⛏️🧨 2021 Archaeology Event 🧨⛏️️

(05 May to 25 May)

Links

• More info to be found at: https://forgeofempires.fandom.com/wiki/2021_Archaeology_Event
• FoEhint Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbadMUzaDOM
• MooingCatFoe Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBPRSp56kuY
• FoE Google Sheet Event Tracker (source/credit SJSilber).


• View the Event's Main Questline (including bottlenecks).
• View the Event's Tablet Questlines.

Summary

Most players enjoy this style of minigame over the others and it plays the same as previous Archaeology Events. If this is your first time for this Event and was around for the recent Halloween Event; the play style is exactly the same.

Daily Specials will range from the usual suspects (SoK, Wishing Well, Shrink Kits) but also includes the Carousel, World's Fair and the Airship (last year’s Grand Prize). This event’s Grand Prize is the Ferris Wheel. You will need to choose whether it becomes a Great Wheel or Wonder Wheel at Level 10 that will add an Att-Att or Att-Def boost.

A few extras are in this event. There is an alternate Daily Special that can be optioned without knowing what it is until switched for the current Daily Special. Replayable Side Quests can also be had that will give smaller prizes on completion and a larger prize if all are completed. This year, there is also a Calendar that could garner smaller, daily rewards as well with a larger prize, if completed.

Event Play

The Event currency is Scrolls (#1) which can be collected by completing Event Quests, logging in daily, and from Incidents that spawn around your City. You will spend Scrolls to acquire Tools (#2) for using to navigate through the playing area to find treasures.

The playing area (#3) is a never-ending tomb that has a viewable area consisting of tiles 8-wide and 6-tall and operates like a “scroller” where you move left-to-right by clearing a path ahead. As you progress to the right, you will be blocked by walls - that cannot be moved; and, sand - that you will need to clear out with Tools.

As you progress through the tomb, you can discover more Tools, as well as:

• Golden Idols and you will be given a Grand Prize (#4) when 20 are found.
• Vases that will provide a smaller prize if you miss at the chance at a Daily Special (#5) when collecting one. A unique twist as you can switch the Daily Special; see information below.
• Tablets that will be stored in the Museum (#6). Inside the Museum, you can access your found Tablets and will also find the Calendar.
• Avatars can also be found should you want to change up your look.

How It Will Work

You will navigate through the tomb maze by clearing sand using 3 different tools; the brush, shovel and dynamite. Walls can NOT be cleared away.

Under the sand (and sometimes sticking partially out), you will find Tools, Avatars, Vases, Tablets, and Golden Idols.

1. The brush will clear one tile of sand at a time.
2. The shovel will clear an entire vertical column of tiles and must be placed on an empty tile in that same column. If a wall is located in that column, it will block the shovel from clearing the remainder of the column (either above or below depending on which side of it you apply the shovel).
3. Dynamite will clear 7 adjacent tiles and can only be placed on an empty tile. Think of it as a bomb as it will attempt to clear all tiles around it (of course, not the walls.)

Prize Systems

As well as a Grand Prize for every 20 Golden Idols, there is a decent selection of Daily Specials to choose from listed below.

Daily Specials can be won by discovering Vases in the minigame. There are 4 types of Vases in the 3 different categories of Vases for a total of 12 different ones; each providing a different type of smaller prize as well as a % of receiving the Daily Special.

Note: This event will have an Alternate Daily Special so if you do not like the current one, you switch it and an alternate Daily Special will be provided for the remainder of the day. The switch is located next to the daily special (the crossing arrows button). If you elect to switch the Daily Special, you will be given one from the random pool noted below. There is no undo button once the switch is made..

Tablets provide a short questline (quantity 5). Each completed quest will provide 5 Scrolls and completion of all the quests will snag a small prize. A large set of Tools and a new Avatar can be won when the questlines for all 8 Tablets have been completed. The questlines can be replayed infinite times as long as you find additional Tablets, but only one Avatar will be awarded for completing them.

In the Museum, you will find a Calendar that will provide a small reward everyday by using a Gem on one of the Calendar’s slot. The first Gem “shard” found each day in the tomb will be a complete Gem for unlocking that day’s Calendar slot. Any subsequent shards found will count as 1/5 of a Gem. A completed Gem can be assembled using 5 shards and can unlock any previous days’ Calendar slot. Gem shards will also be given out as an alternate to the regular Daily Challenge.

🔥 Hot Tip: If you uncover a gem shard and do not collect until the next day, it will become a Gem.

Prizes

*** Event Main Building (Grand Prize) ***

• Ferris Wheel: A 6x4 special residential building that provides Population, Happiness, Coins, Supplies, 15 Goods and 8 FP at Level 9. There is a feature option at Level 10 (Great or Wonder Wheel) that will add more Goods, FP and either a Att-Att or Att-Def boost.

*** Other Notable Buildings (from Daily Specials) ***

• Airship: Last year’s Grand Prize, a 7x3 building upgradable to Level 11 that provides Population, Happiness, Coins, Supplies, Goods, FP and Guild Goods.
• Worlds Fair: A 6x4 building upgradable to Level 10 that provides Population, Coin, Goods and FP.
• Carousel: A 3x3 building that provides Def-Def and Att-Att depending on the building’s Age.
• Sentinel Outpost: No write up here because everyone knows it's the best Att-Def building out there per tile/ratio but wanted to list it here for your late-game people and those potentially opting out of the others.

DAILY AND ALTERNATE DAILY SPECIALS (from Beta)

CALENDAR STUFF

1. 25 Goods(5 each of Current Age)
2. 8hr Mass Coin Rush
3. Extra Large Medals Pack
4. 10 Forge Points
5. Premium Decoration
6. 3 Fragments of Shrine of Knowledge
7. Store Building
8. Boost Crate
9. Mass Self-Aid Kit
10. 25 Goods(5 each of Current Age)
11. 2 Blueprints
12. 10 Forge Points
13. 6hr Mass Supply Rush
14. 3 Fragments of Wishing Well Shrink Kit
15. One Up Kit
16. 2 Blueprints
17. 3 Fragments of Shrine of Knowledge
18. Boost Crate
19. 10 Forge Points
20. Extra Large Medals Pack
21. 3 Fragments of Wishing Well

GRAND PRIZES - ROTATION LIST (For 20 Golden Idols)

1. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
2. Renovation Kit
3. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
4. Wishing Well Shrink Kit
5. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
6. 50 Forge Points
7. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
8. Shrine of Knowledge
9. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
10. Gigantic Medals Pack
11. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
12. Ferris Wheel Level 1
13. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
14. Wishing Well
15. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
16. Store Building
17. Ferris Wheel Upgrade Kit
18. Tactician's Tower Level 1

Grand Prize Upgrading

The Ferris Wheel is upgradable to Level 10 and you will receive a Level 1 Ferris Wheel upon completing the first 5 Quests and 2 Upgrade Kits for completing all 60 Quests (at #30 and #60). Another 7 Upgrade Kits will be needed from the Grand Prize list to max out the Ferris Wheel.

The last time this event ran, 3 Upgrade Kits were offered in the main questline but this time the 3rd upgrade is provided from the Mystery Box from the previous event. For those without a Mystery Box, do not lose hope as more Scrolls can be collected via the Clay Tablets to purchase additional Tools. As always, save Diamonds just in case you need some extra Tools.

It is strongly recommended to watch/listen to MooingCat’s video. It shares strategies for getting the grand prize without spending diamonds (using calendar, incidents, and tablets) and how to plan if you do want to spend diamonds to get two grand prizes.

Notes and Tips

These tips are based off of last years’ post and I am not seeing much difference from what I’ve read and seen, so here goes:

• You will need the balance chasing prizes versus going the distance. There is a tradeoff of using tools to get Vases/Tablets versus Golden Idols (e.g., using a Tool to uncover that partially hidden prize instead of clearing path to more idols).
• The minigame scroll will be structured as a quasi-maze with walls impeding your progress. Those same walls will prevent maximizing the tool capabilities (shovel, dynamite) and forcing you to clear a path around it to keep forging ahead.
• Once you enter the last column on the right, the minigame board will shift in that direction dropping off the column to the left and revealing the next column on the right. It will be challenging to choose the optimal path because you could suddenly be facing a wall causing you to use more tools to find a way around it to keep progressing. It’s a guess but if you can see a lot of walls towards the top in the center-right columns, odds are that path will be more open in that area as the game board shifts left.
• Always purchase the larger tool pack. If you don’t have enough Scrolls, then WAIT and do more Quests.
• I made more use out of the tools like the shovel and dynamite uncovering Golden Idols than the brush. You will need to pause to determine which tool is best in the situation you are in.

  As an example, I would work my way over in a straight line to a place that was mostly covered up and then detonate dynamite to clear the tiles to maximize the blast radius.

• Sometimes there was a glitch where the first column on the left would clear before it left the screen which might reveal certain prizes that were still covered up. You may want to check that just in case.
• You will NEED TO CLICK on the prize to PICK IT UP, it may NOT automatically go to your inventory once it leaves the screen. You don’t need to be standing next to the prize to claim it (but do need to CLICK it).
• When possible, try to align the demands of the Event or Clay Tablet quests so you are only performing the activity once.

  For example: Clay Tab1 Q4, Clay Tab4 Q1, Silver Tab2 Q2, and Gold Tab Q2 are all 4-hour productions. If you were in possession of 2 or more (or had a similar Event quest requirement coming up) – perform the activity once to simultaneously satisfy all of them.

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