Exploration Map, Manas, Banners, Kingdoms’ Epic Analysis, and Tributes

New Kingdoms become visible by buying any kingdom adjacent to it. It is best to figure out what epics and mana you want before purchasing random kingdoms to minimize on early game needless purchases. Each kingdom you buy will slowly raise the cost to buy the next kingdom.

Enlargeable image here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=367096426
Venan's Version w/ Tributes:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398142997

1: Free
2: 250
3: 500
4: 750
5: 1,000 - Total: 2,500
6: 1,250
7: 1,500
8: 1,750
9: 2,000
10: 2,250 - Total: 11,250
11: 2,500
12: 2,750
13: 3,000
14: 3,500
15: 4,000 - Total: 27,000
16: 4,000 - Total: 31,000
17-30: O_O

At the start of every “PvP” match you are told what kingdom your opponent is defending. Knowing the mana bonus ahead of time can help you to deny an opponent’s better color(s).

Adana: Red Yellow
Broken Spire: Blue Brown
Divinion Fields: Purple Yellow
Forest of Thorns: 2 Green
Ghulvania: Purple Red
Karakoth: 2 Purple
Khaziel: 2 Brown
Khetar: Blue Purple
Mist of Scales: Blue Red
Pan’s Vale: Green Yellow
Pridelands: 2 Red
Stormheim: 2 Blue
Sword’s Edge: Blue Yellow
Whitehelm: 2 Yellow
Zaejin: Brown Green
Zhul’Kari: Green Purple

Missing Color Combinations:
Blue Green
Brown Purple
Brown Red
Brown Yellow
Green Red

Currently, mana bonuses are not affected by mana surge and are only added to the final amount. This means something like a 5x red surge with Mist of Scales as home kingdom for red and blue will give 11 mana, not 12. Knowing the mana each unit needs in relation to this is very helpful in every match.

Formula is:
(Amount of gems in move * 2(if surge)) + kingdom bonus

Mana surge chance is based on a combination of what color is picked every level and what bonus is gained from being in a guild. The total number and exact percent can be found on your hero page, so no in game calculation needed.

If you want to plan a long term outlook, the formula is:
Mana/(Mana+100)
i.e. 50 in any color would be 33% surge chance.

Banners are separate from defending kingdom and cannot be known until in game. For “PvP” there is little need to know these, but it may help in deciding your exploration path. Keep in mind that banner bonuses will only apply to units of that banner’s kingdom.

Divinion Fields
Forest of Thorns
Karakoth
Mist of Scales
Pan’s Vale
Zhul’Kari

This is one of the more situational types of banners. Having +1 attack on both/either of your first two units is the best bet to utilize it. The extra damage from a few attacks has to be enough to kill a unit earlier than if you were without +1 attack, or this bonus is completely wasted.

Ghulvania
Khaziel
Pridelands
Stormheim

This is one of the best banners if the opponent has no poison or Shadow Hunter. This banner can be fully utilized by having healers, lifesteal, and/or cleansing.

Adana
Khetar
Whitehelm

This banner is one of the strongest, but also has the most weaknesses. It is best with units that gain additional benefits based on armor as well as lifesteal units. The banner is weak due to many units that use the banner having a weakness to poison and true damage, something that +2 defense will do nothing against. There are also units that particularly target armor or even benefit based on opponent’s armor.

Broken Spire
Sword’s Edge
Zaejin

This banner is the most versatile of them all. While it does not add a focused benefit, it will be just as good with or against just about any lineup.

When a quest line for any kingdom is finished, you will be rewarded with an epic. Each epic is, or is near, the best card in the game in at least one aspect. The following lists out the pros and cons for each kingdom epic. For a full list of specific details check the official website here. http://gemsofwar.com/game-guide-troop-list/

Name: Sparkgrinder
Mana: Red Yellow
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Increases attack and defense of a single unit.
Epics Best With: Emperina, Lady Sapphira, Luther, Rowanne, Tau, Tyri

Pros:
- Tied with Finley as tankiest epic in the game
- Balanced HP and Def
- Most offensive single target upgrade that can be applied to another unit
- Great support for single carry builds or to make any “increase by armor” card into a carry
- Great last slot due to high armor

Cons:
- Very low base attack
- Unit has to be last to be fully optimized as a support and back tank
- Only single target buff
- Could lose out on mana from opponent abilities and team mana conflicts

Name: Luther
Mana: Blue Brown
Mana Cost: 13
Ability: Increase attack of all allies
Epics Best With: Brian the Lucky, Sparkgrinder, Tau

Pros:
- Best full AoE attack boost in the game
- Cheapest epic to obtain
- Balanced HP and Armor
- Can make every unit into a carry
- Good under AI control

Con:
- Nearly everyone has him and most will use him early game
- Worse unit versus charm
- Does not work well with a single unit carry build compared to other units

Name: Atlanta
Mana: Purple Yellow
Mana Cost: 13
Ability: Physical damage to all enemies
Epics Best With: Avina, Brian the Lucky, Raven, Rowanne

Pros:
- Strongest full AoE physical damage attack, excluding hero
- Great base attack
- Well balanced in all stats
- Perfect with physical AoE builds
- Great with physical damage targeting
- Good under AI control

Con:
- Base attack is sometimes useless for she has to be placed later in the lineup to utilize ability
- One of the lowest single target damage abilities for the mana cost
- Horrible versus high defense and AoE defense buffs

Name: Rowanne
Mana: Blue Green
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Deals physical damage randomly split between all enemies raised by own armor (1 armor = 1 damage)
Epics Best With: Alastair, Atlanta, Brian the Lucky, Emperina, Raven, Sparkgrinder

Pros:
- Great single focus carry
- Strongest damaging epic if supported correctly
- Benefits greatly from fewer enemies

Cons:
- Taking physical damage costs a lot of damage potential
- Ability split damage has very little focus until at least one enemy is dead
- Mandatory second or third slot to utilize fully
- Horrible versus multiple true damage units

Name: Avina
Mana: Purple Red
Mana Cost: 13
Ability: Deals physical damage to a single unit and gains a soul per cast
Epics Best with: Atlanta, Elwyn, Ferit, Finely, Keghammer, Raven, Tyri

Pros:
- Can farm additional souls
- Highest static physical damage single target ability of any epic
- Well balanced stats

Cons:
- Horrible versus high armor
- Does not excel in anything
- High mana cost for the damage
- Bad under AI control

Name: Ferit
Mana: Brown Purple
Mana Cost: 10
Ability: Does physical damage to last unit and drains their mana
Epics Best With: Avina, Elwyn, Raven

Pros:
- Low mana cost compared to other epics
- Great versus a team with a mana dependent last slot
- Great with single target physical damage and other last hitting units
- Decent base attack

Cons:
- If enemy has a proper back tank, Ferit is useless until it can hit the third unit
- Has decent attack, but an ability that only hits last unit
- Does not excel in anything other than spamming ability
- There is a hero weapon (Silent Night) that does his ability for 2 more mana, but silences instead

Name: Emperina
Mana: Brown Red
Mana Cost: 14
Ability: Gives an ally life and attack. Then heals that target to max and cleanses target.
Epics Best With: Brian the Lucky, Finley, Lady Sapphira, Rowanne, Sparkgrinder, Tau, Tyri

Pros:
- Best unit in the game for single carry support
- Only unit that can max heal another unit
- One of the only units that can cleanse
- Great with other supports and lifesteal units

Con:
- Has to use heal on self if over targeted
- Highest mana cost of any epic
- Bad under AI control

Name: Alastair
Mana: Blue Purple
Mana Cost: 14
Ability: Increase defense of all allies and removes all purple gems to boost effect (4 purple = 1 defense)
Epics Best With: Elwyn, Finley, Lady Sapphira, Rowanne, Sparkgrinder, Tau

Pros:
- Best full AoE team armor boost in the game
- Physical damage is near useless against it
- Great with high HP units with low armor
- Great with units that have armor dependent skills
- Good under AI control

Cons:
- Highest mana cost of any epic
- Gems removed can backfire or delay cast
- Lowest HP of any epic and one of the lowest in the game
- Abysmal versus true damage

Name: Raven
Mana: Blue Red
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Target physical damage to a unit. If the unit dies, Raven restores to 9 mana.
Epics Best With: Atlanta, Avina, Elwyn, Ferit, Keghammer, Rowanne

Pros:
- One of the best pickoff units in the game
- Great at stalling turns
- Rarely has mana problems
- Well rounded in everything

Cons:
- Sometimes has to hold ability in order to get the extra mana for kill
- Bad under AI control

Name: Elwyn
Mana: Green Yellow
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Destroy a row and column doing 1 damage per yellow gem destroyed to a single random unit.
Epics Best With: Alastair, Avina, Ferit, Finley, Raven

Pros:
- Best mana gain ability of any current kingdom epic
- Easiest epic to set up an extra turn
- Can do a lot of damage with the right units
- Well rounded in everything
- Highest possible ability damage of any epic with no buffs, doing 1 damage per skull and yellow gem destroyed

Cons:
- Damage is random
- Ability can backfire if it doesn’t get an extra turn
- Ability gains nothing from additional magic
- Bad under AI control

Name: Finley
Mana: Green Red
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Transforms all skulls into any chosen mana color, then get gold.
Epics Best With: Alastair, Elwyn, Emperina, Lady Saphire, Tyri

Pros:
- Highest static gold gain of any epic and second highest in the game
- Only unit that can convert skulls to gems
- Highest HP of any epic and one of the highest in game
- Great with stall and farm builds
- Great last slot

Cons:
- Horrible against poison
- Low attack
- Bad under AI control

Name: Keghammer
Mana: Brown Yellow
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Deals targetable physical damage and reduces target’s magic by 2
Epics Best With: Avina, Raven

Pros:
- Only unit that can reduce magic
- Great against magic dependent units

Cons:
- By the time a unit is severely lowered in magic it will already be dead
- Low damage for the mana cost
- Useless against units that don’t use magic
- Many units have a base minimum for casts, so reducing a unit to 0 magic will still allow many units to still do something

Name: Tau
Mana: Blue Yellow
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Gains attack boosted by all red gems removed. (4 red = 1 attack)
Epics Best With: Alastair, Brian the Lucky, Emperina, Luther, Sparkgrinder

Pros:
- It removes reds
- Decent as a carry for a single unit carry build
- Well rounded base combat stats

Cons:
- One of the weakest epics
- One of the hardest to obtain epics
- Only epic I have never seen used in “PvP”
- Removed reds can backfire or delay cast
- Only buffs self
- Bad under AI control

Name: Sapphira
Mana: Brown Yellow
Mana Cost: 14
Ability: Deals true damage to a unit then gains 4 HP and 2 attack
Epics Best With: Alastair, Brian the Lucky, Emperina, Sparkgrinder

Pros:
- OP with brown gem spawn builds
- OP with yellow gem spawn builds
- Highest static single target targetable true damage in the game
- Highest max HP gain of any epic
- One of the best single carry carries in the game
- One of the best 2nd slots in game

Cons:
- Tied at highest mana cost of any epic
- That’s basically it…

Name: Brian the Lucky
Mana: Brown Green
Mana Cost: 12
Ability: Raises a random stat on every unit besides himself
Epics Best With: Atlanta, Emperina, Luther, Rowanne, Sapphira, Tau

Pros:
- Best unit for raising other units’ magic
- Beneficial to every unit that uses magic
- Potentially the strongest buffer in the game
- Decent survivability
- Great first or last slot
- Great under AI control
- Great with units that gain HP and use magic
- Great with units that use defense and magic in their cast

Cons:
- Heavily RNG based
- Doesn’t buff self
- Low attack

Name: Tyri
Mana: Purple Yellow
Mana Cost: 8
Ability: Removes all of a chosen colored gem and get gold boosted by number removed (4 gems = 1 gold)
Epics Best With: Avina, Emperina, Finley, Sparkgrinder

Pros:
- Tied at highest base attack in the game at 10+1
- Highest gold gain in the game
- Lowest mana cost of any epic
- Decent single carry carry
- Only unit that can remove a chosen colored gem

Cons:
- Horribly low survivability with many commons with higher
- Ability can backfire or have to be delayed
- Bad under AI control

Every kingdom may eventually have some sort of additional game mode that is unlocked by completing the quest line for the kingdom. Currently, only Broken Spire has one.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=399480335

As of the 1.0.5 patch, kingdoms now have levels. Each level will increase tribute chance by 1%. Additionally, level 2 i +1 armor, 3 is +5 all masteries, 4 is +1 life, 5 is +1 all masteries, 6 is +1 armor, 7 is +5 masteries, 8 is +1 attack, 9 is +5 masteries, and 10 is +1 magic and +5. Levels are earned when complete quests for a kingdom, complete all challenges for a kingdom, and +1 for every level 15 troop of that kingdom. Tribute chance is triggered per kingdom during every gold collection. This means you will have a tribute chance once when you log in and every seubsequent hour from your last collection. In theory, it is possible to trigger 24 tribute chances per day. This is balanced by the fact that you are more likely to be invaded if you don't take your gold and tribute chances, allowing for defend resources to accumulate.

Every owned kingdom starts with a 1% tribute chance raised by 1% per kingdom level for a total of 11% tribute chance for maxable kingdoms. These tributes include:
Gold: 250
Souls: 40
Glory: 10

You also get chance of these two for all tributes that do 2+ at once:
Gems:
2 tributes = 2 gems
3 = 10
4 = 15
5 to 16 = 20

Keys:
2 tributes = 1 key
3 = 2
4 = 3
5 to 16 = 4

An example would be 2 simultaneous tributes could give the reward of:
40 souls
10 glory
2 gems
1 key

Common = 2,275
Rare = 2,485
Ultra-Rare = 2,715
Epic = 3,045
Legendary = 3,255

Level Max: 8
Total Soul Cost: 16,260
Primary Tribute: +10 glory
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 18,535
Primary Tribute: +250 gold
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 10 (tied at highest currently possible)
Total Soul Cost: 22,560
Primary Tribute: +10 glory
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Epic (event)
Epic (dif. event)
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 18,745
Primary Tribute: +10 glory
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legenary

Level Max: 10 (tied at highest currently possible)
Total Soul Cost: 21,250
Primary Tribute: +40 souls
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Ultra-Rare (event)
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 8
Total Soul Cost: 16,260
Primary Tribute: +40 souls
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 10 (tied at highest currently possible)
Total Soul Cost: 21,020
Primary Tribute: +250 gold
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Common
Rare
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 19,305
Primary Tribute: +40 souls
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Epic (event)
Legendary

Level Max: 8
Total Soul Cost: 16,260
Primary Tribute: +40 souls
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 19,305
Primary Tribute: +250 gold
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Epic (event)
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 19,305
Primary Tribute: +250 gold
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Epic (event)
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 19,305
Primary Tribute: +250 gold
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Epic (event)
Legendary

Level Max: 10 (tied at highest currently possible, also the cheapest among them)
Total Soul Cost: 20,810
Primary Tribute: +10 glory
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Common
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 10 (tied at highest currently possible)
Total Soul Cost: 22,000
Primary Tribute: +10 glory
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary
Legendary (event)

Level Max: 8
Total Soul Cost: 16,260
Primary Tribute: +250 gold
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Epic
Legendary

Level Max: 9
Total Soul Cost: 18,975
Primary Tribute: +40 souls
Complete Quests
Complete Challenges
Common
Rare
Rare
Ultra-Rare
Ultra-Rare (event)
Epic
Legendary

Total: 302,900 souls O_O
31,000 gold doesn't sound as bad now.