Below are some tips designed for players in their first couple weeks who need to plan ahead for the next couple months. Your short-term goal is to gather Gold for Food Companies and Workout Area (Boot Camp & Military Academy) upgrades. Your long-term Goal is to establish a stable raw material supply for a Q1 House Company, start building Q1 Health Kits, and then max your Boot Camp and Military Academy to Q4. Your longer range goal is to establish a Weapon Company and upgrade it, but that is not described here because you likely will not reach that goal in two months. Your overall goal for the game is to afford sustainable upgrades that increase Strength & Intelligence and provide higher Q Health Kits and Helicopters for major battles.  



UPDATE: This article was written before Intelligence/Military Academies and Naval Battles were introduced to the game. As new players, you can have an important role in defending the country from naval invasions. Please upgrade your Military Academies to at least Q2 and support our coastal defences when the time comes!

7 Tips for New Players: a tl;dr 

1 – Save Gold for Upgrades
2 – FY1/Feed Yourself 1st
3 – Upgrade Boot Camp & Military Academy to Q2/Q3
4 – Beware the Boot Camp Q4 Quandary
5 – Win Medals, and then Win More Medals…never ever stop winning medals
6 – Build a House, Get MUrried, Have Helicopters
7 – Get Involved, Ask for Help, & Help Others 

1) Save Gold for Upgrades:
--Gold will come to you fast in the first week or two of playing, since you will win easy True Patriot meals (TP = 5 Gold each) and True Ally medals (TA = 2.5 Gold each). Don’t spend it on specialty items in the store or use it to buy expensive weapons. Save it for Company and Workout Area upgrades. Any Company you buy and upgrade will permanently boost your ability to fight and earn Gold through medals.

2) FY1 (Feed Yourself 1^st):
--Your Gold should first be used to establish basic Q1 food supply (3 or 4 food factories should be a good short-term goal). For each factory, buy a Q3 Grain Farms for raw material (best price vs. production output). If your Military Unit (MU) offers you food supply, then build only 2 or 3 factories+farms and save up for upgrading your Training Grounds.  Later, you will aim to produce excess food, which you could sell, but you would be better off using it to build Health Kits (more on that later).  3)    

3) Upgrade Workout Area(s) ASAP:
--Strength is your most important skill here. It will win you more medals, increase your rank faster, and help out Canada later on.

--Upgrading your Boot Camp as soon as you can to Q2 will help you gain more Gold for more upgrades. Faster Strength gain will earn you Super Soldier medals (5 Gold for every 250 Strength) and will let you do more damage, earning your more TP and TA medals.

--Steady & sustainable strength gain will benefit your country since you will be able to provide more damage. Strength never loses value and takes time to develop – so start early!     

4) Beginner Camp limits…a word of warning:
--Your Beginner Workout Area starts with giving +30 Str/day but will drop to +20 Str/day at 2000 Strength, and then down to +5 Str/day after you reach 3000 4000 5000 Strength. Therefore, unless you buy Gold, it is not worth investing too early in the expensive Gold Q4 Training Ground only to lose your +10 bonus sooner. Q2 and Q3 Bootcamps are good investments during 25% discounts but saving up another 170 Gold for the Q4 upgrade means your Gold sits in your account doing nothing when it could be invested in companies providing you supplies for more fights and medals.

--For 170 G, you could instead upgrade your Food Factories to Q2 or establish a Q1 House Factory. A House and extra Food will let you work twice and fight more each day, earning you Gold faster for the Q4 Bootcamp. Don’t rush to 2000 Strength without first covering your Food and House needs (opinions on this will differ). 

5) The real money is in Medals, not the Market:  
--As a new player, you will not be able make a profit by hiring employees. The economy is flooded with products because people make their own stuff, buy little, and sell any extra. Only Q5 companies can generate real profit. So don’t build companies with the aim of selling; build what you will need to supply your fights. 2.5 to 5 Gold won during regular fights is many times more profitable than using your energy to make extra food or raw materials to sell.
Edit: Read more about the stats for True Patriot, True Ally, and True Revolutionary medals in Jean Epsilon's article The profitability of medals

6) Houses…expensive but necessary:
--A Q1 House adds +50 Energy to your limit,one extra work-click, and slightly faster energy regeneration. Buying a Q1 house each week will cost 3-4 Gold, an expensive purchase considering a Q1 House can cost about 11 work-click wages in Canada (it is possible to earn higher income elsewhere) but will only provide 7 extra work-clicks. Not the best deal…unless you invest in making your own Q1 Houses. Be warned, construction requires lots of Raw Material so be prepared to invest 50-60 Gold to set up a House Factory, but after that you will have Q1 Houses each week forever.  
Edit: Read more about Houses in Toget's article eTutorial Step 3 - Houses

7) Make Connections:
--Get involved in the different discussion areas. Don’t be afraid to ask around to see what supplies each MU can offer. Once you join an MU, make your presence known. You will receive helpful tips when you need info and may receive some extra help with supplies or small loans for upgrades once people get to know and trust you. It’s a community-based game so become part of it. 


Agree? Disagree? Know how to do it better? Leave your own bits of advice below, and check out Part 2 of 7 Top Tips.