HERO PARK GENERAL FAQ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction and Legal 2. Hero Park Basics 2a. Unicorn Energy 2b. Gold 2c. Diamonds and the Cash Shop 2d. The Treasury 2e. Reputation Points (RP) 3. Heroes and Behaviors 3a. Humans 3b. Dwarves 3c. Elves 4. Town Buildings and Staff 4S. A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT EMPLOYEE RARITY AND PRODUCTION 4a. Alchemist 4b. Tavern 4c. Armorer 4d. Weaponsmith 4e. Magic Shop 4f. Temple 4g. Trainer 4h. Support Staff 4i. Castle 4j. Building Placement Tips 5. Monster/Treasure Production Sites and Staff 5a. Monster Farm 5b. Graveyard 5c. Quarry 5d. Fire Hole 5e. Junk Factory 5f. General Production Tips 5g. In-Depth Analysis on My Position Against RP+ Perks For Monster Production 6. Dungeons 6a. Old Dungeon 6b. Cursed Crypts 6c. Demon Castle 6d. Dark Palace 6e. General Dungeon Tips 7. To Level 20 and Beyond: Tips and End-Game Strategies 7a. Village Capacity and the Castle 7b. Understanding Hero Needs (The Queue) 7c. Basic Quests and Timed Quests 7d. Daily Challenges 7e. Making the Most of Boss Monsters 8. Guide version update information 9. Outro 1. INTRODUCTION AND LEGAL Hello, and welcome to my guide for the mobile title, Hero Park! This little time-waster became quite a favorite of mine when I have a spare few minutes, but I've noticed that there is not very much information available(even Reddit only has three threads at the time of this guide's creation!) So I decided to write a little general FAQ for my fellow gamers. As of the current version of this FAQ, I am at Village Level 32, with 85,371,591 total RP earned. This FAQ is copyright to myself, its creator, Lord_Stinkface. Only GameFAQS may have this guide posted without my express permission. That being said, if you would like to use all or part of this FAQ on another site, I only ask that you email me for permission, and I will most likely give it. This is about spreading knowledge, after all! But I would like credit should you wish to copy reproduce it for other purposes. 2. HERO PARK BASICS The general flow of the game is as follows: 1. Prepare your village and dungeons 2. Use Unicorn energy to summon heroes 3. Earn gold from heroes in the village, and RP in the dungeons 4. Complete quests to earn gold, RP and locked chests of varying value 5. Direct a treasure goblin (or two) to work at opening chests 6. Upgrade buildings, dungeons and employees to increase your village level 2a. UNICORN ENERGY Unicorn energy is essential to drawing heroes into your village. You start with a maximum of 3 Unicorn energy, but through leveling up your village, can eventually raise that maximum to 10. Initially, Unicorn energy replenishes at a rate of 1 every 20 minutes. This rate can, around the late-game, be upgraded through consistently strong performances in the Daily Challenges. After the Winter Update, a new Junk Factory Employee became available--Santa's Brother--that not only provided an improvement in the overall time it took for Unicorn energy to replenish, but also introduced "Unicorn Food"--which let you summon more heroes outside of the unicorn's base energy. I will get into the effects he has on your Village later in the FAQ. 2b. GOLD Ah, gold. Unsurprisingly, gold is essential for improving every aspect of your little village, from the vendors and their storefronts to the monsters and their dungeons. While heroes will provide the majority of the gold you will make in this game, a fair amount also comes from completing Quests and Daily Challenges. 2c. DIAMONDS AND THE CASH SHOP Diamonds are the "premium" currency of Hero Park. They can be used to purchase unicorn energy, exchanged for gold or chests in the cash shop, buy upgrades for specific employees, instantly open a locked chest that is currently being worked on by a treasure goblin, and skipping Quests in between free uses of the skip function. You also may be tempted to buy employees that you do not have yet with Diamonds before you get them through opening chests. DON'T DO THIS. You will get EVERY employee (with the exception of Santa's Brother, who was added in the Winter Update, and is the first and only example of "pay-to-win" mechanics we've seen in this game). NEW: the Winter update gave us an in-game, practical reason to use Diamonds: to improve the Castle and let us use the Royal employees. Ultimately it takes 1,200 Diamonds to unlock the full potential of the Castle. Based on what I said earlier about not using Diamonds for convenience...you should extrapolate that THIS is a good use of said Diamonds. I'll also add this: initially (in the nascent stages of this game) Diamonds were almost strictly a convenience thing, and you were free to buy them with real-world money if you so chose. Now, you still have the options to buy Diamonds with real-world money, but now we are seeing an actual USE for them, outside of speeding up some timers (see: upgrading your castle and springing for Santa's Brother, the only employee who will not naturally unlock through chests)...in the future, I anticipate more and more aspects of gameplay enhancement that will involve Diamonds, the premium currency... The bottom line is, as always: DO NOT SPEND YOUR DIAMONDS IN THE CASH SHOP FOR GOLD, UNLOCKING EMPLOYEES, CHESTS, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS NOT A UNIQUE, OVER-TIME BENEFIT TO THE GAME. While you are able to purchase diamonds from the in-game cash shop, I honestly do NOT see the need. Just through normal gameplay and leveling up your village, you will get a bunch of them, and there's really not many good reasons to use them. Diamonds are essentially for the impatient...that being said, if that is you, and you have the funds and the desire to take advantage of them, then by all means don't let me stop you. One last thing to note about the cash shop...there is a free gift that you can accept here, and it replenishes again 8 hours after you claim it. The free gift will either be some gold, some diamonds, or some Unicorn energy. The timer for the new gift doesn't start until you log in to the game and check it after it becomes available. So, for example, if I accept my free gift at 12 pm, and then check in to the game again at 9 pm, my new gift will be ready but the 8-hour countdown will not have started until 9pm (when I checked on it). Lastly, if you fail to claim your free gift before the 8-hour replenishment timer runs out, it will be forfeited and replaced with the new gift when you check the cash shop again. 2d. THE TREASURY The treasury is where you amass locked chests that a friendly treasure goblin will open for you...if you give it enough time! There are six slots for locked chests, which are earned through Quests. As far as the locked chests themselves, they come in 6 rarities. Bronze Chests are the least valuable but only take 40 minutes to open. Silver Chests are the second least valuable and take 2 hours and 30 minutes to open. Gold Chests are the next step up in value, and take 7 hours to open. Platinum Chests are next, and take 12 hours to open. Devil's Chests are the second most valuable chest, and take 24 hours to open. Lastly, Unicorn Chests are the most valuable and rare of all the chests (I think I've only ever received 3 of them, total), and take 48 hours to open. Each chest, when opened, confers gold, employee upgrade cards and (possibly) new employees, with more valuable chests holding more gold and higher rarity upgrade cards. Chests will only give you employee upgrade cards for employees you currently have. I have to point out, here, that early in the game, you should see an option in the cash store to buy a second treasure goblin, allowing two chests to be worked on simultaneously. This is actually a HUGE benefit, especially once you start seeing the really valuable chests that take 1 or 2 whole days to open. If I recall correctly, the bundle also included some gold, diamonds, and Unicorn energy, and was around $5.50. I happened to have a $3 credit towards a game on Google Play at the time, so I jumped right on that opportunity. Regardless, if you enjoy this game enough to play it for a long while, it's a pretty reasonable buy-in to support the creators while giving you an appreciable benefit. 2e. REPUTATION POINTS (RP) Reputation Points are what allows you to level up and improve your buildings, dungeons, and production sites, and your Village Level in general. There are three main methods of earning RP: through spending gold on building upgrades, through spending gold on employee upgrades, and by heroes defeating monsters and finding treasure. For buildings, RP is gained at a rate of 50% of the gold spent to make the upgrade. For example, spending 1000 gold to unlock a product or hero slot will grant that building, and the overall Village Level, 500 RP. Outside of improvements, all buildings, dungeons and production sites also have an option to exchange gold for RP at a 1-to-1 rate without unlocking any specific upgrade. Except for the least expensive and earliest buildings, most other buildings will require you to pay for at least SOME non-upgrade exchanges to make it to the maximum building level. As the overall Village Level increases, you will gain start to gain improvements to your maximum Unicorn energy and Hero Capacity (although these values do eventually top out). Also, upon leveling up your village, you will typically receive some diamonds and some Unicorn energy, and in some cases you will also gain a new employee. Additionally, more buildings, dungeons, and production sites unlock as your Village Level increases. 3. HEROES AND BEHAVIORS The whole game revolves around enticing heroes to your little village, and getting them to spend as much gold as possible. Gold is used to erect and upgrade your buildings,dungeons and enemy hives, produce the goods that the heroes will buy, and leveling your town staff. It's all about making that money...and the heroes are the ones holding it! When you send your unicorn out to attract heroes, you will get the option to pick from two of four initial choices, and then a second pair will appear, of which you will select one more hero. Therefore, each use of the unicorn will bring in 3 heroes. Each hero has a starting amount of gold and from 2 to 5 different "needs", one of which will always be fighting. Your task, as the head of the village, is to determine which heroes to bring in for maximum effect! Usually this will be the maximum acquisition of gold in a general sense, but during Quests and Daily Quests (discussed later), it is important to tailor WHICH heroes with WHICH needs you are enticing. While examining the page that shows the "needs" queues, a fight icon with a yellow background indicates that hero was driven from a dungeon mid-fight and may return to a dungeon after their "post-battle" routine. An icon in the "needs" queue that has a red background indicates that hero tried to purchase a good/service and could not (either because there was no room in the building available, or that the good/service itself was not available). Heroes come in one of three races, which represent 2 genders and 3 general "classes"--Warriors, Mages, and Ranged Attackers. Each race and class will have some specific goods that they are looking for and able to use. I will detail specific things each combination will purchase if that item is not generally bought by all heroes. For reference, things that all heroes can theoretically buy (and therefore will not be detailed below): health potions, experience potions, food, beverages, blessings, cures, training, and magic rings and amulets. 3a. HUMANS Humans will arrive in town as either a Male Mage or a Female Warrior. Male Human Mages can purchase fire or lightning wands, light armors, and mana potions. Female Human Warriors can purchase swords, any armor (but typically prefer medium or heavy armors), and stamina potions. 3b. DWARVES Dwarves are always male, and will arrive in town as either a Warrior or a Crossbowman. Dwarven Warriors can purchase axes, any armor (but typically prefer medium or heavy armors), and stamina potions. Dwarven Crossbowmen can purchase crossbows, medium armors, and stamina potions. 3c. ELVES Elves are always female, and will arrive in town as either an Archer or a Mage. Elven Archers can purchase bows, light or medium armors, and mana potions. Elven Mages can purchase ice or lightning wands, light armors, and mana potions. 4. TOWN BUILDINGS AND STAFF From a burnt-out husk to a hot spot of adventurer activity, the structures that you use to make gold vary in purpose. Each type of building employs specific staff to provide the heroes with their wares. There is also a subset of staff that are considered "support"--they produce nothing by themselves, but assist in the management of whichever establishment they are currently placed. In the beginning, your options for which buildings you have are limited, but open up as you progress your town level. All building types are leveled up by spending gold on various functionalities and upgrades, which will be discussed in each building's breakdown below. It should be noted that hitting the level for the improvement only makes it AVAILABLE--you must spend additional gold to actually UNLOCK each perk. With the exception of the Castle, all buildings can be built twice (and most of them should be, with one exception, which I will discuss below). Also with the exception of the Castle, all buildings can ultimately house 10 heroes at once, and hold 20 slots for merchandise. In all cases a certain overall building level is required to reach those maximums. Employees are either unlocked at specific Village levels, or found in Locked Chests in the Treasury. While you will, by playing long enough, eventually get every available employee, in the early game (and to a lesser extent, during the mid game) you will have to work with what the RNG decides to give you. There are also three rarities (Common, Expert and Legendary) of employees which affects the maximum for that employee's crafting skills, and also the amount of upgrade cards required to level those skills. Common employees can produce goods and services up to a maximum of level spread 11 - 20. Expert employees can produce goods and services up to a maximum of level spread 11 - 25. As of the time of this guide, I do not have any Legendary employees to their production maximums, but my guess is that it will be 16 - 30 at maximum level. The Village Level rewards typically give you the basic employees for each location so you aren't just completely lacking a certain good or service...but it does not ALWAYS, so having some flexibility in your plan is a good thing. As of the Winter Update, all Village buildings now grant additional benefits from level 10 on. At level 10, each Village building (besides the Castle, whose effects we will discuss in THAT breakdown) gains a 5% improvement to production speed for goods/services in that building. As of the time of the most recent update, this bonus caps out at level 20, where you gain an overall improvement of 55% to production speed. I will also mention here: it is not currently possible to level a Village shop, Production Site, or Dungeon past level 20 (even spending the gold to do so stops you 1 RP from achieving a level up in that building). Below I will list each building in order of their availability, and discuss the wares that they provide, the staff they can employ, and the level threshold for bonus effects. 4S. A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT EMPLOYEE RARITY AND PRODUCTION Employees come in three rarities. The VERY BASIC DIFFERENCE is: COMMON-TIER employees have either 1 or 2 production talents. In the case of a single production talent they cap PRODUCTION at a maximum of level 25. Split-talent Common employees will always cap at level 20 production (and an unknown max for service improvements, since I don't have that data yet). MY PROOF FOR THIS: I have Baldur at overall level 30 (this is currently his Maximum level). He can produce both basic medium and basic heavy armor at a level range of 11-20. He is also unable to level up further (despite the fact that I keep receiving level cards for him...which is REALLY annoying). His compatriot, Nirgol, is another Common-tier, armor-producing employee...but he can ONLY produce light armor. At overall level 28, he produces Lv. 12-23 light armor...indicating that, when he hits the Common-tier employee level max of 30, he will produce light armor with a max of level 25 (pretty good, overall, for a Common-tier employee). EXPERT-TIER employees have 3 production talents. They can also improve to their maximums of production level 25 easier than Common-tier employees. LEGENDARY-TIER employees also have 3 production talents, which they can improve faster than Expert-tier employees. That means your Legendary-tier employees will hit their maximums faster than Expert-tier employees (BUT! only if you are getting the high-value chests in your treasury to incite more Legendary level-ups than Expert level-ups). **As of the time of the most recent update, I have no Expert or Legendary tier employees with more than 1 production element maxed, so I cannot predict what happens with them. What I DO KNOW: continued improvement in other productions improves the MINIMUM levels for what you produce, which IS overall useful in the long-run of making gold. **AS AN EXAMPLE: My highest-level Expert-tier employee is Esmeralda, and she is level 35. She first maxed (and specializes) in producing Orcs (Lv 13-25) but could also make Lv. 11-19 Goblins, or Lv. 12-20 Imps. **FURTHERMORE: My highest-level Legendary-tier employee is Vrodo, and he is level 39. He first maxed (and specializes) in producing Cursed Crossbows (Lv 13-25) but could also make Lv. 10-14 Cursed Swords, or Lv. 10-14 Cursed Axes. In both cases I forsee continued improvement in the off-production talents pushing up the minimum levels further. The main issues are this: that I do not have high-enough levels of Expert and Legendary employees to really know where the minimums max out (which is a contradictory statement in itself), and that when an employee has a service parameter included, what does that do to the equation? (This is important because service parameters don't have a range, but rather a static increase.) 4a. ALCHEMIST The first building available to you, and a surprisingly effective long-term moneymaker, the alchemist shop is where heroes go to buy health potions, mana potions, stamina potions, and experience potions. Every hero can potentially buy health potions and experience potions. Warriors and Crossbowmen will buy stamina potions, while Archers and Mages will buy mana potions. While you will often see heroes entering the village already wanting a potion or two, this is the building which will have the most "extra" trips paid to it outside of the hero's initial "needs" queue. This is because heroes in dungeons will use potions while they fight, and therefore may want to replenish their stock once they exit the dungeon...providing they still have gold left, of course! There are 6 total employees that can produce potions in some fashion, which are listed here in ascending order of rarity. BRUNHILDE (COMMON): your first alchemist. She makes health potions only. ROLF (COMMON): he can produce mana and stamina potions. LORD SMUG (COMMON): he can produce health and stamina potions. LIMPLEG (EXPERT): he can produce health, mana, and experience potions. GAYA (EXPERT): she can produce health, mana, and stamaina potions. Her health potions sell for more gold than regular health potions, which should make her your health potion specialist once you have her to sufficient level. ROSEMARY (LEGENDARY): she can produce stamina, experience and mana potions. While the flavor text seems to intimate that her specialty is experience potions, it is in fact her stamina and mana potions that are special: heroes who consume they during battle may become lovesick, and visit the tavern after the fight. As you level your alchemist building, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): an extra potion is produced when you make health, stamina or mana potions. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): mark 4 additional potion stacks to be rebuilt as soon as they are sold. FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): all potions are produced 50% faster. FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): provides a "usage" ability, which entices all heroes nearby the building to immediately purchase a health potion. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final alchemist building perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. My strategy with the alchemist is to have two buildings, one with 15 stacks of healing potion and 5 stacks of experience potions, and the other with 10 stacks each of stamina and mana potions. My reasoning is: experience potions, while the stacks hold fewer than the other types, are only ever bought by heroes that you KNOW want them when they are entering the village (no hero decides halfway through they want one, unlike the other types, which may need to be replenished after the hero fights). Meanwhile, EVERY hero type may need additional healing potions. The mana/stamina potions are split evenly since they have a relatively equal chance of being needed by specific classes. 4b. TAVERN Ah, the tavern--a fantasy trope, for sure, but even digital heroes have to blow off some steam! The tavern is the second building you can create, and has the food and booze that your heroes may crave. Tavern employees can produce food (in the form of meat and cookies) and drinks (in the form of beer and schnapps). All heroes can enjoy any of these consumables. While heroes will never SPECIFICALLY want cookies or schnapps, they may purchase them when they are buying regular meat or beer, and they will still keep that "need" in their queue. While it is uncommon, a hero who, for example, only wants 1 beer, may buy multiple schnapps BEFORE they drink that beer, which lets you get a little extra cash from them. Same with cookies and meat. There are 6 total employees that can produce goods for the tavern, listed here in ascending order of rarity. MAGDALENA (COMMON): your first tavern option, she can produce meat and beer. BRANDY BLOSSOM (COMMON): he can produce schnapps. BREWMASTER BRUSIUS (COMMON): he can produce beer and schnapps. HUGO HUNGRY (COMMON): he can produce meat and cookies. While I was initially taken in by his flavor text, he does not, in fact, produce an extra product per stack (I guess the implication is that, he loves the food so much he produces an extra portion--which he then eats). MOM (EXPERT): she can make meat, beer, or cookies. NJAM NJAM (LEGENDARY): he can produce meat or beer, and either product he creates has a 25% chance to add a fight "need" to that hero's queue. (It should be noted that if the hero ALREADY has a fight "need" before they eat/drink, it will NOT add a second fight "need" to their queue.) Additionally, he can increase the "Shopping Speed" parameter for the building that he is in...which is actually nice, since this and the alchemist are the two buildings where heroes are most likely to "stack up" and fill the available slots while they are doing their business, keeping other heroes out (and making them unhappy). As you level your tavern, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two extra portions of meat or beer are produced per stack when you make those goods. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): mark 4 additional merchandise stacks to be rebuilt as soon as they are sold. FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): provides a "usage" ability, which entices all nearby heroes to immediately buy a portion of meat. FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): all food and drink goods are produced 50% faster. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final tavern perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. My strategy with the tavern is to have one that has 15 stacks of meat and 5 stacks of cookies, and the other has 15 stacks of beer and 5 stacks of schnapps. Cookies and schnapps are purchased infrequently enough by the heroes, and since you cannot specifically draw heroes in that want those items, it is more useful to have extra meat and beer available. I feel like having schnapps in a building with no beer is pointless, as a hero that starts drinking beer in another tavern will not leave in between beers to have a schnapps and then go back, while a hero who wants beer may plunk down and hammer schnapps back INSTEAD of beers since they are in the same place, and still want the beer afterwards. The same principle applies to meat and cookies. 4c. ARMORER Every hero wants at least some protection when they go against the evils of the dungeons, and this is the place where they make those preparations. Introduced around the same time as the weaponsmith, the armorer will, once your employees are sufficiently leveled, provide the single highest gold-per-item sale in your village. Mages will never buy any armor other than light armor, while Ranged Attackers may purchase either light or medium armor. Warriors can purchase any type, (although from my observation, they will only purchase medium or heavy armor once heavy armor is an option). For that reason, I recommend having all options available to the adventurers whenever it becomes feasible for you. There are 4 total employees that can produce goods for the armorer, listed here in ascending order of rarity. NIRGOL (COMMON): your first armorer, he can only make light armors. BALDUR (COMMON): he can produce both medium and heavy armors. BREGASCH BRONZESMITH (EXPERT): he can produce light, medium, and heavy armors. Notably, his Heavy armors are special and sell for more than those produced by Baldur. LISA THE ARTIST (LEGENDARY): she can produce light, medium, and heavy armors. Any armor she produces is a special variant that sells for more than the basic types. Functionally this means that she makes more valuable Light and Medium armors than the other producers (her Heavy Armor is equal to Bregasch in cost). Not to be discounted though: in the building that she is assigned, all armor production is free. As you level the armorer, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more item stacks can be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): all armor is produced 50% faster. FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): provides a "usage" ability, which applies a chance that any nearby heroes' armor becomes cursed and may break in an upcoming battle. FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): one additional armor is produced, giving 2 in a stack. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final armorer perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. In a previous version of this guide I reasoned that it really doesn't matter how you have these buildings set up. From a long-view, though...you want Lisa making your special Medium armor, and Bregasch making your special Heavy armor...and since both of those have a base COST higher than light armor, you want them in the same building. It can be argued that the cost you save on production is not much...but over time, those savings add up. I personally have a separate armory with just Nirgol making Light armor. This setup has served me well for a LONG time. 4d. WEAPONSMITH Along with some sturdy armor, most weapon-wielding heroes may want to upgrade their gear while in your humble little hamlet. For the most part, no single weapon sale will make you a large amount of gold...however, the weaponsmith is the only building type that gives an item-level "cursed" option, which grants a 25% chance that the hero has their weapon destroyed in battle and will want to replace it afterwards...assuming they have the gold for it, of course! Human Warriors will purchase swords, while Dwarven Warriors will go for axes. Elven Archers will buy bows, while Dwarven Crossbowmen will elect for crossbows. Contrary to the flavor text for all weapons saying that a "preferred purchase" gets you an extra 20% over the selling price, my observation is that there is no substitution for heroes when it comes to their weapons, so don't think a Human Warrior will buy an axe if no swords are available, because in my experience they will not. It should also be noted that selling a weapon to a hero confers a 50% chance that a fight "need" will be added to their queue. However, if the hero already has a fight "need" in their queue, it will not add a second. Therefore a hero that wants to fight AND AFTERWARDS buy a weapon may be enticed back into the dungeon for another foray after the initial fight. There are 7 total employees that can produce goods for the weaponsmith, listed here in ascending order of rarity. STEELA STEELLOVE (COMMON): your first weaponsmith. Can produce normal swords and normal axes. ARCHIE ARCHER (COMMON): he can produce normal bows and normal crossbows. SMITHY (COMMON): he can produce cursed swords only. MARYGOLD (COMMON): she can produce normal bows, and also can decrease the "Production Time" parameter in the building she is employed. AXEFRIED (EXPERT): he can produce cursed axes and normal crossbows. He can also increase the "Purchase Price" parameter for the building he is employed. ROBIN HOOD'S SISTER (EXPERT): she can produce improved bows, which sell for more gold than normal bows of the same level. Of special note, the bow is the only weapon without a "cursed" variant, so this employee should be your go-to bow producer once it becomes feasible. She also can increase the "Shopping Speed" parameter and the "Purchase Price" parameter in the building that she is employed (but only one at a time). VRODO THE CURSED (LEGENDARY): he can produce cursed swords, cursed axes, or cursed crossbows. His flavor text says that his items have a 25% to be destroyed in combat, but that is also the same description of ALL cursed weaponry by ALL employees, so it is unclear if his weapons have an ADDITIONAL 25% chance to break (making it 50% for what he specifically produces), or if it was just an error. As you level the weaponsmith, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more item stacks can be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): all weapons are produced 50% faster. FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): one additional item per stack is produced (effectively giving you 2 weapons per stack, instead of 1). FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): provide a "usage" ability, which compels any nearby Warrior or Ranged Attacker to immediately purchase another weapon. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final weaponsmith perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. My strategy with the weaponsmith is to have two buildings, one with swords and axes, and the other with bows and crossbows. While this building type requires slightly (and I mean SLIGHTLY) more specialization than the armorer, it probably really doesn't matter how you combine the wares. The important thing is having the selection. That being said, I sell cursed crossbows and axes (Dwarves have a hard time in my dungeons, heheh), improved bows, and regular swords. Why regular swords, you ask? Because I got Smithy super late, and his swords are worth nothing compared to what Steela Steellove makes...but someday.... 4e. MAGIC SHOP Ah, the magic shop. Most of the heroes will get nothing out of this location, until magic rings and amulets become available. Still, you shouldn't neglect keeping this location up-to-date. Human Mages will purchase either a Fire or Lightning Wand, while Elven Mages will purchase either an Ice or Lightning Wand. It seems to be random, if both options are available, which one the hero will decide upon. Lightning wands sell for 50% more than their counterparts, although selling a "specialized" wand to a hero will also give a 20% bonus to gold, based on the flavor text. It should also be noted that selling a wand to a hero confers a chance that a fight "need" will be added to their queue. (However, if the hero already has a fight "need" in their queue, it will not add a second. Therefore a hero that wants to fight AND AFTERWARDS buy a wand may be enticed back into the dungeon for another foray after the initial fight.) If it is a hero buying a race-specific wand (a Human Mage buying a Fire wand, or an Elvan Mage buying an Ice wand), it gives them a 60% chance for a fight afterwards. If the hero instead buys the 'generic' Lightning wand, they have a 40% chance to fight afterwards. When it comes to magic rings and amulets, all heroes MAY want to buy them, but that information will be conveyed at the hero selection screen. Heroes will never "decide" while in town that they want one of these items, if they didn't already. There are 6 total employees that can produce goods for the magic shop, listed here in ascending order: FROSTY (COMMON): your first magic shop employee, she makes ice wands only. GEORG-MARTIN (COMMON): he can produce ice or fire wands. THE MAGIC PUG (COMMON): he can produce magic rings, and can also improve the "Shopping Speed" parameter in the building he is employed. MISTRESS OF THE ELEMENTS (EXPERT): she can produce lighting, fire, or ice wands. MERLIN (EXPERT): he can produce lightning or fire rods. He can also decrease the "Production Time" parameter in the building he is employed. THE LUCKY FAIRY (LEGENDARY): she can produce magic rings and magic amulets. Notably, the items she produces grants heroes extra gold when purchased. She also can improve the "Purchase Price" parameter in the building she is employed. As you level the magic shop, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more item stacks can be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): all wands and accessories are produced 50% faster. FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): one additional wand per stack is produced (effectively giving you 2 wands per stack, instead of 1). PLEASE NOTE that this DOES NOT apply to magic rings and amulets! FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): provide a "usage" ability, which compels any nearby Mage to immediately purchase another wand. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final magic shop perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. My strategy for the magic shop is to have one shop maxed on perks with three employees making ice, fire, and lightning wands, and a second shop more bare-bones in its upgrades where the fairy making rings and amulets while the pug maxes out "Shopping Speed". 4f. TEMPLE Ah, the temple. Your combination hospital and church...I'll avoid opining on religion and big pharma here, but in this game, believe me that the temple is the MOST frustrating building type to manage until you max out your available employees and insta-replenish slots, and even then it is still a pain. The main reason that the temple is so hard to manage is because it is CENTRAL to post-battle sales for the majority of your heroes, but there are six potential services to account for (why did I not use "products"? It's an important distinction, but I will cover that in the "Advanced" section below). Let us just dig into it, to make everything clear. Firstly: the temple is where heroes go when they are afflicted by status ailments in the dungeons. As we will read about later, there are three status ailments that can afflict the heroes: disease (caused by undead, and potentially demi-human, monsters), fractures (caused by stone, and potentially demi-human monsters), and burns (caused by fire monsters). Secondly: heroes who have been previously cured of a status ailment (and ONLY those heroes) will want a blessing. Blessings are (with one employee's exception) limited to a specific race. This means that, if you are specializing your employees (and you should be...but again, more on this in the "Advanced" section), you will need both buildings just to provide everything. 3 employees caring for status ailments, and 3 employees administering racially-specific blessings. Here is why this is all such a huge pain: everything in the temple only produces one per stack, and the only perk that affects this only applies to the blessings, and not the cures. For my setup, this means I can only have 20 status cures available at once (one building devoted to status cures, one to blessings), and at higher levels, the production time required to reproduce those cures during a "Hero Blitz" means you either make the weaker and significantly cheaper cures your off-healers can make quickly (because they are low level...and that's if they aren't ALREADY busy making their own cures, which they are), or you risk turning heroes away without a cure (which means they don't go for the follow-up blessing, and you lose out on that sweet, sweet gold). Coupled with that, I find the employees for the temple to be hugely underwhelming. Really, I detest the management of this building, and it is the ONLY location I wish you could build 3 of. Nevertheless, let us press on! There are 6 total employees that can produce services for the temple, listed here in ascending order: FORREST-OWL (COMMON): I believe this is the first temple employee you get, but I could be wrong...she can produce disease cures and Elven blessings. DOROTHY (COMMON): she can produce Human blessings. Of special note, she can also decrease the "Production Time" parameter in the building she is employed, which, if you can't infer from my earlier rant on this building...you SHOULD invest into this. DWARVEN PRIEST POOPS (COMMON): he can produce fracture cures and Dwarven blessings. DOCTOR STONE (EXPERT): he can produce fracture cures. He can also increase "Purchase Price" and "Shopping Speed" parameters in the building he is employed (but only one at a time). DR. MRS. JONES (EXPERT): she can produce disease cures, fracture cures and burn cures. UNICORN CUDDLE (LEGENDARY): it can produce disease cures and burn cures. Also, and of special note (I suppose...), it's blessing works for ANY race. As you level the temple, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more service stacks can be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): enables your practitioner to recommend that the hero take either a health potion, or a mana/stamina potion, after treatment. It is unclear which services this applies to, although I am inclined to believe that, from the verbiage, it takes effect on status treatments but not blessings. **It is worth noting that this is only 1 of 2 building properties that "points" a hero at another building to spend money (the other being the alchemist, but only if you have Rosemary selling potions that may make heroes lovesick, and they still have to fight and drink the potion before it takes effect).** FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): one additional blessing per stack is produced (effectively giving you 2 blessings per stack, instead of 1). PLEASE NOTE that this DOES NOT apply to status cures! FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): provide a "usage" ability, which MAY compel any nearby hero to immediately seek treatment for disease, fracture, or burn. It should be noted, this would mean the hero in question would then go for a blessing afterward. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final temple perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. My temple strategy is to have one with specialized status cures, with the second having specialized blessings. 4g. TRAINER Heroes adventure for a variety of reasons, but eventually successful heroes will need to hone their skills so they can advance further. That is where this building comes in. Training is specific to the three general classes of heroes: Warrior, Ranged Attacker, and Mage. Honestly, this property is pretty straightforward. I will say it has an "Annoyance Potential" on par with the temple based on its production habits and employees. However I feel that this building is only slightly annoying through the mid-game, yet becomes almost worry-free once you invest the (not inconsiderable) gold to max out your insta-production at level 10. This is also the only town building that I don't advocate building a second. Yes, the service stacks (see? I did it there again, "service" stacks) are hopelessly limited to 1, forever, with this building. But the frequency of heroes leveling up and needing training is consistently the least pressing (and the least controllable!) variable. Bottom line with this building: a slight pain until you get the final perk, and then it is pretty much self-sustaining. One other notable fact: no employee of the trainer has a Legendary status...it has 3 Expert and 3 Common employees. However I had ALL of the Expert employees before I got 2 of the Common employees...I don't know if that is a typical experience, but the late Common employees were essentially worthless the instant I got them. There are 6 total employees than can produce services for the trainer, listed here in ascending order: PRIEST EXCISIOR (COMMON): I believe this is the first trainer you get, he produces Warrior and Mage training. ARGAGON (COMMON): he produces Ranged Attacker training only. GUNDOLF (COMMON): he produces Mage training. He can also decrease the "Production Time" parameter in the building he is employed. PALADIN JOHN (EXPERT): he can produce Mage and Warrior training. He can also increase the "Purchase Price" parameter. URTULA ELFSCARE (EXPERT): she can produce Warrior and Ranged Attacker training. She can also increase the "Shopping Speed" parameter in the building she is employed. THE LIBRARIAN (EXPERT): she can produce Warrior, Ranged Attacker, and Mage training. As you level the trainer, you can unlock the following perks in this order: FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more service stacks can be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): allows you to hire a second employee. THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): heroes are trained 50% faster. FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): all training stacks are made 50% faster. FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): allows you to hire a third employee. SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): provide a "usage" ability, which MAY assist any nearby heroes in achieving a "level-up" status after their next fight. SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): the final temple perk allows 10 more item stacks to be marked for immediate reproduction when sold. My strategy with the trainer is to have only one building. Seriously. Even at Village Level 26 I do not see ANY need to build another. Heroes leveling is an infrequent and uncontrollable occurrence and the gold spent to get a second trainer up to speed is better suited elsewhere (like the dungeons, but we haven't reached THAT discussion yet). Get three specialists, one for each of the trainings, and get this building to level 10 so you can mark the extra stacks for immediate replenishment, and you will be good to go. Granted, this does take some gold investment, but after the temple I consider this to be the most essential building to get to level 10 for the extra production flexibility. I suppose, in theory, the time may come where I have maxed out every other property and building/raising another trainer will be a convenient way to make RP for my overall village level. Realistically, though...one trainer will suffice. 4h. SUPPORT EMPLOYEES Deserving of their own special space, these employees produce nothing, but can be added into any other town building (except for the castle) to improve various functionalities. Most of the support employees are Common rarity, with the exception of one Legendary. When any employee is assigned that changes service parameters, the effects happen immediately, and if an employee is removed or the service ability canceled, it will likewise immediately return the service parameter to its normal value. There are 5 total employees in the support category, listed here in ascending order: HANS IN LUCK (COMMON): the first support employee you will get, he can improve the "Purchase Price" and "Shopping Speed" parameters in the building he is employed (but only on at a time) HARRY HASTE (COMMON): he can improve the "Production Speed" and "Shopping Speed" parameters in the building he is employed (but only one at a time) MUSTAFA THE TRADER (COMMON): he can improved the "Production Speed" and "Purchase Price" parameters in the bulding he is employed (but only one at a time) KITTENS (COMMON): they can improve the "Purchase Price" parameter in the building they are employed. ETHAN MAPLE (LEGENDARY): he can improve the "Shopping Speed", "Purchase Price" and "Production Speed" parameters in the store he is employed. As his Legendary ability, he can have any 2 of the 3 active at the same time. 4i. CASTLE This is the property that changed the most in the recent Winter Update, so allow me a little explanation here. My initial observations were this: -Ah, the castle. You can build this at Village Level 20, I believe? And that is the only one you can build...no doubles here! -The castle has one purpose. It increases the amount of heroes that can be in your village at the same time, from the maximum of 20 (without the castle) to, what I am assuming, is 25. That either sounds great or worthless...and both viewpoints are technically right. -Let's get some castle facts out of the way. As previously stated, you can only build one of them (at least, at Village Level 26 I cannot build another). Building the castle also doesn't instantly raise your village capacity level. At castle levels 2, 4, 6, 8 and (presumably) 10, you get the option to buy 1 extra hero slot. -Since the castle produces no goods, you do not level it up by increasing hero capacity or item stack capacity (both of which the castle doesn't offer). You just spend the gold, straight-up, in a 1-to-1 gold-to-RP exchange to level it, except for when you purchase the upgrades. That sounds like a refreshing change of pace from the other buildings, where you only get 50% of gold spent to building and village RP...this should be a breeze! -Well, slow down, my friend. -Let me tell you, this process is EXPENSIVE. At the time of this writing, my Castle is Level 8. It will take 800,000 RP (which means 800,000 gold) to achieve Castle Level 9. That doesn't get me an upgrade option yet: I will still need to get to Castle Level 10 for that. -Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the Castle Level 8 option to upgrade my village hero capacity from 23 to 24. -Why am I sitting on that option? Well, because that perk will cost 1.5 million gold. Yes, that is 1,500,000 gold, in longform. And if that is the next thing I spend, I will still need to spend 50,000 gold to get to Castle Level 9...which again, doesn't help with the capacity. I will need to spend up to Castle Level 10 to even see what that amount is... -But, logically I know the Castle Level 6 perk to get from 22 to 23 village hero capacity was 500,000 gold. By this trend, I can anticipate the final, Castle Level 10 upgrade costing 5 million gold (that's 5,000,000 gold in longform). -Now, by the point that you can build a castle, your village holds 20 heroes, and you can only stack 10 unicorn trips, so 30 heroes is the effective maximum you can reasonably funnel through your village in a short time (i.e. a full unicorn energy bar). And as previously stated, each unicorn trip brings in 3 heroes. And it does not take a math wiz to know that 20 is less than 30, so you will run out of hero spots before you run out of enticements, so to speak. -So why bother spending the gold on this building? -The reason why is Timed Quests, and Daily Challenges. And more information about the importance of this will come in the "Advanced" section, so keep reading! (Or skip to the "Advanced" section, it's your call!) ...But the Winter Update changed all of this. The Winter Update gave us Royal-tier employees that can only be employed in the Castle. Unlocking THIS privilege will cost you a lot of gold--AND a lot of Diamonds--but their effects are worth it, so save up those Diamonds! And so here, I will present all of the 11 Royal-tier employees available, in the order they come to your Village. (I want to give a shout-out, at this point, to @Ruborin over at the subreddit for Hero Park: I was not aware of what levels you recieved most of these employees, since they were available to me right off the bat when they were released.) REGINA VENUS: available at Village Level 20. She provides a 2% reduction, per level, of Unicorn recharge time. She gains points towards a level up with each Hero you attract while she is employed in the Castle (this caps at 20% at level 10). DUNGEON MASTER: available at Village Level 21. When employed in the Castle, you can assign one Dungeon per Production Site/Junk Factory to automatically replenish. He does not improve his skills in any way. A REAL PRINCESS: available at Village Level 22. She provides a 2% chance per level that, when summoning Heroes, you get the option for a Superhero (who typically have more gold, more wants in their queue, and better fighting ability than their counterparts). She gains points towards a level up with each item Heroes purchase while she is in the Castle. *This percentage chance applies to EACH hero in the queue, meaning that, at base level, each of the first four Heroes,and THEN the subsequent two Heroes to choose from, has a 2% chance to be a Superhero. (This chance ultimately caps at a 20% *PER EACH HERO CARD THAT COMES UP* will produce a Superhero.) 
THE THIEF: available at Village Level 23. She provides a chance that, when
bumping into a Hero's spite in the Village, she steals a bit of gold from them.
The amount is what changes here (as opposed to the chance to steal gold...) it
starts at 10 gold, and caps at 100 gold.

*Employing her actually causes a thief sprite to wander around the Village. She
may steal from Heroes that she crosses paths with, but she has to physically
bump into them for the chance to even happen, and she is not well optimized in
her wanderings. This is also the criteria used to determine how she levels up.
It is all RATHER unreliable.

THE ARCHITECT: available at Village Level 24. He provides a 5% reduction in the
Shopping Speed parameter for all Village shops.

*This seems very underwhelming, but it is actually really, REALLY nice during
high level play, and especially during Hero/Boss rushes, and for problem
buildings (specifically: alchemists and taverns) this helps push heroes through
faster to keep making money.

JUSTINUS AND KEVINUS: available at Village Level 25. One (Justinus) boosts the
chance that a Hero wants to fight a second monster, and the other (Kevinus)
boosts the chance that a Hero wants to grab a second treasure after a victory.

*Frankly I find Kevinus to be more valuable. And here is why: you get to a point
where Heroes cannot reliably beat ONE monster...so give them the chance to grab
two treasures PER monster. It IS a relatively trivial amount of difference it
makes overall from an RP standpoint...but it WILL pay off in the end, from a
long enough standpoint.

GOBLIN TRAINER: available at Village Level 26. She provides a 2% reduction per
level in the time it takes for your Treasury goblins to open chests. This caps
at a 20% reduction, which the Trainer recieves points towards as you make gold
in your Village.

*THIS* *SHOULD* *BE* *YOUR* *STAR* *ROYAL* *EMPLOYEE* *OF* *ALL* *TIME*

"Wow", you are saying... "That was an annoying intro."

It was annoying for one reason: to draw attention to the fact that THIS IS YOUR
BEST ROYAL EMPLOYEE, BAR NONE, IF YOU WANT TO IMPROVE IN THE GAME.

You get to a point where you are not really improving until your employees do.
And your employees improve from level-up cards you get from chests. AND THIS
EMPLOYEE MAKES CHESTS OPEN FASTER.

Hands down, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS have space for her in your Castle when she
is available. ALWAYS.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS.

THE DIRTY DOC: available at Village Level 27. He provides a 10% chance per level
that a Treatment (Disease, Fracture or Burn) can be reused. He improves when
stationed in the Castle whenever a Hero needs a Status Treatment, up to a
maximum of 100% chance that treatments can be reused.

Treatments that can be reused in the Temple have a different colored icon (and
the order of icons is reversed from the usual order that they show up), and will
always be expended upon a second use.

He is awesome because the Temple is THE WORST Village building at all points of
your playthrough, and the reason why is because treatments suffer from single
stack sizes with no upgrade. The Dirty Doc helps to alleviate this--and by the
time he is providing even a 30% reuse chance, it pays for itself.

The Dirty Doc should therefore be your second employee that you ALWAYS have
space for in the Castle.

PURSULA: available at Village Level 28. When employed in the Castle, kittens
wander your town. She does not level up in any capacity.

While kittens are cute, this Royal employee offers nothing to your overall
functunality and therefore should be totally ignored.

YOUR NIECE: available at Village Level 30. When employed in the Castle, she
changes the Sprites for your Village-keeper and Unicorn. It makes the old man a
young, pink-clad girl and your normal Unicron a Pink variant.

I can't think of a scenario where this would be useful...outside of having a
younger, unicorn-obsessed niece/nephew/sibling (or what have you) that would be
impressed by you switching the color scheme from blues to pinks.

Honestly, it is a bit insulting to me that the last two Royal tier employees are
so worthless from a functionality standpoint. Maybe Fun Flavor has plans to make
things more impressive, but I think they failed with the way they rolled out the
Royal employees. 


4j. BUILDING PLACEMENT TIPS

In the early stages of the game, where you have your buildings placed is
relatively unimportant. However, once you start unlocking "Usage" perks for the
buildings (which effect nearby heroes in a radius around the building in
question), it becomes advantageous in thinking about how your village is laid
out.

There are 16 spaces for buildings in the village, and you can produce a total of
15 buildings (1 castle, and 2 of each of the others). If you are following my
advice than you are only actually making 14 buildings (because we don't need a
second training building). So how to arrange them all?

Firstly, I will say that I keep similar buildings together. For example, my two
taverns are located right next to each other.

Next, I will point out that the 8 spaces along the central road (running
north-south through the village) are the spots that are most likely to have a
maximum amount of heroes within the effect radius. The other 8 spaces, along the
east and west borders of the village, are statistically less likely to have
heroes in their radius due to their location.

Lastly, the castle offers no proximity bonus and should therefore be put into
one of the corners of the village.

So what I suggest is that you arrange similar buildings so they take up one
"inside" spot and one "outside" spot, with the higher leveled building along the
north-south road.

As for further recommendations:

The armorer and the trainer both have "usage" specials that reaquire a hero to
fight afterwards to potentially trigger their effects. Therefore I recommend
having these two building types in the spaces closest to the dungeons. 

The weaponsmith and magic shops trigger an instant need for pertinent heroes to
purchase a new weapon, so I place these two building types in the second row
from the top of the village.

The alchemist and the tavern both trigger instant needs in any nearby heroes
(for either a health potion or meat, respectively), and are nice because they
can squeeze a little bit more gold out of passing heroes (who may be on their
way out of the village, but will now stop for another purchase). In my village,
I have Nyam Njam making meat (since it can potentially trigger a fight "need" in
a hero when eaten), so I have both taverns on the west side along the
north-south road, while the alchemist buildings are in the lower right spaces in
the village. 

Lastly, I have my temples on the east side of the north-south road in between
the weaponsmiths and the alchemists.

So my village looks like:

  Armorer  -  Armorer   -   Trainer   -   Castle

Magic Shop - Magic Shop - Weaponsmith - Weaponsmith

   Empty   -   Tavern   -   Temple    -   Temple

   Empty   -   Tavern   -  Alchemist  -  Alchemist

I feel that this setup gets the most efficiency out of each "usage" ability
while keeping the layout simple and tidy.

Okay, we have exhausted our discussion of the village buildings and their
eccentricities. Next we will discuss the components that make the dungeons
"work", before examining the dungeons themselves. Buckle up!


5. MONSTER/TREASURE PRODUCTION

**THIS WILL BE A RUNNING THEME FOR THIS PRODUCTION ANALYSIS: AT THE EARLIEST
CONVENIENCE YOU WILL WANT TO SPECIALIZE IN THE "BEST" MONSTER/TREASURE FOR THE
CLASS.**

Yes, the heroes ultimately want to quest for glory or wealth, but before you
stock the dungeons, you need to make the myths!

The monster and treasure production structures are, theoretically, the main draw
for the stalwart adventures visiting your village. Balancing the financial needs
of your heroes against the adventuring needs of your heroes will ensure your
success. And by your success, I mean getting as much gold out of those wandering
opportunists as you can!

There are 5 different types of monster/treasure producing structures. While,
like village buildings, you can build up to 2 of each type, I have found no real
reason to do so. But as previously stated, I work on the "efficiency" rule for
this game. That means that I do not see the need to have 2 or 3 different types
of Fire monsters, for example, because there is one that is the best, and that
is the one I want to specialize. Of course my opinion of "the best" is
subjective. But I think that I'm right, and my overall performance in the Daily
Challenges reinforces this, heheh.

Most monster production structure offers three different flavors for your
production enjoyment, with one exception. The options that I recommend are in
the specific sections for the structures, so look below. Each production
structure can hold a maximum of 20 stacks.

It should be noted that Perks function radically differently than they do in
village buildings or dungeons. Perks unlock at Structure Levels 2, 4, 6, 8, and
10, and all have multiple parameter changes that take effect ONCE THEY HAVE BEEN
SELECTED AND THEN NEW MONSTERS ARE PRODUCED.

Just to reiterate: changes in monster production facilities is NOT retroactive
like it occurs when you add "Support" members to your village shops. If you want
to switch from monsters that have high status ailment chances, to monsters that
have higher maximum HP and/or damage (for example), you have to switch the
production parameters, trash all pre-existing monsters, and THEN produce for the
perks to take effect.

There are still the unlocks at Structure Levels 3 and 7 for extra crafters, but
unlike the village buildings, usually having 2 total crafters is sufficient,
making the Level 7: 3rd upgrade an optional choice for you.

Anyhow, much like the previous section I will describe each Production building
in turn. I will outline a general "product" overview, give a list of applicable
crafters, and a breakdown on what the "perks" offer.

A special note from the Winter Update: Dungeons now benefit from advancing their
level past Level 10. Starting at Level 10, Production sites enjoy a 5% increase
per level of production speed. This bonus tops out at Production Site level 20,
at a 55% increase.

Two things of special note.

First: Graveyard and Fire Hole have the only "Legendary" crafters, and their
skills are worth taking advantage of, once it becomes feasible for you.

Secondly: since crafter combinations are so limited, I will be outlining who at
have at which stations and why in the post-Perk explanation for each building. I
will do this so as not to tie up any advanced conversations later in the FAQ.

Lastly, it should be noted these producer "Perks" combine with the actual
dungeon "Perks" in ways that justify further analysis, which will be in the
"Advanced" section.

5a. MONSTER FARM

This is your first production building, and it offers you what I referred to
earlier as "demi-humans": Goblins, Imps and Orcs. Imps and Goblins will produce
4 monsters per stack, while Orcs will produce 2 monsters per stack.

In this case, the best monster is the Orc. Yes, it only produces half the stack
compared to Imps or Goblins, but high-level Orcs kind of wreck adventurers,
especially when you tailor them through perks and dungeon perks (more on THOSE
later).

Allegedly all monster farm foes can make a hero crave meat after a fight. Since
they list no percentage, and without any real evidence to this based on my
observation, I will say..."maybe" this is true?

There are 3 total crafters that can produces monsters for the monster farm,
listed here in ascending order.

KUNIBERT (COMMON): your first monster farm crafter, he can produce only Goblins.
PROFESSOR GORMUM (COMMON): he can produce Orcs. He can also reduce the
"Production Time" parameter in the building he is employed.
ESMERALDA (EXPERT): she can produce Goblins, Orcs and Imps.

As you level the monster farm, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more monster stacks can be marked for immediate
reproduction when deployed.
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): employ a second crafter.
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): Your choice of one of the following three:
   Demi-Human monsters deal 20% more damage.
   Demi-Human monsters have 20% more life.
   Demi-Human monsters give 20% more RP.
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 6): Your choice of one of the following three: 
   Demi-Human monsters deal 25% more damage.
   Demi-Human monsters have 25% more life.
   Demi-Human monsters give 25% more RP.
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): employ a third crafter.
SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): Your choice of one of the following three:
   Demi-Human monsters deal 30% more damage.
   Demi-Human monsters have 30% more life.
   Demi-Human monsters give 30% more RP.
SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): Mark 10 more Demi-Human monsters to be immediately
reproduced upon deployment.

My current setup is Esmeralda at level 20 strictly making Orcs (11 - 24), and
Professor Gormum strictly reducing "Production Time" (-48%). I paid for a third
slot for completionist's sake, and also because MAYBE sometime down the line,
the extra 10 auto production might be useful. It sure isn't now, though. (This
sentiment will carry through for the rest of these explanations, so I will only
mention it here.)

5b. GRAVEYARD

The graveyard is your second monster producer, and it provides your first taste
of status ailments: disease. Get those annoying temples ready, people..! Because
the undead are coming. And they are REALLY unsanitary.

The graveyard can field three enemy types: Skeletons and Mummies produce 3 units
per stack, and zombies produce 2 units per stack. In my opinion, Zombies are the
way to go. Zombies have the best stats at the base level, which just get
exponentially better as you level them up. And at the difference of 2 per stack
vs. 3 per stack, it's a no-brainer! (See what I did there? Brainer. Because of
Zombies. MONCH MONCH)

Finally it should be noted that the Graveyard has 1 of only 2 "Legendary"
crafters in the monster field (the other being the Fire Hole). This crafter,
however, gets a huge boost to status ailment chance, and is worth developing
once you get him, upgrades willing!

There are 4 total crafters that can produces monsters for the graveyard, listed
here in ascending order.

FRIEDEL (COMMON): your first graveyard crafter, he can produce Skeletons and
Zombies.
LUDMILLA (COMMON): she can produce Skeletons. She can also decrease the
"Production Time" parameter in the building she is employed.
HEIDI (COMMON): she can produce Zombies and Mummies.
ALFRED (LEGENDARY): he can produce Skeletons, Zombies and Mummies. Of special
note, his creations have a base 50% disease contraction rate.

As you level the graveyard, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more monster stacks can be marked for immediate
reproduction when deployed.
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): employ a second crafter.
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): Your choice of one of the following three:
   Undead monsters have 20% more life.
   Undead monsters have 10% increased chance to transmit illness.
   Undead monsters give 20% more RP.
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 6): Your choice of one of the following three: 
   Undead monsters have 25% more life.
   Undead monsters have 10% increased chance to transmit illness.
   Undead monsters give 25% more RP.
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): employ a third crafter.
SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): your choice of one of the following three:
   Undead monsters have 30% more life.
   Undead monsters have 10% increased chance to transmit illness.
   Undead monsters give 30% more RP.
SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): Mark 10 more Undead monsters to be immediately   
reproduced upon deployment.

My current setup is Alfred strictly producing Zombies (8-16), with Ludmilla
strictly decreasing "Production Time" (-56%).

5c. QUARRY

The quarry is your third production building, and introduces a second status
ailment type: fracture.

The quarry can field three enemy types: the first is Gargoyles, which produce 3
monsters per stack. Next are Trolls and Golums, which produce 2 monsters per
stack. It should be noted that one of the crafters (Rocko the Rough) makes
"Hardened Golums", which according to the flavor text increases the chance of a
fracture. Even without Rocko, the Golum is the best monster and should be what
you focus on building up.

There are 3 total crafters that can produces monsters for the quarry, listed
here in ascending order.

SCULPTOR MARCELLA (COMMON): your first quarry crafter, she only produces
Gargoyles. However she can also decrease the "Production Time" parameter in the
building she is employed.
BOCOR TUKATUKA (COMMON): she can produce Trolls and Golums.
ROCKO THE ROUGH (EXPERT): he can produce Gargoyles, Trolls, and Golums. Of
special note, his flavor text states that Golums (AND ONLY GOLUMS) that HE
produces have an increased chance of causing fractures, and are called Hardened
Golums.

As you level the quarry, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more monster stacks can be marked for immediate
reproduction when deployed.
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): employ a second crafter.
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): Your choice of one of the following three:
   Stone monsters have 20% more life.
   Stone monsters have 10% increased chance to cause fracture.
   Stone monsters give 20% more RP.
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 6): Your choice of one of the following three: 
   Stone monsters have 25% more life.
   Stone monsters have 10% increased chance to cause fracture.
   Stone monsters give 25% more RP.
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): employ a third crafter.
SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): your choice of one of the following three:
   Stone monsters have 30% more life.
   Stone monsters have 10% increased chance to cause fracture.
   Stone monsters give 30% more RP.
SEVENTH PERK (LEVEL 10): Mark 10 more Stone monsters to be immediately
reproduced upon deployment.

My current setup is to have Rocko strictly making Hardened Golums (10-21) with
Sculptor Marcella strictly decreasing "Production Time" (-60%).

5d. FIRE HOLE

I wish they would have come up with a better name for this particular
location...regardless, this is what we have! The final monster location you get,
it features a whooping FOUR monsters to create, but like the other locations,
there is a clear winner.

The fire hole can field the following enemy types: Fire Elementals in stacks of
4, Fire Demons in stacks of 2, and Dragons/Mighty Dragons (aka 2-Headed
Dragons), which have one per stack.

This is the only building that offers a monster at 1 per stack, and it offers
two variants of that. Honestly, though, these monsters will wreak the most havoc
on heroes. I cannot explain it in game terms, but once your village is
there...trust me. You will see.

There are 4 total crafters that can produces monsters for the fire hole, listed
here in ascending order.

FRED FIRE (COMMON): your first fire hole crafter. He can produce Elementals and
Fire Demons. Since these are the weakest offerings from the fire hole, he SHOULD
BE REPLACED AS SOON AS you have a Dragon option.
PIERRE THE UNLUCKY (COMMON): he can produce Fire Demons. He can also decrease
"Production Time" parameter in the building he is employed.
IGNITIA (EXPERT): she can produce Fire Elementals, Fire Demons, And Dragons. (If
you don't have the next crafter, you want to be pushing Dragons with her!)

Okay, this next one is interesting and vague so we need to examine her a little
more in-depth.

DRAGON'S SISTER-IN-LAW (LEGENDARY) (abbreviated to DSIL)

So, here are the basics. She can produce Fire Elementals, Dragons, and "Mighty
Dragons".

"Mighty Dragons", according to the in-game language, increase the chance a hero
fighting that monster will be afflicted with the "Burn" status. And the in-game
flavor text about dragons for DSIL says she produces them at half the
speed...which I am guessing means a -50% "Production Speed" when Dragons or
Mighty Dragons are involved...

Also, her Dragons (which I'm assuming is for the basic Dragon or the Mighty
Dragon) have, per her flavor text, an additional 50% chance to cause burns. That
makes her one of two monster crafters to affect the status ailment capacity of
their creations. (The other is Alfred in the graveyard...remember that flavor
text?)

The bottom line is, once Dany...er, DSIL is unlocked and leveled a bit, have her
take over and crank out 2-H "Mighty Dragons" all the way.

As you level the fire hole, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more monster stacks can be marked for immediate
reproduction when deployed.
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): employ a second crafter.
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): Your choice of one of the following three:
   Fire monsters have 20% more life.
   Fire monsters have 10% increased chance to cause burns.
   Fire monsters give 20% more RP.
FORTH PERK (LEVEL 6): Your choice of one of the following three: 
   Fire monsters have 25% more life.
   Fire monsters have 10% increased chance to cause burns.
   Fire monsters give 25% more RP.
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): employ a third crafter.
SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): your choice of one of the following three:
   Fire monsters have 30% more life.
   Fire monsters have 10% increased chance to cause burns.
   Fire monsters give 30% more RP.
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 10): Mark 10 more fire monsters to be immediately reproduced
upon deployment.

My current setup is DSIL cranking out Mighty Dragons (9-17), with Pierre the
Unlucky strictly reducing "Production Time" (-60%).

I would like to point out: since this location will only create one monster per
stack, it should, realastically, be your second **production building** that you
get to level 10 for the extra insta-production factor (after the junk factory,
whic has to feed 4 dungeons by itself, and therefore should be prioritized). In
fact, this is one of two "monster/production buildings" that I bothered to get
the Level 10 perk for so far...the rest are easily controllable, which is nice
because this was EXPENSIVE.

What is the other building I paid for the extra 10 insta-production for? Read
on, my friend..


5e. JUNK FACTORY

Here we are, at the ultimate swindle for our heroes...you might think that we
are fostering their urge to adventure, but ultimately, we are tricking the
heroes into a false sense of danger and subsequent euphoria of discovering
glittery junk to validate their needs, and therefore release their wallets. Of
course, their "gold" is only useful in this particular game, so maybe we are the
ones who are trapped..?

All activism aside, though...let us dig in! The junk factory functions the most
like the "typical" village buildings. One main difference is, this one junk
factory will supply 4 different dungeons with treasure (unless you bother to
build a second...which really, you SHOULD NOT waste the gold on, because
leveling one building the whole way is much more gold-efficient!)

This is one of two sites "North of the Treeline" that I advocate getting to
level 10 in the pursuit of buying the "level 10: mark 10" upgrade. (The other
instance is the Fire Hole, and you read that above...right?) On the plus side,
this structure is WAY cheaper to upgrade than the fire hole, and those are the
only two that you upgrade to 10 and pay for the extra production. (At least
until you are swimming in cash...if that point ever comes.)

A practical application of these facts points to one obvious course of action...
this should be the FIRST "production" site that you Level to 10 and buy the
upgrade. 

Junk is produced several ways: Goblets, Crowns, and Pouches (which produce at 6
per stack), and Chests (which produce at 2 per stack)...it's all crap, but don't
tell the heroes that!

A new wrinkle introduced in the Winter Update was "Santa's Brother". He was the
first, Diamond-only (or real-world cash only, depending on your predilection)
employee that was able to be purchased. He was also the only Legendary-tier Junk
Factory employee. What he brings to the table (or brought, depending on when you
are looking at this FAQ) was a few ways to accelerate Unicorn recharge time: one
by directly doing so, and the other by providing a steady and consistent source
of Unicorn snacks. We will be talking about Santa's Brother specifically later,
so I won't bog down the guide here with that info. I will say here, though: if
you want/have him, you want a second Junk Factory for him and his Unicorn treats
alone.

There are 6 total crafters that can produces junk for the factory, listed here
in ascending order.

PABLO-PIKATSCHO (COMMON): your first junk creator, he makes only Goblets.
SCURLY (COMMON): she can produce Chests or Pouches.
LORD FAKES THE FIRST (COMMON): he can produce Crowns. More importantly, he can
reduce "Production Time" parameter in the building he is employed.
JINJIN (EXPERT): she can produce Goblets, Crowns, and Big Pouches (Big Pouches
are worth more RP than regular Pouches)
TERRY (EXPERT): he can produce Crowns, Pouches, and Golden Chests (Golden Chests
are worth more RP than regular Chests).
SANTA'S BROTHER (LEGENDARY): he produces Unicorn Food and Gifts (the equivalent
of Terry's Chests, although in higher stack quantities). He can also improve the
production speed of whatever is in his building (which notably stacks with his
Unicorn Food production). No less importantly: he passively improves Unicorn
energy speed by 10%.

As you level the junk factory, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): two more treasure stacks can be marked for immediate
reproduction when deployed.
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 3): employ a second crafter.
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 4): 2 extra Goblets, Crowns or Pouches are produced in a
treasure stack.
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 6):all produced junk gives +25% RP.
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 7): employ a third crafter.
SIXTH PERK (LEVEL 8): 1 extra Chest produced per stack.
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 10): Mark 10 more treasures to be immediately reproduced upon
deployment.

My current setup is Terry strictly making Golden Chests (10-22), with Lord Fakes
strictly decreasing "Production Time" (-50%). Meanwhile I have Santa's Brother
in a maxed Junk Factory JUST producing Unicorn Treats.

**Again, this is the first Monster/Production building I ADVOCATE MAXING OUT for
the +10 auto-renewal you can get: but specifically for dungeon chests.**

5f. GENERAL PRODUCTION TIPS

As previously stated, between Production perks and Dungeon perks, it is possible
to tailor your monsters to specific purposes. A brief discussion follows below.

In general I would say that using the perks to increase the RP a monster gives
is not terribly useful. That is because of two reasons: treasures will
eventually give you more RP than monsters (which is actually consistent with how
experience gains typically worked in early edition Dungeons and Dragons), and in
the long run, spending gold on building and employee upgrades will provide much
more RP than what monsters provide while also improving those sites (and your
village in general).

This means that those perk upgrades will become a choice of whether to increase
the hit points of enemies, increase Demi-Human damage, or increase the status
ailment chance of Undead, Stone, and Fire enemies.

What I did was balance out getting an acceptable status ailment rate through my
selected crafting employees and dungeon perks, and then using further perks to
increase hit points.

So, let us take my Mighty Dragons and my Orcs as an example.

In the Fire Hole, DSIL produces Mighty Dragons with a straight 50% chance to
cause a burn right out of the gate. The dungeon where I have the Dragons housed
gives an extra 40% chance for Fire monsters to cause burns, in addition to a 20%
increase in monster damage.

This combination already gives the Mighty Dragons a 90% chance to cause burns,
which I find to be completely acceptable. Therefore I use all three perk slots
from the Fire Hole to increase their hit points (20%, 25%, and 30% increases).

This ultimately gives my Mighty Dragons a 20% increase to their damage, a 75%
increase to their total hit points, and a 90% chance that the hero will suffer a
burn.

In the Monster Farm, Esmeralda produces Orcs that cause no status ailments. The
dungeon where I have the Orcs housed is set up to maximize the damage that Orcs
do, with increases of 20% and 25% (totalling 45% increase from the dungeon
perks). I elected to use the first perk slot from the Monster Farm for a 20%
boost to hit points, and the remaining slots for monster damage bonuses (which
only the Monster Farm enemies can use...the other production buildings offer
status ailment increased chance instead of damage up).

This ultimately gives my Orcs a 100% increase to damage and a 20% increase to
their total hit points.

As you can see there are a lot of intersecting factors for how to set up all the
perks from production sites and dungeons, and understanding how these work with
each other is key to succeeding in high-level Daily Challenges and some of the
more difficult Quests.

5g. IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS ON MY POSITION AGAINST RP+ PERKS FOR MONSTER PRODUCTION

I saw this argument come up on another forum about using these perks, so I
thought I would add this section to provide a mathematically-backed theory
(based on my game play) as to why these perks are typically not worth using
(outside of "Gain as much RP from Defeated Monsters" Daily Challenges).

As a note, while this discussion is in the "Production Sites" section, it
incorporates mechanics from dungeons and village buildings into the analysis as
well.

In this analysis we will be taking Mighty Dragons and Golden Chests (the two
highest RP examples that I have in my Village) and placing them in the Dark
Palace (where the RP bonuses can be set to their most significant levels versus
the other locations).

A level 20 Mighty Dragon will give 468 RP with no perks, and 912 RP with all
perks set to increase RP (a 75% increase). The hit point difference between them
will be 4,460 vs. 2,173. Level 23 Golden Chests give 387 RP each.

Okay, with that established, we put them into the Dark Palace. We are following
one of two scenarios with the perks there: either we are increasing Golden Chest
RP value by 110% from perks and going for treasure RP, or we are increasing
Mighty Dragon RP value by 55% from perks and going for monster RP.

The first scenario awards 468 RP for a kill and 813 RP for the treasure, for a
total of 1,281 RP. The second scenario awards 1,414 RP for a kill and 387 RP for
the treasure, for a total of 1,801 RP.

So yes, focusing your monster production on the extra RP, and your dungeon perks
on monster RP, will net you an extra 520 RP over the other alternative. But here
is why I think that the treasure method is better.

Firstly, Mighty Dragons under the treasure setup will have almost twice the HP
as the other setup. Also, the heroes are all but guaranteed to come out of that
fight, win or lose, with a burn. And they have used most or all of their health
and stamina/mana potions to survive the fight for as long as they can. So, now
they need to spend some gold in the Village...and this is where the advantage to
this approach lies.

So a hero leaves the dungeon and goes to the temple for a burn heal. a level 21
burn treatment in my Village will cost them 600 gold. Then they will want a
blessing...and that will cost them, for a mid-range level 13 blessing, another
234 gold. After that they will want potions (both to replenish some of what they
used in the dungeon, and ideally if RNG is smiling, they followed the healer's
recommendation to drink a potion after treatment, so they will have an even
better chance of needing to resupply). A level 21 health potion costs 190 gold,
while a level 17 stamina potion (the cheaper of the mana/stamina potions at the
same level) will cost them 140 gold per potion.

Let's say the hero buys two of each potion. They have now spent 834 gold on
treatments/blessings, and 660 on four potions. That's 1,494 gold that you have
earned from them that they might not have spent otherwise. If you invest that
into upgrading a building, dungeon or production site in some way, you will earn
an extra 747 RP from that. If you just spend it in one of those places without
upgrading, you have now earned an extra 1,494 RP after the dungeon trip.

And here, after all that exposition, are the four main reasons I feel that this
approach is superior:

1. This example is the most extreme in terms of base RP values for monsters and
treasures, and what the dungeon perks affect...and keep in mind that the other
monsters have a much lower RP maximum than Mighty Dragons, and every dungeon has
tiered decreases in the percentage bonus the RP perks give (but the treasure
perks will always give a higher base RP bonus, regardless of the dungeon);

2. This approach makes significantly tougher monsters that resist defeat from
heroes more easily, thus extending the life of each monster/treasure while still
bringing in gold that is essentially exchanged for RP while also upgrading your
structures and Village (and is vital to extending the life of any Boss Monsters
you may choose to use, thus increasing your gold acquisition and, again, by
extension, the RP you earn);

3. This allows the bulk of your "paying attention and replenishing" during a
"Hero Rush" or a "Boss Rush" to be in your village buildings, which can be
upgraded to automatically begin replenishing stacks once they have sold. This
is, granted, a minor convenience, but keep in mind that you cannot set instant
replenishment for monsters or treasures in dungeons (and in this example, stacks
of single Mighty Dragons will need some babysitting if they aren't as tough as
you can make them); and

4. In the long run, the amount of RP you need to get a Village level up becomes
so absurd that having more gold to earn RP through improvements will be much
more valuable than the slightly extra RP you will earn from monsters (at the
expense of extra gold that will ALWAYS have value, as long as you have any
buildings that still require upgrades).

Alright, that does it for that discussion. Now we move on to the dungeons
themselves!

6. DUNGEONS

Now that you have raised some monsters and cobbled together some baubles, it's
time to give them a place to live and defend from heroes! That is where dungeons
come in.

There are four dungeons, 3 of which unlock as you progress in Village Level.
Each type of dungeon can hold two different monster types. Also, each monster
type can fit into two dungeons.

Dungeons, like village buildings, can eventually be upgraded to hold a maximum
of 10 heroes, and 20 stacks of monsters/treasures (although certain dungeon
level thresholds must be met first). Both of these upgrades are critical, as
during "Hero Rushes" or "Boss Rushes", you don't want heroes getting turned away
and leaving unhappy (and without spending their gold). In fact, I recommend
getting all your dungeons maxed with unlocked perks as soon as possible (even
holding off on doing the same for most village buildings and production sites).

Dungeons also have perks, which unlock at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Each level
of perk gives you several choices from which to select. Once unlocked and
purchased, these perks will directly and instantly add a huge amount of
functionality within each building (which, combined with properly managing your
monster production parameters, becomes critical in performing well in Daily
Challenges and maximizing the effectiveness of bosses).

Unique to dungeons is their ability to be "locked". While you must always have
at least one dungeon "unlocked", any or all other dungeons may be "locked",
keeping heroes from entering. Heroes already inside a dungeon that you "lock"
will not leave but will instead continue through that dungeon as normal.

This function is most useful during Timed Quests that require the defeat of
specific monster types or status ailment treatments. By locking the other
dungeons, you funnel heroes towards the foes you need them to defeat/afflict
them with a certain ailment. It should also be noted that a dungeon with a Boss
Monster currently inside cannot be locked.

Lastly, it should be noted that dungeons do not employ staff of any kind.

As of the Winter Update, Dungeons get a boost to their functionality at Level 10
and beyond. Starting at level 10, each Dungeon provides a 3% increase to the
speed at which Heroes fight in that particular dungeon. This bonus currently
tops out at 33% at Dungeon Level 20.

6a. OLD DUNGEON

This location is available from the beginning, and can hold either Demi-Human or
Undead monsters.

As you level the Old Dungeon, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): 10% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 20% extra RP from
found treasures
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 4): Undead monsters get an additional 10% chance to spread
disease, or increase monster damage by 20%
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 6): 15% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 30% extra RP from
found treasures
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 8): Demi-Human monsters deal 25% increased damage, or Undead
monsters deal 25% increased damage
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 10): 10% additional chance of armor breaking, or 10%
additional chance of weapon breaking, or 25% chance a hero will attack a second
monster

6b. CURSED CRYPTS

The second dungeon that becomes available, the Cursed Crypts can hold either
Undead or Stone monsters.

As you level the Cursed Crypts, you can unlock the following perks in this
order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): 15% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 30% extra RP from
found treasures
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 4): Stone monsters get an additional 20% chance to cause a
fracture, or increase monster damage by 20%
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 6): 20% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 40% extra RP from
found treasures
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 8): Undead monsters get an additional 30% chance to cause
disease, or Stone monsters deal 25% increased damage
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 10): 10% additional chance of armor breaking, or 10%
additional chance of weapon breaking, or 25% chance a hero will attack a second
monster

6c. DEMONIC CASTLE

The third dungeon that becomes available, the Demonic Castle can hold either
Stone or Fire monsters.

As you level the Demonic Castle, you can unlock the following perks in this
order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): 20% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 40% extra RP from
found treasures
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 4): Fire monsters get an additional 25% chance to cause a
burn, or increase monster damage by 20%
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 6): 25% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 50% extra RP from
found treasures
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 8): Stone monsters get an additional 35% chance to cause a
fracture, or Fire monsters deal 25% increased damage
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 10): 10% additional chance of armor breaking, or 10%
additional chance of weapon breaking, or 25% chance a hero will attack a second
monster

6d. DARK PALACE

The last dungeon that becomes available, the Dark Palace can hold either
Demi-Human or Fire monsters.

As you level the Dark Palace, you can unlock the following perks in this order:

FIRST PERK (LEVEL 2): 25% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 50% extra RP from
found treasures
SECOND PERK (LEVEL 4): Demi-Human monsters get an additional 25% chance to
spread disease, or Demi-Human monsters get an additional 25% chance to cause a
fracture, or increase monster damage by 20%
THIRD PERK (LEVEL 6): 30% extra RP from defeated monsters, or 60% extra RP from
found treasures
FOURTH PERK (LEVEL 8): Fire monsters get an additional 40% chance to cause a
burn, or Demi-Human monsters deal 25% increased damage
FIFTH PERK (LEVEL 10): 10% additional chance of armor breaking, or 10%
additional chance of weapon breaking, or 25% chance a hero will attack a second
monster

6e. GENERAL DUNGEON TIPS

As I have repeatedly mentioned, I try to run things efficiently in Hero Park,
and the dungeons are no exception.

With respect to stocking the dungeons, I have each dungeon house a specific
monster type. At this stage of the game, I have Orcs in the Old Dungeon,
Contaminated Zombies in the Cursed Crypts, Hardened Golums in the Demonic
Castle, and Mighty Dragons in the Dark Palace. All the treasures are Golden
Chests.

Orcs, Zombies and Golums all have 2 monsters per stack, while Mighty Dragons
have 1 monster per stack. Golden Treasures have 3 chests per stack.

So in the Old Dungeon, Cursed Crypts and Demonic Castle, I have 12 stacks of
monsters and 8 stacks of treasures. That gives 24 of each in those dungeons. In
the Dark Palace, I have 15 stacks of monsters and 5 stacks of treasures. That
gives 15 of each in that dungeon.

Ultimately this means I do have to keep an eye on the Dark Palace during a "Hero
Rush", as it has the fewest overall monsters in it...but those Mighty Dragons
are pretty tough customers.

Now, onto a brief analysis of the perks, but first a note. The following
information is based on having a high village level and all perks available, and
takes into account decisions I have made in my monster raising, so all of this
is pretty specific. I will say that in the mid-game, I had monsters in their
opposite dungeons than what I have now (so, Zombies in the Old Dungeon, Golums
in the Cursed Crypts, Dragons in the Demonic Castle, and Orcs in the Dark
Palace) and the damage/status perks reversed because with less perks available,
that setup made more sense from a monster-boosting standpoint.

In general, for the "Extra RP" tiers of perks at Level 2 and Level 6, across all
dungeons I recommend going with the bonus to found treasures over the bonus for
defeated monsters. I only have one monster type that, at its maximum level,
gives more RP than a Golden Chest at maximum level, and the percentage bonuses
for the treasures is higher than for defeated monsters.

For the "Monster Customization" tiers of perks at Level 4 and Level 8, I suggest
one path for the Old Dungeon, and a different path for the other dungeons. In
the Old Dungeon, I recommend taking the 20% extra damage and the 25% extra
damage from Demi-Human perks. For the others, I use the 20% extra damage from
the Level 4 perk and the increased status ailment chance from the Level 8 perk.

As for the Level 10 dungeon perks...I had initially said this:

As for the Level 10 perk options, the clear winner for the majority of the time
will be the extra 25% chance a hero will attack a second monster. The other two
options are too low of a percentage chance to make much of an overall impact,
with a clear exception being when you have a Quest or Daily Challenge that
requires you to sell armors or weapons. In those cases, switch the Level 10 perk
to what you need for that situation.

*HOWEVER* as I have leveled up Monster Production and with the introduction of
the Royal employees...I have recently switched this perk to the "extra 10% a
Hero's weapon breaks" and I am loving it.

There are two main reasons why.

The first is this: you can eventually make your monsters tough enough that
nobody besides a Superhero can reliably beat one (let alone two!) of them. So
ensuring an extra fight from heroes becomes a less reliable way to ensure they
are using extra potions, contracting afflictions, etc....

Which segues into this second point: eventually you will be offering 3 of 4
melee weapon selections that are already cursed to break to begin with, and
offering a little extra chance they break can only benefit you. On the flipside,
though, that dungeon perk to break weapons can affect weapons normally
unaffected by the purchase-level curse: specifically, Improved Bows for Elvan
Archers, and any wand option for Mages. This is especially relevant because
those options (any wand type, or the Improved Bows) are worth a crazy amount of
gold, and being able to sell more than one to rich Heroes becomes a feasible
gold-making strategy in the late game.


7. TO LEVEL 20 AND BEYOND: TIPS AND END-GAME STRATEGIES

The articles in this section will be about some of the nuances of late-game
play, although the theories behind all of it certainly apply while you are
making your way up also.

7a. VILLAGE CAPACITY AND THE CASTLE

First, a word about Village capacity: you can actually exceed the "maximum"
capacity as long as you haven't exceeded that value before you send your unicorn
out. 

What this means is, if you have 19 heroes in your village with a capacity of 20,
you can send your unicorn again and he will bring back 3 heroes, giving you
22/20 capacity. You must wait until the number of heroes in the village drops
below the maximum again (so you could call the next group of heroes once your
capacity goes down to 19 or below).

The Castle becomes available once your Village has maxed out its natural hero
capacity at 20. While expensive to upgrade, it is worth it to get your total
hero capacity up to at least 22. That way you can send your unicorn out 8 times,
which will give you 24 heroes in your town at the same time. If you had full
unicorn energy before you started, you will still have 2 more unicorn uses once
those heroes start to leave your village.

In theory, at Castle Level 10 you will have a village capacity of 25, which
means you can use 9 unicorns to draw in 27 heroes at once, and still have 1
unicorn use remaining once heroes begin to leave.

Having as much room for heroes as you can will help you achieve better results
in Timed Quests and Daily Challenges, both of which task you with doing certain
things within a 5 minute limit.

7b. UNDERSTANDING HERO NEEDS (THE QUEUE)

When heroes enter your town, they will begin to satisfy their "needs" queue from
left to right. Certain events can add additional "needs" to their queue while
they are in your village, most notably post-combat. However, once a hero has
spent all (or most) of their gold, they will leave the village happily and
ignore the remainder of their queue (if they still had needs).

Of special note in this section, is that post-combat "needs" that are added to a
hero's queue do not seem to follow any pattern based on what I have seen. A hero
that levels up in a dungeon while suffering a fracture might want to get the
fracture healed next, or they may want to level up next, or they may want to
satisfy a pre-battle "need" that wasn't resolved prior to their trip into the
dungeon before they do either of those things.

In the early game, when you don't have many high-value items and your
post-combat income flow is limited, choosing the heroes with the most gold may
not always be the best option. If they don't initially have much in their
"needs" queue, they probably will not come close to spending their entire purse
before they leave the village with a clear queue.

By the time you get to mid-game, you probably have a decent post-combat revenue
stream since your status ailment monsters should be benefiting from perks, and
in general harder-hitting monsters are draining potions from heroes which will
need to be replaced. At this point, unless you are targeting specific "needs"
for Quests or Daily Challenges, it is usually best to go for the richest heroes,
and let the monsters help shake their pockets loose!

The question of whether Heroes had a limit to how many times they would fight
came up in the Hero Park subreddit recently,

There are two final curious details about heroes, specifically involving their
dungeon trips, to discuss.

Firstly a hero that is defeated by a monster may decide to try another fight
after their post-combat "needs" routine, but they will not necessarily attack
the same, weakened monster and attempt to finish it off (indeed, they may elect
to go into a different dungeon altogether). If they should opt for a second,
revenge-fueled foray back into the dungeons: the need will appear in the queue
with a yellow background until it is fulfilled. Should they fail in their second
attempt at a fight, you will see a red background effect on their fight
icon--this indicates that hero will not, FOR ANY REASON, go back into a dungeon
to fight again.

There has been some discussion over in the subreddit for Hero Park whether or
not Heroes will fight more than twice. I am 100% sure that the amount of times
that a Hero will fight is strictly a function of WINNING fights and having the
money to WANT to fight more.

Also, there seems to be no logic to how difficult an opponent that a hero picks
when they enter a dungeon. Even with a spread of monsters available in any given
dungeon, low-level heroes will still try to attack very tough monsters, and
heroes don't seem to prioritize attacking weakened monsters over full-strength
monsters if they have the option.

7c. BASIC QUESTS AND TIMED QUESTS

Throughout the game you will have Quests available to provide you with some
gold, some RP, and treasure chests to have your treasure goblins work to open.
Successfully completing Quests is integral in gaining the upgrade units used to
improve your employees and crafters.

There are two general types of Quests: Basic Quests, which have no time limit,
and Timed Quests, which have a time limit of 5 minutes. Timed Quests also have
three selectable tiers of difficulty, with higher tiers giving more gold and RP,
and possibly improving the chest that you receive upon successful completion.

Across both types, Quests may involved selling items to one race but not to
another, selling a certain type of armor, having heroes defeat a certain type of
monster, selling a certain amount of food and drink...these are just some
examples. One special thing to note is that Quests that say "Make xxx Gold"
counts any item or service you sell in the village, while Quests that say "Sell
Items Worth xxx Gold" only count merchandise and NOT services (so cures,
blessings and trainings won't count towards those goals).

For Basic Quests, which do not have a time limit, it is mostly, at worst, just a
matter of time before you complete them. That being said, if you are trying to
efficiently finish Quests to fill up your chest inventory, you will want to
intelligently select the heroes that will achieve the results you want with as
few uses of the unicorn as possible, so the next Quest can potentially be
instantly started upon the current Quest's completion.

Timed Quests are a slightly trickier beast. While most of them are pretty easy
to succeed at the lowest level through intelligent hero attraction, it is
usually worth attempting a more difficult tier when a chest upgrade would occur.
That is why I will discuss a little bit of general strategy here that will apply
to both Timed Quests and, once they are available, Daily Challenges.

The first thing, and a critical fact to note, is the 5 minute timer starts for
the quest when YOU start it, so knowing WHEN to start it is basic but essential.
As an example, let us say that you have a Timed Quest "Have 12 Heroes Train in 5
Minutes". You don't want to actually select for the timer to start until RIGHT
before the first hero that needs training is walking into the trainer. That
means that you call as many heroes as you can for your Village capacitity, and
let them do there thing until the first few heroes start returning from their
dungeon trips. And then you will STILL wait, until the first hero is actually
heading into the trainer. That way you are maximizing your 5 minutes from the
beginning and can hopefully squeeze out the remainder before the timer expires.

Next, you have to be selecting the heroes that will help you hit your Timed
Quest goal. In the above example of "Have 12 Heroes Train in 5 Minutes", this is
accomplished by trying to maximize the amount of heroes coming in that want to
buy an experience potion (and therefore raises the chance they will level up
after defeating a monster). However, a hero who has 1,200 gold and a queue of
"Buy Armor" - "Buy Weapon" - "Buy Food x4" - "Buy Experience Potion" - "Fight"
most likely will not have the money to train once they finish their queue...in
fact, that hero might spend his last bit of gold on the experience potion and
then happily leave town BEFORE they even fight!

That being said, sometimes you will WANT to draw in heroes with little gold
during some Timed Quests and Daily Challenges (typically ones that involve
spending money). An obvious example: if you have a Timed Quest "Let 20 Heroes
Leave Your Village Happy", it may behoove you to get a bunch of broke heroes in
who buy 2 or 3 things, spend all their gold, and get out quickly (possibly
before they set foot into a dungeon!), letting you use your unicorn to call in
new heroes faster.

When Quests involve selling items or services for gold, make use of your support
employees by placing them in the proper buildings with a "Purchase Price"
improvement. For example, if you have a Timed Quest "Sell 4,000 gold worth of
armor", you would want to make sure your armor shops have the best support
employees to boost those prices even further. Also, in the buildings that are
not essential for the current Quest but are high-traffic, potential bottlenecks
for heroes (the alchemist shop and tavern both being prime examples), consider
put support employees who lack the "Purchase Price" parameter but have the
"Shopping Speed" parameter so that it moves heroes through those bottlenecks
faster.

Also, don't forget that your village building "usage" abilities may come in
handy for Timed Quests and Daily Challenges. In our original example "Have 12
Heroes Train in 5 Minutes", when you summon in your first bunch of heroes, wait
until the bulk of them are walking by the trainer, and use the "Enlightenment"
usage ability to increase the odds that those heroes affected will be wanting to
train after a fight.

If you fail a Timed Quest, it will remain in your Quest Log for another attempt.
You are allowed to change which tier of the challenge you attempt, so if you
tried the "Ultra!" difficulty level and didn't even come close to succeeding,
you can try it on a reduced difficulty.

It should be noted that if you get a particularly difficult or annoying Quest,
you can skip it for a random new Quest. This is free once every 8 hours, or can
be skipped for diamonds if your free skip is still on cooldown (this is a
COLOSSAL waste of diamonds, though, so don't do it). I practically always skip
any Quest that involves selling schnapps or cookies (since there is NO WAY to
really control that), and Timed Quests that involve training.

That covers the basics of my strategies pertaining to Basic Quests and Timed
Quests. Next I will talk about Daily Challenges.

7d. DAILY CHALLENGES

Daily Challenges are basically endgame-level Timed Quests, with some specific
differences. Firstly, you can only attempt the Daily Challenge 3 times, with
your best result being saved across your attempts. At the end of the day, you
can accept your rewards based on your performance, which starts out as a paltry
amount of gold but eventually starts earning you increasingly better chests,
increasingly tougher Boss Monsters, and a slightly less paltry amount of gold.

Secondly, Daily Challenges are always one of three types: earn as much RP
through monsters as possible, earn as much RP through treasures as possible, or
earn as much gold selling XXX product/service as possible. The first two types
are relatively easy to do well in. For the third type, depending on the
product/service required, it could be much, much tougher.

Thirdly, tailoring your shops, monsters and dungeons for Daily Challenges is key
to hitting the high-end rewards. 

Today, for example, the Daily Challenge for me was to "Earn as Much RP as
Possible Through Defeated Monsters". So the first thing I did was went to my
production sites, changed all the monster perks to max out RP for each site, and
remade all my monsters, cycling out low-level monsters until I could stock each
dungeon with the highest level monsters I could.

While this was happening I went into the dungeons, and changed the perks that I
had assigned to gain extra RP from treasures to extra RP from monsters. Next I
switched to the off-perks from the damage perks so that the monsters would do
less damage to the heroes. Then I made sure that the last perk was set to give
the extra 25% chance for a hero to fight a second monster.

Through those preparations, I created monsters that did lower than normal damage
(facilitating easier defeat by the heroes) while giving big boosts to the RP
earned through dungeon and production perks, with a chance any hero would take
down two monsters instead of just one.

Then it was a matter of getting the right heroes in, and getting them in and
through quickly while making sure that as many of them as possible actually
fought. I looked for heroes that wanted to fight as their first or second "need"
and had just enough gold to pay for the first thing they wanted and one or two
items/services afterwards. Basically I was looking for broke heroes who would
fight fast and go home early, so that I could bring in the 2 remaining uses
worth of heroes from my unicorn before the time expired.

I should also note, I had a Daily Gift of 10x Unicorn Energy waiting to be used
as well, so when it was all said and done, I had nearly 60 heroes go through my
village during the challenge. 

This combination of preparation and execution netted me the top prize (I love me
some boss Dragons!)

Recently they added a tiered reward system that encourages trying your best
during Daily Challenges. The perks from rising through the ranks are pretty
significant: at the top tier, you get an extra 30% gold from Daily Challenge
results, a 5 Level boost to any Boss Monsters you receive, a chance that any
chest earned from a Daily Challenge will upgrade 1 level, and a 20% reduction in
the recharge time for your unicorn. Not too shabby!

That being said, there is a bit of a double-edged sword: as your tiers improve,
you earn less towards the next tier than you would have before with the same
performance, and at the top tier, I've noticed that if I don't finish an event
in the top 10 results, I actually LOSE points towards my mastery, so that's kind
of messed up. Fortunately I am almost always able to get to at least Rank 6
prizes, unless it's a really frustrating Daily Challenge.

7e. MAKING THE MOST OF BOSS MONSTERS

Eventually, you will start consistently performing well enough in the Daily
Challenges to earn Boss Monsters. Boss Monsters are an interesting little twist
that exist, from my viewpoint, specifically to generate some extra gold while
you are waiting for your unicorn energy to recharge. To end this guide, we are
going to talk about how to get the most out of them.

Boss Monsters come in several varieties, depending on your placement in the
Challenges. If you are Gold Tier or higher in the Daily Challenges, all Boss
Monsters that you earn will get an additional 5 levels from what you see on the
rewards overview. This will not change the Boss Monster to the next Boss Monster
type if it would technically level it above the maximum viewed from the rewards
page. It just makes those Boss Monsters a little bit tougher.

Also, and THIS IS IMPORTANT: while the game never said anything about it
anywhere, you can only have 10 Boss Monsters in your village at once. If you
continue to do Daily Challenges once you are at that limit you forfeit any
additional Boss Monsters you should have earned.

When you place a Boss Monster in any dungeon, heroes will slowly start to
trickle in to your village, up to your maximum capacity at any given time
(although it takes a while to get to that point, if you do at all). You do not
get to select which heroes come into your village from this process--they behave
like heroes do when you have zero unicorn energy and a stray one wanders in
(except additional heroes will enter at sporadic intervals). I believe that
putting Boss Monsters in several dungeons simultaneously increases the rate at
which heroes enter the village as well.

Heroes will prioritize entering dungeons that have boss monsters versus those
that don't, and if they make it through the combat cycle to the end, they will
then attack the Boss Monster. It takes many heroes to bring down a Boss Monster,
but it will still happen surprisingly fast.

As mentioned above, the purpose of Boss Monsters is primarily to make gold. They
are a poor choice to use while attempting to do Timed Quests or Daily Challenges
for several reasons: heroes enter town very slowly, you have no control over
what heroes come to your village and what their "needs" are, and everything
takes longer in the dungeons as heroes stick around to whack at the Boss Monster
until they defeat it or exhaust their potions and energy and have to retreat.

As usual, good preparation will make all the difference in squeezing the most
out of your Boss Monsters.

Firstly, I recommend changing your monster production perks to maximize either
hit points (for Fire, Stone and Undead monsters) or damage dealt (for Demi-Human
monsters), and take the time to create the highest-level monsters you can to
stock each location. Next, ensure that your dungeon perks are set to produce
damage and status ailments, and that every dungeon has the "Hero may attack a
second monster" perk.

The idea is, you want the heroes to get BEAT UP in the dungeons so that, if they
even defeat a basic monster, they don't have much left to use against the Boss
Monster. This keeps the Boss Monsters alive longer, thereby allowing more heroes
to ultimately come to the village and earning more gold.

In the village, you will want to assign support employees in the alchemist shops
that have the highest "Purchase Price" effects possible. Selling potions and
healing/blessings (and to a lesser extent, training) is key to milking money out
of defeated heroes and getting them out of your village faster, keeping them
from a potential second dungeon run and allowing new heroes to enter. And if
your monsters are beating up the heroes well enough, there will be A LOT of
heroes buying potions.

You may also want to assign any extra support employees with the "Purchase
Price" effect in the armorers. This is because a lot of heroes tend to want
armor, and with the high base price of these expensive items, jacking that price
up further can help bleed gold from the heroes, possibly even sending some of
them away happy after they've spent all their money BEFORE they even fought!

Once all these preparations are in place, it is time to unleash the Boss
Monsters! I recommend putting a Boss Monster in each of your dungeons and just
going whole hog.

As a point of reference, during my last "Boss Rush", I ended up using 5 total
Boss Monsters. They were all Dragons, levels 53-55. I started with one Boss
Monster in each dungeon, and added the fifth once the first Boss Monster died.

When the dust had settled, I had made 240,000 gold from the rush. Not a bad
little haul!

8. GUIDE VERSION UPDATE INFORMATION

Version 2.0 (CURRENT VERSION: 01/14/2020)

*added info about Unicorn snacks (Section 2a)
*added thoughts on Diamond usage (Section 2c)
*added info about Village building upgrades past level 10 (Section 4)
*updated that bastard Hugo Hungry (Section 4b)
*added info about Armorer building employee strategy (Section 4c)
*updated fight % chance for wands in Magic Shop (Section 4e)
*updated Castle Functionality and Staff (Section 4i)
*updated info about Production Site upgrades past level 10 (Section 5)
*updated info about Santa's Brother (Section 5e)
*updated info about Dungeon upgrades past level 10 (Section 6)
*updated info about LV. 10 Dungeon Perks (Section 6e)
*updated Hero Queue info re: fighting (Section 7b)

Version 1.5

*corrected names of some of the Locked Chests in the treasury (Section 2d)
*added information about unsatisfied "needs" in hero queues (Section 3)
*added information about production maximums by employee rarity (Section 4)
*fixed incorrect perk table for the Fire Hole (Section 5d)
*added an in-depth analysis in regards to RP+ perks (Section 5g)
*added observations about post-battle "needs" in hero queues (Section 7b)
*added observations about foe selection by heroes in dungeons (Section 7b)
*added a version update section (Section 8)
*general correction of spelling, punctuation and syntax errors

VERSION 1.0

*initial version of the FAQ

9. OUTRO

Well, if you made it this far, you now have just about all of my knowledge about
this fantastic little game. Hopefully this guide has been useful to help you
develop your Village and make it the best it can be.

Now get out there and make that gold!