What is the best way to start out?

Solution 1:

I typically start with

• Fruit Aspect (Forest Ambassador on Forest Giant) - Can raise the prosperity of Forest and Desert villages quickly with Pear Trees and Date Palms, giving a lot of Food.

• Toxic Aspect (Swamp Ambassador on Swamp Giant) - Can raise the prosperity of Swamp villages quickly with White Willows, giving a lot of Technology.

• Monsoon (Desert Ambassador on Ocean Giant) - Better aspects = higher resources levels = higher prosperity.

My Rock giant usually gets whatever is left over, and I now have 3 fast-growing villages of each biome type, and can choose what direction to take from there.

Sometimes I focus on Animals and go with Herd/Hunt/Exotic aspects, or other times I'll focus on Minerals and go with Reaction/Crystal/Noble aspects.

What direction I choose to go typically depends on what projects get built and what unlocks I'm going for.

Solution 2:

I've started with the goal of maxing all the primary abilities, because upgrades there seem so strong. I also prioritize maxing abilities, because the higher tier stuff seems so strong. This is what I've got so far:

THE PLAN:

2 forest towns, 1 desert towns, and then 3 Swamp towns, transforming one of the forest towns into a swamp town after collecting the ambassador.

Ocean Giant: Swamp, [Swamp], [Desert], [Swamp]
Forest Giant: Forest, Swamp, Forest, Forest
Mountain Giant: Desert, Swamp, Desert, [Swamp]
Swamp Giant: Forest, Desert, [Forest], Swamp

The ambassadors in [Square Brackets] are the choices that I'm making at the moment around the maxed primary abilities.

THE RAMBLING

The ocean giant is the most flexible. One swamp is all you need to max Domestic Animals. I like Herd Aspect, which the lets you choose between Aurora and Monsoon with your third ambassador, but if you prefer the other aspects you can max any of them. Growth Aspect comes with Monsoon, and Crystal Aspect comes with Aurora.

The forest giant needs a forest by level 2, and another by level 4. Choosing a Swamp and a third forest lets you max Leaf Aspect and Fruit Aspect, along with some Migrate. This gives you access to nice boosts in tech and food.

The mountain giant maxes both primaries with 1 swamp and 2 desert ambassadors. This means that Exotic is out of reach :(. The final ambassador chooses which of Noble and Seismic aspects to max. The choice between wealth and tech mirrors the swamp giant, so whichever you choose here, choose the opposite for the swamp. I tend to favor Noble Aspect.

The swamp giant's primaries need one of each ambassador, unlocking all aspect powers but only maxing one at level 3. I actually lean towards the Reaction Aspect to avoid maxing Muck Bomb and minimize collateral damage when I intervene in wars.