The Elder Scrolls: Castles guide - 7 tips to run your kingdom

One of the most important aspects of the game is managing your castle. It's pretty self-explanatory, right?

The thing you might not have noticed until later on (as was the case with me, sadly) is that each citizen you have has a specific trait. Some can be Leaders, others can be Sophisticated, and some can even be Haunted (that's an odd one, for sure). Each of these traits will come in handy when assigning the citizen to do a specific task, and can grant you bonuses.

All traits in Elder Scrolls Castles and what they give

Here is a list of all the traits, and where you can assign the citizens for the best results:

• Bossy - Makes everyone more productive, and reduces happiness. Difficult as ruler.
• Charming - Distracts coworkers, but good for ruling. Skilled with Summoning spells.
• Considerate - Best at the Kitchen and Loom.
• Devious - Skilled with Daggers, makes for unhappy ruling, but is harder to assassinate.
• Emotional - Good for ruling when making the right decisions, but has a bigger impact when making bad decisions too.
• Enduring - Lives longer, makes for great Ruler.
• Envious - Hates it when coworkers are more productive than them, but increases material gains when ruling. It's not bad, but not ideal.
• Haunted - Is chased by a ghost who sometimes does their work. Good at working in general, I guess.
• Headstrong - Best at the Furnace and Workshop. Adept at using Shields.
• Heartless - Skilled with Frost. Not a great ruler, since it prohibits subjects from being happy.
• Jester - Makes rulings more joyful.
• Leader - Ideal rulers.
• Melodramatic - Drama queens, makes for some fun gameplay, but not good rulers.
• Mighty - Use at the Oil Press and Smithy.
• Perceptive - Best at Mill and Sewing Table.
• Pyromaniac - Best in the Kitchen, Furnace and Smithy. Can cause small fires, but that's okay.
• Reckless - Good fighters or workers, but can cost them their health.
• Sophisticated - Less productive, makes people happy, likes art. Could be good at Music Stage.
• Tribal - Works and fights better next to family members.
• Volatile - Skilled with Shock, but makes for not-so-happy rulings.

Try your best to assign the people with the right traits, and always pay attention to your Ruler's traits. If your people are unhappy, it's probably because they are living under harsh ruling, and you need to do something about that.

Quests are the number one way to level up quickly in Elder Scrolls: Castles, and since you want to level up to level 13 ASAP (to unlock the bed), you should complete as many quests as you can early on.

The quests are fairly easy to complete, and you will find that the rewards are also pretty good. Make sure you do all of your daily quests though, because once you complete all 5 quests (per day), you will earn an additional 100 XP.

When you make your Ruler's decrees, this can affect your entire population and resources. Be very careful with your choices, because you could end up one bad decision away from assassination. Been there, done that. Don't recommend.

Weigh your options and if you cannot come to a good conclusion, always go with the people's choice. I believe everyone has more commoners than nobles in their palace, and if a decision makes the commoners happy, choose that over the nobles' happiness. The same goes for the specific species (Nords, Bretons, Orcs, High Elves, etc.). Pick the option that affects the least number of people you have if it's a "bad" decision.

I mentioned this before, but I will say it again: be very careful about the decisions you make, because they can cost you your life - well, your Ruler's life. If you make your followers unhappy, they will remember it, and they can come to assassinate you once their happiness meter reaches 0.

The Ruler trait plays a crucial role here, and from experience, I can tell you that having a harsh ruler that forces people to be "all work and no play" is not the way to go.

When issuing decrees, you will sometimes be faced with a few options that won't always be the best ones. Try to make your followers happy (and maintain that happiness), but also keep an eye on your kingdom's needs. If you need to feed your people at the cost of someone's happiness or some materials, by all means, go ahead - it's worth it.

There comes a time in everyone's playthrough of Elder Scrolls: Castles when population numbers get too low. You might want someone who is a skilled fighter, or you just want to find another cook in your kitchen. Well, there is a way you can increase your population and also (try to) get someone with the right stats.

Build a Bed

Once you reach level 13, you will unlock the Bed. When placed in a room, you will then be able to drag and drop two people there, and if they get along nicely (or rather, when), you will be rewarded with a new member in your Kingdom!

I recommend you assign two of your highest rarity people there, because the result will most likely be a child inheriting some traits from them, and perhaps even the rarity. For instance, I dropped a Yellow and a Purple there, and the result was a beautiful Purple egg (a.k.a. an Argonian child - yeah, they hatch as walking eggs!).

Increase your level

When you increase your level, new people might also show up at your castle's door. The easiest way to get a bigger population is to make more, but when you cannot, you can simply opt to welcome anyone and everyone who appears. They might not always be the best, more often than not they're a Green rarity, but it's better than nothing.

You can purchase in the Shop

In the Shop you will be able to purchase some subjects too. This is not always the easiest option for F2P players, but it can be done using Gems too, not just real money. It could be something to consider when spending your Gems later on in the game, but more about that on the next page.

The Gems are the premium currency in Elder Scrolls: Castles, and the one thing I recommend you do early on is to save them up. I strongly advise against spending the Gems before you have 500 of them, so you have time to decide what your kingdom needs the most.

You cannot spend Gems to replenish your resources endlessly, and that's also not feasible in the long run. You can spend Gems on Potions of Speed, Arcane Hourglass or Elixirs of Growth, but they are rather expensive, so unless you absolutely need them, it's not worth getting them.

With 500 Gems you can get an Adoring Fan, which is a Legendary subject that will automatically collect the production facilities' results. This is a great option if you have a monthly stream of 500+ Gems, otherwise, you could look at the Big Fighter Bundle in the shop, which has the following:

• 3 Scrolls of Revival
• Rare Fighter (trait: Mighty)
• Steel Mail Armor (Rare)
• Legendary Subject: J'zargo (traits: Enduring, Considerate, Perceptive, Pyromaniac, Reckless)
• Steel Sword (Rare)
• 10 Potions of Healing
• 3 Legendary Packs

I personally like this pack because the Legendary Subject: J'zargo is an all-rounder who can be used to produce some higher-rarity offspring later on.

The facilities, or rather, every single unit (Kitchen, Oil Press, Loom, Mill, etc.) can be upgraded once you reach a certain level, and with each upgrade, they will grant you more resources.

You should read the requirements for each upgrade and try to save them up beforehand so you can do the upgrades as soon as you level up. It is crucial you upgrade the Kitchen and Oil Press ASAP, because you could end up running out of resources, which results in unhappy subjects.

Here are some general tips that you might find useful throughout your gameplay. I tried to keep it short and sweet since that's the easiest way to go about it!

• Don't run out of resources! Food and Oil are essential to keeping the lights on (literally) and people healthy, and once you have a constant stream of Oil and Food, you will manage everything else effortlessly.
• Complete as many Orders (top left corner) as you can daily, but without running out of resources. The Orders are great for making Gold, which you can then use to bribe people or pay to boost their happiness when giving decrees.
• Craft outfits and tools and then upgrade them (craft multiple duplicates and merge them), then equip them on the right subjects (for instance, give Chef's Uniform and Iron Spoon to your kitchen workers and Laborer's Shirt + Iron Chisel to your Mill workers).
• Fun fact: you cannot place two related subjects in the Bed. They will have a hilarious interaction and it will be a very awkward vibe between them, so it's worth doing it once, but it won't work for "reproductive" purposes.
• After building the War Table, you can adventure into "battle stages" where you can use your subjects with fighting traits and gather various resources and packs.
• You should try keeping all of your subjects happy regardless of race or status, because you want to avoid someone assassinating you in your sleep - or on your throne, rather.
• Decorate the castle nicely and try placing as many decor items (the ones that grant additional effects, not the ones that produce stuff) as possible, including duplicates, since they all count.

These are all of the tips that we have prepared for The Elder Scrolls: Castles. If you're looking for something similar, take a look at our list of Android games like Skyrim.