Building for New Players

Not sure what to do as a builder? These tips might help.

Introduction

The builder is kind of like the medic in other games. You will be first in line for blame, last in line for praise. But you are still vital. When you're starting out, the builder class might seem overwhelming. But once you understand what is expected of builders and how they can help the team, you can turn the tide of a game.

First, some basic controls. Hold F to bring up your build menu and your inventory. The top section shows the things you can build. If you click a block, you'll go into placement mode and left click will then place that block under your cursor. If you selected a structure like a workbench, you will place that structure where you stand. If there is not enough space, you will see an overlay with the space a structure will take up, and highlighted red sections where it is obstructed. Tap F to put a held item into your backpack. (If you have space left)

The E key interacts with your environment. It can access your main hall's storage and transport functions, open corpse backpacks, and interact with vehicles to reload or repack them into crates. It also opens various crates.

Stone is a fantastic building material, though it is limited and harder to obtain. Wood is easy to obtain and plentiful, but easily destroyed. If you are reinforcing one of your halls, only use wood as a last resort, for the following reasons:

• Knights can destroy wood with their sword
  
• Bombs can destroy wood much easier than stone
  
• Archers get fire arrows, fire spreads, and fire hurts

In the heat of the moment, it is forgivable to use wood instead of stone to reinforce a base. Just remember to patch it back up with stone later.

Capture the Flag Mode

If you're new to the builder class, there are a few things you need to focus on at the beginning of a round.

First off, there is no good reason not to be a builder when the round begins. As long as you work with your team rather than against it, you will always be helpful, even if you're just gathering materials. The priorities at the beginning of a CTF match are:

1) Get Stone

Simple, but some tricks can speed it up. You'll most likely start with enough wood to make a building. To make a building, get into some open space and hold F. Click the Workshop. Next go to the workshop and hold E, and click on Builder workshop. Your team will only need one to start, so if someone else builds one then make a workshop for another class.

At this workshop you can spend 100 stone to make a drill. It's a steep price but you can make that stone AND MORE within a couple seconds. Keep in mind the drill does overheat. If you hit dirt or stone doors, it will overheat much faster than if you hit gold or stone (either in ground or wall form). Make sure to check the map for a source of water to cool your drill down.

2) Encase flags

Once you've gathered a bunch of stone, make sure that your flags are encased. This means that they are covered on ALL SIDES. Do not simply build a large wall, as archers can climb over pretty much anything. Put doors in as well, as your team's flag runners will need to get the enemy flag in to your flags to score. Make rooms at least two stones thick, as bomb arrows can easily penetrate thin stone walls. Make sure to use stone as knights cannot slash through it, and it's harder for builders to pound through (if they get up this far).

Also make sure that you fill in the room with back walls. Stone is slightly preferred although if your walls are made of stone, odds are they can't get a fire arrow in to ignite the back walls. The back walls help support your structure, so that even if the side walls get taken out your entire structure won't fall down.

3) Build workshops for all classes

Once your flags are taken care of, take care of the rest of your team. By now the match has probably just started, so people have not earned coins yet. Try to get a knight workshop, then an archer workshop. If you're low on resources you can use wood, as most workshops are only targeted if the enemy can get in and out quickly. Just take care to rebuild if a stray fire arrow makes it in.

Harvesting wood is much easier than stone with the proper procedure. Simply build a saw at any builder workshop, and build a wood wall three squares off the ground directly beside the tree. Set the saw at the base of the tree, then stand on the other side of the wood block and chop it down. It will break into pieces into the saw, quickly harvesting the wood.



After these three steps, either switch classes, repair any damaged structures, or try to create roadblocks or traps to slow down the other team. I don't focus on traps too much as builder as usually once I'm done I switch to another class, but here are a couple traps you could attempt. I'll show you what they look like with and without back walls.

Simple saw trap

Make sure the top of the trap is flush with the ground, and nestle it right in front of a doorway so that if they attempt to climb a wall and fail, or get knocked back against the wall, they drop into it and get killed.

Boulder drop trap

I have never tried this one myself, but I saw someone set it up once. It looks too hilarious not to include. This is ACME level stuff.

Spike trampoline

You could probably also line the walls with spikes, but it works as is. That height seems to be the minimum required for them to take damage each bounce. Also keep in mind that if you use stone, the spikes stay retracted until a split second after they touch them. With wood or other materials, they are always out.

There are countless other ingenious trap designs, so keep your eyes out for new setups.

Take The Halls Mode

For Take The Halls mode, things work a little bit differently.


For starters, you have a research tree. Hold E in your main hall and click the lightbulb to see this tree. For each of the main trees, research will progress along the tree and branch off into certain directions. Once it has progressed beyond a branching path, you can not receive techs from the other branch through research. They can only be obtained from spending gold.

Speaking of gold, it is much more vital in TTH because it is used to buy tech. Make sure to coordinate with your team which techs you will be getting through research and which you will use gold on. Also note that many maps have scrolls hidden throughout them that you can use at your main hall to instantly gain certain technology. Simply hold E and select "Use scroll". Once you learn the maps a bit you'll learn how to spot where these scrolls might be located.


You will also receive periodic supply drops, in the form of crates. Don't wail away on the crate to open it! Hit E and it'll pop right open. IF YOU TAKE THE FIRST SUPPLY CRATE, USE THE WOOD TO MAKE A WORKBENCH.


If you do not plan to use the rest of the materials, you can store them in your main hall by holding F, selecting the material, and either dropping them in your main hall building or holding E and hitting "Storage". You can retrieve stored stuff from each hall by accessing the storage with nothing in your hands. Each hall has it's own storage, it is not shared and CAN BE CAPTURED if the hall is taken by the enemy.


So for TTH, new priorities are (In my opinion):

1) Get 60 gold.

Why? To buy the drill tech. Once you get 60 gold, go to the trader building, usually located near your main hall. Hit E to go into the buy menu and get the Drill tech. Bring the scroll back to your main hall, hold E, and select "Use Scroll". Drills can now be built from any workbench. To create a workbench, hold F and select it.

Drills will drastically accelerate stone acquisition. Speaking of...

2) Get stone

You're going to need a lot.

3) Fortify Main Hall

Your main hall is your first base, a capture point for the enemy, and a spawn point. Most importantly however, it houses all your technology. If you lose this hall, you lose the ability to assign workshops to build things. As before, make sure that walls are stone and at least two thick. Many people stack workshops on top of their halls. If you do this, make sure all the factories are similarly protected. Most halls start with five migrants so I'd recommend four factories. Six if you have time and stone to spare.

If you can, make absolutely sure not to put the doors to your hall at ground level. This way knights have a harder time using bombs to damage them, and you are drastically less likely to have a friendly corpse jam open the doors. Other fortification tips will probably be found all over these forums, the wiki, and the game's homepage forums.

4) Set up tech

Once you have your main hall secured, make a few factories. You most likely will not be able to assign them to build anything yet, but get them set up regardless. Then make sure they are secured just like your main hall. Make sure to reserve at least two for Military Supplies. Beyond that, coordinate to see what your team could use most.

When you vote for tech research, you will end up with one demolition vehicle and one demolition weapon. The catapult is excellent at indirect area fire and transporting your teammates, and the ballista is good direct damage and serves as a spawn point. If you later acquire Bomb Ammo, the ballista fires bomb bolts, which makes it incredibly potent at tearing through a base.

The demolition weapons you can acquire are either Demolitions (Keg and Mines) or Bomb Ammo (Bomb arrows and bomb ballista bolts). Each has their perks, but I'd recommend Demolitions if you went for catapult, and bomb ammo if you went for ballista.

5) Roll with your team!

Make sure to store up extra stone and wood, because when you capture a new base you'll want to fortify it. When your team gets a new hall, go to one of your halls and hold E. You can transport from base to base instantly! Zip over there, set up new doors and walls, and keep repairing and gathering materials.

If your team has repair covered, you can head to the front lines and try to take down walls or set up trampolines (which can be built from any workbench), or set up traps and roadblocks along the path to your base.

Research (TTH Mode)

When you play Take The Halls mode, initially you will be unable to produce anything. You will gain access to new technology through Research or simply buying scrolls from the trader.


The research tree has two main paths. You can vote once on each path to determine what branch each path will take. Once a branch has been taken, you cannot obtain the other path through research. For example, you cannot research both the catapult and the ballista. If you research one you must buy the other from the trader. You do not need to meet the research requirements to buy a scroll, so you could buy the Catapult tech without having War Boat unlocked.

Saw

Prerequisites: None
Scroll Cost: 60 Gold
Enables you to build saws from any workbench for 150 wood. These saws will instantly process any wood that falls onto - or is thrown into - them. They will also kill yourself or any enemy who is unfortunate enough to fall onto them, awarding you a kill.

Dinghy

Prerequisites: Saw
Scroll Cost: Unavailable
The dinghy is a small, fast boat. Not too much special here.

Longboat

Prerequisites: Dinghy
Scroll Cost: 200 Gold
The longboat is more durable than the dinghy, and also features more seats to row. It also acts as both a mobile storage and spawn point. You are able to fit a siege vehicle such as a catapult or ballista on the longboat, for water-based siege.

Ballista

Prerequisites: Longboat
Scroll Cost: 200 Gold
The ballista is a siege vehicle that fires accurate bolts that pierce through blocks and damages them, though not as much as the catapult. The ballista also acts as a mobile spawn point and class changing station. If you research Bomb Ammo, your ballistas become equipped with incredibly destructive bomb bolts. The ballista workshops produce ammo that can be used to resupply any ballista.

War Boat

Prerequisites: Dinghy
Scroll Cost: 300 Gold
Like the longboat, the war boat has many seats, a storage compartment, and acts as a spawn point. You are also able to place a siege vehicle on it. However it is more durable and has a defensive structure on the front to protect the rowers as well as a mounted bow on a raised platform. This platform can be used on certain maps to scale higher walls or access raised areas. The war boat is slow as molasses and can usually only turn reliably if two people row.

Catapult

Prerequisites: War Boat
Scroll Cost: 300 Gold
The catapult is a siege vehicle that does immense damage to enemy units and structures over a fairly sizable area. It can be resupplied with stone.

Bakery

Prerequisites: None
Scroll Cost: Unavailable
Bakeries produce burgers, which refill your entire health bar when eaten. They can be picked up and stored in your inventory or used immediately on contact, if you are damaged.

Military Supplies

Prerequisites: Bakery
Scroll Cost: Unavailable
Military Supply workshops produce arrows for archers and bombs for knights.

Drill

Prerequisites: Military Supplies
Scroll Cost: 60 Gold
Drills stuff.

Water Ammo

Prerequisites: Drill
Scroll Cost: 100 Gold
The water ammo workshops produce water bombs and water arrows, both which work as their respective class's normal bomb ammunition, except instead of damage to blocks or players, these weapons stun an area around the point of impact.

Demolitions

Prerequisites: Water Ammo
Scroll Cost: 300 Gold
Demolitions workshops produce mines, which can be deployed by any class simply by throwing them on the ground. They also produce powder kegs that can be used by knights to obliterate a large area.

Mounted Bow

Prerequisites: Military Supplies
Scroll Cost: 200 Gold
Mounted bows can be placed and allow any class to fire arrows.

Pyrotechnics

Prerequisites: Mounted Bow
Scroll Cost: 300 Gold
Pyrotechnics workshops produce fire arrows, essentially making your enemies' wooden structures worthless.

Bomb Ammo

Prerequisites: Mounted Bow
Scroll Cost: 300 Gold
Bomb Ammo workshops produce bomb arrows, which can make quick work of thin layers of stone. It also upgrades your ballistas to bomb bolts, which makes them one of the most devastating forces in the game.

Survival Tips

1) Know when to run

Turning off Fixed Camera can extend your viewing range by quite a bit. Make sure to mouse over trees and crates to find hidden enemies. Make sure to always have a way out. If there's a knight charging you down, try to take an erratic path if there's plenty to jump off of. Be mindful of their mobility and if they have an attack charged.

2) Know when to fight

If an archer wanders into your mine shaft and gets into close range, feel free to take some swings at them with right click. Enemy builders are likewise viable targets if you start attacking first. A knight with a heart left? Worth a shot in a pinch. Be advised your swings only do half a heart of damage. At four swings, an archer isn't too hard to take down. But a knight at eight swings is impossible unless they are comatose.

However, you will have a secret weapon. People might think builders are sitting ducks and charge them. But you know how much a drill to the face would hurt in real life? It hurts just as much in KAG. It will overheat it quickly and they might get a lucky swipe and break it, but you can take people down FAST with some well placed drilling.

3) Set up traps

In your arsenal of blocks, you have platforms which act as one-way blocks, trap blocks which the other team can't stand on or press against, and spikes, which obviously hurt people. Using combinations of these, you can set up escape routes that will make the enemy think twice about following. Or it might kill a couple people. Either way, win for you.

4) Block the enemy

If an enemy knight is hot on your tail, drop a door or a block. You'd lose the material if you died anyway so don't worry about wasting it. If you can loop back around, you might even be able to trap them inside an inescapable prison.

5) Bring a friend

Talk with your teammates. If you need to get somewhere, ask for an escort. Knights in particular love having a buddy to punch out a wall for them.

Closing

I feel like I'm rambling so I'll leave it at that. Hopefully this will get some newer players started. Don't be afraid to ask questions either here or in-game!

[laterculus]

Old but gold.

[Blackguard]

How to get kicked on most servers by the now cancerous toxic community:

-Do any of the above-

[Light]

Кто-нибудь может перевемти всё это дело ?

[Holy Cow]

I am not a noob to KAG but I didn't think about the boulder traps or spike trampoline!

[GingerBeard]

I didn't even look becuase I knew this guide is too good for my eyes.

Seriously.

[Marovag1]

Woah. First not idiotically-writed guide here. Dude, you is amazing - you did so much work to screenshot all dat ♥♥♥♥ and to write that guide. Sure it is one of the best guide here cuz it says 'bout how to win. Not "how to get started''. It takes a one step more on that ladder of gaming. It tells about the traps, gamemodes, some tactics etc...
Also - it is first guide that was almost useful for me. Nice job, dude.

[Warlordnipple]

Your saw traps are not great, I see builders do that stuff all the time. Alternate downward facing wooden blocks and trap blocks ALWAYS. I get very tired of builders either putting no downward blocks or putting them in a row on top of the trap blocks or even more horribly below them. Not alternating means that if a knight falls below the trap and kills the part that hurt hims they can just hide under there. As a knight and a builder I have caused havoc on the other team by hiding under their trap blocks, destroying their traps, then popping up whenever I see someone walk by and killing them, while the team can do nothing but keg their own trap blocks to get me out because any builder that tries to fix the trap gets insta killed by me.

[✚ sun ✚]

ive played KAG for a while but i thought drills only got 25% of the minarals you mine?

[Summerwind]

anyone want to know how to play KAG ball? freind me

[Darth Vader]

loooove it