Faces of War has no character XP system and no gold currency to farm. The fastest way to “level” is to clear missions efficiently, preserve veteran squads, capture objectives that unlock reinforcements, and use the right unit for each job. If you’re searching for a gold route, don’t waste time chasing one: the 2006 World War II RTS rewards battlefield performance, saved units, ammunition discipline, and objective completion rather than a persistent wallet.
That distinction matters because many modern search results describe Faces of War as if it were an RPG or live-service strategy game. It isn’t. There are no repeatable gold nodes, daily quests, account levels, loot tiers, or permanent stat upgrades in the original campaign. You can replay a mission, improve your completion time, protect more soldiers, and use the map’s weapons and vehicles more intelligently, but the game does not deposit currency into a long-term progression screen.
This guide explains the real progression loop, the quickest campaign habits, and the closest equivalent to gold farming: extracting maximum tactical value from every map. It applies to the original PC release listed on the official Steam page, while noting that mods and community scenarios can add completely different rules.
There Is No Gold or XP to Farm
Faces of War is built around mission-based tactical RTS progression. Your force changes during a scenario, but those changes are local to that mission. A soldier who survives a firefight doesn’t become a permanently stronger account unit, and captured ammunition isn’t converted into spendable gold after the victory screen.
The game’s real resources are situational: infantry, ammunition, explosives, usable weapons, vehicles, buildings, cover, and access to reinforcement points. Some scenarios provide tanks or artillery through scripted events; others expect you to seize equipment from the map. That means “farming” only makes sense as a replay strategy. You’re farming better outcomes—fewer casualties, faster objective clears, and more preserved combat power—not currency.
| Progression Element | Does Faces of War Have It? | Best Replacement Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Character XP levels | No persistent system | Keep squads alive and reuse experienced battlefield formations during the mission |
| Gold or credits | No campaign currency | Capture weapons, vehicles, ammunition, and strategic positions |
| Loot rarity | No standard loot tiers | Search buildings and wrecks for practical equipment |
| Permanent upgrades | No account-wide progression | Improve tactics, route planning, and unit preservation |
| Repeatable farming | Only through replaying scenarios | Replay short objectives to refine execution and reduce losses |
So the honest answer to “how do I farm gold?” is simple: you can’t in the unmodified game. If a trainer, mod, or custom scenario mentions gold, treat it as a separate ruleset rather than a hidden vanilla mechanic.
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View on Steammoz Store →The Fastest Way to Progress Through Missions
Fast campaign progress comes from minimizing dead time. Before moving, identify the primary objective, the likely reinforcement route, and the terrain that can stop armour. A five-minute pause at the start can save half an hour of failed attacks.
1. Secure the nearest tactical foothold
Send scouts or a small infantry element ahead, not your entire force. Buildings, walls, trenches, hedgerows, and rubble can absorb incoming fire while you establish a safe staging area. Once the position is secure, move ammunition carriers, medics, engineers, and heavier weapons into supporting distance.
2. Capture access before chasing kills
Enemy squads are often distractions. If the objective requires reaching a road, bridge, courtyard, depot, or command position, clear the route rather than hunting every retreating soldier. Faces of War missions frequently become much easier once you control the area that enables reinforcements or gives your vehicles room to manoeuvre.
3. Keep a reserve
Never commit every rifleman to the first attack. Hold back a small group to protect an ammunition point, revive pressure on a flank, or crew a captured weapon. Losing your only engineer or anti-tank operator can make the next phase dramatically slower, even when the current firefight looks won.
4. Save before irreversible pushes
Manual saving is part of the intended rhythm. Create a save before crossing open ground, assaulting a fortified street, or triggering a scripted event. A clean reload is faster than rebuilding an entire attack after a tank shell catches your packed infantry in the open.
This is also where the game differs from lighter RTS titles. The advice in our Eternam fast-leveling guide is built around repeatable progression. Faces of War demands the opposite mindset: preserve the tools the current scenario gives you and spend them only when they solve the objective.
Best Unit Roles for Fast, Safe Clears
There isn’t a universal best squad. The strongest composition changes with the map, but every efficient force needs a way to spot threats, suppress infantry, defeat armour, repair or breach obstacles, and sustain itself.
| Unit or Role | Primary Job | Use It For | Common Mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle infantry | Capture and hold ground | Buildings, trenches, objective zones | Crossing open terrain without suppression |
| Machine gun team | Suppress groups | Locking down streets and defensive lines | Moving before the firing lane is safe |
| Sniper | Remove high-value personnel | Officers, machine gunners, exposed crews | Using the rifle as a general assault weapon |
| Engineer | Repair, breach, and handle obstacles | Vehicles, fortifications, blocked routes | Sending engineers into the first wave |
| Anti-tank team | Stop armoured threats | Chokepoints and vehicle ambushes | Revealing the team too early |
| Tank or armoured vehicle | Mobile fire support | Suppressing positions and breaking streets | Driving ahead of infantry and into side shots |
Use machine guns to pin infantry while riflemen reposition. A pinned enemy is less dangerous than a moving one, and suppression lets you win an uneven exchange without burning through your entire squad. Snipers should target visible specialists and crew members rather than ordinary soldiers unless the map gives you no higher-value target.
Engineers are disproportionately valuable. They can keep a damaged vehicle operating, open routes, and interact with battlefield objects that ordinary infantry cannot handle efficiently. Protect them like a limited resource. If an engineer dies during the first assault, the cost is often paid ten minutes later when the only bridge, tank, or obstacle becomes a problem.
How to Make Vehicles and Armour Pay Off
Vehicles are the closest thing Faces of War has to a power spike, but they are not invincible reward units. Armour works when infantry protects its flanks and clears anti-tank threats. It fails when you send it alone into a town, expose the side or rear, or park it where several enemy weapons can fire at once.
Approach streets slowly and use infantry to reveal windows, corners, and concealed gun positions. Keep the front of the vehicle toward the expected threat, then stop and fire rather than constantly driving through hostile fire. A tank that is moving without a clear target is usually wasting its strongest advantage: accurate, concentrated fire.
Terrain is a weapon. Buildings and walls can block lines of sight, but they can also trap your vehicle if you enter too deeply. Leave yourself a reversing route. If the map contains a wide field and a narrow road, the road may look safer, yet it also creates a predictable ambush lane. Scout both approaches before committing.
Use direct control sparingly. Taking manual control can help land a precise shot, move a vehicle around a wreck, or finish a dangerous gun position. It also narrows your attention and can leave the rest of the army idle or exposed. Issue squad orders first, then switch to direct control for the critical moment.
For a broader comparison, our Heroes of Hour weapon tier list covers a game with persistent run-based choices. Faces of War is more physical: the “best weapon” is often the one you can safely recover, crew, and keep supplied on this particular map.
Resource Management Without a Gold Economy
Because there’s no gold, ammunition becomes the economy you actually need to manage. Every wasted burst, abandoned vehicle, and unnecessary grenade makes the next objective harder. Search captured positions and buildings, but don’t pull a squad out of a safe firing line just to collect a weapon that doesn’t solve an immediate problem.
Think in terms of conversion efficiency. A grenade that clears a machine-gun nest is valuable; three grenades thrown into a room already suppressed by rifle fire are not. Likewise, a damaged tank that still blocks a road may be more useful as cover than as a reckless attacker. Battlefield objects have tactical value even when they aren’t actively firing.
| Situation | Spend First | Why It Saves Time | What to Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enemy infantry in a building | Suppression, then breach or flank | Reduces return fire during entry | Repeated frontal charges |
| Enemy tank near an objective | Anti-tank team and side-angle ambush | Removes the threat before infantry advances | Exposing your own tank frontally |
| Damaged friendly armour | Engineer repair and protected staging | Preserves your strongest fire support | Leaving it in the enemy’s line of sight |
| Low ammunition | Capture a safe supply position | Restores sustained fighting ability | Continuing a long assault with empty weapons |
| Open-ground approach | Smoke, cover, suppression, or a flank | Limits concentrated incoming fire | Sending the whole force in one clump |
That approach is the real gold-farming substitute: make each consumable produce a decisive result. Players who finish with ammunition and an intact support core will progress faster than players who technically win while losing every specialist.
Replay Routes, Difficulty, and Performance Tips
For replay farming, choose missions with short travel distances, predictable objectives, and early access to strong equipment. Don’t replay a long scenario simply because it contains more combat. A clean, repeatable route through two or three decisive engagements is better practice than a sprawling mission where most of the clock disappears into movement and scripted delays.
Use the first attempt as reconnaissance. Record where armour appears, which buildings contain resistance, and when reinforcements become available. On the second attempt, pre-position your support units, send scouts along the safe edge of the map, and trigger events only after your force is ready. This is how you reduce completion time without using cheats or pretending the game has a hidden currency loop.
On modern PCs, Faces of War is lightweight compared with current releases, but compatibility can still be more important than raw horsepower. If you see stutter or input problems, start with a stable resolution, disable unnecessary background overlays, and cap the frame rate if uncapped rendering causes inconsistent pacing. The game’s tactical view doesn’t need extreme frame rates; reliable input and clear unit selection matter more.
| Replay Goal | Recommended Approach | Success Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Fast clear | Prioritize objectives and bypass nonessential fights | Lower completion time without losing required units |
| Low casualties | Scout, suppress, flank, and save before major pushes | More surviving specialists and support units |
| Vehicle preservation | Keep infantry ahead and protect repair access | Armour remains operational through the final objective |
| Difficulty practice | Replay the same route while reducing reloads | Consistent execution under stronger enemy pressure |
If you’re troubleshooting another older PC title, Steamoz’s Ironborn performance settings guide and Hunt: Showdown graphics guide explain the broader process of balancing frame pacing and image quality. The specific settings differ, but the principle is the same: stable performance helps tactical games far more than a flashy benchmark number.
The Best Faces of War Farming Mindset
Forget the idea of an invisible XP bar. Faces of War rewards a cleaner loop: scout the map, establish cover, suppress the dangerous position, capture the objective, preserve specialists, and spend equipment only when it changes the fight. Repeat that process and your campaign pace improves naturally.
For the fastest practical progression, play on a difficulty you can execute consistently, save before scripted attacks, keep engineers and anti-tank teams alive, and treat every vehicle as a limited tactical asset. Don’t chase kills that don’t advance the mission. Don’t search for a gold route that the original game never implemented.
The result is less like farming an RPG currency and more like shaving mistakes out of a military operation. Your reward is a faster clear, a stronger surviving force, and a much better understanding of why Faces of War remains such a satisfyingly demanding RTS. For version details, patches, and the original release information, check the official Ubisoft game page and the Best Way developer site.