In addition to being a war game, Forge of Empires is also a resource management game. After all, no matter how many troops you have, you’re going nowhere unless you have the coins, supplies, and goods to take you there. All three of these items are used to unlock your tech tree, which is how you advance in age. They’re also used to negotiate in Guild Expedition (GE), and to unlock more levels. Plus, you need coins and supplies to build your armies when you’ve finished sacrificing them to the maps, and for making goods. If your guild participates in GvG, then they may want a chunk of those goods to help with the war efforts, too.

Coins and supplies are pretty easy to get, and very self-explanatory. Goods on the other hand require some finesse and a whole lot of trading, because you only get two boosts per era on the continent map (until ME). That’s two out of five goods for each era that you will have a boost for, and it’s simply not worth building a goods production building if you don’t have the boost for that good.

The reasoning behind it is pretty simple: if you don’t have the boost for the good you want to make, you cannot make as much of it, but the cost doesn’t change. So if it costs me 500 coins and 500 supplies to make five lumber, for example, with a lumber boost; it will also cost me 500 coins and 500 supplies to make two stone if I don’t have the stone boost. It’s simply not profitable. So instead of making all the goods, you’ll want to trade for them, instead.

Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to tell what you have a boost for. You can find out a few different ways.

First, just try to build the building. If you get the following message, then you don’t have the goods boost and you probably don’t want to proceed. Just a fore-warning though, you can turn this off. So if you did… well… you better rely on one of the other methods as at this point it’s impossible to reset those notifications.

This is definitely the more cumbersome way to determine if you have a boost though. Still, it’s nice that this is a feature with Inno because how many of us will also click on the wrong building than what we’re trying to select, and this warning will potentially save us some heartache (and coins and supplies)?

A better way to determine if you have a goods boost is to simply check your continent map. As you scout new lands, they come with a prize. Many are just treasure chests, but occasionally you get other stuff. Two of the items you’ll find for each era are your goods boosts. It’s important to note though that the boosts aren’t active until you’ve fully conquered the province. If you haven’t gotten the province fully conquered, you’ll get the above message, despite knowing you’ll eventually have that boost.

This is an example of what you’ll see on your continent map if you have a goods boost:

Depending on what boost it’s providing will determine what image you see, but they match up with each building if you hover over it to see what it takes to build, as shown below:

Which brings us to the third, and easiest, way you know you have a boost; the green check mark (PC) or green text (Mobile). If you hover over a goods building (PC), or click the question mark (Mobile) you’re thinking of building, and that check mark/green text in the “Boosted by” field is missing, then you don’t have the boost.

So how do you get goods you don’t have the boost for? Trading! This can be done with any member in your neighborhood, guild, or friends list. Meaning that there is no way to truly play alone, unless you want to allow Inno’s goods-exchange bots to extort you for a lot more than you need to. There are also special event buildings and Great Buildings that can help you get goods you don’t have a boost for, but by far the fastest and easiest way is to trade.