!WARNING! CONTAINS MINOR STORY SPOILERS !WARNING!

for v1.0.12

Dust magic and You: The potency of pillars

Arcana pillars; what they are, how they work and above it all, how to make the most of them.

Table of contents

1. The what & where

2. The how & why

3. The black horse

4. Wouldn’t be dust magic without..

5. The big picture

6. Numbers for the needy

6.1 Dust prices & pillar profits

6.2 City design breakdown

7. TL;DR



Hello and welcome to a little introductory guide on how to use the Ardent Mages pillar abilities. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject and I'm not an experienced guide writer so there might be some things that I've overlooked or are plain wrong. This guide was originally a set of notes I had for myself and I basically just fleshed it out a little bit so the very basics are included to make the examination a bit more consistent. It's actually only half of a guide as I'll happily ignore the spell portion of arcana skills. Mostly because I haven't playtested the abilities enough to make any kind of meaningful commentary about them.

So, Ardent Mages have access to these powerful traits called arcana pillars and spells (incantations). Lorewise, these arcana abilities are empowered by dust and therefore called as 'dust magic'. Without further ado, let's get started.





[HR][/HR]1. The what & where





There are five different arcana technologies available through your research. Finishing the techs will unlock their related active abilities that you must use on the strategic world map and in tactical combat. Pillars are used only on world map whereas spells (incantations) are used exclusively in battles. You will find the unlocked abilities below the top left menu banner of your screen, here:







The technologies that unlock the active abilities shown above are:







Alright! Now we have an idea what are the skills we're dealing with. Out of these five different arcanas, you have to research only three. You begin with both Arcana of Matter and Arcana of Agility researched - assuming you play the default Ardent Mages. Now let's add a few more technologies so we'll get a nice mix stirring up. In addition to the actual pillar/spell techs there's four separate technologies that improve your pillars and incantations by enhancing their effect passively.







Dust Purifier and Painosphere boost only your spells - the pillars are completely unaffected by these techs.

Dust Mechanics and Sacrificial Amplifiers buff your pillars and do nothing to your spells.

That sums up your basic arcana arsenal. Five pillars, five spells & support of four passives, two for both types of dust magic. Total of 9 tech, 7 requiring research.



Before we go on, let's take a quick peek at the hidden bonus technologies. Even though a custom faction can grab the basic pillars and spells, only Ardent Mages have access to exclusive technologies that enhance their arcana abilities. You guessed it, they're obtained through their storyline. Unless you're specifically pursuing the story, I recommend you don't aim to grab the second tech although it is incredibly powerful. The problem is that it comes so late in the game that by the time you attain it, the playthrough is practically over. There's only the wonder finisher left to do after you have access to the Secrets of the Virtuals.

The first one though, is good to keep in mind as it's attainable quite a bit earlier, reward for the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] part - The Secrets of Dust. The bonus it awards is decent and with a bit of luck and timing, it's obtainable without huge difficulties.







The winter versions award an extra +3 FIDS (+1 on pillar of Influence) during winters. This is explained in detail below, read on.





[HR][/HR]2. The how & why





The pillars act as deployable, immovable objects. You pick any pillar available to you from the top left menu and place it anywhere on the world map. Each placed pillar costs a certain amount of dust and this price keeps increasing by every consequtive pillar that's active on the world map by your hand. The placement tile must be free of other objects, such as city districts & minor faction villages. Water tiles are also unusable. Once placed, a pillar cannot be removed until it expires after 10 turns. You can move armies to tiles occupied by them.

It’s good to keep in mind that you cannot begin a borough production on a tile that holds a pillar so it’s wise to plan a bit ahead with their placements.



The pillars -excluding the pillar of speed which is a special case and will be discussed in length in the next chapter- increase the FIDSI output of their nearby tiles. Range 1 on the tooltip means that the pillar affects a total of 7 tiles; the placement tile itself and 1 in each direction, similar to a new city center. The FIDSI bonus stacks which means you can place multiple pillars close to each other and every single one gives increasing bonuses to the tile(s) affected.



Basically what we want to do with the pillars is to place them next to our cities in a way that awards us the highest possible FIDSI bonus with the least possible (due to dust cost) amount of pillars used. It's important to note that the FIDSI bonus on a city tile is susceptible to all multipliers you gain from buildings, heroes, empire plan, luxuries and traits.

In other words, the more pillar-powered tiles the city can exploit, the better.



Simple enough, no? Now, let's see how the passives add flavor in the mix and how to make sense of the obscure tooltip of the pillars.

Both the pillars and spells have five distinctive levels of power which is not exactly well explained through the tooltips. They begin at level 1 and can attain level upgrade four times bringing them to the level 5 versions of themselves. The passive technologies mentioned earlier (Dust Mechanics and Sacrificial Amplifiers) increase these levels by 1 each. By playing the Ardent Mage storyline you can reach the high levels of 4 & 5 as the storyline finisher tech gives a direct +2 to all your arcana ability levels. This is how the arcana pillar levels work:

• Level 1: +2 FIDS (+1 Influence) within range of the respective pillar. Radius of 1 tile.
• Level 2: +5 FIDS (+2 Influence) within range of the respective pillar. Radius of 1 tile.
• Level 3: +6 FIDS (+2 Influence) within range of the respective pillar. Radius of 2 tiles.
• Level 4: +9 FIDS (+3 Influence) within range of the respective pillar. Radius of 2 tiles.
• Level 5: +16 FIDS (+5 Influence) within range of the respective pillar. Radius of 2 tiles.
  
  

Note the level 3 upgrade. You will increase the radius by 1 tile which is huge. You'll jump from 7 potential tiles to a whopping 19, though you rarely can utilize them all. Nevertheless, the bonus is massive but before you begin to shake in excitement uncontrollably, bear in mind that reaching level 3 requires you to either enter Era VI or finish the story so sadly it will stay out of reach for a big portion of the game. It is worthwhile to push up all the way to level 5 at least once, though, just for the amusement factor. The stacking bonuses from overlapping radius 2 pillars elevate your FIDSI gain to outrageously absurd amounts. You have to do it to understand the scope.

Since unlocking the level 3 pillars either by two tech tree upgrades with later being in 6th era or more or less finishing the Ardent Mage storyline, we’ll focus on the practical use of the levels one and two which are what you'll be dealing mostly with.



Now as we understand how the pillars work and what they do the pieces of puzzle begin to come together. We'll see that the Cold Operator technology (#5 storyline quest reward) awards +3 FIDS (+1 Influence) within range of the respective pillar during winter. This is a flat bonus on top of the usual FIDSI increase. It's good. It's not a gamemaker but it's good.





[HR][/HR]3. The black horse





Oh, yes you've seen it. It's right up there, where the pillar of industry should be. Must be a glitch or some.. practical joke. You tried it once, just once and never went that way again. What the hell is this thing? A tiny little piece of crap you can toss wherever and it stays there blinking and saving you a unbelievable 1 movement point or whatever still leaving you stuck in that forest with the Haunts just uphill. And because of it you can't buyout that library now. And your science pillar costs more!? Who thought this was a good idea? Oh, yes we've all been there.



This here is the pillar of speed and what it does.

• Level 1: -50% movement cost on affected tiles. Radius of 1 tile.
• Level 2: -50% movement cost on affected tiles. Radius of 2 tiles.
• Level 3: -75% movement cost on affected tiles. Radius of 3 tiles.
• Level 4: -75% movement cost on affected tiles. Radius of 3 tiles.
• Level 5: -75% movement cost on affected tiles. Radius of 4 tiles.
  
  

The Cold Operator upgrades the movement cost reduction from -50% to -75% on low level pillars. It’s unclear whether this effect should apply only during winter. As of now, the boost is permanent.



The pillar of speed is used very differently than the rest of them. Normally you place pillars next to your cities but this one is fairly the opposite. It is an ability that falls into the realm of "situational gimmick" and it’s easy to write it off as a useless dust sink. The situations where it's worthwhile might be rare and far between but it has its moments. Use it to:[LIST=1]

Win a settler race for a new region.

Escape an overwhelming enemy force.

Rush to aid a border town under siege.

Enhance mobility between the border of you and your rival when starting a war.

Flank your opponent utilizing rough terrain.

[/LIST]One of the major benefits is probably that in MP your rival won't take it into account when planning his move. It is, after all, a situational dust sink gimmick that nobody uses.. Use this to your advantage when the opportunity arises. Also it’s worth mentioning that the pillar gains fairly powerful bonuses as the level increases. Having a level 2 pillar with Cold Operator bonus means you’ll travel 5 tiles with the cost of 1.25, it's nothing to sneeze at.



However, the pillar of speed in its current state has two major drawbacks. First of all, the mechanics are slightly broken. The thing is, each tile on the map has a movement cost tied to it. The pillar reduces this movement cost by its descriptive amount.. Unless we’re looking at a paved road tile.

It seems to be that the movement cost of paved road tiles is fixed to the 0.5 which unfortunately means that the pillar does nothing at all on road tiles. It simply doesn't affect the tile in any way. The road actually slows us down if we’re using -75% reduction on flat land! It’ll get fixed eventually I hope.



Secondly, it's tied to the rest of your pillars that means using it just for the fun of it whenever you feel like getting a little movement bonus, it will mess up your pillar expenses. Which brings us to the next chapter.





[HR][/HR]4. Wouldn’t be dust magic without..





As they say, there is no free lunch. Placing the pillars has a dust cost that’s based on the amount of pillars you’ve put in play. It’s a dynamic system meaning that when there’s none at all, they’re cheap to deploy. When there’s a lot, it’s expensive. When a pillar runs out, the cost decreases again.

What’s more, the cost is elevated when you upgrade the level of your pillars with Dust Mechanics and/or Sacrificial Amplifiers. Don’t worry about the intimidating increase in pillar price due to arcana level up though, the benefits far surpass the nominal increase in the initial placement fee.



Due to the way the pricing of the pillars work, it is strongly recommended to use them in a bulk. If, for example you maintain 3 pillars constantly but re-deploy them all on different turns, you pay the price equal to third pillar for each. If you place all three on one single turn, the price of first and second deployed pillar is less. Here's a simple example to illustrate what I mean:

Bulk placement: 40+105+200=345

Singular placement: 200+200+200=600

See section 6.1 for more details on pillar dust costs and FIDSI gain.



In most cases it's safe to keep 2 FIDSI pillars up at all times, no matter what type they are and where they're placed. With properly developed cities, 3 and 4 permanent pillars are reasonable to maintain as the multipliers from various sources (hero skills, luxury boosters etc.) push the income of FIDSI over the cost of dust involved. If you desire, it’s possible to increase your dust revenue by keeping relatively few pillars up (1-2 in most cases). If the total dust cost of “pillar stack” is less than what they produce through their lifetime of 10 turns, the rich get richer!

Excellent guide. I've only tried the ardent mages once, and found myself completely lost. Will have to give it a go soon.



Question, what victory do you generally go for?

Wow, awesome guide - hope you also post this on Steam, where guides get healthy traffic. Thank you!

Great work.

I did not know about the 5 levels of pillar and the range of 2, which however comes too far in the game to prove very useful as you said.

For the city designs, while I admire the art, I doubt they are worth doing only to get pillars from 5 to 6 tiles, if you have to sacrifice a number of level 2 districts in the process.

Flawless star is great but you cannot upgrade it in something efficient level 2 district wise.

Tigregalis wrote:
Excellent guide. I've only tried the ardent mages once, and found myself completely lost. Will have to give it a go soon.



Question, what victory do you generally go for?

I find myself leaning towards the more aggressive ways to victory though I like the idea of the more peaceful paths on paper. So far I've beaten the game once on each condition just for the sake of exploring and through maybe a dozen playthroughs or so, I think supremacy victory has been the most common outcome.

NucleusAccumbens wrote:
Wow, awesome guide - hope you also post this on Steam, where guides get healthy traffic. Thank you!

Done, thanks for the nice tip.

Ulto wrote:
Great work.

I did not know about the 5 levels of pillar and the range of 2, which however comes too far in the game to prove very useful as you said.

For the city designs, while I admire the art, I doubt they are worth doing only to get pillars from 5 to 6 tiles, if you have to sacrifice a number of level 2 districts in the process.

Flawless star is great but you cannot upgrade it in something efficient level 2 district wise.

Yes. It's briefly mentioned in the guide too; after the cities grow enough, the stick form will take over in efficiency. Up to 11 districts though, it seems to be that the illustrated shapes are the better choice, at least as Ardent Mages. You won't sacrifice lv2 districts unless you go for the pillar build of twin peaks which isn't actually all that great. The thing is, games won't last forever and from my experience, you won't get to build much larger cities in any case, score victory outcluded.



Also, if you've an ample supply of luxuries and a wealthy empire, it's quite likely that you can push approval rate through the roof. Off the top of my hat, you can get something close to +200 approval from various bonuses for endgame purposes. If you have an oversupply of approval, the city shape doesn't matter that much.



What's more, the shapes that utilize the pillars to maximum benefit give you a decent amount of extra FIDSI (via both extra pillar tile and the city exploitation) throughout the early and mid-game while the lv2 district amount stays equal, giving you an edge. Someone could crack the numbers for good but I'm fairly positive that the pillar builds are worthwhile option.

Small tidbit missing: can't place a pillar on water. Very interesting guide otherwise.

Falc wrote:
Small tidbit missing: can't place a pillar on water. Very interesting guide otherwise.

Thanks for the heads up. I'd edit the OP but for some reason when I click 'edit post' I get a blank page, as if the post would be empty. I'll add it to the steam version anyway.

nnwork wrote:


Yes. It's briefly mentioned in the guide too; after the cities grow enough, the stick form will take over in efficiency. Up to 11 districts though, it seems to be that the illustrated shapes are the better choice, at least as Ardent Mages. You won't sacrifice lv2 districts unless you go for the pillar build of twin peaks which isn't actually all that great. The thing is, games won't last forever and from my experience, you won't get to build much larger cities in any case, score victory outcluded.



Also, if you've an ample supply of luxuries and a wealthy empire, it's quite likely that you can push approval rate through the roof. Off the top of my hat, you can get something close to +200 approval from various bonuses for endgame purposes. If you have an oversupply of approval, the city shape doesn't matter that much.



What's more, the shapes that utilize the pillars to maximum benefit give you a decent amount of extra FIDSI (via both extra pillar tile and the city exploitation) throughout the early and mid-game while the lv2 district amount stays equal, giving you an edge. Someone could crack the numbers for good but I'm fairly positive that the pillar builds are worthwhile option.

It depends of your playstyle. If you play custom with cellulose mutation (one district every worker), you will reach 11 districts in your capital pretty quickly.

Besides, having districts level 2 is not only about happiness, it is about influence and science through both the district yields but especially through the two city improvements +15 influence / + 15 science per level 2 district.

nnwork wrote:
Thanks for the heads up. I'd edit the OP but for some reason when I click 'edit post' I get a blank page, as if the post would be empty. I'll add it to the steam version anyway.

I have the same bug with my post.

A temporary fix is reply with quote to yourself, copy the text then edit and paste. But the problem does not go away and you have to do it every time.

Ulto wrote:
It depends of your playstyle. If you play custom with cellulose mutation (one district every worker), you will reach 11 districts in your capital pretty quickly.

Besides, having districts level 2 is not only about happiness, it is about influence and science through both the district yields but especially through the two city improvements +15 influence / + 15 science per level 2 district.

Fair enough. Although custom factions are a bit beyond the scope of this guide, playstyle might indeed differ a lot. I find my cities around ~20 population around turn ~200 on normal speed. I do have an old save with a massive 51 worker town on turn 250 or something though, so clearly the emphasis of growth gives quite a bit of variation to the structure of your empire. I added a bit to the city layout part about it.

Ulto wrote:


I have the same bug with my post.

A temporary fix is reply with quote to yourself, copy the text then edit and paste. But the problem does not go away and you have to do it every time.

That did the trick, thanks a bunch!

Wow what an impressive guide. Really amazing

Is this stuff all working right? I researched a tech that should have given me +1 Arcana power and I was still getting only +2 FIDS instead of +5.

AgentTBC wrote:
Is this stuff all working right? I researched a tech that should have given me +1 Arcana power and I was still getting only +2 FIDS instead of +5.

It works. I saw you posted on the general forum and got the answer already but I'll put this here just in case somebody else stumbles on the same problem while skimming through the guide.



Arcana levels are separate for both your pillars and spells, it's mentioned in the guide after the picture about passive techs. You probably researched Dust Purifier and missed the part that read it enhances your spells (and only spells).