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Manor Lords: Which starting scenario and difficulty should you choose?Here is the best starting scenario for new Manor Lords players
Here is the best starting scenario for new Manor Lords players
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse
Which is the best scenario for new players in Manor Lords?Slavic Magic’s gorgeous and hotly anticipated city-builderManor Lordsgives you a fair bit of freedom for customising your new game setup. After you hit New Game and create your Lord and coat of arms, you’ll be treated to a Game Setup screen where you can select between three scenarios, and customise the difficulty with three templates or a host of individual game options. But which is the best scenario for you?
This guide is aimed at first-timeManor Lordsplayers who aren’t sure which scenario or difficulty to choose. Below, we’ll walk you through each of the three starting scenarios and the three difficulty options available, and offer our thoughts on where you should start with your first Manor Lords playthrough.
Manor Lords - Release Date Announcement TrailerCheck out the release date announcement trailer for Manor Lords here. Check out those lovely roads.Watch on YouTube
Manor Lords - Release Date Announcement Trailer
What is the best Manor Lords scenario for new players?
In our opinion, the best starting scenario in Manor Lords for new players isRestoring The Peace(the second option). This scenario offers a balance between relatively risk-free city-building, and later skirmishes with bandits, raiders, and the illegitimate Baron’s regions.
However, if you’re less interested in Manor Lords' Total-War-style combat and just want to play it as an endless city-builder, thenRise To Prosperity(the first scenario) is a great option which turns off all enemies, allowing to to play at entirely your own pace.
Below we’ll explore each of the three Manor Lords scenarios in more detail so you can make an informed decision about how to spend your first playthrough.
Rise To Prosperity (easiest, no combat)
This starting village will become a familiar sight to Manor Lords players in the coming months. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse
The sole focus in Rise To Prosperity is expanding your settlement. The end-goal is to reach the “Large Town” settlement level, which is the highest settlement level in the game. The order is as follows:
Once you reach the “Large Town” level, you’ll have the option to continue your game in Endless mode, without any goals except the ones you create for yourself. It’s a great scenario for players who aren’t interested in combat, and don’t want annoying obstacles like wars or banditry getting in the way of their towns.
Restoring The Peace (balanced, some combat)
Restoring The Peace offers a focus on city-building, but with mid-to-late-game combat. |Image credit:Hooded Horse
Restoring The Peaceis the second scenario in Manor Lords. This scenario introduces bandits who will occasionally steal resources from you, and whom you must attack and defeat in order to scatter them. But the main challenge is the Baron, a hostile AI ruler who begins the game with claims on two of the eight regions on the map.
This is personally my favourite game mode to play. While combat is not the main focus of Manor Lords, it’s still a key selling point that differentiates the game from most other city-builders, and I personally find it adds to the challenge without adding too much pressure (unless you crank up the difficulty, of course).
On The Edge (hardest, lots of combat)
For the greatest challenge in Manor Lords, play On The Edge at Challenging difficulty. |Image credit:Hooded Horse
The focus in On The Edge is very much on building up your town, resources, and army reserves as quickly and efficiently as possible so you can repel the first invaders. This scenario, when cranked up to the hardest difficulty, is an extreme challenge that requires a bit of luck and a lot of experience with some very particular strategies and build orders. As such, it’s not what we would recomend for players new to Manor Lords.
Which difficulty should you choose in Manor Lords?
Here’s what each of the difficulty settings mean for each scenario:
Rise To Prosperity:
Restoring The Peace:
On The Edge:
For your first playthrough of Manor Lords, we would recommend you start at the Default difficulty level for Rise To Prosperity and Restoring The Peace, or Relaxing for On The Edge (to give yourself some more time and starting resources before the raiders arrive).
But if you don’t want to stick to Default, you should ideally make use of the individual game settings to create your own challenge, rather than simply using one of the three preset difficulty options. You can hover over the text of each setting in-game to find out what it does.
That’s our breakdown of the different scenarios and difficulty levels in Manor Lords concluded. If you’re interested in playing with a friend, unfortunately you won’t be able to do so yet; but you can check the full details in ourManor Lords multiplayerguide. Take a look at ourManor Lords beginner’s guidefor additional information on your first in-game year.
