One way that you can upgrade your consorts without using jewelry is by assigning maids to your consorts. Maids are earned at random, usually from foreign dignitaries in the Imperial Council, and will increase the charm of the consorts. Tap whenever you see an exclamation point next to the Imperial Council because that means there are more rewards. You’ll also unlock the Safavieh Envoy (from the Safavid dynasty in Persia), the Venetian Envoy and the Russian Envoy as you get further into the quest modes.
This game is absolutely loaded with opportunities to get free diamonds. The main free diamond collections are in the Rankings and Divination areas, which provide three opportunities and one opportunity per day, respectively. Beyond that, many of the achievements and the time-sensitive quests can also reward you with diamonds.
Be sure to hit the frontier as often as possible. It’s only open at certain times of the day, but when it is open, you can play once for as many viziers as you have. Their overall attributes will determine how much damage they do in the hunt. In the expedition, it’s the same, with the top rewards going to the top 100 damage dealers, and the biggest rewards going to the last person to deal damage to the boss.
Make sure to either start a union or join one as quickly as possible. Unions have their own quests that you can do, as well as expeditions for even more rewards than one would normally get in single player mode. You can contribute diamonds to your union, which will allow you to receive tokens in exchange. Tokens are a union-only currency and can be redeemed for prizes such as gold and commander coupons, as well as vizier upgrades.
PvP mode is done in the arena. You can unlock it by upgrading to Young Sultan V, and then you can play in it once you have at least one vizier at level 60. Their level and their PvP talent level will determine how they fare in there, so make heavy use of the Imperial Academy to increase the talent of your PvP-heavy Viziers, and upgrade more and more Viziers to level 60 to enable them to fight in the arena as well.
Feasts are one of the least understood parts of the game, but they can be lucrative if you play them right. You pay 100 diamonds in order to claim a seat at someone else’s feast. Attend feasts to receive store tokens, which allow you to purchase various items including orbs and tomes. The tokens come right away, but the feast food, banquet food, and feast and banquet tokens come later on.