Memoriapolis: Building Upgrade Guide

Memoriapolis is a city builder and colony simulator. Achieving success, gathering plenty of resources, and most importantly, using your buildings efficiently requires knowledge and planning. One of the most crucial aspects is upgrading your buildings.

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Upgrading is essential because you can’t place buildings wherever you like, making it vital to get the most out of the available space. The game is far from simple, so understanding how to upgrade buildings and the benefits of these upgrades can feel overwhelming at first. In this guide, we’ve covered everything you need to know to help you find the answers you’re looking for.

Memoriapolis is in early access and its content is subject to change.

How To Upgrade Buildings

In Memoriapolis, you’ll need two things to unlock various buildings: blueprints and the age you are in. Blueprints are among the resources in the game, and to produce them, you’ll need the Architectural Office building.

You can’t build more than one Architectural Office. If you want to increase blueprint production, maintain high Creativity satisfaction, as it will boost your blueprint output. Additionally, upgrading your Architectural Office will further increase blueprint production. There is no limit to the number of blueprints you can have.

To upgrade buildings, open the Building Tree from the bottom of the menu on the left corner. Remember that to upgrade a building, you must unlock it first—you can’t upgrade buildings that are not unlocked.

Once a building is unlocked, select it from the Building Tree, and you’ll see Roman numerals indicating the levels to the right. Each new level of a building must be unlocked individually, just like the building itself. You’ll also need blueprints to unlock these upgrades.

Unlocking the next level of a building doesn’t mean the ones you’ve already built will automatically upgrade. After unlocking an upgrade, you’ll need to manually upgrade each building one by one. Upgrading requires specific resources and may take several cycles to complete.

The only buildings you need to upgrade are Production and Proximity buildings. Other types of buildings don’t require upgrades. Additionally, when you advance to the next age, your Production and Proximity buildings will not take damage and will continue to function normally.

Building Upgrade Requirements

After unlocking building upgrades with blueprints, you’ll need to upgrade each building individually. However, these upgrades come at a cost. The higher the level of the building, the more resources it will require. Make sure you have a stable economy to support these upgrades. Required resources include:

Resource

Required Building To Obtain

Required Age

Wood

Cutting Camp

Antiquity (First Age)

Stone

Small Quarry

Antiquity (First Age)

Clay

Small Quarry

Antiquity (First Age)

Sand

Small Quarry

Antiquity (First Age)

Wooden Beam

Carpentry

Antiquity (First Age)

Rubbles

Carver

Antiquity (First Age)

Tiles

Tilery

Antiquity (First Age)

Brick

Brickwork

Antiquity (First Age)

Gold

Small Mine

Middle Age (Second Age)

Iron

Small Mine

Middle Age (Second Age)

Gold Leaves

Goldbeater

Middle Age (Second Age)

Steel

Steel

Middle Age (Second Age)

In addition to resources, you will need workers to upgrade buildings. To increase your workforce, you’ll need to raise your city’s population, as workers make up 33 percent of your total population.

Another way to free up workers is by pausing the operation of specific buildings. To do this, click on the building and press the pause button in the building window. You can also pause multiple buildings quickly from the Horrerum building, which is useful for both managing operations and locating specific structures.

Workers are not only required for constructing buildings but are also necessary to keep them functioning. Think of it as workers being assigned to maintain the building's operations. However, keep in mind that production buildings generate disturbance, which decreases attraction. This is an important factor to consider in your city planning.

Even if you have enough resources and workers, upgrades won’t be instantaneous. You’ll need to wait through the game’s cycle-based time system to complete each upgrade.

Building Upgrade Benefits

Each production and proximity building can be upgraded to a certain level, with the maximum level varying by building. If a building can be upgraded to level five, you must choose between two options from the Building Tree. Once an option is selected, the other option becomes permanently unavailable.

Additionally, some production buildings generate negative disturbance and reduce attraction. However, once they reach level five, they no longer produce disturbance. Depending on the path you choose at level five, some buildings may even begin to generate positive attraction.

Extraction-Based Production Buildings

These buildings extract related resources, but they must be placed near natural resources to function. Without proximity to these resources, they will cease operation. The following buildings fall under this category:

• Cutting Camp
• Small Quarry
• Small Mine

Upgrading these buildings allows them to extract more resources per cycle and increases their storage capacity. However, they generate disturbance, which reduces attraction, so it’s crucial to place them away from buildings that emit attraction. Once the natural resources are depleted, these buildings will stop working, so be sure to demolish them when that happens.

Generation-Based Production Buildings

There are two generating production buildings:

• Architectural Office
• Small Farm

These buildings do not need to be placed near natural resources, unlike extracting production buildings. However, they differ in function:

• Small Farm: When building a Small Farm, you must select how many fields it will have. The amount of food it produces depends on the number of fields. Upgrading the Small Farm boosts food production from each field. Like other production buildings, it generates disturbance.
• Architectural Office: This building produces blueprints required to unlock and upgrade other buildings. Upgrading it will increase the number of blueprints generated per cycle. Unlike extraction-based production buildings and the Small Farm, the Architectural Office does not generate disturbance—it produces attraction instead.

Transformation-Based Production Buildings

Transformation-based production buildings operate differently. They take resources you have already extracted and convert them into new resources over specific cycles. These buildings don’t need to be placed near natural resources, but they require access to the input resource to function.

For example, the Carpentry building requires wood to operate—without it, the building becomes useless.

The conversion rate for these buildings is always three to one. While upgrades won’t change the conversion ratio, they will increase the quantity transformed, saving you time.

For instance:

• At level one, the Carpentry converts 21 wood into seven wooden beams every five cycles.
• At level four, it converts 36 wood into 12 wooden beams every five cycles.

Proximity Buildings

Proximity buildings function differently from production buildings by affecting the area around them. They generate neither disturbance nor attraction, making them neutral in these aspects. Each proximity building serves a unique purpose, and their upgrades reflect these functions.

• Surveyors’ Cabin: Increases the radius where new buildings can be constructed with each upgrade.
• Prospecting Workshop: Allows you to prospect for more resources with each upgrade.

Building Upgrade Order

The order in which you upgrade your buildings is critical, and doing it randomly is not recommended. Since unlocking buildings and their upgrades is essential, your first priority should be upgrading the Architectural Office. Remember, without enough blueprints, you won't be able to unlock building upgrades.

As your population grows, so will your need for food. Also if your Health satisfaction drops, the food consumption rate of your population will increase even further. To avoid unpleasant surprises, ensure you upgrade your Small Farms. The more fields a farm has, the more food it will produce, so it’s beneficial to build Small Farms with as many fields as possible.

Next, focus on upgrading the Cutting Camp. The importance of this building goes beyond wood being a fundamental resource. Cutting Camps also clear forests, creating open space for new buildings. Upgrading these camps will provide you with extra land for expansion.

If your building upgrades require Gold, Iron, Steel, or Gold Leaves and you haven’t reached the second age, there’s not much you can do. These resources are only available in the second age through specific buildings. Until then, consider building multiple structures of the same type and upgrading them as much as possible with the resources you currently have.

Lastly, don’t neglect capital (town center) upgrades. These upgrades allow you to unlock new buildings and expand your building radius, enabling you to construct in new areas.

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