can also acquire resources by killing barbarians, farming them in the world, or attacking other players. However, keep in mind that other players can also attack your city to plunder your resources.

Some key points of resource management:

• Protection: The warehouse in your city provides protection for a certain amount of each resource, shielding them from plundering.
• Resource Items: Avoid using resource items unless absolutely necessary for an upgrade. Using them unnecessarily can push your resources over the protected limit, making you a more attractive target for attackers.
• Upgrading Warehouse: If you find yourself consistently overflowing with resources, consider upgrading your warehouse to increase the protected limit.

Along with the Town Center, several other buildings play a crucial role in city building:

• Embassy: This building allows you to receive Alliance Assistance, which can significantly speed up your building and research times. Upgrading the Embassy increases the number of assistance requests you can send – although more on alliances will come later in the guide.
• University: The University is essential for research, and upgrading it provides additional research time bonuses. Research allows you to increase resource gathering speed, upgraded troops, and lots more.
• Mill: The Mill’s level determines the number of farms you can build, directly impacting your food production. Similarly, upgrading other resource production buildings like the lumber camp, gold mine, and quarry increases the number of villagers you can assign to them, boosting their output.

The Power of Unity: Why Alliances are Crucial in Age of Empires Mobile

Joining an active alliance in Age of Empires Mobile is one of the most important actions you can take. This is crucial for smooth and fast progression, playing solo will severely hinder your advancement in the game.

The benefits of being in a strong alliance extend far beyond simply having allies in battle. Here’s a breakdown of the advantages:

1. Accelerated Building and Research:

• Through the Embassy building, you can request Alliance Assistance, where fellow alliance members contribute towards speeding up your building and research timers.
• Each instance of assistance shaves off 1% of the total time. While this may seem small, it becomes significant when dealing with later-game upgrades that can take days or even weeks to complete.

2. Enhanced Power and Resource Production:

• Active alliances invest in technologies that provide bonuses to all members. These can include boosts to attack, defence, resource production, and other crucial aspects of gameplay.
• You also gain access to free resources regularly, depending on your alliance’s territory control.

3. Shared Rewards and Benefits:

• When alliance members make purchases in the in-game shop, everyone in the alliance receives bonus rewards, allowing free-to-play players to benefit from the spending of others.
• Similarly, milestone achievements by alliance members unlock chests filled with resources and other valuable items for everyone in the alliance.

4. Conquering the World Together:

• Some activities in Age of Empires Mobile require a coordinated effort from multiple players.
• For instance, powerful enemies like Barbarian Vanguards can only be defeated through rally attacks, where you team up with alliance members to launch a joint assault.
• Rally attacks are also essential for conquering cities and monuments, which offer various benefits to the controlling alliance.

5. Strategic Advantage in City Sieges:

• City sieges are a key aspect of Age of Empires Mobile’s endgame.
• Successfully besieging a city requires a coordinated effort from a strong alliance, utilising siege engines like trebuchets to break through defences and capture key structures.

Choosing the Right Alliance:

We strongly recommend aiming for the most active and powerful alliances on your server. These alliances often attract players who spend money on the game (“whales”), resulting in more rewards for all members. They are also better positioned to control important locations on the map and achieve top rankings in alliance events, further increasing the benefits for you.

See Alliance Rankings

To see how your alliance is doing in comparison to others, you can check out the alliance rankings. This is accessed through the Rankings panel available at the bottom of your screen when in your Citadel or on the world map. Here you can see alliance land power, merits, and power – and see how you stack up against other alliances.

In conclusion, an active and powerful alliance is essential for success in Age of Empires Mobile. It provides a network of support, shared resources, and the strength to overcome challenging content and dominate the game world.

Buildings and Upgrades in Age of Empires Mobile

As previously explained, the Town Center is the most important building in your citadel. It determines the maximum level of all other buildings, meaning no other building can be upgraded beyond the Town Center’s level. You should focus on quickly upgrading your Town Center to level 17, which unlocks a third hero slot. Three heroes in an army grant you a 15% bonus to all attributes and access to more hero skills and talents, which significantly boosts your effectiveness in battles and farming.

However, as you progress through the game, you’ll eventually need to upgrade your Town Center to the maximum level of 30, which requires strategic upgrading of other key buildings.

Here’s a summary of the key buildings and upgrades:

• Embassy: The Embassy facilitates Alliance Assistance, allowing alliance members to contribute towards speeding up your building and research. Each assistance reduces the upgrade or research time by 1%. Upgrading your Embassy to its maximum level will allow you to receive 20 additional Alliance Assistance chances.
• University: Upgrading the University provides bonuses to research time, allowing you to progress through the technology tree more quickly. Keep the University at the same level as your Town Center to avoid bottlenecks in your research.
• Resource Production Buildings: Upgrading resource production buildings like the Mill, Lumber Camp, Gold Mine, and Quarry increases the number of villagers you can assign to them, boosting resource output. For example, upgrading the Mill increases the number of farms you can have, which directly impacts food production. Upgrading the Lumber Camp, Gold Mine, and Quarry to level 10 increases the number of villagers you can assign from three to four.
• Warehouse: Upgrading the Warehouse increases the amount of each resource protected from being plundered by other players. The maximum protection limit reaches 2.3 million for each resource.
• Guard Tower: The Guard Tower is vital for defending your city, and upgrading it requires Sanctuary Blueprints. You can obtain these blueprints by defeating Tribal Troops of any level or from the Wandering Merchant. The higher the level of the Tribal Troops, the more blueprints they drop.
• Alliance Structures: Alliance Structures provide various benefits to all alliance members, such as boosting resource production, increasing troop stats, and enhancing healing speed. Alliance members must contribute resources to initiate the research and development of these technologies.

We strongly suggest that, while the Town Center is the most important building, you should also prioritize upgrading the Embassy and University. These buildings will benefit you significantly throughout the entire game.

Heroes and Combat in Age of Empires Mobile

Heroes are extremely important in combat – here’s a breakdown of the key concepts related to heroes and combat:

Hero Specialisation and Synergies

• Unit Type Specialty: Each hero specialises in a particular unit type – swordsmen, pikemen, archers, or cavalry. When leading an army composed of their specialised unit type, heroes receive bonuses to all their attributes based on the number of heroes with the same specialty in the troop. These bonuses increase with the number of heroes, reaching a maximum of 15% with three heroes.
• Military Specialty: In addition to unit type, heroes also have a military specialty, such as Warrior, Marshal, or Tactician. Fielding heroes with the same military specialty grants additional attribute bonuses. Two heroes with the same specialty provide a 20% bonus, while three heroes offer a massive 30% boost.

We recommend aiming for armies with three heroes that share both unit type and military specialty, resulting in a combined bonus of 45% to all attributes, significantly enhancing their combat effectiveness.

Hero Skills and Talents

• Four Skill Types: Every hero possesses four skills:
  • Commander Skill: This is the hero’s primary skill and often the most powerful. It activates only for the commander of an army (the first hero in the troop). The level of the commander skill is tied to the hero’s level, meaning you must level up the hero to enhance the skill.
  • Signature Skill: This skill is fixed and cannot be changed. It’s typically a unique ability that defines the hero’s playstyle.
  • Configurable Skills: These two skills can be swapped and customised, allowing for different strategic combinations.
• Skill Points: The level of the configurable skills is determined by the number of skill points invested in them. You acquire skill points from various activities and can purchase them using Alliance coins.
• Talent Trees: Heroes have talent trees that offer various bonuses and enhancements. You can customise these talent trees using talent points, acquired by levelling up the hero.

Army Composition and Troop Types

• Four Troop Types: Age of Empires Mobile features four main troop types: swordsmen, pikemen, archers, and cavalry. Each troop type has strengths and weaknesses against others, following a rock-paper-scissors dynamic:
  • Swordsmen counter pikemen
  • Pikemen counter cavalry
  • Cavalry counter archers
  • Archers counter swordsmen
• Tier System: Troops have tiers, with higher tiers possessing better stats. Upgrading your troop training buildings unlocks access to higher-tier units.
• Troop Capacity: The number of troops you can field is dictated by your heroes level. Each hero starts with a base capacity of 400, and this increases by 200 for every level gained. For example, a level 10 hero has a capacity of 2,200.

Combat Mechanics and Strategies

• Auto Battle: Age of Empires Mobile features an auto battle system for fighting barbarians. This allows your heroes to automatically engage nearby barbarians, collect rewards, and return to your city for healing and troop replenishment.
• Rally Attacks: Some enemies and activities, such as conquering cities and monuments, require rally attacks. These attacks involve multiple players from your alliance joining forces to assault a target.
• City Sieges: City sieges are complex battles that involve breaking through city gates, destroying defensive structures, and capturing key buildings. Siege engines like trebuchets are essential for these large-scale engagements.

Recommended Strategies for Beginners

Some recommendations for new players to enhance their combat effectiveness:

• Focus on Swordsmen: For free-to-play players, focusing on swordsmen is advised as you can obtain several powerful swordsman heroes early on, including Josephine, King David, and Hammurabi.
• Utilise Gathering Heroes: Investing in gathering heroes is essential for boosting resource acquisition. Assign these heroes gathering skills and talents to maximise their efficiency.
• Prioritise Research: Researching technologies in the economy and military trees can significantly improve your resource production, troop stats, and overall combat power.
• Join an Active Alliance: As discussed previously, joining a strong alliance is vital for accessing assistance, technology benefits, and coordinated attacks.
• Experiment with Skill Combinations: The configurable hero skills allow for various strategic combinations. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find synergies that work best for your playstyle.
• Understand Troop Counters: It’s crucial to send the correct troop types against enemies. For example, sending pikemen against archers will lead to heavy losses.
• Scout Your Opponents: Before engaging in battles, scout your opponents to determine their army composition and defences. This allows you to tailor your army and strategies for a higher chance of success.
• Coordinate with Alliance Members: Effective communication and coordination with your alliance is essential for conquering cities, defending territories, and achieving victory in large-scale conflicts.

By understanding the various aspects of heroes and combat in Age of Empires Mobile, you can build powerful armies, develop effective strategies, and conquer your enemies on the battlefield.

Activities Beyond Your City Walls: Exploring the Open World of Age of Empires Mobile

There are several key activities and elements within the open world of Age of Empires Mobile, emphasizing the importance of strategic expansion and cooperation with your alliance:

1. The World Map Structure:

• Birth Region: When you begin the game, you’re placed in a “birth region,” one of several on the outer circle of the world map. These regions are separated by natural barriers and passes, requiring strategic maneuvering to reach other areas.
• Resource Region: Moving inwards, you’ll encounter “resource regions,” areas offering more abundant resources than the birth regions. Each resource region corresponds to two specific birth regions.
• Imperial City: At the very centre of the map lies the Imperial City, the most significant and highest-level city in the game. Control of the Imperial City signifies dominance and ultimate victory in the world.

2. Conquering Cities and Monuments:

• Strategic Benefits: Scattered throughout the world map are cities and monuments of varying sizes and levels. Conquering these locations grants various benefits, such as enhanced resource production, troop stat improvements, and strategic advantages on the map.
• Alliance Cooperation: Successfully capturing cities and monuments requires collaboration with your alliance, particularly for medium-level and higher locations that boast fortified defences like city walls.

3. Navigating the Terrain:

• Passes and Crossings: Natural barriers and strategic points like passes and crossings influence movement and strategic positioning on the map. Controlling these locations can provide an advantage in both defence and offence.
• Targeted Relocation: If you wish to join an alliance in a different birth region, you can utilise a special item called “Targeted Relocation (limited-time).” This item allows you to move your city to another birth region, facilitating alliance collaboration.

4. Engaging in Open World Combat:

• Tribes: Tribes roam the world map, offering opportunities to test your armies and collect valuable resources, experience points, and other rewards.
• Auto Battle Feature: The game features an auto battle system specifically designed for engaging tribes. This system allows your heroes to automatically seek out and fight barbarians within a set range, returning to your city for healing and replenishment when necessary, making farming more efficient.
• Tribal Vanguards: These powerful enemies require coordinated rally attacks with your alliance to defeat. They offer significant rewards, such as King David medals, which can be used to obtain the legendary hero King David.

5. Gathering Resources:

• Beyond your city walls, you can directly gather resources from nodes scattered across the map. This can supplement your city’s production and provide a steady supply of materials for building and upgrades.

6. Participating in Events:

• Events like “Giants Roar,” which involve collecting banners to summon enemies in the open world. Defeating these enemies with your alliance rewards valuable items like hero medals.

Strategic Importance of Open World Activities:

We strongly suggest that engaging in open world activities is crucial for progressing through Age of Empires Mobile. Capturing cities and monuments provides valuable bonuses and strategic control, while defeating barbarians and participating in events yields resources, experience, and unique rewards.

Cooperation with your alliance is paramount for success in these activities. Rally attacks, strategic relocation, and coordinated efforts are necessary for overcoming challenging foes and capturing fortified locations.

Exploring Events and Rewards in Age of Empires Mobile

There are a wide variety of events and rewards to take part in and claim in Age of Empires Mobile, here is a quick overview:

Events:

• Calendar of Events: The game features a calendar that displays ongoing and upcoming events, helping you plan participation and maximize your rewards.
• Diverse Event Types: Age of Empires Mobile offers a variety of events, catering to different playstyles and goals. Examples include:
  • World Tree: This event provides opportunities to acquire elite recruitments, skill points, hero experience, and resources.
  • Wishing Card: A daily event that offers free rewards.
  • Recruitment Events: Completing a certain number of recruitments rewards players with hero medals, skill points, and other benefits.
  • Giants Roar: This event centers around collecting banners to summon enemies. Rallying with alliance members to defeat these enemies rewards King David medals, used to obtain the legendary hero King David.
• Beginner Events and Milestones: New Kingdoms offer special events and milestones designed to help new players progress quickly. These often include rewards like hero recruitments, Empire coins (premium currency), resources, and speed-ups.
• Alliance Events: Many events involve alliance participation, fostering teamwork and competition between alliances. Large, active alliances often dominate these events, further incentivizing players to join strong alliances.

Rewards:

• Resources: Events commonly reward players with essential resources like food, wood, stone, and gold, crucial for building upgrades and troop training.
• Speed-Ups: Speed-ups are valuable items that reduce the time required for various actions, such as building upgrades, research, and troop training. Events frequently offer speed-ups as rewards, allowing players to accelerate their progress
• Empire Coins: Empire coins are the premium currency in Age of Empires Mobile, typically acquired through in-app purchases. However, events often provide Empire coins as rewards, enabling free-to-play players to access some premium benefits.
• Hero Experience: Hero experience is essential for levelling up heroes, unlocking new skills, and enhancing their attributes. Many events reward players with hero experience, allowing them to strengthen their heroes more quickly.
• Skill Points: These points are used to upgrade hero skills, enhancing their effectiveness in combat and other areas. Several events offer skill points as rewards, providing a valuable boost to hero development.
• Hero Medals: Hero medals are specific to individual heroes and are used to unlock and promote heroes, increasing their star level and overall power. Certain events, such as recruitment events and “Giants Roar,” reward players with hero medals.
• Elite Recruitments: Some events, like the World Tree, offer chances to obtain elite recruitments, providing a chance to acquire powerful heroes.
• Alliance-Specific Rewards: Participation in alliance events can yield rewards for the entire alliance, such as free chests, resources, and technology boosts.

Strategic Importance of Events:

Actively participating in events is crucial for accelerating progression in Age of Empires Mobile. Events provide a consistent source of valuable resources, speed-ups, hero upgrades, and other benefits that would otherwise require significant time or in-app purchases to obtain.

New players, in particular, should focus on beginner events and milestones to gain a head start in building their cities and armies.

Moreover, events that involve alliance participation, such as “Giants Roar” and city sieges, highlight the importance of joining a strong, active alliance. These alliances offer greater chances of success in events, leading to more rewards and benefits for their members.

By understanding the event system and prioritizing event participation, you can effectively maximize your rewards, accelerate your progress, and gain a competitive edge in the world of Age of Empires Mobile.

Spending Effectively in Age of Empires Mobile

Purchasing in-game items is not necessary in Age of Empires Mobile, you can still play and have a lot of fun as a free-to-play player, although if you choose to purchase this section of the guide is to help make sure you spend efficiently. Some packs are better and give more useful rewards than others!

Prioritise Value-Driven Purchases:

• Building Queue Pack: We recommend purchasing the “Building Queue Pack” as it provides a permanent third building queue for a relatively low price. This significantly accelerates building upgrades and overall city development, offering long-term value for your investment.
• Limited-Time Bundles: Keep an eye out for limited-time bundles, particularly those that appear when you acquire a new legendary hero. These bundles often offer a substantial amount of valuable items, such as hero medals, experience, resources, and Empire coins, at a discounted price compared to individual purchases.

Consider Long-Term Investment:

• Monthly Pass and Growth Fund: The monthly pass and growth fund offer good value if you plan on playing the game consistently. These options provide daily rewards and unlock additional bonuses as you progress through the game, making them worthwhile investments for dedicated players.

Strategic Spending Considerations:

• Focus on Early Game Needs: In the early stages of the game, prioritise spending that enhances resource production, building speed, and hero development to accelerate your progress. The “Building Queue Pack” and limited-time hero bundles can be particularly beneficial during this phase.
• Align Spending with Playstyle: Consider your preferred playstyle when making purchasing decisions. If you prefer a more aggressive approach, investing in heroes and upgrades that boost your attack power might be more beneficial. Conversely, if you favour a defensive strategy, prioritising city defences and resource protection could be more advantageous.
• Evaluate Bundle Contents Carefully: Before purchasing any bundle, carefully assess the included items and their value to your current needs and goals. Compare the costs of individual items to determine if the bundle offers a genuine discount.

Exercise Caution with In-App Purchases:

• Set Spending Limits: If you choose to make in-app purchases, establish a budget and stick to it. Mobile games can be tempting, but it’s important to spend responsibly and avoid overspending.

By following these guidelines, you can optimize your spending in Age of Empires Mobile, maximizing the value of your purchases and ensuring a more enjoyable and rewarding gaming experience.

Additional Tips for Mastering Age of Empires Mobile

Here are some extra tips to help you thrive in Age of Empires Mobile:

Gameplay Mechanics and Progression:

• Hero Skill Configuration: Experiment with different hero skill configurations to find the best synergies and optimise your army’s performance. Refer to the in-game tutorials for recommendations on skill combinations.
• Gathering Hero Investment: Don’t neglect your gathering heroes in the early game. Invest in a few gathering heroes and equip them with gathering skills to boost your resource acquisition.
• Barbarian Farming Mastery: Utilise the Auto Battle feature effectively to automate barbarian farming and efficiently gather resources, experience, and skill points. Set your hospital capacity and minimum troop limits to prevent unnecessary troop losses.

Resource Management and Efficiency:

• Resource Protection: Be mindful of resource protection limits and avoid accumulating excessive unprotected resources that make you a target for other players. Upgrade your warehouse to increase storage protection limits.
• Strategic Resource Usage: Conserve resource items and only use them when necessary for upgrades, especially in the early game. Don’t waste resources by exceeding protected limits.
• Speed-Up Prioritisation: Use universal speed-ups primarily for researching technology, especially research that increases research and building speed. This will provide long-term benefits to your progression. Once research is maxed, focus speed-ups on troop training.

Alliance Collaboration and Diplomacy:

• Active Alliance Participation: Join an active and powerful alliance as soon as possible to benefit from assistance, technology bonuses, shared rewards, and coordinated efforts in events and city sieges.
• Effective Communication: Communicate with your alliance members to coordinate attacks, rallies, and resource sharing. This fosters teamwork and enhances your overall success.
• Diplomatic Relationships: Cultivate positive relationships with other alliances to avoid unnecessary conflicts and potentially forge alliances for mutual benefit. Remember that diplomacy is essential in this genre.

Other tips:

• Explore Different Civilisations: Experiment with different civilisations to find one that suits your playstyle and goals. While the initial choice isn’t permanent, understanding the unique bonuses each civilisation offers can give you an edge. You can change your civilisation later in the game for a small cost in Empire coins.
• Pay Attention to Tile Hitting: Tile hitting refers to attacking other players’ resource gathering troops in the open world. Be aware of the risks and rewards associated with tile hitting, and consider how it might impact your diplomatic relationships.
• Study Troop Counters: Familiarize yourself with the troop counter system. Swordsmen counter Pikemen, Pikemen counter Cavalry, Cavalry counter Archers, and Archers counter Swordsmen. Use this knowledge to your advantage when attacking barbarians and engaging in battles.

By implementing these additional tips alongside the strategies previously mentioned, you be well-equipped to navigate the challenges and complexities of Age of Empires Mobile, establishing a thriving city, commanding formidable armies, and forging a path to victory in the open world.

Conclusion

Now go forth with the knowledge from this Age of Empires Mobile beginners guide, join a great alliance, and conquer your enemies! Good luck, you never know – we might see you on the battlefield! If you are interested, we have a wide host of other guides on the site, delving into each aspect of the game, to take you from beginner to veteran in no time.