Nova Roma, a city-builder and management sim game from Lion Shield, begins just as the Eternal City meets its end. As Rome falls into decadence and decay, it’s up to you to lead a band of survivors across the seas and start building a Nova Roma, a new Rome. Eventually, your settlement may rival the glory of your homeland itself—but to see your labors come to fruition, you must appease the gods and discover key technological breakthroughs.

Our Nova Roma guide discusses two major features: Divine Tasks, where you must earn the favor of the Olympians, and the Technology Tree, where you unlock new buildings and improvements.

 

Getting started with religion in Nova Roma

You can get started with Nova Roma’s religion mechanics early in your sandbox playthrough. You just need to construct a Small Temple, which requires 10x Wood and 20x Stone. Make sure your citizens clear the land with these materials so you can amass them quickly.

Once a Small Temple has been built, you can dedicate it to an Olympian deity, which rewards you with +2 Favor. The Favor resource, represented by a star surrounded by a laurel wreath, allows you to unlock new features in the Technology Tree (more on this later).

As of the time of this writing, there are five Olympian gods available. Each temple also allows you to activate the Favor of the Gods, which grants a permanent boost within that temple’s effective radius. This costs 1x Favor to enact.

• Jupiter, God of Thunder and King of the Gods: +3 citizen happiness within a five-tile radius.
• Ceres, Goddess of Agriculture and Fertility: +1 output to the three nearest Farms, Vineyards, and Orchards within the temple’s radius.
• Neptune, God of the Sea: +1 fish yield to the five nearest fishing buildings within the temple’s radius.
• Vulcan, God of Fire and the Forge: +1 output to the five nearest fire-based industry buildings within the temple’s radius.
• Mars, God of War: +25% damage to the three nearest defense towers within the temple’s radius.

Needless to say, you have to carefully consider where to place your Small Temple buildings in Nova Roma. For instance, Ceres’ temples should be close enough to several agricultural buildings, Neptune’s temples must be near Fishing Huts by the coast, and Vulcan’s temples should be right beside Charcoal Makers and Weaponsmiths. Mars’s temple, meanwhile, must be near your Guard Towers. As for Jupiter’s temples, the happiness bonus works miracles if the structure is surrounded by numerous residential buildings like Hovels and Insulae. 

If you find an ideal location, click on the Favor of the Gods button to gain a powerful boon for that area.

 

Managing religion in Nova Roma: Divine Tasks, festivals, and the wrath of the gods

When you complete the Divine Tasks the gods give out, you’ll earn even more Favor. For example, Jupiter will want you to grow your island’s population and construct buildings that boost happiness. Mars, meanwhile, wants to see buildings that help you defend against invaders. These include Guard Towers and Weaponsmiths.

From time to time, deities may also ask for resource offerings as part of the Divine Tasks mechanic. For example, Ceres asks for Bread, while Vulcan asks for Stone. You need to amass these resources and items so you can donate them to fulfill the objective. Note that almost all gods will ask for Gold donations, too. This means you have to earn taxes from your citizens, either by constructing a Tax Office or higher-tier Insulae apartments.

In addition, gods may demand that you dedicate Large Temples and Grand Temples in their honor. If you continue to neglect these tasks, a wrathful god can rain down divine punishment within an area, such as lightning strikes (Zeus), crop failures (Ceres), and major floods (Neptune).

Since we’re already on the subject, you should construct Large Temples and Grand Temples later once you’ve unlocked them via the Technology Tree. Large Temples allow you to start Festivals in honor of the gods. Each festival costs multiple resources, like Gold, Wine, and Grapes, but they’ll greatly boost the happiness of citizens.

As for Grand Temples, these megastructures let you call on the gods for help by spending Favor:

• Jupiter: Stops rain, droughts, and floods.
• Ceres: Fills all citizen hunger and diet requirements instantly.
• Neptune: Sinks all enemy ships carrying invaders.
• Vulcan: Extinguishes all fires burning in your city.
• Mars: Enrages friendly troops to increase their damage and movement speed.

The best techs to unlock in Nova Roma

The Favor that you gain from religion mechanics is used to unlock new improvements via the Technology Tree. We can divide the Technology Tree itself into different categories from the upper-left section going clockwise to the lower-left section. In any case, here are the best technologies to unlock early in Nova Roma:

• Agriculture and Food: Place a few Fishing Huts near shoaling fish and Grape Vines near Farms. Construct temples to Neptune and Ceres close to these areas.
• Housing: Unlock the Small Insula tech so more citizens can reside in a single abode. A Food Counter built on the ground floor of a Small Insula also yields happiness.
• Utilities: A Fire Brigade near a well should be able to put out most fires.
• Finance: You need the Tax Office up and running early to maximize your Gold earnings.
• Entertainment: Continue by unlocking the Small Theater, followed by Statues.
• Religion: You should construct Large Temples and Grand Temples as you progress.
• Water and Bathhouses: Aqueducts funnel water from high up in the mountains down to the Water Towers in your city. You can then construct the Bath Reservoir and different types of baths to create a sprawling complex.
• Industry:
  • With Foresters, you won’t need to worry about clearing trees for Wood ever again. The same can be said for Stone Quarries if your territory has multiple Stone Deposits.
  • Consider building a Claypit and a Charcoal Maker. Both of these are needed by the Pottery Workshop, which creates goods that make citizens in Small Insulae happy.
  • The Charcoal Maker, along with Wheat from Farms, are needed to produce Bread.
• Defensive Structures: A few Guard Towers should be enough to fend off invading raiders. Later, you might want to unlock the Infantry Barracks so you don’t have to manually recruit militia forces.
• Logistics: Small Stockpiles and Small Warehouses should serve you well for the early-game. Eventually, you’re going to need Transport Carts to deliver goods from one storage building to another.
• Trade and Shipbuilding:
  • The Dock, combined with the Trading Agreements tech, allows you to automate the buying and selling of certain resources.
  • If you want to purchase a lot of stuff manually, then the Trading Post makes Merchant Ships visit your Dock more frequently.
  • The Shrewd Dealmaking tech applies discounts for bulk purchases of resources.

That does it for our guide on how to maximize the boons from religion and technology in Nova Roma. We hope these tips help you as you continue to grow your settlement under the ever watchful eyes of the gods.

Nova Roma is available now in Early Access on the Epic Games Store. You can also read our interview with the developers at Lion Shield to learn about how they conceptualized the game’s city-building mechanics and features.