NOTE: I referenced Aryzel’s AoEO guides under the quest tab to quickly reference what Elite quests exist and where.
Aryzel’s guide: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...o61pzQyDTPILsaH6f_XTx-fXo/edit#gid=1065947759
Elite quests are fairly neglected in AoEO, as you do not often see people run them, ask for co-op elite quests, or even discuss them. The rewards for any elite quest above 10 minutes are currently poor and this ends up making less people practice them, or even run them once, making it even harder to gauge how they even play out. Given that there are 97 unique elite quests, and over 70 of them lack a corresponding legendary, becoming great at all of these quests is unlikely. Similarly, I may have made a mistake on typing out these quests. Thus, if you have further information on how speedy a quest can be cleared, leave a post on how long a quest took for you. I also have a few star rating suggestions for some elite quests that I feel do not actually reflect the difficulty of the quest in solo (usually an increase), and just like clear times, these too are subjective, so if you have any opinions on what star ratings for some quests should look like, feel free to contribute. For pinpointing quest times, while I partially played through the quests, I also got clear times for some elite quests that I could find on youtube. Any civ specific quest will be marked with the first letter of a civ in brackets, while other notes such as co-op only or specific strategies will be put in a second pair of brackets. A quest notated with fixed means that the quest will last for that specific length regardless of what is done. All quests were ran solo, although co-op only quests were ran in co-op. I may consider condensing some of this information on a spreadsheet to get a better idea on quest clear times.
To discourage skipping optionals, I think that each reward from elite quest optionals should be close to the quest reward without an optional. Some elite quests can be noticeably faster when the optionals are skipped, and in doing so, provides a better reward per time spent than if the optional was done. I think elite quests should give a payout based on time investment to a degree. Because of this, I have separated them into three broad differing groups, quests that can be cleared in under 5 minutes, quests that take between 5-10 minutes, and any quest that takes longer than that. This is so that quests with a huge clear time advantage over the rest do not get overbuffed.
A way of boosting quest rewards would be emphasizing the guaranteed epic chests, which may be less appealing for invested players, but would help a new player gear up. I would still suggest that coin rewards should be boosted to incentivize players to run them, but not to a degree where the richest players would include it as part of a farming rotation without a second thought.
While I would keep the rewards the same for quests that could be completed in under 5 minutes, quests that average a completion time of 5-10 minutes could have their optional gold increased to 1,500 gold and one of their optional's chests changed to a guaranteed epic to incentivize clearing the optional.
For any quest that currently takes a minimum of over 10 minutes, their optionals’ non legendary chests should be changed into guaranteed epic chests.
Any one star quest that takes over 10 minutes should have their optional rewards increased to 1,000 coin.
2 star quests could have a baseline coin reward of 2,000 and a baseline chest reward of 3 normal chests and 2 guaranteed epics, with their optional coin reward increased to 1500.
3 star quests baseline could award 2,000 coin and be increased to 2 normal chests, 3 guaranteed epic chests, and 1 legendary chest, with their optionals coin reward increased to 2,000 and providing an additional guaranteed epic chest. Any elite quest without an optional should have their baseline rewards also include the reward of one optional.
Star rating changes suggestions (with optional included):
You Complete Me (2->1 star)
The hardest part is finding someone with this quest. The optional will always be taken if you plan on not dying, the left and right AIs can be rushed early, and the north base’s forces are purely infantry and ranged, meaning that splash damage and ranged will shred the defense force.
The Landholder Nuisance (1->2 star)
While not too difficult, the optional does require some degree of macro. Increasing its star rating would reflect that the optional may be tougher than a typical 1 star elite quest.
Recapturing Midgard (1->2 star)
One of the few quests that has an optional that disables the creation of markets outright, as a result it means that proper macro of resources is even more important than before.
Family Heirloom (2 star)
The timed optional can be somewhat tight of a timer. Also, this quest is currently missing guaranteed epic rewards.
It’s a Free For All! (1->2 star)
While it may be 1 star difficulty when the optional is ignored, when the optional is not ignored, this quest is fairly unorthodox as like Kourion, your best bet of winning is tower rushing the AI. However, as both AI start weak, and also will pressure you, a two-pronged attack is necessary for victory. This quest can be beaten fast (under 12 minutes) but because tower rushing requires precise placements, it can be difficult for newcomers, along with how split pushing can be micro intensive. Priest optional further confuses players as it is more meant for Priestess of Ra healing villagers and empowering economy rather than Priest of Ptah rush.
More Fools on the Hill! (3 star)
While I would say this quest should be a 4 star in solo, I think with a proposed difficulty change for solo, this quest would become a 3 star elite quest. The rewards are also poor and should be tuned to be as rewarding as a 3 star quest with one optional, after a general reward change is done for other elite quests.
Recapturing Vanaheim (2->3 star)
You get attacked at the 4 minute mark, and from there on must constantly be on the defensive. Far more aggressive than some 3 star legendaries, even, and on par with some of them.
Recapturing Jotunheim (2->3 star)
Just like Vanaheim, you get attacked at the 4 minute mark. Unlike Vanaheim, you have no guard towers to defend yourself early on, and the AI spam can take a toll on your resources. If that wasn’t enough, you have to pop a fortress in 15 minutes. If any quest is a candidate for 4 star elite difficulty, this would likely be one. Adding insult to injury is that you have very limited gold and stone mines to take advantage of, and even after popping the fortress, plenty of units pour in. Given the sheer length and difficulty of this quest, it should award more rewards than a typical 3 star elite quest.
Quest difficulty suggestions:
More Fools on the Hill!
The difficulty disparity between a solo and co-op run is immense. In a co-op run, the quest could be considered a 2 star quest as the doubled number of officers outweigh the double health of enemies. In solo, you have half the number of officers as co-op, but enemies still hit as hard as co-op and a centurion with any reasonable gear will not make it fast enough to stop enemies from damaging the Temple of Vesta. As a result, soloing this quest not only requires good gear, it practically requires memorizing every spawn. Thus, I would like to request that enemies get a 25% damage reduction compared to currently in solo, so that completing this quest does not require a combination of good memory and micro to the extent it currently does, but still require a good amount of focus in solo play. Co-op balancing for this quest is fine and should remain the same in co-op.
Other considerations:
Applying different cooldowns for different elite quests, and adjusting their rewards based on how long the cooldown is, just like legendary quests. Quests with an equivalent legendary version could potentially use that as a springboard for modifying their rewards. Quests that last a fixed amount of time could also have their rewards adjusted for the time spent in said quest to an extent.
Elite quests:
<5 minutes (fine as is)
Lots of Rogues
Winter Survival (C)(Diviciacus required)
Die Hard or Die Hard (C)
Celtic Combat (C)
What an Egomaniac (G)(prodromos rush)
Lots of Barbarians
Wonders Under the Sun
~5-10 min
Losing Your Religion (faster w/o optional)
Breaking eggs to make an omelet (semifast co-op, solo is >10min)
Rescue Mission
War Leaders Down (E)
Keep them under our wing (G)(fixed 10min)
Kill the Docks (G)
Rallying at the Temples (G)(vill + spear rush temples 4-5 min in)
10+ Minutes long
Harass the Sea People (maybe <10m with co-op?)
Left with No Choice
All-Out War
You Complete Me (co-op only, rush first 2 bases then splash / range 3rd base)
Assault in Colofon
Assault in Priene
Assault in Teos
Assault in Eritrea
Assault in Focea
Assault in Clazomene
Assault in Lebedos
Assault in Quios
Assault in Samos
An Eye for an Eye (co-op only, fixed at 30min)
General Zu, What did you do?
Red Dawn
The Landholder Nuisance
The Marauders Strike Back (fixed at 20min)
Canyon Clearing
Return to Susa (fixed at 20min)
Sink or Swim (C)(fixed at 15min)
Recapturing Chytroi
Recapturing Idalion
Recapturing Kition
Recapturing Lapithos
Recapturing Ledrai
Recapturing Salamis
Recapturing Kourion
Recapturing Tamassos
Giants Fell one by one (E)
Flush them out (E)
Hard-Won Gold (E)
Hold Out (E)
The Fishin' Hole (E)
It's a Free for all (E)
The Bandit Armada (G)
Invading Babylonians (fixed 15min)
Greek Fleet (co-op only, fixed 15min)
Repeat Greek Fleet (fixed 15min)
Hold the North Again (fixed 20min)
Rebuilt Hideout
Return of the Invaders
Sea Battle Returns
Family Heirloom (R)
More Fools on the Hill! (R)
Unite the Tribes
Recapturing Midgard (relatively good coin - 4500!)
Recapturing Jotunheim
Recapturing Vanaheim
Civ specific wonder quests (10+ min long, faster w/o optional):
Sanctuary of Amytis (B)
Wonderful (C)
A ship out of water (N)
Gate of all Nations (P)
Civ specific population quests (10+ min long):
Natural Expansion (B)
Popping up (C)
Songs of Victory (N)
Under Pressure (P)
Has similar legendary ver. (10+ min):
Take That and That, Tamiat Pirates
The Renegade Escapade Returns
Brennos Attacks
Invasion of Dunum
Invasion of Verona
Invasion of Aegitna (co-op only)
Invasion of Cremona (co-op only)
Invasion of Nikaia (co-op only)
Invasion of Ouikos (co-op only)
End of the Line
Liberaing Memphis
Liberating the Lower Nile
Liberating the Village of Sais
Liberating Dahshur
Liberating Fayum Oasis
Liberating Giza
Liberating Thebes
The Valley of the Kings
Join Forces
Return the Favor
Totally Turanian
Just Deserts
Resistance in Sistan
My Brother's Keeper
Turanian Trouble
Aryzel’s guide: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...o61pzQyDTPILsaH6f_XTx-fXo/edit#gid=1065947759
Elite quests are fairly neglected in AoEO, as you do not often see people run them, ask for co-op elite quests, or even discuss them. The rewards for any elite quest above 10 minutes are currently poor and this ends up making less people practice them, or even run them once, making it even harder to gauge how they even play out. Given that there are 97 unique elite quests, and over 70 of them lack a corresponding legendary, becoming great at all of these quests is unlikely. Similarly, I may have made a mistake on typing out these quests. Thus, if you have further information on how speedy a quest can be cleared, leave a post on how long a quest took for you. I also have a few star rating suggestions for some elite quests that I feel do not actually reflect the difficulty of the quest in solo (usually an increase), and just like clear times, these too are subjective, so if you have any opinions on what star ratings for some quests should look like, feel free to contribute. For pinpointing quest times, while I partially played through the quests, I also got clear times for some elite quests that I could find on youtube. Any civ specific quest will be marked with the first letter of a civ in brackets, while other notes such as co-op only or specific strategies will be put in a second pair of brackets. A quest notated with fixed means that the quest will last for that specific length regardless of what is done. All quests were ran solo, although co-op only quests were ran in co-op. I may consider condensing some of this information on a spreadsheet to get a better idea on quest clear times.
To discourage skipping optionals, I think that each reward from elite quest optionals should be close to the quest reward without an optional. Some elite quests can be noticeably faster when the optionals are skipped, and in doing so, provides a better reward per time spent than if the optional was done. I think elite quests should give a payout based on time investment to a degree. Because of this, I have separated them into three broad differing groups, quests that can be cleared in under 5 minutes, quests that take between 5-10 minutes, and any quest that takes longer than that. This is so that quests with a huge clear time advantage over the rest do not get overbuffed.
A way of boosting quest rewards would be emphasizing the guaranteed epic chests, which may be less appealing for invested players, but would help a new player gear up. I would still suggest that coin rewards should be boosted to incentivize players to run them, but not to a degree where the richest players would include it as part of a farming rotation without a second thought.
While I would keep the rewards the same for quests that could be completed in under 5 minutes, quests that average a completion time of 5-10 minutes could have their optional gold increased to 1,500 gold and one of their optional's chests changed to a guaranteed epic to incentivize clearing the optional.
For any quest that currently takes a minimum of over 10 minutes, their optionals’ non legendary chests should be changed into guaranteed epic chests.
Any one star quest that takes over 10 minutes should have their optional rewards increased to 1,000 coin.
2 star quests could have a baseline coin reward of 2,000 and a baseline chest reward of 3 normal chests and 2 guaranteed epics, with their optional coin reward increased to 1500.
3 star quests baseline could award 2,000 coin and be increased to 2 normal chests, 3 guaranteed epic chests, and 1 legendary chest, with their optionals coin reward increased to 2,000 and providing an additional guaranteed epic chest. Any elite quest without an optional should have their baseline rewards also include the reward of one optional.
Star rating changes suggestions (with optional included):
You Complete Me (2->1 star)
The hardest part is finding someone with this quest. The optional will always be taken if you plan on not dying, the left and right AIs can be rushed early, and the north base’s forces are purely infantry and ranged, meaning that splash damage and ranged will shred the defense force.
The Landholder Nuisance (1->2 star)
While not too difficult, the optional does require some degree of macro. Increasing its star rating would reflect that the optional may be tougher than a typical 1 star elite quest.
Recapturing Midgard (1->2 star)
One of the few quests that has an optional that disables the creation of markets outright, as a result it means that proper macro of resources is even more important than before.
Family Heirloom (2 star)
The timed optional can be somewhat tight of a timer. Also, this quest is currently missing guaranteed epic rewards.
It’s a Free For All! (1->2 star)
While it may be 1 star difficulty when the optional is ignored, when the optional is not ignored, this quest is fairly unorthodox as like Kourion, your best bet of winning is tower rushing the AI. However, as both AI start weak, and also will pressure you, a two-pronged attack is necessary for victory. This quest can be beaten fast (under 12 minutes) but because tower rushing requires precise placements, it can be difficult for newcomers, along with how split pushing can be micro intensive. Priest optional further confuses players as it is more meant for Priestess of Ra healing villagers and empowering economy rather than Priest of Ptah rush.
More Fools on the Hill! (3 star)
While I would say this quest should be a 4 star in solo, I think with a proposed difficulty change for solo, this quest would become a 3 star elite quest. The rewards are also poor and should be tuned to be as rewarding as a 3 star quest with one optional, after a general reward change is done for other elite quests.
Recapturing Vanaheim (2->3 star)
You get attacked at the 4 minute mark, and from there on must constantly be on the defensive. Far more aggressive than some 3 star legendaries, even, and on par with some of them.
Recapturing Jotunheim (2->3 star)
Just like Vanaheim, you get attacked at the 4 minute mark. Unlike Vanaheim, you have no guard towers to defend yourself early on, and the AI spam can take a toll on your resources. If that wasn’t enough, you have to pop a fortress in 15 minutes. If any quest is a candidate for 4 star elite difficulty, this would likely be one. Adding insult to injury is that you have very limited gold and stone mines to take advantage of, and even after popping the fortress, plenty of units pour in. Given the sheer length and difficulty of this quest, it should award more rewards than a typical 3 star elite quest.
Quest difficulty suggestions:
More Fools on the Hill!
The difficulty disparity between a solo and co-op run is immense. In a co-op run, the quest could be considered a 2 star quest as the doubled number of officers outweigh the double health of enemies. In solo, you have half the number of officers as co-op, but enemies still hit as hard as co-op and a centurion with any reasonable gear will not make it fast enough to stop enemies from damaging the Temple of Vesta. As a result, soloing this quest not only requires good gear, it practically requires memorizing every spawn. Thus, I would like to request that enemies get a 25% damage reduction compared to currently in solo, so that completing this quest does not require a combination of good memory and micro to the extent it currently does, but still require a good amount of focus in solo play. Co-op balancing for this quest is fine and should remain the same in co-op.
Other considerations:
Applying different cooldowns for different elite quests, and adjusting their rewards based on how long the cooldown is, just like legendary quests. Quests with an equivalent legendary version could potentially use that as a springboard for modifying their rewards. Quests that last a fixed amount of time could also have their rewards adjusted for the time spent in said quest to an extent.
Elite quests:
<5 minutes (fine as is)
Lots of Rogues
Winter Survival (C)(Diviciacus required)
Die Hard or Die Hard (C)
Celtic Combat (C)
What an Egomaniac (G)(prodromos rush)
Lots of Barbarians
Wonders Under the Sun
~5-10 min
Losing Your Religion (faster w/o optional)
Breaking eggs to make an omelet (semifast co-op, solo is >10min)
Rescue Mission
War Leaders Down (E)
Keep them under our wing (G)(fixed 10min)
Kill the Docks (G)
Rallying at the Temples (G)(vill + spear rush temples 4-5 min in)
10+ Minutes long
Harass the Sea People (maybe <10m with co-op?)
Left with No Choice
All-Out War
You Complete Me (co-op only, rush first 2 bases then splash / range 3rd base)
Assault in Colofon
Assault in Priene
Assault in Teos
Assault in Eritrea
Assault in Focea
Assault in Clazomene
Assault in Lebedos
Assault in Quios
Assault in Samos
An Eye for an Eye (co-op only, fixed at 30min)
General Zu, What did you do?
Red Dawn
The Landholder Nuisance
The Marauders Strike Back (fixed at 20min)
Canyon Clearing
Return to Susa (fixed at 20min)
Sink or Swim (C)(fixed at 15min)
Recapturing Chytroi
Recapturing Idalion
Recapturing Kition
Recapturing Lapithos
Recapturing Ledrai
Recapturing Salamis
Recapturing Kourion
Recapturing Tamassos
Giants Fell one by one (E)
Flush them out (E)
Hard-Won Gold (E)
Hold Out (E)
The Fishin' Hole (E)
It's a Free for all (E)
The Bandit Armada (G)
Invading Babylonians (fixed 15min)
Greek Fleet (co-op only, fixed 15min)
Repeat Greek Fleet (fixed 15min)
Hold the North Again (fixed 20min)
Rebuilt Hideout
Return of the Invaders
Sea Battle Returns
Family Heirloom (R)
More Fools on the Hill! (R)
Unite the Tribes
Recapturing Midgard (relatively good coin - 4500!)
Recapturing Jotunheim
Recapturing Vanaheim
Civ specific wonder quests (10+ min long, faster w/o optional):
Sanctuary of Amytis (B)
Wonderful (C)
A ship out of water (N)
Gate of all Nations (P)
Civ specific population quests (10+ min long):
Natural Expansion (B)
Popping up (C)
Songs of Victory (N)
Under Pressure (P)
Has similar legendary ver. (10+ min):
Take That and That, Tamiat Pirates
The Renegade Escapade Returns
Brennos Attacks
Invasion of Dunum
Invasion of Verona
Invasion of Aegitna (co-op only)
Invasion of Cremona (co-op only)
Invasion of Nikaia (co-op only)
Invasion of Ouikos (co-op only)
End of the Line
Liberaing Memphis
Liberating the Lower Nile
Liberating the Village of Sais
Liberating Dahshur
Liberating Fayum Oasis
Liberating Giza
Liberating Thebes
The Valley of the Kings
Join Forces
Return the Favor
Totally Turanian
Just Deserts
Resistance in Sistan
My Brother's Keeper
Turanian Trouble
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