Kingdoms is a single player only game currently, with multiplayer intended later on. The game is very early access, and recently (just weeks ago) was re-worked almost completely for a new Unity game engine. This resulted in some content/mechanics from the 'old' version reworked completely, and others not yet implemented.

This guide will focus on the test branch of the most recent version (update_testing). This branch will have the latest content and mechanic updates which will likely be released to the stable latest version fairly quickly. Most of this guide applies to both versions.

To view all patchnotes, click on the steam discussion forum, and search 'patchnotes' to see all patchnote discussion threads (each patch gets its own discussion thread).
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/app/409590/discussions/search/?q=patchnotes&gidforum=2747650363453527615&include_deleted=1

Before you start, before creating a character, here are some things you should know:

The cosmetic portion of character creation has no effect on the game, so choose any look you like. But when 'purchasing' perks there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Some Perks give 'starting bonus' gear
  
• Some perks will be extremely helpful early game

You start the game with 20 SP, and you will get 10 SP each level. SP are points you can spend on learning Perks. Things you should know about Perks:

• The one main goal in the game right now is to build a settlement. In order to start a settlement, you must build a Well, and a Notice Board, which requires you have 3 Perks. The 3 perks will cost you 20 SP, which is all your starter SP. This will allow you to start a settlement the second you get off the boat. But you will loose out on the significant advantage of other starter gear from other perks.
  
  • Worker [5 SP] > Taskmaster [10 SP] and Scholar [5 SP] :
• Traveler [5 SP] : This Perk gives you a saddle to start with, which allows you to permanantly have a horse. Why this is important:
  
  • Saddles have a very large carry capacity, to store almost anything you will ever want.
    
  • A saddle horse can be wistled to you anywhere on the map by pressing Q
    
  • Horses can travel much faster than on foot, and have infinite stamina. You can travel much faster.
    
  • A horse with no saddle will constantly try to walk slowly back to it's starting point when you dismount. This means you rarely get to keep it once you travel away from the area, it'll just walk off.
    
  • To craft a saddle in game requires 5 perks, at a cost of 50 SP. That means 5 levels spent on Perks to make a saddle. This means you probably won't get a saddle till much later in the game.
    
    • Butcher [5 SP] > Yager [10 SP] > Skinner [20 SP] : Skinner allows you to skin animals
      
    • Chopper [5 SP] > Benchman [10 SP] : Benchman allows you to build Woodworkers house, which lets you craft leather, which lets you craft a saddle
• Chopper [5 SP] : Chopper gives you a Steel Axe at start, which does 25 melee damage, and gives 75% boost to chopping trees.
  
  • Plain iron axe does 10 damage, even starting sword does only 10 damage, and crafting a sword that does 25 damage will cost you several levels of blacksmith, and lots of iron ore.
    
  • Steel Axe is great for dispatching Bandits and animals early game
    
  • Steel Axe +75% to chopping, in addition to Chopper Perks +1 log, and 2x chopping speed dramatically speeds up harvesting wood. This will allow you to build structures quickly, and gain EXP quickly

My prefered starter Perks are:

• Worker [5 SP] : Unlocks basic houses, and on the road to getting Taskmaster to build settlement.
  
• Scholar [5 SP] : Slight EXP boost, and prepares me for settlement building once i get Taskmaster.
  
• Traveler [5 SP] : Saddle to start.
  
• Chopper [5 SP] : Steel axe to start, fast harvesting of wood.

So you have created your character and want to get started, what do you do?

For now, the only thing you can really do in Kingdoms is build a settlement and adventure around the island. With later content to come, you will be able to set up a Bandit camp and raid other settlements etc.

You will start the game on a boat that quickly plows onto the beach, where you jump off, along with 20 settlers who begin walking inland. Your goals are to earn EXP and gold, learn new perks from other settlers, and build and grow a settlement. There are various ways you can go about doing these things, I will offer what tricks I know and at least one way to best do things:

For more information on building a settlement, and how to acquire settlers, refer to the Settlement section.

If you don't already have the 3 required perks to build a settlement (Worker, Taskmaster, Scholar), you will first need to earn EXP and gold in order to learn any missing Perks. So how do you earn EXP and gold? I'll cover those in two chapters EXP and Gold.

If you took the recomended 4 Perks in the previous section, you'll want to get 1 level fast, and learn Taskmaster, so you can get a settlement started quickly. So before you rush off to get EXP and gold, quickly talk to all the 20 settlers you arrived with, and see if any of them train Taskmaster. If you find one that does, FOLLOW THEM. Keep them in sight, don't loose them.

While following the 'Taskmaster', earn EXP by chopping trees for wood. You can also harvest plants, or harvest rocks, but with the Chopper perk, you'll earn EXP MUCH faster chopping trees. And you're going to need the wood later to build a settlement anyway.

NB: If you spot a horse nearby, GRAB it and put a saddle on it. You'll then be able to move around quickly, and store all your items. See Taming a horse below for more details.

If you fail to find a Taskmaster at the start, focus instead on reaching level 2, and collecing at least 1000 gold. And grab a horse when you spot one. Keep close to the ocean and keep an eye out for any messages saying more settlers have arrived. When settlers arrive, go find them along the beach, and see if they can teach you Taskmaster.



EXP allows you to gain Character levels. Each level earns you 10 SP. SP is required to learn new Perks, which unlock new things to do, and build, etc. The amount of EXP required for the next level increases with each level you achieve. Best ways to earn EXP:

• 5 EXP per item harvested / built : Harvesting (wood, plants, stone, ore, etc) or building anything earns you EXP. Higher level harvesting Perks allow you to harvest faster, and get more items per harvest, which gives much higher EXP per harvest. Likewise, higher 'Worker' perk tree allows you to build faster. Default value is 5 EXP per item harvested / built. Bonuses EXP applied from Scholar Perk.
  
• 100 EXP for discovering a location : Every Ruin, Farm, Bandit lair, Settlement, etc you discover earns you EXP. Default value is 100 EXP, with bonus EXP from Scholar Perk.
  
• 100 EXP killing people : Killing Bandits is 'good' and earns you fame, exp, and you can loot them for gold/items. Killing settlers is bad, other settlers will hte you, but you earn EXP, and can still loot them for gold/items.
  
• Crafting anything earns EXP depending on how long it takes to craft.

Gold is required for learning new Perks. The higher level the perk, the more gold it will cost. So grab all the gold you can early game. Best ways to get gold.

• 0 - 9500+ gold - Ruins : Entering any Ruin creates a random dungeon. Rentering the same Ruin over and over creates a new random dongeon every time. This allows you to farm the same Ruin location repeatedly. Ruins have a random (low chance, maybe 20%) of containing a chest at the end. The chest will contain a random amount of gold, from as little as 14 gold to as much as 9500, or more.
  
• 200 gold - NPC corpse : Bandits, and Settlers can be killed, and 200g looted from corpse, along with some clothing/armor and berries. (ProTIP: This is also a great way to get expensive end game armor easily)
  
• 0-2000 gold - Trade shop : Cannot do this early game. Later game, you can find shops in settlements where you can sell items you have for gold. Shops typically have up to 2000 gold. Be careful not to deplete all the shops gold, or they cannot buy anything from other settlers and will go bust.

Anyone can ride a horse. When you approach a wild horse, it will get scared and try to run off. Fortunatly, you can run faster than a horse... (yea, weird right?). Run up to the horse and press E to get on it. Once mounted, the horse can be ridden using A & D keys to stear it, and repeatedly pressing W to speed up, and S to slow down (holding W or S won't work).

Pressing E you will get off the horse, and it will slowly walk back to where it started. You can leave it to wander off, or get back on and ride somewhere, but it will not 'scare' and run off again.

You can move a lot faster riding a horse than on foot. Horses also have infinite stamina, so you can ride at full speed forever. This allows you to travel much faster than on foot.

If you have a saddle, you can press X to place the saddle on the horse, and you will then own the horse. Saddle horse abilities:

• A saddled horse has HUGE storage capacity, enough to hold everything you'll ever own. Press X on the saddled horse to open inventory.
  
• You can whistle your horse too you at anytime, from anywhere, just press Q and wait.

The combat mechanics are very raw currently, easily exploited for an easy win. All NPCs are very easy to kill, they are slow to attack, and their AI is limited to moving to your last known location, and attacking if you're in range. If you simply move location whenever they start to move at you, they can never hit. NPC humans are the easiest.

There are two types of weapon: melee (Axe, pick, sword) and ranged (bow), the tactics are fairly similar, but the hit boxes very different.

Melee tactic: Back away from human enemies, while slowing down or moving forward just at the right time for your attack to hit, then back away again. They will forever chase you unable to attack. Easy kill no matter your enemy.

Ranged tactic: Your arrow has a ridiculously short range, so you'll need to be fairly close (maybe 8m max). Your arrow will hit the point that is slightly up and to the left of where it seems like you're aiming. Practice will show you where the 'hit box' for an arrow is. The arrow will also drop at longer range, so aim slightly higher the further you are from target.
Just like with melee, move sideways, or back away from the target, while continually filling it with arrows.

ProTIP: Early game, find a Bandit lair with a Bandit dressed in chain/plate armor. Kill them easily, and wear their armor. Now you have end game armor at the start of the game, no need to craft it.


All growable vege/food plants grow in the open areas with lots of boulders. I've never seen any growable plants in the forested/bush areas. You can find all the varieties the game has within 1-2 game days of looking, with a horse. To find harvestable plants follow this valuable tip:

Turn grass view range in Settings all the way down. This removes grass from beyond 2-3 m and you can easily spot harvestable plants within render range. (also very handy for spotting small animals for easy meat/leather)

There is a lot unknown to me about settlements currently, so any tips, please feel free to comment, and they can be added to this guide.

Building a settlement and growing it is the primary activity in Kingdoms at this stage of development. In this section, I will try to highlight the important parts of getting a successful settlement going, as there are many ways to easily screw this up and you'll want to start a new game to get it right.


Starting a settlement is done by building a Well, and a Notice Board. In order to build a Well, 3 Perks are required: Worker, Taskmaster, and Scholar. If you do not have all 3 Perks, you will need to find a settler who can teach you them, and you will need enough SP and gold to learn the Perks.


Before building your Well, you need to consider the location. In order for your settlement to grow, you need settlers to join your settlement. You want to pick a location that is within 750m of the ship you arrived on. Why? well read on:

Settler joining mechanic:
As described by Cyfieithydd the developer: Settlers will join a settlement within 750m of them, if they cannot find one, they will pick a random spot on the island and walk to it. They will then join a settlement within 750m of that point, if there isn't a settlement, they will pick another random spot on the island. And keep repeating this until they join a settlement.

Ship landing mechanic:
Ships only land on one side of the island. They will only land at set points along that coast. Ships will repeatedly randly land at one of those set points throughout the game.

Due to these two mechanics, I have found the best way to get lots of settlers joining my settlement is to build my settlement within 750m of where the ship landed at the start of the game. This means each time the ship lands there, there's a high chance I will aquire new settlers, rather than risk having settlers randomly pick a point near my settlement further in land.

The next thing you want to find is a large FLAT location. The game only allows you to build on very flat land. To build a large settlement, you want a wide area of flat land, or you're screwed. So head either down the beach form the ship, or inland, but keep within 750m of the ship and find the largest patch of flat area you can.

In summary: Find a location that is:

• Within 750m of the ship
  
• Large flat area

It doesn't really matter what you build. New settlers will join your settlment regardless of what buildings you have. Some people will say certain buildings get you more settlers, but I have not been able to verify this myself. You should build whatever you want. For fastest settlement growth/development, I recommend not building houses, but instead focus on all the craft/trade buildings first. New settlers will build their own houses.

Farm:
Building a Gardeners house, Garden, and Windmill early on will allow you to grow wheat, and other plants. You can then put the wheat into the Windmill to make flour. Take the flour and other veges to a Backery and make pies, which give you 75-100 food. These will easily keep you fed.