Welcome to the world of Kingdom Maker! Hours of adventure await you as you build your story, battle, explore, and create your kingdom.
It’s a big, big world, there’s a lot to learn, and a wise monarch knows when to heed helpful advice. To wit, we’ve assembled some helpful guides to give you a smooth road ahead as you get set to helm your realm.
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Your very first steps into Kingdom Maker’s world are positively packed with useful information. You gain ownership of a used, slightly orc-infested castle. You obtain the services of some loyal soldiers and servants. You learn a little bit about the care and feeding of your peasants. It’s a good time, but it all goes by so fast!
Perhaps you left the tutorial early, or you’ve forgotten a detail. Perhaps you haven’t experienced it at all yet. Any way you slice it, we’re here to help.
A New You
Shortly after you move into your new royal abode, you need to do something vital: choose the look of your Lord and Lady. Your nobles are a unique reflection of your class and taste, so take your time. You can use a slider in certain menu options to adjust your noble’s skin tone, hair color, and eye color. Details maketh the monarch, and your nobles’ children will inherit their looks.
As important as your looks is your name. This is your dynasty, your legacy, the name by which everyone in your future Alliance will know you. It’s the word your enemies will shout in anguished defeat! Be sure to choose something suitably dignified, hm?
Kill Some Orcs
The thing about killing Orcs is that it’s hard to do alone. You need an army for that sort of thing, and for that, you need a Barracks. It’s where all your foot soldiers will be trained in the future, and there’s no time like the present to train up some Militia Swordsmen. If you’re in a rush, gold can be used to speed through building up your city and training troops.
After your troops are ready for action, it’s time to assemble them into an Army. Tap the Armies button at the bottom of your screen, then select the noble who will lead your troops. To fill your army with eager recruits, tap each unlocked army slot and select which troops to fill it with, but note that each spot in an army can only accept certain kinds of troops. As your nobles gain levels, learn new skills, and train in new Roles, you’ll also gain access to more army slots and can include different units in your armies.
Your county is likely to be full of targets – any enemy camp with a red name, for example. Tap a target camp, make sure it’s not too strong for you, and then tap the Attack button to send your troops to battle. After you’ve ordered an attack, you can let it run its course, or tap the crossed swords to watch the action in real time.
Crashing Castles
In the tutorial, you’ll place your new castle, but perhaps the most valuable lesson you’ll learn is how to build your keep.
The structures you can build for your City can be found in three different tabs, which you’ll see when you tap the little blue Build button on the bottom right.
Structures come in three flavors: Civic, Production, Defense
· Civic buildings do all sorts of things and improve your city in various vital ways. You’ll find your Barracks there, but also more housing for your citizens, the academy, and all sorts of other vital military and research structures.
· Production buildings are equally vital. They help get you all the resources you need to succeed. Build them early, upgrade them often, harvest whenever you can!
· Defense is where you’ll find towers and platforms. Both are vital to protect your city, and towers are how you build your city walls.
Every one of these buildings is important, so be sure to add them all to your City when you can.
You don’t build walls directly in Kingdom Maker. Instead you’ll use towers to decide where your walls will go. When you build a tower, lines will radiate out from it as you place it. Here’s the key: if you align a newly built tower with existing ones just right, then walls will automatically be built between them!
Change your mind about the placement of any of your buildings or need to adjust the walls on your keep? It’s an easy fix. Just tap to select the structure you want, and then hold and drag it where you want it to go. A grid will appear to let you know whether the spot you’ve picked is valid. Tap the checkmark to save. You can add or delete gates to any wall just by tapping and making the appropriate selection.
Garrisoning troops is important. If you don’t have a garrison in place, then your city will be defenseless if marauding marauders should happen by. Remember that Barracks we talked about a few paragraphs ago? Train some troops or use the free Militia Archers you got to garrison your towers. Tap on your keep, and tap the Garrison button to assign troops to your city’s defenses. Later on you can build a Range and train more archers too.
Okay Baby Boomer
We don’t want to lecture you on the facts of life, but if your nobles’ love life has gone a little stale, we’re here to help. A thriving noble family is vital to your success, so make sure you’ve got plenty of heirs running about. If there’s ever room in your family for another bouncing baby, it’s always a good idea to make one. They help with the chores!
Fortunately for your family line, making more nobles is shockingly easy. Just go to your Keep. Tap on your noble head of household, then Greet, and then tap their spouse. Then command them to Charm their spouse. Then have them engage in a blissful Married Kiss. Then, get busy with a Married Boink! Your nobles will retreat to the bedroom and vigorously make the next member of your noble family. Sure, it’s a lot of steps, but if only every relationship could go so smoothly.
As each member of your family matures out of infancy, you’ll have the chance to choose their starting role and their traits too. At first, you can only train your children to be Captains, Merchants, or Explorers (each with their own bonuses and special Army layouts), but you’ll be able to research new roles—and train your existing family members in them—later on.
Look over your noble’s traits. They range from gray ‘normal’ traits to purple ‘legendary’ traits. Some of them are even negative qualities you might want to get rid of. Don’t waste your opportunity to better your baby. You start with two free rerolls, but more can be purchased with a bit of gold.
Go Quest, Young Noble
Some final hints!
It’s important to keep the peasants happy. You can keep an eye on your citizenry’s morale by looking at the smiley face at the top of your screen, just below all your resources. That smiley face not so smiley? One surefire way to make your peasants feel more valued is to place their housing inside your city walls where they’re protected from marauding armies.
If ever you’re not sure what your next step should be, your Quests and Daily Goals are a surefire guide to greatness.
Quests are tasks that you can perform that offer rewards. The topmost Quest will also lead you along the path that tells the story of your family’s ascension to power as you solve problems in your kingdom and meet new allies. Daily Goals are tasks that any good noble keeps up on from day to day. Even better, you’ll get all sorts of rewards for doing them, which will help make your Kingdom stronger. Don’t forget your goals!
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That’s all for this feature, but we have more helpful guides coming, and an epic Kingdom Maker adventure awaits you. How will you reign?
