Although Empires & Puzzles is clearly geared towards P2W players, there are almost no resources that cannot be accessed through gameplay and that must be purchased with real currency. Of course, obtaining hefty amounts of food, iron, and upgrade materials for free can take a great deal of time, but it is nevertheless possible.

Given that all goods are farmable, the next question is: How can you best spend your energy while gathering them? Below, we provide an answer for the most common resources and materials needed in Empires & Puzzles. To keep everything simple, we’ll briefly run through each resource, its function(s), and the best PvE missions where you can farm it.

Food and Iron

These two common resources are primarily used to construct and upgrade buildings in your base, as well as to level your Stronghold. At the same time, Food is used in generous amounts to train new heroes from recruits and to level up your core characters. Although both of these resources may seem plentiful to begin with, by the time you hit Stronghold level 10, you’ll need hundreds of thousands of pieces of iron to upgrade more buildings, while high-level heroes will require equal amounts of food to continue to evolve.

Fortunately, there are a number of different ways to farm Food and Iron:

• The most obvious is to build Farms and Mines whenever new construction slots become available in your base. Remember to upgrade these structures each time you level up your Stronghold because they represent your only certain source of Food and Iron.

• You can also obtain these basic resources by raiding other players, but during the early-game, your offensive team will likely succumb to most defensive squads. The game does not seem to take your level into account when matching you against other players, so you might find yourself constantly attacking unbeatable enemies.

• Finally, you can farm Food and Iron in PvE missions. Although most missions will grant these resources in some measure, there are a few particularly advantageous ones that you should turn your attention to as soon as they become available. For food, these are: 13-2 (with 675 Food per Energy point), 8-4, 7-5, 6-5, 5-7, and 4-6. Meanwhile, you can get the most iron from: 15-4 (with 1909 Iron per Energy point), 12-1, 8-4, 10-5, and 6-8.

Recruits and Rare Items

One of the best ways to obtain and upgrade new heroes without using premium currency is to train them from recruits. However, you must first find recruits during missions before you can assign them to the Training Camp. As such, if you’re looking for the best mission to farm recruits, you should set your sights on 12-9, which offers no less than 9 recruits for just 4 Energy points, and 14-9, which grants 10 recruits for 5 Energy. Although there are other missions that offer a decent number of recruits per point of Energy, these two are the most effective and the easiest to clear. In addition, no higher mission will grant a better ratio.

Once you’ve gathered enough recruits, you’ll need Food and additional items to turn them into worthy heroes. What’s more, your heroes will then require ascension materials to break through their max level and improve their skills. The most common items you will need and the best missions to farm them are the following:

• Practice Swords (used to train common heroes): Levels 1-8 of Province 10, Season 2 on hard mode.
• Adventurer’s Kits (used to train common and uncommon heroes): Levels 1-8 of Province 1, Season 2 on hard mode.

• Rugged Cloth (used for the possibility to train a 3-star hero): Levels 1-8 of Province 4, Season 2 on hard mode.
• Training Manual (used for the possibility to train a 3-star hero): Levels 1-8 of Province 14, Season 2 on hard mode.
• Wooden Shield (used to train either a 3- or 4-star hero): Levels 1-8 of Province 6, Season 1 on easy.
• Leather Armor (used to train either a 3- or 4-star hero): Levels 1-8 of Province 6, Season 1 on easy.
• Sharpening Stone (used for the possibility to train a legendary hero): Levels 1-8 of Province 10, Season 1 on easy.

Some ascension materials cannot be found on the map and can only be obtained from completing Chest Missions, participating in Events, or defeating Titans with your Alliance… Unless, of course, you’re willing to pay for them in premium currency.

XP to Improve Your Player Level

Whether you want to obtain new heroes, upgrade existing ones, or develop your base, you will need a high player level. The higher your level, the more aspects of the game you have access to, some of which are instrumental towards your progression. Alliances (and Titans), for example, are only unlocked at player level 4, whereas quests can only be tackled by players level 10 and above.

The only way to obtain a decent amount of XP and boost your player level is to complete missions on the PvE map. The best ratio of XP per Energy point is offered by the following missions: 7-4 (for beginners), 9-1, 12-9, 17-1 (for intermediate players), 20-4, and 23-10 (for advanced players). The latter of these missions offers the highest ratio of XP per Energy point and will grant a whopping 405 XP per Energy.

Monsters for the Elemental Chests

Finally, you should complete the various Chest Missions whenever this is possible in order to obtain unique upgrade and ascension materials. In order to unlock the Elemental Chest, however, you will be asked to defeat a number of enemies of a specific color. The best missions for the task include:

• Purple monsters: 8-4 or 7-4 (with 11 or 9 to 15 dark monsters, respectively).
• Blue monsters: 8-7 (with 9 to 15 water monsters).
• Red monsters: 20-4 (with up to 12 fire monsters) or 6-8 (for beginners).
• Yellow monsters: 8-4 or 7-4 (same as purple).
• Green monsters: 7-5 (with 9 to 15 earth monsters).

Exactly how many monsters of a specific color you get per mission is up to the RNG gods, but the missions mentioned above are the most likely to spawn a high number for their color and also feature the best XP per Energy point ratio. Whether you need monsters, recruits, XP, food and iron, or special items, you now know exactly where to look and how to spend your Energy wisely!

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