Table of Contents
Event Description
The Lost City of Gold (LCoG) has guilds send teams of heroes to acquire “Pure Gold”, which is accumulated collectively, and then rewards are given out at various quantity milestones.
The event is scheduled to appear every 4 weeks. There has been extra LCoGs that did not follow the monthly cadence, but these are uncommon and reserved for special occasions.
It begins on a Friday at 15:00 UTC, and lasts 96 hours (4 days until 15:00 UTC the following Tuesday). Guilds must reach the required Pure Gold count before then, for all members to be able to claim all rewards. The rewards (detailed below), contain unique and familiar items throughout the event, and are awarded upon completion of Pure Gold quantity milestones.
Gameplay and Mechanics
All known quest data for every tier is located -> here <-
The main theme is to collect ‘Pure Gold’ from raiding LCoG.
All guild members individually send teams to tackle whichever difficulties they can. Pure Gold is awarded in various quantities based on difficulty completed, and pooled collectively as a guild.
The amount of Pure Gold you receive per quest is directly tied to the difficulty of the quest, and the quantity of heroes sent – the less heroes you send, the less Pure Gold they bring home!
The event quest is selected just like any other quest. It only appears when the event is active
Difficulties
There are 11 difficulties, each progressively more difficult than the last. Rewards per quest are also increased as you climb further up in difficulty.
| Difficulty | Pure Gold | Boss Gold | Boss Key % | Boss Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 8-12 | 16-24 | 30% | 3 Wins |
| Tier 2 | 10-14 | 20-28 | 35% | 3 Wins |
| Tier 3 | 12-18 | 24-36 | 40% | 3 Wins |
| Tier 4 | 14-20 | 28-40 | 45% | 4 Wins |
| Tier 5 | 16-24 | 36-56 | 50% | 4 Wins |
| Tier 6 | 20-32 | 40-64 | 55% | 4 Wins |
| Tier 7 | 24-36 | 48-72 | 60% | 4 Wins |
| Tier 8 | 30-44 | 100-200 | 65% | 4 Wins |
| Tier 9 | 40-55 | 125-250 | 70% | 5 Wins |
| Tier 10 | 50-64 | 150-300 | 77% | 5 Wins |
| Tier 11 | 60-75 | 200-400 | 82% | 5 Wins |
All difficulties are accessible right from the start, and range from 1-11. Most of the community calls these ‘tiers’ and refer to them as their numbers following the LCoG acronym. For example, LCoG8 is in reference to the 8th difficulty.
Dots on the bottom highlight which difficulty you currently have selected
You select which difficulty to attempt when forming your team for send off. This is done via a selector (shown above) that matches the easy/medium/hard toggle for normal quests and bosses.
All LCoG quests allow for up to 5 heroes per quest.
All difficulties have quest times that are 1 hour, and rest times that are 2 hours. (These are their base values without any modifiers in play)
There is no cap on number of simultaneous quests, you can send as many concurrent teams as you have quest slots.
Quest items, such as a power boosters and bugles, are usable the same as on any other quest (well, you can’t bugle in ToT because it wouldn’t make sense.)
Keybearers
Each difficulty tier has an unlockable keybearer to challenge!
These are unlocked in ascending order, and require a set number of overall LCoG quest clears to be completed (see table from previous section), before they can be challenged. Which difficulty you run does not matter, all wins within LCoG count toward any keybearer’s unlock progress!
The boss card within the quest listing will show you your progress to the next keybearer.
They uniquely sport high key drop chances, also increasing as the keybearer’s difficulty does.
Caveats –
- Keybearers will only ever appear 1 at a time! If you unlock the tier 1 boss, he must be killed before the tier 2 boss can appear
- Progress toward the next tiers keybearer will not be earned while a keybearer is currently up
Objectives
There exists two overall goals during LCoG
- The guild must reach 110,000 Pure Gold collected.
- Each individual must reach 5,000 personal contribution of Pure Gold, to claim all available rewards.
A guild wide and personal contribution goal exists for every reward milestone. The first reward starts at 10 guild wide gold, and 1 personal gold collected. Ending at 110,000 guild wide gold, and 5,000 personal gold collected.
Rewards
Primary rewards exist as milestones for guild wide contribution totals. There are normally 27 reward milestones, with each months LCoGs loot table being slightly different from previous months.
Common event rewards are present at all milestones, such as:
- Ascension Shards
- Research Scrolls
- Champion Coins
- Feathers and Repair Kits
- Keys
- Gems
In addition, all quests have the possibility to drop gear, chests, and (rarely) keys.
Lcog features three of its own chest types as well, the Luxurious Chest, Opulent Chest and Platinum Chest!
Luxurious, Opulent and Platinum Keys, typically obtained from Keybearers and milestone rewards, are used to unlock this chest type! Luxurious are available from 1-7 and Opulent from 8-10. Platinum Keys are only available on difficulty 11.
You will also find Golden Artifacts, a crafting material exclusively found in Luxurious Chests and LCoG reward milestones (and the Gold Golem flash quest.)
And Opulent Jewels, a material used in crafting tier 10, 11 and 12 LCoG blueprints. Exclusively found on the reward track and in Opulent Chests, there are no other ways to obtain them )(outside of the Gold Golem flash quest.)
And Platinum Bangles, a material used in crafting tier 13 LCoG blueprints. Exclusively found on the reward track and in Platinum Chests, there are no other ways to obtain them.
Milestone rewards that were earned, but not claimed, will remain as able to be claimed until the next event starts. The icon for LCoG will remain on your shop screen until all rewards are claimed, regardless if the event has ended or not.
Note that the LCoG icon is replaced once the next big event starts (Tower included), forfeiting and remaining unclaimed rewards! Make sure to claim before this happens.
Grand Prize
The final LCoG reward is most often a brand new blueprint!
LCoG blueprints are prefixed as ‘Luxurious’ or ‘Opulent’ or ‘Platinum’, and are often the highest base value item upon their launch.
Strategies
Generally LCoG is just like any other quest you would normally do. Victory on difficulties 1-6 are achievable with almost any roster of heroes, with LCoG7 being the gatekeeping jump up in toughness.
The best way to beat LCoG is to do LCoG. It sounds simple enough right? The truth is, all it takes is some dedication and assurance that you are sending teams out as often as you can.
Common Suggestions
- Sia is worth her weight in gold (ha… puns), and increases the Pure Gold return for quests she is in, allowing for quicker gains on personal and guild goals!
- Do note, Sia does not have to survive the fight for her ability to still trigger. Feel free to sacrifice her with your best squad on a higher difficulty
- Loot Bugles, in the same fashion as Sia, increase Pure Gold returns as well! Even better when paired with your Sia runs
- Send full teams, as Pure Gold drops are directly influenced by the quantity of heroes you send
- Keybearers drop more Pure Gold than non-keybearers. Use this to your advantage by spending your bugles on them
- Phoenix Feathers are incredibly potent during LCoG as many players send their entire roster out at the same time. Every run has the same quest time, meaning they all finish and begin resting at roughly the same time. This allows the use of a feather to enable the full team, for another heavy assault!
- Watch your keybearer unlocks and ensure you are not overlapping wasted clears
- If you have a team out to a keybearer, make sure to claim their completion before others, to have the clears count toward unlocking the next keybearer!
Efficiency
The returns before LCoG6 are terrible, and the number 1 goal for any player should be a roster with the ability to clear LCoG6 consistently.
Item use efficiency –
- Loot bugles have the same potency or higher than feathers, when used on every team sent. These are the items you should spam if needed
- Utilize power boosters for higher tier keybearer clears. Their gold rewards are immense, especially LCoG10
- Compasses are well spent on early Keybearers to ensure they finish before the other teams
As you gain the ability to farm higher tiers of LCoG, your reliance on items and quantity of sends drastically drops.
Fun LCoG Facts
The first ever LCoG required guilds reached 40k group contribution. This was way back in Nov 2019, when most players rosters were terrible, and only 30 or so guilds actually completed the goal! The goal was then lowered to the 30k.
There have been a few special LCoG appearances outside of the normal monthly flow. 1 was an extra run in the month of February 2020, and another in the month of May 2020. The one in May was a beefed up requirement, asking guilds to reach 50k total gold, ran for 72 hours, and featured previous Luxurious blueprints as rewards.
In October 2020 LCoG was changed – newer difficulties and items were added to the event and was dubbed as “LCoG+”. This is the first time a major event has been expanded to factor in new content.
LCoG was updated again in April 2022. It now requires guilds to collect 80k gold, with an individual contribution of 3,500 gold bars. There are also 2 new rewards on the reward track for LCoG shop cosmetics. The rewards flip to Golden Artifacts and Opulent Jewels if you already own the cosmetics.
LCoG was once more updated in April 2023. It now requires 110k gold to complete with an individual contribution of 5,000 gold bars.