Strategy Guide For Kingdom: Two Crowns
Kingdom: Two Crowns is the third, and definitive, installment in a game series, released in 2018 by Raw Fury and now available on Android and iOS, among other platforms.
The gist is that you play a monarch in medieval Europe, with the option to co-op with a friend, and build your kingdom from the ground up. Hire villagers and employ them as archers, builders, farmers, knights, and others, then expand continuously to upgrade your kingdom and move to other islands.
The catch is that there is a monster called the Greed, which manifests at night as these little purple guys who want to break down your defenses and steal your gold and crown. If you lose your crown, you “die.” Death in the game is not too bad; sent back to Island One with no money, you can simply work your way back to your island you were on before and keep most progress. Additionally, it can be beneficial to die, as that also resets the difficulty counter.
As each day passes, the Greed gets, well, greedier. More of them spawn, they’re harder to defeat, and in late stages more powerful versions appear, such as the Breeder, which spawns more little Greeds and takes a long while to kill. When you die, the global day count resets by 100, meaning you get to keep a lot of progress and things are easier for a while.
There are multiple skins of the game available to choose from. This guide focuses on the base game, or Europe. Different skins have different variations in where things are located and how they work.
Beginning
Since the difficulty has not ramped up yet in the start, it’s best to focus on unlocking technologies and expanding to other islands rather than maxing out on upgrades for defenses. Which ages you’ve unlocked determines what you’re able to build and accomplish:
Wooden Age
In Wooden Age, all things buildable are wood, and only wood. This age is particularly limiting in buildings and upgrades, and while passable in defense this age notable lacks any way to retaliate against the Greed. While the Kingdom may be capable of holding against the Greed, these will adapt, urging the Kingdom to advance into the Stone Age.
Notable wooden purchases available in New Lands and Two Crowns:
You will start out here, and the best way to progress is to focus on 1. Basic walls and archer tower defenses, and 2. income, so you can head to Island Two as soon as possible. Why go to Island Two? On the first island, there are great things to unlock, but you will not have progressed enough yet to unlock them. For example, the griffin needs gems to unlock (only on Island Two and onwards), as well as the Ballista Hermit and the Archery statue. The boat is much easier to get up and running on Island Two, so it makes sense to leave as soon as you are able. This also gives you an easier start on the second island because your Global Day Count, which affects difficulty, will be lower when you arrive because less days have passed.
Income can be achieved in a few ways. The first main one is archers, who hunt animals and defend the kingdom from the Greed. Next, you can hire farmers, the vendor of which requires a sector with a wooden back wall (expanding to have more upgraded walls further out makes more sectors of the kingdom). Farmers remain one of the most lucrative sources of income in the game, being able to harvest crops every day and foraging plants in the winter. It is best to ensure there is a wall in front of a farm before building a farm so that the Greed don't simply walk up and attack your farmers, though.
Something I've noticed is that building archer towers out into the fields where wildlife are can be an efficient way to make archers hunt more. Instead of wandering around as much, an archer in a tower will shoot any animals that come near. Staggering them out into hunt-able areas leads to more animals shot. Clearing the trees to let grass grow, leading to more rabbit burrows, is also advisable. Additionally, obtaining the Stag Mount on Island Two allows you to attract deer to your hunters to shoot.
For workers,
It may be good to avoid expanding into recruitment camps until you need to, as at all stages in the game it's good to maximize workers. Destroying all trees between your base and the campsite will get rid of it. If you find an open area past the camps that allows wall construction, you can extend the kingdom past the camps and chop down all trees except the two immediately flanking the camp.
— Kingdom Wiki - Starting, surviving, & winning
And another tip from the same guide concerning efficiently using your mount:
Remember, if you completely run your horse dry of stamina, it'll take longer before you can run again. It's a good idea to stop running & walk as soon as the horse starts puffing, to maximize speed. If you stop the horse in a grassy area, the horse will eat some grass and fully recover within a second or two.
Another notable source of income only available on the first two islands is the Merchant. He walks to the middle of the Kingdom, near the Town Center, and pays you eight coins. In return, you pay him back one coin, and he will return the next day with a new shipment. With a net gain of seven coins, this can be a reliable source of coins in the starting islands.
Concerning the Town Center: when you upgrade to the highest wood tier, you unlock the banker, which can remain incredibly useful, as he can deposit coins for you and accrue interest on them.
Interest earnings are daily and depend on the number of coins stored.
If a total of only one or two coins have been deposited, there will be no interest, and that amount won't change with time.
If at least three, up to one hundred coins are stored, the Banker increases the funds by seven percent (rounded up) per day.
When more than one hundred coins are stored, the interest rate becomes a solid eight coins per day.
Technically speaking, once this condition is met, every five days the Monarch can refill their coin purse completely. This will work every five days indefinitely by utilizing the earnings from interest alone.
Once you leave to Island Two, you can unlock Stone Age.
Stone Age
Stone Age is the first obtainable technology. It's a defining moment in the fight against the Greed, as with squires, the Kingdom may now assault portals, and upon their ruins build powerful teleporters.
Notable stone purchases:
- Shield – the equipment for squires
- Catapult – an area-effect weapon
- Teleporter – to travel long distances or spy from afar
- Pikes Europe
As mentioned, Stone Age is required for what is in my opinion the meat of the game. Once you start destroying portals, you can deal with less Greed and expand more, eventually being able to eliminate the Greed from a given island once you reach Iron Age. You can also hire Pikemen once you have a stone walled sector, which are incredible subjects that can fish to produce income (including during the winter) and effectively defend the kingdom from the Greed at the walls. Once the Town Center has been upgraded to Stone, you can pay for four shields on it, which act as sort of "job vendors," where unemployed subjects can be hired as Squad Leaders at the Town Center. Once someone has picked up a shield, it is replaced with a banner of the same colors, and you will know they've been employed. When a Squad Leader/Knight dies, you will see a ripped banner, which you can pay to replace with a shield in order to make a new Squad Leader. This leader brings a squad of archers to the end of the kingdom walls, ready to be ordered to attack and destroy a Greed portal.
While it is common for the squad leaders to be defeated and have to be re-employed while attacking a portal, damage to the portal is permanent, so you can keep trying until it is fully demolished. To get stronger leaders, you can upgrade them to a Knight, which requires a forge. To get a forge, you need the town center last tier, the iron keep; additionally, it requires a large enough empty space protected by an iron wall, that is, with an iron back wall. For this you need Iron Technology, found on the Fourth Island.
Also on the Second Island is three gem chests, meaning you can start collecting gems to use on new mounts, statues, and Hermits.1 The Stag mount, Scythe Statue, Dog, and Stable Hermit are also on the island. I recommend getting any statue when you can, as it gives a blessing that applies across all islands, until a monarch loses their crown, after which you can pay a coin fee to reactivate the statue. For example, the blessing the Scythe Statue gives is increasing the number of supported farm plots.
Once you have worked on the Second Island enough to want to unlock Iron Age, head to the Third Island. The boat will take a bit more time to build now, and something to consider is expanding the Kingdom walls past the boat remnants while your builders work on it. If you purchase new parts but they have not been built yet, Greed can steal your parts. Also, if you're wondering how to not crash your boat every time you go to an island, you do need to destroy the dock portal of a given island in order to build a Lighthouse. This structure will ensure the boat will not be destroyed when you land on an island containing a Lighthouse. You can then upgrade the Lighthouses to prevent it from decaying like the rest of the island when you are gone from it for too long.
The Third Island is not too exciting, although there are some important considerations on it. There's another mount, more gems, the Builder Statue (increases maximum wall HP), and the Bakery Hermit. The Bakery Hermit allows high tier archer towers to be upgraded into bakeries for six coins; the bakery is an unmanned structure that produces treats designed to lure vagrants out of their camps. This makes recruiting them easier, especially on larger islands. You don't want to put a bakery out in the wilderness though, since Greed can steal the treats. Hermits can also be brought with you to new islands, so the Bakery Hermit is probably most useful on Islands Four and Five.
Island Four has the Iron Mine, to bring you into the Iron Age. It also has offensive mounts, such as the Bear and Lizard, and the Warrior hermit, which can turn high tier archer towers into a Warrior Tower. This tower allows you to recruit additional squad leaders by paying for more shields.
Iron Age
The Iron Age brings the best weapons and defences the Kingdom has ever seen. To gain access to iron Monarchs must locate and construct the iron mine. Reaching iron will gradually shift the Kingdom's strategy from defense to offense. Notable things made possible through iron:
The benefits of Iron Age (the final technology) are much stronger fortifications, forges to turn squad leaders into knights, and the Bomb, which is the final step to eliminate the Greed from a given island. Once enough portals are destroyed to reach the cave, you can launch the ultimate attack against the Greed hive.
The steps you need to ideally take are:
- Hire as many squad leaders and supporting archers as possible, upgrading to knights where possible.
- Purchase a bomb
- March to the portal at the crack of dawn with the squads and builders pushing the bomb
- Pay coins to the builders and bomb to initiate entering the portal (remember that both members in a co-op game need to enter the portal)
- Fight your way through the Greed hordes inside until you reach the center of the hive
- Pay coins to ignite the bomb
- Run as fast as you can to the exit, as you have 15-30 seconds to escape with your crown intact.2
In late game, focus on upgrading everything to iron and destroying portals, as well as making catapults and fire barrels to defend yourself. Rinse and repeat on all your islands, and you're golden.