Legendary Cornerstone rankings

[arjensmit79]

I hope steamforums allows this. Else they need to make nice formatting features themselves.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Against_the_Storm/comments/1gjg956/legendary_cornerstone_ranking/

[mostly willing]

ODW is completely worthless. idk if you kept track of how many planks you produce, but 10 amber will buy you more barrels than you'd get in like 2 years

you can't delay picking trade hub. it's ephemeral. y2 and often y4 it's unpickable

Deserted Caravans has no effect on spam calling traders, which is how you get the most value out of them

Free Samples has use on no orders

Cooking Steam is worth way more than 1 worker if you play into it. 45% prodrate is very good if you don't have pipes and/or when you are relying on gathering

Overexloitation is good. "Much of gathering time is walking" this only applies to short cycle camps. a majority of time in food camps is spent doing actual production

Rooty Ground is just +1 farmer in clearance most of the time. effectively nothing for +1 wood

Cheap Construction got removed in 1.3

[Kanjejou]

So many legendary cornerstone arent very good...very situationnal withotu being strong.
or very weak if you play fast enough

[arjensmit79]

Some interesting responses, but:

over exploitation: I usually have 2 guys gathering food. Also some on stones / marrow stuff. For the food guys its about 50% walking, for the others 80% walking. So for the food guys its an effective 15%, for the others 6%. So with 2 guys on food, and some on other stuff, thats like half a citizen worth. Still not good.

Cooking steam: It takes efford and investment to get 45% (use gears to build 2 collectors ?). And then it would basically mean that i need half a citizen less on gathering and 1 citizen less on food processing. (normally i'd have 2 gatherers and 3-4 processors) I'm not that convinced.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Rich glades: is average. Taking it early means you have more time to figure out which way to go. It synergieses with every gathering boost.

Free Samples: I always take it, as often samples is the resource i miss. It allows for having a ton of water stored. Samples can also be sold, and usually around year 2-3 you will be already selling enough to get 4-5 freely from trade routes alone. Can use these parts to buy amber, so you do not need to use more critical resources. Is good average. Especially on maps without envoy.

Firelink Ritual: This is now actually almost completely useless. The cornerstone has been nerfed, and the bonus only applies while the villagers are under the influence of religion.
So if you have no stable production incsence production that is higher or even than your consumption is barely doing all. (Even with incense delivery i had once +5 and +3 minute) i could get barely -30 hostility reduced instead of the -40 i was expecting.
I would say the nerf made this from a strong and useful cornerstone into a useless, or very barely useful one. (The nerf on this one was too strong.) So this means that you can get only a fixed amount of reduction based on your human and fox population. So with 10 foxes and 10 humans, you need to have a big enough incense production to get 100 hostility reduction it costs too much for too little. They should att least increase the reduction amount to make it worthy.

Smal distilery: It is situational, but it can be quite op. Especially in Royal woodlands.
I had a game where i got the forest mystery of +3 resin production in drizzle. So cutting wood made me swim in dew-> was very good combo this time. But usually it could only work with clay pit or the farm. (I also built a farm and only produced resin:P Since +3 resin in drizzle meant it affected farming. And then during harvest i ganed more dew.)

Cooking steam: It is only worth it if you have at least one drizzle pump, then it usually is okay because it gives you depending on the setup 30% bonus. Which is more than the cornerstone gives you can buy by trader. Also possible to increase this number with tanks.(but that costs parts.) In one game i had 60% more prod bonus, which is worth 3 cornerstones.

Overexploitation on its own is not that good, but it can synergize with a multiple number of other cornerstones. So is a weak average option.

Secure the perimeters: Is acutally average, with situational awesomeness. When you have the only forbidden glades can be found map modifier, it can rock. If you have that with 2 events per glade, this can pretty much nullify glade opening. Though my best so far was to reduce to 6 and 3:)

Frequent caravans: It is a good average one. Especially if you do not have humans, it can offer a lot more time than you have for a village if needed. On seal maps it is must take.
(I would say)

Farsight: Used it like 1 time. Weak.

Blight fighter-> never even seen this one so not even sure what the description is.
(And i completed the ada seal!)

Hunter gatherers: Is actually strong average, weak good. But yes cant pick it blindly.

From the shadows: Yes would say it is completely useless. Can be removed from game without anyone noticing.

Hidden from the queen: Actually this one is good. It is a life saver, especially if you dont own the DLC and have harpies.

Crowded houses: Very weak and minorly useful. Could be even removed from the game.

Calming Water: 150 for -10 is just too slow. You are lucky to get -10/-20 per year even with dedicated water production. (If you go for resolve park it can have some bonus synergiese but even so there are a lot better ones)

Urban planning: Completeley skippable. I think i used it like twice? Throught the 400+ hours? Could even be removed from the game it adds nothing.

Family Gratitude: Is actually quite useful. But only if you have two races that need pickled food. So average.

Back to nature: If there is fertile land on the map-> on of the most OP you can get.
Even the original cost is worth it, you just need to trade away all your food. (If possible, select and buy back enough till the harvest:P)

Woodcutter player: It is one i almost take every time it comes up. Plank production is critical in the game. And this give leeway to it. Same with fuel. On certain maps it can also mean that it makes the game a lot easier fuel wise. (Marshlands and Coral Forest.)
Again you can also trade away your resources before taking it:P

Woodpecker: Most of the time not worth it. Only worth it if you have flame amulets reduce woodcutter hostility(COMPLETELY PREFERABLY:D)

Bone tools: Never seen one.

Economic migration: took it like two times? Usually not worth it.

Blightrot Pruner: Can be useful. If there is no egg, meat, insect available. Though the amount of eggs could be increased to make it more useful. Can also farm it with water production. But is even less than delivery line elsewise. Weak average.

Rooty ground: A bit weaker than woodcutter's prayer.

Firekeepers prayer: It offsets Trade hub, greatly:) Elsewise it is weak average. It can help you to make sure you finish before the storm. Also helps to synergise with positive forest mystery if available.

Mushroom seedlings: T2 version is good. Stormforged even better. If you have fertile lands. Strong contended.

Calming the Forest = Safe haven, just stiuational. If you are lucky it can completely negate opened glades. But it is situational.

Cheap construction: Took it altogether 1 times. Too little offered. Perphaps if you get it very early in the game, elsewise you probably have better options.

Hauling cart: meh. so-so.

Trade Hub: Since trade is OP. If you trade this is OP too:)

Old Fedora Hat: too RNG dependant it is eniterly possible to get nothing out of it. But if you do, it is best to utilize harpie double carry;)

Master blueprint: I still find this a strong contender. You get 3 blueprints for free, for gathering speed reduction-> which you can offset via other methods. Increased amounts gathered, oil production etc. It is one of the easily mitigatable malus. So it is a good and useful almost all the time blueprint.

Marketshift plan: Can be good, but i would say it is average, since all it does is save you some amber. Average

Burnt to Crisp: A very good one. Always useful.

Protected Trade: The best you can get, if Trade is available. Even after 4 nerfs.

Reckless plunder...meh.

Stormwalker tax: Its use is only in the first 3 max 4 years. Thereafter if you cannot get enough ambers via trade you are doing something wrong. Also it tends to push folks to accept more newcomers than they should. Weak.

Alarm bells: situational. If you gain cysts every year is cool. Elsewise, the every three years getting cysts makes it not worth it. You probably find better ones among your deals. Weak.

No quality control: Again something i did not encounter yet.

Lost Supplies: Average. It is per completed Forbidden or Dangerous glade event. If it was normal glade event it would BE VERY GOOD. It does not remove the need to farm or gather, it merely adds extra supplies.

Ancient Pact: The stormforged version makes it worth it.

Mist Piercers: impatient cost might get you:)

Improved tools: Situational. If you dont have a foresty mystery punishing you for opening a glade in the storm, it is okayish. But it is just average. At best you can get for this amount 0.5 and 10 gold with the lowest 9 tool required chest opening. Unless you need these tools for a glade event.

Generous rations: 50% food consumption is...ugh. Rebellious spirit is way better. Since you will be manageing your impatience.

Exploration Expedition: I think this only lasts 180 seconds per discovery. So timeing is critical. But is strong average.

[Skallagrim]

I agree with most that's said here, but want to mention that a few times Bone Tools has served me well (not on P20 as mentioned in the Reddit article). Especially with Frog hearth keeper, you have much more of easy time to re-generate the work force. The highlight was playing P5 early in my QHT run, with Ancient Battleground and Ominous Presence. Between attacking trader and letting people leave intentionally during storm, Bone Tools generated me 54 tools at the end.

Getting Blood Price Contract (10 amber per person leaving) starting in Year 5 was icing on the cake :)

[joiss90]

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Cooking steam: It is only worth it if you have at least one drizzle pump, then it usually is okay because it gives you depending on the setup 30% bonus. Which is more than the cornerstone gives you can buy by trader. Also possible to increase this number with tanks.(but that costs parts.) In one game i had 60% more prod bonus, which is worth 3 cornerstones.

Cooking Steam is also way better with the Frogs as then you can build a frog house and use 1 pack of building materials (you don't need any frogs in the house) to get +50 rainwater capacity (all types)

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by joiss90:

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Cooking steam: It is only worth it if you have at least one drizzle pump, then it usually is okay because it gives you depending on the setup 30% bonus. Which is more than the cornerstone gives you can buy by trader. Also possible to increase this number with tanks.(but that costs parts.) In one game i had 60% more prod bonus, which is worth 3 cornerstones.

Cooking Steam is also way better with the Frogs as then you can build a frog house and use 1 pack of building materials (you don't need any frogs in the house) to get +50 rainwater capacity (all types)

No dlc yet, so i cant really tell anything about that. I thought i mentioned this in my long post:) If not my bad:)

Originally posted by Skallagrim:

I agree with most that's said here, but want to mention that a few times Bone Tools has served me well (not on P20 as mentioned in the Reddit article). Especially with Frog hearth keeper, you have much more of easy time to re-generate the work force. The highlight was playing P5 early in my QHT run, with Ancient Battleground and Ominous Presence. Between attacking trader and letting people leave intentionally during storm, Bone Tools generated me 54 tools at the end.

Getting Blood Price Contract (10 amber per person leaving) starting in Year 5 was icing on the cake :)

Only two things were missing then:D The one where you get 1 ancient tablet per leaving person and the queen does not need to know:P
And yeah on ancient battleground and ominous presence maps The Queen does not need to know cornerstone is actually almost a must have.