A Spy is a unit for hurting another civilization without war. You investigate a town, steal from its treasury, poison its grain or sabotage a structure. It is expensive and risky.
Getting a Spy
- Your civ needs the Nationalism technology.
- A town trains the Spy at the Barracks. That costs 5,000 coins from the treasury and 500 hammers.
- A town can have one Spy at a time.
- The Spy lands in the Barracks chest as an item.
To use a Spy you have to live in a town, be registered on the server for at least a day and be online for at least 10 minutes now.
A Spy is bound to your civ. You lose it when you die.
Running a mission
Missions cannot be run during WarTime.
- Enter the culture of the civilization you want to hit.
- Most missions need you close to the target, see the table.
- Right-click holding the Spy. A numbered menu appears in chat. Type the number of the mission.
- The game shows your success chance and the chance of being caught. Type
yesto begin. - Stay inside the borders until the mission ends. The Duration column shows how long. If you leave the area, the mission has failed.
- At the end your town pays the cost of the mission and the outcome is decided.
| Mission | Cost | Range | Duration | Fail chance | Chance to be caught |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investigate Town | 10,000 | anywhere in the culture | 30 s | 10% | 1% |
| Steal Treasury | 20,000 | 50 blocks | 140 s | 30% | 25% |
| Incite Riots | 20,000 | 50 blocks | 120 s | 30% | 25% |
| Poison Granary | 20,000 | 50 blocks | 60 s | 20% | 10% |
| Pirate | 1,000 | 10 blocks | 60 s | 0% | 0% |
| Sabotage | 250,000 | 50 blocks | 300 s | 40% | 50% |
The cost comes out of the treasury of your town. If it does not hold enough coins at that moment, the mission fails.
The missions
- Investigate Town. You get a report on the town in a book: its treasury, its hammers, culture, beakers and happiness, and its structures. It works anywhere in its culture.
- Steal Treasury. Steals 20% of the town's treasury. You have to be within 50 blocks of the Town Hall.
- Incite Riots. The town gets 4 extra unhappiness for 24 hours. That can drop it a state.
- Poison Granary. The town's Cottages get no food for 3 to 50 hours. There is a 5% chance that on top of that they all drop a level. You have to be within 50 blocks of a Granary.
- Pirate. You take the goodie from an enemy trade outpost. You have to be within 10 blocks of the outpost. This mission never fails.
- Sabotage. Destroys the nearest structure within 50 blocks. The most expensive mission, most likely to fail and to get you caught. Sabotaging a wonder costs double.
Being discovered
While a mission runs, the Spy builds up exposure. The higher it gets, the more the town learns about you.
- Each second: +1.
- Each person of the town near you: +2 per second.
- Each Scout Tower near you: +5 per second.
The town then hears more, step by step:
- from 40%: that it is being spied on;
- from 80%: where the Spy is standing;
- from 90%: who the Spy is.
After the mission the outcome is decided.
- The fail chance decides whether the mission achieves anything.
- If it fails, the chance of being caught decides whether you are also unmasked. In that case your Spy is destroyed and the whole server hears who tried what.
Certain trade goods raise your success chance, see Trade goods.
Defending against spies
- Build Scout Towers. They make a Spy stand out much faster and report enemies in your area.
- Act on the warning. From 80% you know where the Spy is: kill them and the mission is over.
- Declare known spies outlaws using
/town outlaw add <name>. Your towers then fire at them.