Idle Empires Guide: How to Manage Unrest Effectively

So, you’ve nailed the basics behind Idle Empires. No doubt thanks to our Tips, Cheats and Strategies guide. But now you’ve got to the tricky bit – resetting at the right time so that you’re actually progressing through the game’s five kingdoms and achieving total domination.

It can be tough to fully understand the unrest system that forms such a key part of Idle Empires but don’t worry – we’ve got your back. Here’s (almost) everything you could want to know about how unrest works and why it’s so important to keep it well managed.

The Basics

• Unrest is, essentially, your timer on how long you’ve got until the people in your kingdom revolt and you have to reset and start over again.
• At first, it’ll increase very, very slowly. The only noticeable ways it goes up is when you build a new structure or when you’re sending troops into battle.
• There are two very easy ways to reduce unrest – by bribing officials or by placing propaganda posts at designated positions.

Balancing Your Troops

• Ideally, you want to work on producing as little unrest as possible. Except, of course, that’s pretty hard if you intend on progressing in the game.
• One method is by using as few troops as possible, and not casting too many spells.
• Each troop type costs unrest and that amount rises quite rapidly the more you upgrade your troops. Invariably, the strongest troops cost the most.
• Work on strategies such as placing a tank/glutton unit at the front before sticking a bunch of archers behind him. That way, you cause plenty of damage for relatively minimal cost.
• Resist casting too many spells. It’s useful to cast a fireball as your last resort to finish off one pesky enemy unit, but don’t rely on them. All spells are expensive and there’s always a pay off involved here.

When to Bribe

• Bribery starts out pretty cheap then steadily gets more expensive. Use bribes often to keep your unrest as low as possible. Try to remember where the bribing areas are located so you can return to them quickly. Remember – time is unrest so you don’t want to have to move around the world too often if you can help it.
• Save the propaganda posts until you’ve built up a fair amount of unrest. Why? Because each propaganda post reduces your unrest by 25%. That’s not 25% of the maximum unrest – that’s 25% of however much unrest you have right now. It’s pretty pointless to place them when you’ve only accrued 500 unrest as that only means losing 125 unrest which works out as less than one bribe’s worth.

General Tips

• Try to keep your unrest below 50%. As soon as it goes over 50%, it ramps up much faster and you’ll soon lose control of the situation. This is the ideal time to use a propaganda post though!
• You can use various reduction methods once a revolution kicks in but guess what? Once the first revolution happens, your unrest increases faster for the rest of the game. Work very hard to avoid that first revolution! It’ll help you in the long run.
• Focus on all the upgrades relating to unrest. Most of the time, it’s lack of time that’s going to be an issue for you, rather than having weak gold production or weak troops. Use your alien skulls to buy all the unrest alien perks possible.
• Don’t be afraid to rest when things are getting tough. You can always restart and get to your earlier best position a little faster, thanks to those all important alien skull upgrades.

Jennifer Allen

Jennifer is a UK-based freelance writer. Her work has featured at multiple outlets, including Gamasutra, 148apps, Paste, TechRadar, Wareable, and MyM magazine. In her spare time, she tries to teach her guinea pigs tricks, and enjoys losing hours to Netflix.