The Pharaoh’s Navy mission in Pharaoh: A New Era tasks players with building up the city of Behdet in 3000 BC. Here’s what you need to do to build a thriving settlement.
Okay, so you’ve finally made it through the tutorial portion of Pharaoh: A New Era, and now the game has stopped holding your hand. The Pharaoh’s Navy quest during the Archaic Period of 3000 BC to 2685 BC asks players to build up Behdet city. It is one of the more challenging tasks players will encounter in the earlier portions of the campaign, but it is doable if you take the right approach.
We’ll preface this guide by saying there are many ways to win every mission in Pharaoh: A New Era, and finding your own unique approach is half the fun. This guide is not the only way to complete this mission, but it is a tried and true method.
Pharaoh’s Navy (Behdet) Guide
To complete the quest to build up Behdet city, players must rush to production and build Papyrus Makers and a Reed Gatherer to produce Papyrus. Then, they can set up a trade route with the nearby city of Nekhen to sell the Papyrus for a solid income.
Lastly, players will need to construct a Medium Mastaba Monument with Bricks traded from one of the nearby cities. To finish the quest, players should continue building their city until they fulfill the rest of the mission objectives.
To complete the Pharaoh’s Navy Behdet quest, players will need to:
- Construct a Medium Mastaba Monument
- Reach 2500 population
- Maintain 15 Culture
- Maintain 20 Prosperity
- Maintain a 45 Kingdom rating
- Maintain a 7 Monument rating
However — as we know too well, it’s a lot easier said than done, which is why we’ve outlined the exact steps and build order you can take to complete this mission once and for all.
Pharaoh’s Navy Behdet Best Starting Location
We suggest starting your settlement in the southeast portion of the map, next to the reed bogs on the small island. While it seems like not an ideal starting spot (it isn’t), it’s a great place to start and sustain your Papyrus operations.
Important to note if you do select this location, your first building must be a Ferry Landing so that settlers from the mainland can immigrate to your starting island. To build a Ferry Landing, select the Services tab on the right, then click Ferry Landing. Place the Ferry Landing in the grass on a straight edge next to the Nile River, then build the conjoining Landing (valid spots will be marked with white squares) and connect it to the main road. Now, you can start building up your starting location.
Pharaoh’s Navy Behdet Starting Build
Here’s a build you can use to set up a thriving economy and trade with positive exports for the mission.
First, build a Fishing Wharf and Shipwright for an initial food supply. There should be fish next to your small island, and you can set up two Fishing Wharves to maximize your food production. Next, set up your necessary Services, including:
- Housing
- Village Palace
- Granary
- Storage Yards
- Bazaar
- Wells
- Tax Collector
- Apothecary
- Police Station
- Firehouse
Setting up Papyrus Production
While you set up the infrastructure for your town, you should simultaneously set up Papyrus production so you can set up a trade route and start exporting ASAP. You don’t start with much debens in this mission, so you don’t want to go bankrupt early on.
To set up production, you’ll need the following:
- Reed Gatherer x1
- Papyrus Maker x4
- Storage Yards x4
Reed Gatherers in this area will collect reeds at an insane rate, so you’ll only need one for every 4-5 Papyrus Makers you construct. You, of course, can expand production even further, but this was enough to create a steady stream of income for us.
Remember to set your Storage Yards to the specific good you want to carry so that every yard doesn’t just fill up with reeds. Set two to three yards to Papyrus only so you can generate a decent amount of exports. At this time, your Granary should be filling up with fish from your fishing operations.
Setting up Papyrus Trade
Once you start generating Papyrus (you should be pretty early on), you’ll notice that the nearby city of Nekhen purchases Papyrus. Open the World Map on the left side of the screen and establish a trading land route for some debens. You’ll probably see that you now generate monthly income instead of working at a loss. If you’re unsure of how to trade, make sure you read our in-depth guide.
Remember that it isn’t enough to just set up the Trade Route. You’ll also need to access the Overseer Tab to get to the Overseer of Commerce Tab and set Papyrus to Export. We usually set it to Export anything over 100 Papyrus since we won’t need a lot for education in this mission.
Surviving the Rest of the Game
Before you can start building your Monument, you’ll need to also build other production chains for Pottery and Beer, or you won’t be able to fulfill the supply requests that Pharaoh gives you. Neglecting these requests results in a low Kingdom rating, which is hard to rebound from.
We suggest building up these production lines on the mainland, as there will be more open space there to accommodate the additional structures and housing required to fulfill the jobs. For this mission, you won’t find many other settlements that purchase Pottery or Beer, so we suggest creating a small operation just so that you can fulfill the supply requests from nearby settlements.
Construct a Medium Mastaba Monument
Once the Papyrus economy is going and you have a steady income, you can start building on the mainland. Remember to build all the required service buildings as you normally would because this is where the game gets hard. You’ll need to import the bricks required to build the Medium Mastaba.
Additionally, if you’ve been fulfilling supply requests, there’s a high possibility an ally will provide the bricks required for the Monument as a gift. If this doesn’t occur, you can set up a trade route with the nearby city of Perwadjyt, which sells Bricks. Like any other trade good, you’ll need to select the Commerce Overseer and change Bricks to Import. We suggest importing 600 bricks at a time, so you don’t throw off your economy too hard.
Pharaoh: A New Era Pharaoh’s Navy (Behdet) mission is pretty difficult and can take a few hours to complete depending on your play speed. Don’t worry if it takes you a while — it took us a while too.
If you ruin your settlement, don’t restart it unless you’ve completely messed it up. Reload autosaves instead of restarting if you don’t want to waste more time.
