You may have seen one, a city that’s only in Iron Age and yet somehow it has an Arc, which is from FE. It may have made you initially think “Cheater! They’ve hacked the game!”, or perhaps you were just very jealous but also confused as to how that happens. Worry not, you aren’t alone in those thoughts. I’m happy to tell you though, that you can also have GBs in your city that are ahead-of-age. It just takes a little work and some fiscal responsibility with FPs.

The first step in this equation, of course, is getting the BPs. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t have the BPs for the GB you want to plant. The best way to do this is to be in a very supportive guild with players who have the GB(s) you’re looking for, so that you can place on their GB to earn the BPs as a reward. In a really active guild with a lot of support this is not an issue. Less active and/or less supportive guilds make this more difficult, but not impossible. If you’re truly lucky, you can get folks on your friend list who have the GB(s) you want, and you’ll be able to place for rewards on their GB(s). Of course there are other ways to get the BPs too, like by aiding ahead-of-age folks and crossing your fingers, it’s just not as fool-proof as the reward spots on an already-constructed GB. Be patient with this, because depending on how you’re sourcing the BPs it’s going to be a long, tedious journey. There’s no need to spend diamonds to get these BPs, they will come with enough dedication and perseverance.

Once you have the BPs comes the second half of planting a GB… the goods. Obviously you could try trading up slowly (so, so slowly) from your own age goods to the age of the goods of the GB you want… but who wants to do that? There’s also the use of Dynamic Tower, if you have it… but again it’s long and slow and tedious. Yuck. No, the way most obtain their goods for an ahead-of-age GB is by purchasing them with FPs from a goods dealer. You may be thinking “What? I can trade goods for FPs? How!?” That’s not exactly how it works, you see you’ll still be trading goods for goods, it’s just that they’ll be unfair trades. Stick with me, it’s not too complicated, promise.

To pay a goods dealer FPs you’ll put the amount of FPs onto a GB (or two or more) of their specification, and then set up trades of much lower-era goods for the era goods that you want; 1 lower-era good for 2 of a desired-era good (IE; 100 lower-era for 200 of desired-era). You get to setup these unfair trades because the true value is in the FPs you put on their GB(s). There are some nuances to be mindful of though:

  • First and foremost, do not place more FPs on any GB they specify than what they have instructed you to do so. You’re not paying these FPs to get rewards, you’re paying them to get goods. Many dealers are also in swaps, and you could disrupt that by putting in extra FPs. Or they’re purposefully using you to fill in a blank spot because again, you’re paying for goods not GB rewards. This is also why sometimes they split the donation amounts across more than one GB.
  • Be upfront with your dealer about if it’s going to take you a few days to donate the FPs. Some dealers are okay with this, some are not. This is their preference, please be kind to them if they tell you they aren’t willing to have you donate over a few days.
  • You need to be able to add the dealer to your FL. You’re the one asking for the favor, the most you can expect from them is to make sure they have room on their FL for you (so they aren’t at 140 friends already). Dealers often have more than one trade happening at the same time, so it’s much harder for them to get down below 80 folks on their FL. So if you want the goods, you have to be able to send the request. Very rarely will that ever not be the case.
  • Check on if there’s a minimum age they want for the goods. Sometimes dealers even give better deals if you can given them ME for example, instead of EMA.
  • Only send over 5 total trades, one for each kind of good you need. Your dealer is going to have to spend FPs to take the trades, and they’re not going to want to spend more than they have to. This of course means you have to have enough goods to make that happen.

So how is it you find a goods dealer? You’ve got a couple of tactics: first, you can try asking anyone you see on your FL or in your hood that you’ve seen with ahead-of-age GBs. Naturally they went through a goods dealer to get them, so they can probably give you a name. Similarly, you can just blanket ask your guild. If you’re really lucky, in a really supportive guild, you can get the goods for free from someone there. Or at an extremely discounted rate because you’re guild mates. In this case the FP cost for the trades is also non-existent, so you don’t have to worry about 5 big trades, too. However, depending on the guild you’re in, it can be unlikely to get that kind of lucky; after all you have to have higher-era players who are flush with goods to make it happen.

If you’re struggling to find someone via asking around, try looking around too. Go into some of the top guilds, and then to the cities of top players in them. Look at the profile message they have setup. Many who are selling goods will specify in that box that they are doing so, and for what eras. This can take a bit to do, but eventually you will find someone.

The last way you can sometimes find a goods dealer, but perhaps the most unreliable, is to check the Inno Games forums for your server and see if anyone is advertising. As the forums aren’t used widely by the majority of players though, this is not the best way to go about it. I’d only recommend this measure as a last-ditch effort.

Don’t be afraid to shop around, too. If you get a few different names for goods dealers, there’s no reason you cannot get prices for each of them and then go with the cheapest (just make sure you let your other inquiries know if you’re going with someone else, it’s only polite). There is no set standard for how many FPs it will cost for a set of goods. This is not a system setup by Inno Games (if it were, you’d be able to directly trade FPs for goods), and it’s completely dependent on what the seller wants to price their goods at and what you, the consumer, are willing to pay. It’s free market capitalism baby! Inno Games will however hold all participants in a goods deal accountable, so don’t think about being a shyster on either side of the deal because it’s a good way to earn a temporary ban. Just don’t do it (but report it if it happens to you).

Since the trades might not be taken right away (your goods dealer isn’t necessarily going to be on at all hours of the day after all), it’s a good idea to alert your guild that there are some unfair trades up for the specific purpose of making a goods purchase. That way no one is wondering what the heck is going on. Again, it’s just something polite to do.

Once you get your goods, all that’s left is to clear some space and plant your new GB! Happy forging (ahead)!