Welcome to the Atlas Introduction Guide!
This guide is intended for anyone and everyone, whether they are a new or old player to Atlas, to serve as an introduction and/or a refreshing crash course.
When you enter the Atlas world, you will notice it seems to be like a map full of castles, mountains, and divots, with many colors that show borders of land and territories. It is covered with many castles that are either owned by teams and alliances that banded together, or unowned castles where anyone can take control and grow to be a castle of their own!
The first thing a player will be prompted to do when they unlock Atlas or join a new team will be to set a castle as home. It is highly advised that you set a castle in a safe zone to be your home for reasons to be explained deeper in the guide, but you can also set home on a castle your team has enabled as well.
Safe zones will appear on the map as pure white sections on the Atlas map, though beware: some teams set their territories to be white. To know if a castle is a safe zone, look under the castle's name and confirm it isn't claimed by a team.
After you set a castle as home, you should look at the bottom left of your screen to press the Primarchs and Troops tab. This will be crucial for you to play Atlas because these serve as your game pieces in Atlas. You will then be on the Primarch tab upon opening it. You will have a Primarch slot available; click on the open slot and summon the Fighter Primarch.
This is what the Fighter Primarch will look like on the Tech Tree!
Note, it is advised you only level this Primarch to level 5.
This will serve as your game piece if you are a newer player. As stated above, it is advised to level it to level 5 because after level 5 you unlock the ability to research the remaining 4 types of Primarchs (more on them later).
After you summon your Primarch, open the Troops tab. You will see five slots: three of them are open for training new Troops, one will be an instant summon, and the last one will serve as your hospital. In order to play Atlas, you will need Troops. You will notice there is a resource bar showing "Farmers," also called "Hats" by the player base. They replenish at different rates depending on whether you are a Regular Account player or an Atlas Elite player. Farmers are one of two resources required to train Troops, as you will also need Gold to turn Farmers into Troops. As a newer player, it is important to get into the habit of training Troops because the more you have, the more fun Atlas will be!
For Regular Accounts, you will have a maximum of 8,000 Farmers at a time, and for Atlas Elite Accounts, you will have a maximum of 32,000 Farmers at a time.
NOTE!
During Atlas Glory Events, Farmers have double the value for training Troops!
More on events later!
Whenever you use troops, some troops will be moved to the hospital to be revived. Troops will cost less Gold and Farmers to be revived than what training would cost. It is crucial you don't let your hospital overflow; as you level up, your hospital capacity will increase up to a maximum capacity of 498k Troops.
Onto Primarchs: what are they, and how do they work?
To start off learning about the Primarchs, you will see there are Control, Defense, Balanced, and Offense Primarchs. Each of them has its own name and does different things depending on what class it falls under.
Trapper Primarch, also known as a Rusher.
These Primarchs fall under the Control category.
Trapper Primarchs have a special ability where they can "trap" enemy Primarchs. This will make it so the enemy cannot move their Primarch from the castle where they are trapped, nor can they attack other Primarchs. In order for the enemy to escape, they must attack the trapper until it is killed or wait out the trap cooldown to flee.
Taunter Primarch.
These Primarchs fall under the Defense Category.
Taunter Primarchs have their own special ability where they "Taunt" Enemy Primarchs when they have a higher troop count than the attacking Primarchs, this means that Enemy Primarchs will be forced to attack the Taunter until it is destroyed, the Taunt can be blocked by a Trappers Trap. Taunters will protect other Primarchs from players in your 5-Team Alliance from being attacked, alongside your 5-Team Alliance castle guards from being attacked.
This is the Fighter Primarch, which evolves into a Destroyer.
These Primarchs fall under the Balanced category.
Destroyer Primarchs do not have an ability, but what makes them special is that their attack and defense stats are equal. The attack power will reflect the defense power, making them favored for attacking enemy castles, because even if the enemy attacks your Primarch, you will lose less than if you used Siegers.
Sieger Primarch.
These Primarchs fall under the Offense category.
Sieger Primarchs have an ability where they "debuff" Forts on castles, thus weakening the Primarchs on the castle! They are perfect for attacking castles because of this ability. Unfortunately, they are weaker in defense power because of the ability; if an enemy attacks the Sieger, it will lose more Troops than if you used a Destroyer.
To level up Primarchs, you will need something called Glory. Glory is rewarded when you attack other Primarchs or Castle Guards, or when your Primarch is attacked. Depending on the level of the Primarch, the attack/defense stats, how many dragons the attacker used, and the troops lost/killed by the Primarch, you will get Glory rewarded to the Primarch. Glory is also needed to level up some dragon riders and even progress through the Atlas season to get rewards for both the main game and Atlas.
Remember, using a higher level and tier of Primarch will result in less troop loss and, ultimately, better Glory ratios!
The Atlas season is very similar to the main game season structurally, but it has a couple of things that make it unique.
The Atlas season has the same branch setup every season, with the exception of the riders being rotated every season. This means it is very easy to plan what you want to obtain in the season. Some branches, however, have prerequisites to unlock them. In order to unlock the riders, you must complete the generic rider branch in full; ideally, you finish the Primarch branches first to boost your Primarchs. The next two branches that have prerequisites are the Exotic Gear branches: Exotic Gear 1 requires you to finish all branches in the "Offense Gear" tab of the season, and Exotic Gear 2 requires you to finish all branches in the "Defense Gear" tab.
In order to progress in the Atlas season, you must gain Glory, which means that you must play Atlas to progress in the season. The Glory you earn will be turned into Atlas season-specific chests; they will give you Season Badges, which are like the "Sigils" in the main game, spent to progress in the Atlas branches.
On to the exciting part of Atlas: the Castles.
Castles in Atlas are very crucial to your experience; they provide you with rewards over time for owning them, and it is required for you to have them to unlock Primarchs beyond the Silver 1 evolution. They are important, so owning them and protecting them will benefit you greatly.
Castles have different tiers, and depending on what tier the castle is, you can level up the infrastructure up to that tier's maximum level. Higher tiers also provide better rewards for owning them. Teams can only have a maximum of 50 castles.
Castles will have the following buildings as part of their infrastructure. Each of the buildings has its own role in the castle, alongside the ability to assign members to perform specific tasks.
The Headquarters is an important part of the castle's infrastructure. This is where you will enable automatic upkeep payments to keep the castle in your team's possession, and you must level up the Headquarters to unlock the corresponding level for other buildings. It also holds your infrastructure storage, the team's Atlas color configuration, the ability to name castles, and the ability to surrender castles. The role associated with this building is the Governor; this person can control every aspect of the castle except the team's Atlas color configuration.
The Bank is certainly very important as well. The Bank will serve as your team's resource reserve; this is where teammates can store Gold, Wood, and Food for the team to use on castle infrastructure upgrades, and redistribute to members when needed for Primarch upgrades, troop training, and even main game events! The role associated with the Bank is called Banker; these members are allowed to redistribute resources, access the ledger, and keep track of all the resources that go in and out.
The Fort is by far the most important part of the castle's infrastructure. This is where you will assign guards to the castle, raise and drop the shield, manage cooldowns, and boost your alliance's Primarchs. Leveling it up will also increase your daily tributes, which are daily rewards for holding and upgrading your castle. The player assigned to this part of the castle is called the Marshal. The Marshal is responsible for keeping the castle from bubbling and managing the cooldown, and if the castle is a higher-tier castle, they are the base that protects the guards.
The Tower is a vital building that serves one purpose: weaken the enemies. It will debuff the enemy player's base by a certain percentage, allowing smaller players to destroy their base if they can't quite do so on their own. The Tower's bonus is that it will reduce your troop training time! The person assigned to the Tower is called a Scholar; their job is to enfeeble (weaken) the enemy. Ideally, they only enfeeble the biggest and hardest-to-beat enemy with the most amount of troops for others to get rid of them. Note: the Tower's Enfeeble has a 10-minute cooldown and can only be applied to one Primarch at a time.
The last part of the castle is the Refinery. It serves as a passive way for team members to gain more rewards from attacking beasts, depending on the region the castle is stationed in. This is often upgraded last because it isn't as immediate or top-priority as the other buildings.
Tier 2 Castles are the simplest castles, as well as the most abundant around the map. Because of their abundance, teams are limited to owning a maximum of 20 Tier 2 Castles.
Max infrastructure level for Tier 2:
HQ - 12 | Bank - 12 | Fort - 3 | Tower - 12 | Refinery - 3
Tier 3 Castles are the next level of castle, but unlike Tier 2, there is no limit to how many a team can own!
Max infrastructure level for Tier 3:
HQ - 12 | Bank - 12 | Fort - 6 | Tower - 12 | Refinery - 6
Tier 4 Castles are the next level of castle. There is no limit on how many a team can own, similar to Tier 3; however, every Primarch and Castle Guard on them provides 100% Glory for every other team in the game, regardless of their player level or APR. Own one at your own risk!
Max infrastructure level for Tier 4:
HQ - 12 | Bank - 12 | Fort - 9 | Tower - 12 | Refinery - 9
Tier 5 is the maximum tier of castles. Following Tier 4, they also do not have a limit to how many you can own, and similarly to Tier 4, they give 100% Glory to everyone in Atlas. Own one at your own risk!
Max infrastructure level for Tier 5 castles:
HQ - 12 | Bank - 12 | Fort - 12 | Tower - 12 | Refinery - 12
Authors Note:
This is Verison 1 of the Atlas Introduction guide. If you feel as there is other information that should be added, please leave a comment and the author will update the guide with the information. If you feel as something needs expansion or clarification also please comment!
Happy Flying, hopefully this guide helps!