Intro:
I’m by no means an expert. I’ve enjoyed playing Stonehearth twice, both times w/ great success and ease. In each game I defeated the goblins, the undead, and the wolves (oh my!) with no problem(s) at all, and in my second play through I have 21 or 22 hearthlings so far.
I intend to provide a preliminary outline of my “strategy” and in the process will share useful tips (at least they have been useful for me ); I hope this will assist beginner and intermediate players.
STEP 1:
Locate spot on map w/ 4 trees, 2 bunnies, at least 2 ore (preferably)
When it comes time to placing your banner make sure
a) You have a mental layout of your city (sleeping & dining buildings, TONS of space for stockpiling, farming, etc.)
b) You are in walking distance of 6-14 berry bushes
c) You are in walking distance of a mountain for ore & storage (not an immediate concern)
d) You leave space (off to the side so it doesn’t interfere w/ your town) for TWO 50x50 trapping zones in an area you don’t intend to disturb
e) Remember if you can’t find a valley or corner position that only exposes two fronts that’s OK (you can build walls later if you like)
f) Place your banner and hit PAUSE
STEP 2:
Open your character sheet & examine your hearthling’s stats (GAME IS PAUSED)
a) Find out which ones have the highest Body and which ones have the highest Mind
b) The hearthling w/ the highest Body (most HP) AND the highest Spirit (courage), you will eventually make him/her a footman (if you get lucky and have 2 great, if not don’t worry hopefully you should get another as your population increases) DO NOT MAKE FOOTMEN YET
c) Find the hearthiling w/ the highest Body but lowest Mind & Spirit and make that one your Trapper DO THAT NOW
d) Find the hearthling w/ the highest Mind but lowest Body & Spirit and make that one your Carpenter DO THAT NOW
STEP 3:
Select a centralish location and create at least THREE 10x10 or 20x20 stockpile zones (10 vs 20 it’s really just personal preference as is the number of initial stockpiles)
Sidenote: later if you want a large population, 20-30+, you will need ALOT of food and ALOT of stockpile(s) to put the food; also be mindful of placement, stone & ore close to mountains, food & plant close to farms, raw materials & finished goods close to workbenches, etc…
a) A stockpile for WOOD & STONE only
b) A stockpile for FOOD & DRINK & solo click PLANTS
c) A stockpile for CONSTRUCTION, WEAPONS & ARMOR, WEALTH, and TOOLS & GOODS minus the metal bars
d) You can include ANIMAL PARTS in the aforementioned stockpile or make a separate one for the animal skins, sell them for easy money, but hold on to 10 or so in case you need to make leather later
e) Don’t worry you will be making TONS more stockpiles, as you become more comfortable you can arrange them how and where you see fit
STEP 4:
Before you UNPAUSE, select any trees you wish to clear out & make sure you harvest the berry bushes
Once your selected workers transform into your Carpenter and your Trapper PAUSE
a) Zone TWO 50x50 Trapping Zones off to the side, far enough so it won’t interfere w/ your town for sometime BUT not so far that it takes the trappers forever to get to your stockpile(s)
Beginner(s) layout suggestion: place your stockpiles & farms in the center of your town (they will take up ALOT of space, depending on how many you use & how large you intend to grow your city) place your buildings (sleeping, dining, custom) around them in a circle
so in this case the trapping area would be a wooded area behind the house (I don’t know if trees affect trapping, I generally just zone dense untouched areas
b) Place your carpenter’s workbench & UNPAUSE until it’s built then PAUSE and open the workshop
build 2 farmer’s hoes and 2 wooden practice swords (I can’t remember if you start w/ one sword if so just make one), and 2 shields (they might require lvl 2)
Q up 4 mean beds, 5 wooden window frames, 1 wooden door, & 2 wall-mounted lanterns (mats for Shared sleeping quarters) AND make 4 extra mean beds
When those are done Q up 10 simple wooden chairs, 4 dining tables, 2 wooden window frames, 2 wall-mounted lanterns, & 1 wooden door (mats for dining hall)
c) As soon as you can promote a FARMER do so (Don’t hold me to this but i don’t think Mind & Spirit are relevant, a little body for speed is nice but I don’t think your farmer stats matter)
With your farmer create THREE 10x10 farms, I use carrots, turnips, & pumpkins at first
Sidenote: You should NOT need a Footman until day two or three (maybe even four), if you get unlucky use town defense mode, or immediately promote that worker you set aside (the one w/ high Body and Courage =>Spirit
[Also it’s ok to craft superfluous items w/ your crafters in order to level up, remember you can sell them for easy gold]
Step 5:
By now you’ve chopped some trees, gathered some berries created your stockpiles and your farms in the center of your town, it should still be very early in your first day, time to build some sleeping quarters (until you are comfortable w/ city layout and building creation, or you are feeling lazy, use the pre-designed buildings)
a) Build shared sleeping quarters and when its done you can squeeze in 4 more beds
NOTE: If you don’t meet the requirements for an additional hearthling on your first daily report do NOT worry, you’ll be able to see where you are at and will get one the next day
b) You likely will NOT complete the shared sleeping quarters until day two or three, if it’s going very slowly you can place a dining table or two and some chairs outside so your hearthlings can dine, if things are moving swiftly then start a dining hall (but only once the sleeping quarters is completed)
I usually start a road after my shared sleeping quarters is complete, it helps provide me with a kind of layout/map (do NOT get carried away at this point keep it short & simple, you can add to it later)
THE GAME IS OFFICIALLY AFOOT!!!
By the time you receive your new hearthling, that is generally a good time to make your first footman.
TIPS:
Hearthlings:
I try to keep at least 4 workers (later in the game I have 10 or 11)
so after my first footman, I usually make my next hearthling another farmer and add 3 plots, carrots, corn, and silkweed (and later in the game I might add 1 or 2 more plots then get another farmer and add 2 more plots on top of those etc. etc.)
then either another footman or a mason (depends on whether you’ve started getting goblin camps or not
after the footman & mason I let my worker pool grow from 4 to about 6, then I make a blacksmith and then a weaver
a) order is up to you
b) maintain the 5-6 workers
c) presumably by this point you’ve either started burrowing into the side of the mountain or you’ve harvested some silkweed)
if you want to make a shepherd, I suggest making another trapper rather than promoting the one you have so you can keep the lvl perks and food he/she rakes in
Layout:
Easy format: build stockpiles & farms in middle, and build shared sleeping quarters & dining halls around them in a circle or semi-circle, I usually build 3-4 of each (one after another, so quarters, hall, quarters, hall, etc.)
burrow into the cave for stone & ores (for blacksmith), the cave is also a great place to build large stockpiles (I don’t usually build houses between cave and center of town, so it looks a bit like a U with mountain side where the u is open
Traveling Merchants/vendors:
VERY IMPORTANT: BUY at least 2 GIANT BONE MACE for your footmen and two padded vests ASAP (this will make fighting monsters VERY easy)
Also buy worker clothes, as well as any mats you might need in a pinch (or u think u might need later, heck sometimes I feel lazy and buy stone)
MONEY!:
Trapper(s) will generatePelts, they will start to pile up (I have 90+ of nearly each type, vend most of them hold a few for leather later)
Carpenter can make wooden dressers, make them in stacks of 10 or more (u should have plenty of wood) and sell them to travelling vendors
Mason can make stone table, make them in stacks of 10 or more (again should have plenty of stone) and sell to vendors
Gear:
Your footmen will get the Giant bone mace from traveling vendors (or the axe might drop off the goblin boss), they will get bronze plate from the goblin chests
the only reason right now to level up a blacksmith (aside from making another trapper’s knife) is so you can make full platemail and trusty shields for your footmen
the weaver can make the worker outfits if you haven’t already bought them from vendors, mainly use weaver to make bolts of cloth (and later some leather) so that carpenter can turn mean beds into comfy beds, and if you want to upgrade your chairs
Fighting:
I have found placing my 2 footmen (later 3-4 for fun, but never need more than 2 at this point in the alpha) in a party and basically using the attack order to drop a banner where I want them to go has been more then sufficient (especially w/ the good gear)
intercept goblins and undead otw to your town, make sure to destroy they’re camp or base
attack the wolves while they are still in their pens to make it really easy, but if you have the gear (mace and vest or bronze plate, blacksmith gear not necessary) you will be overpowered even if they get out
Growth:
I found once past 14 hearthlings (especially after 22) it’s ALL about the food
a) I have 3-4 farmers, 2 trappers, etc.
b) HELPFUL HINT: if you keep churning out wood dressers, stone tables, and vend pelts, you should have tons of money. Spend it on buying ALOT of food from the FOOD vendors (in tandem w/ the farming and trapping) I found this to be very useful (save when the food vendor comes then go buy tons of various food, not sure if variety impacts anything, maybe morale?)
Explore/Fog of War:
Once my footman reached lvl 3 (I saved first lol) then did some exploring (use the attack order banner to get them to move where you want) at least to the edge of whichever level you are on, I found narrow points to build wall(s)
PS: I only used ladders to get to rich ore deposits I needed in the middle of a mountain, which is a bit annoying but still manageable
I hope this has been useful and/or informative. Sorry for the lazy layout, but while I was writing this I wanted to go play so more stonehearth!
Awesome guide there, @Shadow, I follow it almost perfectly in my playthroughs, though the only difference is that I tend to keep a lower amount of workers than you suggested until I reached about 28~ hearthlings, where I have 10 or so workers. Also I tend to have at least two of each other class excluding farmers and footmen which I like to have 4 of each.
I would be tempted to make 6-7 footmen, at that point I would be in city building mode and the goblins and undead would just be easy experience. But I am curious if there is any benefit to having additional carpenters, mason, and/or blacksmiths?
During my last game, w/ only 23 hearthlings, I started burrowing into the middle section of a mountain side for iron ore, and I think that caused some glitch issues. Though it looked very cool, if only my carpenter could make glass panels then I would have had a medieval town w/ a personal pad like Flynn’s in Tron Legacy overlooking my peoples. Sorry inner geek got the best of me.
); I hope this will assist beginner and intermediate players.
