Profession overview : mason

Difficulty (easy); Land requirement (small); Versatility (high)

Mason

Masons deal primarily with stones and mortar products. They are key contributors to infrastructure projects, useful research contributors and allies of any attempt to install a government. Their workstations are easy to make and install. Also, most early recipes don’t require items from other players so there is no rush for close collaboration. Therefore, mason is a good profession for new players who want to learn. Masons remain useful throughout the game and can branch in many professions.

Lands and settling

Masons are, with chefs, the players who requires the least land papers : you can claim a small 2x2 area an live on it for several game hours just by digging vertically (ladders). Masons can settle pretty much everywhere although deserts are good to get cheap sandstones and sand while pottery experts will find a bit more resources in wet lands and rainforests. My advice is to first settle close to a chef and/or the downtown location by claiming a 3x3 area. This small plot of land alone will bring you stones for the early game. Next, you will likely claim small patch of land elsewhere to get access to more limestone and other resources related to your skills. 

Small land requirement coupled with the ability to make mortared stones make masons ideal players to set up the government too.

Common skill plans

Mining is the natural gathering skill for masons. Many players will pick it first and prepare the infrastructure for the next day. Others will pick the masonry skill and try to get access to upgrade modules 2 while stockpiling on mortar for the first day. Once these two skills are taken, masons have many choices to make.

Access to crushed stones and mortar is a solid base to pick basic engineering and make roads. However, at this point, there might already be basic engineers on the map and you should try your best to work with them instead.

A great choice for masons is to pick pottery. First, it's a way to diversify tier 2 blocks availability and remove pressure on forest, especially if you have zealous novice carpenters around. Second, iron and lumber production is very (very, very, very) wasteful without advanced upgrade modules : many servers I have seen suffered from a lumber and iron rush early on. The pottery expert is the only one able to make the first advanced module and begin ascension toward more efficient production on the server. Brick aqueducts are great for making waterwheel spin. There are also handy items for decoration and home improvement to gain from this skill. I loooove clay pots to put some green in towns. Glassworking is a good choice too, since it is necessary for the next set of modules and allow you to make tier 4 windows later.

Masonry is also a base for many smelters. Mining yield a lot of stones and you might want to use mortared stone for your infrastructure. Iron is also the base of the industry later on, like wood logs are at the beginning. Again, see if it is best to collaborate with other players who specialize in smelting: operating a good mine requires more than one miner and competition among miners is not only futile, but detrimental to the server. After all, smelting is just pushing a few buttons and mining is the actual hard work. This being said, smelting is an easy way to advanced smelting, steel and finally the ashlar stones of advanced masonry.

Suggested role per era

You will find here few ideas about your role at each era. Of course, Eco is a simulation and a sandbox game, so I encourage you to experiment other paths.

Settling

During the settling phase, the key roles of masons are to provide basic upgrade modules 2 and tier 1 blocks. Within few hours, a server with these modules can increase productivity by 33% and more. This is an achievement as it requires fast collaboration with logging experts and empathy towards those with other skills. Failure to distribute the modules will create inequity. In fact, the way a community tackle availability of modules during the first days is a good indicator of the collaboration skills of your fellow citizens. Module distribution is also one of the best and earliest indicator of server failure. 

Apart from modules, masons are expected to provide stones (mining skill), mortar and mortared stones (masonry skill). Mortared stones require more resources (time, calories) to make than hewn so a way to get more tier 1 blocks and support resource flow on your server is to mix mortared stones and hewn in your early designs. This adds a bit of variety to the look of your town. Masons are also suppliers of signs that are important communication tools.

Tier 1 and tier 2 eras

Shortly after everyone has rooms, masons can supply unique furniture items (brazier, fireplace and statues) as well as furniture similar to what carpenters provides (bench, table, chair). Since stone benches, tables and chairs cost more time and calories to make than they wood version, I would recommend keeping a lower stock and make sure the other players can bring you basic resources too. Mortar should be abundant at your store at all times.

Transitioning into other skills is a big decision. Given the nature of Eco and the requirements of it's secret tech tree, I strongly recommend to discuss with your immediate neighbors and take into account their plans. In all common scenarios, you will need mining equipment so talking to the basic engineer nearby is a first step. If you take the road path, I encourage you to make construction posts and use them to show the layout to others. You can also make a road district using the zoning office : this is to avoid conflict and people settling in the middle of the path. If you take the smelting path, be careful not to overdo it unless you have access to advanced upgrade modules. Delaying iron production actually put a bit more interest on pottery and glassworking projects. If you go the pottery or glassworking way, think about hiring farmers and chefs to dig clay and sand. They won't have a lot to offer you if you produce alone 1500 bricks and allowing them to bring clay and sand makes it easier to unlock better food.

Tier 3 and tier 4 eras

Cement will be highly needed at the tier 3 era to make asphalt roads and concrete for the tier 3 factories. Rich communities might ask for limestone statues from time to time as outside decorations. The mining skill will always be useful to mine ore, provided the smelters buy it at a decent price. Masons which produce or have a good access to steel might be tempted for the ultimate masonry skill : advanced masonry. But beware of the high resource requirement of this skill. If you don't go this way, you might be able to sell some mortar for the ashlar made by others.

Community projects

Masons are great for infrastructure projects. With luck and strong leadership on your server, you can even make all your money just from infrastructure support. 

1) Town Hall

The early town hall requires mortared stone for the actual building and mortared stone for early items. If you are not interested in this project, at least make sure the other players have a basic upgrade module 2 and offer to add work to their masonry table (perhaps in exchange from food). This way your skills will be useful and you will get additional XP in the process.

2) Roads

Dirt roads are useful to prevent vegetation from growing back. But let’s face it: then are just a draft waiting for the real roads. Stone roads increase transport, look great and are a strong symbol of a community’s success and hard work. Masons are uniquely qualified to work on this project because they provide the mortar needed for stone road recipes. They can also line the roads with boardwalks.

3) Town decorations

There is a decorative component in sandbox games and Eco is no exception. Moreover, every good design in the real life has an affective component (in addition to technically useful components) so communities have good reasons to work on the layout and visual aspect of their town. Masons provide mortared stones that look great as well as statues and outdoor benches. If you take pottery, you will be able to bring any plants in the driest desert (even if there is pollution) and make cute aqueducts. Glass and concrete structures can be really impressive too.

4) Bridges

It sounds a bit like the roads project, but bridges need protection on the side and perhaps lining that looks great with mortared stones. You may add pillar and other features for realism.

5) Community mines

A lot of iron is needed in this game and many professions in Eco have spare time compared to others. A community mine helps to keep these players busy, speed up industrialization and help reduce the cost of iron-based items for everyone. A community mine can take less than an hour with your mining skill: all you need is a cute entrance, stairs or ladders, a tiny stockpile to allow people to transport resources to their cart at the surface and mortared stones at the ore level to indicate where the floor ends.

6) Gold rush

This community project aims to get all the gold ore needed to set up the mint and banks. When done properly, it is a particularly rich project to foster cooperation on the server. Copper found can be fed to mechanics research. The mining skill of the mason profession is obviously useful here.

7) Diversity

Buildings generally looks better with blocks of different kind. It is tempting for carpenters and masons to keep only to their own kind of block (lumber or bricks), but think about diversity and allow other players to exchange building blocks with you.

Tips and tricks

1) Food forever

One trick indicated previously is to pick masonry first. This should give you an easy access to basic upgrade modules 2 and save a lot of resources. Chefs will greatly benefit from the 25% bonus of modules 2 to make stews. A fair trade could bring you a good source of food for a long time.

2) Burrow in the sand

This tricks is a relatively easy and fast way to get XP and save on stones and mortar later. If you have a decent food provider, you should be able to dig about 3 stockpiles of sand (375 sand units in about 15 minutes) and feed it to your masonry table. The main advantage is you’ll get more XP with less resources than if you were mining. More XP means you get quickly to the level where you unlock modules number 2. You will also have a good reserve of mortar to sell and produce mortared stone with greater efficiency.

Please don't dig an open hole into the beach...there is a lot of sand under the dirt layer in the desert too.

3) Desert settler

Deserts often have flat surfaces and are prime location for blacksmiths. Settling here gives you access to sand and sandstone are easy to break. Desert locations near wetlands and rainforests are even better if you think about switching to pottery.

4) Vertical mining

You can easily live in Eco with a simple 3x3 land claim downtown. You can dig vertically to find every bits of stones you need and make rooms for storage and kilns in the process.