Introduction: The World Awaits
The World Map in Elvenar is your gateway to expansion, resources, and adventure. Beyond your city’s borders lie hundreds of provinces filled with relics, treasures, and challenges. Understanding how to efficiently scout, conquer, and manage these territories is crucial for long-term success. This comprehensive guide covers everything from basic scouting mechanics to advanced strategies for optimizing your world map progression, ensuring you maximize rewards while minimizing costs
.
Understanding the World Map Interface
When you first enter the World Map, you’ll see a vast unexplored landscape surrounding your city. The interface provides several essential tools
:
- Scouting Button: Sends scouts to bordering provinces
- Provinces Overview: Shows all scoutable and incomplete provinces with difficulty ratings
- Navigate to City: Returns you to your city position
- Relic Overview: Displays collected relics and production boosts
- Tournament Access: Weekly competitions in solved provinces
Neighboring Cities become visible as you scout provinces, allowing trade, neighborly help, and community interaction. Each player’s city appearance changes based on their current chapter, reflecting their progression
.
Scouting Mechanics and Strategy
The Scouting Process
Scouting is the first step toward province conquest. Scouts demand Coins for their efforts, with costs increasing based on your progression. Hover over any bordering province to see scouting costs, click to view the Scout’s Note with difficulty information, then confirm to begin scouting
.
Scout times vary from minutes (early game) to days (late game). Once scouting completes, the province reveals detailed information including terrain type, enemy composition, and available relics. All neighboring cities in that province become “discovered,” enabling cheaper trades and neighborly help
.
The Overscouting Dilemma
The most critical strategic decision in Elvenar is how many provinces to scout. This affects:
- Encounter costs: Negotiation goods and troop requirements
- Battle difficulty: Enemy squad sizes
- Expansion availability: Province expansions for city growth
The Advanced Scouts Technology in each chapter reduces scouting costs by 25% and lowers encounter difficulty—but only for unscouted provinces
. Once a province is scouted, its costs remain fixed regardless of future research.
Province Difficulty and Management
Understanding Difficulty Ratings
Provinces display difficulty ratings from Very Easy to Very Hard
:
- Easy Provinces: Minimal troop/good requirements, ideal for early expansion
- Medium Provinces: Moderate costs, manageable with decent military
- Hard/Very Hard Provinces: Significant resource investment required
Critical Insight: Difficulty is determined at the moment of scouting, not completion. A province scouted early remains expensive even if you delay completing it for months
.
The 220-Province Orc Barrier
The most dangerous overscouting trap occurs at 220 completed provinces. Beyond this point, negotiations require Orcs—a resource unavailable until Chapter 8
. Players who overscout before reaching Orc production get stuck, unable to complete provinces for events or expansion
.
Strategic Solution: Stop completing provinces around 200-220 until you unlock Orc production. You can continue scouting to claim expansions, but leave encounters incomplete until Chapter 8
.
Two Competing Philosophies
Approach 1: Minimal Scouting (Conservative)
Strategy: Scout only the minimum provinces needed for each chapter’s Advanced Scouts technology
.
Advantages:
- Lower encounter costs throughout the game
- Easier battles and negotiations
- Balanced resource allocation between provinces and tournaments
Disadvantages:
- Slower expansion (less space for city growth)
- Fewer relics for production boosts
- Delayed access to neighboring cities for trading
Approach 2: Continuous Scouting (Aggressive)
Strategy: Scout 24/7, completing provinces as resources allow
.
Advantages:
- Maximum early expansions (critical space for production)
- More neighbors for trading and neighborly help
- Additional relics and Knowledge Points from encounters
- Better preparation for guest race settlements requiring space
Disadvantages:
- Higher encounter costs
- Risk of hitting the Orc barrier before Chapter 8
- Requires efficient city layout to utilize extra space productively
Expert Consensus: After Chapter 5-6, continuous scouting becomes viable. Before then, stay near chapter requirements to avoid overwhelming costs
.
Encounter Resolution: Combat vs. Negotiation
Each province contains 8 encounters that can be resolved through combat or negotiation
:
Combat Approach
Fight enemy squads using your trained army. Advantages include:
- No goods expenditure
- Troop experience and potential unit promotion
- Faster completion for active players
Tactical Tip: Use the “Retreat” option freely. If a battle goes poorly, retreating returns all troops unharmed, allowing strategy adjustment
.
Negotiation Approach
Pay goods to peacefully resolve encounters. Advantages include:
- No troop losses
- Viable for players with strong economies but weak militaries
- Consistent completion regardless of army strength
Cost Warning: Negotiation costs scale with province difficulty and your progression. Overscouted provinces can demand thousands of goods per encounter
.
Province Expansions and City Growth
Expansion Types
Three sources provide city expansions
:
- Research Expansions: 2 available per chapter (fixed)
- Province Expansions: Variable based on completed provinces
- Premium Expansions: Purchased with Diamonds (13,500 each)
The Expansion Equation
Each consecutive province expansion requires completing one more province than the last:
- 1st expansion: 1 province
- 2nd expansion: 2 provinces
- 3rd expansion: 3 provinces
- And so on…
Critical Strategy: The hard cap occurs at approximately 457-460 provinces—no more expansions are available beyond this point, regardless of scouting
. Plan your city layout knowing this ultimate limit.
Advanced Strategies
The 7/8 Completion Technique
Complete only 7 encounters in each province initially, leaving the 8th unfinished. This prevents the game from counting the province as “completed” for certain quests while still granting most rewards
. When you need completed provinces for chapter advancement or events, finish the remaining encounters.
Spiral Scouting Pattern
Scout in a circular or spiral pattern starting directly above or below your city
. This systematic approach ensures you don’t miss easy provinces while gradually increasing difficulty in all directions equally.
Event Preparation
Always maintain 3-5 incomplete but scouted provinces for event quests requiring province completion
. Events frequently include “Scout a Province” or “Complete X Encounters” tasks—having ready provinces prevents scout time delays during time-limited events.
The Tournament Connection
Completed provinces become eligible for Tournaments—weekly competitions offering Knowledge Points, relics, and rune shards. However, tournament costs depend on placed expansions, not completed provinces
. You can complete hundreds of provinces without increasing tournament difficulty if you don’t place the resulting expansions.
Key Insight: Store province expansions in inventory indefinitely until you need space. This maximizes city area while minimizing tournament and Spire costs
.
Relics and Production Boosts
Each province type contains specific Relics that boost production of corresponding goods
:Table
| Province Type | Relic Type | Boosted Goods |
|---|---|---|
| Marble | Marble | Marble, Stone, Gems |
| Steel | Steel | Steel, Scrolls, Magic Dust |
| Planks | Planks | Planks, Silk, Elixir |
| Crystal | Crystal | Crystal, Scrolls, Magic Dust |
| Scrolls | Scrolls | Scrolls, Crystal, Magic Dust |
Collecting 6 matching relics increases your production boost percentage for that good type, visible in your Main Hall . Prioritize provinces matching your boosted goods for maximum economic benefit.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Overscouting before Orcs: Hitting the 220-province wall without Orc production stalls progress
- Ignoring Advanced Scouts: Researching this technology after scouting wastes its 25% cost reduction benefit
- Completing all encounters immediately: The 7/8 technique provides quest flexibility
- Placing all expansions immediately: Stored expansions don’t increase tournament/Spire costs
- Neglecting scouting entirely: Too few provinces limits expansion, relics, and neighbors
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