Dragon Age Legends Castle Building Guide

Dragon Age Legends Castle Building Guide by Scooter Pirata

One of the really fun aspects about Legends is the ability to construct your very own castle.  There are many ways to do this productively.  There are many ways to do this aesthetically.  My advice is to learn the basics and instead of copying some of your friends, have some fun with it!  [And as a side note, be sure to watch your rooms as they are upgraded – most change and get new items in their picture as they advance levels!]

Index:

–  The Basic Room Types
–  The Hero Room
–  Expansions
–  Castle Customization
–  Resell Values
–  Worker Rooms
–  Castle Happiness
–  Taverns
–  Furnaces
–  Crafting Room Productivity
–  The Crafting Rooms – Apothecaries, Alchemy Labs, and Infirmaries

The Basic Room Types:
–  Hero Room
–  Worker Room
–  Tavern
–  Apothecary
–  Alchemy Lab
–  Infirmary
–  Furnace
–  Storehouse
–  Expansions

The Hero Room:  Every castle comes with a Hero Room.  The Hero Room is currently one of two rooms with a placement restriction – it must be placed above ground .  The Premium Crown Upgrade allows you to enter each combat with one additional mana.  The gold upgrades allow you to level further.  Upgrade costs are 1000 for the L2 upgrade, 2000 for the L3 upgrade, and 4000 for the L4 upgrade.  The L1 Hero Room allows your character to level to L10.  The L2 Hero Room upgrade allows your character to level from L11-L20.  The L3 Hero Room upgrade allows your character to level from L21-L30.  The L4 Hero Room upgrade allows your character to level from L31-L40.

Expansions:  In order to expand your castle beyond the initial 7 squares, you must purchase expansions.  The base cost of expansions is 200 gold.  On ground level/drawbridge level, the cost of expansions is 200, one level above that and the cost is 400, two levels above ground level and the cost is 800, three levels – 1600, etc.  (Trend:  Each level above ground increases expansion room costs by a multiple of x2.)  One level below ground – expansion cost is 200, two levels below ground – 300, three levels below ground – 400, four levels below ground – 500, etc.  (Trend:  Each level below ground increases expansion room costs by an additional +100 gold.)

Castle Customization:  At any time you can change the style and background of your castle by clicking the “View your character”-button in the bottom left on your castle screen and then by clicking “Edit Castle.”

Additionally, you can move rooms around your castle by dragging and dropping them into open spaces.  Two same-sized rooms can be swapped if you drag one of the two on top of the other.  Expansions can be moved as well, but because of their level-based costs, their movement is limited – they can only be moved within the same level.

As you expand your castle, you’ll notice that rooms must be connected (a more appropriate term might be “supported”) by other expansions/rooms.  You can’t place a room that’s “floating.”  One exception to this is the spot right by either castle gate on the ground level.  You can start building from either of those two spots because the castle gate “supports” the rooms.

Open spaces can also be added into the design of your castle (I’ve seen several interesting designs including, but not limited to, a circle of rooms around an open space and a C shape of rooms).  In each of these cases, the requirements of connectivity and support are followed.

Resell Values:  Rooms can be resold to the little trash can and provide you with 75% of the cost you paid for them.  However, be careful, upgraded rooms only give you back 75% of the base cost, upgrades are not taken into consideration!

Worker Rooms:  Each worker room gives you one worker.  Workers can be controlled to perform certain castle tasks.  Worker Rooms costs increase by 300 with each additional Worker Room (the first costs 300, the second – 600, the third – 900, etc.).

Castle Happiness:  The happier your workers are, the faster they’ll perform their tasks.  Castle Happiness is calculated by adding up the happy faces on each worker room and dividing by the total number of worker rooms (this number rounds down even if it is x.9; at x.9 happy faces, the happiness will only be x).  To increase the happy faces on your Worker Rooms, here are some tips:  (1)  If a worker room is above ground, but surrounded by other rooms/expansions, the worker room’s status is a neutral face; (2) If a worker room is above ground and has one window (is on the edge on either the left or the right), the worker room’s status is one happy face; (3)  If a worker room is above ground and has two windows (is on the edge on both the left and right sides – indicating the room is part of a single structure column), then the worker room’s status is 2 happy faces.  Without a tavern, the max worker room status is 2 happy faces.

Because the time decrease isn’t that significant, most people don’t bother with taverns during the early levels of castle construction.  Instead they build single column above-ground towers of Worker Rooms and content themselves with a castle happiness of 2 happy faces.

For a detailed benefit analysis of Castle Happiness, see this thread created by markov80 in the BWSN forums:  http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/290/index/6403592#6403592

Taverns:  Taverns cost 800 gold each.  If a Worker Room is placed adjacent to a Tavern (either on its left side, right side, in one of the two spots on top of it, or one of the two spots below it), the Worker Room receives +1 Happy Face.  When you upgrade the Tavern, the Tavern increases its Happy Face bonus by one.  So an L2 Tavern has a +2 Happy Face Bonus, an L3 Tavern has a +3 Happy Face Bonus, etc.  There are currently four total Tavern upgrades for a max of a +5 Happy Face Bonus (at Tavern Level 5).  Those upgrades cost 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400.

The Premium Tavern Upgrade increases the range of this bonus by one – so with a premium crown upgrade, the Tavern gives bonuses to the two rooms to the left of the Tavern, the two rooms to the right of the Tavern, the 2 rooms directly on top of the Tavern and the two rooms directly on top of those two rooms, the 2 rooms directly below the Tavern and the two rooms directly below that, and the four rooms that touch the corners of the Tavern.

Furnaces:  Furnaces cost 1000 gold each.  If a Crafting Room is placed adjacent to a Furnace (either on its left side, right side, on top or below it), the Crafting Room receives a +1 Gear Bonus.  When you upgrade a Furnace, the Furnace increases its Gear Bonus by one.  So an L2 Furnace has a +2 Gear Bonus, an L3 Furnace has a +3 Gear Bonus, etc.  There are currently four total Furnace upgrades for a max of a +5 Gear Bonus (on an L5 Furnace).  Those upgrades cost 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000.

The Premium Furnace Upgrade increases the range of this bonus by one – so with a premium crown upgrade, the Furnace gives bonuses to the two rooms to the left of the Furnace, the two rooms to the right of the Furnace, the room directly on top of the Furnace and the rooms directly on top of that room, the room directly below the Furnace and the room directly below that, and the four rooms that touch the corners of the Furnace.

Crafting Room Productivity:  As we learned above, happiness decreases the time workers need to complete their tasks (and happiness is measured by Happy Faces).  Productivity, on the other hand, increases the amount of items you can create (and productivity is measured in Gears).

For the following amount of gears, you’ll be able to craft the following numbers of items at the 4 Gold, 6 Gold, and 10 Gold options:

1 Gear:      2, 3, 5
2 Gears:    2, 3, 6
3 Gears:    2, 4, 6
4 Gears:    2, 4, 7
5 Gears:    3, 4, 7
6 Gears:    3, 4, 8
7 Gears:    3, 5, 8
8 Gears:    3, 5, 9
9 Gears:    3, 5, 9 (no change from 8)
10 Gears:    4, 6, 10
11 Gears:    4, 6, 10 (no change from 10)
12 Gears:    4, 6, 11
13 Gears:    4, 7, 11
14 Gears:    4, 7, 12
15 Gears:    5, 7, 12
16 Gears:    5, 7, 13
17 Gears:    5, 8, 13
18 Gears:    5, 8, 14
19 Gears:    5, 8, 14 (no change from 18)
20 Gears:    6, 9, 15
21 Gears:    6, 9, 15 (no change from 20)
22 Gears:    6, 9, 16
23 Gears:    6, 10, 16
24 Gears:    6, 10, 17
25 Gears:    7, 10, 17

The trends are as follows and from these you can extrapolate further:

4 Gold Changes:  5, 10, 15, 20, …
6 Gold Changes:  3, 7, 10, 13, 17, 20, …
10 Gold Changes:  2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, …

Note that although these productivity bonuses continue to accrue as you increase your total number of gears, the limit that will show in the picture of the room is 10.

Storehouse:  The newest addition to the castle is the Storehouse.  Currently, the inventory cap is 21.  Each Storehouse can increase the inventory by another 21 inventory spots.  The initial cost of the Storehouse is 600 gold and will increase your inventory by 4.  There are 5 Upgrades:  the L2 upgrade costs 600 gold and adds 2 to your inventory, the L3 upgrade costs 900 gold and adds 2 to your inventory, the L4 upgrade costs 1350 gold and adds 3 to your inventory, the L4 upgrade costs 2025 gold and adds 4 to your inventory, and the L5 upgrade costs 3037 gold and adds 6 to your inventory.

One last interesting note about the storehouse is that it’s the first room to take 3 spaces in your castle.  And remember, the storehouse must be placed below ground!

The Crafting Rooms – Apothecaries, Alchemy Labs, and Infirmaries:  You can assign workers to crafting rooms to make you useable items.  The time it takes and the number of items to be crafted depends on your castle happiness and the gears on that particular worker room (respectively, as described above).  Each time you upgrade a crafting room, you can add another recipe or add an additional gear.  Most people decide to buy multiple crafting rooms instead of fully upgrading one because upgrade costs become steep rather quickly – but this has to be weighed against the number of furnaces you’ll want to purchase and the design for their placement in your castle.

In the Alchemy Lab, the following useable items can be made:

Shard Bomb [-1.5 Hearts to a single enemy]
Fire Bomb [-1 Heart, -3 Mana to a single enemy; Removes Status]
Frost Bomb [-.5 Hearts to a single enemy, Frozen for 8 turns]
Time Bomb [-3 Hearts to a single enemy, 4 turn delay]
Shock Bomb [-1 Heart to all enemies]
Grease Bomb [-.5 Hearts to all enemies, -50% Agility]
Acid Bomb [-.5 Hearts to all enemies, -50% Defense for 12 turns]
Poison Bomb [Poisons your enemy; -.5 Hearts to that enemy per turn,
until that enemy dies]

Alchemy Labs can be purchased for 800 gold each.  The first 10 upgrades cost 800, 1200, 1800, 2700, 4050, 6075, 9112, 13668, 20503, and 30754.

* Note:  As was stated in the introduction, each room in your castle gets an upgrade to its picture every time a gold upgrade is done on the room.  The Alchemy Lab has one of the coolest picture additions when it becomes a L10 Alchemy Lab – a big skull with a fire breathing animation appears in the top right of the Alchemy Lab picture!  Expensive, but definitely fun to have.

In the Apothecary, the following useable items can be made:

Health Potion [+2 Hearts]
Greater Health Potion [+3 Hearts]
Full Health Potion [Restores full health]
Antidote Potion [Cures Poison and +2 Hearts]
Mana Potion [+2 Mana]
Greater Mana Potion [+3 Mana]
Concentration Potion [+100% Crit]
Power Potion [+8 Attack]
Defense Potion [+8 Defense]
Agility Potion [+8 Agility]
Luck Potion [+8 Luck]

Apothecaries can be purchased for 600 gold each.  The first 7 upgrades cost 600, 900, 1350, 2025, 3037, 4556, and 6834.

In the Infirmary, the following useable items can be made:

Injury Kit [+2 Hearts to an ally]
Greater Injury Kit [+3 Hearts to an ally]
Team Injury Kit [+2 Hearts to you and your all allies]
Antidote Kit [Cures Poision and +2 Hearts to an ally]
Bracing Kit [Cures Crippled and +2 Hearts to an ally]
Mana Salve [+3 Mana to an ally]
Greater Mana Salve [+4 Mana to an ally]
Team Mana Salve [+2 Mana to you and your allies]
Battle Poultice [+4 Attack, +4 Luck to an ally]
Team Talent Poultice [+4 Defense, +4 Agility to you and your allies]
Team Battle Poultice [+4 Attack, +4 Luck to you and your allies]

Infirmaries can be purchased for 400 gold each.  The first 10 upgrades cost 400, 600, 900, 1350, 2025, 3036, 4556, 6834, 10251, and 15377.