Ascension

Ascension is the upgrading of a residence to a higher tier.

Ascension rights

There are four tiers of residences; Pioneer residences, Vassal residences, Merchant residences and Imperial residences. The basics for ascension is that for every ten residences of a certain tier, five can be ascended to a higher tier, with the exception of Imperial residences that has a slightly lower ascension rate averaging 12.5 Merchant residences to five Imperial residences.

In order to reach the goal of 4,000 Imperials (to unlock all types of goods and building upgrades), you'll need at least 87 Imperial residences (each within the radii of influence of all attraction buildings, excluding monuments), leaving you with the following split of residences per tier:

250 Pioneers	→	1,500 Vassals	→	3,000 Merchants	→	4,000 Imperials
x 32		x 75		x 84		x 87

Rights are acquired and based on residences

What this means is that once you've earned an ascension right, you can never lose it. It also means that it doesn't really matter how many people you have in your houses.

So while you will need to reach the limits of the different tiers to unlock the ability to ascend to a higher tier, once you've done that it stops looking at your actual residents and simply count the number of residences you have of each tier.

This opens up for some interesting meta gaming when it comes to ascension. For example, you can "pad" your island with empty Pioneer residences simply to gain ascension rights. You can even remove lower tier residences once you've acquired enough ascension rights of a certain tier, even before you've ascended them all.

A warning to anyone trying to free up space by removing lower tiers: You will not be able to gain any more rights apart from the ones you already have unless you rebuild all the buildings you removed. Make sure you've unlock the rights for all the desired tiers before you start removing residences.

Vassal ascension

For every ten Pioneer residences you have, five can be ascended to Vassal residences. Another way to look at it is to take the total number of Pioneer and Vassal residences you have, and for every interval of 10, half of them can be ascended. To reach 250 pioneers (needed to get vassals), you must have at least 32 pioneer residences which have a Well Carpenter's workshop and Chapel linked to them. Pioneer residences have a minimum occupancy of two pioneers, and a maximum of eight with the three attractions.

→	# of Pioneer residences	# of Vassal residences
x 32	Pioneer residences x 17	Vassal residences x 15
x 40 - 49	Pioneer residences x 20 - 29	Vassal residences x 20
x 340	Pioneer residences x 170	Vassal residences x 170
x 900	Pioneer residences x 450	Vassal residences x 450

Merchant ascension

Merchants follow the same ratio as Vassals, for every 10 Vassal residences, you can ascend 5 to become Merchant residences. To reach 1,500 vassals (needed to get merchants), you must have at least 75 vassal residences which have a Well, Carpenter's workshop, Chapel, Barber, Tavern, and a Fire station linked to them. Vassal residences have a minimum occupancy of five vassals, and a maximum of 20 with the six attractions.

→	# of Vassal residences	# of Merchant residences
x 75	Vassal residences x 40	Merchant residences x 35
x 110 - 119	Vassal residences x 55 - 64	Merchant residences x 55
x 170	Vassal residences x 85	Merchant residences x 85
x 450	Vassal residences x 225	Merchant residences x 225

Imperial ascension

Imperials have a different ratio than the other tiers. For every 12.5 Merchant residences you can upgrade five to become Imperial residences, this means that you must first have 13 Merchant residences to get five ascension rights, then an additional 12 Merchant residences to gain the next five ascension rights.

To reach 3,000 merchants (needed to get imperials), you must have at least 84 merchant residences which have a Well, Carpenter's workshop, Chapel, Barber, Tavern, Fire Station, Tournament arena, Debtor's prison, and a Church linked to them. Merchant residences have a minimum occupancy of nine merchants, with a maximum occupancy (at this level) of 36.

→	# of Merchant residences	# of Imperial residences
x 84	Merchant residences x 54	Imperial residences x 30
x 125 - 129	Merchant residences x 75 - 79	Imperial residences x 50
x 225	Merchant residences x 135	Imperial residences x 90

Type of residence
Pioneer residence
Vassal residence
Merchant residence
Imperial residence

Reaching ascension

As your population grows and you get more and more residents of a certain type, their needs will increase. Once a residence has all their needs met, they will be ready for ascension.

In order to ascend, all the needs of a residence has to be filled before they can ascend. This includes all goods and buildings listed in food, drinks, clothing, community, and for the higher tiers property goods.

See needs for more details on the needs of residents.

Buildings / Residents		Community	Services	Faith	Entertainment
	Pioneers
	Vassals
	Merchants
	Imperials

Other buildings

There are many other buildings with tiers too, like harbourmaster's office (adds a pier slot and a cart), distribution houses (adds a cart), the treasury (increases the coin limit), lighthouse, piers (additional slots) etc. Unlike residential buildings, these buildings can be upgraded as you pass certain thresholds in your population (like 1,500 Vassals or 500 Merchants).

See the timeline for more details on when certain buildings become available to you.