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Kingdom Building and Economy

By ScotUpdated

Tactical Quick Answer

Your Castle stores every non-edible resource and only what sits in the Castle can be spent, so repairing and upgrading it is what unblocks your economy. It runs Base, Repaired, Upgrade 1, Upgrade 2, doubling storage each step from 4 to 32 per resource. Build Stables for Carriers, since Carriers and not idle workers are what move resources home. Worker capacity comes from Houses and Villages, not from the Castle.

Your kingdom is a machine. Every structure feeds into the next, and one missing piece can stall the entire operation. This guide covers every building that matters, when to build it, and how to keep your workers from tripping over each other.

Core Structures​

The Castle​

The Castle is your hub and the storage for every non-edible resource. Only resources actually sitting in the Castle can be spent, so hauling and storage caps matter more than raw gathering rate.

It has four states, not numbered tiers: Base, Repaired, Upgrade 1, and Upgrade 2. Humans pay 3 Stone, then 5 Gold, then 5 Ingot. The Undead pay 3 Bone, then 5 Blood, then 5 Book. Each step doubles your storage per resource, running 4, 8, 16, 32.

Upgrading also speeds up tax generation. It does not give you building slots or worker capacity. Worker capacity comes from Houses and from upgrading Villages on the map. The one exception is Undead-specific and recent: since Patch 16, Undead basic buildings start with fewer job slots and gain more as the Castle upgrades.

The only dated Castle target in the game is the Vampire unlock, which wants the castle and walls fully upgraded before day 7.

Farms​

Farms produce food. Workers cannot function without it. Build your first farm on Day 2, before you do anything else that morning.

Lumberyards and Quarries​

Wood and stone are your two foundational resources. Lumberyards come first because wood is needed for nearly every early structure. Quarries become critical once you start fortifying walls after Day 3.

The Church​

The Church is repaired, not built, for 3 Boards (Humans) or 3 Blocks (Undead). It does three things:

  • Faith generation: A worker praying there generates Faith during the day. Upgrading the Church with Berries places Nuns, who also make Faith and speed up one building's production by 30%.
  • Weather: Once repaired it shows you tomorrow's weather, one day ahead. That is a next-day readout, not a multi-day forecast, so you cannot scout a week out.
  • Rituals: Spend a Banish to raise the evolution chance of monsters by 2.5%, which earns you more Shards. You can also melt surplus items down for Faith here.

Since Patch 16 you no longer need the Church to cast spells, so its old role as the spell gate is gone. Faith still buys hero upgrades, hero revival, and relics.

The Tavern​

The Tavern is where nightly Promotions happen. You spend Coins here to upgrade your units each night. Upgrading the Tavern increases the quality and variety of Promotion options available.

The Trading Post​

The Trading Post is a world building on the map, not something you construct in your kingdom. It lets you sell any basic unrefined resource for Coins, using dynamic pricing: the more of one resource you sell, the less you get for it, and prices recover only slightly each week.

Spread sales across several days instead of clearing your whole stock at once. Note your Castle caps at 32 of a resource even fully upgraded, so the quantities involved are smaller than they sound.

The Shard Foundry​

Added in Patch 15, the Shard Foundry converts a single refined resource into Shards, and the input differs by kingdom:

  • Human Kingdom: Ingots into Shards.
  • Undead Kingdom: Books into Shards.

Books are an Undead-only resource, made in the Library from Blood plus Paper, so Blood reaches the Foundry only indirectly. The same patch added the human Coin Stamper (gold into coins) and the undead Alchemist (blood into coins), which are the direct blood sink.

Guilds​

There are four Guild world buildings: Warriors, Rangers, Mages, and Summoners. Each offers you one random unit of that class per run, and only once you already own two units of that type.

Guilds sort by class, not by kingdom, so they deepen a class you are already invested in. The lever for kingdom combos is Kingdom Traits, which trigger at 2, 4, and 6 units of the same kingdom.

Worker Flow​

Workers are the backbone of your economy, and over-assigning them is the most common way to stall a run.

Reading Job Slots​

Hover a building and you get one head icon per job slot above it.

IndicatorMeaning
Shaded headAn open job slot
White frame around a headThat worker is working right now
Bright head, no frameAssigned but not yet started
Three white Z'sNothing assigned
Three red Z's (Undead)The building's storage is full
Red No symbolMore workers assigned than nearby deposits can feed

The top bar splits your workforce into total, working, and idle, which is the quickest read on spare capacity.

Carriers, Not Idle Workers​

Carriers move resources to the Castle. Idle workers help when they have nothing else to do, but they are the fallback and not the system. Your dedicated hauler is the Mule for Humans and the Zombie for the Undead, and you start with one, sitting in the Castle.

Build Stables for 5 Wheat to add more. That is the fix for slow deliveries, not deliberately leaving a worker unassigned.

Over-assigning does not cause chaos either. Extra assigned workers simply wait. What actually strands resources is storage filling up: gathering buildings hold only about 6 units each, and your Castle starts at 4 per resource.

The Undead Kingdom Economy​

If you are playing as the Undead Kingdom, the economy works differently and trips up nearly every new player.

Undead workers are Skeletons, and each one decays after finishing a single job. That one-job lifespan, not movement speed, is what makes the kingdom feel different. Skeletons rise every morning from Graves and Mausoleums. You start with 5 Graves on the map, uncover more with Gravediggers from the Graveyard, and upgrade Crypts for permanent additions.

  • Mausoleums give you sustained production. They cost 6 to 48 Stone depending on the spot, upgrade with Bone, and spawn one worker at the start of the day plus one every 28 seconds, dropping to 18 once upgraded.
  • The Catacombs are a shortcut network, not teleportation. Every Mausoleum, the Graveyard, and the repaired Church each open an entrance, and they let workers and carriers cut across the city faster. Spread those entrances out instead of clustering them.
  • Houses work differently. Undead Houses add Carriers, and Undead Villages on the map give permanent Carriers where Human Villages give permanent workers. Your worker supply comes from Graves and Mausoleums instead.

The Undead have no wood economy at all. Bone replaces boards, Block replaces stone for walls, and blood, paper, books, ooze, and souls replace the human processing chain. Only raw stone is shared between the two kingdoms.

tip

The Human Kingdom has a clear, readable supply chain. The Undead Kingdom is intentionally opaque. If you are brand new, start with Humans and switch to Undead once you understand the core loop.

Early Build Priority​

StagePriority
ImmediatelyTavern and Lumberyard, both free.
Day 1Repair the Castle for 3 Stone to double storage. Get workers onto wood.
Day 2First farm, so units keep eating and avoid the 40% hunger penalty.
EarlyStables for a second Carrier, and wooden walls for the gate and tower unit slots.
OngoingCastle gold and ingot upgrades, Tavern upgrades for Happiness, and expansion.

The Tavern is worth upgrading beyond promotions: four upgrades at 8, 16, 24, and 32 Boards raise Happiness up to 16, which is 16% more damage across every unit you field.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What should you build on Day 1?

Your Tavern and Lumberyard cost nothing, so raise them at once. Then repair the Castle for 3 Stone, which doubles your storage from 4 of each resource to 8. No Castle upgrade costs wood, so do not funnel your whole workforce into lumber for it.

How does Trading Post pricing work?

It is a world building on the map and not something you build. Selling a lot of one resource pushes its price down, and prices recover only a little each week, so spread sales across several days. Your Castle caps at 32 of a resource even fully upgraded, so the quantities are smaller than they sound.

What do the Guild buildings actually do?

There are four Guild world buildings covering Warriors, Rangers, Mages, and Summoners. Each offers you one random unit of that class per run, and only once you already own two units of that type. They sort by class and not by kingdom, so Kingdom Traits are the lever for kingdom combos, not Guilds.

Why is the Undead Kingdom economy so much harder?

Undead workers are Skeletons and each one decays after a single job. They rise every morning from Graves and Mausoleums, so your headcount depends on how many of those you have. The Undead also have no wood economy at all, with bone replacing boards and block replacing stone.

What does the Shard Foundry convert?

Ingots into Shards in the Human Kingdom, and Books into Shards in the Undead Kingdom. Books are Undead-only and are made in the Library from blood and paper, so blood reaches the Foundry indirectly. Patch 15 also added the Coin Stamper and the Alchemist for turning gold or blood into coins.