FoE Cultural Settlements: Basics & Strategies

In Forge of Empires, there is a feature that looks optional at first glance but provides a significant advantage over the long term: Settlements. Those who use them permanently have more ambassadors, stronger buildings and therefore better combat bonuses, more FP and goods than players who ignore them.

This guide explains from scratch how settlements work, what you need to consider, and which culture is worth it when – without having to click through dozens of wiki pages.

1. What Are Settlements?

Settlements are independent of your city: You build a small village on a separate map with its own currency and goods. The goal is to complete a quest chain – after which the settlement closes and you can restart it at any time.

The Flow: Start desired settlement → Complete quest chain → Claim reward (main building + ambassador) → Start new settlement or repeat the same one for better levels.

Access

• Unlock: Iron Age, technology "Plowing"
• After that, a boat appears in the northeast of your city, which you use to travel there
• Only one active settlement at a time is allowed

The Separate Economy

Each settlement has:

• Its own currency (copper coins, koban, rupees, cocoa beans, debens …)
• 4 cultural goods that you need to produce
• Diplomacy buildings, which provide a diplomacy value

Buildings are unlocked through so-called embassy progress – either through a certain amount of goods or through a diplomacy value. That's exactly what our Settlement Calculator plans for you.

Obstacles

On the settlement map, random rocks or swamps lie around that block building spots. These obstacles can be removed with a pickaxe, which you get as a quest reward or by using diamonds.

2. Production Cycles: 5 / 10 / 20 Hours

All cultural goods buildings produce in fixed intervals – regardless of culture:

Practical tip: With each harvest there's a chance of getting 4× the amount of goods. Two 5h productions give you this chance twice as often as a single 10h production – so use the 5h rhythm consistently during the day and only use longer cycles when you're not around.

3. Rewards per Run

Every settlement rewards each completed run – the exact distribution varies by culture:

The number of runs until max level varies by culture (10–15). The exact order of ambassadors and upgrade kits can be found in the respective culture guides.

Ambassadors

Honored guests from the settlement who settle in the town hall of your capital. Each grants a daily bonus (FP, goods, units or production bonuses), which is paid out when collecting the town hall tax. Per settlement there are 2–6 ambassadors – they're a passive permanent bonus and often the real reason to run a settlement multiple times.

Important: The time limits only apply to the fragment rewards of the secondary building. You receive the main building kit and ambassadors regardless of duration.

"Exalted" Buildings (Endless Loop)

In the past, a culture was "done" once the main building reached maximum level. That has been completely changed:

1. If you play through a settlement again whose main building is already maxed, you receive fragments for an "Exalted" upgrade kit.
2. This kit pushes your main building to an extremely powerful bonus level for 28 days.
3. After that it falls back to the normal maximum level.

In earlier phases of the game, the normal max levels are often already enough – then you only need to play the settlement when you're working on it anyway.

4. The 7 Cultures at a Glance

Each culture has its own gameplay mechanic and its own main building. Here's the compact comparison:

All main buildings also grant different combat power bonuses for Quantum Invasions.

Brief Classification per Culture

⚒️ Vikings – The absolute starter settlement. No complex special mechanics. Perfect for learning the principle of "diplomacy rebuilds." Since it's the first settlement, the time limit here forgives the fewest mistakes.

🏯 Feudal Japan – Once a day a merchant visits you, where you can exchange unused goods from your main island for Japanese cultural goods. This significantly speeds up the run and makes Japan one of the most relaxed settlements.

🏺 Ancient Egypt – To get the currency (debens/loot), you fight 3-wave battles daily with desert units in a separate battle oasis. More time-consuming than other cultures, but the bathhouse generates units for your main army daily – a strong permanent advantage.

☀️ Aztecs – The daily mini-game (Minesweeper-like) at the marketplace reduces dependence on pure production timers. Those who cover tiles well breeze through the run within the time limit.

🕌 Mughal Empire – Considered the trickiest settlement: Residential and diplomacy buildings unfold extreme bonus effects when docked in an exact line to the main building or to each other. If you don't plan ahead, you quickly hit a dead end.

🗿 Polynesia – All buildings work without road connection. The settlement can be built extremely compactly. The Hut of Sacred Instruments provides massive combat bonuses for three guild modes (Battles, Expeditions, Quantum Incursions).

🏴‍☠️ Pirates – Like Polynesia, no roads needed. The special feature is a daily dice game (similar to Yahtzee), where you multiply your goods payouts through combinations. The Treasure Cove provides units from the next era – a strong bonus in the transition between eras.

5. Important Strategy Tips for Beginners

🚧 Diplomacy Push: The Most Important Trick

To unlock new buildings in research, you often need huge amounts of diplomacy. Here's how to crack the time limit:

1. Temporarily demolish residential/goods buildings (costs almost nothing) and pave the entire free area with the fastest diplomacy buildings.
2. Once the research is unlocked, demolish everything again and rebuild your economy.

Warning: In Egypt, Aztecs and Mughal Empire, roads have building costs – there you should not demolish roads, but only rebuild buildings.

🫥 Residential Buildings Don't Need Roads!

In all settlements with roads, residential buildings provide population even without road connection – they just don't produce cultural coins then. If you need more population, squeeze houses to the edge or into corners and use the valuable roads only for goods buildings.

6. How Long Does a Run Take?

Depending on culture and activity level (collecting 2× daily):

TL;DR

Settlements are an optional but extremely valuable long-term feature. You build a separate city, complete quests and get unique main buildings + ambassadors for your capital in return. Since 2024: 5/10/20h cycles, removable obstacles and the "Exalted" endless loop (28-day buffs).