10 DAY THRIVE GUIDE - Strategy

[BausMan]

On my first play, I lost on my first night (I thought I'd check out the forest and had no coins). On my second play, I lost on my twelfth night (for all you Shakespeare fans out there who can appreciate that). On my third play, I lasted to 27 and after a lot of 5th and 10th night restarts (for experimentation's sake), I think I've developed an incredibly solid strategy for not only surviving, but thriving through the 10th night (and the 2nd blood moon raid). After that point, it's really a simple game, and I thought I'd share my strategy for anyone who is struggling! This is rather in depth, but I hope you enjoy the read!

First off, you want to have a solid map. Since everything outside the secondary tower/wall combo next to your base is randomly generated, it's helpful to have a strong foundation for success. The first thing you can look for before you ever light your first fire is where the stream is on the left side. Ideally, you want a stream (on which you build farms) as close to your second tower/wall combo as possible. Basically, if it's near or to the right of your king/queen when you spawn (after skipping the tutorial), you're totally set. If you don't see any stream near your base on the left side, it might be worth restarting right then and there. It's totally workable without a close stream, but having a nearby stream is a major ingredient is success.
The other 2 major things you want to check for are the Stone Chapel (or so I'm going to call it - it looks like a church to me) and the Archer Shrine. The wall shrine is a nice bonus to have readily availble, but this game revolves much more around the archers than your walls.

On the first day, you should explore the whole map. There are ALWAYS two treasure chests that have spawned on the map - these will give you a major head start if you find them on the first day. The merchant also ought to be somewhere as well, and if you find him AFTER you've found a chest, then you can get 4 really quick tools and save a lot of money (especially if he brings you hammers. 4 hammers are usually 12 gold, but the merchat will bring you 4 hammers for 4 gold. It's a huge discount).
Make sure you skip the tutorial (hold the down arrow at the very start of your game) light your fire, and hire 2 archers right off the bat. Wait for the archers to kill 1 rabbit (it should take 5-10 seconds), grab the gold that it drops, and head off to the right. You should have 4 gold coins. With these coins, recruit 1 villager from the first settlement, 1 villager from the second settlement, and then keep running. Run past the first portal, but MAKE SURE that your horse isn't exhausted before you run past it; if you do it fast enough the portal won't spawn a demon and you'll get to keep a coin. Explore all the way up to the second portal taking note of landmarks (the stone chapel, archer shrine, builder shrine, villager settlements). If you run over any treasure chests, you're in luck. If you pass the merchant, hire him. However, the big thing here is HOLD ON TO 1 COIN AT ALL TIMES. As long as you have 1 coin, you can drop it and any demons who are chasing you will pick it up, turn around, and run home. Once you've reached the second portal, turn around and run the other way. Do the exact same thing on the left side of your base, but make sure you buy as many bows as you can before you head out (your first 2 archers should have plenty of money for you by now).
Keep in mind, you'll probably be caught out on the left side of the map at night. If you're new or inexperienced in the game, this is scary. However, I can assure you it's actually a piece of cake as long as you have a single coin on you. Remember you need ONE coin to make it past the demon gate, ONE coin to pass it on the way home, and ONE coin for the single demon that spawns in the middle of the night. Every other coin you find should be spent on either hiring villagers or the merchant.
YOU DO NOT NEED WALLS ON THE FIRST NIGHT. PERIOD. In order to build basic level 1 walls on both sides of your base, it takes 1 coin to build the blacksmith, 3 coins to buy a hammer, 1 coin + a villager (which is a big deal) to become a builder, and another coin for each of the walls totaling 8 coins. These are MUCH better spent on villagers and bows. Villagers and bows win the game.
[ For any Starcraft II and Day[9] fans out there, the Probes&Pylons slogan can apply here very accurately to Villagers&Bows. ]

Now that you're past day 1, you should have lots of villagers, plenty of gold (from both the treasure chests and your archers hunting rabbits while you're gone), and the merchant should be on his way to your base. The next big milestone is day 5 and and the first bloodmoon. In order to prepare for that, you should have a minimum of 10 archers (they'll loosely distribute to 5 on each side), a catapult on each side, and a level 3 (or 4) wall on either side of your base. In order to get archers, keep recruiting from the settlements in any down time that you have. In order to get the catapults, you have to upgrade your base to level 4 (the fort), and in order to get the level 3 (or 4) wall, you have to to purchase the stone chapel. I suggest doing it in this order:
1 - Recruit whenever you have downtime, buy bows til you have ~10 archers total.
2 - Upgrade to level 3 base. By doing so, you get free level 1 walls on either side of your base, saving you time and money.
3 - Go upgrade the stone chapel. You should know where it is because you scouted it on day one. I suggest doing it during the day so you don't take the risk of throwing away gold to demons.
4 - Construct a level 3 (small stone) wall on the SECOND wall/tower combo to the left of your base, and on the FIRST wall/tower combo to the right of your base. You want it on the second combo on the left so you can have your catapult out there, while there's no reason to push further to the right just yet.
5 - Upgrade to level 4 base. This will allow you to build catapults that will be a major asset on the first bloodmoon. I also do this last because often times the catapult construction area will destroy a rabbit spawn point, leaving your with lower income (since you don't have farms yet).
6 - If you have extra time and money before the bloodmoon comes, throw up a tower on either side (preferably level 2, but do the best you can with what money you have). Towers are helpful for many reasons, but the big thing they provide this early on is a good angle for the archers to shoot. The tower archers rarely miss simply because they don't have to aim way up in the air - they can shoot straight down on top of the demons.

If you have these defenses up, the 5th night is a piece of cake. However, you probably realize that towards the end money gets a little tight. Consequently, the next step to surviving night 10 (and progressing in the game) is getting a farm. Once you have even just ONE farm, your economy booms like nobody's business.
Farms can only be built on streams. By default, there is a stream that sits RIGHT under the settlement just to the right side of your base. However, in order to access the stream, you have to chop down the tree to the left of it which makes the settlement disappear. DON'T DO IT. You love that settlement. It's God's gift to your kingdom and It's a beautiful thing. It's close to home and gives you direct access to recruiting villagers without risking the forest or taking a lot of extra time. DO NOT build a farm here. Instead, look to the left. Find the closest farm to the left of your base, look for a wall-spot that can defend it on the left, and clear trees to that wall. Get the wall up, get your archers (which you're still recruiting and buying bows, by the way....) and catapult up the wall, and get the farm built. You'll want 2-3 farmers to start - that's it. They will be perfectly sufficient for basic expansion. Once you have the gold, upgrading a farm to level 2 provides shelter for your farmers. This allows them to stay there overnight, which reduces travel time at sunrise & sunset, and consequently increases productivity.
You'll want to expand 1 more slot to the right. Make sure you have a fully upgraded level 4 wall, a catapult, a fully upgraded tower, and a sufficient number of archers (villagers&bows villagers&bows villagers&bows). As far as further expansion to the LEFT, the most ideal expansion location is a wall/tower combo that defends a nearby stream. You only need 1 wall, but having as many towers right next to the wall (while also in range of the wall) as you can is best, and in case you didn't know this, having a farm nearby will allow builders to stay there. This means they won't have to make the journey from your base to your expansion front every time you want to build a tower, chop down a tree, or reload the catapult (yes, the builders need to travel to the catapult to reload it after it fires). If you can find an expansion point like this and have the time and resources to get it fully upgraded by the 10th night, do it. If not, just do your expansion 1 spot to the right and buckle down to defend your farm.

Kings and Queens, that's it. It worked for me over and over again - I actually restarted once I survived the 10th night to experiment and make sure it's reliable and, having now won the game, I can tell you it works like a charm. Just remember: villagers&bows. All the time.

There are a lot more advanced tactics you can do (such as herding deer to your hunters, expanding OVER settlements to clearings in the woods so you don't destroy them, etc.), but this was just a thrive-guide for the first 10 days.
Thanks for the patient read - Comment for questions or suggestions! =D

[RobyntheRaven]

Thanks for posting this strategy! I've been kind of searching around for any that might be more "effective" than mine. Can I ask what your longest run is? Mine is 38 and that's only because I messed up and had my workers upgrade a wall late at night right after my knights failed to destroy a portal (oddly enough I've never had the crown stolen once). Oh that reminds me: something you may want to add into your strategy is a way to get the portals destroyed as early as possible, since knights are very expensive and waiting too long makes the task nearly impossible if you haven't done everything perfectly beforehand.

[Spell4duel]

Near perfect job. 9/10

Does not include a free steam gift card.

[Howru]

Why you need catapults on Day 5? 10 archers with Level 1 wooden wall is enough.
There will be like ~4-5 Greed from each side, without masks.

Catapult in general is very-very costly. If yo uuse this coins for archers - you will get more coins at day and same defence at night.

[spencerselander]

The catapult is also a double-edged sword - the giants can pick up the stones and throw them back at you. The catapult stones just lie there, any later attack can use them against you unless you move your border forward. <edit> In another thread, someone said saving and re-opening the game would make the catapult stones on the ground vanish.