Gnomes Garden 3: The Thief of Castles Achievement Guide & Road Map

Gnomes Garden 3: The Thief of Castles
Gnomes Garden 3: The Thief of Castles Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 12 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to 1000

: 7-10 hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
- Missable achievements: None [level select]
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty option
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None

Introduction:
Welcome to Gnomes Garden 3: The Thief of Castles, a very simplistic strategy game where you tell all of your workers where to go and what to do, managing resources accordingly, so you can progress through areas and complete the objectives of each level. This is the third entry in the series and utilizes the exact same gameplay as all other games in the series. If you've never played a game like this before (there are many with this exact same format), you may struggle to keep up and get three stars initially, but I found that this is a game that gets significantly easier as you progress and get some experience in what to do. The achievement list is incredibly straightforward, requiring you to complete all 49 levels with three stars (i.e. fast enough), use the three boosts (you'll be using them constantly), and one miscellaneous achievement. Let's get started.

Abbreviated Walkthrough:
As noted above, the achievements here are very straightforward. Play each level and get three stars on it before you move on. This is because you may need to make some adjustments depending on what is your rate limiting step (such as the generation of food, wood, stone, etc.), and it's better to perfect a level while it's fresh rather than trying to remember when you come back to it.

Don't let that sound daunting though, because this was my second game ever of this type, and while I had to retry a bunch of early levels, once I realized what I was doing, what to look for, and what to prioritize, I quickly started flying through the levels and getting three stars on all of them first try. I have detailed much more guidance and tips in Grand master (200G). Refer to it to make levels a breeze once you get the hang of them.

The only other achievements to call out are the miscellaneous ones. There is an achievement tied to each of the boosts in the game, which you'll gradually be introduced to. You should be using them all constantly, so those achievements will come the first time you use them.

The last achievement to mention, which is truly a miscellaneous achievement, is to chase away a gremlin for Little thief (50G). These are the guys in black that'll show up and try to steal resources. You need to have a Firefighter house available, and then click on the thief to chase it away for this achievement. These guys are relatively common and pretty persistent in the levels they're in, so you'll assuredly do this multiple times throughout your playthrough just because of how annoying they are.

And that's it. Complete all levels with three stars and you'll have this completion by the time you beat the game.

Conclusion:
While it started off a little slow and painful for me due to my complete inexperience and knowing what I was doing, it quickly picked up after a dozen or so levels and became a simple and enjoyable game. Scope out the levels and keep your workers doing stuff and you should have no problems with the completion.

[XBA would like to thank Necrophage33 for this Roadmap]

Builder

50
Construct a building
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This will unlock automatically during level 1. Refer to Braveheart (150G) for more information.
Gardener

50
Restore a plant
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This will unlock automatically during level 5. Refer to Braveheart (150G) for more information.
Little thief

50
Get rid of a Gremlin
The Gremlins start showing up for the first time on Level 9. Some levels don't have any, but ones that do have them tend to have them come continually, making them very annoying. When one shows up, you need to have a Firefighter available and then click on the thief with your cursor. The Firefighter will attack them and chase them away, unlocking this achievement.
Sorceror

50
Activate an altar
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This will unlock automatically during level 14. Refer to Braveheart (150G) for more information.
Shock worker

50
Speed up construction
On Level 14, you'll be introduced to this boost that speeds up building/interaction time for your guys. When the meter fills up, press to use it and unlock this achievement.
Unity with nature

50
Grow a lily pad
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This will unlock automatically during level 15. Refer to Braveheart (150G) for more information.
Timelord

100
Stop time
On Level 23, you'll be introduced to this boost that stops the timer meter on the left side of the screen. When the meter fills up, press to use it and unlock this achievement.
Architect

100
Restore Stonehenge
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This will unlock automatically during level 16. Refer to Braveheart (150G) for more information.
Fireman

100
Restore the signal fires
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This will unlock automatically during level 30. Refer to Braveheart (150G) for more information.
Braveheart

150
Defeat the evil warlock
Story-related; cannot be missed.

This unlocks upon completing Level 49, the final level of the game.

Each level has a set of objectives displayed at the bottom of the screen, and you need to work your way through each level, opening various things up, building buildings, etc. The goal is to do it all as fast as possible to get three stars before the meter on the left drains too far. Refer to Grand master (200G) for tips on how to beat levels as fast as possible.
Grand master

200
Complete all levels with 3 stars
As the description says, you need to complete all 49 levels with 3 stars. The only requirement for 3 stars is that you finish the level fast enough. The meter on the left slowly drains, and once it passes the top star, you'll lose a star and drop down to two. You'll see the top star start flashing, which it'll do for five seconds before you lose it. So, if you see it start flashing and you have more than five seconds' worth of work to do, might as well just restart the level.

This is the main challenge of the game, and if you're brand new to the genre and style of game, you may find yourself struggling a bit in the beginning until you get the hang of what to look for and what to do. By the time I completed ten or so levels, I had gotten the hang out of the game and was able to do all future levels with 3 stars on my first try, so I will list out how I proceeded through each level along with some tips.
- Before pressing to begin a level, you absolutely want to scout it out. Specifically, look for where your main worker hut is, and then find where your food source is going to be (whether it be a farm or a mill) and find where your saw mill is for wood. Those are your top two priorities at the start of every level, followed immediately by upgrading your hut so you have two workers.
- Start the level and immediately work on accessing your food source (whether that means chopping wood in the way, rebuilding a farm, etc.)
- Next, immediately do the same thing to access your wood mill and build it too. Once you have access to wood and food your basics are set
- Now immediately upgrade your hut so you have two workers. You start most levels with enough resources to do so, but if not, go grab stray resources so you're able to do so
- From there, start working on accessing the quarry to make stone, then do the same for a Sorcerer house (the pink guys), and also for any crystal mine. Basically, once you have access to food and wood, as well as two workers, prioritize opening up all other resources. However, every time your mills spit out food and wood, go grab them immediately then get back to work
- As you get boosts introduced, you should be using them constantly. Every time one is available, immediately use it since they save a ton of time
- You should never be idle. Constantly pick the next tasks for your workers to do ahead of time. You should constantly have 2-4 things checked off to do next so you don't have to worry about your workers sitting idle. Sometimes that'll be unavoidable though, while you wait for resources
- Speaking of resources, immediately identify what resources are your bottleneck(s). With 2-3 workers, you'll assuredly want to upgrade your food mill at least once so you constantly have enough food for them to keep doing tasks. If you have tons of buildings to build and bridges to repair, definitely upgrade your saw mill at least once. Same with the quarry. If you find yourself routinely waiting on something, prioritize upgrading that building so it generates resources faster
- On the flip side, there are often times where you just don't need certain resources in high amounts and it isn't worth upgrading that building. Therefore, don't upgrade resource buildings frivolously. You'll eventually get the hang of what structures require what resources, and know if you need to bother upgrading for more wood, stone, or crystal. Often, crystal mine doesn't need to be upgraded except in the few instances where you have an objective to store up lots of crystals
- Likewise, don't upgrade your Firefighters or Sorcerors unless something requires it, because they just aren't used enough to warrant adding more, and it isn't worth the resources
Practice makes perfect here, and you'll likely get the hang of it after a dozen levels or so, and then they'll start falling much easier than early levels when you felt a bit overwhelmed by all of the stuff scattered around the level. Get three stars on each level (which is indicated by a yellow color on the level select screen) and you'll unlock this achievement.
Sprinter

50
Speed up workers
On Level 9, you'll be introduced to this boost that speeds up travel time of your guys. When the meter fills up, press to use it and unlock this achievement.