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.
This walkthrough takes you from your first session to endgame content. Each phase has specific goals, priorities, and milestones. New to the game? Start with our beginner's guide first.
Quick Progression Summary
| Phase | Area | Focus | Build | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Start | Anatolia | Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs basics | Egyptian | 1-2 hours |
| 2. Early | Midgard | Five pantheons with separate favor economies mastery | Egyptian | 3-5 hours |
| 3. Mid | Marsh | Minor god picks at every age up + gear | Greek or Egyptian | 5-10 hours |
| 4. Late | Mediterranean | Build optimization | Greek | 5-10 hours |
| 5. Endgame | Ghost Lake | Min-max | Greek or Chinese | Ongoing |
See our maps guide for detailed area breakdowns.
Phase 1: Getting Started (Anatolia)
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.
Level/Difficulty: 1v1 and 2v2, land focused Key Rewards: Defensible chokepoints, limited fishing, contested mountain passes
What to Do in Anatolia
- Learn Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs. The first cast of any god power is free. Spend your first session getting comfortable with this.
- Pick Egyptian as your starting build. See our builds guide for why.
- 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.
- Acquire your first equipment upgrade: Medusa or whatever's available.
- Clear all main content before moving on.
Phase 1 Checklist
- Understand Reusable god powers with ramping favor costs fundamentals
- Egyptian selected and functional
- Anatolia main content cleared
- Ready for Midgard
Phase 2: Early Game (Midgard)
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.
Level/Difficulty: 1v1 through 4v4, mixed land and water Key Rewards: Heavy fishing income, weak land hunting, long shared coastline
What to Do in Midgard
- Work on Five pantheons with separate favor economies. Greeks send villagers to pray at the Temple, Egyptians build up to five Monuments and reach 28. This system becomes critical from here on.
- Farm for Medusa if you haven't already. It's the key upgrade for this phase.
- 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.
- Complete all objectives before pushing to Marsh.
- Consider whether Greek might suit your playstyle better than Egyptian.
Phase 2 Checklist
- Five pantheons with separate favor economies integrated into gameplay
- Medusa acquired
- Midgard fully cleared
- Ready for Marsh
Phase 3: Mid Game (Marsh)
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.
Level/Difficulty: 1v1 and team games Key Rewards: Terrain based chokepoints, strong defensive positions, awkward siege routes
What to Do in Marsh
- Master Minor god picks at every age up. 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. This unlocks a new layer of gameplay.
- Start working toward Minotaur. It's the best equipment and becomes accessible around now.
- 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.
- This area is the main skill check. If you can clear it, you're ready for late game.
- Start investing in Myth units countered by heroes for the tactical depth you'll need going forward.
Phase 3 Checklist
- Minor god picks at every age up mastered
- Minotaur acquired or in progress
- Marsh fully cleared
- Ready for Mediterranean
Phase 4: Late Game (Mediterranean)
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.
Level/Difficulty: 2v2 and 4v4 team games Key Rewards: Central lake control, coastal expansion sites, heavy naval contest
What to Do in Mediterranean
- Finalize your build. You should be running Greek or Egyptian with optimized gear.
- Minotaur should be your primary. If you don't have it yet, prioritize getting it.
- 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.
- Titan Gate and the Mythic Age endgame optimization starts here. Small improvements compound into massive advantages.
- Farm this area for the resources needed to push into Ghost Lake.
Phase 4 Checklist
- Build fully optimized
- Minotaur upgraded to max
- Mediterranean fully cleared
- Ready for Ghost Lake
Phase 5: Endgame (Ghost Lake)
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.
Level/Difficulty: 1v1 and 2v2 Key Rewards: Crossable frozen centre, unusual attack angles, cold map resource layout
What to Do in Ghost Lake
- Ghost Lake tests everything. Come prepared with your best build and gear.
- 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.
- The endgame loop: run Ghost Lake, optimize gear, push harder content.
- Experiment with Chinese for a fresh take once you've mastered the standard builds.
- This is where Titan Gate and the Mythic Age endgame mastery separates good players from great ones. See our tips guide for advanced strategies.
Phase 5 Checklist
- Endgame content on farm
- Best-in-slot gear acquired
- Ghost Lake fully cleared
- Ready for challenge content
Common Progression Mistakes
- 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.
Key Tips for Smooth Progression
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
For more advanced strategies, see our tips & tricks guide.
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 Beginner's Guide
- Age of Mythology: Retold Tips & Tricks
- 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
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