New to the game? Start with the beginner guide and the Tentlan hub. This page assumes you have finished the tutorial and want to plan your city properly.
The four resource buildings
The Corn Farm, Quarry (limestone), Obsidian Mine and Cacao Plantation do nothing on their own. You start one of four cycles and collect the result. Each level raises output, and there is no hard level cap. The official FAQ calls level 40 the sensible rule of thumb for all four.
The manual system has a hidden benefit: resources that are still in the building cannot be plundered. If you know you will be offline for eight hours, an 8 hour order is also a safe deposit. A pyramid icon under your avatar tells you when orders are ready to collect.
| Building | Produces | Score value per point | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarry | Limestone | 1,000 spent | The main construction material |
| Obsidian Mine | Obsidian | 715 spent | Needed for most buildings and units |
| Cacao Plantation | Cacao | 500 spent | Scarcest; also pays for healing and works as currency |
| Corn Farm | Corn | 25,000 spent | Food; never plundered in battle |
The score values come from the official scoring rules and show the real exchange rate between resources: cacao is about twice as valuable as limestone, and corn is a bulk good. Keep that in mind when you trade at the Market.
Tentlan: storage and resources, Tecono server (Omar-R, Spanish)Corn and population: the engine underneath
Population is a resource you spend, and corn is what keeps it working. The rules from the official FAQ:
- Total population is free population plus working population. Every building level, research, ritual and unit ties up population.
- Working population eats double the corn of free population. In the screenshot, buildings and units eat two corn per citizen per hour, free citizens one.
- Research and rituals give their population back when they finish. Units killed in battle do not; the space refills over time.
- If corn runs out, citizens leave (the city keeps at least 50), troops cannot start missions, and after about 10 to 14 days your units lose all stamina. The Wall keeps its stamina.
- Each Agriculture level adds 1 percent corn output.
The Sun Temple and population growth
The Sun Temple sets the maximum population of a city and how fast it grows. When the cap is reached, growth stops until you build the next level. Mathematics raises the cap too. In practice the Sun Temple is the building you never let fall behind: a city stuck at its population cap cannot build, research or recruit at full speed, no matter how many resources sit in the warehouse.
Military, defense and bonus buildings
| Building | What it does | Worth building to (official FAQ) |
|---|---|---|
| Jaguar Temple | Recruits units, shows unit stats, recruitment time bonus | Level 40 |
| Observatory | Runs research; each level cuts research time by 2 percent | Level 40 |
| Itzamna Temple | Heals the 8 to 15 percent of losses that survive as damaged units; higher levels heal faster | Level 40 |
| Moon Temple | Dances (seasons) and feasts; gives a luck bonus | Level 30 |
| Temazcal | Stamina bonus for units | Level 15 |
| Dwarf Pyramid | Strength bonus for units | Level 15 |
| House of Quipu | Bonus building with a cap at 15 | Level 15 |
| Quetzal Palace | New cities and elite units; costs amber | Level 15 |
| Stele | Luck bonus (level 5 gives 5 percent) | Level 10 |
| Wall and Watchtower | Wall stamina; Watchtower shows incoming troops | No hard cap, 35 to 40 is typical |
"Worth building to" means the level where the building's bonus stops growing according to the FAQ. Past that point you pay for score only. The Wall loses one level each time it is beaten in battle (never below level 1), so a city that gets hit often needs regular repairs.
Storage, the Underground Cave and the Market
The Warehouse holds your resources. The Underground Cave is not a separate store: it protects a share of what is in the warehouse, and that share rises with its level and with your Goldsmith's Art research. In a raid, the attacker's 40 percent is calculated only from what is left after the hidden amount.
The Market lets you send resources to other players and between your own cities. Both the sending and the receiving city need a level 5 Market. Every unit except spies can carry cargo, but poloms (2,000) and pochtecas (10,000) are the workhorses.
The Quetzal Palace, amber and new cities
The Quetzal Palace is the building that turns one city into an empire. Its first level is the requirement for founding your first colony, and every level also needs amber stones, which you get mainly from winning against barbarian camps (at least one a day), the Tzolkin wheel, the shop and friend invites. That makes amber the slowest resource in the game for free players. Do not waste it on wheel spins while you are still saving for palace levels.
A new city needs a settler sent from the city with the highest Quetzal Palace level. You can send up to 7 units with it, so bring poloms or pochtecas loaded with starting resources. The limit is 15 cities per account. Colonies that should recruit elite units need their own palace: level 1 for jaguar warriors, 2 for atlants, 3 for ek chuahs. The official FAQ puts the useful cap of the palace at level 15.
Research is shared by all your cities, but buildings are not. Every colony starts from scratch with its own Sun Temple, resource buildings and queues, which is exactly why a second city speeds up your growth so much.
Seasons: the economy switch
Each city has a season, and you change it with a dance in the Moon Temple. The effect lasts until the next dance. Some research, buildings and feasts require a specific season. Two effects are confirmed in the FAQ: winter cuts building time by 20 percent and summer cuts research time by 20 percent. The summer card above also shows +20 percent production for one resource and +2 percent luck, against lower production of three other resources and 10 percent higher unit costs.
What counts is when an order starts, not when it ends. So the efficient pattern is: switch to winter, queue your long building upgrades, then switch to summer and start your long research. The upgrades keep their winter speed. Plan the dance so it finishes just before you queue.
Research: what to take and how far
Research is account wide, so you never repeat it in a second city. The FAQ gives the useful caps, where bonuses stop growing:
- Up to 40: Mathematics (population cap), Nature (1 percent unit speed per level), Agriculture (1 percent corn), Medicine (cheaper healing), Architecture (1 percent building time, max 40 percent).
- Up to 30: Engineering, Diplomacy (cheaper units), Commerce, Pottery, Goldsmith's Art (larger cave share).
- Up to 20: Chronology, Astronomy, Astrology (2 percent extra loot per level).
- Up to 9: Cosmology (shorter feast cooldowns).
- No cap: Espionage. It has no bonus but decides spy reports and who can see whose troops.
An economy focused order: Architecture and Agriculture early, Mathematics whenever the Sun Temple is capped, Diplomacy before you mass elite units. The military side is covered in the units and combat guide, and a full daily routine is in tips for fast progress.
FAQ
What is the max level of buildings in Tentlan?
Resource buildings, the Wall and the Watchtower have no hard cap; level 40 for resource buildings and 35 to 40 for the Wall and Watchtower is the official rule of thumb. Bonus buildings stop giving more bonus at 40 (Jaguar Temple, Itzamna Temple, Observatory), 30 (Moon Temple), 15 (House of Quipu, Dwarf Pyramid, Temazcal, Quetzal Palace) or 10 (Stele).
How do I speed up construction in Tentlan?
Switch the city to winter with a dance in the Moon Temple for 20 percent faster building, and research Architecture for 1 percent per level up to 40 percent.
Can resources be stolen while they are still producing?
No. Resources you have not collected from the building cannot be plundered. Once collected, limestone, obsidian and cacao above your Underground Cave share can be raided. Corn is never plundered.
Why do I need corn in Tentlan?
Your population eats it, troops need it to travel, and research, rituals and some buildings cost it. Orders started without corn produce only 15 percent.
What does the Underground Cave do?
It automatically protects part of the resources in your warehouse from raids. The protected share grows with the cave level and with Goldsmith's Art research.