What level is necessary to go into viceroy?

[chairman_mentos]

It just destroys me, Im running 4 hostility a few years in without a storm or loggers..

[Livy]

Any level really. The middle upgrade that lowers impatince gains lets the game last longer, but at the same time the slower gains means slower passive counter for the forest anger.

Otherwise you just need to build things that raises your settlers resolve like processed foods they like and luxury, one luxury building (Monastery) lowers forest anger by 100 points.

There is also the cornerstone protected trades which lowers anger for each 30 amber you spend in sales (Don't have to spend exactly 30 amber each time, it calculates the reduction from total trades done since you got the cornerstone).

[Mmm]

Viceroy and above is played very differently from low difficulties, basically game changes its genre from semi-casual colony builder to roguelike semi-puzzler colony builder where you have to make hard choices (can't build everything, can't explore everything).

You should have 5-10 first upgrades to play it comfortably.

[arjensmit79]

Then dont open every glade like they're mini bags of patoto chips.
Hostility comes from
-Years (you cant control)
-Population (you dont want to reduce)
-Opening glades (You can very much control)
-Woodcutters (you run only outside of storm)

I generally open 2 dangerous glades in a game. Sometimes ill add a third or 1 or 2 small glades. So thats 60-90 hostility from glades. No more. Plenty to win the game.

[Clawyer]

First of all: On my first "playthrough" (to level 18, as there is no end state for this game) I stayed on pioneer and settler for a cycle, switched to veteran pretty soon and then started with viceroy around level 10, dipping into prestige levels after level 12-14 as I did enjoy the game on a lower difficulty and didn't want to challenge myself more at that time. I then maxed out the citadel while climbing towards prestige 20, finishing my first prestige 20 game while having all the upgrades.
Other players went up the difficulty curve way faster.

With the new seal mechanics I started the game again on a second profile, finishing my first game on Veteran, the second one on Viceroy and the third on prestige 1 with level 4. I then played some on Veteran again as I am able to finish ~ 2 years faster than on prestige, reforging my second seal on prestige 4. I usually finish prestige games around year 7, with hostility levels with woodcutters between 4-5 and 7, depending on the wincon(s) I have chosen for this settlement.

If hostility destroys you, you may want to follow the tips given by the people above.
What they didn't mention yet: If your citadel upgrades aren't on a higher level yet, it makes no sense to gather more than 8 or 14 people around your ancient hearth.
On the start of year two try to have a trading post up and open a dangerous glade on the opposite side of where your hearth is in your starting glade. Almost anything the game throws at you can be solved with the resources from the first incoming trader and you now have enough distance from your hearth to set down a small hearth, reducing your hostility. You then set down houses for 8 people, adding enough decorations to activate the first upgrade, adding +2 to global resolve (which you should also do for your ancient hearth of course!). This of course only works if you found some easy to finish orders that give additional villagers. Otherwise you may need to delay until you have a total of 16.

Looking for ways to reduce hostility can be part of your gameplan, but if you don't find the right cornerstones you should be prepared to give your villagers the commodities needed to raise their resolve. This of course starts with complex food and clothing but do not forget that villagers get resolve from working in the right environment, having a nice(r) house and that there are quite a lot of cornerstones or bought upgrades from vendors that help as well.

Regarding hostility levels: It is not uncommon to go above and beyond 4 or 5, it then just depends on the forest mysteries, if you can sustain that. I have played games where I survived level 8 hostility because none of the mysteries did any REAL damage (I don't mind my people leaving 200% faster if none of them go below 1 resolve and who cares about negative modifiers for corruption resistance if there are close to no cysts?). But if a level 4 mystery starts spawning blood flowers or a level 5 mystery kills my villagers, I will try everything to stay below that. In the worst cases you can sacrifice wood and coal in your ancient hearth to lower the hostility, remove all your woodcutters (which you already seem to do) and if one of the races starts to leave you start to favor them once their read "I am leaving" cooldown is at about half.