Zeus Walkthroughs: Perseus and Medusa

» Episode 1: A New Way of Life

Goals
- 500 people in a Homestead or better
- Produce 20 skeins of fleece in one year
- Yearly profit of 500

Hints & Tips
Welcome to Argos! The Argos playing area is huge and inviting, but you will need to start small before moving on to greater things. In the first episode, your only available resources will be fleece and fish. You will construct a small settlement of fishermen and shepherds who trade fleece overseas for profit.

Start by building a common housing block near the southern entrance of the river. Build Fisheries to provide food and Carding Sheds to produce fleece. A Carding Shed can produce around eight skeins of fleece per year, so you will need at least three or four operating to meet the goal of 20 skeins in a single year. Provide food, fleece, and at least one form of culture to your houses to evolve them to Homestead level. Right-click on your houses to see what they need to evolve further. Do not overbuild your city. You only need enough people to produce and export fleece, and take care of basic services. Overbuilding can result in high unemployment, which is bad for your popularity. It can also increase the wages you pay each year, making the profit goal harder to achieve.

For the moment, money will seem hard to come by. You begin with no allies to trade with, and since you cannot tax your citizens yet, the profit goal may seem out of reach. But eventually, your explorers will open up a trade route with Troezan for fleece export. When you receive a message that "Troezan buys more fleece" you can set up a Trading Post with them and begin exporting fleece. Though selling only 12 skeins of fleece may seem too little an amount at first, they will soon expand consumption and buy 24 per year, allowing you to reach a profit of 500 in a single year. You can also lower wages to help meet the profit goal, but remember that doing so can hurt your popularity, and reduce workforce participation.

When you have met the three goals, you will be ready to move on to the next episode.

» Episode 2: The City Grows

Goals
- 640 people in a Tenement or better
- 48 slabs of marble for colony
- 12 jugs of olive oil for colony

Hints & Tips
In this episode, you will introduce two new industries to your city: olive oil and marble. Establish an olive oil industry between your housing and the meadow where you plant the olive trees. Also set up Masonry Shops to collect marble. These do not necessarily need to be near the marble quarry. Once the first large blocks are delivered, the Shops will keep up a steady stream of marble production, sending out stonecutters in advance when they need new supplies.

Follow the advice of the episode introduction and build a Palace. Build a Tax Office amongst your houses. You can adjust taxes and wages to control the size of your workforce, your income level, and your people's happiness. These also have a major effect on your popularity. You might try setting both wages and taxes to "very high". This will maximize the size of your workforce, and also increase the ratio of taxes collected to wages paid.

Provide your people with a college and a podium to evolve your houses into Tenements. You may also wish to distribute olive oil to them at this point.

You may find that your growing population has outstripped your food supply. Build more Fisheries further along the river. These will send out fishing boats to collect fish. When the boats return to the Fishery, they will unload their fish, and a deliveryman will take the fish to the nearest Granary. However, each Fishery only has one deliveryman capable of carrying only one load of fish at a time. So if the ships are bringing in fish faster than they can be delivered to a Granary, then the slow delivery will be reducing fish production. To avoid this backlog, construct a Granary next to the Fisheries set to "accept" fish. Then set the Granary near your houses to "get" fish. The "getting" Granary continuously send out two deliverymen to collect four fish each from other "accepting" Granaries, ensuring a steady flow of fish to your people's houses.

Troezan buys very little fleece these days. But you can still use excess fleece as gifts. If you curry favor with Troezan now, they may be able to pay you back further down the road.

When you have evolved your houses, and stored up enough marble and olive oil, set aside the colony goods and proceed to the next episode. You will be able to choose between Calydon and Miletos for your first colony. Whichever one you don't choose will be played later in the adventure. For this Hints and Tips, we'll use Miletos as the first example.

» Episode 3: Miletos Colony: The Eastern Frontier

Goals
- Slay a monster (Kraken)
- Fulfill a forthcoming quest (Hermes' Winged Sandals)
- Rule Ethiopia
- 16 sheaves of wheat for parent city
- 24 planks of wood for parent city
- 8 bars of bronze for parent city

Hints & Tips
Miletos is one of the tougher episodes in Zeus. But if you follow these tips, you should be able to make it through unscathed. First, note that the Kraken will show up about a year after you start and will prowl the waters, destroying everything within reach. So resist the temptation to develop a fishing industry or to build any trading Piers.

As suggested in the introduction, when you kill the Kraken, Ethiopia will appreciate the deed, and will voluntarily become your vassal. Therefore, you do not need to develop the Elite Housing required to conquer them.

The resources you have available include boar, timber, silver, and fish.

Start by building a Common Housing block near left-hand side of the playing area, to the right of the mountains. Build two boar Hunting Lodges near the boars to the left, and two more near the center of the playing area to hunt the boars in the lower-right corner. Build five or six Mints as close as possible to the silver deposits to supply a steady stream of income to fatten your treasury. You will need plenty of money to import goods for your city. Don't forget to tax your citizens as well.

Soon, explorers will discover the city of Cyprus, and you can open up trade with them by land. Here you will buy the bronze you need to manufacture the sculptures for your Sanctuaries. But you may want to hold off on buying any bronze until your financial situation is more secure.

When your population becomes large enough, start harvesting wood and storing it away. You will need it later.

Soon, Hermes will announce his quest, and you can build the Hero's Hall to Perseus. Perseus is probably the toughest Hero to get, since he requires the following before deeming your city worthy of his noble presence:

As you can see, summoning this hero involves a mountain of goods that you can't produce in Miletos, so you'd better get crackin' (Kraken?) on acquiring them right away! You can produce wood yourself, and you can import or request bronze to make sculptures. Argos supplies marble, which you will have to request because of the Kraken cutting off sea-trade. But since you don't produce any goods to sell or any goods that these cities want as gifts, it's going to be tough to get everything you need.

Limit your city's population to around 1,000. With food and culture you can get your housing up to Hovel-level, which should be enough to house 1,000 people and supply them with a single Agora. If your population gets much higher than 1,000, you're going to have trouble feeding all those people.

Begin building the Sanctuary to Athena or Hermes. You can decide which to start with first, but it's probably better to finish one before starting a second. Athena's will provide you with olives and olive oil, though neither is of much help in this episode. She will also defend your city from attack. Hermes' Refuge will increase the speed of your deliverymen and is easier to build. Hermes will also fulfill requests made of your city, which will help when Argos starts asking you for food.

Conserve your money and maximize your silver mining and taxes. If you occasionally send large gifts of cash to Argos, you can convince them to keep sending you the marble you request. You can give them wood and pork as well. Even though they don't need it, they will still appreciate the thought. Also, count on Argos periodically sending gifts of marble.

You will need to request fleece as well, but don't give it to your people. Instead, stockpile it until you have enough to summon Perseus. You will also have to manufacture six extra sculptures for the Hero.

Right-click on the Hero's Hall to see what requirements remain to be met. When you have met them all, summon Perseus to your city. He will kill the Kraken, and then you can send him on his quest. The death of the Kraken will open up all sorts of new opportunities for you. Set up numerous overseas trade Piers and engage in commerce on a large scale. Import bronze and wheat to set them aside for Argos. Continue to produce wood, setting aside 24 planks for Argos and selling the rest to Egypt. Import fleece from Argos to evolve your housing. Set an empty Storehouse to accept only olive oil and another to accept olives, and then pray to Athena. She will make sure you never run low on those goods.

Soon, Ethiopia will voluntarily become your vassal. Then all you have to do is set aside the goods and move on. You may want to consider sticking around, though. You will notice that many of your trading partners buy wine. You may want to take the time to build the Grove of Dionysus. You can harvest grapes from his vines, and pray for even more wine. Selling wine and wood, you can build up a large treasury before advancing to the next episode. When you are ready, set aside all the goods required, you will finally be ready to return to Argos.

» Episode 4: The Hero Perseus

Goals
- Fulfill a forthcoming quest (Hades' Helmet of Invisibility)
- Fulfill a forthcoming quest (Athena's Mirror Shield)
- 48 slabs of marble for colony
- 24 jugs of olive oil for colony

Hints & Tips
In this episode, you need to summon Perseus again so that he can acquire the magical items needed to kill Medusa in the final episode. Note from the introduction that you now have access to cheese as a new source of food. Not mentioned, but equally important, is that you can now develop Elite Houses. Though you do not need them in this episode, you may still want to develop an Elite Housing district to take advantage of the large tax income they can provide for your city.

Set up Piers to trade with Miletos and Ethiopia. If you have to delete some Fisheries, you can make up for the lost food by building Dairies to harvest cheese. Note also that you can now build a bridge over to the right-hand side of the river. Set up Fisheries on that side, with a Granary set to "accept" fish. The "getting" Granary near your housing will make sure to provide the food to your agora.

When the quest is announced, build the Hero's Hall to Perseus and get to work attracting the Hero to your city. Remember that he requires the following:

Begin the Sanctuaries right away. Import bronze (for sculptures) and wood. Continue to export fleece.

If you have a good stock of olive oil, fleece, and food, you may want to try building an Elite Housing district. Just building the Elite Houses will take up some of those goods, and will cost money. But they will pay plenty of taxes, making the effort worth your while. An additional source of income will emerge when Mycenae blossoms into a customer for cheese and fleece. With all these exports, and a vibrant Elite Housing district, you should have no money problems in Argos. You can use excess money as gifts to Miletos, in exchange for requesting bronze and wood to supplement the supplies you buy from them.

When you are ready, summon Perseus and send him on his quests. Stockpile enough oil and marble to meet your goals, set them aside, and you are ready to proceed to Calydon.

» Episode 5: Calydon Colony: Artemis' Revenge

Goals
- Slay a monster (the Calydonian Boar)
- Sanctuary to Hermes
- Yearly profit of 500
- 8 pieces of sculpture for parent city

Hints & Tips
In Calydon you can produce cheese, wine, pork, and wood. To construct Hermes' Refuge you will need to import marble and sculptures.

Start by building a Common Housing block somewhere near the right-hand side of the playing area, not too far from the immigrant entrance point to the right. The Calydonian Boar will eventually pop up over in the upper-left corner, so don't build houses too near there. Once he arrives, the Boar will do serious damage to your city, so be prepared. Read ahead to find out what Theseus needs, and get the goods ready in advance.

Build two or three Hunting Lodges near the boars in the upper-left corner, and place a pork-"accepting" granary nearby. Do the same with Dairies on one of the meadow plateaus.

Once you have your food production up and running, you can begin exporting cheese to Mycenae. When employment allows, set up a wine industry. Stockpile 16 amphorae for Theseus. Any that you produce above and beyond that amount can be exported.

Begin importing marble from Argos and producing wood for your Sanctuary. Eventually, Mount Pelion will offer to sell you sculpture. Only import as much as you need to construct the Sanctuary (hint: you will need a total of two sculptures).

Don't forget that you will be receiving a gift of 48 marble and, much later, 24 olive oil from Argos. Make space for them in storehouses. You can import a small amount of fleece as well and use it and the oil to evolve your housing. Or you can just request these from Argos.

Eventually, Artemis will sic the Calydonian Boar on you, and you will have to summon Theseus to take him out. Build the Hero's Hall to Theseus next to your Palace, preferably behind it and not on the road. Then right-click on the Hall to see what requirements are still to be met. His Hall requires:

You will have already met the first requirement if you built the hall next to the Palace. Now encircle the Hall with Walls. Use Gatehouses to allow roads to pass through. Though the Hall doesn't need access to a superintendent, it does need road access, so make sure a road is coming through a Gatehouse and touching the Hall. To meet the appeal requirement, surround the Hall, inside and outside the walls, with aesthetics and recreational facilities. The bigger ones create more desirability and spread it a further distance. Free Commemorative Monuments are even better.

Once you have met the three tricky requirements, stock up on marble and wine, and summon Theseus to kill the Boar. At this point, you should be ready to move on to the next episode.

» Episode 6: The Gorgon, or The Bad Hair Day

Goals
- 4 Sanctuaries
- Population of 4,500
- Treasury of 10,000
- Support 16 horsemen
- Produce 32 jugs of olive oil in one year
- Slay a monster (Medusa)

Hints & Tips
In this, your final episode, you will build Argos into a beautiful, thriving metropolis. The easiest Sanctuaries to build are to Hades and Dionysus. Build Dionysus' first, so you can get a free supply of wine to give to your Elite Houses. You should have four or five Artisans' Guilds, and at least six or seven Masonry Shops. Import and request sculptures and wood from the start.

You will also need at least four fully developed Elite Houses to meet the goal of sixteen horsemen. Calydon supplies grapes, though you should be able to get plenty of wine just by praying to Dionysus. Import bronze to produce armor at an Armory. Import wheat to supply your Horse Ranches with grain. Your Horse trainer will lead the horses to the Agora, where the peddler will distribute them to the Elite Houses.

Continue to expand your Common Housing. Focus on evolving them to their highest level (Townhouse) so you can maximize population density and minimize the number of workers needed to keep them supplied and cultured.

Eventually, you will receive a request for help from an ally, and will be able to construct the Hero's Hall to Theseus. You don't necessarily need to summon him, but if you'd like to, his requirements are listed again below.

You may have to delete the Palace and move it to an open space to make room for the Hall.

In a few months, you will receive advance warning of Medusa's invasion. As you well know by now, Perseus requires the following:

Summon him to kill the Medusa. When you have slain her, finished the Sanctuaries, and met the other goals, you will have won the Adventure!