🔑 Key Concepts

This section outlines the core mechanics and systems that form the foundation of Eternum's gameplay.

Realms

• Limited Assets: 8,000 unique and irreplaceable Realms serve as the foundation of Eternum, each has the ability to freely mint a Season Pass.
• Settling: Players must burn a Season Pass to settle their Realm in the game world.
• Starting Materials: Each newly settled Realm begins with a set of starting materials.
• Progression Path: Realms can upgrade from Settlements → Cities → Kingdoms → Empires, unlocking additional buildable hexes and defensive army slots.
• Resource Production: Each Realm can produce 1-7 different resources based on the original Realms NFT metadata.
• Wonders: Realms with Wonders have a 20% production bonus and share this bonus with all Realms and Villages in a 12 tile radius.
• Hardcore Gameplay: If a Realm’s defenses crumble, it can be claimed by another player—transferring gameplay rights to the conqueror.

Villages

• Accessible Entry: Villages can be established around settled Realms, offering a simple entry system for new players
• Scaling: Up to 6 Villages per Realm, allowing for 48,000 Villages in Season 1
• Limited Production: Produce materials at 50% the rate of Realms and only have access to 1 resource type each
• Parent Realm: Each Village is tied to a parent Realm and will pay bridging fees if moving materials out of the game
• Troop Restrictions: Villages may only receive tokenized troops from their parent Realm, they cannot buy or be sent troops from any other source
• Simple Progression: Villages have a limited upgrade path from Settlement to City
• Casual Gameplay: Villages can be raided, but can’t be claimed by other players.

Materials

• Materials Categories:
  • Food: (Wheat, Fish) - essential for production, troop movement, and construction.
  • Resources: 22 different resource types, distributed based on rarity across both Realms and Villages.
  • Troops: Units with unique properties that can be assigned to armies.
  • Donkeys: Required for moving materials around the world, essential for logistics.
  • Labor: A new material in S1, allows players to build and produce in 'simple mode', acquired through burning resources.
  • Ancient Fragments: Found in game, critical for the construction of Hyperstructures.
• ERC20 Compatibility: All materials (except Labor) can be traded freely and bridged out as ERC20 tokens through Realms.

Buildings

• Construction Modes: Two building systems available - Standard (resource-efficient) and Simple (labor-focused).
• Building Types:
  • The Keep: Central structure automatically constructed when settling, provides baseline population capacity.
  • Resource Buildings: Specific buildings for each of the 22 resources, only requiring food to construct.
  • Economic Buildings: Includes Farms, Fishing Villages, Worker Huts, Storehouses, and Markets.
  • Military Buildings: Nine different buildings for producing three tiers of each troop type.
• Placement & Population: Buildings require buildable hexes and population capacity, with more unlocked as Realms and Villages are upgraded.

Production

• Production Modes: Like buildings, production can be done in Standard (resource-intensive) or Simple (food and labor) mode.
• Production Types:
  • Food: The only resources (Wheat, Fish) that can be produced without inputs.
  • Resources: Require combinations of other resources (standard) or labor (simple).
  • Labor: Produced by burning resources in the Keep, used for simple mode construction and production.
  • Troops: Essential for exploration and warfare, with higher tiers requiring lower tier troops as inputs.
  • Donkeys: One-time-use transport, consumed after a single journey.

World Map

• Exploration System: The world begins shrouded in mystery, with only the six Banks visible at season start; adjacent hexes are revealed when settling, and armies can explore to reveal new areas.
• Biomes: 16 unique biome types procedurally generated across the map, each affecting combat effectiveness and troop movement.
• Movement & Stamina: Armies move using stamina (regenerating at +20 per Eternum Day), with costs varying by biome and troop type; Knights, Crossbowmen, and Paladins each have different maximum stamina capacities.
• Exploration Mechanics: Exploring costs 30 stamina per hex and reveals that area permanently to all Lords; exploring armies may discover resources or encounter world structures and agent armies.

Military

• Army Composition: Armies consist of a single troop type and tier (Knights, Crossbowmen, or Paladins).
• Troop Tiers: T1, T2, and T3 troops with increasing combat strength.
• Combat Factors: Battles resolved based on army damage, stamina modifiers, and biome effects.
• Army Types:
  • Field Armies: Deploy onto the world map for exploration and conquest.
  • Guard Armies: Deployed to defense slots to protect structures.
• Stamina System: Armies recover +20 stamina daily, with 30+ stamina needed for full combat effectiveness.
• Biome Effects: Each troop type has advantages (+30% damage), disadvantages (-30% damage), or no change (0%) in specific biomes.
• Raiding Mechanics: Armies can attempt to steal resources from structures without defeating defenders.
  • Success depends on the raiding army's damage relative to the combined guard armies.
  • Undefended structures can be raided without casualties.

Tribes

Tribes are player-formed organizations enabling cooperation and coordination. They can be made public (open to all) or private (invitation only) and allow players access to tribe-only features. Tribes are an early form of social structures within Eternum and rely on player-driven interactions including arrangements of alliances and declarations of war.

Victory Conditions

Eternum's seasonal gameplay culminates in victory through the accumulation of victory points earned through the construction and ownership of Hyperstructures. However, there are various achievement paths, with players earning recognition and rewards for various actions within the Season.