First steps in the game

Modified on: Mon, 17 Feb, 2025 at 4:21 PM

Before registration

Pick the most recent gameworld. Ideally if you join the game round shortly (within 1 hour or so) after it starts. This way you will have early game advantages, same as other players. You can always find the overview of upcoming worlds in our Event Calendar.
Pick the tribe. If you had a long break, or fully new to the game and not sure whether you have enough time for the active play, Gauls might be a good option for you with their early game cheap defense. Other good options are Egyptians (good resource production) and Romans (fastest and gold-saving development due to parallel queues). Remember, this is not set in stone. Pick any tribe you like and explore their unique abilities and advantages!
Pick the quadrant of settling. “Recommended” quadrant means that it has the lowest number of players at the time of your registration. It doesn’t matter much which quadrant you pick, though. This only affects the density of your neighborhood.

After registration

Your spawn (start) village will appear in the game. You will have a village with some resources in there, a hero and 130 initial gold. If you want to go into the game actively, you need to activate all 25% resource bonuses (20 gold, 5 per each resource) to maximize your early game production.

First steps are same on all gameworlds:

– Activate resource production bonuses. (Gold button -> Advantages->Resource bonuses)

– Send your hero to the very first adventure to get a horse and increase hero travel speed. Pick adventure with the lowest travel time out of 3 initial that are given to you at the start. Once your hero gets back from your first adventure on horse, the time to other adventures will be recalculated.

– While you are waiting for your buildings to get completed, look around the map and decide on your next village coordinates. Since your second village is most likely your future capital, consider 15-cropper, 9-cropper or 7-cropper with good oases.

– In order not to lose your village coordinates, put a flag there. It’s better if you select not one, but a few options for your future village, so you will have some backup plans if some of those won’t work.

– Settling second village takes time.Early game is when you establish the foundation of your future game actions. Use this time to get to know the game better and craft your future strategy. The Game Knowledgebase contain a lot of information about various aspects on development.

– Pay attention to exclamation marks and signs and explore the interface. In most cases those mean that some things require your action or the game has reward for you. Note: If you don’t want to receive contextual help (appearing pop-ups on a dark layout), you can disable them in the settings menu.

– You will get resources into your hero inventory for completing the quests. Collect them and use them to add lacking resources that are needed for building upgrades, celebrations or settlers. Don’t transfer them all at once and at the same time do not hold them for long in your hero inventory – early game it’s one of your main sources of development.

There is a fast way to see which and how many resources you’re missing. Click on NPC-merchant in the building menu and enable resource distribution page.

Here you will see how many and which resources you are currently missing.

Transfer only that many resources that you are missing for the next building level:

– Early game use NPC-merchant only if you can’t add enough resources from your hero inventory. Calculate everything!

– Do not forget to take daily quests rewards before reset time or they will be lost.

– When you settle your second village, develop both villages simultaneously using early development guide.
– Start training troops not before there are few hours of beginner protection left. Early development is important for your future account sustainability.

– Join an alliance. Pick the one that has most village presence at first in your surrounding (you can check it up in the embassy) and write to their leader/recruiter or a top-player. Do not organize your own alliance yet – a solo-player alliance won’t give you much benefit. Focus on joining one of already existing.

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Frequently asked questions

Early game questions

What is my first goal when I register in the game?

Expand your empire, or, in other words, settle your second village of course! Just select the correct gameworld speed and follow the guide. If you are new to the game, it will give you better results than trying to invent your own way.

What if someone else sends settlers to the same place I do?

The first settlers to reach the valley will settle it. When it happens, all other settlers that are on the way to the same valley will turn around and head home. After they come back, you can re-send them to another coordinate.

How should I develop my villages?

There is an extensive guide on developing your first villages. It’s more a recommendation for the optimal development, general canvas to follow. Of course, you can always make adjustments to this development guide if you need.

What village should I make my capital?

A cropper with good oasis bonuses. You can have a look here some advice on which cropper fits best your game style.

How can I change my capital?

Build a palace in the desired village (Remember, only one per account! If you have it already built in another village, you need to destroy it first.) and click on the “Make this village my capital” link on the building overview page.

How do I get more resources for my development?

One of the good ways to get more resources is farming unoccupied oases. This way you won’t go into conflict with the others and also will get precious resources into hero inventory. You can find oasis farming tips in our previous blog guides.

Questions about conquering

I do not want to settle anymore, how do I conquer a village?

To chief a village you need to have a special unit – administrator (Roman senator for Romans, Chieftain for Gauls, Chief for Teutons, Nomarch for Egyptians, Ephor for Spartans and Logade for Huns). You also need to destroy an administrative building in a village you plan to chief (residence, palace, or a command centre), if there is one, with catapults. Then attack with the administrative unit till the loyalty of the village goes down to 0.

More detailed information about conquering can be found here.

How can I prevent my village from being conquered?

There is a detailed explanation to methods of preventing conquering in our Travian Knowledgebase. You can find it here.

What happens if I conquer my own village?
Should you conquer your own village, either by mistake or to move ownership around, you will suffer most of the negative effects of normal conquering. Your wall will disappear, all troops will vanish, all researches are undone, and any queues (building or troop) will be cancelled.

Interaction with others

How do I get into alliance?

Build an embassy and look into the first tab. Here you will find alliances that have villages within 50 fields. It’s best, if you came to the gameworld alone, first try to join an alliance from your surrounding in order to use better combined defence. Just write an alliance leader and ask for the invitation. It would be a good tone to define your game experience and specialization in the game. Don’t be afraid to say you’re a new player and willing to learn.

The important thing about joining an alliance is about not getting farmed, though. It also helps if you follow the general Travian etiquette and position yourself as a team player.

I am getting farmed, what can I do?

There are 4 main points that will help you to avoid getting farmed early in the game.

Be active.
Keep your development in line with others.
Train troops and upgrade a wall.
Do not keep lots of resources in your resource villages when you are offline.

More detailed guide how to avoid getting farmed can be found on the article: How to avoid getting farmed.

I am in alliance! An alliance leader asks me to send 1 hour production to another player for some alliance purpose. Is there an easy way to find out my hour production?

Open General statistics, find the circle with the percentage of your production per day.
Hover over the yellow part (crop) and find out the numbers and percentage.
Use this formula: Total amount of crop x100 ÷ percent of crop ÷ 24 hours.
The number you receive will be your total hour production.