Kingdoms of Aetheria complete guide

• Domination: conquer the capitals of all your rivals.
• Science: discover the Ascension, the last technology of the Aether Age.
• Culture: gather all five great people.
• Score: if the turns run out, whoever has the most points wins.
• You lose if you are left with no cities or settlers, or if a rival wins first by science or culture.

Everything moves forward when you press Next turn: cities produce, grow with their surplus food (each citizen eats 2) and work one nearby tile per citizen. Whatever a city builds takes several turns; the ＋ button adds it to the queue.

Roads and the sea connect cities to the capital and bring in gold. Resources only yield if a city works their tile.

• Strength, health, terrain (+25% in forests and hills) and fortifying (+50%) all count.
• Ranged troops attack from 2 tiles away without taking retaliation.
• Flanking: each of your troops next to the defender adds +15% (up to +45%).
• Zone of control: a unit stops when it moves next to an enemy.
• Rivers: a melee attack on a unit standing on a river suffers −20%.
• Airships fly: melee infantry cannot reach them.
• To take a city, bring its health down to 0 and move in with a melee unit. Cities fire every turn.
• Infantry fights in squads of three: the fewer soldiers left standing, the less health it has.
• A wounded troop heals on its own if it neither moves nor attacks; faster when fortified or in your cities.
• Hover over the target to see the combat preview.

Troops gain experience in combat, and at each level you choose a promotion. Once you can build the next unit in its line (for example Spearman → Musketman → Rifleman), a troop in your territory can be upgraded by paying gold, and it keeps its experience.

Heroes: on reaching Elite (the third level) a troop earns a name of its own, such as “The Sons of Thunder”. You see it in its panel and on hover, with a golden ribbon under its banner. If it falls in battle, the chronicle remembers it. Look after them: they are worth a lot.

Every city and every citizen lowers happiness. It goes up with the different luxuries in your territory (+4 each, such as spices or mana), including those you get by trading, and with temples, amphitheaters and wonders. With negative happiness, production and growth drop; at 10 or more, yields rise. Click the indicator on the top bar to see the breakdown.

Culture comes from cities, temples and wonders, and it fills two meters at once:

• The policies meter (Tradition and the rest): adopt them from the culture counter on the top bar.
• The great people meter (Great General and the rest): one at each threshold. Gathering all five grants the Culture victory.

On the title screen, Scenarios shows the Chronicle of Aetheria at the top: five chapters in a row with Queen Elara, from a village by the river to the Ascension. Each chapter opens when you beat the previous one.

The campaign hero (Aldric, at first) starts every chapter next to your capital. If they survive, they move on to the next one with their name, level and promotions, armed for the era. If they fall, the most experienced troop takes over. Finishing all five chapters earns the «Chronicler of Aetheria» achievement.

Each chapter has its own illustration and a narrator who tells the story when it begins (if sound is on). The 🔊 Listen button in the introduction replays or stops it; open it again with the ⓘ button on the scenario panel.

The spy is trained with Writing. Other kingdoms cannot see it unless it is right next to their troops or cities, and it crosses closed borders. It does not enter foreign cities: it acts from an adjacent tile.

Next to another kingdom's city it has three missions, each with its own chance of success: steal technology (one they know and you don't, as long as you already know what it requires), sabotage (−3 happiness for their kingdom for 8 turns and half of the city's current build burned) and watch (you see the city's surroundings for 20 turns). Walls and a garrison make it harder; every mission accomplished gives it more skill.

After acting it hides for 4 turns. If it fails, half the time it gets caught, and the other kingdom holds a grudge; even when it succeeds, sometimes they find out who did it. Rivals have spies too: if one of your cities loses technology or progress, you'll know why. A troop next to the city exposes them.

Every turn the game notes which tiles change hands and what happens: cities founded, conquered or razed, wars, peace treaties, wonders and discoveries. With that, World replay (in the Menu and at the end of the game) shows the map turn by turn, with each kingdom's borders, its cities and a scoreboard of how much land each one holds.

While you play, it only shows what you have explored; at the end, the whole world. Save video records it all (about 30 seconds) so you can download or share it. It is saved with the game.

Every map has 3 to 6 natural wonders: a volcano, a waterfall with a rainbow, a giant tree, a mana crater, a great reef, a circle of standing stones or a healing fountain. Their names are written on the map and they are never next to the capitals: you have to go out and find them.

Discovering them: the first kingdom in the world to see each one earns 50 gold and 20 culture; those who arrive later, 15 gold. A good reason to send your scout out early.

Using them: you cannot found a city on top of them or build improvements on them, but a city within two tiles can work them like any other tile, and they yield much more. Each one also has its own effect while it is in your territory: fertile ash around it, happiness, culture, mana or healing. Troops can walk through them (except the volcano, which is a mountain).

Every kingdom has an opinion of you, with its reasons in plain sight: borders, wars, gifts, common enemies. It decides whether they accept peace, sign a research pact (+15% science for both) or demand tribute from you. At peace, their territory is closed: to cross it, open your borders or declare war. Each leader has a personality of their own: see the kingdoms.

Luxury trade: if you have a luxury the other lacks and they have one you lack, swap them one for one for 30 turns. Both of you count the other's luxury as your own (+4 happiness) and you think more highly of each other. The merchant trades with almost anyone; conquerors, only if they don't hold a grudge against you. A war breaks the deal. Rivals trade among themselves too.

Alliance: a defensive pact forever (until someone breaks it). Their attitude toward you must be friendly. If someone declares war on one of you, the other joins that war as well. Allies cannot declare war on each other: the alliance must be broken first, and that leaves some resentment.

Leaders speak: when you meet, when they declare war on you, when they accept or reject your peace or your pact, when they receive a gift or lose their capital, their portrait appears at the top left with a line that fits their personality, and they say it out loud in their own voice (the music dips while they speak). Its volume has its own setting in the Menu: “Leader voices”.

Neutral cities under a white flag that don't expand and that no one can attack. You earn their influence by giving them gold or completing their tasks: as a friend or ally they give you gold, culture or troops depending on their type (mercantile, cultural or militaristic). Their flag takes on the color of their ally.

A city linked to your capital by road or by sea is connected and gives gold every turn. A convoy travels back and forth along each route: an ox cart, a steam train once roads become railways in the Age of Steam, or a merchant cog across the sea.

A day lasts twelve turns and a year forty-eight: at night, cities and the troops' torches light up the ground. In autumn the forests turn copper, and in winter it snows and the lakes freeze. Some turns bring a storm (rain, lightning and thunder) or a blizzard. All of this is atmosphere: it doesn't change the rules.

In a city's panel, Governor gives it a focus: balanced, growth, trade, science, production or defense. When the city finishes what it is building (or at the start of your turn, if it is idle), it picks the next item on its own according to that focus: for example, with science, library, university and laboratory. If enemies are near and it has no garrison, a troop comes first. It also adjusts priorities when choosing tiles. Whatever you order yourself is respected, and You decide puts it back under your orders. With many cities it saves a lot of clicks.

Menu → Your kingdom postcard (or at the end of the game) makes a picture of your lands just as they look, with your portrait, the kingdom's name, the turn, the age and your numbers (cities, citizens, technologies, wonders and points). Share sends it by WhatsApp or another app; Download saves it.

• Where a battle was fought, the trampled, scorched earth, cannon craters and broken weapons remain for a few turns, and smoke rises on the turn of the fight.
• A damaged city burns: flames, black smoke and cracks in the walls, more the less health it has left.
• Wonders rise as great monuments next to their city, with a golden halo.
• Cows and horses graze on resources, there are sheep on some farms and deer in some forests; mines give off smoke and a boat fishes over the fishing banks.
• At great moments (your new age, your wonder, a capital you conquer) the camera zooms in for an instant with cinematic bars and then returns. With “Clouds and tilt-shift effect” turned off in the Menu, it stays still.

• Cities are neighborhoods of houses that grow with their population, change with the age (tile, brick, crystal) and get a wall with towers when you build one.
• Forests have standing trees and mountains have snowy rock peaks, both in the flat view and in 3D (in 3D, hills rise too).
• Glints of light flow down the rivers, and on summer nights fireflies glow over forests and meadows.

• Troops kick up dust as they walk (more on horseback) and ships leave a wake. A fortified troop surrounds itself with a palisade of stakes; heroes wear a golden halo with sparks, and mages and golems are circled by motes of mana.

• Farms are a patchwork of hedged fields with the farmer’s house or a windmill and a haystack; mines, a rocky slope with a timbered entrance, rails and a mine cart; lumber mills, a clearing with stumps, a hut and stacked logs. Bandit camps have tents, a palisade, the skull pole and a burning campfire.

From turn 6 on, the kingdom proposes a task: a short goal with a deadline and a reward, such as founding a city, discovering two technologies, building three improvements, adopting a policy, connecting a city by trade route or finishing a wonder. You see it in the right-hand panel, with its progress bar and the turns left (with a unit or city selected, as a compact line at the top of the panel). As soon as you complete it you collect the reward (gold, culture, science or production in the capital); if the deadline passes, it is lost with no penalty. You can discard it and another one arrives shortly. Only your kingdom gets them: rivals don't.

Undo (Ctrl+Z, U or the ↶ button on the unit bar) takes back your last move: the unit returns to its tile with all its movement, and its escort with it. You can undo several in a row. You can't if the move revealed something (new tiles, a foreign unit or city, some ruins), after attacking, or after ending the turn: that would be cheating the fog.

Rivals' turn (Menu): normal, fast or instant. With “instant”, all the others play at once and you're back to your turn almost without waiting.

So you don't have to move an army one unit at a time: select a troop and press Group (I). Every troop of yours within two tiles joins it. Shift + click on another troop adds or removes it by hand. Troops in the group wear a golden ring on the map.

Once the group is formed, a click on a free tile sends them all: the selected troop goes to that tile and the rest take the nearest tiles around it. If the destination is far away, each one follows its own route turn by turn and stops if it sees enemies. Clicking a troop in the group puts it in front.

Attacks are still made one at a time, so you choose who strikes first: the usual way is to soften the target with catapults and ranged troops and finish it in melee. Settlers and workers don't join groups: to protect them, put a troop on their tile and they will travel together (escort, J).

Each kingdom has its territory, the area in its colour on the map. At peace, its borders are closed: your troops, settlers and workers cannot enter, and theirs cannot enter yours. If you click inside, the game reminds you. City-states and unclaimed land can always be crossed.

There are two ways through. The peaceful one: in Diplomacy (P), Open borders. It's free and lasts 30 turns; the other kingdom agrees if its attitude towards you isn't bad (easy with the merchant, hard with the conqueror). Allies always have open borders. When the agreement ends, troops still inside return by themselves to the nearest free tile.

The other way is to declare war: then you can enter and attack, but the other kingdoms will think worse of you and the borders agreement is broken.

On the title screen, Daily challenge opens the same world for everyone that day: the same map, the same kingdom for you and the same rivals, with 100 turns at most. Your score is the game's score and, if you win, +500 plus +10 for each turn you had left. At the end, Share on WhatsApp sends your result with a link: whoever opens it will play the same challenge. The title screen button remembers your best result of the day.

Every so often something happens to your kingdom. Each event starts appearing from a certain turn on, shows up with its own banner and is recorded in the chronicle:

• Good: bumper harvest (+6 food in each city), discovery (science), migration (+1 population in the capital), vein (gold), great fair (gold and +3 happiness for 5 turns) and pilgrims (culture, if you have a temple).
• Bad: plague (−1 population; an aqueduct or a hospital protects the city), drought (it loses its stores), riot, fire (it loses half of what it was building), earthquake (damage and delayed construction; walls hold up better) and bandits next to a city.

Chosen on the title screen. Rivals always play by the same rules as you; what changes is how much they produce and how soon they attack:

• Apprentice: they produce 15% less and are peaceful. For learning.
• Lord: balanced, no advantages for anyone.
• King: they produce 18% more, are happier and attack sooner.
• Emperor: they produce 35% more and are very aggressive. A real challenge.

Prepared games, on the title screen (Scenarios) or in the Menu. Each one has a fixed world (the same for everyone), a chosen kingdom and rivals, what each of them has at the start (cities, technologies, troops, wars) and an objective with a deadline: if you achieve it, you win; if the deadline passes, you lose. In “The Last Frontier” it's the other way around: you win if you make it to the end. The usual victories count too.

• ✿ Land of Settlers (Expansion, ★, as Clans of Nordheim): Have 7 cities and 45 citizens in total before turn 70.
• ⚔ The Siege of Valdoria (War, ★★, as Kingdom of Aetheria): Conquer the capital of Valdoria before turn 50.
• ⛨ The Last Frontier (Defense, ★★★, as League of Sylvania): Keep your capital until the end of turn 50.
• ⚙ Race to Steam (Science, ★★, as Republic of Marisal): Discover an Age of Steam technology before any rival does and before turn 110.
• ⚖ The Spice Islands (Trade, ★★, as Sultanate of Zahara): Enjoy all three luxuries at once (gold, mana and spices) and have 500 gold before turn 90.
• ✧ The Mana Awakening (Science, ★★★, as Theocracy of Solaria): Reach the Ascension before anyone else and before turn 60.
• ♞ The Steppe Horde (War, ★★, as Horde of Kharuk): Conquer 3 enemy cities before turn 45.
• ♜ The Iron Fist (Domination, ★★★, as Valdorian Empire): Conquer the capitals of Aetheria and Zahara before turn 110.
• ♕ The Age of Wonders (Culture, ★★, as Theocracy of Solaria): Build 4 wonders before turn 75.
• ✦ The Golden Century (Culture, ★★, as Kingdom of Aetheria): Get 3 great people before turn 100.
• ⚓ The League of Ports (Diplomacy, ★★, as Republic of Marisal): Be the ally of 3 city-states at the same time before turn 70.
• ☠ Lawless Land (War, ★, as Sultanate of Zahara): Raze 4 bandit camps before turn 50.

At the start, an introduction tells the story and gives some tips. Progress is shown in the right-hand panel, with a bar for each part of the objective (in red, the one for the most advanced rival). Your best result (the turn on which you beat it) is recorded in this browser, and there are two achievements: beating one and beating them all.

Every so often a dilemma arrives: a decision with two or three outcomes and their consequences (gold, happiness, troops, culture...). If you don't decide in time, it expires.

The game saves itself at the start of each of your turns and when you leave. “Previous autosave” is the turn before. With Send to another device (Menu → Save or load) you send yourself the game by WhatsApp or email, and on the other device you open it with Import from file, also from the title screen.

+2 food, and growth is not lost when it reaches 0.

+1 science, +1 gold and +2 happiness in the kingdom.

New units get +15 health.

+3 science.

+30% population growth.

+3 gold and +25% to the city's gold.

Coastal cities only: +2 food and +2 gold.

+90 health and +60% defense for the city.

Coastal cities only: +2 production and +1 gold. Speeds up the fleet.

+3 production.

+3 happiness in the kingdom and +1 culture.

Requires a Market: +2 gold and +30% to the city's gold.

Requires a Library: +4 science and +25% to the city's science.

+2 science and +2 culture.

+2 food, +25% growth and +1 happiness.

Requires a Bank: +3 gold and +25% to the city's gold.

Requires a Workshop: +4 production and +25% to the city's production.

Requires a University: +5 science and +25% to the city's science.

+4 science and +2 culture: mages study the aether.

Requires a Factory: +4 production, +2 gold and +15% to the city's production.

Wonder: +3 production and +35% growth in this city. Only one can exist in the world.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +4 food and +2 gold. Requires a river next to the city.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +4 gold and +2 food. Requires a coast.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +5 science in the city and +15% science across your whole kingdom.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +2 production and +4 gold, and +25% defense in all your cities. Requires a coast.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +200 health in the city that builds it and +80% defense in all your cities.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +3 science and +3 gold, and +10% strength for all your units.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +6 science, +10% science and +15% gold across your whole kingdom.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +8 science in the city and +10% science across your whole kingdom.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +5 production, +5 gold and +3 happiness in the kingdom. The whole world comes to see your inventions.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: an island of gardens floating above the city. +6 food, +3 gold, +20% growth and +4 happiness.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Wonder: +7 production and +15% strength for all your units.

It is unique in the world: the first city to finish it keeps it. Each kingdom can have at most four wonders.

Taming the land: farms, lumber mills and granaries. Every kingdom starts out knowing it.

Reveals the horses on the map, needed for cavalry.

Defensive walls and access to stone quarries.

Libraries and temples: knowledge multiplies science.

A strong throne: markets and +1 gold per city.

Galleys, harbors and embarking troops through coastal waters.

Forging steel: swordsmen, mines and iron veins.

Aqueducts and +1 food per city.

Archers and barracks for a disciplined army.

Saddles and stirrups: swift knights.

Siege catapults and production workshops.

Frigates and shipyards. Lets you sail the open sea, far from the coast.

Arquebuses: the most powerful infantry in the known world.

Arches and vaults: amphitheaters that keep the people content.

Thought gives life meaning: +2 happiness across the whole kingdom.

Sea trade brings bills of exchange: banks in cities with a market.

Bronze cannons that bring down any wall.

Riders with firearms: the dragoons.

Universities in cities with a library.

Reason lights up the kingdom: +25% science. Opens the door to the Age of Steam.

The printed word travels from city to city: printing presses that give science and culture.

Shares and stock exchanges: +1 gold per city.

Coal turns the wheels: factories that multiply production.

Rifled barrels and cartridges: riflemen, the modern infantry.

Vaccines and hospitals: +1 food per city.

Blast furnaces: field artillery and steam ironclads.

Hypotheses and experiments: laboratories in cities with a university.

Taming lightning: +15% science. Opens the door to the Aether Age.

Electricity awakens the mana: arcane towers and battle mages.

Refining mana like coal: refineries and +1 gold per city.

Aether gas and propellers: airships that sail the sky.

Runes that bring stone to life: golems that never tire.

Mana shields over steel: arcane ironclads.

The kingdom masters the aether and transcends its era. Discovering it wins the Science victory.

Discovering it grants the Science victory. If a rival discovers it first, you lose.

+1 food. Yields even more on wheat, cattle or horses.

Built by the worker, in your territory or in no man's land.

+1 production. Yields even more on spices or mana crystals.

Built by the worker, in your territory or in no man's land.

+2 production. Yields even more on iron, quarries or gold.

Built by the worker, in your territory or in no man's land.

Troops cross the tile at half cost, and it gives +1 gold. Connect your cities to the capital: each connected city gives +2 gold.

Built by the worker, in your territory or in no man's land.

+50% defense for your troop on the tile, which also counts as fortified at once. It takes up the tile: no farm or mine fits. An enemy that steps on it tears it down.

Built by the worker, in your territory or in no man's land.

+100% defense for your troop on the tile. Every enemy that ends its turn next to it loses 30 health. Watches 3 tiles around. Costs 1 gold per turn, and there can be no other within 3 tiles.

Built by the worker, in your territory or in no man's land.

A volcano that smokes day and night. Its ash makes the tiles around it fertile: +1 food on each one.

See also Natural wonders.

A waterfall so high that its rainbow never fades. It draws pilgrims: +2 happiness for the kingdom that holds it.

See also Natural wonders.

A tree older than the kingdoms, with roots that glow at night. Its druids sing old tales: +3 culture per turn.

See also Natural wonders.

A star fell here centuries ago and left the land full of mana. It counts as mana crystals for the kingdom that holds it.

See also Natural wonders.

Corals of a thousand colours under clear water. Fish, pearls and scholars who come to study it.

See also Natural wonders.

Stones raised by no one knows whom, aligned with the stars. +2 culture per turn and +1 happiness.

See also Natural wonders.

A spring that heals any wound. Troops that end their turn on it or next to it recover all their health.

See also Natural wonders.

The capital yields +3 production and +3 gold.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

+1 food in every city.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

Settlers and workers are built 40% faster.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

Buying tiles costs 40% less, and settlers and workers get +1 movement.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

+10% strength for your troops and +50% combat experience.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

The army costs 30% less gold each turn.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

+15% gold across the whole kingdom.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

+1 production in every city, and finishing something with gold costs 25% less.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

+3 happiness across the whole kingdom.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

Your culture counts 50% more toward adopting policies.

Adopted with culture (click the culture counter on the top bar). Each policy costs more than the last. See Culture, policies and great people.

+20% strength for all your units, forever.

Arrives as you accumulate culture (thresholds: 100, 450, 1100, 2400, 5000). You choose which one. Gathering all five grants the Culture victory.

+20% science across the whole kingdom.

Arrives as you accumulate culture (thresholds: 100, 450, 1100, 2400, 5000). You choose which one. Gathering all five grants the Culture victory.

+20% production in all your cities.

Arrives as you accumulate culture (thresholds: 100, 450, 1100, 2400, 5000). You choose which one. Gathering all five grants the Culture victory.

+3 gold per city and +15% gold across the whole kingdom.

Arrives as you accumulate culture (thresholds: 100, 450, 1100, 2400, 5000). You choose which one. Gathering all five grants the Culture victory.

+3 culture per turn and +1 science per city.

Arrives as you accumulate culture (thresholds: 100, 450, 1100, 2400, 5000). You choose which one. Gathering all five grants the Culture victory.

+20% strength when attacking.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

+20% strength when defending.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

+25% in forest, jungle and hills, attacking and defending.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

+30% when attacking cities.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

+25% on ranged attacks.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

+1 movement.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

+25 max health.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

Heals 10 more per turn, and 5 more to your adjacent troops.

Troops gain experience in combat. At each level (Veteran, Seasoned, Elite, Legendary) you choose a promotion; the banner shows one chevron per level and, from the third on, a star.

See City-states.

See City-states.

See City-states.