1. Bubbles (Truce Agreements)

More commonly known as Bubbles, are vital to surviving the game.  You begin the game with a Beginner Bubble that lasts only a few days or until you reach a certain level.  They have changed the timing of how many days you get and the level, so I'm not going to post exact details here as they will likely change it again.

Bubbles are so important because your city and your troops that are in your city and all of your stored resources are protected as long as you have a Bubble up.  If it drops, everything you own is exposed to attack, and there are many aggressive players who are just waiting to attack you.  It is very difficult to do anything in the game if you are constantly having your resources and troops wiped out.

Also, if you are member of an alliance, dropping your Bubble on a regular basis is often a way to get booted out of the alliance.  This is because cities who regularly drop Bubbles draw attention from enemy players regularly, and that means that your alliance also receives a lot of enemy attention.  Basically, if your Bubble is down a lot, enemy alliances begin to view your alliance as a "Farming" alliance, meaning they can frequently check to see who in your alliance doesn't have a Bubble up, and they can just get free resources and points for killing your troops without having to do a lot of work themselves.

To maintain a Bubble successfully, there are several things that you must do:

1. Set a Bubble Timer.  Basically, set an alarm on your cell phone or tablet or something that will alert you at least fifteen to thirty minutes before your Bubble is going to drop.  In this way, you have plenty of time to put up a new Bubble before it will drop.  Don't wait til the last minute.  If your Bubble drops for even a few seconds you could get hit.  Yes!  There are aggressive players that are watching your every move and just waiting for your Bubble to drop.  I have been hit within thirty seconds of my Bubble dropping, so give yourself plenty of time.

2. Three Bubble Types.  There is an 8 hour Bubble, a 24 hour Bubble and a 3 day Bubble.  (Technically, there is a 7 day Bubble, but they are SO not worth the price of 50,000 gems.)  If you can, 3 day Bubbles are the most efficient as they give you the most time for less gems.  However, if you need to do a 24 hour Bubble every day because it helps you set up a routine, by all means do whatever works best for you.  8 hour Bubbles are 600 gems, 24 hour Bubbles are 1,000 gems.  3 day Bubbles are 2,500 gems.

3. Where to Purchase.  You can purchase Bubbles in the Alliance Shop using Alliance Points.  An 8 hour is 30,000 points, 24 hours is 50,000 and 3 days is 100,000.  You need enough honor to unlock them in the Alliance Shop, so you will have to have been in the alliance for a little while before they are available here.  You can also purchase Bubbles in the Gem store.  Tap on your total gems in the upper right corner of your screen, tap on the Items tab, then the War tab and then scroll down.  Finally, you can tap on your Keep, tap on City Buff, tap on Truce Agreement and then purchase them from there.  BE WARNED, if you use this final method to buy one it will immediately become active, replacing your current Bubble timer.  Therefore, ONLY purchase it from your Keep menu if you are going to put up a new Bubble immediately.  In the Alliance Shop and the Gem Store, you can buy them and have them ready to use in your Items menu on the Special tab, but they only become active if you go into the Keep menu or Items menu on the Special tab and Use them.  Buying them from the Alliance Shop and Gem Store do NOT make them active immediately.

4. Save Gems and use them on Bubbles.  Gems are a vital resource in Evony.  Use them wisely.  Always save at least enough gems to buy a 3 day Bubble, or if you are really desperate and need to spend gems at least save enough for a 1 day Bubble.  You can usually acquire 1,000 gems a day if you know what you're doing, so if nothing else at least keep 1,000 on hand.  If you are afraid you are going to accidentally spend too many gems, buy your Bubble beforehand from the Gem store.