The basics of Evony:

• Be aware as the first thing, Evony is a real-time game and you can't log out, you simply just close your browser, the game runs in real-time. When you don't play other plays Evony, and other players can plunder and attack you while you're sleeping (of course not when you're in beginners mode).
• First rule - Follow the Quests, you will make plenty of gold and resources in the start if you just follow the Quests.
• Open the Screen Guide here 
• You also have a beginners gift, check the small giftbox in the upperleft. there's a lot of good things, be careful with using them. Use them with intelligence and you'll gain a lot.
• Raise your population by building cottages and make sure you also build resources by pushing the "city-button" upper right.
• You will have some amulets in the start - push the small roulette-icon in the bottom left of the game-screen - The wheel stops by itself, you'll earn medals, ressources or cents for later.
• In beginners protection (I guess you are in beginners protection if you read this!), all upgrades with less than 5 min. cost time (you can see the time cost to the left in the upgradescreen) you can hurry, simply by clicking at "speed up". Your resources will be used up pretty fast so you need to build something that takes time also during your "speed ups" to avoid too much waiting time until you have enough resources :D
• When you have 1000+ population you can begin to raise/lower your taxes. A good solid tax-rate is 25% but you can lower or raise them as you want. The more percentage the lower loyalty. Guide: How the tax-system works
• You also need to build a lot more buildings in town, start with your academy and begin to learn new stuff, the faster the better if you ask.
• You can always buy new ressources for gold if you need, Build a marketplace to trade your goods - Guide: Trade goods  
• Your wall is not very important in the first 7 days, but after the beginning protection you'll need it. It takes time to build walls, so you might wanna be aware you need ressources to build a lvl up when you go to sleep at night. Build walls at night-time. Its a good point to have in mind, all 8hour+ buildings is good to build when you don't play. Be also aware that you can build defence in your walls. Traps are good against footsoldiers, abatis are well to protect against horsemen and archertowers is good to protect, well, against archers, which is the most preferred soldier in Evony by players. Archers Towers is good for anything - I recommend to build a lot. Rolling logs are a good thing against all, but they cost lumber - Big time. But very good defence
• Now you've build up your city and followed your quest, it's time to make some soldiers from your barrack (and maybe barracks, cause I'll recommend you to build about 3-4 barracks in lvl 4 and split the time to make soldiers - You can do that in the left bottom when you decide how many soldiers you want to make). They are taking very long time to make so be in good shape before going out of beginners protection -  If you have a good defence among your wall you might not need a lot of soldiers, but you need some to conquer valleys so a good solid army of 1500 archers. I also recommend a lot of warriors - Maybe 3-6.000 when going out of beginners mode. They are not that expensive, wont take up a lot of food but scares most attackers away when they scout a very large number of warrior. Guide: How much do your soldiers consume
• After your beginners protection you're on your own, be sure to be in a good alliance and don't be too aggresive. You might end up poor and out of resources.
• If you feel for it, you can buy cents in the official webshop if you have a hard time finding medals, but there's also a lot of other good stuff. You can really boost yourself with speed up's from the shop, but in the start I would recommend just to use all the goodies you get from the giftbox.

Good luck

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