The Smart Guide

The Smart Guide will help you make your dynasty rise to the top in no time. It explains the most important features of the game and how you can exploit them, whilst purposely skipping the very basics.

UPDATED FOR FINAL GAME VERSION

Introduction

The Smart Guide was written for those who are already a few hours into the game but are struggling to figure out how to make their dynasty prosper. It is not supposed to walk you through the first steps of the game, but rather intends to assist you from the point where your first couple of buildings have been constructed.

The developer team of Medieval Dynasty provides little guidance on how to make use of its various features, aside from offering a decently priced content guide. Most community guides available to date lack accuracy and detail with much outdated information. The Smart Guide intends to help change these circumstances and will now be updated to match the full release version of Medieval Dynasty.

The information included in this guide was acquired from various reliable sources on the internet as well as from my own game experience. The contents of this guide define the standards for what I would have considered sufficient, but easy-to-understand and relevant information.

Any suggestions from the community are welcome. If you feel like there is false or misleading information or any missing topics that should be covered, please share it with me. Every upvote and/or award is highly appreciated. The positive feedback to this guide has been overwhelming and truly motivates me to keep its content up to date.

Money and Taxes

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7



Earning enough money to pay your taxes on time whilst expanding your dynasty can be a difficult task, especially in the early stages of the game. However, there are a few simple ways to deal with that problem, which are described in this guide.

Avoiding high taxes

Any buildings you construct will increase the amount of tax money you owe to the Castellan, Uniegost. Each building will induce a certain tax increase, depending on its type and tier. Contrary to previous claims and most other guides for this game, there is neither a tax on buildings that are destroyed again, nor on your fields.

Seasonal tax values of buildings range between 10 and 100 coins. For a well developed settlement, you can realistically calculate an average seasonal tax of roughly 40 coins per building. This means if there are 20 buildings, a seasonal tax of 800 coins would accumulate. The total yearly tax would then sum up to 3200 coins.

Needless to mention, taxes absolutely need to be paid on time (each spring), or they will increase with interest each season and result in a loss of reputation of 1000 points per year. If you keep failing to pay your debts over ten years, you will be exiled from the valley and lose the game once your reputation reaches -10000 points. Your current tax can be seen on the management tab at any time. It increases each season until the full amount is shown in spring.

Wasting money

Firstly, most items and technologies are expensive and will hardly benefit your dynasty if purchased too early. For example, purchasing recipes does not make sense unless you have the ingredients. The same goes for any blueprints if you do not have access to the resources required for crafting the item.

A farmer harvesting crops

Furthermore, absolutely avoid unnecessary expenses in the early game for items that can be found. Many useful tools or basic resources can be found laying around in villages, but do not get caught when attempting to steal those. Keep an eye out for heaps of stones, semi-buried wooden crates and broken carts. They may contain valuable items or even money. Also consider completing quests in order to get some items for free.

Purchasing food is a very costly option to meet the high food demand needed to stay alive and keeping your villages' inhabitants satisfied. Find a way to make your dynasty self-sufficient. For the early game, I would recommend going on one major hunting trip each year and filling the food storage with cooked meat (6 food points each). Collecting mushrooms or berries is also possible, but very tedious. If you don't want to get your hands dirty, simply employ a hunter to obtain and a cook to prepare the food instead. But remember, every inhabitant increases your food demand. Cooking vegetables and meat to make soups is a good way to fill your food storage. Some cooked items also sell for a fair sum of money.

Start producing iron tools as early as possible, it will take a lot of pressure off your budget as it removes the constant need to buy essential tools such as sickles, scythes and pickaxes.

Reliable money sources

Short term:

• Selling crafted knives and spears
  
• Selling crafted simple bags from leather
  
• Selling found or stolen items and tools
  
• Selling cooked meals

Mid- to long term:

• Growing crops (preferably flax) and selling the products obtained from processing
  
• Crafting advanced tools and selling them
  
• Mining ores and selling it
  
• Breeding animals and selling their products (I recommend sheep)

For more information on how to earn money by selling found or crafted materials, view section "Most Profitable Items" of this guide.

Skills and Technology

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7

Understanding how to obtain better skills and technologies and knowing what they are needed for is crucial if you want to avoid running into obstacles that hinder your progress in the game. Although skill and technology points are earned simultaneously by doing a certain activities, it is important to understand their differences and advantages. This section of my guide will walk you through the most relevant aspects of Medieval Dynasty’s skill and technology system.

Before we get started

At first, it may not seem obvious that skills overlap with technologies. This means that if you carry out a certain activity, both your skill and technology level may increase simultaneously. If you are unsure what activity affects which skill or technology, continue reading below.

Leveling up skills or technologies can be a hassle. The developers have changed the system in a way that certain valuable resources such as iron and high-level buildings like the mine can only be acquired through several years of building up your skill tree. Whilst some skill and technology categories are increased almost automatically as you grow your dynasty, others will require endless grinding.

On a personal note, I would recommend to literally cut down an entire forest by hand and producing items every night to increase the extraction and production skill in the early game as these two will significantly hinder progress at a later stage in the game if they are not at a high level. This may be very tedious, but will pay off.



Talent points and their skill tree

There are six categories of skills in Medieval Dynasty:

• Extraction
  This skill can be increased by collecting resources that need tools for extraction such as felling trees, digging up clay and mining different ores, salt and limestone. Spending talent points on the extraction skill tree unlock useful perks like increased carry weight, slower wearing off of tools and faster mining. Note that extraction can be leveled up much quicker by cutting down trees compared to mining.
  
  
• Hunting
  Hunting skills can be improved by killing and skinning animals and by setting up traps and then collecting the animals trapped inside. The hunting skill tree will reward you with various benefits regarding weapon handling, faster crouch movement, spotting herbs and setting traps.
  
  
• Farming
  Increase this skill type by plowing, sowing, harvesting, processing farm yield, milking animals and shearing sheep. Spending talent points on the farming skill tree enables you to increase the yield from your harvests, make farming quicker and decrease the wearing off rate of your tools, depending on your selection of perks.
  
  
• Diplomacy
  This is by far the hardest skill tree to level up since it can only be achieved by selling valuable items or through successful flirting. Note that in romance, only positive or neutral conversation reactions will add to your skill level. The diplomacy skill tree provides essential perks for game progress, most notably the ability to increase the selling price of your goods, lower taxes and a faster increase in dynasty reputation.
  
  
• Survival
  This skill can be pushed by collecting resources that do not need tools for extraction such as sticks, rocks and berries. Spending skill points in this category makes your character stronger and more resistant to the environment.
  
  
• Production
  This is probably the easiest skill to level up, as you will be processing items on most days (crafting, cooking, sewing, etc.). IMPORTANT: As of the current game version, it takes a lot more time to gain production XP since the processing of items in the barn will now add to farming experience. You will be rewarded with various perks that mainly accelerate the processing of items or food when spending points on the production skill tree.

Understanding perks and the skill tree

Each of the categories listed above must be leveled up to obtain so-called skill or talent points, which can then be spent on unique perks that will ultimately make life in Medieval Dynasty significantly easier. Each category consists of ten levels. Choose wisely which skills you pick first. You will only be able to reset your talent points by drinking a potion which can be brewed in the herbalist's hut. It is unlikely that you will have everything needed to do so in the early game.

The skill tree is divided into four tiers, where at least one perk of the lower tier is required to unlock a higher tier. In the current game version, you sometimes get two talent points at once. Do not spend your first three skill points of any category for anything else than knowledge. The higher your knowledge in a field, the faster you will gain talent points and the more advanced perks can be unlocked.

Keep in mind that some of the available perks will increase the game pace significantly, which means you should make sure you spend all your skill points as soon as you receive them. Again, you will later have the option to reset them by consuming a particular potion.


The skill tree, showing some unlocked perks in green

Technology

Technology is divided into four categories:

• Building
  Building technology is increased by extraction activities and construction. Inhabitants working at a woodcutter’s shed, an excavation shed or a mine or any other facility associated with construction will assist your efforts to advance in this technology. Increasing the building technology will unlock new buildings and allows you to purchase schemes for constructing more advanced buildings and various decorative objects for your village.
  
  
• Survival
  Increased by killing and skinning animals, trapping and fishing. Workers employed in the hunting lodge or fishermen’s hut will contribute to the development of this technology. Each level of this technology path unlocks new survival buildings schemes that can be purchased to craft more advanced hunting tools, different potions and other convenient survival equipment such as campfires and traps.
  
  
• Farming
  Leveled up by plowing, sowing, harvesting, collecting vegetables, milking animals, processing your harvest and shearing sheep. The barn workers and farmers employed in your village will add to this technology. The further you progress in this technology, the more farming buildings will be unlocked. Moreover, a level increase means many tools related to crop cultivation and animal husbandry can be unlocked by purchasing their crafting schemes.
  
  
• Production
  Production technology is increased by crafting items (e.g. tools, weapons, clothing), cooking and brewing liquids. IMPORTANT: Processing your harvest in the barn will NOT contribute to your production technology points. All workers employed in production facilities (except the barn!) will be a passive aid to your advancement in this technology. Progressing in production technology will enable you to unlock various schemes for crafting tools, weapons and other items. It will also allow you to purchase different kitchen recipes.

Construction and Recruitment

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7



Since the game provides little information on how you actually create your own settlement and recruit villagers, this will also be addressed in my guide. It can be tricky to know what to build first, which buildings you will need and when it is the right time for growing your population.

Placement

Finding a suitable location for your village is key for creating a prosperous dynasty.

Keep in mind that you may need access to various resources and space as your village develops (up to 65 buildings), so you may want to build on flat ground (required for farming) not too far from other villages, so you can reach traders quickly. Having a cave nearby brings many advantages, including quick access to a source of precious ores, which you may need to craft durable tools.

For a good start, find a spot in or near a forest. This ensures the wood supply for constructing your first buildings. Make sure to bring a shovel to make room for your buildings once you have cut down some trees. This prevents them from growing back. Each dug up stump will reward you with an extra log.

Furthermore, you may want to avoid building in an area populated by wolves or bears, as they may attack at any time and endanger your inhabitants. Needless to mention, make sure you have a water source nearby.

Briefly stated, the area you start to build on should have the following features:

• Flat ground
  
• Water access
  
• Access to wood
  
• Reeds nearby (straw is an essential building resource)
  
• Other villages nearby
  
• Cave nearby (for ore and stone mining)
  
• No predator animal presence

Choosing what to build

The following list outlines the most efficient order to construct your settlement:

1) Your home
2) Resource storage
3) Food storage
4) Well
5) 1-2 houses
6) Woodcutter's shed
7) Hunter's lodge
8) Barn
9) Fields/Orchards
10) Everything else is up to you

Building features

All buildings need to be maintained regularly as they suffer damage from the environment. Expect simple buildings to remain completely intact for about one to two years. More advanced buildings need less frequent maintenance, thus you should choose to construct stone walls over wattle or wooden walls from the very beginning. This will also reduce the wood demand since these buildings have better insulation.

In order to repair a building, approach it with a hammer equipped and right-click to select "Repair". If any building part is in a red state (condition below 50%), you will need to fix the damages as soon as possible. Each building part requires their respective resource for repairs. Note that partially destroyed buildings will keep their function and remain in a "completed"-state unless they are destroyed entirely.


A damaged building, viewed in "Repair"-mode

The quality of building materials affects your population's mood and the wood demand of your dynasty. You can upgrade stone buildings with limestone (obtained from mines) and wattle and wooden buildings with daub (farming technology required) if you have unlocked this feature. In order to upgrade a building, it needs to be approached with a hammer equipped and the "Upgrade" option has to be selected via right-click. It is wise to upgrade your existing buildings for isolation purposes as soon as you have the resources.

Pro tip: Once you unlock the next level of a particular building type (eg. hunting lodge II), you may want to select it via the menu (press "q") and approach an existing building of the same type and lower tier (eg. hunting lodge I) and upgrade it to the more advanced type. Please note that this will require additional resources.


A partially upgraded building, viewed in "Upgrade"-mode

Managing your workforce

The workforce of your village requires tools and materials from the resource storage or food storage. You can manage the frequency and type of products to be crafted or collected in each worker building and from the management tab. Avoid overproduction, because once your storage's technical maximum capacity is reached, items will get stuck in the worker buildings and the supply line will be cut. If you need more storage space, do not hesitate to build a second resource storage.

You should also consider the distance between the homes of your inhabitants and their workplace. The more time they need to get there, the less time they have to work (there is no getting up early for work or arriving at home late in this world).

Building tricks

• Regularly convert the logs in your resource storage into firewood or order the woodcutter to produce it. This will greatly increase the amount of wood available to your inhabitants from the resource storage and lower the rate at which logs are used up by your inhabitants.
  
• Seasons affect the food and wood demand because of heating (winter: highest / summer: lowest)
  
• The more advanced your axe and the more extraction perk points you have spent on logging, the faster you can cut down trees.
  
  Take note of the log yield for each tree type:
  
• • Maple trees yield 4 + 1 logs
    
  • Spruce trees yield 3 + 1 logs
    
  • Pine trees yield 3 + 1 logs
    
  • Birch trees yield 2 + 1 logs

The main gate to a player-built village with advanced structures

Recruitment of inhabitants

In order to increase your population, you will need to recruit inhabitants from anywhere in the world of Medieval Dynasty. You have to make sure you own enough buildings for the inhabitants to live in before attempting to recruit them. Each house provides space for a maximum of 2 adults and 1-2 children. Keep in mind that you can only create mixed gender or single households.

Villagers that can be recruited will show an icon next to their name in inspector mode and you will get the option to ask them to join your settlement in a conversation. For successful recruitment, you will need at least 50 dynasty reputation (increases exponentially for each new inhabitant). Dynasty reputation can be acquired by completing quests and following the chapters. Make sure to immediately assign a home and a profession to each newcomer (take note of their skills).

You should under no circumstances start inviting people to your village unless you have access to water (well), food (food storage) and wood (resource storage). It may be wise to employ the first few inhabitants as water carriers, hunters and woodcutters to ensure you meet their resource demand, whilst not being drawn away from important activities due to the constant need to collect these resources.

Furthermore, I would recommend that you only recruit as many inhabitants as you have workplaces for. Each worker building features a limited number of select types of professions that can be assigned to inhabitants. Again, consider each inhabitants' skill when assigning jobs to maximize productivity.


Recruitable villagers viewed in inspector mode;
their skill traits are shown by the HUD

Keep in mind that your inhabitants will only be satisfied with living at your village if they have a place to stay and a profession. The consequence of not maintaining buildings and not making sure the inhabitants' demands are met is that they will eventually leave. Events may also have an impact on your inhabitants' mood.

Please read the "Management" section of this guide for more detailed information on managing inhabitants.

Diplomacy

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7

Knowing how to talk to people can accelerate the development of your dynasty and make it a lot easier to find a wife. In addition, your hard earned diplomacy talent points may be spent on unique perks such as increased mood of your village's inhabitants, higher trade profits and lower taxes.

The basics

Conversation mechanics have seen significant changes during the early development process of Medieval Dynasty and the approval rating system was removed. This leaves us with a very simple interaction system. Therefore, I will keep this section short and cover the very basics only.

You will now have a range of interaction options with any NPC in the game depending on their profession, location and identity. You may acquire information about important locations and quests if you ask around in villages.

It is essential to understand that your diplomacy skill can be leveled up by trading. The amount of experience gained from selling an item is based on its value in coins. This means an expensive item will yield more XP than a cheap one. If the selling price of an item is below a certain value your character will not gain any experience points from trading. Employed merchants will generate passive XP for your character.

Pro tip: Sell the domesticated animals you do not need anymore. This will usually reward you with more than 100 XP for each trade.

Alternatively, diplomacy experience can be increased by successful flirting with a woman.

Side quests

Any NPCs highlighted with an exclamation mark can task you with a simple side quest which you can accept or decline. Accepting such a quest usually means you will have less than a season to complete the given task or you may lose a small amount of dynasty reputation. If you manage to deliver the requested items on time, you will be rewarded with dynasty reputation, coins and/or other items. The reward can be previewed in the journal. Completing a side quest might add to your diplomacy skill depending on its type.

Small talk

Small talk is a feature that allows to have random conversation about everyday topics with NPCs. It does not provide any benefits except entertainment and is solely intended for role-playing purposes. Small talk does not add to your diplomacy experience.

Romance

Flirting is your key to finding a partner, which may later become your wife and eventually allows you to have children. As time progresses, you may want to make sure to have children since they will one day take charge of your dynasty.

You will only be allowed to flirt with a woman if they are single non-minors and in the same age group. Everything else will result in immediate rejection. You have a limited number of attempts to gain affection by a woman every day and once you get a negative reaction, the conversation will end immediately and can only be continued the following day.

Flirting mechanics are quite simple in Medieval Dynasty. Make sure to have a clean appearance. Frankly said, wash yourself in a tub or in a river. You should easily be able to pick the right lines to increase affection. Avoid talking about gross or unusual topics and consider the profession and personality of the woman you are talking to. Flirting can be boosted by bringing an expensive present.

Successful romance talk will also increase your diplomacy skill.

Management

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7



Efficient resource management

At times, it may seem complicated to estimate the amount of resources needed for your village. Again, remember that the water, food and wood demand of your village depends on the number of inhabitants, the season and the quality of your buildings (the last two only affect the wood demand). Each resource has a daily demand that must be met so that the inhabitants' mood doesn't decrease.

For calculating your wood demand, consider the following:

As for your management tab...
...each stick equals 0.2 wood points
...each log equals 2 wood points
...each piece of firewood equals 1 wood point

Each log can be split into four pieces of firewood. This means that, for example, if you have 50 logs in your resource storage, you will have a wood value of 100 points. If you split all those logs into firewood, that number doubles, now equaling 200 points.

Make sure to regularly convert the logs in your resource storage into firewood. Technically, you could order woodcutters to convert the logs they obtain into firewood, but this significantly decreases their log supply. For example, a level 1 woodcutter is capable of obtaining 1.6 logs per working hour (equaling a wood value of 3.2 points). However, if you order him to produce firewood, he will produce 0.8 pieces an hour (equaling a wood value of 0.8 points). Keep this in mind before deciding on doing it the lazy way.


The management tab allows you to manage your inhabitants, buildings, fields and resources

For your food management, you should consider the following:

Inhabitants will only eat food that is safe to eat, meaning that, for example, mushrooms and meat will only count toward your food points if prepared in a way that they cannot cause poisoning. Each type of food has a nutritional value (shown in points) and a general condition (shown in %). Inhabitants will eat the meal with the highest nutritional value and lowest condition first.

For the early game, it may be the best option to store cooked meat, vegetables or simple dishes like gruel in your food storage, as they are comparably easy to obtain. Later, you may prefer to produce bread or other foods with a very high nutritional value.

Production

Create your own workforce to prevent shortages. Make sure to only employ inhabitants in professions that are utterly needed for your dynasty's growth, unless your village is overpopulated. Always consider the skills of your inhabitants before assigning professions to them. Their skill traits will significantly affect their productivity. You can view a worker's skills either via the management tab or by approaching them while in inspector mode.



Every worker building provides certain management options. For example, you can assign each member of your workforce particular tasks through your management tab. There, you may also decide at what rate your items will be produced (ranging from 0% to 100%). A blacksmith, for example, may be instructed to craft iron spears at 80% efficiency and wooden spears at 20% efficiency. Or a miner may be tasked with extracting limestone at full capacity.

Avoid overproduction if you do not intend to sell the excess products, because all products will be moved to your resource storage or food storage once finished, which both have limited capacity. As I have mentioned before, if your storage is full, all new products will get stuck in the workers' buildings until their chests are at capacity too. Products that are finished beyond that stage will disappear.

Be aware that female workers may get pregnant if they live in a household with a male individual. Once they become mothers, they will drop out of your workforce. Mothers cannot be reemployed until two years after giving birth to a child.

The following conditions must be met before your workers can start producing your desired items:

• You must own a suitable worker building where the desired item can be crafted
  
• The technology for crafting the desired item must be unlocked (and purchased)
  
• Your workforce must have access to the resources, as listed in the recipe, through the resource storage
  
• Your workforce must have access to the tools required for carrying out their tasks, as shown in the management tab

If any of these conditions are unfulfilled, production will stop immediately. Always check back for red signs in the buildings section of your management tab. They imply production failure. It is advised to craft tools required for all types of work in large amounts and store them in the resource storage so the workers can use them.

Becoming a management mastermind

The further you progress in the game, the more relevant careful management of your settlement becomes. As you will start collecting resources and producing goods at higher rates, your resource storage sheds will fill up quickly and you need to have a good production line to acquire the desired goods (which can then be used or sold) before your out of capacity. On the other hand, as your village's population increases, it becomes increasingly important to regularly reassign professions as you may want to assign the elite of your workforce to crucial tasks and make sure that every workplace produces the goods you need. You will also have to make sure every villager is employed every season since female workers may cycle between contributing to your production efforts and being a mother. It is highly advisable to calculate where and at what efficiency level your workers should perform their tasks.

A little extra information:
If you intend to sell rare tools and have workers employed, do not place them in the resource storage. They will disappear forever once the workers start using them.

Crafting

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7



Although Medieval Dynasty features a straightforward crafting system that also provides the recipes for each item, there are some major barriers to crafting in terms of resources and technology. Crafting increases your production skill and technology and will reward you with talent points you can spend on perks and purchase new schemes for creating items and tools.

Basic crafting

The basic crafting menu can be brought up by pressing 'Q' on your keyboard. It enables you to craft some basic items needed for survival, such as spears and knives. To craft several items at a time, hit 'R' while in the crafting menu instead of just clicking the desired item, which initiates a crafting loop.

Advanced crafting

The more advanced menus can only be accessed from certain buildings, such as the workshop, the smithy or the sewing hut. They will allow you to craft precious items such as clothing or iron tools, which require rare resources like iron and wool. The higher the level of your crafting building, the more items can be stored in its crate and the more workers can be employed.


Unlocking an item that you are not capable of crafting yet or that will not benefit your dynasty is a waste of money

Production technology

Each item needs to be unlocked before you can craft it, usually at a fairly high cost. But it pays off since most items that can be crafted cost hundreds of coins when bought from a vendor and wear off quickly, whereas it takes just a single transaction to acquire the crafting scheme for a new item, which you will then keep forever. Before purchasing a new crafting scheme, you should ensure that you have the required materials to craft the unlocked item. This prevents you from being short of money early on in the game.








In the technology tab, you can view the price (including the actual item value), stats and the crafting recipe of each item. This also helps you to decide whether it is worth it purchasing a certain crafting scheme.












Crafting skill

Crafting talent points can be spent on accelerating the crafting process, which is useful if you intend to produce items for sale.


Medieval Dynasty offers a selection of useful production perks.

Hiring craftsmen

Be aware that in order to employ craftsmen in your village that actually benefits you, you must have unlocked the crafting schemes for the items you intend to produce. Also consider the production skill of your inhabitants before choosing your first artisan. Your hired men will only start crafting if your resource storage contains all items listed in the recipe you would like to use and stop once the materials are used up. As soon as you have access to a cave and start mining ores, it makes sense to employ a worker that will convert the extracted ore into bars, so you can later craft weapons or tools.

Quality of weapons and tools

In medieval dynasty, you can craft weapons and tools from the following resources:
wood, stone, tin, copper, bronze and iron.

The durability, efficiency and value of a crafted item heavily depends on the resources used for crafting it. Whilst weapons and tools made from cheap and common resources have a low quality, bronze and iron tools will have a very high quality and are worth the investment. However, in the early game, you will be forced to craft cheap weapons and tools since the more rare materials are hard to acquire and will come in very low amounts if found.

Please read the "Management" section of this guide for more information on hiring workers.

Farming

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7



Medieval Dynasty provides a broad range of farming methods. You can grow crops, vegetables, trees or breed animals to obtain valuable products that can be used for various purposes. Farming may be one of the most efficient ways of making a living in this game, but it takes quite a bit of work to get to the point where it returns a significant profit.

The 1x1 of farming

Most importantly, you should know which season to start in. Most plants can be grown in spring, and some also in summer or fall. Only carrots can be grown in the cold season. Make sure to plot your first field early in the game to start producing goods that can be sold. There is no need to have a barn at the very beginning, but you will need it to process your harvest later.

In addition to a hoe, bag, sickle and seeds you will need fertilizer for farming, which comes at a high price (7.5 coins) when bought from a trader. To avoid spending a lot of money on fertilizer, you should consider two options: Either collect berries in spring or summer (around 1000 to get started) and leave them on the ground to rot. In the next season, you can craft 1 piece of fertilizer from 10 pieces of rot in your barn (eg. 1000 pieces of rot equal 100 pieces of fertilizer). The other method is to buy manure (or obtain it from your pigsty) from a vendor which comes at a slightly cheaper price (3 coins) and craft 1 piece of fertilizer from 2 pieces of manure in your barn. Pay attention to your field size when calculating fertilizer demand. Fortunately, the developers of the game have introduced a change where the fields stay fertilized across seasons. On the other hand, they have disabled crop stealing, which makes it harder to obtain cheap seeds.

Once you have a bigger field, make sure to assign farmers to take care of it. They will need access to tools and resources to maintain your field. In the management tab you can choose which plants to grow. Once you have decided, regularly check whether the farmers are doing their job. Moreover, I recommend creating an orchard as early as possible once you find tree seedlings since the trees take several years to grow.

The peasant approach

If you are only just getting started with farming and have few resources available with most technologies still being locked, it will be your only option to take matters in your own hands. Since farming resources are expensive in the early game, you are best off creating a rather small field no larger than 7x7 square meters.

Assuming your first own field has a size of 6x7 square meters (42 squares), you will need the following:

• Barn I (tax: 50 coins/season) - Requires 27 logs, 64 sticks and 48 straw
  
• Wooden Hoe (at least one since they wear off quickly) - Requires 2 logs
  
• Simple Bag - Requires 3 leather
  
• Sickle (can be purchased, but is commonly found)
  
• 42x Fertilizer - Total price: 315 coins (7.5 coins each) - Use rot made from berries instead
  
• 42x Seeds (any type) - Total price: 315-630 coins (7.5-15 coins each) - Use seeds found in the world before spending your money
  
• 10 Farming technology points (read the "Skills and Technology"-section for more information)

A medium-sized field showing cabbage as it grows

Then proceed as follows:

Plot your field and plow it. Then equip the simple bag and right-click to check which crops or vegetables can be grown in that season. Then fertilize your fields with your bag equipped (again, note that fields will now stay fertilized across seasons). Now plow the field again. Then sow your seeds onto the field. It now takes one or two seasons for the plants to grow. If you have grown crops, you will need to use a sickle or scythe for harvesting. Vegetables can be collected by hand. Finally, process the yield if necessary and use some of the obtained seeds for further maintenance of the field.

The landlord approach

If you already have a populated village, you may want to employ some of your inhabitants as farmers. Plot a field as large as possible nearby your village (maximum size 16x16, 256 squares). In order to get your inhabitants to work, you first have to assign them the "farmer"-profession (not barn workers!) and then edit your fields on the management tab and choose what to grow according to the season.

Remember that your farmers will need tools and resources to maintain your fields. Prepare everything in the beginning of each season. The closer you are to the end of the season, the lower the chance that your field workers will finish their tasks before the desired seeds cannot be sown anymore.

If you want to automate the process, make sure to employ a barn worker to process the yield.


Inhabitants working simultaneously on a large field


A partially ready field with various vegetables and crops

Breeding animals

Animal husbandry requires a certain level of farming technology depending on the animal type and can likely be ruled out during the first few years as it is quite expensive and hard to get started with. At the same time, you will hardly see a return on your investment if you do not have everything required for successful breeding.

In order to breed animals you will need to build the appropriate buildings and purchase the desired animals from a breeder and then assign them to their home, just like your inhabitants. I recommend purchase one male and one female animal since they have a chance of reproducing each season. You will also need animal feed, which can either be purchased (expensive) or crafted in your barn from oat grain, rye grain and straw. The cost of domesticated animals varies depending on their type, with prices ranging from 1000 to about 15'000 coins. Keep in mind that your animals will eventually die of age and you will need to breed them in order to keep up your business.


Owning a pigsty will ensure your manure supply

Choose the type of animal to breed according to your needs and wants. You will see each animal's products in the technology tab. Make sure to fill up the feeding trough inside the building with animal feed (regularly check if it is empty). Then employ an animal breeder (with high farming skill) and assign them a production task.

If you do not need an animal anymore, mark it for sale in the management tab (press "x"). Even if the animal may only be sold for a fraction of its original price, each sale will reward you with a great deal of diplomacy skill. Furthermore, you will make a significant amount of money if you keep breeding them and selling the ones you do not need anymore.

Side note:
Horses and donkeys are expensive but can be used for logistics, which is convenient for carrying large amounts of goods.

Hunting

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7

Hunting is the best way to acquire food in the early game. There are also quite a few quests that require you to hunt, so it is essential to know the basics. This guide will help you do it the proper way.

Hunting has become a lot more challenging with the full game version, so you must always be prepared when strolling through the woods of Medieval Dynasty.

Locating animals

Knowing the location of game animals may save time spent hiking through the woods and can prevent you from being surprised by predators. There are two ways of finding out about game animal locations. You can either use the map below or ask around in villages to reveal the location of a particular animal.


A map showing all locations of game in Medieval Dynasty (click to enlarge)

Hunting basics

Each species has their distinct features, which need to be considered in order to decide what weapons to bring and how you are going to hunt them. Except for birds and rats, you can find and hunt all types of animals that are part of Medieval Dynasty.

Game Animal Overview

Type	Behavior	Yield
Rabbit	Passive	1-2x Meat, 2x Fur
Deer (Doe)	Passive	15x Meat, 3x Leather
Deer (Buck)	Passive	18x Meat, 3x Leather
Moose (female)	Passive	20x Meat, 5x Leather
Moose (male)	Passive	22x Meat, 5x Leather
Fox	Skittish	6x Meat, 2x Fur
Lynx	Skittish	8x Meat, 2x Fur
Badger	Skittish	4x Meat, 3x Fur
Boar	Aggressive	8x Meat, 3x Leather
Wisent	Aggressive	25x Meat, 7x Leather
Wolf	Aggressive	12x Meat, 2x Fur
Bear	Aggressive	25x Meat, 10x Fur

You can hunt in two main ways:

• Setting traps for rabbits, birds, fish and rats (very limited yield)
  
• Going on an actual hunting trip in the woods and use a ranged or melee weapon to kill the animals

Hunting predators is a risky business.

Hunting tools

In the early game, it is wise to carry at least five wooden spears for self-defense when traveling anywhere since you may get attacked by boars, wolves or even bears. Alternatively, predators can be scared away using a torch.

Always bring a skinning knife to gut the animals you have killed. Try to get your hands on a bow or crossbow and a stack of arrows/bolts to hunt more dangerous game as a ranged weapon will keep distance between you and the target. But keep in mind that the strongest and most dangerous predators will immediately track you down once they are wounded, no matter the distance. Use the camouflage potion to lower the chance of being chased by an aggressive animal.

Make sure to carry at least 10 high quality arrows or bolts when hunting predators, as they may take several hits to be killed and sometimes appear in groups. Expect your ammunition to deplete over time, since there is a chance arrows and bolts break after hitting a target. Also bring some sort of melee weapon that deals a lot of damage to finish them off once they get too close. Carrying a healing potion or a stack of broadleaf plaintains is also advisable when taking on dangerous game since you will not always be able to escape when charged by an aggressive animal.

In Medieval Dynasty, headshots are the quickest way to kill an animal even if this may not seem realistic, so always aim for the head. Practise shooting with Alwin (quest must be unlocked) in Gostovia or craft and use a target for training to improve your skills before taking on dangerous game. You may also want to level up your aim steadiness on the hunting skill tree.


In Medieval Dyanasty, accurate shots to the head are the most efficient way to kill an animal

Ranged weapons table

Name	Category	Crafting material	Features
Spear	Close range or melee weapon	Wood, stone, copper, iron
Bow	Low- to midrange weapon	Wood	Basic ranged weapon. Shoots arrows.
Recurve Bow	Low- to midrange weapon	Wood	Fast reloading, lower damage. Shoots arrows.
Longbow	Low- to midrange weapon	Wood	Slow reloading, higher damage. Shoots arrows.
Crossbow	Mid- to highrange weapon	Wood or iron	Slowest reloading, highest damage. Shoots bolts.

Be aware that the higher the quality of your weapons, the more damage they deal. With an iron spear, a single hit to the head or neck will usually do the job for big game. If you want to avoid carrying lots of spears due to their weight, bring an axe so you can craft more wooden spears on your way.

If you lack the resources needed for crafting more advanced weapons, you can buy them from certain vendors or steal them from chests near those traders.

Hunting tactics

Enter any forest and keep walking until you find the type of game you would like to hunt. Alternatively, you can use inspector mode to track down animals (Left Alt), given that you have the "tracker" perk (survival) unlocked.

Then approach the animal by crouching (Left Ctrl) with your weapon equipped and get within the effective range of your weapon. Be aware that some animals may notice you more quickly than others. If you have a low tier weapon, always aim for the head and only shoot if you are certain that you will land a hit. Make sure that you have a second and third spear/arrow/bolt ready for follow-up shots. Peaceful animals usually take a moment before they start fleeing in a circle when hit. Make use of this time lag. Charging animals can be hard to fight if they come too close. Wounded animals are slower, making it easier to hit them again.

You should always be positive that there are no potential threats in the area before skinning an animal, otherwise you may be attacked while skinning.


The iron crossbow is the most lethal ranged weapon available in the world of Medieval Dynasty

Trading

WORK IN PROGRESS



Trading is the most important way of earning money in Medieval Dynasty. Since you can literally sell anything in the game, you may want some guidance on which goods make a good sum of money, obviously with the effort to obtain them in mind. This section covers the most important aspects of trading.

Understanding the trading system

Firstly, there are two ways of making money by trading:
The basic one requires you to walk up to any vendor and selling the desired goods.
The more advanced option requires at least 2'500 technology points and is to construct a market stall, select the goods you want to sell and employ one of your inhabitants as a vendor.

Any vendor accepts every type of good you want to sell, regardless of what they offer. Unlike in the real economy, there are no price differences between traders, nor is there any sort of competition effort. Each vendor has 1000-2000 coins in reserve, meaning that only a certain number of goods can be sold at a time. This amount resets every season.

How to trade

Before deciding which goods to sell, you should consider your maximum capacity and the weight of each item intended for sale.

Below you will find a list with the most profitable goods (highest return on investment).

Early game (no production facilities):

• Meat
  
• Wooden Spoon
  
• Stone Knife
  
• Simple Bag

Mid game (basic production facilities and about 50% technology progress):

• Flax Seed
  
• Wheat Grain
  
• Linen Fabric
  
• Flat Straw Hat
  
• Straw Hat
  
• Small Pouch
  
• Pouch
  
• Simple Shoes
  
• Shoes
  
• Bronze Pickaxe
  
• Bronze Shovel
  
• Bronze Scythe

Late game (advanced production facilities and about 100% technology progress):

• Wool Fabric
  
• Berry Juice
  
• Quilted Vest
  
• Iron Pickaxe
  
• Iron Shovel
  
• Iron Scythe
  
• Iron Knife

Becoming an Expert

UPDATED: 1.0.0.7



Although Medieval Dynasty is mostly simple and easy to learn, there are many important things to know about it the game your goal is to create the most impressive settlement the valley has ever seen.

Getting hands on essentials

Much of the game revolves around carrying items from one place to the other, so it is crucial to have the highest possible carrying capacity from the very beginning. To achieve this, spend three talent points on the "Mule" perk of the extraction skill tree. You can increase your capacity even further by purchasing a backpack and a pouch, which can be equipped simultaneously and use potions to temporarily increase your capacity even more. Your character can carry up to 80 pounds with the "Mule" perk maximized and while having a large pouch and large backpack equipped. Purchase the these bags as soon as you can afford them. Trust me, there is literally no better way to spend your money.

Furthermore, you may want to spend a little money on warm clothing or maximize the "temperature tolerance" perk of the survival skill tree to prevent having to stay inside buildings or constantly carry a burning torch during winter. For the most part, some fur shoes and maybe another fur clothing item combined with a straw hat will be sufficient to keep your temperature balanced all year round.

Awareness of your surroundings

For traveling across the map, it is safest to stay on or near paths since less predators will spawn near them. Always carry a torch and a weapon for self defense and some healing potions or a stack of broadleaf plaintains in case you get attacked by a wild animal. If you do not manage to get a clean shot, run.

You may also encounter special locations or bandit camps which have valuable loot. Ranged weapons are the best option when it comes to killing bandits. Keep an eye out for chests, barrels, bags and stone heaps as they may contain treasures. Note that their locations are predefined and may be outside or within bandit camps. New items are spawned near the special sites each season.

Customization

Before starting your journey though Medieval Dynasty, you may choose your preferred difficulty settings and configure them as you like. I recommend to leave them on default for the best game experience.

On a side note, if you make any changes to animal health points or the damage they deal to your character, be aware that bandits will be affected by those changes too.

Making use of game mechanics

Some game mechanics can easily be exploited for your own benefit, whilst avoiding obvious cheating techniques such as item duping or glitching.

• Every new season, you will spawn in your house. This means you can pick up as many heavy items as you want just before the season ends and after drop them off in the storage of your house without moving your character at all.
  
• Return to the locations of previously stolen or found valuable items each season, for example those found laying around carts. Some of the items will have been replaced as the next season commences.
  
• Build a resource storage next to a trader. This allows you to sell resources found by or items made by your inhabitants quickly.
  
• Build a resource storage next to a cave. This will prevent you from having to walk far when overburdened with heavy extracted resources such as copper or tin.
  
• Save your game before the season ends (as an unfavorable event may occur) and before doing anything that involves risk (stealing, hunting, flirting, etc.).
  
• Press W + Arrow up on your keyboard at the same time to increase your walking pace when overburdened.

Awareness of myths and lies about the game

Since I have stumbled upon much false information during my research, I would like to get things straight here and resolve some common myths.

• Myth 1: Trees grow back after being cut down.
  TRUE. They do grow back after 2 years, given the stump has not been removed.
  
  
• Myth 2: The resource and food storage do not have a maximum capacity and cannot be destroyed.
  WRONG. This was previously an issue, but got fixed. Make sure to build several storage sheds and keep them clean of unnecessary items.
  
  
• Myth 3: Orchards and fields will add to your tax rate.
  TRUE. This used to be false in previous game versions. Now, your orchards and fields will be taxed based on their yield.
  
  I kindly thank @Masha for making me aware of this.
  
  
• Myth 4: Food does not get spoiled when stored in the food storage.
  WRONG. It still gets spoiled over time, but at a slower rate.
  
  
• Myth 5: Workers will interrupt their tasks if the player is too far away.
  WRONG. This issue has been fixed with an early patch.
  
  
• Myth 6: Resource storage crates share their stored items.
  TRUE. Congratulations! You just improved your logistics.
  
  
• Myth 7: Workers will need tools to carry out their jobs.
  TRUE. This feature has been added by the developers in an Alpha update.
  
  
• Myth 8: Items placed in chests not owned by the player disappear by the beginning of the next season.
  TRUE. Seriously, just use your own chests.
  
  
• Myth 9: Any item's condition will reset when processed.
  TRUE. Store food raw and cook it when it's almost spoiled. You can also process some stolen items make them look like usual goods.
  
  
• Myth 10: Items left on the ground will eventually despawn.
  FALSE. They will stay there even across seasons. However, it may have a negative impact on performance if too many items are laying around.

Understanding seasonal cycles

Every year in Medieval Dynasty consists of four seasons, with each lasting three in-game days (this can be adjusted before starting a new game). Each season brings particular challenges and benefits with random events occurring from time to time. If you want to speed up the cycle, you can sleep every day and therefore skip time from 7 pm to 7 am. This essentially allows you to cut the length of a season in half, assuming you would otherwise remain active throughout the night.

Seasons overview

Season	Features
Spring	Unripe berries, morels and herbs grow, animals are common, all seeds except rye can be sown, warm temperatures, tax must be paid
Summer	Berries become ripe and herbs grow, animals are common, only cabbage seeds can be sown, warmest temperatures
Fall	Various mushrooms and herbs grow, animals are common, only rye and wheat seeds can be sown, colder temperatures
Winter	No food to gather, animals are uncommon, only carrot seeds can be sown, coldest temperatures (fur clothing or torches recommended to prevent freezing), wood and food demand of your village increases

The entire game concept of Medieval Dynasty depends on the four seasons. Each season, the trader money balance and your character's needs are reset and most items will respawn. The player will start each season from his home (which can be reassigned via management tab).

[Merc. Scar]

For mid-early, i highly recommend wood cups to sale, cheap to obtain and rewarding for sale. After that if you have high-skilled hunters and 2 or more hunting cabins with kitchen workers, the cooked meat is also a very good source of income.

[Mnemovore]

I would recommend adding poisoned copper arrows as a high profit early-mid game item. Poison arrows are early and cheap recipes, villagers can gather nightshade at fast rate in addition to your foraging. The difficult part of copper mining is securing cave access, but copper smithing is attained cheap and quick.

[ItsmeMaggy]

in the late game it seems the most profitable to me to sell juice/wine/mead to the sellers in other villages too, having my own fruits trees + buy fruits from them and craft it into juice/wine and resell

[Blaze1961]

Myth 11- Some places have better quality soil so farm produce more.

Wrong- It doesn't matter where you build a farm plot. There is no "Better quality" soil in the world.

[MrJohnBoi]

I'm pretty sure that I am having a major problem with NPC's, because I have 8 workers assigned to jobs they are pretty decent at, and they do not bring any yields at all, is my game corrupted or smth?

[slymanrc]

Good guide. I learned the resource hut link trick on my current game (3rd start) and it made a significant impact when I decided to move my village from the major riverbed up to the central mountain lake. From that, I've been considering the implications for setting up a main village and several smaller settlements (mining hamlets, farming communes, etc). The main problem being that taxes can get out of hand quick, but I keep looking at my current building max of 65 and there's just no way that isn't intended to be spread out into several smaller pockets.

[Kali Archon]

I've been using this guide a lot, and one small hidden gem I found for making and selling is Quark. All you need is to unlock it (which it's one of the first recipes you unlock), and a diplomacy over 1. The trick is you buy a bucket of soured milk (about 252 with level 1), go home, make Quark, and go back and sell it. You can sell the quark, AND the bucket left behind. I've tried a number of things to sell, and this is the one item that I found to be the easiest one. Sure, you have to buy the item first off, but the profit is enough by the time you get Diplomacy 3.

[ddow_01]

Works in 1.1.1.1. A hack for heavy, low value items is to wait for the Gift Merchant to show up in your village. Hopefully your resource storage is near by. You can sell excess straw and sticks to clear weight from the resource storage. The merchant is very overloaded but the game accepts that. For now.

[CaptainX11]

@JCH
What an honor! Thanks.

[JCH]

The game seems really great, but lack of info for noobies, so in the beginning is so confusing. So good people spend time doing those guides. I'll give your name to my first child.