Tips and tricks for walking Northgard
Northgard’s real-time strategy game won the hearts of many gamers even in Early Access, fueled by new, inventive features for RTS. Here you will find many gaming aspects of Evoland and Evoland 2 from the developers at Shiro Games. You also need to rule the land – you will have to choose how you want to conquer the Viking continent – through conquest, trade or knowledge.
Below you will find tips, tricks and strategies for developing your first settlement in Northgard. Use them as a guide to make life easier in the middle and late stages of the game.
We will tell you:
- Building a base early.
- Colonization of lands.
- Residents management.
- Resource management.
Base building tips early in the game
Every map in Northgard is procedurally generated, which means there’s no chance of playing the same location twice. You will never know where the resources will be or what type of terrain you will land on when you first launch.
Available territory
On the other hand, you always start with the town hall and three residents. Since you cannot do anything with buildings and units at the moment of stopping the game (create, hire), you need literally from the very beginning to learn how to build the base correctly. Also pay attention to how many buildings can be located in the current section of the map.
Since we are talking about the beginning of the game, then only one territory of the kingdom is available to you. Click anywhere in your territory and on the right side of the screen you will see a menu for building and residents. To the left of this place is a rectangular box with a house symbol on top and a number to the right of it (for example, 1/5). This is the number of buildings that can be built on a given piece of land (the first digit is the number of houses already built). Keep this in mind when building your base.
But first, build a house so that your town hall can constantly create residents. Each house adds five units to the available population.
Then you need to build a scout camp, which will allow you to transform ordinary residents into scouts. They are vital to empire expansion as they are the only means by which you can explore the map and colonize new lands.
After you build a scout camp, immediately build a sawmill. Ideally, it should be built in close proximity to the forest on the initial territory (for this, the bonus to timber production will be 20%). However, if it is a region where there is no forest, or with a too small area, then you can wait until the scout finds the nearest area with a large amount of timber. This will be the most suitable place for a sawmill.
When you build your own sawmill, you have a choice: build a training ground or a trading post. The latter will help you earn more gold, which is required to maintain buildings and pay for warriors. In addition, gold (among other resources) is needed to create and upgrade buildings.
Training camp
At the beginning of the game, you will automatically receive 2 units of gold for every 10 seconds from the town hall. This is a small but steady inflow of capital. You cannot build too many buildings before building a trading post (the main source of gold). On the other hand, it is possible to first build a training ground in order to turn the inhabitants into warriors, and only after that to engage in trade.
“Winter is Coming” or How to Prepare for the Severe Colds in Northgard
By the time you read this article, you may have already made it to your first winter in Northgard. This is the time when all resource production slows down – you will receive less food and wood.
At this point, you need to think about building the following buildings:
- Hunting camp – if an area with deer is found and colonized.
- Fishing hut – if a lake with fish is found (be careful, there are not always fish in the sea).
- Farm – if a plot of fertile land is found.
- Silo – Increases the capacity of the food storage if you are focused on food production.
- Sheep Pen – If you start the game with sheep or find territory with them (this will significantly increase food production).
- Mine – if deposits of stone or iron are found.
You can easily get through the early game (especially on lower difficulty) without building defense towers or a healer’s hut. These structures consume too many vital resources, but are practically useless in the early stages.
It is impossible to survive here without colonization of lands
As mentioned above, the Scout is the only way to discover and colonize new territories in the Northgard Desert. But there are several important points to keep in mind after the scout has opened the area, driving away the “fog of war”.
You can control your scout
This may seem obvious, but when you create a scout, he immediately runs away in a random direction to reveal new territories. If there is a section of the map that you like the most and that you want to explore, then click on the scout and make him walk to the edge of this region. It will automatically start scouting.
Scout
Your scout knows how much can be built in the region
Remember that each region has its own building limit. As soon as the scout discovers a new territory, then click on it to find out how many buildings you can build here and what resources to find. You may want to relocate a mine or sawmill to a new area, but before you do …
Check how much food is needed to colonize a new territory
At the beginning of the game, a small amount of food is required to colonize a territory. However, as you add more and more sectors to the empire, the amount of food required to do this increases steadily. Just remember to spend your winter reserves annexing a piece of land that you weren’t able to colonize right away.
Make sure you don’t have to fight for land
You cannot colonize new territories if they are inhabited by enemies (people or other creatures) – first you have to send your own soldiers. In other words, you will have to clear the area before the inhabitants help colonize the land and annex it to the kingdom.
At the beginning of the game, managing people is essential
The creation of new units in Northgard is unique. To be more precise, it looks very strange compared to traditional strategies. To create warriors, scouts, farmers, hunters, fishermen, lumberjacks and any other unit (except for the chief), you will have to individually transform ordinary inhabitants into them. Unlike traditional RTS, you do not need to create separate buildings and hire units in them.
Common resident
How to set a role for an ordinary resident:
- First, select a resident.
- Then, for example, if you want him to become a warrior, then send him to the training camp (hover over).
- You will immediately see a small warrior avatar and a green plus sign.
- Right click on the camp to turn the villager into a warrior.
To succeed in Northgard, you must continually balance the roles of residents and workers in each region. Keep an eye on resources and don’t be afraid to reorient residents or workers to new roles (you can do this at any time).
How to change the role of a worker to a new one
To make a normal citizen out of a worker (and only ordinary citizens can construct buildings), do the following:
- LMC for the worker.
- Find a house and hover over it.
- Right click on the house for an avatar and a green plus sign to appear.
- Wait until the worker turns into an ordinary resident.
To redistribute the role of a worker, you need to do the same thing, but instead of a house, choose the right building that allows you to turn a person into the right worker.
Food, wood, gold and stone are all about resource management
As with any RTS, resource management in Northgard is an ongoing process that must be learned to achieve victory.
Food extraction
Each unit of yours consumes one unit of food, provided that you do not use an in-game or clan-specific modifier to mitigate this effect. On the other hand, each of your villagers produces 4 units of food (again, no modifiers).
For example, at the very beginning of the game, you will see that you get 8 units of food (12-4 = 8) approximately every 7-10 seconds. When you add another inhabitant, you will notice that this parameter grows to “+11”. Understanding this ratio will help you respond appropriately to different situations.
As you progress, various modifiers and food producers (farmers, hunters, fishermen) constantly change this ratio, but understanding the basic mechanics will allow you to determine how many food producers you need to have at a particular moment.
Here are the food generation statistics for each worker:
- Ordinary Resident +4.
- Healer +5.
- Fisherman +4.
- Hunter +5.
- Farmer +5.
- Cattle breeder (sheep pen) +5 and +3 for each sheep.
You can also upgrade your buildings with stone and gold to increase food production. Remember, food is an important resource as it allows you to colonize new territories.
Wood extraction
Compared to food producers, lumberjacks are pretty straightforward. Each of them produces four woods in 10 seconds. On the other hand, you will have to take into account the consumption of wood, which increases over time or with the approach of winter.
Gold mining
Gold is an important resource for transforming residents into warriors, upgrading buildings, paying for their upkeep, and even building some new structures (including houses).
When you start the game in your town hall, you get +2 gold for a few seconds. However, the town hall will not be able to produce enough gold to support all needs. To do this, you need to create several trading posts. Build them as soon as possible without neglecting other resources.
Note. The construction of a trading post and a market on the same territory will increase gold production by 30%. Do this whenever possible.
Extraction of stone
Quarry
Stone mining is not that important at the beginning of the game. To upgrade buildings and build new ones, you will need it closer to the end of the game. However, if an area with a stone is found, it would be wise to build at least a few mines early on, as it will take about 10 stones to upgrade the town hall and improve the rest of the buildings. The stone can be bought in the market for gold.
