This basic guide is for beginners. Its purpose is to help people new to the game to get started.

If you havent played the game at all and want to get an overview of all the UI and the related flows in game, check out this great guide from Bulldozer: https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3534727727

The game's goal is to beat all waves and their two/three bosses. After every run, success or failure, you get green coins with which you unlock permanent bonuses which in return make future runs easier.

This guide is a work in progress and it isnt the end all, be all and occasionally I might not know what I'm talking about. If you find any errors or want to add/correct something, let me know.

Also keep in mind that trying things out and failing is part of the game. GL&HF!

This is where you start a run.

You see your king on the left and the level/map (village) on the right side.

Below the level, you see the modifieres, which are dependent on the level and threat level.

The threat level can be increase step by step up to 10 after beating the previous level.

Pay attention to the changed modifieres after increasing the threat level!

To start a run, click on the wax emblem above the tutorial button.

Also three quick tipps:

- You can mouse-over the kings' portrays to get additional information about his bonuses from moral.
- You get a ascencion crystal after beating a level on a specific threat level for the first time. Unlike the green coin reward, you have to pick up said crystal here, next to the threat level (red and glowing).
- I strongly advise to do the tutorial

This section tries to give some basic guidance for the early game in order to give some orientation regarding early goals and strategies.

Resource and military buildings come in three tiers: 1 - basic/levy, 2 - established/veteran and 3 - advanced/elite. All basic and established resource buildings give a limited amount of their resource before they expire (usually 200/1000).

Obviously, the build order varies with the circumstances but without much unlocked, this worked well for me:

1. Build the three wells immediately (water is mainly needed for wood and wheat but also for the research table) and put your gaze on it
   
   
2. Build a tree asap and switch your gaze to 2 water, 1 wood (wood is needed for the next couple of basic buildings and troop capacity upgrades)
   
   
3. Build a small field asap and switch your gaze to 1 water, 1 wood, 1 wheat (wheat is needed for the next couple of basic buildings and gaze upgrades)

As shown in the picture above, place the buildings in 2x2, then 2x3, etc shape in the beginning in a way that enables you to rotate your gaze and always have all three tiles of it cover three of your buildings.
Keep in mind that all buildings can be moved (hold shift, then drag and drop) and wells receive no temporary production malus after being moved. Wells can also be destroyed and rebuild for free.
The malus for all other buidlings inst that significant, I'd say, so dont be afraid to move stuff if benefical in the long run.

You do not want to gaze at unused tiles. As a kind of last ressort, move a well to at least produce some water instead of gazing at an empty tile (lots of water could be handy later).

From here, you can focus on different areas:

• As a beginner prio #1: defense
  Build the peasant hut asap. The first wave is only one wimpy goblin but still.
  After the first wave, you always get a military building (levy barracks), which hopefully will be the backbone of your early army. Scaling your army strength will be an ongoing task.
  
• Market for gold for quick gaze upgrade
  Build the market (30 wood, 30 gold, 30 wheat), click on the ? and select wheat. Now you trade one wheat for one gold per cycle. Gold is used for gaze upgrades and buildings/units.
  With 60 wheat and 60 gold, you can upgrade your gaze.
  This first gaze upgrade is really important since it makes one more tile productive, increasing your productivity by 33% (potentially).
  
• Research bench for general or specific basic resources
  Build the bench for 100+ water, click on the ? and select the only icon available. Now you'll get a new basic resource building every cycle. It will pop up in the middle of the right side of the screen.
  This is somewhat important to ensure a steady supply of basic resource buildings. Otherwise, your are reliant on the wave rewards and the trader and might run into shortages for basic resources.

While some form of defense is mandatory, the market and the research bench could be skipped entirely. But usually you definately want to build the market since it is the only gold source available in the beginning (the small gold mine requires gold to be build..).
The circumstances can change drastically once you got more meta upgrades which provide starting resources/units etc.

After these intial goals, I go with what the rewards offer me and what is rather easy/quick to actually build. F. e., swordmen need iron ore. So only pick them up-especially as your first military building-, if you have access to iron ore (a tier 1 basic resource which could be produced by your research table).
For the first reward offered, you can either pick the resource building first and see which barrack matches that second. Alternatively, you could just gamble a bit and pick the most attractive barrack first, then try to get the required resource(s) asap.
On threat level 0, pretty much every composition of units should be sufficient to beat the first couple of waves, as long as you are at full troop capacity (5+) on the field when they attack.
Usually, in the beginning you will be fine if you have more or an equal amount of units than the wave. But pay attention to the different enemy types and their quality/stats. First there will be only goblin bandits, then goblin swordsmen, mages etc.
Keep an eye out for an enemy type call wall buster. These guys ignore your troops and go straight for your walls to which they do quite some damage. So they are basically a dsp check for your army. They can also be abused/face-tanked since they ignore your troops but thats another story.

After these inital waves, try to slowly but constantly expand your army by increasing troop capacity and building capacity, as well as building new military buildings (and the needed resource buildings). Upgrades for military buildings also can make a huge difference but you get those via rewards/trader only. This is the main task during the game, since the amount of enemies constantly increasse, also they get +15% on their stats after every boss and the bosses themselves are pretty though in general and can be way harder to beat than the waves leading up to them.
A good mix of troop types (see next section) can be benefical. Like some melee tanks with some ranged units behind. On the other hand, focusing strongly on one unit class (again, see next section), makes unit class upgrades (which you get from rewards/the trader) more efficient.
Either way, from this point on, I'd suggest to experient a bit, play and learn how your units behave as well as the enemies to get a feeling for their strength. Or you continue with the Goals&Strategies section of this guide ;)

In this section I'll try to give a rough overview about possible goals and some basic strategies.

Like I already said in the previous section, scaling the strength of your army is the most important task in this game. In order to do that, you can increase the size and the quality of your army:

• Size of your army = Build untis til barrack capacity, build more barracks, upgrade barracks, increase battle field capacity
  
• Quality of your army = Build better (/higher tier) units, upgrade barracks, get unit class upgrades

Size of your army

• Build untis til barrack capacity
  Easy enough
  
• Build more barracks
  For this you need more military buildings which you'll get via rewards afer waves (helmet symbols) and from the trader (upper row)
  
• Upgrade barracks
  More capacity. Building upgrades can only be bought from the trader ( second two items lower right section) or gained as wave rewards (saw symbol). Not all type of barracks have +capacity upgrades.
  
• Increase battle field capacity
  This is straight forward: you'll need wood, lots of wood. Every upgrade gives +3 capacity.
  First upgrade costs 80 wood, the next 160 wood, then 320, 640, 1200.

Quality of your army

• Build better (/higher tier) units
  Higher tier units are way better than the tier 1 ones in their roles and have higher stat. And since this game gives good options to add +%, higher base stats scale better with +% in absolute numbers. The problem is, that most higher tier units require higher tier resoruces, not just basic ones. So you not only need to aqcuire a veteran/elite barrack but also the related advanced resource building and all the resources needed to build those buildings. See more on this "dilemma" in the trader section.
  
• Upgrade barracks
  Mostly stuff like more hp or more dps. Building upgrades can only be bought from the trader (second two items lower right section) or gained as wave rewards (saw symbol).
  
• Get unit class upgrades
  +15% bonus on hp or dps for one class(+25% with the Panther advisor). Unit class upgrades can only be bought from the trader (first item lower right section) or gained as wave rewards (hand with dumb bell symbol). Well and produce via the Hero Statue which is a Kingdom Infrastrucutre Upgrade (shield icon)

The economy part of this game is about producing enough resources in time to always stay on top of your army scaling needs (and/or whatever else you want/need to build) as well as your gaze upgrade needs.

I already mentioned some basic tips about gaze and building placement in the beginning. Now I'll try to get into more details.

Building placement

- I usually use the outer ring of tiles for barracks and misc buildings (once meta upgraded) since you dont need/want them to be active all the time
- That leaves the central 3x3 tiles for resource production
- This is a bit dependent on the randomly placed +20% tile enchanments (once you unlocked them in meta upgrades, see sub-section below), since these boni really can make a difference in the beginning and should be utilized if not too unconvenient
- With this approach, I have maximum flexibility with resources in the middle while also being able to still produce with most tiles under my gaze when switching to a barrack at the edge
- If really needed, cluster barracks to be able to mass produce units


Building priorities

- In the beginning, wheat and especially gold are the most important so you can upgrade your gaze asap (gold mines are actually helpful)
- After that, you'll have to see what resoruces are needed for the first barracks you picked up
- Wood (battlefield troop limit), wheat and gold (gaze upgrades) stay relevant and should be continued to be produced when in doubt
- Grapes and crystal are only needed for veteran barracks/their units and misc buildings and therefor could be ignored at the very beginning (until needed or first boss)
- So while staying focused is benefical, more different resources offer more options when new buildings are offered later
- Try to get and fully stack T2 barracks asap (usually offered after the 2nd boss but might appear as rewards/at the trader's earlier)
- T3 buildings and units require advanced (T3) resources (flour, metal, oil, meat) and are your mid-late game goal

Gaze
Every king has a somewhat different gaze and gaze improvement path.

Improving your gaze is important since it increases your productivity by increasing the maximum amount of tiles working at the same time. Each upgrade yields diminishing returns and often you cant really use all tiles of your gaze optimally. Still, upgrading is very important and in the late game it might be necessary to build lots of units in parallel f. e. which requires lots of resources.

The starter king has this gaze upgrade path:

1. 3 tile (square with one tile missing) - start gaze
   
2. 4 tiles (square) - costs 60 gold and 60 wheat
   
3. 5 tiles (square with one extra tile hanging over in the lower right) - costs ~140 gold, ~120 wheat and ~80 clay
   
4. 6 tiles (2x3) - costs 600 gold

Tile enchantments

One other eco improvement early on are the blue tile bonuses which give 20% productivity. You get them via meta upgrades (green coins) and they are not bad especially at the beginning when you dont have much other boni.

In this section I try to give a very basic overview of the roles, classes and units.

After the first wave, you always get a military building (levy barracks), which hopefully will be the backbone of your early army.
If it isnt what you wanted/isnt good, either reroll or make due with what has been offered until
the next military building reward. But again, dont be afraid to test out stuff that looks mid on paper.


Roles

There are four basic "roles" for units.
"Roles" because hybrid isnt really a role but is helpful to classify units in the beginning.

• Cavalry - Highly mobile DPS with unique attack maneuvers (mostly glass cannons)
  
• DPS - Damage via melee or ranged (often glass canons with low hp)
  
• Hybrid - Jack of all trades with decent hp and dps
  
• Support - Healing/buffing or otherwise helping w/o doing much if any damage
  
• Tank - Binding enemies, taking damage & catching arrows (high hp)

This lists are based on my own opinion and experience with the game and is supposed to just give some orientation. The letters after the unit's cost are their class (see section below)

Basic Levy (Tier 1) Units

• Assassin (190hp, 33dps; 30 Wheat + 10 Iron, G) - very good hybrid but only 1 per building (needs lots of iron ore)
  
• Black Sheep (...; 10 Wheat + 10 Crystals, A+W) - support, useless in the beginning w/o advanced/veteran buidlings
  
• Crossbow Archer (50hp, 13dps; 10 Wheat + 8 Gold, Ra) - decent ranged, good dps (needs gold for barrack and units)
  
• Gnome (30hp, 13dps; 8 Gold, G) - okay dps, good dps but too little hp (needs gold to build)
  
• Hunter (99hp, 3dps; 15 Wheat + 5 Wood, Ra+W) - bad support, slows enemies, abysmal dps
  
• Madman (70hp, 10dps) - kinda bad dps w/o upgrades, hit&run therefore cant really tank/hybrid (needs clay for barrack and units)
  
• Militia (140hp, 7dps; 12 Wheat + 15 Wood, W) - the best tier 1 tank (needs only grain and wood)
  
• Peasant (35hp, 10dps) - kinda bad tank, low hp (but cheap)
  
• Slinger (46hp, 8dps; 10 Wheat + 5 Iron, Ra) - kinda bad ranged, low dps
  
• Smal Bones (80hp, 10dps; 13 Water, G+U) - decent hybrid (needs only water to build)
  
• Swordsman (80hp, 13dps; 10 Wheat + 6 Iron, W) - the best tier 1 hybrid (needs iron for barrack and units)
  
• Whipman (60hp, no dps)- okay support, improves other units' dps (needs gold to build)

Veteran (Tier 2) Units

• Bumblebee (400/11; 50 Grapes, W+F) - good tank, boosts champions
  
• Centaur (../..; 25 Flour, ..) - have not used it yet, build in Fairy barrack
  
• Druid of the Badger (100/16; 50 Wood, A+W) - decent ranged/support, boosts ..
  
• Druid of the Bear (290/43; 40 Iron, A+W) - expensive ranged, only 1 per barrack, boosts riders
  
• Druid of the Owl (290/43; 10 Wheat + 40 Grapes, A+W) - expensive ranged, only 1 per barrack, boosts ..
  
• Fairy (200/20; 25 Flour, A+F) - decent ranged, barrack randomly produces these or Centaurs, boosts ..
  
• Fire Mage (70/29; 50 Wheat, A+Ra) - good ranged, boosts ..
  
• Goose Rider (240/38; 50 Wheat, C+Ri) - good cavalry, boosts ..
  
• Healer Mage (70/19; 55 Wheat, A) - very good support, constantly heals your troops, boosts
  
• Horse Man (200/38; 25 Wheat + 25 Grapes, Ri) - okay cavalry with pretty low hp, boosts ..
  
• Longbowman (120/25; 20 Wheat + 30 Gold, Ra) - very good ranged, boosts ..
  
• Mushroom Warrior (220/20; 25 Crystals + 25 Grapes, A+W) - decent tank, boosts ..
  
• Musketeer (120/19; 60 Wheat + 8 Iron, Ra) - good ranged, boosts champions
  
• Pumpkin Warrior (200/17; 40 Water, W) - okay tank, boosts ..
  
• Worm Rider (160/34; 40 Wheat, Ri) - very good cavalry (with desert barrack upgrade), boosts ..

Classes

Every unit belongs to one or more classes.
Every unit has a unit trait which often gives bonuses to other classes/their class.
Classes can get improved stats in a run via unit class upgrades which are a form of rewards after waves and can be bought from the trader.
Classes become very important in later runs because of strategies&tactics that rely on synergies between classes/units.

• Arcane (A)
  
• Champion (C)
  
• Flying (F)
  
• Grunt (G)
  
• Ranged (Ra)
  
• Rider (Ri)
  
• Undead (U)
  
• Warrior (W)

The first draft of this guide is already too long, so only one tip regarding battles for now:

There are three common scenarios regarding new units and deployment:

• Build a new unit and have it directly deployed to the battle field (up to battle field capacity)
  Red setting for "Spawn Troops" button (see below)
  
• Build a new unit and have it stay in the barracks (up the the particular barracks' capacity)
  Blue setting for "Spawn Troops" button (see below)
  
• Send a already build unit from the barracks to the battle field (up to battle field capacity)
  Click the "Quick Replenishment" button right of the deployment button

So basically, what you want most of the time, is to field all units up to battle field capacity to maximize your army's strength. Then it makes sense to continue building units until all barracks are at their capacity (if you have the resources). That way, you build up a reserve of units to deploy from instantly in order to reinforce after losses (via "Quick Replenishment").

The red button in the lower center of the screen ("Spawn Troops") determines how newly build units are deployed.
It has three settings (red, blue, mixed) which are important to understand:

• red = for immediate reinforcements - troops get deployed onto the battle field until you reach your battle field capacity (upper number left to this button, the one with the crossed swords)
  
  
• blue = for building up a reserve - troops get deployed into their barracks until the barracks' capacity (the number of units of this type the buidlings allows you to have) is reached.
  
  
• mixed = best setting until you learned the ropes - troops get deployed onto the battle field, then into the barracks until both capacities are at their limit

Unfortunately, there is no option to auto-reinforce the battel field from barracks. So no matter the deployment setting, you have to manually sent troops from the barracks to the battle field via "Quick Replenishment" (unless they are newly build, then red and mixed are triggering).

In this section I'll try to give a first orientation regarding the rewards available from waves and the things the trader offers as well as some general tips for interaction with them.

You pick these when a prophecy is triggered after a wave and receive them by beating the future waves which you set up in said prophecy. The first prophecy comes after wave 5 (these first 5 waves before it are preset).

Some tips about setting up a prophecy:

• I always check the optional section first and look for things I really need/want. As most of the time, this is dependent on circumstances. Esp. if the tier of the rewards just increased, like if the first tier 2 veteran barracks are offered just now, I'll probably pick them over anything else. But if I'm basically good on units for now, they drop in priority.
  
  But the general order for me is:
  
  1. Artifacts (chest icon): Extremely powerful, even game-changing (potentially)
     
  2. Advanced Resource Buildings (purple ...compass? and ruler icon): These seem to have a chance to come up early (on higher threat levels?), grab em if you see em! Meat, Metall, Flour and Oil (which are all the advanced resources) can be hard to get a hold on and should be picked in advance if offered (and if one wants to actually use them later, ofc).
     
  3. Current tier leve Resource Buildings (compass? and ruler icon): No resources, no nothing. See above. Also dependent on the units and strategy you choose, some basic resources might be in way higher demand while others are barely needed. So plan accordingly, running out of a resource entirely without an option to produce more can be the end of a run.
     
  4. Building Upgrades (saw icon): Be it more capacity or a boost to stats, military building upgrades are mostly great and somewhat mandatory IMO, plus you cant "produce" them.
     Upgrades for other type of buildings can be great as well, but I feel like the overall quality of them is lower than for military buildings, more hit and miss and/or more circumstantial.
     
  5. Unit Class Upgrades (hand with dumb bell icon): Can help massively with scaling army strength, esp. for dps but RNG is a thing here as well (more dps for my tanks, yay..).
     
  6. Resources (bag/box icon): Good for getting advanced resources early/without producing them yourself.
     
  7. Current tier level Barracks (helmet icon): More/better units! If you have the resources... Also somewhat mandatory. But usually once you freshly picked one, you are busy getting the resources together and building it and then its unis, so the interval for these is higher.
     
  8. Denari (pink coins icon): Money means freedom of choice at the trader's
     
  9. Kingdom Infrastructure Upgrade (shield icon): Very hit or miss IMO. Some of these are awesome, like the hero statue, but most of them are either expensive and/or rather mediocre.
     
  10. Spells (book icon): Can be very help- and powerful but rng and circumstances usually let me pick something else
  
  
• Then, after picking the optional enemies with the best/most needed rewards, I see which mandatory enemies have the best/most needed rewards and which I can combine with the already chosen ones to create manageable waves.
  Most of them time, I'll fill all slots but one in the first wave, if the offered rewards are worth it or the enemies are weak enough. But especially after a won boss fight, when enemies get stronger and more numerous, you can consider to leave two or even three slots empty. You wont need everything in order to succeed and it is important to balance losses and rewards since rebuilding units costs time and resources.

Okay, now one tip regarding claiming your wave rewards:

• You can reroll *all* rewards other than artifacts for 10 Denarii (button at the bottom). Use this at critical points in time to increase your chances of getting useful/particular stuff.
  
• The order in which you claim the different rewards can matter! Looking if the needed resource is offered before claiming the military rewards (or vice versa), f. e.
  Another case is with build upgrades and buildings: If you want a chance to get an upgrade for the new building, pick it first, then the upgrade. If you are more after upgrades for buildings you already own, claim the upgrade first, then new buildings.
  
• Dont pick up blueprints you wont need and you havent picked up this run already. -This became less important due to changes in the last updates-
  
• Lastly, for the events that pop up after resolving a prophecy, I prefer units in the beginning, then artifacts, unit class upgrades and building upgrades.
  If you have to pick resources, usually advanced resources are the thing to pick.

Most of what I said above about the wave rewards applies to the trader as well. He is offering the same things I listed above.

But there are differences in how to interact with him:

• Always try to have at least 60, better 110/120 Denarii when the trader arrives (multiples of 50 or 60, which are the more expensive base prices for one item).
  
• Check your unbuild blueprints for dead weight etc. You can sell blueprints for 5 Denari each.
  
• Dont be afraid to not buy anything or only very little, if really nothing is helpful right now for you. You can spend a lot of money in one go at the trader's so saving up a little isnt bad necessarily.

At the trader, I usually check the artifacts first, then the military building upgrades and then the resource and military blueprints at the top. I'd try to avoid to buy the unit class upgrade for 70 here, since it seems somewhat overpriced compared to the rest of his inventory (but if you have the money to spare, pick it up, it *is* good, just a bit pricey here).

Ok, let me at least write something helpful here, so this section wont stay a stump forever^^

Upgrade priorities
Obviously, this is only my opinion.

I'd go for more advisors/advisor slots and the starting bonus first. Advisors are very powerful and can change your strategy massively (blue tree). Maybe start with Silkweaver, who leads to Fancy Beard. This guy really isnt bad and could be your first advisor from there on for a while. Also, he leads to the Jester who leads to an extra advisor slot.

The starting bonus ("Run start bonus", red upgrade tree, left side, gift box icon) is a huge help to get your economy/defense started and is passive w/o cost once unlocked.

Then/on the way I'd unlock more tiles ("Banish the nobles") since you'll need them to fully utilize your resources and build enough barracks (red tree, left side - on the way/near run start bonus).

Other early things to unlock would be the "Tile seals" (red tree, left and right side), they are cheap and helpful and passive.