Answered Which AW is Better for Me, Tome of Secrets or Golden Abyss?

[DeletedUser8921]

Hello! I'm a new player. I've been playing about a month and am about to enter chapter 3.

I am about to complete the rune circles for the first two ancient wonders, Golden Abyss and Tome of Secrets. Thanks to Freddie my Fire Phoenix I have a consistent supply of rune shards, so it will be a week at the most before I can build either one of them. My question is, which one is better for me? I don't plan to build them both right away because I don't want to dedicate that much space in my city.

I understand the general mechanics of them (Golden Abyss provides gold and population, Tome of Secrets provides supplies and knowledge points). What I would like to know is information from more experienced players (especially those in the range of chapters 4 and 5 or who remember their experiences there) about what would work best with my playstyle and what my future needs might be as I advance.

I am leaning toward the Tome of Secrets because I tend to have enough gold most of the time but can run a bit short on supplies. However, I am very judicious in my scouting of the map -- I complete the minimum required number of provinces to advance to the next chapter so as to maximize the benefits of the advanced scouting research. So getting a bonus with each scout will not work out to very much. Having extra population seems nice, and I could use the gold from the Abyss to buy knowledge points or resources at the wholesaler.

In general I like to progress through the game slowly and carefully. I'm all about the journey. I am not trying to rush through chapters to have the biggest and best city, but I do like to take part in tournaments and I loved the Evolution of the Phoenix event. (I got some really great stuff from it, so culture is no problem!)

Which is the best wonder for me to build given my playstyle and future needs? Or should I not build either of these and wait for the Needles and Endless Excavation in the next chapter? I would like to have one of them as a knowledge point sink, as very occasionally (twice so far) I end up not having quite enough supplies or resources to finish a research and move on to the next one so I end up donating KP to my neighbors' wonders (which I'm sure they don't mind).

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[RainbowElvira]

I built the Golden Abyss in chapter 3 if I remember correctly. It was disappointing. A few coins and some population, but not that much. Things turn around at some point in the game (chapter 7?). After that the Abyss only gets better and better, and late in the game it provides far more population than any other building. I do not have any experience with the Tome, but I would go for it if I started again. Your scouts are still fast, so the benefits are bigger early game. And you will need supplies and KP more than coins.

 

[Timneh]

I built the golden abyss but never the tome of secrets. The population from the abyss comes in very handy as i think most players get short of population and that stops building upgrades. The tome of secrets never appealed to me but that is just me, i'm sure other players love the tome of secrets. We are all different and like different things.

 

[DeletedUser4149]

the secret to the tome of secrets is that it's really a piece of junk. takes over 900 kp to get 2 kp per day from it. sound like a good investment to you?

 

[LazyTony]

Basically, the tome will be more useful to you right now, as RainbowElvira says, but the abyss will be more useful long term. A wonder is a long term commitment, and starting to level the abyss now for it to come into its own in a few months time is no bad thing. Or get the immediate help from a tome right now, but I wouldn't put loads of KP into the tome, because you might find yourself deleting it in a few month time.

 

[FieryArien]

I’ve got personal experience with both these wonders. Maybe real scenario description will inspire you. ;-)

1. My first city didn’t have access to wonders and tournaments at first (app player in February last year). When it finally got it, the Tome of Secrets wasn’t worth it, because I had already access to many other wonders. However, the Golden Abyss was useful immediately; it was already better than a residence, I think.
2. In my second city (September last year), I decided to build both immediately in early chapters. Being focused tournament player meant that it was pretty fast.

• Tome of Secrets: quite quickly upgraded to level 6 to provide 2 KP. The expectation was that it eventually pays back every KP invested and then it would be pure bonus. Well, true. Eventually. But I’m actually not happy with that wonder. My scout times are getting longer, so supplies are less frequent; and KPs aren’t that precious either. There are small event buildings that provide more KPs per square. I regularly get some even when I’m not trying.
• Golden Abyss. Right I’m in Orcs&Goblins chapter and I’m super happy with the wonder. However, up to about Dwarves, I was angry at myself every time I even looked at that wonder. It gave me way less population than a residence on the same footprint. And the gold wasn’t any consolation. Waste of space.

However, I like the thinking of @LazyTony. Developing Golden Abyss in early chapters as a future investment sounds good. You got to put your excess KPs somewhere, right? ;-) It still is an inefficient use of space compared to a residence, but if there is no better KP dump ...

 

[m4rt1n]

I have both and after 2+ years playing my Tomb has paid for itself in kp rewards with the supplies a great bonus to use for training troops or buying the first daily offer from the wholesaler.
The Abyss for the long term though is a must for it size, if only for the population boost alone. Mine at 3x3 in the Constructs is now equivalent to almost 4 residences.

 

[DeletedUser8921]

This is great feedback so far. Thanks everyone!