What are the best Great Buildings? I get asked this question a lot. Let's settle this today, with my Great Building
Tier List for Forge of Empires for 2024. Here's how it works. I've got all the Great Buildings currently
in the game right here, and I'm going to be placing them into tiers. S tier is the best, the greatest great buildings. D is the worst, where I would avoid building
these ones. I've also added a "Situational" rank, where
I'll put Great Buildings that can be good, but most players should probably avoid them. We'll be going in order of the Great Buildings
by age, starting with the no-age Great Buildings. First up is the Observatory. It provides guild goods and support pool,
in a pretty decent size of only 3x3. This one goes in the A tier. With the Guild Battlegrounds update, guild
goods are more important than ever, and this is by far the most efficient Great Building
for guild goods. Next is the Temple of Relics. This one is interesting. It ranks terribly in terms of the resources
it provides - almost always worst in Forge Points and Goods, but it has two redeeming
qualities. First, it is the best Great Building for generating
trade coins and gems for the Antiques Dealer, which can be used to help level your castle
system faster to get to those three expansions at the higher levels, and the Temple of Relics
is also the best provider of Fountains of Youth, giving 43 on average every year at
level 100. If you're working on getting a diamond farm
up and running, I recommend placing this building down. Otherwise, I'd probably stay away from it. Therefore? The Temple of Relics is going in Situational. Our last No-Age Great Building is the Oracle
of Delphi. It provides supplies and happiness, and immediately
is our first Great Building in the D tier. Moving on to the Bronze Age, we have the Tower
of Babel. It provides population and unrefined goods,
and can go live right next to the Oracle in D-tier. The good news is that the other Bronze Age
Great Building, the Statue of Zeus, isn't nearly as bad! This one is only 2x3, and provides attack
boosts! Thanks to its small size and great efficiency,
it's going into the A tier. Now in the Iron Age, we have both the Lighthouse
of Alexandria and Colosseum. The Lighthouse provides unrefined goods and
a supply boost, and the Colosseum provides medals and happiness. All of these boosts are necessary for a healthy
city, so they get to go into the S tier. Just kidding. These are both low D. In the Early Middle Ages, you can get the
Hagia Sophia, which is 6x7 and provides happiness and forge points! However, it's efficiency is so bad that it
takes until level 70 to hit 1 forge point per tile. This goes straight to the high D tier. As for the Cathedral of Aachen though, I think
it deserves a higher rank. This 4x6 building gives us attack boosts and
coins, and is decent for them. Due to the Cathedral's large size, I can't
give this as high of a ranking as the Statue of Zeus, but for me, it's definitely still
A-tier. Future events may begin powercreeping the
Cathedral soon, but until we can fill our cities with ultra powerful event buildings
like the gold league buildings, I think it's still worth placing. The Early Middle Ages also have a third Great
Building, the Galata Tower. It provides a chance at plunder protection
and unrefined goods. It can be pretty efficient for those goods,
but as they are unrefined, it won't be that useful past the Modern Era. Not to mention, the plunder protection isn't
something that should matter, as you should be trying to collect your city when your productions
have just completed, avoiding any chance of being plundered regardless. As such, I'm putting the Galata Tower in the
C tier. Some players might find it useful, but most
won't. Moving on to the High Middle Ages, the St.
Mark's Basilica is 6x6, provides a coin boost and unrefined goods, and is a waste of space. Just use coin boost items, or build event
buildings with coin production, if you really need more coins. As per goods, you'd have to reach over level
60 to get the same goods per tile efficiency as a Sleigh Builder. The Basilica is going to D tier. Notre Dame... what do I even say about this
one. Supplies and happiness, basically a bigger,
more expensive Oracle. Friends don't let friends build it, and it
takes its rightful place in the D tier. We've got a lot of great buildings in the
lower tiers... maybe the Late Middle Ages will help? First up is the St. Basil's Cathedral, and
things already aren't looking good for it. It provides defense boosts, coins, and support
pool. However, as Guild vs Guild is passing on,
that means nothing. The defense boosts are decent, I suppose. However, it's currently not worth investing
in. A lot of the modern event buildings we have
are more than able to support the defense needed for Guild Expeditions level 5, and
beyond that there's not much of a use for defense. The St. Basil's can take D tier. The second Great Building of the Late Middle
Ages is the third of the Attack Trinity. The Castel del Monte is 5x5 and provides both
attack boosts and Forge Points, making it any easy choice for anyone wanting to build
up either of those bonuses. It is slightly less efficient than the Cathedral
of Aachen, but the return on investment is better, due to the Forge Points it provides. I'm putting the Castel in A tier, above the
Cathedral. In the Colonial Age, we have the Deal Castle,
with defense boosts, support pool, and medals and a massive 7x7 size, and the Frauenkirche
of Dresden, a 5x5 building giving us happiness and unrefined goods. Both of these are ones you should not build. They're just too inefficient for what they
provide, and so both of them go to the D tier. The Industrial Age brings us the Capitol,
a massive great building giving population and supplies. This one is easily forgettable, as population
isn't something that most players need, and if you do, I would just recommend event buildings
instead of a Great Building. Don't bother with it, D tier. We also have the Royal Albert Hall, another
huge great building giving a supply boost and unrefined goods. It's basically a chonky Lighthouse of Alexandria. It's terribly inefficient, so D tier. If you really need supplies, there are better
options that we'll discuss later. Moving on to the Progressive Era, things are
about to get spicy. This era has two of the most popular Great
Buildings - the Chateau Frontenac and Alcatraz. The Chateau is 5x6, and provides coins and
a boost to quest rewards. This can include boosts to diamonds. The big benefit of the Chateau is if you're
using it to loop recurring quests, and completing ones such as the Unbirthday quest over and
over daily to get tons of goods. For those who use it like that, and reach
the limit of 2000 aborted quests per day, this great building is incredibly powerful. However, most players with this Great Building
will never be looping through all of those quests to get the benefit. For quite a few players, this great building
just sits there, only used when aging up to generate extra diamonds from the new recurring
quests. As such, I'm putting the Chateau in Situational. If you will be looping quests daily, by all
means, build it. But if you're not going to put in the amount
of time every single day required for looping quests, I'd save yourself the space and build
something else instead. As for the Alcatraz, it is currently the only
Great Building that produces happiness and unattached units. It only produces units per the barracks that
you have in your city, so you can control which ones you get. As such, many players find the Alcatraz a
must-have in your city if you plan on fighting. I'm not so sure. Event buildings are starting to get much closer
to the efficiency of even a high level Alcatraz. The PY-R8 Marauders from the 2023 Summer Event
give 1 artillery unit per tile, the efficiency of a level 72 Alcatraz. The Cider Garden from the Fall Event gives
us an average of 0.75 light units per tile, including next age units, or rogues if you're
in Space Age Titan, and the Raccoon Hideout from the 2024 Fall Event gives 1 rogue in
2 tiles. Of course, none of these buildings are as
good per tile as a high level Alcatraz, and only give specific units, but they also give
plenty of other bonuses as well, such as attack boosts, goods, and forge points. Especially with the removal of Guild vs Guild,
I just don't think that the Traz is an S-tier great building anymore. Sure, you'll go through plenty of units in
Guild Battlegrounds, but it's important to remember the difference between your attrition
limit and where you're killing your entire army in fights. I think most players should still be building
an Alcatraz, but I'm beginning to lean towards just building some of these event buildings
that give units and other rewards too. They're easier to fit in your city, and are
more broadly useful. Alcatraz is going to high A-tier. Now, before we jump over to the Modern Era
Great Buildings, I want to mention that you can fill out your own tier list and share
it over on my Discord server! Simply join via the link in the description,
head on over to the video discussion forum, and you'll find the info there. I'm interested to see where you would place
some of these Buildings! Alright, back to the Modern Era. This era brings the Space Needle, which gives
happiness and coins, and belongs in the low D tier. The Atomium gives guild goods and happiness,
but is pretty big too. Personally, I don't like it. It's the worst great building in terms of
guild goods per tile, and is more expensive than the Arc and Observatory to level. I like to think of it as only worth it if
your guild is burning guild goods. Many guilds are able to be competitive and
don't need the guild goods from the Atomium. However, if you are in that situation where
you need the goods, it's a decent option, just not the best option. Therefore, I think the Atomium can sit comfortably
in the B tier. In the Postmodern Era, we're given the Cape
Canaveral, a 4x5 building that gives Forge Points. It's the second most efficient Great Building
for return on your investment with Forge Points, is relatively small, and is not that great
a choice. The Cape provides only Forge Points. Nothing else. When you compare it to modern event buildings,
it's just not worth it anymore to build and level. Take the Thundering Laboratory of Monsters,
from the 2023 Halloween Event. The Lab provides up to 27 Forge Points in
the same space as the Cape. However, it also provides tons of attack,
goods, guild goods, and fragments. Those attack boosts would probably more than
make up for the fewer Forge Points from the Lab, and I'll be removing my own Cape soon
to replace it with a Lab of Monsters. The Cape can go to C-tier, then. It's not terrible, but I won't be recommending
it to anyone. The other Postmodern Great Building is the
Habitat, and easily forgettable Great Building providing population and coins. Not worth the Forge Points, we're putting
it in D-tier. The Contemporary Era gives us one of the most
visually striking Great Buildings, the Lotus Temple. It's a shame that the Temple only gives happiness
and coins, and that this beautiful design is crammed into our rather crowded D-tier. There will be even more Great Buildings in
the D tier before we're done. The other Contemporary Era Great Building
is the Innovation Tower, which gives population and forge points. In my opinion, it's not worth building. It is the most efficient Great Building for
population, but it's rare to see a player needing that population outside of Guild vs
Guild players, and that's irrelevant now. If you need population and for some reason
can't get event buildings that provide enough, it's a worthy choice, but otherwise is something
that you should avoid. C-tier. The Tomorrow Era has some of the most unique
looking Great Buildings in the game. The Truce Tower is 6x5, animated, and will
provide supplies and aid goods. You get one good from the age of the building
you aided, limited to a certain number of goods per collection of the Truce Tower. Some players swear by the Tower for trading
down goods, but goods are given aplenty from event buildings now, so I don't think it's
even worth buying goods to trade down with forge points. Regardless, the Truce Tower is going to the
D tier. It's the first great building I ever got to
level 10, so I've got to give it the highest place in the D tier. The other Great Building from the Tomorrow
Era is the Voyager V1, a 4x7 waste of space providing supplies and plunder goods. It's like the Truce Tower, but even worse
since it requires you to actually successfully plunder a building. D tier. The Future brings some fresh new Great Buildings! The Arc is 7x5, provides guild goods and a
contribution reward on other players' Great Buildings. It's not best-in-class for Guild Goods, but
it's not a bad option either. The contribution reward is ok, but most players
really don't need more medals and blueprints anyways. As such, I'm putting the Arc into the B tier. Nah, I'm just kidding. The Arc is probably the single most powerful
building in the game, and enables us to level all of our other Great Buildings faster and
more efficiently. I'm happy to move it to be the first Great
Building in the S tier. It's incredibly useful. The Rainforest Project, the other Great Building
from the Future, is not useful. It provides unrefined goods and an increase
to the chance that you get a blueprint from aiding other players. However, you can just generate blueprints
from the Arc instead, so this boost is meaningless. It does look nice though. D tier. Moving on to the Arctic Future, first up is
the Gaea Statue. It gives you the amazing bonuses of medals
and happiness, basically a more expensive Colosseum. D tier. I'll put it above the Colosseum though, as
it does look really nice and is smaller than the Colosseum. The Arctic Future also has the Arctic Orangery. This Great Building gives forge points, but
more importantly, also gives your units a chance to do a critical hit, dealing 1.5x
the damage they normally would. The only drawback is that this chance only
applies when units are attacking units of the same age. If you are using Higher Age Units, don't bother
with the Orangery. However, if you are fighting units of the
same age, it's a must-build. As such, I'm giving the Arctic Orangery the
prestigious rank of S-tier. One of the big reasons for this ranking is
that the Orangery is future-proof. While other attack Great Buildings may eventually
be powercrept by event buildings, this Great Building amplifies whatever attack boosts
you may have, whether those are from Great Buildings or event buildings. The third Great Building of the Arctic Future
is one that many players have been ignoring for far too long. Meet the Seed Vault, a 5x6 Great Building
that I would take over the Chateau Frontenac any day. The Seed Vault gives you supplies and a chance
to get rewards from aiding other players. That doesn't sound like a big deal, until
you realize that those rewards include goods and diamonds. While the Chateau provides more goods, you
can reliably produce hundreds of goods per day from the Seed Vault too. As per those diamonds? Well, with a max friends list, neighborhood,
and guild, you can aid close to 300 people per day. The chance for diamonds is low, but get the
Seed Vault to level 100 and you're looking at averaging over 8700 diamonds per year. The most powerful part is that the Seed Vault
is extremely low maintenance. Unlike the Chateau, where you need to be looping
recurring quests every day, all you need to do for the Seed Vault is hit the aid all button
3 times a day and collect the bountiful rewards. A level 100 Seed Vault provides more diamonds
per year than two worlds where you complete Guild Expeditions weekly. In short, it's a must-build for any player,
even if you spend money in the game. 8700 diamonds per year per world with a level
100 Seed Vault is nothing to scoff at. Assuming no diamond deal offers, that's the
equivalent of a free $60 or so worth of diamonds. I can't stress how good of an investment this
Great Building is. Or maybe I can. The Seed Vault gets S tier. Swimming over to the Oceanic Future, the Atlantis
Museum is 6x7 and can double plunder rewards and will produce unrefined goods. However, do you really plunder anymore? I'm sure some people can find a use for the
Atlantis Museum, but I would rather aid those people with the Seed Vault than hope I get
lucky and can snag a good plunder. I'll give it high D tier. It's just not worth the space. The Kraken, the next Great Building from the
Oceanic Future, is 5x5, has a really cool animation, and gives Forge Points and a chance
to kill one of the enemy units at the start of a battle in a limited number of fights
per collection. This Great Building is ok if you collect it
when you're at high attrition, but it can often just be an unnecessary boost and feel
very hit-or-miss. Even when it does hit, it's not as good as
I'd like it to be. Not to mention, to delay collecting it in
order to have charges for when you're at high attrition is a pain and can get annoying if
you use collect all. I'm giving it C tier. The third Great Building from the Oceanic
Future is a different story. The Blue Galaxy is 7x5, and will give you
medals and a chance to double the collections of a limited number of buildings in your city
per collection. This doubling bonus makes the Blue Galaxy
extremely powerful. It can double long chain sets, providing tons
of Forge Points, it can double fragments from gold league buildings or just the normal event
buildings, and can even double diamonds from wishing wells. I highly recommend this building to boost
your collections, especially if you've got buildings that provide many Forge Points. In fact, if you're doubling buildings that
produce at least 15 Forge Points per day, the Blue Galaxy is the cheapest Great Building
by return on investment! Automatic S tier. Not to mention, the power of the Blue Galaxy
only increases the more powerful event buildings we get, since it only amplifies their rewards. Next up is the Virtual Future, bringing us
the Terracotta Army. This 4x6 building is like a combo Cathedral
of Aachen and St Basil's Cathedral, giving both attack boosts and defense boosts. However, this comes at a price. The Terracotta Army is much more expensive
than the Great Buildings focusing explicitly on attack or defense. With attack and defense both being needed
now, for features such as the Guild Expeditions, I like the Terracotta Army. I just wish it was a little bit more efficient. I'm going to give it low B tier, as I think
it is still useful, but that it shouldn't be your first choice for attack boost Great
Buildings. The second Great Building from the Virtual
Future is the Himeji Castle, and this one is debated on its usefulness. It's not more efficient than event buildings
for Forge Points, doesn't provide a sizable number of goods daily, and is worse than a
Wishing Well for diamonds, even at very high levels. This Great Building is one of the most overhyped
Great Buildings in the game, but when you do the math, it's just not as good as it sounds. C tier. If we board our rocket and blast off to Space
Age: Mars, we discover the Virgo Project. This 5x5 Great Building provides coins and
a chance to kill half the enemy army at the start of a battle, for a limited number of
fights per collection. Basically, this is an even more limited Kraken.
C tier. The other Mars Great Building is the Star
Gazer. It's 5x5, and provides previous age goods. It is the only Great Building that directly
provides previous age goods, but caps out at 150 goods per day, or about 5.5 goods per
tile. If you need previous age goods that badly,
I'd prefer some of the event buildings we've been getting where they provide both previous
age goods as well as attack boosts, forge points, or other rewards. I'll give the Star Gazer C tier. In Space Age: Asteroid Belt, we got only one
Great Building, the Space Carrier. This 7x4 building is like the negotiations
version of the Himeji Castle, and also provides special goods. It's useful to level this quickly if you're
trying to move through the Arctic or Oceanic Futures faster. Other than that, it's not particularly noteworthy
except for the fact that it rarely will pay out a Diplomatic Gifts selection kit, which
lets you choose wishing wells or a wishing well shrink kit. It's the only Great Building that can give
a Wishing Well Shrink Kit, which when combined with the special goods, saves this Great Building
from the C tier. Instead, it's going in situational, because
I'd recommend it for diamond farms or players trying to age up quickly. Space Age: Venus gives us the Flying Island,
a beautiful Great Building. It gives you a chance to collect a shard every
4 hours in the Cultural Settlements that can give you rewards like goods or Forge Points. Unfortunately, the Flying Island is just about
the worst Great Building for either of those boosts, save for the Temple of Relics. Just don't build this one. I know it looks pretty, but that's about all
it does for you. D tier. Moving on to Space Age: Jupiter Moon, we find
the A.I. Core. This dynamic great building with a great animation
is 5x5 and produces guild goods as well as a boost to any special goods you collect from
the Arctic Harbor, Oceanic Terminal, and synthesizers. I don't find the secondary bonus to be that
compelling. It speeds up your progress through those ages,
yes, but to me that's not worth the investment. Once you reach the Space Ages, you're better
off just staying in the age, building up all the special goods you need, and moving on. The compelling part of the A.I. Core is its guild goods, but it is one of
the most expensive options for that. I guess we'll give it B tier, but to me the
A.I. Core is one that you could never build and
still be happy with. You might notice there are only 3 Great Buildings
left! The Space Age Titan Great Buildings are all
something extremely unique - they require Space Age Titan goods to level past level
10, and they are extremely expensive as a result. They are also extremely powerful, with attack
and defense boosts, forge points, guild goods, and previous age goods. If you can get the goods to level these Great
Buildings cheaply, they are awesome. But if you can't get the goods at a decent
rate, you're going to be spending a lot of Forge Points to level these. We'll have to see what the goods market for
Space Age Titan goods looks like once the next age comes out, as a sudden decrease in
Space Age Titan players could make goods prices increase rapidly. I'm going to put these in their own special
tier, the SATGB tier. Space Age Titan Great Buildings. I don't think they're S, as they're pretty
expensive, but they don't feel right for A tier either. We'll have to re-evaluate these after the
next age comes out. And so there we have it! The final list, with:
The Arc, Seed Vault, Blue Galaxy, and Arctic Orangery in the S tier
The Alcatraz, Zeus, Castel del Monte, Cathedral of Aachen, and Observatory in A
The A.I. Core, Atomium, and Terracotta Army in B. The Himeji Castle, Kraken, Cape Canaveral,
Star Gazer, Virgo Project, Innovation Tower, and Galata Tower are in C.
Then, we have the Chateau Frontenac, Temple of Relics, and Space Carrier in Situational. Build 'em if you can benefit from 'em, otherwise
I'd avoid them. The Space Age Titan Great Buildings make up
their own special ranking, congrats to them. And finally, the rest of the Great Buildings
are in the D tier. These are the ones you shouldn't bother placing. Do you agree with my choices, or would you
rank some buildings differently? Let me know in the comments, or over on my
Discord server, linked in the description. Hope you enjoyed this really long video, and
as always, I'll see you all next time.
