Pillars Guide
~A guide by Zhan~

The Basics
Pillars were introduced with the "Pillar Wars" expansion on 1/17/12 (you can find the patch notes here). There are seven pillars in the game, each of which can be owned by a galaxy and fought over. Each awards certain bonuses to the galaxy.
Pillar wars are only available to galaxies with a level 3 wonder. If you have one, go to the galaxy screen and hit "ENTER"

Here is also where you can claim a pillar if there is one free, your galaxy does not already have one, and you are not in the 12-hour cooldown.
UPDATE 1/31/12: 12-hour cooldown

The Pillars
Each pillar awards +50% to resource production (as opposed to +30% for level 3 wonder) and a unique bonus:

Iris +10% Dodge
Alston +10% Lethality
Otis +10% Lethality Defense
Rex +10% Attack
Osborn +10% Defense
Maxwell +10% Hit
Nitemare (FOR PONY!) +10% Speed

Attacking a Pillar
Pillars can be attacked after a 24-hour protection period after they go up. To do so, your galaxy needs a level 3 wonder (pillar not required).
There are two ways.
The first is from the raid creation screen:

Then you set up a raid the regular way.
UPDATE: 2/3/12: Protection extended to 24 hours.

Or, you can attack solo, where clicking on a pillar brings up an "Attack" button:

Please note that attacks cost 2 AP for either method (2 from EACH member of a raid team). Also note that the graphic does not always reflect the 2 AP deduction, but it does occur and will show up upon refreshing.

You will first attack the defenders of the pillar: a team if you're in a raid team or an individual player if you're attacking solo. The defenders are chosen to wield a similar maximum army power to that of the attackers. This means that techs, hero war stats, and hero skills play a large role here.
UPDATE: 2/6/12: Defenders chosen based on maximum army strength, not current army strength.
The exact mechanism for your opponent selection: The system will take the two opposing players closest in power to you, one above and one below, and choose the one closest in army size. If the disparity is too great, you may face additional opponents - up to 7 enemies.

After defeating the defenders, you fight the pillar itself. Be warned that it is extremely powerful - typically kills 11-13 motherships in a single hit. Do note that damage dealt in the battle is reduced to 2.5% actual damage to the pillar.
UPDATE: 2/28/12: Ratio reduced to 2.5% damage.
UPDATE: 1/30/12: You now gain 1 coupon for every 1000 damage dealt to the pillar, capped at 50 coupons.

Repairing a Pillar
A pillar has health points - initially 50M, but a maximum of 100M. Naturally, they can be repaired - with ore, the same way donations were used to build wonders. Simply click your own pillar at the pillar screen and hit the "Repair" button.

UPDATE: 2/15/12: Pillars now start at 50M health.
UPDATE: 3/26/12: Pillars not in protection now gain free 10M health when another pillar goes down, up to 40M total health.

Destroying a Pillar
A pillar is destroyed when its health hits zero. When this happens, the losing galaxy loses the pillar and cannot claim another one for 12 hours. They, can however, still attack pillars and win coupons. The galaxy dealing most damage steals the pillar if they choose to. Otherwise, all chapter 7+ members receive 3000 coupons. Galaxies ranked 2-5 in damage receive 2500, 2000, 1500, or 1000 coupons. If, however, the 1st galaxy declines to take the pillar, it goes to the second, then the third if they decline, etc. You get either the pillar or the coupons, not both.
UPDATE: 1/31/12: Coupons are only awarded to a galaxy if it deals at least 1 million damage.
UPDATE: 1/27/12: Coupons awards decreased.
UPDATE: 2/15/12: If you switch pillars, the new health will be either 25M or your old pillars health + 10M, whichever is lower.
UPDATE: 3/7/12: You need to have dealt damage to a pillar in the past 30 hours to get the full reward - otherwise, only 500 coupons
UPDATE: 3/5/12: Galaxies no longer have to be in top 5 damage in order to automatically get a pillar - highest ranked galaxy that can claim will do so. Pillar will only be free if no galaxy that did damage is able to claim a pillar.

To choose whether or not to switch pillars when one's destroyed, there is a check-box at the galaxy menu for leaders and vices to change:

This only works if you already have a pillar. If you don't have one and are able to claim one, you are forced to do so if you are the top damage-dealing galaxy in that situation.
UPDATE: 1/24/12: The box now works for vices.


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