Ara: History Untold | Prestige Guide: How to Earn a Lot of Prestige

Ara: History Untold’s main method of winning, or rather, not losing, is by getting a lot of Prestige. The main victory condition in the game is to not have the lowest Prestige until the third act, where you need to have the highest Prestige.

Prestige Overview

In Ara: History Untold, Prestige is a form of currency. It can also be called a system of scoring, where basically doing anything gains you Prestige. Players can earn Prestige from seven different categories, split into the seven types of influence in the game. These are Commerce, Culture, Government, Industry, Military, Religion, Impact and Science. Each of these categories earns you Prestige in specific ways, these are:

• Commerce: Trade with other nations and generate wealth.
• Culture: Make masterpieces and use museums.
• Government: Make new cities, build improvements, and maintain high QoL.
• Industry: Produces many resources and maintains the strength of goods production.
• Military: Win wars, defeat enemy Forces, and have Forces deployed.
• Religion: Spread your religion and build religious improvements.
• Impact: Have a high city growth and build triumphs
• Science: Research technologies and build science improvements.

The nitty-gritty and specifics of what and how much each contributes to each category can be found in the Prestige screen, which you can reach at the top left corner, where your leader is seen.

Gaining Prestige

You can gain Prestige in a myriad of ways, and it is generally advised to diversify your method of gaining Prestige. There are quite a lot of ways of doing so, so make sure it fits your playstyle and leadership traits.

Triumphs

Triumphs are the main method of gaining Prestige, great historical wonders that are only unlocked via certain technologies. They take up an entire region and a lot of resources to build. But it is worth it as they give you a lot of Prestige upon completion.

You have to be careful when building them, as only one can be built per game, so if your enemies get to it first, you’ll be locked out of building them. It is very efficient to build triumphs in regions that have fewer valuable resources and are comprised of 3 or fewer zones. You will also want to try to get the specific resources they require via trading or boosting production. If you keep building triumphs, you’ll eventually be topping the charts and at a large margin, too.

Masterpieces

The second-best way to earn Prestige is to build these artifacts using paragons, which you will find as you play the game. These paragons work on certain types of artifacts in a certain improvement, so make sure you have the correct paragon for the correct type. If you siege and take enemy cities, you can also steal Masterpieces from these places.

There are five types of Masterpieces:

• Books
• Music
• Paintings
• Statuary
• Textiles

They have no real difference other than where they can be produced. Aside from this, you can also display your masterpieces by creating sets. These sets can then be displayed in a museum, art gallery, or opera house. Of course, you don’t unlock any of these until much later in the game, so creating them in masses is your best option when you get a few Paragons.

Act Goals

The third best way of earning Prestige is by completing your act goals. These are mini-quests or objectives that every nation gets access to. The first nation that completes it gets the first [or sometimes only spot] and, as such, the greatest reward in Prestige. 

Often, these goals are things you want to achieve anyway, so they are more like things you want to focus on. The benefits from them are twofold: you not only complete and gain Prestige but also prevent others from gaining the same amount.

These goals may range from creating a certain triumph to achieving a certain number of people, resources, and so on.

Other Methods

Retaining a high production strength and quality of life is a very constant way of generating Prestige. These can be augmented by Events, Amenities, and certain Improvements.

Certain leaders make certain ways of getting Prestige easier. For example, Genghis Khan, Osh-Tisch, Xerxes I, and Alexander the Great all field a lot of Forces and benefit from Military Expansion, so you can be constantly warring or having an active military to generate Prestige.

Golden Ages

 Every method of generating Prestige is boosted during a Golden Age. Golden Ages last for 10 turns, and any prestige earned is boosted by +25%. So, any of the things mentioned above you do will be boosted. Therefore, it is a good idea to really try and achieve Act Goals or complete Triumphs and Masterpieces while in a Golden Age.

You can increase the rate at which a Golden Age comes by improving the Quality of Life in your cities. You can also just play as one of the leaders that boosts the Golden Ages, such as Tamar the Great.

Check out our review and other guides on Ara: History Untold
- Ara: History Untold Review
- Ara: History Untold | Top 10 Best Leaders to Play