Age of Mythology: Retold Maps & Locations Guide: Every Area Covered

Q: How many civilisations does Retold have?

Five. Greek, Egyptian, Norse and Atlantean shipped with the game on 4 September 2024, and the Chinese arrived with the Immortal Pillars expansion on 4 March 2025 alongside Fuxi, Nuwa, Shennong and the nine level Pillars of the Gods campaign.

Q: Are god powers still one use only?

No, and this is the biggest change from the original. The first cast is free, the second costs a fixed base reuse price in favor, and each subsequent cast adds a ramping amount on top, with a cooldown in between. Zeus's Bolt, for example, has a 75 favor reuse cost.

Q: Which civilisation is easiest to start with?

Greek. Villagers praying at a Temple is the most legible favor system, the hero units are named and obvious, and the unit roster maps closely onto standard real time strategy expectations. Norse is the hardest early on, because favor only arrives while you are actively fighting.

Q: How do the Chinese generate favor?

Through Favored Land. Every building projects an aura, and favor accrues faster the more continuous territory those auras cover. It rewards tight, deliberate base layout in a way no other pantheon does, since two clusters of buildings pay less than the same buildings joined into one area.

Q: Is Freyr worth buying?

He is the fourth Norse major god and plays defensively and technologically rather than aggressively, which is unusual for Norse. His god power Gullinbursti summons a giant golden boar to defend a Town Center, and he has three exclusive minor gods in Ullr, Aegir and Vidar.

Complete Age of Mythology: Retold maps and locations guide. Every area with difficulty, rewards, progression order, and what to do in each zone.

EarlyGuides Editorial Team

Researched and editorially reviewed. Updated August 12, 2026.

World's Edge and Forgotten Empires rebuilt the 2002 Ensemble Studios strategy game and shipped it on 4 September 2024, keeping the Greek, Egyptian, Norse and Atlantean pantheons and rewriting the parts that had aged badly. The largest change is that god powers are no longer single use: the first cast is free and every reuse costs favor on a ramping scale, so Bolt at 75 favor becomes a tool rather than a one time trick. Freyr joined the Norse as a fourth major god, and the Immortal Pillars expansion on 4 March 2025 added the Chinese pantheon with Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong plus a nine level campaign called Pillars of the Gods. Each pantheon generates favor by a completely different method, which is what makes the matchups feel unlike any other real time strategy game.

Age of Mythology: Retold features distinct areas with increasing difficulty. This guide covers every major location in progression order: what to do, what to get, and when to move on. For the step-by-step path, see our walkthrough.

Area Progression Order

Order	Location	Difficulty	Key Rewards	Recommended Build
1	Anatolia	1v1 and 2v2, land focused	Defensible chokepoints, limited fishing, contested mountain passes	Egyptian
2	Midgard	1v1 through 4v4, mixed land and water	Heavy fishing income, weak land hunting, long shared coastline	Egyptian
3	Marsh	1v1 and team games	Terrain based chokepoints, strong defensive positions, awkward siege routes	Greek
4	Mediterranean	2v2 and 4v4 team games	Central lake control, coastal expansion sites, heavy naval contest	Greek
5	Ghost Lake	1v1 and 2v2	Crossable frozen centre, unusual attack angles, cold map resource layout	Greek

Anatolia: Starting Area

A cold desert crisscrossed by mountains with oceans along its sides. There is some fishing but not much, and the mountain ranges break the map into corridors, so army positioning matters more here than on open maps and walls pay for themselves early.

Attribute	Detail
Difficulty	1v1 and 2v2, land focused
Key Rewards	Defensible chokepoints, limited fishing, contested mountain passes
Recommended Build	Egyptian
Key Equipment	Medusa

What to Do Here

Learn the basics of Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs. This is where you practice without heavy punishment.
Collect starting resources and your first equipment upgrade.
Clear all main content before moving to Midgard.
If you're struggling, read our beginner's guide.

Midgard: Early Game

A snowy continent surrounded on all sides by sea, with little hunting on land and plenty of fish in the water. That imbalance pushes almost every civilisation toward a dock early, and it rewards Norse and Greek players who can protect a fishing line from raids.

Attribute	Detail
Difficulty	1v1 through 4v4, mixed land and water
Key Rewards	Heavy fishing income, weak land hunting, long shared coastline
Recommended Build	Egyptian
Key Equipment	Medusa

What to Do Here

Focus on mastering Five pantheons with separate favor economies. It's critical from this point on.
Farm for Medusa if you don't have it yet.
Complete all objectives for maximum rewards.
Prepare for the difficulty spike in Marsh.

Marsh: Mid Game

Wet, broken terrain where movement is constrained and armies funnel into narrow strips of dry ground. It punishes slow siege units and rewards ranged armies plus god powers that reshape ground, which is where Atlantean and Chinese building placement gets interesting.

Attribute	Detail
Difficulty	1v1 and team games
Key Rewards	Terrain based chokepoints, strong defensive positions, awkward siege routes
Recommended Build	Greek
Key Equipment	Medusa

What to Do Here

This is the main skill check. Bring an optimized build.
Minotaur becomes accessible here. Prioritize getting it.
Master Minor god picks at every age up for the boss encounters.
Check our boss guide if you get stuck.

Mediterranean: Late Game

Effectively the same map that Age of Kings players remember, with an enormous central lake and players expanding around its edges. Naval control decides the middle, and land expansion is a race around the rim, so the map rewards civilisations that can do both at once.

Attribute	Detail
Difficulty	2v2 and 4v4 team games
Key Rewards	Central lake control, coastal expansion sites, heavy naval contest
Recommended Build	Greek
Key Equipment	Minotaur

What to Do Here

Full build optimization is expected by this point.
Minotaur should be your primary, fully upgraded.
Titan Gate and the Mythic Age endgame mastery starts mattering here.
Farm resources for the push into Ghost Lake.

Ghost Lake: Endgame

A cold map built around a frozen central lake that armies can walk across, which removes the safety a body of water usually provides. Attacks arrive from directions that would be impossible elsewhere, so towers on the shoreline are worth building earlier than instinct suggests.

Attribute	Detail
Difficulty	1v1 and 2v2
Key Rewards	Crossable frozen centre, unusual attack angles, cold map resource layout
Recommended Build	Greek
Key Equipment	Minotaur

What to Do Here

This is endgame. Best-in-slot gear and a perfected build are mandatory.
See our boss guide for endgame fight strategies.
The reward loop: clear content → upgrade → push harder content.
Experiment with Chinese for variety once you've mastered the meta.

Exploration Tips

Clear areas in order: Anatolia → Midgard → Marsh → Mediterranean → Ghost Lake. Skipping areas means missing resources you'll need later.
Check every corner: Hidden caches and secrets are often in non-obvious locations.
Match your equipment: Some areas favor different equipment types.
Read the walkthrough: Our walkthrough provides exact progression milestones for each area.
Don't rush: Clearing an area fully gives more resources than speedrunning two areas.

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