Medieval Dynasty Beginner Tips
This guide will show you what you need to know…
Early Days
You won’t have much income early on, and everything seems more expensive than it should (note: this is written as of the Early Access launch). Immediately follow the first quest to get the ball rolling, claim your land and start to build a home, which will provide you storage. Once you add some tools and a few logs to the mix, you can’t carry much without storing other things first.
Quests
There are a couple of quests to be had in the town you spawn near. Namely a man named Alwyn – following his chain will eventually lead you to your first Bow, and following it further, is perhaps the easiest way to get your first Longbow which works much better.
Dynasty points will be very important a bit further in the game, so completing any “!” quest you come across that awards them is recommended.
Seasonal Food
Spring
Pick up Morels for quick-fix food, or sell them in bunches for early cash-flow.
Unripe berries can serve as cash-flow as wekk, but don’t eat them as they’re poisonous. Unless you desperately need the cash, leave them until summer.
Summer
Pick berries for on-the-go quick-fix food to both hunger and thirst. They don’t provide much, but a single minute spent picking all in the vicinity can fill you up well.
Fall
Mushrooms abound during fall. Pay close attention to the details when viewing them in your inventory, as it’ll tell you if they’re poisonous or not. Hopefully by fall you’ll have done some hunting and cooked some meat, so you can treat all mushrooms as cash-flow.
Winter
There’s really no gathering to be had in Winter. Hunting will be your only food source during this time, if you don’t wish to pay at various taverns for food.
Hunting
There is a Hunting skill about half-way through the tree that will highlight animals in Green (passive) or Red (aggressive) within a certain radius of you (It is similar to the Survival skill that highlights forage-able plants on the ground in yellow).
It is worth investing in both of these skills.
Other than the rabbits which can be one-shot with arrows, other animals can generally survive the first arrow. If you can land a spear (this can work with arrows too, the spear is just visually larger), it makes them easier to track as they flee since you can hold [Alt] and see the spear. Just ensure that you throw a spear that is at least 66% durability, so it doesn’t break on contact.
Carry a knife with you, so that you can skin the animal afterwards and acquire the meat. if you do not have a knife in your inventory, you will not be able to harvest the carcass.
Rabbits
Rabbits are most easily hunted with a bow. Because they’re low to the ground, they can be hard to notice in spring and summer when the vegetation is lush. Until you land a bow, you can get lots of practice in throwing your spears. Use Ctrl (default) to sneak, but be aware you’ll still need to stop some distance away or be noticed, and the rabbit will flee.
Fox
Similar to rabbits, but easier to spot due to both their color, and the squeaky sounds they make. They can be very erratic with their movements, making throwing the spear difficult sometimes as they dart to and fro.
Deer
A headshot with a spear from cover is the easiest way to take the deer down, as they’ll flee with erratic movements if you land your throw anywhere else on the body.
Boar, Wisent, & Bear
Aggressive. Early game focus on headshots with your spears . Carry plenty of spears.
There is another guide as of this writing that highlights areas on the map to find these animals.
Your Constitution
Healing
You heal when you sleep at night.
You can also heal with plantains, a green-leaf, brown-flowered plant found close to the ground. It can be hard to see. Keep a stock on hand, and the rest you come across can be used for early-game cash-flow.
Don’t eat raw meat, or poisonous mushrooms. They will give you food poisoning. If you contract food poisoning, St. John’s Wart can be consumed to help cure it. St.John’s Wart are small yellow flowers found all over. Keep a stock on hand, and the rest you come across can be used for early-game cash-flow.
Cooking
Once you’ve hunted and have some raw meat, you’ll need to cook it. You can cook meat at a campfire, your cooking fire inside your home, or the always-on fire in a Tavern, once you’ve advanced far enough to build one.
To light your campfire or cooking fire, first craft a torch. You will only be able to light a fire if you’ve got a torch in your inventory.
Skills & Tech Trees
Both Skills and Tech are advanced by doing things associated with them. Highlighting various areas of the trees will show you on the right what you need to do in order to advance.
The easiest way to increase farming early on, is to craft a hoe, plot some farmland, and cultivate it. Over and over, until you unlock the Barn building. After that, hoeing is a bit slow.
As of this writing (Early Access launch), farming is not yet well-balanced. A lot of farming requires manure, which cannot be easily acquired as early in the game as you start your farming, and need to level the tech tree for. I imagine this will be addressed as the game continues to be developed.
Marriage & Villagers
Marriage
The main character is male and one of the gameplay mechanics is to marry and create an heir that can continue running the village when the main character is too old. It can take a significant amount of time to court a prospective woman and your dialog choices will determine their affection level toward you. You will want that affection level to be as close to 100 as possible before asking for their hand in marriage. Some dialog options will increase affection level, others will decrease it.
If you choose a dialog option that increases affection, you can continue the conversation up to two more times, at which point you will need to wait until the next day to pursue more.
If you choose a dialog option that decreases affection, no further courtship dialog is possible until the next day.
Because it can take an entire year (or more, depending on whether you choose poorly during dialog), it is worthwhile to start the process early and devote a little bit of each day to courtship dialog.
Once married, your wife can provide healing as well as help you reset your skill points.
Villagers
Once your village has enough Dynasty points and buildings, you’ll want to invite villagers to move there. Villagers require a house, a constant supply of wood via the Resource Storage building, and food via the Food Storage building.
Much like courtship dialog, villagers seeking a new home will require their opinion of you be at least 70% (default upon meeting them is usually 50%). You will want to begin talking to them early on, even before you’re ready to invite them, as like courtship dialog, you can at most have 3 successful dialog attempts with a person before having to wait until the next day.
Once you meet or exceed 70% in their opinion of you, you can invite them to your village. Then on the Management tab, you can assign them a House and a Profession.
