The Smart Guide

Overview

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 handle them, whilst purposely skipping the very basics. The guide will be regularly updated as the game develops.

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 houses have been constructed.

Medieval Dynasty currently provides very little guidance on how to make use of its various features, due to the game still being in an early development state. Also, few detailed and accurate community guides are available yet. The Smart Guide intends to help change these circumstances.

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 straightforward and relevant information.

Any suggestions from the community are welcome. If you feel like there is false 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

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 it increases with interest each season and result in a loss of reputation. If you keep failing to pay your taxes over several years, you will be exiled from the valley and lose the game once your reputation reaches -10000. 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, it does not make sense to unlock any woolen clothes if you have zero wool supply or don’t own a sewing hut. Nor should you be using fertilizer on fields if you don’t have seeds ready that must be planted in that season (the fertilizer will simply disappear if nothing is sown!).

If you own a farm and have any workers available, make them maintain the fields for you. Since they will be using their own equipment and seeds, you will not need to purchase expensive fertilizer or seeds to grow plants. All you need to do is define what the workers should grow on each field, according to the season.

A field worker harvesting free crops

Furthermore, absolutely avoid unnecessary expenses in the early game for items that can be found. The following precious items can be obtained by stealing, with most of them respawning every season.

• Waterskin: Found at the cart crash site near a path between Borowo and Sambor’s hunting lodge in the northeast (where the fence is broken). One more can be found on a table in Borowo.
• Scythe: Found in the crate of any cabin southeast of Gostovia or on the farmstead between Rolnica and Branica
• Bag: Found on tables in Gostovia, Borowo, Rolnica and Hornica
• Iron Knife: Found on tables in Gostovia
• Various Crops: Can be harvested from fields next to Gostovia (Rye/Wheat), Branica (Flax) and some other villages (scythe needed)

WARNING: If you are seen stealing, your dynasty’s reputation will decrease.

Purchasing food is a very costly option to meet the high food demand needed to stay alive and keep your population satisfied. If you do so, purchase flatbread, as it has the highest nutritional value you can get for food with such a low price.

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’re lazy, simply employ a hunter or gatherer to obtain and an innkeeper to prepare the food instead. But remember, every inhabitant increases your food demand. However, from my own experience, I can tell that it pays off having inhabitants do the job for you. As soon as you own enough fields, you can also make gruel (20 food points each) from collected rye or grow vegetables (around 5 food points each). Don’t forget to sell all byproducts to make some extra 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 scythes and pickaxes.

Efficient money sources

Short term:

• Crafting knives (11 coins) and spears (7 coins)
• Collecting berries in spring and summer (2 coins each)
• Crafting throwing stones (2 coins) from rocks (5 pieces each)
  – requires a workshop
• Hunting animals and crafting simple bags (11 coins) from leather (3 coins each)
• Stealing iron tools and other valuable items from villages and selling them elsewhere
• Harvesting and stealing unguarded crops at night and processing them at a barn if possible
  – requires a scythe

Mid- to long term:

• Growing wheat and selling the seeds (4 coins each)
  – requires fields, a barn and some technologies
• Growing flax and crafting linen fabric (28 coins)
  – requires fields, a barn, a sewing hut and some technologies
• Crafting iron tools (32 – 105 coins per tool, I recommend crafting iron hoes or hammers due to the low iron demand and comparatively low weight)
  – requires a pickaxe or mine, smithy, wood supply and some technologies
• Mining limestone (AI work quite reliably) and selling them (5 coins each, mind the weight!)
  – requires an excavation shed, mine or pickaxe
• Breeding animals, especially sheep (due to their valuable wool)
  – requires a suitable building for each breed, fodder, and some technologies

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

Understanding how to obtain more skills and technologies and knowing what they are needed for is important if you want to avoid running into obstacles that hinder your progress in the game. Although skills and technology are obtained in similar ways, it is crucial to understand their different roles in the game and where they provide the most benefits. This section of my guide will walk you through the most relevant aspects of Medieval Dynasty’s skill and technology system.

Skills

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 iron, limestone, salt and rocks (obtained from deposits).

• Hunting
  Hunting skills can be leveled up by killing and skinning animals and by setting up traps and collecting the trapped animals.

• Farming
  Increase this skill type by plowing, sowing, harvesting, collecting vegetables, milking animals and shearing sheep.

• Diplomacy
  Level up diplomacy by interacting with people in the world of Medieval Dynasty. Only positive or neutral reactions will add to your skill level.

• Survival
  This skill can be increased by collecting resources that don’t need tools for extraction such as sticks, rocks and berries. Fishing will also add to this skill level.

• Crafting
  This is the easiest skill to level up, as you will be processing items on most days (crafting, cooking, sewing), which means this skill increases automatically. The crafting skill can be leveled up quickly by processing large amounts of harvested crops on the threshing floor of your barn.

Understanding perks and the skill tree

Each of the categories listed above must be leveled up to obtain skill points, which can be spent on unique perks that will ultimately make life in Medieval Dynasty significantly easier. Each category consists of ten levels.

The skill tree is divided into four tiers, where at least one perk of the lower tier is required to unlock a higher tier. Do not spend your first three skill points in each category for anything else than knowledge. The higher your knowledge in a field, the faster you will gain skill points and the more points you will have available in the end. Please note that many of the currently available perk points are still work-in-progress, which means that they do not work properly just yet.

The only way to reset your talents is by asking your wife to do so and then picking the desired category. This will require you to interact directly with your wife, but can be repeated indefinitely and does not cost anything. Some of the available perks will make a significant difference to your game, which means you should make sure you spend all your skill points as soon as you receive them.

The skill tree, showing some unlocked perks in green

Technology

Technology is divided into four categories:

• Building
  Developed by cutting trees, mining rocks, digging clay and constructing buildings. Inhabitants working at a woodcutter’s shed, an excavation shed or a mine will assist your efforts to level up this technology. Increasing the building technology will allow you to purchase schemes for constructing more advanced buildings and decorative objects.

• Survival
  Increased by killing and skinning animals, trapping and fishing. Workers employed in a hunting lodge or fishermen’s hut will contribute to the development of this technology. Each level of this technology enables you to craft more advanced hunting tools and other convenient survival equipment such as campfires and traps, if purchased.

• Farming
  Leveled up by plowing, sowing, harvesting, collecting vegetables, milking animals and shearing sheep. Field workers will add to this technology if they are busy with their jobs. The further you progress in this technology, the more buildings and tools related to crop cultivation and animal husbandry can be unlocked through a purchase.

• Crafting
  Crafting technology can be increased by crafting, cooking and sewing. Blacksmiths, seamstresses and innkeepers will be a passive aid to your advancement in this technology. Progressing in terms of crafting technology will enable you to unlock new specialist buildings and purchase their production schemes.

Construction and Recruitment

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

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 40 buildings), so you may want to build on flat ground not too far from other villages. You might also like to have a cave nearby for a future source of iron. Moreover, I recommend starting to build in a dense forest where there are plenty of trees that will provide the logs for constructing your buildings. Make sure to bring a shovel to make room for your buildings once you have cut down some trees and prevent them from growing back. This will also reward you with some extra logs.

Furthermore, you may want to avoid building in an area where there are wolves or bears, as they might enter buildings and surprise you while you are busy with something else. Needless to mention, make sure you have a water source nearby.

Briefly stated, the area you build on should feature the following:

• Flat ground
• Water source nearby
• Wood source nearby
• Straw source (reeds) nearby
• Village nearby
• Cave nearby
• No predators

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) 1-2 houses
5) Woodcutter’s shed
6) Hunter’s lodge
7) Barn
8) Fields
9) Anything you like

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. In order to repair a building, approach it with any 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. Each building part requires a particular material for repairs. Please note that 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 and wattle and wooden buildings with daub (farming technology required). In order to upgrade a building, it needs to be approached with any 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.

A partially upgraded building, viewed in “Upgrade”-mode

Crafting buildings will take their resources from the storage shed (and some from the food storage, too). You can manage which products you want to be produced and at what rate 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 once these chests are full.

Building tricks

• Regularly convert the logs in your resource storage into firewood. This will greatly increase the amount of wood available to your inhabitants from the resource storage.
• Seasons affect the food and wood demand (winter: highest / summer: lowest)
• The more advanced your axe and the more perk points spent on logging, the faster you can cut down trees.
• • Maple trees yield 4 + 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. It is important to understand that the gender of the person you recruit matters for the development of your village. You may want to create mixed households so there will eventually be offspring.

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 recruitment, you will need to have an approval rating of at least 70% and a minimum of 50 dynasty reputation (increases exponentially for each newcomer). Dynasty reputation can be acquired by completing quests. If you remain unable to recruit although your village has enough space for newcomers, you should move one of your residents out of a house via the management tab, recruit the villager, and then move them in together.

You should under no circumstances start inviting people to your village unless you own a resource storage (wood supply) and food storage (food supply). Therefore, it may be wise to employ the first two to four villagers as lumberjacks and hunters (alternatively: gatherers) to ensure you meet their resource demand, whilst not being drawn away from important activities due to the constant need to cut trees or find food.

Furthermore, I would recommend that you only recruit as many inhabitants as you have workplaces for. Each worker building features given types of professions that can be assigned to inhabitants. Pay attention to each inhabitants’ traits when assigning jobs.

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

Keep in mind that your inhabitants will only be satisfied with living at your village if they have a profession and live in a decent house. The consequence of not maintaining buildings and not making sure the inhabitants’ demands are met is that they will leave.

Please read the “Management” section of this guide for more detailed information on managing inhabitants. For more information on how to raise your approval rating, follow the instructions of the “Diplomacy” section.

Diplomacy

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 skill points may be spent on unique perks such as increased mood of your village’s inhabitants, higher trade profits and lower taxes.

Introduction

First of all, it is incredibly important to increase your diplomacy skill as early as possible. This means you should start talking to people from the very beginning and practice it every day as you earn valuable skill points each time you interact with an NPC. Diplomacy skill can also be increased by completing certain side quests.

In general, it can be said that you should choose your topics depending on the profession of the person you are talking to and also consider your environment (weather, season, etc.). This is also true for flirting. Frankly said, you shouldn’t be talking about the nice flowers you saw on the way to your crush if the ground is frozen, because it’s not going to sound very believable.

Furthermore, the dirtier your character is, the smaller the chance of success. Also, you can’t even start flirting when Racimir is covered in mud (the hygiene of your character can be seen in the management tab, or by looking at your hands). So take a bath before talking to people, whether you use your own washtub or a nearby river doesn’t matter.

Remember that you will have a limited number of attempts (2-5) to gain approval by a character every day and once you get a negative reaction, the conversation will end immediately. This also counts for the affection rating.

Small talk

Basically, there are three categories of professions, which you can find out by observing the NPCs. In this guide, I will refer to blacksmiths, seamstresses and innkeepers as craftsmen. Field workers, loggers and miners will be referred to as workers. The last category that is featured in this guide are hunters, which include gatherers and actual hunters.

“How have you been lately?”
This question is the safest option, as it does never cause a negative reaction, even if your conversation partner is in a bad mood. In the best case, it will reward you with much approval by craftsmen and even more by workers. On hunters, this interaction will usually not have any effect.

“Nice weather we’re having today, don’t you think?”
This one works in most cases too, given it is spring or summer and it’s sunny, as most people dislike rain and the cold in Medieval Dynasty. At best, it will significantly boost your approval by workers and, to a smaller extent, by hunters. However, craftsmen’s approval rating will usually decrease when confronted with this phrase.

“How’s the job? I hope, you’re doing alright.”
This phrase works best on craftsmen and sometimes on hunters, too. Workers will usually dislike you for asking this question.

“I just got back from working in the field. Tough job.”
Don’t use this on craftsmen, as it will likely have a negative effect on their approval. It may work well on workers and sometimes on hunters, too.

“Recently I got into hunting, got any tips?”
Needless to say, this phrase works best on hunters. From time to time, you might win a worker for your side with this question, too. But you are unlikely to impress craftsmen by using it.

“What a day! I’ve been working almost non stop but I know my hard work will pay off. You know what they say “early bird gets the worm”.”
If at all, this expect this phrase only to work on craftsmen. For the rest, it will likely trigger a negative response.

“Have you heard any gossips lately?”
Only use this one when talking to workers. Never use it on hunters. Craftsmen are expected to react neutral or negatively to this phrase.

“Have you seen that nobel who was passing nearby? I heard people say that he had amazing robes on him!”
This phrase works best on craftsmen, but will likely cause a negative reaction if used on anybody else.

And finally…a little extra knowledge: Use inspection mode (Alt) to view your inhabitants’ stats. This may help with finding out their profession.

Flirting

Firstly, you should know that an affection rating of at least 50 and an age difference of +/- 10 (the interaction can’t be used on minors, obviously!) is needed for asking any woman to marry you, which will later give you the opportunity to reset your skill tree and have a child (which will become your heir). Flirting will only be possible with an approval rating of at least 60.

Flirting is quite straightforward in Medieval Dynasty. You should easily be able to pick the right lines if you know your counterpart’s profession. Nevertheless, here’s a brief overview:

The following phrases tend to work best. Success is almost guaranteed if you stick to these:

• “How have you been lately? I hope you’re doing well. If you ever need anything, just ask me. I’ll be glad to help, especially since it’s you.”
• “Did anyone ever tell you that you have beautiful eyes?”
• “I admire your dedication to your work. You deserve the highest praise for it.”
• “You look beautiful today.”

These phrases can only safely be used in spring or summer and if there’s nice weather:

• “We should go out to have a lunch by the river sometime. I heard it’s really pretty this time of the year.”
• “You look as beautiful as that blue sky today!”
• “You know at my way here I saw a patch of beautiful flowers and I instantly thought of you.”

Use at your own risk:

• “I recently went hunting and actually took on a bear. It was a tough fight but I succeeded at the end.”
• “What an amazing dress you have. It suits you very well.”
• “My lady, you seem very fit, you look strong like a boar.”
• “My lady, I cannot help but compliment your shapely figure.“
• “You know, I’m quite strong. It works like a charm on ladies.“
• “You know, I like you a lot.”
• “You know, having a lot of money like I do, makes life a lot easier.”
• “I admire your honesty…”

Author’s comment
Now if you’re a fool, you can obviously save the game every time you gain approval and reload the game if you fail. Please read the “Becoming an Expert” section of this guide for more information on game exploits.

Management

Efficient resource management

At first, it may seem complicated to estimate the amount of resources needed for your village at any time. Consider that the wood and food demand of your village depends on the number of inhabitants, the season and the quality of your buildings. Each resource has an hourly 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 convert the logs in your resource storage into firewood on a regular basis by yourself. Technically, you could order lumberjacks to convert the logs they obtain into firewood, but this makes them work at half of their capacity. For example, a level 1 lumberjack 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 gives you the option to manage your inhabitants, buildings and resources

As 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 or simple dishes like gruel in your food storage, as they are comparably easy to obtain. Later on, you may prefer to produce breads with a very high nutritional value as a food source for your population.

Important: Do not ever salt meat. This is a waste of a rare and expensive resource that will not pay off.

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 already overpopulated. Always consider the traits of your inhabitants before assigning professions to them. Their skill traits will significantly affect their production efficiency. You can view a worker’s traits 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, because all products will be moved to your resource storage or food storage once finished. This can only be carried out if the chest inside has enough space available. If your storage is full, all new products will get stuck at the workers’ buildings until their chests are at capacity too. Products that are finished beyond that stage will disappear.

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

• You must own a suitable worker building, where the item can be crafted
• The technology for crafting the item must be unlocked (and purchased)
• Your worker must have access to the materials (as listed in the recipe) through the resource storage (tools are not required for completion in the current version)

If any of these conditions are unfulfilled, production will stop immediately. Be warned, this may be hard to notice if you don’t keep an eye on the management tab.

A field worker in the service of his lordship plowing the last patch of a large field

Crafting

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 crafting skill and technology and will reward you with points you can spend on crafting perks and purchase new schemes for creating items.

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 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.

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

Crafting technologies

Each item needs to be unlocked before you can craft it, usually at a high cost. But it pays off since most items that can be crafted cost hundreds of coins and wear off quickly, whereas it takes just a single payment to purchase a new technology, which you will then keep forever. Before purchasing a new technology, 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’s worth purchasing a certain crafting scheme.

Crafting skills

Crafting skill points can be spent on accelerating the crafting process, which is useful if you intend to produce items for selling to traders. However, most of the perks are work in progress and have no effect yet.

Medieval Dynasty offers various crafting perks in the skill tree, of which most are currently work in progress

Hiring craftsmen

Be aware that in order to employ craftsmen in your village, you must have unlocked the items you intend to produce. Also consider the crafting 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.

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

Here’s a list of the most commonly needed items that can be crafted:

• Knife (for skinning animals)
• Axe (for logging)
• Hammer (for construction)
• Shovel (for removing tree stumps)
• Bag (for farming)
• Scythe (for farming)
• Hoe (for farming)
• Pickaxe (for mining)
• Spear, bow or crossbow with arrows/bolts (for hunting and self-defense)
• Backpack or pouch (for carrying more items)
• Firewood (for heating, store them in your resource storage)
• Planks (for building roofs of more advanced buildings)

Farming

Medieval Dynasty provides a wide range of farming methods. You can grow crops, vegetables or breed animals to obtain valuable products that can then be used to feed your inhabitants or sold for a fair amount of money. Farming is indeed the most efficient way to make a living in this game, but it takes a lot to get to the point where it returns a significant profit.

The peasant approach

If you’ve only just started 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 fertilizer and seeds are expensive in the early game, you are best off creating a rather small field no larger than 7×7 square meters.

Assuming your first own field has a size of 6×7 (42 squares) and you’re lacking the resources to craft all of your equipment, you will need the following:

• Barn I (tax: 50 coins/season) – Requires 27 logs, 64 sticks and 48 straw
• Wooden Hoe (at least one) – Requires 2 logs
• Simple Bag – Requires 3 leather
• Scythe (only needed for crops) – Price: 600 coins
• Stick (for plotting your field)
• 42x Fertilizer – Total price: 420 coins (10 coins each)
• 42x Seeds (any type) – Total price: 420-840 coins (10-20 coins each)
• 10 Farming technology points (read “Skills and Technology”-section for more information)

A medium-sized field showing cabbage as it grows

Then proceed as follows:

Plot your field at the beginning of any season and plow it. Then equip the bag and right-click to check which crops or vegetables can be grown in that season. This must be done before using fertilizer to avoid wasting it since it will be gone by the next season if nothing is sown. Then fertilize your fields with your bag equipped. Now it’s time to plow the field again. If that is done, you can start sowing your seeds onto the field. Then wait one or two seasons until your plants are ready to be collected. If you have grown crops, you will need to use a scythe and collect the yield manually. 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 filthy thief approach

If you don’t have enough money and don’t mind committing a crime, you can also steal crops with a stolen scythe (available in the sheds just south of Gostovia).

Go to any field near one of the villages and harvest the crops once they’re ready (this alone will not have an impact on your dynasty’s reputation). Once your scythe is broken, start collecting the yield at night. If you’re seen stealing, your dynasty’s reputation will be reduced. You might want to bring a torch so you can collect all the yield as it may be hard to see in the dark.

Then go back to your barn and process the crops to obtain seeds and some valuable byproducts.
Use the seeds to grow your own crops. Due to their high price, harvesting flax may be the best option. A large flax field can be found in Branica.

The landlord approach

If you already have a populated village, you may want to employ some of your inhabitants as field workers. Plot a field as large as possible nearby your village (maximum size 16×16, 256 squares). In order to get your inhabitants to work, you first have to assign them the “field worker”-profession and then edit your fields on the management tab and choose what to grow. This is the most profitable option since your field workers will use their own equipment. As of the latest game version, you will need to have seeds stored in your barn before your workers can start to grow anything.

Use a bag and right-click to check which crops or vegetables can be grown in the current season. Decide which crops to grow at the beginning of each season to maximize your profit. The closer you are to the end of the season, the lower the chance that your field workers will finish their tasks before the fields are reset.

If you want to automate the process, make sure to employ a farmer too and select your desired products. They will be moved to your resource storage once they’re finished. Collected vegetables will go directly to your food storage.

Inhabitants working simultaneously on a large field

A partially ready field with various vegetables and crops

Awareness of game limitations

Regularly observe the progress of your field workers. You will not need to be nearby for them to work, but they may get stuck sometimes and stop their tasks. If that happens, you can try reassigning their jobs and/or edit your fields in the management tab again. If both remains unsuccessful, reloading the game is the last option to fix the issue. However, this is not guaranteed to work and is only a temporary solution until the AI is fixed.

Breeding animals

Animal husbandry requires a high level of farming technology and can be ruled out during the first few years as it is quite expensive.

In order to breed chickens, geese, pigs, sheep, horses or cows you will need to build the appropriate buildings and purchase the desired animals. Their prices vary depending on their age and species, but usually cost between 1000 and 5000 coins each. You can buy them from animal breeders living in other villages. You may want to purchase one male adult and one female adult so they can produce offspring. Keep in mind that your animals will eventually die of age.

A pigsty with a wooden fence around it to keep the animals inside

Choose the type of animal to breed according to your needs and wants. You will see each animal’s advantages via the technology tab. It is recommended to employ an animal breeder (with high farming skill) for each of your breeding installations to automate the process and avoid having to feed animals manually with purchased animal feed. Animal breeders will bring their own equipment and animal feed. All your products obtained from breeding will be moved to your resource storage.

Important note

Animal breeding is, just like most other content of Medieval Dynasty, still work in progress. There is very little information available on how its done, but I included everything I have learned from my own experience and read on the internet in this guide.

Hunting

Hunting is one of the most common activities in Medieval Dynasty as it is essential for survival, particularly in the early game. It may be challenging and dangerous to hunt certain animals, so never do it unprepared. This guide will help you do it the proper way.

Locating animals

Knowing the location of game animals may save a lot of time hiking through the woods and could prevent you from being surprised by predators. In addition, there will be countless quests where you have to find and hunt certain game, so knowing your way around the map is important.

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

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

A wolf, killed by a single shot to the head. Hunting predators is a risky business.

Hunting tools

Always bring a skinning knife to gut the animals you have killed. In the early game, it is wise to carry 3-5 wooden spears when traveling anywhere as you may be attacked by boars, wisents, wolves or even bears which may take several hits to be 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. I recommend to hit the animal with a couple of arrows/bolts first and then finish it off with a spear. If you’re a good shot and aim for the head, the arrows/bolts can do the job just as well, so practise shooting with Alwin (quest must be unlocked) in Gostovia or use your own target for training before taking on dangerous game.

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.

Hint: If you lack the resources needed for crafting more advanced hunting tools, you can buy them from Sambor (found in the Northeast end of the map next to his hunting lodge).

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 as close as possible. 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 tend to take a second before they start fleeing when hit. Make use of this time lag. Charging animals can be hard to fight if they come too close. Depending on where you hit an animal, they may be slowed down due to their injury, 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.

Hint: Use a torch to scare wolves away if you are unarmed.

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

Most Profitable Items

The following list includes the most profitable items that are widely available or require the least amount of resources to be crafted and sell for good money. The list has been arranged by type and weight. All base selling prices are included.

Raw, Low Weight

Raw, High Weight

Some of the crops featured in Medieval Dynasty

Processed, Low Weight

Processed, High Weight

Important
The list does not yet include cooked or baked items, which can also sell for good money.

Becoming an Expert

Although Medieval Dynasty is simple and easy to learn in its current development stage, there are many important things to know about it if you aim to create the most impressive settlement the valley has ever seen.

Customization

You can choose between many difficulty settings and configure them as you like. However, you have to start a completely new game to apply your custom settings, so this new feature is not for those who would like to keep their progress.

The customization menu added with update 0.2.0.0

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.

Morally “unacceptable” exploits:

• Use the “unstuck” function in your main menu for a teleport to the starting area just south of Gostovia. This can be especially useful when you need to get there quickly (eg. to pay your taxes or to trade items). Pro tip: Build a resource storage next to the “unstuck” point. This allows you to reach your item chest quickly when overburdened.
• 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, which will then be directly delivered to your storage chest at home.
• Return to the locations of previously stolen valuable items each season. They will most likely have respawned, so you can steal them again.

Morally “clean” exploits:

• 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 iron and salt.
• Save your game before any changes to your village or before doing anything with risk involved (stealing, hunting, flirting, etc.).
• Your wife will allow you to reset your talents indefinitely. Make use of this function.

Awareness of myths and lies

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: Fields and demolished buildings will add to your tax rate.
  WRONG. This is one of the most common myths. However, extensive testing has proven it wrong.

  A huge thank you to @RandomZeroGravity for testing this and to @KingDerekofDreamland for making me aware of this in the first place and also for his deep research to prove this myth wrong.

• 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.
  WRONG. This feature is work-in-progress, but as of the current development state, workers will use their own tools. This has been tested on field workers, lumberjacks, hunters and blacksmiths.

• 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.

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 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 keep being active throughout the night.

Seasons overview

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).

Saving the game and avoiding game crashes

Due to the game still being in an early development state, sudden crashes occur from time to time. It is important that your regularly save your progress (hit ‘F5’ on your keyboard to quick-save). The game will auto-save every time you wake up from sleep and at the beginning of each season.

Furthermore, you should make sure to delete old game saves (only keep the last three saves in case you want to revert to an earlier stage). Wiping your saves may help to improve stability and may prevent game crashes. Moreover, it will take less time for each save to be executed if there are fewer saves.