Guilds/GreenValleyFalls/Tests/Architecture

A Path to Oracle of Architecture

Architecture is resource intensive. It is also the Discipline with the most test choices, and for that reason, it is helpful to have a path in mind to balance the easier Tests with the more difficult ones. You should expect achieving Oracle of Architecture to take many months, to involve cooperative play with others, and even to test your trading skills!

Common Options for Tests 1 - 5

Becoming an Oracle of Architecture is not easy. At some point, it's gonna hurt. Therefore, most people opt to knock the following five tests off their list and save the pain for their last two tests...

Test of the Obelisk

Difficulty: Easy | Duration: 1 week

This is a guild-sponsored test and is easy to pass.

Test of Towers

Difficulty: Easy | Duration: 5 - 10 days

This is a guild-sponsored test and is easy to pass.

Test of the People's Pyramid

Difficulty: Easy | Duration: 1 day

GVF has a Pyramid guild you can join to push some blocks that will pass you for this test. It does take a few hours but is easy with the right food, etc. Please chat Huggz.

Test of Life

Difficulty: Medium | Duration: Months

It's not the building, it's the growing! If your Aquaduct tower is not well-located, people will not grow there and your Life (and thus your Oracle) will stall. If this happens to you, your best option is to build another tower on a different line.

Test of the Megalopolis

Difficulty: Easy (or very hard) | Duration: 1 day (or months)

Megas are group builds, with 48 slots for people. A mega group is normally its own guild, spending months accumulating a vast amount of materials for the build. Joining a Mega guild and making materials is one option for passing Mega.

However, very few Mega guilds fill all 48 slots with people, so there will typically be spare slots. Thus when a group has all of the materials together to start building their mega, it is common for them to open the Mega to others needing to complete the test. As an example, you may need to bring 1 cut stone block to put into a construction site already built at the Mega. Add this cut stone block and when the Mega passes, you pass. Watching /join Egypt Today is the best way to find the occasional Mega with open slots you can race down and build for.

6: Common Options for a 6th Test

Given the difficultly of the 7th test list, people commonly opt for one or both of the following to advance or complete their Oracle.

6A: Test of Funerary Temple

Difficulty: Not hard just tedious | Duration: 10 days - many months

This test requires that you build a temple and fill it with 200,000+ tiles, maximising a specific scoring system. We have 30+ ovens in which you can bake tiles. Baking tiles requires you to sit attentively at an oven for up to 2 and a half hours, and you will need to bake many, many ovens! You will also need to carry tiles back, so this test is best begun after you can carry a boxed lunch. A spouse to warp to is a huge advantage.

It is totally possible to power this test; Huggz and Eimear did a passing temple in under 10 days, working as a team and burning ovens all day long. Most people do not use this approach and instead fill their temple over weeks or months.

6B: Test of Octec's Ghost

Difficulty: Not hard just tedious | Duration: 10 days - many months

We can help you with the materials needed to build your Octec's, including marbles, and may (or may not) have spare crystals to give you. Unless you are extremely lucky and the crystal the University assigns you is a rare one like Osiris, you're going to need to trade not only crystals but materials, essentially buying crystals. People with rares can ask really ask for whatever they want, and 500 gravel is an example of a traded price for a single rare crystal.

7: Options for the 7th Test

If you do not do both a Temple and an Octec's, you will need to choose one or more tests from the below options in order to Oracle. All of these are big deal, intensive tests in terms of both time and resources. Because goods at GVF are held in common, please speak with an Elder if you're going to have needs for vast amounts of bricks, boards, papyrus, ash, potash, metals and other materials for these tests. Thanks!

7A: Test of the Library of Alexandria

Difficulty: Hard | Duration: 2 - 6 weeks (including materials)

Guild support is available for Library for members who are about to Oracle only. The expectation is that if you want to do Library, which is insanely expensive, you will have six other Architecture tests completed or progressing.

All of these materials are just grinds, and learning to break and then not break buttloads of sheetglass.

The sticking point for most people is not the build materials (we can help you shortcut those via trades!) but the mandibular glue. Happily, glue is available for Library books for those needing Library for their Oracle test. This is a big advantage because it means you do not have to spend months feeding ants and accumulating glue.

7B: Throne of Pharaoh

Difficulty: INSANELY HARD | Duration: Months

This test is basically the 9th rung of hell. You will form a group of 7 with other people, normally in a dedicated Thrones guild. Your group will spend months accumulating goods for the Throne: pearls, silks, complex alloy metals, and basics by the thousands. You will also need tens of thousands of raeli tiles and OMG so much paint. We may be able to support your thrones group with tiles; just ask!

Note: It is absolutely not OK to use Guild resources for stock for Thrones without specific per item permission from an Elder.

When you finally begin decorating, each member of your group must be 100% committed to decorating the throne multiple times a day. The decorations demanded by the throne become increasingly insane every time you request a new one. And, if there is another Thrones group running at the same time, you will be competing against them to make more decorations on your throne than they make on theirs, without knowing how many that is.

While you only need to advance three weeks to pass, in reality you will likely fail to advance every week and the final phase of this test will go on for a month if not more.

7C: Test of Ka

Difficulty: Hard | Duration: Weeks

You're pretty much on your own for this one! We do have silk farms; start early...