For new players: most of these lists and discussions you see are geared towards higher difficulties and players who have unlocked most/all of the upgrade tree. The game plays quite differently as you progress. So if you're wondering what the heck he's talking about with some of these you might be right.
This is really important to remember you get a lot of upgrades to things like production speed trader speed hearth consumption and so on . So if you have a very low citadel rank anything that effects those coulds be stronger or weaker
As a person who played Prestige 20 before opening field kitchen, both Sahilda and Zorg cornerstones were A+ tier, I would even say that Sahilda is slightly easier to make work because you can often find Brick Oven ruin
Re: stormwalker trading: my last map I had two modifiers, a positive that provided 5 random packs of goods per trade route completed in drizzle, and a negative that added +30% longer time for a trade route. I reluctantly took this cornerstone not really knowing what it would be worth, but it helped squeeze several additional trade routes to land during drizzle and made most of that game smooth from a massive influx of value in trade packs.
I think flame amulets is neat'o. More woodcutting during storm rhymes well with various mysteries (production yield reduced from gathering/recipes etc), and lower hostility the rest of the year absolutely has some value. I play at P10ish and would rate this high B tier, especially when obtained early.
So i came back to comment because today i had a run where surprise child actually popped off for me. I had ancient pact, no villager rewards in any events or orders and a ranch on a map with a ton of fertile soil. Maybe there was a better way to win but I ended up developing a mega huge economy and winning off resolve points, but I desperately needed the extra pop for that. So in some niche circumstances even the F tier cornerstone can be what you need.
Pretty much any cornerstone that can solve trading by itself is S tier. Frankly Tightened belt, and peasant provisions might need nerfs, due to how much they trivialize the trade aspect of the game.
Maybe there's been a patch buffing ancient tablets some point after this vid was published, but I think it's insane to rate Hidden Rewards in B tier. Hidden rewards stack off of every glade event, from the smallest cache to random ruins and rainpunk drills you find to those dangerous glade events you are probably doing at some point. From my experience, I would estimate you will find one glade event every 3 small glades you open, with dangerous glades having anywhere from 2-4 glade events and forbidden glades having 3-5. This means for every dangerous glade you open and clear, that's 1-2 ancient tablets for free, regardless of how you choose to clear those events. You can expect to get an ancient tablet every 6 small glades, which you will probably open at some point to jump start your economy. Furthermore, Hidden Rewards is retroactive, so if you pick it up later, you might just get 3 or 4 ancient tablets for doing absolutely nothing. Each ancient tablet is worth 8 amber, making it a very valuable trading resource. Granted, not every trader accepts ancient tablets, but enough of them do that you should have no issues getting value off of them, absolute worst case you can pawn them off for 6 amber a pop which is not bad at all. At best, they make the otherwise very difficult and risky tablet missions borderline trivial to accomplish as you're not longer reliant on rolling them in caches or dangerous glade events. Most notably, hidden rewards basically gives you a guaranteed win con for the difficult fourth seal mission, where you need to have a pile of tablets in your possession. This might be the most visceral reaction I've gotten from one of your videos. Anyway I personally would put hidden rewards just below Bed and Breakfast. I think they generate a very comparable amount of amber. Bed and Breakfast is ever so slightly more consistent, as you can benefit even if you go super light on the glades, but it is not unreasonable to expect hidden rewards to pay out at least 1 tablet per year (with the possible exception of year 1), more if you're being aggressive.
Crowded caravan only works if you have the altar benefit of not increasing impatience with death and all the other death-related cornerstones first. It's still the worst, but it *can* be good if you get a miraculous setup.
Quite surprisingly, as a less experienced player still sitting at P11 (really hate the idea of P12 and P13 detriments), I agree with almost all assignments. Never tried Thightened Belt, so I need to. Though, it mostly appeared when I already had a good Provisions source. Seems like I undervalued Export Specialization and overvalued infinite stacking food perks (Meat Spec, Fungal, Grain Bags)
Funny thing is that tightened belt can be great even if you already have a good provision source, because then you can use your provisions as trade fodder. It basically turns into a half-power version of trade negotiations at that point, which isn't the strongest perk ever to be fair, but is far from weak. Plenty takeable even in this situation.
Prestige 12 and 13 aren't as bad as you think because (I am 99% sure) the game doesn't give you useless blueprints. Your blueprints always serve at least one of your species' needs. It actually makes games less stressful in some ways because fewer choices mean fewer regrets.
Agree on most, just Prayer book... am i the only playing on 1 Hearth only? I always sell the wildfire essence to buy complex food, get 1 or 2 reputation points through resolve. Anything trade related is mega overpowered. I often find myself with 100 amber per year and just buyout everything the trader has as soon as they arrive. It just snowballs out of control insanely fast. Trade hubs is by far the best cornerstone in the game in my opinion. Have multiple year 3 or year 4 wins and each of those involved trade hubs.
I usually go up to 2, but I imagine as you go up to higher and higher difficulties, hostility becomes more and more of a problem, and the hostility reduction + global resolve bonus of an extra level 1 hearth becomes more beneficial.
Cannibalism is D trier for sure... you never ever want to let your villagers die/go away on P20... Same goes for blood price contract... Unless you have perk that don't give you impatient for dead villagers... than it may be B/C, but otherwise it's crap. And why the hell you think jerky is a bad food? It's impoved food, so getting 10 for free if you have lizards/harpies IS AMAZING!
I highly disagree with the leftover corps, it’s a game changing, you just get free provision, save resources, and workers (specially if you’re not accepting alot of newcomers) I think it’s in the mid A tier Also duo to the poor pool of epic cornerstones and saving the rerolls for the legendaries, it’s rarely when I pick another cornerstone when this appear (at least from my game experience)
Fyi... firekeeper's armor is trash. It should be a contender for worst cornerstone. Take 10 amber, don't ever pick it. In the one situation where it should help you (having say 70 cysts) it does nothing to stop losing 3 villagers, as the 50 corruption loss applies at the end of burning a cyst, not the beginning. In terms of saving resources, it might save you like 20 wood. (as cysts stick around if you skip them). In terms of needing fewer blight fighters... it really does nothing as in the end you still need to do the same blight fighting. It might sometimes delay by a year if you have say exactly 14 cysts with 1 post or 20 with 2, even that is ... questionable value as you can just build the second post and demolish it after storm, which takes no trouble at all. For me, there's two ways it could be fixed. Either it should give that -50 when the firefighter starts fighting the cyst, or it should give +50 corruption capacity with every cyst burned, permanently.
For new players: most of these lists and discussions you see are geared towards higher difficulties and players who have unlocked most/all of the upgrade tree. The game plays quite differently as you progress. So if you're wondering what the heck he's talking about with some of these you might be right.
This is really important to remember you get a lot of upgrades to things like production speed trader speed hearth consumption and so on . So if you have a very low citadel rank anything that effects those coulds be stronger or weaker
What I'm learning is that I really, really need to unlock the field kitchen.
As a person who played Prestige 20 before opening field kitchen, both Sahilda and Zorg cornerstones were A+ tier, I would even say that Sahilda is slightly easier to make work because you can often find Brick Oven ruin
Anything that gets you a separate complex food for free is nuts. Worth taking even if it doesn't pay off IMO.
Re: stormwalker trading: my last map I had two modifiers, a positive that provided 5 random packs of goods per trade route completed in drizzle, and a negative that added +30% longer time for a trade route. I reluctantly took this cornerstone not really knowing what it would be worth, but it helped squeeze several additional trade routes to land during drizzle and made most of that game smooth from a massive influx of value in trade packs.
Love these tier lists. Is there a resource anywhere with all your lists in like a pdf or something?
I think flame amulets is neat'o. More woodcutting during storm rhymes well with various mysteries (production yield reduced from gathering/recipes etc), and lower hostility the rest of the year absolutely has some value. I play at P10ish and would rate this high B tier, especially when obtained early.
So i came back to comment because today i had a run where surprise child actually popped off for me. I had ancient pact, no villager rewards in any events or orders and a ranch on a map with a ton of fertile soil. Maybe there was a better way to win but I ended up developing a mega huge economy and winning off resolve points, but I desperately needed the extra pop for that. So in some niche circumstances even the F tier cornerstone can be what you need.
True, some buildings and cornerstones that are total garbage come in use for a single game 😂
Pretty much any cornerstone that can solve trading by itself is S tier. Frankly Tightened belt, and peasant provisions might need nerfs, due to how much they trivialize the trade aspect of the game.
Great insight and content! Keep it up!
Crowded caravan can help nullify events and modifiers that slow the arrival of caravans. Actually good in those circumstances
Maybe there's been a patch buffing ancient tablets some point after this vid was published, but I think it's insane to rate Hidden Rewards in B tier. Hidden rewards stack off of every glade event, from the smallest cache to random ruins and rainpunk drills you find to those dangerous glade events you are probably doing at some point. From my experience, I would estimate you will find one glade event every 3 small glades you open, with dangerous glades having anywhere from 2-4 glade events and forbidden glades having 3-5. This means for every dangerous glade you open and clear, that's 1-2 ancient tablets for free, regardless of how you choose to clear those events. You can expect to get an ancient tablet every 6 small glades, which you will probably open at some point to jump start your economy. Furthermore, Hidden Rewards is retroactive, so if you pick it up later, you might just get 3 or 4 ancient tablets for doing absolutely nothing. Each ancient tablet is worth 8 amber, making it a very valuable trading resource. Granted, not every trader accepts ancient tablets, but enough of them do that you should have no issues getting value off of them, absolute worst case you can pawn them off for 6 amber a pop which is not bad at all. At best, they make the otherwise very difficult and risky tablet missions borderline trivial to accomplish as you're not longer reliant on rolling them in caches or dangerous glade events. Most notably, hidden rewards basically gives you a guaranteed win con for the difficult fourth seal mission, where you need to have a pile of tablets in your possession. This might be the most visceral reaction I've gotten from one of your videos.
Anyway I personally would put hidden rewards just below Bed and Breakfast. I think they generate a very comparable amount of amber. Bed and Breakfast is ever so slightly more consistent, as you can benefit even if you go super light on the glades, but it is not unreasonable to expect hidden rewards to pay out at least 1 tablet per year (with the possible exception of year 1), more if you're being aggressive.
Crowded caravan only works if you have the altar benefit of not increasing impatience with death and all the other death-related cornerstones first. It's still the worst, but it *can* be good if you get a miraculous setup.
I like the delivery lines because they can stack
Quite surprisingly, as a less experienced player still sitting at P11 (really hate the idea of P12 and P13 detriments), I agree with almost all assignments.
Never tried Thightened Belt, so I need to. Though, it mostly appeared when I already had a good Provisions source.
Seems like I undervalued Export Specialization and overvalued infinite stacking food perks (Meat Spec, Fungal, Grain Bags)
Funny thing is that tightened belt can be great even if you already have a good provision source, because then you can use your provisions as trade fodder. It basically turns into a half-power version of trade negotiations at that point, which isn't the strongest perk ever to be fair, but is far from weak. Plenty takeable even in this situation.
Prestige 12 and 13 aren't as bad as you think because (I am 99% sure) the game doesn't give you useless blueprints. Your blueprints always serve at least one of your species' needs. It actually makes games less stressful in some ways because fewer choices mean fewer regrets.
ty for the lists
Agree on most, just Prayer book... am i the only playing on 1 Hearth only? I always sell the wildfire essence to buy complex food, get 1 or 2 reputation points through resolve. Anything trade related is mega overpowered. I often find myself with 100 amber per year and just buyout everything the trader has as soon as they arrive. It just snowballs out of control insanely fast. Trade hubs is by far the best cornerstone in the game in my opinion. Have multiple year 3 or year 4 wins and each of those involved trade hubs.
Mostly I have 3 hearths, 1 at least lv 3 and the others 2-3
I usually go up to 2, but I imagine as you go up to higher and higher difficulties, hostility becomes more and more of a problem, and the hostility reduction + global resolve bonus of an extra level 1 hearth becomes more beneficial.
hello, can you make records of past broadcasts available on twitch. I wanted to watch your game today, but I couldn't)
Cannibalism is D trier for sure... you never ever want to let your villagers die/go away on P20...
Same goes for blood price contract...
Unless you have perk that don't give you impatient for dead villagers... than it may be B/C, but otherwise it's crap.
And why the hell you think jerky is a bad food? It's impoved food, so getting 10 for free if you have lizards/harpies IS AMAZING!
I highly disagree with the leftover corps, it’s a game changing, you just get free provision, save resources, and workers (specially if you’re not accepting alot of newcomers)
I think it’s in the mid A tier
Also duo to the poor pool of epic cornerstones and saving the rerolls for the legendaries, it’s rarely when I pick another cornerstone when this appear (at least from my game experience)
When you get for example meat from
Trees , does that count as meat produced ?
awesome
Does exploration contract work retroactively? 13:50
nvm, you just answered it.
Fyi... firekeeper's armor is trash. It should be a contender for worst cornerstone. Take 10 amber, don't ever pick it.
In the one situation where it should help you (having say 70 cysts) it does nothing to stop losing 3 villagers, as the 50 corruption loss applies at the end of burning a cyst, not the beginning.
In terms of saving resources, it might save you like 20 wood. (as cysts stick around if you skip them).
In terms of needing fewer blight fighters... it really does nothing as in the end you still need to do the same blight fighting. It might sometimes delay by a year if you have say exactly 14 cysts with 1 post or 20 with 2, even that is ... questionable value as you can just build the second post and demolish it after storm, which takes no trouble at all.
For me, there's two ways it could be fixed. Either it should give that -50 when the firefighter starts fighting the cyst, or it should give +50 corruption capacity with every cyst burned, permanently.
Flame amulet and Firekeeper armor is eays S for me
Once you "round out" a tier. Why do you need to read it back to us. We have already read it, OKAY?