The final form of the GB changes is coming to Beta October 8, 2026

 

There are some big changes and fortunately a lot of the sneak peak changes didn't make it into this final form but some did.  

So we'll break this down into good news/bad news.

Good News:

They're finally doing it.  Just rip the band-aid off and stop the uncertainty.  After three years of hand-wringing it's finally here for better or worse.

The FP cost is being reduced by about 80%

GB's getting the gold tier (all 21 of them) can now go up to lv 500 

All GB's will have their special goods requirements removed.  All players of any age can now build any GB.  The GB's may require goods of that age (SAT, SASH and SAD) but are no longer age locked due to special goods.  That also means players camping in SASH because they need to raise a GB to lv100 that requires special goods are free to age-up.

The contribution reward changes that were introduced a week ago on Beta will be universal.  This really is good news.  It's a better system for building high level GB's but small GB's may lose their sweet spot we've all come to love (and snipe).

Gold tier GB's will have seven contributor slots instead of five.  The spots are cheap and really a way to feed people gold BP's.

All GB's will retain whatever level you find your GB in will be the level after the changes.  So if you have a silver CoA at lv 240 it will be a gold CoA at lv 240.  If you have a GB that will not receive a gold tier above lv 200 it will be reduced to lv 200.  More on that in the bad news section.

We have spoken here many times about how even the prestige levels of the GB's are not sufficient to motivate established players to build because they will still not be able to compete with event buildings.  That is why the CoA and Kraken were such good options because they boosted a % of your own boosts.  That means as building inflation continues they will continue to be good while the static boosts will become obsolete again.  I'll post the full list of changes below now that they're confirmed.  More on the kraken in the bad news section.

Arc contribution boosts no longer stop when a GB hits gold level.  This is huge as the 1.9 type threads would be a mess the other way.  Big asterix on this though.

Bad news:

Silver tier is eliminated.

Buildings not getting a gold tier are still capped at lv 200.

If you have say a level 250 GB that is getting a gold tier it will be a level 250 GB after the change.  That is good.  What is bad is on both live and beta servers if you have opened up the levels to avoid the additional costs after the change you will lose those levels and be refunded what you invested.  (allegedly I will believe when I see)

Some GB's have completely changed what they will give as a bonus and I can't see any of them that improved upon first glance.

So let's get into it.

This is the graphic we were asked to use.  I'm sure there will be a more fancy one when this becomes official.

As you can see silver tier is gone.

Copper goes from lv 1 to 200

Gold starts at lv 101 to 500

You can level past 500 but the rewards for doing so will be almost nil.  But it's not a hard cap anymore.  Unless you're chasing ranking points or want to feed people BP at great expense to yourself it doesn't seem like a good idea.

These are the gold tier bonuses

GE:

Zeus - multiply red attack and defense GE

Lotus Temple - gives boost to science allies (simulates higher level) also boost blue attack and defense GE % multiplier

TA - another kick in the nuts or ovaries.  Red and blue attack and defense % boost for.....GE oh that sucks.

Space Carrier - % increase to production of special goods AND...red and blue attack multiplier for..GE so not worth building if you're camping in SASH or higher due to the reduced need of special goods.

Observatory - makes guild goods of current, next age and previous ages AND blue defense multiplier for GE

GbG:

CoA - received a nerf.  Now multiplies red attack only GbG

Traz - ladies and gentlemen it's time to build the Traz again.  Red and Blue attack and defense GbG and....red and blue attack and defense % boost GbG

Seed Vault - improved helping hands.  You get increased chance of better reward when hitting the aid-all button.  I want to see how that affects diamonds.  AND blue attack and defense GbG multiplier

HC - another kick in the ovaries.  Multiplies blue defense GbG.  I'm holding out hope that the number here will be huge but I suspect it's a nerf.

QI: 

CdM - this is a kick in the nuts for anyone that built this up because they're blue fighters in QI.  It now multiplies red attack QI 

Deal Castle - multiplies blue attack QI

the Virgo Project - second wave missile launch and red defense multiplier QI

Allies:

Colosseum - boosts military ally (simulates higher level)

CF - gives a % boost to rewards received in heroic tavern

Lotus Temple - gives boost to science allies (simulates higher level) also boost blue attack and defense GE % multiplier

other:

St Mark's Basilica - multiplies goods boost

Royal Albert Hall - goods (not a %)

Arc - the gold levels give boost to gold levels of other GB's.  If your Arc is only lv 80 and someone posts a gold tier GB you will not be getting 1.9 back.  Past level 100 you will start getting contribution rewards.  Now if you're in a guild that uses full-arc boost threads you have a decision to make.  If you level your arc to say lv 500 what is the incentive to do so?  The new contribution system makes it really hard to snipe so the return on that investment is minimal at best.

AO - this one is interesting.  You get a % chance to critical hit (150% damage) against units NOT in your age.  It doesn't apply to rogues.  Will this be enough for people camping in a lower age and getting next age units to build an AO?

Seed Vault - improved helping hands.  You get increased chance of better reward when hitting the aid-all button.  I want to see how that affects diamonds.  AND blue attack and defense GbG multiplier

kraken - this is the throw a brick through a window change I was banging on about in the last post.  It now gives second strike on the second of two wave attacks.  So there is a % chance to kill one unit for a limited number of times on the second wave.  This is now a garbage GB and I have lost millions of FP's because of this change.  You've go to be f-ing kidding me.

blue galaxy - gold levels work in QI as they do in main city.  Limited number of charges to get a varying % chance based on level to double collection in QI.  I think this is good for people that already have a high-level BG past lv 158 but I can't see anyone being motivated to build it to level 500

HC - enhances existing spoils of war

Shattered Horizon Siphon - increases contribution rewards when contributing to gold levels of other GB's.  That's anything over lv 100 now but again if you have a full contribution boost thread what will be your return on investment?

For copper levels we're just going to add the graphics given to us as it's a lot of typing and they use "penal units" for troops produced by traz and I kind of like that.

Leveling costs changes examples.  This is sincerely all we were given so all you SHS folks asking for costs you'll have to wait a couple of days.

Here is the cost to level all the prestige tier GB to level 500

Here is the cost to level all copper only GB's to level 200

Contributions

When it comes to contributions and ARC/SHS boosts we got a very confusing information sheet that hopefully will be cleared-up before the official announcement.  I will copy/paste it here in it's entirety.  

All four of us read it.  Between us we speak 9 languages.  It didn't make sense to any of us so here goes.  If it makes sense to you please comment.

"The percentage drops as levels go up, but level costs climb much faster, so the total reward still grows with every band. Contributing to a high level always pays more than contributing to a low one. And since it's a fixed share of a known cost, you can work out exactly what a spot is worth before you commit.

Note: The number of Blueprints you get from contribution rewards is reduced by around 60% to balance out the more efficient FP rewards and keep Blueprints a rare resource. Medal amounts don't change.

What about the Arc? On Copper levels, its Contribution Bonus works as usual. On Gold levels, the Contribution Boost only applies when you contribute to other Gold Great Buildings. Since the release of Stellar Age: Discovery, we have one more GB with the exact same effect: The Shattered Horizon Siphon's.

Gold levels now reward 7 contributor places. Copper levels keep 5. The total reward pot stays the same, it's just split more ways, so more people get something out of each level-up. Places are still ranked by total Forge Points contributed, and first place still takes the clear majority."

I don't know how to read that in any other way than to say the Arc was nerfed and I don't know what level your SHS and/or Arc have to be to get 2.0 contributions back.

On Beta right now we can get 2.0 returns on a lv 200 GB and it's only lv 300 and up that are screwed-up.  With this change that would mean any GB in the threads that is level 101 or higher gets what boost?  1.0?

GB refinery still exists but honestly just take spots on people's GB's and avoid all that.

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Don't panic but panic might be the appropriate response.

 

So we got a little head's up about some changes coming to GB's on Beta.  It's not final but in the kicking around stage regarding the boosts.  More specifically how they want to change the boosts to reflect the lower costs to level.

Let's just say the level 300+ GB I have on live server will be deleted if this plan is implemented.  I don't know if it is or what the final shape will be.  There is a chance that what we see on Beta will be what we see on live server.  What I found out today seems like a trial balloon and something they want to do and are gauging the reaction.

We are not going to answer any questions or give specifics as we don't want to burn a source.  I'm hoping the influencers and people that have larger platforms also get this sneak peak and speak out about it.

If we know for sure what the final shape will be then we will post because it will affect a large player base currently rushing to build certain GB's that may not be as good as you thought it was going to be.

I do not want to give early information that turns-out to be nothing or scrapped because it will affect how people level their GB's now.  What we saw is bad.  It's brick through a window bad.  But we don't know if it moves past the kicking around stage.  Our feedback was to make GB's awesome not worse.  GB's, all GB's so be so good every player wants to build all of them but can only select a few due to space and cost to level.

I just don't understand how we got here.  I someone's idiot cousin in charge?  A brother in-law that couldn't hold a job brought in as a VP or something?  All I know for certain is nobody that plays FoE would be making these decisions.  I hope the large platform people that cover this game are very vocal about it and not just taking the sponsorship money.

Fingers crossed this amounts to nothing.  That will be the good outcome.

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Consolidating some of the GB information to make it easier to reference.

Common question is..I'm on live server what should I be doing with GB's?

Separate GB's into ones that are getting prestige tiers and ones that are not (for now).

What we know for sure is the cost to open levels will require more than just BP when the change comes.

Something everyone can do is open max level prior to the update so it only costs you BP.  The SAT, SASH and SAD era GB's already have additional costs so let's leave those out of this conversation for now.

So if a GB is NOT getting a prestige upgrade then open those GB's levels to 200.  Anything above that will be lost.

If a GB IS getting a prestige upgrade then open to lv 400.  Anything over that will be lost.

If you open the SAT, SASH and SAD GB's to lv 200 and 300 respectively that has a huge cost involved and they may not get the prestige upgrade before your grand children take over your account so the investment is up to you.

Ok that's opening levels now let's get to the business of levelling them.

Decide which GB's you want and at what levels you want them.  Below you'll find a summary of the prestige boosts grouped by GE / GbG / QI to make it easier.  You'll also see screenshots of all the GB's and what their boosts will look like after the upgrade.

If something is only good at lv 400 and garbage at lv 200 then don't build it and waste your FP.  Every GB you put FP into means you're not putting those FP into something else.  That's called opportunity cost.  You're better off picking one GB and put all your daily collections into it than spread it around and end up with a bunch of mid level GB's.

The new update will help GB owners level their expensive GB's but it's still expensive.  It's also going to be hard getting people to take spots unless they have a large FP bank.  One of the P1 spots I took this morning required 550k FP.  My FP bank dropped about 1.7 million just sniping after the GB change with an estimated profit of about 800k.  People are going to need to learn to level their GB's before changes and don't take spots on other GB's before a change because what once was secure is no longer secure.

Inno has stated previously that the GB update that remained in Beta but was pulled from live server is still a WIP.  They hinted at a reduction in costs that would be somewhere in-between what beta and live server are now.  I personally believe that the change of contribution amounts will negate any plan to downward adjust the costs to level and that live server GB's will match beta this year.  In other words the costs are what they are in beta.

The other thing they did while making it less expensive to level in beta is they've reduced the number of BP's as rewards for contributors.  This will be more of an issue for new players on live server as established player should already have their GB levels open to the max level right?  RIGHT?

Which gets me to, "should I use all my FP bank to level before the prestige upgrade?"  The answer is maybe but you're still going to need a FP bank to take spots on other GB's.  The best strategy right now is to prioritize what you're spending on.  If you see SAT, SASH and SAD GB's in your 1.9 or 2.0 threads right now someone is making bad decisions.  The SAT and SASH GB's are known commodities at this point.  The SAD age GB is a WIP.  We don't know what the final form of this GB will be.  The boosts, the costs to level, nothing.  I'm sure it will be good.  They're all good.  I have them all and will level after the prestige update but to level them now is foolish.  Open levels but don't level up GB's that are not getting the prestige upgrade (for now).  That doesn't mean the cost to level them won't go up.  It will.  A lot but you should determine what is best for you.

What type of boost is important to you?

GE, GbG, QI or just base boost?

To me the GE boosts are irrelevant.  Same for Red OR Blue QI boost depending on which one you use.  So my priority is base boosts and GbG specific boosts.

Here is the summary of the prestige boosts for levels 300 and 400

GB name - silver tier bonus - gold tier bonus

GE boosts

Statue of Zeus - multiplies blue defense GE - multiplies blue attack GE *This is not just a addition like plus 24 blue defense this is take your blue GE defense and multiply by 1.6 type of thing.  So the stronger you already are the larger the bonus you receive

Colosseum - blue defense GE - blue attack GE

St. Mark's Basilica - red defense GE - red attack GE

Deal Castle - red and blue defense GE - red and blue attack GE

Alcatraz - multiplies red defense GE - multiplies red attack GE *This is not just a addition like plus 24 blue defense this is take your blue GE defense and multiply by 1.6 type of thing.  So the stronger you already are the larger the bonus you receive

Château Frontenac - red defense GE and previous era goods - red attack (base attack)

Arctic Orangery - red attack GE AND current era goods - red defense (base defense)

Seed Vault - blue defense GE AND guild goods - red attack and defense (base attack) 

The Blue Galaxy - blue attack GE AND FP's - blue attack and defense (base)

GbG boosts

Cathedral of Aachen - multiplies blue defense GbG- multiplies blue attack GbG  *This is not just a addition like plus 24 blue defense this is take your blue GbG defense and multiply by 1.6 type of thing.  So the stronger you already are the larger the bonus you receive

Lotus Temple - red defense GbG - red attack GbG

The Arc - blue attack GbG AND FP's - blue defense (base defense)

The Kraken - multiplies red defense GbG- multiplies red attack GbG  *This is not just a addition like plus 24 blue defense this is take your blue GbG defense and multiply by 1.6 type of thing.  So the stronger you already are the larger the bonus you receive

Terracotta Army - blue defense GbG - blue attack GbG

Himeji Castle - red and blue defense GbG - red and blue attack GbG

Observatory - blue defense GbG - blue attack (base)

QI boosts

Castel del Monte - blue defense QI - blue attack QI

The Virgo Project - red defense QI - red attack QI

other

Space Carrier - coin boost AND goods - supply boost AND guild goods

So let's take one of the best GB The Blue Galaxy and strategize with it.  At lv 158 it is essentially maxed for the base boost of 15 charges 75% chance to double the collection.  It's great and will continue to scale with game inflation.  But are you in a guild where people are levelling it to 200+?  I am and I just want to give them a hug and say you're doing it wrong.  GE boost, FP and then from 300 to 400 you get base boosts.  So the GE boost is nothing, the FP boost is trivial compared to the cost to level so it only gets good at lv 400.  Ok if that's the GB you pick to go to lv 400 that's fine but it also means you're not levelling something else to 400 which may be better.

Look at the GbG buildings and notice blue boosts are more common in GB's you probably already have.  Arc, TA, CoA, obs while red is more scarce.  How many players have a high-level Lotus Temple?  Everyone will have enough BP to open level 400 do you have the BP right now to open Lotus Temple or Virgo Project to 400?  I doubt it.  I don't.  They never show-up in the threads and for good reason.  They're objectively crap GB's.  Don't build and delete if you have one unless it's already lv 300 to 400 and if it is I need a screen shot of it.

So what do people do for red GbG (or base) boosts and red QI boosts?  I'm partial to the GB's that increase your fight boosts by a % over the GB's that just give a straight boost.  How many people in your guild right now have 50k, 60k, 70k GbG fight boosts?  Well 6 months to a year from now that's 80k, 90k 100k.  

At lv 400 the HC is good and gives 5200 red and blue attack GbG and 2800 red and blue defense GbG.  It's good but

Kraken gives 12% boost to your existing red attack and defense GbG at lv 400

And it will scale because as game inflation continues your boost will increase.

Now to be fair Inno said they will update their GB's to ensure they stay relevant but we've seen how that goes.  Even when we get a head's up about a change we don't post it anymore because it's more likely to be pulled-back than make it to beta.  The earliest information about the GB changes we received is now three years old and it still hasn't come to live server so we're in believe it when we see it territory.  Which is to say I don't put any value in Inno updating the HC after it comes to live server and that is why the % increase to our own boosts is so much more valuable.

Now should you dear reader build a Kraken today and start levelling it?  I honestly can't recommend that as it's already very expensive to level and you're racing the clock to get it where you need it to be before the update.  I make over 100k FP/day and it takes me two or more days for one level on live server.  On Beta I just deleted it.  If you can't get it to at least lv300 before the update then pick another GB.  A good one to pick is CoA which is the blue boost version of the Kraken.  The huge difference is it's a lot cheaper to level and the base levels are good too unlike the Kraken.  CoA is the safe pick.

What about TA?  Yes it's good.  Can't go wrong but do you already have an Obs and Arc?  Blue GbG boosts may be better offset with HC than a TA.

So a good strategy is to see where your boosts are coming from and if it is lopsided like the above example where you get little red GbG boost but a lot of blue that's ok.  It just means you're going to have to target more red boosts in your city.  That's pretty easy to do.  While most QI and GbG reward buildings give red and blue boosts the event buildings and especially the main prize buildings tend to be one or the other.  There are exceptions like the gold league building but generally it should be easy over time to be more selective in events and offset the boosts you're not getting from GB's.

It really takes planning now more than ever.  Be strategic.  You can get back to levelling the SAT, SASH and SAD GB's after the update.  For now pick your beast of a GB and level it to 400 if you can.

The following is a copy/paste from a post in March but put here for people to reference all the GB's after the update.

So the GB changes have gone live on Beta.  

The too long didn't read is...

• Unlocking a GB to level 400 before the change works.  See top picture.  
• Base (copper) levels have improved and cost more 

• The refinery will be very costly so just take spots on other people's GB's to get BP.
• Opening levels costs BP and goods (depending on GB coin, supply and medals)
• Those costs will increase exponentially as the level goes up.
• Copper and silver tiers and silver and gold tiers do level in parallel.
• If you read our post here there are no changes.  People on live server should be getting the BP's for the GB's they want so you can unlock to lv 200 or 400 respectively but don't do it yet.  Let's see how Inno reacts to all the people that just bypassed their tier system costs.

This is the bonus to copper level for Arc

And while all 400 levels are unlocked for my Arc this is what it will take to go from lv 180 to lv 181

And here's a better idea of what it will look like as it gets upgraded.

Now to illustrate the costs to level when GB's do not have their levels unlocked I have asked for screen shots of other player's GB.  They did not want their name on here so no attribution will be given but you have my thanks.  

Let's start with GB's that do NOT get the new tiers.  Here's a low-level Hydra.

So just regular copper BP to increase to lv 200 where it will be maxed (for now).  The FP cost increased from 9446 and the SAT goods cost increased by 100 per good.  The higher the copper level the more you'll notice the cost increase.

We did not get a complete list of the upgrade costs for all GB's.  That should come shortly and land on a wiki but just know the cost to upgrade GB is going up by a lot.  The gold and goods sink is in place.

For GB's that do not require a goods cost to unlock a level it will look like this

So you need both the copper and silver to unlock that level or you'll need a silver and gold to unlock levels 200 - 300 

This unfortunate player primed his Traz and only needed 19 FP to level.  After the GB changes he needs 18.5k more FP to level.

Keep in mind this isn't a higher tier building yet.
You can see the increased costs and increased boost.  You'll have to decide for yourself if that boost is worth the cost.

So let's talk about the GB's that give QI boost.  Blue QI fighters got the much better deal as the CDM copper tier gives base fight boosts and FP.

Red QI fighters are getting screwed.  It took a while to find someone to take a screen shot of the Virgo Project.  So this has been a useless building for a long time and you can judge if it still is.  I'd bet nobody has the ability to open level 400 because it's never on the 1.9 threads.

For people that built this in anticipation of getting red QI boosts there will surely be some buyer's regret.  I would probably be able to justify putting it in my city if it was already levelled to 400 but considering the cost to level it?  Give me a break.

That's the cost of just opening a low level.  The refinery will act as a goods sink while the actual levelling will act as a FP sink.  And some GB's are still trash.

So it's very early morning and we want to give you as much information as possible so here are the rest of the GB's boosts.

Show me someone with a huge Atlantis Museum and I'll show you an a-hole.  What a complete waste of a building.  Does anyone still plunder and if you do who hurt you?  Did mommy not hug you enough?

To be fair to the Atomium (spelled incorrect in game) which is garbage now.  You may want to keep this when the next set of upgrades come out.

You'll notice a lot of these that do not have tiers are still never build.  Just remember that these too will get upgrades and those upgrades may be for game mechanics that are not out yet and very scarce boost when they do so the value goes from nothing to must have.

For all the old players that remember the Holly Trinity of GB's you'll be happy to see they're good again.  Hurt my heart to delete all of them.

Of the three the Zeus got the short-end here but it's so tiny.  For me that 6% boost translates to about 2400.

Anyone around long enough to remember when the CF was so good they nerfed it?  Well it's a top-tier GB again!  Given the costs to upgrade GB's people will start doing RQ again.

Inno shit the bed when they made this a GE boost.  What a wasted opportunity to make this building great.

The Space Carrier may have just become obsolete by upgrading it.  The usual strategy of building the SC to lv58, then destroying it and power levelling it again to lv58 from OF onwards is over.  It's just too expensive to level and tear down, repeat.  It's better now to level it (if you build it at all) and keep until you're in the most current age.  Conversely if you're farther on the continent map than you are in the tech tree you no longer need this building.  You'll get enough from excavation sites to age up fast if you've already cleared the map in space ages.

I think that covers all of them.  Hope this helps when planning what to start building on live server.

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