At a glance, Reign of Empires looks like just another mobile base-building war game. The base certainly strikes a familiar chord and many of the combat mechanics are the same. Yet appearances are deceiving in this particular case. Reign of Empires might use many of the same ingredients that other mobile RTS games have developed over the past few years, but it also does a good job at adding new and exciting elements.

The University and the Greatmen that reside there are one such example. If you’ve completed the tutorial for Reign of Empires, but are still slightly confused about the nature and purpose of these characters, the guide below will set everything straight. We’ll talk about who Greatmen are, how you can obtain more, how you can improve the ones you already have, and which are some of our favorite choices for different public functions.

Hero vs. Lord and Greatmen

In the vast majority of mobile RTS games, your kingdom or tribe is aided by one or several heroes, depending on how much real currency you’re willing to invest in your playthrough. These heroes can be sent out on monster hunts, as well as used to improve the performance of your troops. Most importantly, they feature equipment and skills that can aid the development of your entire base.

In Reign of Empires, Greatmen are nothing like heroes. The skill tree that is generally associated with heroes is now transferred to you, the Lord, although you cannot wear equipment for additional bonuses (replaced with relics), nor can you join marches alongside your troops. Greatmen, on the other hand, contribute to your kingdom in an entirely different manner. They fill official positions that grant various bonuses and, once they are sufficiently upgraded, present you with a couple of abilities that can be used once every day (on average).

If, in other mobile RTS games, you’d only have a handful of heroes at any given time, in Reign of Empires, your goal is to recruit at least 10 Greatmen to assist you with the development of your castle.

How to Unlock More Greatmen

As we will see in a moment, Greatmen can bring immense value to your castle and troops, which means that you’ll want as many of them as you can get your hands on. How you unlock these characters is also a matter of novelty since you don’t actually have to pay real currency to draw them to your cause.

Once you click on the University building and select the option to “Summon Greatman Puzzle”, you are presented with two options – a normal and a premium summon. Both of these are similar to summons in a Gacha game. You earn tickets either through events and achievements or by purchasing them with real money and you then use these tickets to obtain Greatman fragments. Once you have 20 fragments pertaining to the same character, you can summon him or her to your castle.

The normal and premium summons have access to the same Greatman pool, but while the latter will always give you a decent number of fragments, the former can also drop resources and other castle buffs. The easiest way to obtain both types of tickets for free is to follow the main questline and upgrade your Castle building.

How to Upgrade Greatmen

There are two basic ways to upgrade a Greatman once they have moved into your University. The first is to level them, which can be done both through training and by using Silver. Although it takes significantly longer, you should generally opt for training, since Silver is very rare outside of the Gates of Ordeal.

Secondly, you can upgrade a Greatman by increasing their Grade. However, this is a much more costly process because each new grade requires a large number of fragments specific to the Greatman in question. Nevertheless, improving a character’s grade is the only way to increase their level cap and unlock his or her second Exclusive Skill. The maximum Grade of a hero is determined by their native rarity, which can range from Grade 2 (Purple) to Grade 3 (Orange) and Grade 4 (Yellow).

Official Positions for Greatmen

On their own, Greatmen bring little to no advantage to your Castle. They do contribute to your overall Power score, but this is more or less useless when you don’t take proper advantage of these character’s abilities. To make an actual difference, a Greatman must be appointed to an official position that is suitable for his or her type:

Rulers

When appointed in function, ruler-type Greatmen focus on a variety of improvements, from resource gathering to troop deployment and faster training times. The two rulers that you choose to appoint to your Castle should vary according to your current goals. Peter I (training capacity and training speed) might be one of the best options for your main account, whereas Sakamoto Ryoma (resource production and protection) is an excellent choice for a farm account.

Commanders

Commander-type Greatmen – such as your first free character, Boudicca, focus on the way your troops perform in battle. The best commanders are highly specialized in certain types of combat. Hannibal Barca, for example, increases your army’s ATK and DEF stats while engaged in an Imperial City Battle.

Scientists

These Greatmen improve your empire’s research potential. The three currently available scientists are Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton, who increase the speed and decrease the research cost for technologies in the Economic, Technology, and Defense trees, respectively.

Artists

There are currently three different Artists that you can obtain in Reign of Empires – Filippo Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo Buonarroti – all of whom increase the speed and decrease the cost of various construction tasks. The latter is the most powerful option since he can make construction up to 12% faster and will decrease the lumber cost for all buildings.

Physicians

As expected, physician-type Greatmen make its so that more of your troops can be healed after battle for a smaller cost. The most powerful option here is Florence Nightingale, who increases the rate of conversion from killed to injured by up to 3% and considerably reduces the food cost for healing troops.

Advisers

At this time, there are only 2 advisers in the game, both of which are highly versatile and valuable. Diabo Chan, the Grade 3 adviser, increases your resource production and the gather load capacity on your troops, while Yang Yuhuan, the Grade 4 adviser, increases your construction and research speed by a staggering 12% and 11%, respectively.

Explorers

The two explorers currently obtainable in Reign of Empires are both designed to help your troops gather resources faster across the map. While Christopher Columbus increases the speed of gathering food and lumber, Marco Polo boosts your troop load capacity by a massive 36% and increases the speed of gathering stone.

Naturally, it can take forever until you obtain, let alone upgrade, all the best Greatmen in the game. Nevertheless, the endeavor is well worth the time and effort since some of these characters will bring your Castle to the next level. Besides, if you’re playing Reign of Empires on BlueStacks, you won’t even notice when the time flies by.