Hello! My name is MooingCat and welcome to my guide for the 2023 Winter Event! In this guide I will go through the mechanics of the event, the different rewards and my thoughts on which are best, as well as how to get the most out of this event!

I also have video versions of this guide if you prefer that, check them out here!

Event Rewards

Let's start by quickly looking at the rewards, there are some really good ones this event!

If you want to check out all the new buildings in my sortable table, you can use this short link: https://mooingcatguides.com/winter-buildings-23

Main Building: Winter Wonderland Pyramid

The Winter Wonderland Pyramid is a 4x4 building with 12 levels, again with Silver / Gold Upgrade Kits for the final two levels. Let's start looking at the level 10 building:

Note: Where values depend on age, they will be displayed as "BA-SAT" values.

Winter Wonderland Pyramid Level 10:

• Size: 4x4 (NO road required)
• Supplies
• 10-13 Forge Points (0.63-0.81 per tile)
• 13-16 Goods (0.81-1.0 per tile)
• 10 Units (0.63 per tile)
• 1 Fragment for Winter Wonder Retreat Selection Kit (100 required = 100 days)
• 5 Fragments for Winter Wonderland Pyramid Silver Upgrade Kit (150 required = 30 days)
• 22-25% Attack for Attacking Army (1.38-1.56 per tile)
• 23-26% Attack for Defending Army (1.44-1.63 per tile)

When upgraded to level 11 with the silver upgrade kit, the building turns into the Grand Winter Wonderland Pyramid:

Grand Winter Wonderland Pyramid (Level 11):

• Size: 4x4 (NO road required)
• Population, Supplies
• 13-16 Forge Points (0.81-1.0 per tile)
• 29-32 Goods (1.81-2.0 per tile)
• 11 Units (0.69 per tile)
• 2 Fragments for Winter Wonder Retreat Selection Kit (100 required = 50 days)
• 5 Fragments for Winter Wonderland Pyramid Golden Upgrade Kit (150 required = 30 days)
• 24-27% Attack for Attacking Army (1.5-1.69 per tile)
• 26-29% Attack for Defending Army (1.63-1.81 per tile)
• 1-4% Attack for Attacking Army in GBG (0.06-0.25 per tile)

When upgraded to level 12 with the golden upgrade kit, the building turns into the Majestic Winter Wonderland Pyramid:

Majestic Winter Wonderland Pyramid (Level 12):

• Size: 4x4 (NO road required)
• Population, Supplies
• 16-19 Forge Points (1.0-1.19 per tile)
• 45-48 Goods (2.81-3.0 per tile)
• 12 Units (0.75 per tile)
• 3 Fragments for Winter Wonder Retreat Selection Kit (100 required = 33 days)
• 26-29% Attack for Attacking Army (1.63-1.81 per tile)
• 29-32% Attack for Defending Army (1.81-2.0 per tile)
• 5-8% Attack for Attacking Army in GBG (0.31-0.5 per tile)
• 9-12% Attack for Defending Army in GE (0.56-0.75 per tile)

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New Buildings: Winter Wonder Retreat Selection Kit

As mentioned above, the main building produces fragments for the Winter Wonder Retreat Selection Kit. In this kit, you are able to choose between two new buildings, the Capy's Winter Holiday Spa and the Magical Winter Snow Globe. We had some really long names in the Halloween Event, so luckily all of these new buildings have short and easy to remember names :)

Capy's Winter Holiday Spa

• Size: 3x2 (road required)
• Requirement: 248 to 15450 Population
• Requirement: 1080 to 24450 Happiness (for enthusiasm)
• 30-42 Previous Age Goods (4.3-5.0 per tile)
• 6-12% Attack for Attacking Army (0.86-1.71 per tile)
• 8-14% Defense for Attacking Army (1.14-2.0 per tile)
• 21-27% Attack for Defending Army (3.0-3.86 per tile)
• Random chance:
  • 75%: 1 Renovation Kit Fragment (30 required = 40 days)
  • 25%: 5 One Up Kit Fragments (30 required = 24 days)

Magical Winter Snow Globe

• Size: 2x3 (no road required)
• Requirement: 166 to 10300 Population
• Requirement: 1620 to 36670 Happiness (for enthusiasm)
• 3-9 Forge Points (1.0-1.5 per tile)
• 12-18% Attack for Attacking Army (2.0-3.0 per tile)
• 4-10% Attack for Defending Army (0.67-1.67 per tile)
• 9-15% Defense for Defending Army (1.5-2.5 per tile)
• Random chance:
  • 75%: 1 One Up Kit Fragments (30 required = 40 days)
  • 25%: 5 Renovation Kit Fragment (30 required = 24 days)

Both of these are quite nice buildings, but considering the population costs I'm not sure they're worth placing over other buildings ... but if you have the space and population these can definitely be worth building.

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New Buildings: Gold League & Calendar (diamond "only")

We have two more new buildings that, in practice, you have to spend diamonds to get: the Sweet Gingerbread Cottage from Gold League and Santa's Spectacular Showtime from completing the Calendar.

Sweet Gingerbread Cottage

• Size: 3x3 (no road required)
• 31 Forge Points (3.44 per tile)
• 27 Goods (3.0 per tile)
• 27 Previous Age Goods (3.0 per tile)
• 20 Fragments for Winter Wonderland Pyramid Golden* Selection Kit (1800 required** = 90 days)
• 45% Attack for Attacking Army (5.0 per tile)
• 56% Attack for Defending Army (6.22 per tile)
• 75% Defense for Defending Army (8.33 per tile)

* Includes Lv1, Upgrade, Silver Upgrade, and Golden Upgrade ** For full Winter Wonderland Pyramid

Santa's Spectacular Showtime

• Size: 3x3 (no road required)
• 36 Forge Points (4.0 per tile)
• 25 Goods (2.78 per tile)
• 24 Previous Age Goods (2.67 per tile)
• 10 Fragments for Winter Wonderland Pyramid Silver* Selection Kit (1650 required** = 165 days)
• 44% Attack for Attacking Army (4.89 per tile)
• 60% Defense for Attacking Army (6.67 per tile)
• 57% Attack for Defending Army (6.33 per tile)

* Includes Lv1, Upgrade, and Silver Upgrade ** For level 11 Winter Wonderland Pyramid

Both buildings have amazing stats and rewards, so if you plan to spend diamonds you'll get some nice buildings for it. Speaking of spending diamonds...

New Building: Elves' Workshop (diamond only)

Lastly we have yet another new diamond-only building, the Elfie's Nog Shop. This is a 3x3 building with 4 levels, which is exclusive to the Elves' Workshop. Let's look at the fully leveled building:

Elfie's Nog Shop Lv. 4 (Elfie's Cream & Nog Emporium)

• Size: 3x3 (road required)
• Requirement: 248 to 15450 Population
• Requirement: 1620 to 36670 Happiness (for enthusiasm)
• 13-15 Forge Points (1.24-1.43 per tile)
• 34-42 Goods (3.24-4.0 per tile)
• 3 Fragments for Winter Wonderland Pyramid Golden* Selection Kit (1800 required** = 600 days)
• 25-30% Attack for Attacking Army (2.38-2.86 per tile)
• 34-39% Attack for Defending Army (3.24-3.71 per tile)

* Includes Lv1, Upgrade, Silver Upgrade, and Golden Upgrade ** For level 12 Winter Wonderland Pyramid

While the stats are nice, I don't think this building is anything special considering the population requirement. Personally I probably wouldn't spend diamonds for it.

New Levels: Chocolatery & Nutcracker Guardhouse

Both the Chocolatery (both versions) and Nutcracker from last year's event has received an additional level. With the Chocolatery Golden Selection Kit you can upgrade either the Ketebo Candy or Ted's Choc to level 12, which will increase the rewards and stats and give both buildings attack and defense for the defending army. Additionally, the Nutcracker fragments are replaced with a Nutcracker Guardhouse Selection Kit, which you can use for either the level 1 building or an upgrade for the Joyful Nutcracker Guardhouse. Nothing new is added for level 2, but all the stats are improved :)

For more info check out:

• Chocolatery: https://forgeofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Chocolatery
• Nutcracker Guardhouse: https://forgeofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Nutcracker_Guardhouse

Grand Prizes

To get the main building fully leveled you need 240 progress towards grand prizes (or 200 if you end in Bronze+ league). This will give you 3 upgrades from Milestones, level 1 + 6 regular upgrade kits from grand prizes, plus 50 silver upgrade kit fragments. Unlike other recent events you need to go quite a bit further to get the golden upgrade kit for last year's main building, at 460 you get the Chocolatery Golden Selection Kit.

The Grand Prizes will first have a quite a few unique rewards, before it starts looping between 280 and 620 progress.

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Daily Specials

There are a lot of daily specials that can be considered good, so for a complete list check out the fandom wiki ("list of possible Switched Prizes"). Below are a select few of my top recommendations:

• Nutcracker Guardhouse: Really good attack building, especially with the golden upgrade.
• Chocolatery: Really good all-round building with the new golden upgrade.
• Harvest Farm (Fall Set): Still the best set for attack.
• Heroes Tavern / Mountain Reserve: Still two very good attack / all-round buildings.

Leagues

This event has a league system based on your grand prize progress.

Event Mechanics

The event mechanics should be quite familiar to most players, they're pretty much exactly the same as last year's Winter Event, with some minor balance changes. Still, let's go over how everything works :)

Currency: Stars

The main currency of this event is Stars, which can be used to open Presents in the minigame (10 Stars per Present).

Stars:

• Starting: 20
• Daily Logins: 32*20 = 660
• Rush Quests: 38*10 = 380
• Daily Quests: 32*30 = 960
• Milestone: 50 + 150 = 200
• Total: 2200 Stars

You need to spend 10 stars to open a present, and for each present you open you progress 1-2 steps towards the next Grand Prize, 20 is required for each Grand Prize.

Star Diamond Costs:

• 10 Stars for 120 Diamonds
• 25 Stars for 280 Diamonds
• 100 Stars for 1050 Diamonds

Minigame Basics: Picking Presents

The minigame itself is very simple, in fact you have hardly any impact at all on how well you do. All you have to do is click on one of the remaining 18 presents to open it, and pray it's the reward you want. Before you start picking presents you can see all the available rewards on that "board". When you start the game, these are shuffled, so you can't make any educated guesses on what's behind a present. Each board consists of 18 presents, 12 or 13 of them are random rewards, the other 5/6 are the same on each board:

• 12-13x Random Rewards (Units, Goods, Regular Buildings, Items, etc etc)
• Show 2: Reveals what is behind two random presents, and gives 3 Stars.
• Double Payout: Doubles the reward from the next present.
• Shuffle: Resets and shuffles all the rewards, and gives 10 Stars.
• 14 Stars: Gives 14 Stars.
• Calendar Key: Gives a calendar key if it's the first time that day, otherwise it gives a key piece plus 10 Stars - 5 key pieces are required to craft a full "joker" key. Only ~half the boards have a key reward.
• Daily Specials: Gives that day's daily special.

With these available rewards, the only time you have any agency at all is when you get the Show 2 option. That will reveal 2 rewards, so here you have to decide if you want to go for either of them or not. My recommendations are as follows, and where otherwise specified I recommend taking them immediately:

• Random Reward: Only choose if you specifically want that item.
• Double Payout: I think it's worth going for for a chance to double daily special or stars in the next turn.
• Shuffle: Choose this after you have found the rewards you want on that board (daily special for example)
• 14 Stars: Always pick this option.
• Calendar Key: Most of the time this is actually worth picking up. If you're going for the calendar you want to pick it up, if you're spending everything on the same day you want to get the 10 stars or get the key here so you can get 10 stars the next time you pick up a key.
• Daily Special: Pick up this option if you're going for that day's daily special
• Special situation: Double Payout + Any other reward you want: Choose the double payout first, then the other reward. Only exception would be Double Payout + Shuffle if you haven't found the daily special yet, in that case I would take the chance on first picking Double Payout, then any other present for a chance of the daily special.
• Special situation: Shuffle + Daily Special: In this scenario, and if Double Payout hasn't been found yet, I would choose random presents until you get the Double Payout, then pick the Daily Special, then Shuffle.

And well ... that's about it for the minigame. The only other choice you have is if you should go for the calendar or not, or in other words if you should spend a bit every day for keys, or everything during as few days as possible. I will go over the benefits and drawbacks of going for the calendar in the next chapters.

Calendar

The Calendar is an additional way to get rewards in this event. It's the same as last year's Calendar, and the year before that ... and the year before that I think? So if you're familiar with that you know how it works. To complete the Calendar, you have to get 32 Daily Keys. The first time you pick up a key on a given day, you will be able to open that day's slot for a small reward. Any subsequent keys you pick up that day will instead be a key piece. With 5 key pieces you can fill in any slots you haven't completed, so if you miss a day you can complete it later on.

To see the daily rewards as they appeared on beta, check out the fandom wiki: https://forgeofempires.fandom.com/wiki/2023_Winter_Event/Beta#Calendar

In addition to keys from the minigame, you can also get key pieces from daily challenges. You have a 5% chance for 5 pieces, 10% chance for 4 pieces, 20% chance for 3 pieces, 40% chance for 2 pieces, and a 25% chance for 1 piece, which on average is 2.3 key pieces per day. Across the event, that's a total of just below 15 full keys if you do the daily challenge every day. If you complete the full calendar, you will get these rewards:

Calendar Main Reward:

• Santa's Spectacular Showtime
• Winter Wonderland Pyramid Golden Selection Kit
• Chocolatery Golden Selection Kit
• 250 Forge Points
• 1000 Goods
• "Ophelia" Portrait
• 7 days of Forge Plus

I will cover it in more detail in the strategy section, but completing the calendar for free is very unlikely, and if you go for it you will lose out on daily specials and grand prize progress. That said, if you try to go for it and you do all the daily challenges, you will likely get relatively close, perhaps only missing a handful of keys to complete it. Each full key costs 500 diamonds, so if you are missing 5 that would be 2500 diamonds, which might not be that much for the reward.

Elves' Workshop

The Elves' Workshop returns this year, more or less unchanged from last year.

When you receive one of "Daily Special", "Show 2", and "Shuffle", you will receive a gift for the Elves' Workshop. You can access the window to see rewards from the top-right of the event window, or each time you hit the "Shuffle" it will open automatically.

For each gift you receive, you can choose between two options, or you can spend diamonds to select both. Note: You don't actually get the reward yet, you have to spend diamonds to actually claim them. If you don't like either of the choices, you can choose to spend even more diamonds to switch out each option. You will then get a new option to choose from, which will be drawn from the "reward pool" for that slot. Click on the "?" to see the possible items you can get when you switch.

To actually claim any of the rewards, you have to spend 2995 diamonds. You should only spend 2995 diamonds when all the slots are filled. You can do it before, but the price is the same if you claim 1 or 9 prizes, so always do it when you have filled all the presents.

Event Strategies

Alright, let's talk about strategies! There really isn't too much to say regarding strategies, the main choice you have to make is between going for the calendar, or spending everything on a few days for the daily specials you want. Simply explained, the strategies are:

• Daily Specials: Save all your stars for as few days as possible, preferably 1 towards the end of the event, and spend everything that day.
• Calendar: Each day, open presents until you find the first daily key, then stop immediately. Only half the boards have keys, so if there is not a key you need to either play until you find shuffle and hope the next board has a key, or skip that day. The amount of keys you pick up from daily challenges will determine how many days you can skip. If you pick up 14, you can skip 14 days, etc. If you have skipped all the days you can skip, you either need to play the board to find shuffle, or skip that day and buy the key with diamonds (but don't spend any diamonds on keys until the final day!).

I will go more into the numbers in the following chapters, but the TL;DR is that you will get the main building to level 10 with both strategies. Going for the calendar might give you enough keys to get close to a full calendar, but very unlikely all the way there. Going for the calendar will also result in fewer daily specials and less grand price progress.

What's the reason for this? The main difference is that if you go for the calendar, you get fewer stars back from presents. First of all, the first key on a day only gives a key, while all subsequent keys give a fragment and 10 stars. So naturally, if you spend everything on 1 day instead of spread across many days, you will get more stars back from keys. Additionally, if you go for the calendar you should stop spending on a day after finding the key (because you want to spend as few stars as possible per key). This means you will hit fewer shuffles, so you don't get the 10 stars from those either.

Overall, the amount of stars you get back from spending everything on 1 day is around 32 stars per 100 stars you spend, or in other words for every 100 stars you start with you get to spend 132 stars. In comparison, if you attempt to go for the calendar, that drops down to 23 stars, or 123 stars spent for every 100 stars you start with. For the free currency, that equals around 200 additional stars to spend. In terms of number of (starting) stars you need per progress:

• Daily Special Focus: 5.05 Stars per Progress
• Calendar Focus: 5.42 Stars per Progress

How did I get to these numbers? Before going into if you can get the main building fully leveled and some more detailed numbers on the calendar, let me talk about the simulator I've made for this event!

Event Simulator

Show / Hide Simulator Explanation

If you can't see/use the simulator you can use this link: https://trinket.io/embed/python3/b81361a0c6

How many Daily Specials can you expect?

The first and most simple question the simulator can answer is how many daily specials should you expect. Below are two graphs with 2200 stars, one going for daily specials, the other going for keys. As you can see the expected number of daily specials isn't that high, around 18-19 on average going for daily specials, 15-16 going for keys.

Can you get Winter Wonderland Pyramid fully leveled for free?

So, the big question is, can you get the main building fully leveled for free? The answer here is yes to getting the level 10 building for free during the event, likely yes to getting all 150 fragments for the silver upgrade kit, and maybe to getting all the 150 fragments of the golden upgrade kit. As usual, you will still get these fragments from the level 10/11 building. To get the main building to level 10 you need 240 progress, to get all 150 silver upgrade fragments you need 380, to get all 150 golden upgrade fragments you need 500.

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As you can see getting 240 progress is no problem at all, you'll easily achieve this regardless of strategy. Getting all silver upgrade fragments should be quite easy as well, though if you go for keys and you are unlucky you will probably just about miss it. If you get some stars from incidents the chance goes up more, so most players should be able to get the silver upgrade kit. You are likely missing around 50 progress, which is around 250 stars with the daily special focus. This might be possible to get from incidents, but it's not guaranteed.

Should you go for the Calendar?

I would only recommend going for the Calendar if you are willing to spend diamonds for the keys you are likely to miss. If you are, going for the Calendar can definitely be worth it. You will not get as many daily specials and you will lose some grand prize progress, but you will still get enough progress for the level 10 building (and likely silver upgrade kit), and it's "only" around 3 daily specials you are missing out on.

Based on my simulation, you can get around 13 keys on average focusing on keys, that means you can get around 26-27 in total if you do all daily challenges. This means you "only" need 5-6 more keys from diamonds, or 2500-3000 diamonds. If you go for daily challenges, you're lucky to get 3 full keys, so you probably need to buy 16 additional keys, for 8000 diamonds.

Diamond Spending Costs

Let's round off this guide by talking a bit more about getting multiple main building. As mentioned in the previous chapter, going for the Calendar hurts your grand prize progress, so I will be basing my numbers here off of spending everything on 1 day (or as few days as possible).

For free, you can get 2200 stars, which is around 2900 stars spent, for around 450 progress. You need 560 for the 2nd building (assuming you land in Bronze+), so you only need an additional 110 progress for the 2nd building. Beyond that, you need 360 progress per additional level 10 main building. As mentioned previousely, for every 100 stars you start with you get to spend 132 stars, so to find the actual amount of stars you need to buy we need to divide the number required by 1.32. Each 10 stars spent gives 1.5 progress, so you need 13.33 presents per grand prize.