The Viceroy's Handbook

This is a straight-to-the-point guide for players of Against the Storm. This is still a work-in-progress as the game is still receiving updates, but I hope what little there is here will be useful to fellow Viceroys. The topics are arranged in the order they are encountered in-game. This guides assumes you are already familiar with the game's basic mechanics and hopes to provide useful information relevant for all difficulties.

I. Winning and Losing

WINNING
You win by gaining Reputation. The blue bar on the bottom left shows how much reputation you need to achieve victory. Generally, there are three ways to gain reputation:



1. Fulfilling Orders;
2. Solving Glade Mysteries and/or choosing reputation as your reward;
3. Gaining Resolve from your villagers (giving them "max happiness");

Notes:
On lower difficulties, fulfilling orders and solving the odd mystery or two is enough to achieve victory. On higher difficulties, you will have to make use of all methods so as early as your first game, you should be practicing on how to satisfy your villager's various needs.

Tip: The goods required to solve glade mysteries can be changed. Just click on the goods and select another option from the wheel.


LOSING
You lose if the Queen's Impatience reaches maximum. The red bar on the bottom right shows how much impatience has built up. Once the bar is completely full, the game is over.



Impatience increases over time. It also increases every time a villager leaves or dies.

Impatience is removed mainly by Gaining Reputation.

II. Basic Concepts

III. Species

There are six species that could comprise your workforce: Beavers, Foxes, Frogs , Harpies, Humans, and Lizards. Only three species may be playable on a given map.

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Starting Abilities
Each specie has an ability that becomes available as soon as they enter play - whether from the beginning or when one of them joins your settlement.

Beavers - +1 additional trade offer from each neighboring town
Foxes - Reveals the location of one nearby rainwater geyser
Frogs - Reveals the location of one nearby ruin
Harpies - Receive +50 coats
Humans - Reveals the location of one nearby patch of fertile soil
Lizards - Receive +10 tools

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Fire Keeper Bonus
Assigning a fire keeper of the ancient hearth grants a bonus effect depending on the fire keeper's specie.

Note: This unique bonus effect is available only from fire keepers of the ancient hearth.

Beavers: 20% slower fuel consumption
Foxes: -2 hostility from opened glades
Frogs: 50% faster newcomer arrivals
Harpies: +5 carrying capacity for every villager
Humans: 25% slower rate of queen's impatience
Lizards : +1 global resolve

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Hunger Tolerance
Each villager has a level of hunger tolerance depending on specie. The number represents how many instances or "stacks" of hunger a villager can withstand before dying of starvation. Whenever a villager takes a break at the nearest hearth and is unable to find food, he gains a stack of hunger. Once the stacks exceed the villager's threshold, the villager will die.

For example, if a fox takes four breaks in a row without food, the fox will die.

Hunger tolerance affects each villager individually.

Beavers: 6
Foxes: 3
Frogs: 8
Harpies: 4
Humans: 6
Lizards: 12

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Specializations
Each specie has two Specializations that provide either a proficiency bonus or a comfort bonus when they're assigned to a workplace that matches said specializations. The proficiency bonus grants a 10% chance of producing double yields...



...while the comfort bonus grants an additional +5 resolve per villager:



Specializations and Bonuses
1. Beavers - Woodworking (proficiency), Engineering (comfort)
2. Foxes - Scouting (proficiency), Blightrot (comfort)
3. Frogs - Masonry (proficiency), Rainwater (comfort)
4. Harpies - Alchemy (proficiency), Cloth (comfort)
5. Humans - Agriculture (proficiency), Brewing (comfort)
6. Lizards - Meat (proficiency), Warmth (comfort)

Note: In case of foxes, their scouting specialty means an increase in speed at solving glade mysteries, not producing double yields.

As much as possible, assign species to jobs according to their specialty. Check the symbols on the building's information screen to determine what specialty is needed.



In the above example, the butcher building grants a bonus to meat specialization. You would do well to assign lizards to work here to produce more goods in the long run.

Species Demands

Your villagers have a base number of Resolve depending on specie. During the storm or certain events, your villagers will suffer penalties to their resolve. If their resolve drops to zero and/or below, they'll start to leave your settlement.

Your villagers resolve can be increased by meeting their Demands. All villagers demand: Housing, Complex Food, and Services. Additionally, they may demand Coats, Boots, and/or Paste Satisfy enough of their demands and they'll begin generating reputation for you, their specie's icon on the top left glowing blue when they do so.

How exactly do villagers satisfy their needs?
Villagers will occasionally take breaks at any nearby hearth. Once there, they will check to see if housing, foods, services, and other items are available. If so, they will instantly consume the goods from the general stock regardless of their location and gain resolve.

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ON HOUSING
Villagers gain more resolve when species appropriate housing is provided. Eventually, common shelters will prove insufficient to increase resolve so don't forget to build Unique Houses(UH) according to villagers' species. Below are the material costs to unique houses:

1. Beavers - 8 Planks
2. Foxes - 4 Planks, 2 Crystalized Dew
3. Frogs - 4 Bricks
4. Harpies - 4 Cloths
5. Humans - 4 Planks, 2 Bricks
6. Lizards - 2 Cloths, 2 Bricks

Note: Building costs will be increased when playing Prestige 5 difficulty onwards.

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ON COATS, BOOTS, and PASTE
Not all species demand these items but those that do will benefit from additional bonuses if their demands are satisfied.

Coats (Humans, Beavers, Harpies)
- Grants a resolve bonus during storms

Boots (Foxes, Frogs, Harpies, Lizards)
- Grants a movement speed bonus

Paste (Frogs, Harpies)
- Grants increased chance for double yields

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ON FOOD
Villagers will consume raw food but will gain resolve when eating Complex Food. Complex foods are those produced from buildings and require more than one ingredient. Note that villagers will consume more than one unit of food if more than one of their preferred foods are available. They will still enjoy the bonus. There are five types of complex food you can produce:

1.Biscuits - Note: Requires Flour
2.Jerky - Note: Requires Fuel
3.Pie - Note: Requires Flour
4.Pickled Goods - Note: Requires Container
5.Porridge - Note: Requires Rainwater
6.Skewers - Note: Requires "Meat and Vegetable"

Tip: When you have a production chain for complex foods going, it may be useful to ban the consumption of the raw foods you intend to use as ingredients so your villagers don't accidentally deplete your supplies. Note that the ability to restrict food consumption must first be unlocked.

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ON SERVICES
Services require the appropriate service building to be constructed and for the appropriate Luxury Good to be available. Below are the services you can provide and the luxury good the service requires:

Brawling: Training Gear
Education: Scroll
Leisure: Ale
Luxury: Wine
Religion: Incense
Treatment: Tea

Species Demands Overview

Note on Definitions:
Resilient - The rate at which resolve decays;
Demanding - The initial amount of resolve to attain before gaining a point of resolve;
Decadence - How much the next resolve threshold increases for gaining a point of reputation;

1. Beavers

Preferred Foods	Biscuits, Pickled Goods	Base Resolve	10
Services	Education, Leisure, Luxury	Resilient	Low
Other Demands	Coats	Demanding	30
Break Interval	2:00	Decadence	2

Strengths: They have high base resolve and require less break time. While their initial demands are high, once you start meeting their demands, it's easy to keep the ball rolling with their low decadence score. Their specializations in woodworking and engineering means they're the best villagers to produce particularly useful goods like planks, pipes, and tools. You can create a strong industrial base with beavers. Every day is a beautiful day for mining and deforestation!

Weaknesses: They require a lot of demands to be met before they begin generating reputation. Their preferred foods and service goods cannot be produced immediately from raw materials and require production chains which they don't specialize in. Obtaining blueprints for a plank producing building is recommended since you will need a lot of it.

2. Foxes

Preferred Foods	Pickled Goods, Porridge, Skewers	Base Resolve	5
Services	Brawling, Luxury, Treatment	Resilient	Low
Other Demands	Boots	Demanding	15
Break Interval	2:00	Decadence	5

Strengths: Their specialty in forest scouting allows them to complete glade events very quickly, which is invaluable at higher difficulties. They're surprisingly resilient since a unique attribute of foxes is that they don't suffer resolve penalties from the hostility of the forest although they still suffer resolve penalties from the storm. Combine all this with their fire keeper bonus and you may find yourself free to explore more glades than usual.

Weaknesses: They have the lowest hunger threshold out of all the species. Glade events which drain food supplies (Ex. living matter) are much more deadly. While they enjoy working at rainwater based buildings, they don't have a specialty which produces double yields. Their unique house requires crystallized dew specifically so you must secure a source of it.

3. Frogs

Preferred Foods	Pie, Porridge	Base Resolve	10
Services	Education, Leisure, Luxury	Resilient	Medium
Other Demands	Coats	Demanding	25
Break Interval	2:30	Decadence	5

Strengths: Frogs are mostly average but there is a notable exception. They have the highest break interval and are very productive. They spend most of their time working and since they make use of paste, they can produce extra goods. Masonry is not a bad specialty and buildings that cater to this specialty are very good ones.

Weaknesses: Frogs are the second most decadent specie and you need to satisfy a lot of their demands to gain resolve points. Frogs are quite elitist and can't stand to be in the shelters with the rabble. Securing a source of bricks for their houses is recommended.

4. Harpies

Preferred Foods	Jerky	Base Resolve	5
Services	Education, Treatment	Resilient	Low
Other Demands	Coats, Boots, Paste	Demanding	15
Break Interval	1:40	Decadence	3

Strengths: Their unique house is relatively cheap and easy to build. They're probably the best specie for generating reputation. Keep satisfying their demands and they'll generate reputation for you quickly and constantly. Their specialize in the production of niche goods typically used in service buildings. Their fire keeper bonus possibly the most powerful in the game since it allows villagers to carry more goods. The more goods carried, the less trips needed to deliver them.

Since they use both boots and paste, they can be surprisingly productive workers.

Weaknesses: They have low base resolve and it will be a struggle to keep them around for the first few storm cycles, so you must start catering to them fast or else they'll leave. Their hunger threshold is low - only one point better than foxes. Glade events which drain food supplies (Ex. living matter) are much more deadly. They need to take breaks more often.

Before the Frog Update, it used to be easier to meet Harpy demands. Now their list of demands is quite varied. While they can generate reputation very well, you will need diverse production chains. They only have one preferred food but demand all three extra goods - coats, boots, and paste.

5. Humans

Preferred Foods	Biscuits, Pie, Porridge	Base Resolve	15
Services	Leisure, Religion	Resilient	Low
Other Demands	Coats	Demanding	30
Break Interval	2:00	Decadence	4

Strengths: They have the highest base resolve of all species. Their specialties in agriculture and brewing are quite strong, affecting many production chains, and also feed into the production of their own preferred foods and service goods. They require less break time. Their fire keeper specialty is useful if you find your settlements take a long time to finish.

Weaknesses: They're very demanding and require a lot of their demands to be met before they generate reputation. While their specialization in agriculture allow you to produce goods to satisfy their demands, you must lean in to their specialties heavily or else you're sabotaging yourself. You need to farm. Get a farming building blueprint and start plowing!

6. Lizards

Preferred Foods	Jerky, Pickled Goods, Pie, Skewers	Base Resolve	5
Services	Brawling, Religion	Resilient	High
Other Demands	Boots	Demanding	15
Break Interval	1:40	Decadence	7

Strengths: Lizards are not very demanding and are easy to please, at first anyway. Their specialty in food production fit them very well since they demand the widest variety of foods. They have the highest hunger threshold out of all the species and can go on for an astonishingly long time without food, but you wouldn't do that to them, would you?

Weaknesses: They have low base resolve and it will be a struggle to keep them around for the first few storm cycles, so you must start catering to them fast or else they'll leave. While easy to please at first, they have the highest decadence. which means that if you aim to generate reputation from lizards, you must commit to their list of demands. Their fire keeper bonus becomes weaker in the long game. They also need to take breaks more often.

IV. Seasons and Seasonal Conditions

There are three seasons in the game: Drizzle, Clearance, and Storm.

1, Drizzle - Positive seasonal conditions will be active at this time. Crops are planted only in this season.

2. Clearance - Crops are harvested in this season.

3. Storm - All negative seasonal conditions will apply at this time. Conditions and their severity are tied to Hostility level. All unharvested crops are destroyed.

At the start of every game, read the Forest Mysteries to see which seasonal conditions are in play. Take special note of the "Active from Hostility x" line. Adjust your strategy accordingly.

Some conditions will require that the villagers' needs for Housing, Complex Food or Services to be met in order for them to apply (if positive) or to be prevented (if negative),

In this example of a positive seasonal condition, villagers have a chance to double their yields but note the condition on the bottom. They can only gain this bonus if their need for housing is met.


In this example of a negative seasonal condition, villagers have a chance of dying when the condition is active during the storm at hostility level 2. But note that like the previous example, this danger can be prevented by providing housing. Make sure there is a shelter for every villager.


Tip: Since negative seasonal conditions are tied to hostility level during the storm, you can avoid some of the nastier ones by reducing hatred to manageable levels. You can:
1. Temporarily unassign woodcutters;
2. Sacrifice wood or coal in the ancient hearth (Don't forget to stop sacrifices when the storm is over!);

V. Hostility

Hostility is the anger of the forest to your intrusion and exploitation. In gameplay, hostility is a constantly increasing negative effect that makes the game more difficult to win. The level of hostility is shown by the red bar on the top right.



How does hostility level affect me?
Firstly, hostility imposes a global penalty to resolve, even during drizzle and clearance season. The penalty is more severe the higher the hostility level is.

Secondly, the hostility level determines how punishing the storm season is. The storm will multiply the penalty to resolve from the hostility level. Worse, forest mysteries which impose negative seasonal conditions will become active if their hostility level requirement is met.

What increases hostility?
1. Number of years passed;
2. Opening glades;
3. Number of villagers;
4. Number of woodcutters;
5. From other sources, typically glade mysteries;
*Their effect on hostility is multiplied depending on difficulty*



How do I decrease hostility?
1. Building additional hearths;
2. Keeping the queen's impatience high;
3. Choosing hostility reducing cornerstones;
4. Acquiring the Ways of the Forest item from vendors or glade rewards;
5.. Some glade events can reduce hostility;

Ways of the Forest


Cornerstones offer a particularly reliable way to reduce hostility. Hence, they're very valuable. Pick a cornerstone which can reduce hostility and fulfill its conditions. Some are quite powerful. Here are some examples:



Notes:
Keeping hostility at manageable levels is key, especially in higher difficulties. In Prestige 15 for example, the storm lasts for an additional two minutes. This is agonizing if you let hostility get out of control. Keep in mind these simple rules:

1. Don't open glades unless you're ready to exploit its resources and take on more hostility;
2. Don't take in more villagers than you require;
3. Take hostility reducing cornerstones when available;
4. Keep an eye out for the Ways of the Forest item and acquire it;
4. Unassign woodcutters and eventually move on to producing fuels other than wood;

VI. Trading

All trade begins with the building of a Trading Post. This single building is the heart of all your trading operations.


TRADERS
With the trading post built, traders will periodically arrive to your settlement. They will stay to do business for a limited time before they move on. There are many different traders, each specializing in the sale of specific goods. The same trader will not visit twice in a row. Clicking on the trading post will show how long until the next trader will arrive in your settlement.

Note that traders cannot arrive during the storm season even if the timer runs out and will instead wait until the next drizzle season.

When a trader is in your settlement, click on the trading post to open the trade window. Trade is straightforward - select the goods you want in the desired amount and drag it in the trader offer window. After, match the value of the desired goods with your own offer.


Traders also sell blueprints and cornerstones which you can see at the bottom left of the trade window. They require amber and are pricey but they could be just what you need to augment your strategy and win the game.

You can attack traders and seize a portion of their goods (even cornerstones) by pressing the ominous, glowing red sword icon at the bottom right of the trade screen. Naturally, this has some very negative long-term consequences. Some of your villagers may die, the queen's impatience will grow, and reluctant traders will take longer to arrive in your settlement. Some specific traders may not even come at all.

Important:
At prestige 10, your goods will be worth less to traders. It will be more difficult to rely on trade as a crutch to make up for any shortages in your production.

TRADE ROUTES (MAKING MONEY)
In addition to allowing traders to arrive in your settlement, the trading post allows you to establish trade routes to ship goods to other settlements for money.

To make money, you need goods and packs of provisions. Packs of provisions can be produced from certain buildings.

You can produce provisions from the Makeshift Post to get you started.


Click the trade route icon on the top right of the screen, or press [Y] as the default shortcut, to open the trade route window.
The right screen shows what goods are demanded, how many packs of provisions are required, how long the travel time will take, and how much amber the trade route is worth.

Once you've decided on an offer, click the sell button to ship the goods. Once a shipment is sent, it cannot be recalled. Your payment will arrive at the end of the travel time.

Continued trading with a settlement will increase your relationship level with that settlement. Good relationships will get you better deals and some cornerstones can grant bonuses for every relationship level you attain.

You can spend extra amber to increase the maximum number of trade offers available from a settlement by clicking the green plus button beside the settlement.

Tips:
- The auto-collect button for trade routes is a godsend.

- Not all trade offers are good. Be careful that you're not giving away important resources for a pittance. You'll understand the value of certain goods the more you play, especially at higher prestige levels.

- Pack items such as Packs of Crops , Packs of Building Materials, Trade Goods, and Luxury Goods are generally worth a good amount of amber, assuming a settlement wants them. If not, you can simply offer them to a trader.

- You can increase the volume of goods in a trade route. Simply use the up and down buttons next to the goods icon to do so. Of course, more packs of provisions will be required as well as an increase in travel time. However, if it's a really good offer, you can make a lot of amber.

VII. Rainpunk

VIII. Blightrot & Corruption

Blightrot is a parasite that infects buildings in your settlement. Massive bright blue cysts on top of buildings are the tell-tale signs of blightrot. Blightrot causes the Corruption of your ancient hearth when they "bloom". When there's too much corruption, your villagers will die.

What causes blightrot?
1. Use of rainpunk technology;
2. Prestige difficulty modifier;
3. Glade events;

Example of blightrot from rainpunk technology:


Important Note Regarding Prestige Difficulty Modifiers:
Prestige 2 causes a ten blightrot cysts to appear every third clearance season;

Prestige 10 increases the cyst generation rate by 100%, corruption rate by 50% and doubles any effect which produces blightrot cysts;

Prestige 15 causes the storm to last longer, which allows more time for blightrot corruption;

How does blightrot corruption work?
During drizzle and clearance season, the cysts are benign. However, during the storm season or certain glade events, the cysts will bloom. Each bloom will produce corruption. The anticipated rate of corruption can be seen on the bottom right of the UI next to the impatience symbol and by the bar above the ancient hearth. You will receive a warning when the blightrot corruption rate will definitely produce deaths should they bloom.





The more blooms there are, the faster the corruption bar will fill. Once the bar is full, three random villagers will be killed. The bar will reset to zero and start filling again. This will continue until the storm or glade event is over.

Needless to say, if blightrot continues to kill your villagers, you could enter a doom spiral wherein your impatience is too high, your production lines are shot, and there's not enough villagers left to work your way out of it.

How do I fight the blightrot?
The first step is to build a Blight Post.


Through the blight post, you can spend fuel to produce units of Purging Fire. Villagers assigned to the blight post as blight fighters will then use this purging fire to destroy blightrot cysts at a rate of one unit per cyst. Each cyst destroyed will remove a slight amount of corruption from the ancient hearth, in addition to reducing the corruption rate.

An important thing to remember is that cysts can only be destroyed when they bloom - either during storm season, which is the usual cause, or during a glade event (Ex.infected drainage mole). Ideally, you want to produce purging fire beforehand during drizzle and clearance season. Blight fighters prioritize fighting the blight over production. During a bloom, blight fighters will use all the purging fire available in the inventory and will only produce more once all stocks have been exhausted.

What are these hydrants?
Hydrants are handy when your settlement is spread out and the blight post is too far from sites of infestation. Unlike rainpunk buildings which are a source from which cysts emanate, glade events can cause cysts to appear anywhere and hydrants allow nearby blight fighters to quickly equip a unit of purging fire from the inventory without having to go to the blight post.

Tips:
The bar below the blight rot production screen shows you how many units of purging fire you have in relation to how many cysts are infecting your settlement. Try to match this number.



Producing purging fire can be taxing on your fuel reserves. Don't forget to set a production limit. If you can, find more efficient sources of fuel to make into purging fire.

Harpies enjoy a production bonus when producing purging fire so assign them to that task.

Although micromanagement can be annoying, it's good practice to assign blight fighters to other tasks when you already have enough purging fire in stock and then calling them back to fight during the storm season.

The cornerstone Burnt to a Crisp produces twenty coal for every three cysts burned. This is a net benefit since one unit of purging fire costs three coal. Burning cysts will be self-sustaining.

Be very careful in higher difficulties as to when you want to solve glade events that produce blight cysts. Remember than in prestige 2 onward, blight cysts appear every third clearance season. Avoid getting too many cysts or else the corruption rate will be overwhelming during the storm season.

The Firekeeper's Armor cornerstone increases the amount of corruption removed when destroying a blightrot cyst. While not strictly necessary, this cornerstone is handy as extra insurance in case you get an unexpected spike in blightrot corruption.

[Mr. Bovine Joni]

This is outdated?

[不吃竹笋的大熊猫]

111

[onomastikon]

This is really helpful. Thanks! How do you "rate" a guide? I can't seem to click on anything to give you the full stars 😯

[Draconus]

Great job! I had pictured an infographic in my head of which building icons coupled with ingredients lead to different food or product icons. This is the closest I've found so far and really appreciate the guide!

[HellboundRonin]

Very helpful, thank you!

[The_Rising_Dragon]

Thanks for this, very useful!