The Kingdom Maker team has a long list of improvements planned for Nobles in 2023. Today we’re presenting the next exciting round of Noble enhancements that will arrive very soon: Noble Role Progression!
Your Noble family is core to the Kingdom Maker experience, and we want to empower you to make the Nobles you’ve grown attached to an enduring part of your adventure. This effort began earlier this year with the removal of Frailty, the removal of random capture in combat, and continues with the Noble Role Promotion update: a system that will allow you to progress a Noble’s Role to an associated, higher tier Role.
Role Promotion: Roles & Tiers
Previously, to adopt a new Role after you unlocked it through research, a new Noble was required to be matured into that role.
Now Nobles in Tier 1 Roles can be promoted into more powerful, Tier 2 Roles. That means you can keep your favorite Nobles, and there’s no need to toss your loyal family members aside when the time comes to progress from Captains to Marshals.
Noble Roles are in two Tiers, and for every Role in Tier 1 there is a Tier 2 upgrade.
Tier 1 Roles span levels 1 to 40.
Tier 2 Roles span levels 41 to 80.
Merits have been simplified: category and role-specific Merits have been replaced. Nobles that are part of the same progression use the same Merits to progress, regardless of their specific Role. No need to locate Combat Merits and Paladin Merits, for example..
When a Noble in a Tier 1 Role reaches level 40 they can upgrade to level 41, and as part of that process get promoted into their Tier 2 equivalent Role. As an example, a level 40 Captain will be promoted to a level 41 Marshal. The Role change upgrade costs Merits.
One other change to babies is that you can see their inherited traits and rename them before you select a Role. Once a Role is selected, their innate Traits are visible and they are locked into that Role. After selecting the Role you can then see what Traits they have, and re-roll them if you wish before maturing them. If you pick a Tier 1 Role they will mature as a level 1 Noble in that Role. If you select a Tier 2 Role they will skip the first 40 levels and mature into a level 41 Noble in that Role.
There’s no cost for maturing into a Tier 1 Role. Maturing into a Tier 2 Role costs some Merits and Rubies. If you lack these resources you can use gold or wait until you have them available before maturing the baby.
It’s free to choose a Tier 2 Role and inspect the Traits, the cost is only paid upon maturing the baby out of the nursery.
You will now be able to see a baby's inherited Traits before choosing a Role.
With new research you can now have up to four nobles in the same Tier 2 role.
Hard Work Pays Off
Any Noble that was born into a Tier 1 Role, levels to 40, and then progresses to Tier 2 will gain one additional Trait slot and some free rerolls (quantity based on noble quality). This is to reflect that the Noble worked their way up to the next tier.
Nobles that were born into a Tier 2 Role do not receive this extra Trait. So while it’s quicker to mature babies into a higher tier, the best possible Nobles are created by leveling up and progressing through the tiers, picking up new traits as they go.
Any Noble at max level (40 for Tier 1, 80 for Tier 2) will have excess XP converted to Family XP.
Level Based Stats
The level-based stat bonuses for Tier 1 Roles are unchanged.
Tier 2 Roles stats pick up where Tier 1 left off. By the time a Tier 2 Noble reaches level 80, their stats are roughly twice as good as those that were provided at level 40. This means that any and all Nobles in Tier 2 Roles are going to have improved buffs when the update is released.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 combat Roles (Marshal, Paladin, and Executioner) will also gain a bonus against PvP targets as well as NPCs.
Merits & XP
All Roles now have the same XP cost to level up which is an average of the old costs. While this will balance out, some Roles will become a little more expensive and others will be slightly cheaper to level up than they were previously.
We are combining category merits and role-specific merits into role grouping merits.
Combat:
Captain & Marshal merits > Enforcer Merits
Knight & Paladin > Guardian
Rogue & Executioner > Harbinger
Non-Combat:
Merchant & Agent > Barter
Explorer & Ranger > Delve
Collier & Prospector > Automation
We will be removing all existing merits in inventory and replacing them with the new merits using the below migration plan:
For each role-specific merit you have removed you will be given 1 of the new merits for that group
5 captain + 5 marshal = 10 enforcer
20 Explorer + 10 Ranger = 30 Delve
etc
For each combat merit you have removed you will be given 1 Enforcer, 1 Guardian, and 1 Harbinger Merit (3 total)
10 combat merits = 10 Enforcer + 10 Guardian + 10 Harbinger
For each trade, industry, exploration merit you have removed you will be given 1 barter, delve, automation merit.
5 Trade = 5 Barter
Bye Bye, Baby
Noble Progression adds a lot of powerful new options for growing your Noble family, but breeding will still be a very important part of Kingdom Maker’s gameplay. With that in mind, we wanted to make it faster and easier to add new members to your Noble family. With the coming update you’ll be able to send unwanted Noble babies straight from your Nursery to a, uh “Monastery” instantly, with the tap of a button, for free.
If you pick a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Role and do not like the traits the baby has, you can send the baby to a Monastery. This removes the baby from the nursery without requiring you to mature them and then sacrifice them in the Volcano. Just to be clear: Sacrificing a Noble takes time, costs Silver, and requires an empty family slot. Sending a baby to the Monastery is free, instant, and can be done while your family is full.
So for example, after you update you could choose a Tier 2 Role for one of your babies, reroll the Traits, and if you aren’t happy with the results, you’ll be able to send the baby away and never incur the XP, Merit or Ruby cost of maturing them into the Tier 2 Role.
You will now only mature the babies you want in your family!
A word on Dungeons
Dungeon level requirements have been updated to account for the Tier 2 Roles spanning levels 41 through 80.
Small dungeons will remain open to levels 1+
Medium dungeons will remain open to levels 15+
Large dungeons, which include Monuments and Ancient Ruins, will remain open to levels 40+
And Massive dungeons will change from 40+ to 60+
Given a Noble in a Tier 2 Role starts out life at level 41, they will have access to the Large dungeons from birth. And as we are adding 40 levels to any Noble already in a Tier 2 Role, a Ranger that was level 20 (that could not previously enter a massive dungeon because it required a level 40), will become a level 60 Ranger and be permitted to enter.
Dungeon difficulty has also been adjusted, and it is easier for nobles in Tier 2 roles to complete Large and Massive Dungeons.
Refinery adjustments
With Nobles now using Gems, we have generally increased yields when refining Rubies and Emeralds. The increase to the average return varies by keep level but ranges from 1.2x to 9x.
No changes were made to any other resources in the refinery, or the mines themselves.
What to Expect on Release Day
Any Noble that was *already* in a Tier 2 Role when this update is released will receive 40 levels automatically, for free. A level 1 Prospector will become a level 41 Prospector, a level 22 Paladin will become a level 62 Paladin, and a level 40 Agent will become a level 80 Agent.
The free 40 levels only apply to Nobles in Tier 2 roles. A level 30 Rogue will remain a level 30 Rogue.
Many of you can expect a boost in Power when these changes take place, because Tier 2 Roles, with their higher levels, now contribute more towards Family Power.
The research for the 3rd and 4th Role slot for Tier 2 two Roles you have unlocked will be automatically completed based on the research you have done for that role. If you have already researched 1 role slot you will now have 2, if you have already researched 2 slots you will now have 4.
Tips from the Player Council
The Player Council is a select group of players who volunteer their time to help playtest and give feedback on Kingdom Maker’s biggest releases before they reach world wide release. They helped shape this update and as people who have played with it for some time they have a couple of tips:
As the specialized training cost is paid when you mature a baby, it’s a good idea to mature any babies you have sitting in your nursery for Tier 2 Roles before the update to avoid that cost. They will mature at level 1, but will become a level 41 after the update is released.
There are now four slots for each Tier 2 Role, so get your Tier 1 Nobles to level 40 so they are ready to upgrade when the update drops so you can then replace them with fresh Tier 1s.
Thanks for Reading
We hope you enjoy the Noble Role Progression update, and that you have more fun with Nobles in Kingdom Maker than ever before. We’re excited to share more Noble enhancements in the coming months, and look forward to revealing future updates when the time is right.
