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.
These tips go beyond the basics. They're the strategies experienced players use to play more efficiently, the hidden mechanics most people miss, and the optimizations that compound over a full playthrough. If you're just starting, check our beginner's guide first.
Essential Tips
1. Cast every god power once as early as it is useful
Cast every god power once as early as it is useful. The first use of any power is free, and holding it back the way you did in the 2002 original just wastes it.
2. Learn your pantheon's favor engine before anything else
Learn your pantheon's favor engine before anything else. Greek favor competes with food because it uses villagers, Egyptian favor does not, and that single difference changes every build order.
3. Egyptians should have all five Monuments standing before the Heroic Age
Egyptians should have all five Monuments standing before the Heroic Age. All five together produce 28.6 favor per minute, and each one you skip is a myth unit you never make.
4. Atlantean Oracles only produce favor while stationary, at 0
Atlantean Oracles only produce favor while stationary, at 0.08 per second each. An Oracle you keep scouting with is an Oracle that is paying you nothing.
5. Norse units have a lifetime favor bounty cap
Norse units have a lifetime favor bounty cap. A veteran army that has been fighting all game eventually stops generating favor, so replacing units is an economic decision as well as a military one.
6. Chinese Favored Land pays more for continuous coverage than for total building count
Chinese Favored Land pays more for continuous coverage than for total building count. Pack buildings so their auras touch instead of spreading them across the map.
7. Bolt costs 75 favor to reuse and kills any single unit except ox carts and transport ships
Bolt costs 75 favor to reuse and kills any single unit except ox carts and transport ships. It is the cleanest answer to an enemy Titan escort or a hero you cannot catch.
8. Heroes are the only clean counter to myth units
Heroes are the only clean counter to myth units. Losing your last hero to a stray god power usually costs more than losing the twenty soldiers standing next to him.
9. Freyr plays defensively rather than aggressively, and his exclusive minor gods are Ullr at Classical, Aegir at Heroic and Vidar at Mythic
Freyr plays defensively rather than aggressively, and his exclusive minor gods are Ullr at Classical, Aegir at Heroic and Vidar at Mythic. Aegir specifically improves myth units and siege weapons.
10. The Titan Gate is a threat, not a plan
The Titan Gate is a threat, not a plan. Starting one tells the opponent exactly what you are doing, so build it when you can defend the site rather than when you are already behind.
Advanced Strategies
Build Optimization
The difference between an average build and an optimized one is massive. See our builds guide for full breakdowns.
For Greek (A-Tier):
- Focus on Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs combinations for maximum output.
- Core gear: Minotaur
- Stat priority: Offensive stats first
For Egyptian (A-Tier):
- Versatile approach that handles any situation.
- Core gear: Medusa
- Stat priority: Balanced stats
Mechanic Interactions
Understanding how Age of Mythology: Retold's systems interact is where the real optimization lives. Our combat guide covers this in detail.
Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs + Five pantheons with separate favor economies: The first cast of any god power is free. Combined with Five pantheons with separate favor economies, greeks send villagers to pray at the temple, egyptians build up to five monuments and reach 28.
Minor god picks at every age up + Myth units countered by heroes: Advancing to Classical, Heroic and Mythic ages means choosing one minor god from a pair, and that choice decides your myth unit, your technologies and a second god power. When paired with Myth units countered by heroes, myth units beat regular soldiers badly and heroes beat myth units badly, which is the triangle the whole game runs on.
Titan Gate and the Mythic Age endgame scaling: Building a Titan Gate in the Mythic Age and filling it releases a Titan, a single unit large enough to change a stalled game on its own. It is slow and expensive, so it functions as a threat that forces the opponent to act rather than a reliable win button.
Equipment Efficiency
| Equipment | Best Use Case | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Minotaur | Greek Classical Age pushes against massed infantry before heroes are on the field | Athena's Classical Age myth unit for the Greeks, and one of the earliest heavy myth units available in a game. |
| Medusa | Greek Mythic Age armies that need to delete high value enemy units instantly | Hera's Mythic Age myth unit, and one of the few units in the game that removes an enemy outright rather than damaging it, by turning it to stone. |
| Anubite | Egyptian armies that need speed to catch fleeing ranged units and villagers | The Egyptian myth unit granted by Anubis, fast and able to leap onto a target, which makes it a chaser rather than a line unit. |
| Frost Giant | Norse pushes that need to pin an army in place while Ulfsark and Hersir close in | The Norse myth unit from Skadi, which freezes what it hits and holds it in place. |
| Behemoth | Atlantean attacks on walls, towers and Town Centers in the Classical and Heroic ages | Gaia's Classical Age myth unit for the Atlanteans, enormous for how early it arrives and extremely good at demolishing buildings. |
Location Efficiency
Anatolia (1v1 and 2v2, land focused): 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.
Midgard (1v1 through 4v4, mixed land and water): 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.
Marsh (1v1 and team games): 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.
Mediterranean (2v2 and 4v4 team games): 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.
Ghost Lake (1v1 and 2v2): 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.
Mistakes Even Veterans Make
- Treating god powers as single use out of habit from the 2002 game, which leaves free casts unspent through the entire Archaic Age.
- Playing every pantheon with the same build order. Greek favor uses villagers and Egyptian favor uses buildings, so copying a Greek opening onto Egypt wastes the one advantage Egypt has.
- Massing myth units with no heroes in support, then losing the whole group to an opponent who bought three heroes and nothing else.
- Moving Atlantean Oracles around the map for vision without noticing that favor generation stops the moment they start walking.
- Scattering Chinese buildings evenly across a base, which breaks Favored Land into disconnected patches and slows favor to a crawl.
Pro Quick Tips
- Cast every god power once as early as it is useful. The first use of any power is free, and holding it back the way you did in the 2002 original just wastes it.
- Learn your pantheon's favor engine before anything else. Greek favor competes with food because it uses villagers, Egyptian favor does not, and that single difference changes every build order.
- Egyptians should have all five Monuments standing before the Heroic Age. All five together produce 28.6 favor per minute, and each one you skip is a myth unit you never make.
- Start with Egyptian, switch to Greek when ready
- Invest in Minotaur above everything else
- Clear areas in order: Anatolia → Midgard → Marsh → Mediterranean → Ghost Lake. See our maps guide
- Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs + Five pantheons with separate favor economies together are stronger than either alone
More Age of Mythology: Retold Guides
- Age of Mythology: Retold Age of Mythology: Retold Overview
- Age of Mythology: Retold Best Builds
- Age of Mythology: Retold Tier List
- Age of Mythology: Retold Walkthrough
- Age of Mythology: Retold Beginner's Guide
- Age of Mythology: Retold Weapons Guide
- Age of Mythology: Retold Combat Guide
- Age of Mythology: Retold Boss Guide
- Age of Mythology: Retold Maps & Locations
- Age of Mythology: Retold Crafting Guide
- Age of Mythology: Retold Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy Age of Mythology: Retold, check out these related guides:
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- Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Tips & Tricks: strategy game with similar mechanics
- RimWorld Tips & Tricks: strategy game with similar mechanics
