Medieval Dynasty Advanced Guide (Taxes, Diplomacy,Recruitment Crafting, Hunting, Most Profitable)

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.

PART 1 – Avoiding high taxes

Anything you build will increase your dynasty’s tax rate. In the current version of the game, you will even be taxed for objects you later destroy again, so choose carefully what and where you build. This is particularly important for creating fields for farming purposes.

Needless to mention, pay your taxes on time (each spring), or you might face a higher debt every new season and lose reputation as a result. This can get to the point where 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.

PART 2 – 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!).

Furthermore, absolutely avoid unnecessary expenses in the early game for items that can be found, such as the waterskin (cart crash site between Borowo and Sambor’s hunting lodge in the northeast, respawns each season!) and the scythe (cabins southeast of Gostovia).

Purchasing food is a very costly option to meet the high food demand needed to stay alive and maintain your village. Choose alternative options instead. 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). Harvesting mushrooms or berries is also possible, but very tedious. If you’re lazy simply employ a hunter/gatherer to obtain and an innkeeper to prepare the food instead. But remember, that’s too more people who need to be fed, but from my experience I can tell that it pays off. 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 the scythe.

PART 3 – Efficient money sources

Short term:

• Crafting knives (11 Gold) and spears (7 Gold)
• Collecting berries in spring and summer (2 Gold each)
• Crafting throwing stones (2 Gold) from rocks (5 pieces each, requires a workshop, mind the weight!)
• Hunting animals and crafting simple bags (11 Gold) from leather (3 pieces each)
• Stealing iron tools and other valuable items from villages and selling them elsewhere (most items respawn each season)
• Harvesting and stealing unguarded crops at night and process them at a barn if possible (requires a Scythe, but really pays off!) WARNING: If you are seen stealing, your dynasty reputation will decrease (depending on the good’s value)

Mid- to long term:

• Growing wheat and selling the seeds (4 Gold each) – requires fertilized fields, a barn and some technologies
• Growing flax and crafting linen fabric (28 Gold) – requires fertilized fields, a barn, a sewing hut and some technologies
• Crafting iron tools (32 – 105 Gold 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 Gold each, mind the weight!) – requires an excavation shed, mine or pickaxe
• Breeding animals, especially sheep (due to their valuable wool) – requires suitable building depending on the animal, fodder, and some technologies

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

Since the game provides very little information on how you actually create your own settlement and recruit villagers, I will also address this in my guide. It can be tricky to know what to build first and which buildings you will need.

PART 1 – Placement

Finding a suitable location is key to success in Medieval Dynasty.

Keep in mind that you may need access to various resources and space as your village develops (up to 30 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. I also recommend starting to build in a dense forest where there are plenty of trees around for constructing your buildings. Make sure to bring a shovel to make room for your buildings once you have cut down some trees. 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 can even enter buildings or 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

PART 2 – 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

PART 3 – Building features

All buildings need to be maintained as they suffer damage from the environment. Expect simple buildings to remain intact for about one to two years. More advanced buildings need less 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, you will need to fix the damages. Each building part needs a particular material for repairs. Please note that buildings will keep their function and remain in a “completed”-state unless they are completely destroyed.

The quality of building materials affects your population’s mood and the wood demand of your dynasty. You may upgrade existing buildings with daub (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 as soon as you have the resources.

Crafting buildings will take their resources from the storage shed. You can manage which products you want to be produced and at what rate from the management tab. Each worker building requires their respective tools for the workers to carry out their jobs efficiently (e.g. put an axe in the woodcutter’s shed and a scythe in the barn).

Remember, anything you build will result in a higher tax rate, even if it is later destroyed.

PART 4 – Building hints

• Regularly convert the logs in your resource storage into firewood. This will greatly increase the wood number in your management tab.
• Seasons affect the food and wood demand (winter: highest / summer: lowest)
• The more advanced your axe and the higher your skill (must be purchased), 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

PART 5 – 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.

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. Dynasty reputation can be acquired by completing quests. For more information on how to raise your approval rating, please read the “Diplomacy” section.

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.

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.

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 (3-4) to gain approval by a character each day and once you get a negative reaction, the conversation will end immediately. This also goes for the affection rating.

PART 1 – 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 slightly negative 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.

PART 2 – 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 their profession. Nevertheless, here’s a brief overview for the beginners:

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. But honestly, don’t even start playing like this. I could make a huge list of other exploits here, but I’ll leave that to someone else since cheating ruins the game experience for me.

Although Medieval Dynasty features a straightforward crafting system that will also provide the recipes for each item, there are some major barriers to crafting in terms of resources and technology. Crafting increases your crafting skill and will reward you with skill points.

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 items such as clothing or iron tools, which require rare resources like iron and wool.

Crafting and 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 gold 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. Crafting skill points can be spent on accelerating the crafting process, which is useful if you intend to produce items for selling to traders.

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.

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)
• Firewood (for heating, store them in your resource storage)
• Planks (for building roofs of more advanced buildings)

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

PART 1 – Locating animals

Knowing the location of game may save a lot of time hiking through the woods and prevents you from being surprised by predators. In addition, there will be countless quests where you have to find and hunt certain game. Take a look at the map below to view the locations of each type of game.

PART 2 – Hunting basics

Each type of animal 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 overview (WIP)

You can hunt in two main ways:

• Setting traps for rabbits, birds and rats (very limited yield)
• Going on an actual hunting trip in the woods

PART 3 – 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 and a stack of at least 10 arrows to hunt more dangerous game as a ranged weapon keeps the distance between you and the target. I recommend to hit the animal with a couple of arrows first and then finish it off with a spear. If you’re a good shot and aim for the head, the arrows can do the job just as well, so go practise shooting with Alwin (quest must be unlocked) in Gostovia 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 wooden spears due to their weight, bring an axe so you can craft more on your way.

Hint: If you’re lacking the resources needed for crafting hunting tools, you can buy them from Sambor (found in the Northeast next to a hunter’s lodge).

PART 4 – 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 certain perks 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 weapon ready for follow-up shots. Peaceful animals tend to take a second before they start fleeing when hit, so make things quick. 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.

If you hunt dangerous game, you should ensure that there are no other predators in the area before skinning an animal, otherwise you may be attacked while stuck in the skinning animation.

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

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