Ghost

The souls of a queen and a king.

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You are my heir and the best chance to defeat them forever!
**Ghost** is the soul of past Monarch that comes to help their Heirs at the start of a new reign or campaign in *New Lands* and *Two Crowns*.

The Ghost is basically a tutorial character that notably wears the colors of the previously played Monarch, and has a crown.

 *Kingdom: Classic* – The starting tutorial is guided by a **sparkling trail**.
That could be considered unrelated to the Ghost character.
But for instructional and organizational reasons this wiki will consider the sparkling trail to be the Ghost under an undeveloped form.

## Introduction scene

Every *Kingdom* campaign starts with an introduction scene that takes place on the left side of the land somewhat deep into the forest, and is marked by the following sequence of events:

* An inspirational text appears on the top of the screen, starting a sort of vague lore narrative
* A command instruction on how to skip the tutorial *(not always, see the table below)*
* The Monarch appears on the land for the first time. 【  】The "camera" has an horizontal offset position and only focus on the Monarch once the player uses one of the movement keys or the key to skip the tutorial.

 **“***Again, the King/Queen will try to last...***”** | If it's not the first run.
 **“***Many failed, this King/Queen will do better...***”** 【  】: **“***Many failed, these Monarchs will do better...***”**

In *Two Crowns* the word "Monarch" may replace "King/Queen" even in single player *(unknown conditions)*.

### Starting position

The Monarch's starting position varies a little depending on if the player skips the beginners guide or not.

* If the player does not skip the tutorial, the Monarch starts the campaign one screen to the left of the Kingdom Monument.
* If the tutorial is skipped, the Monarch starts the campaign one screen to the right of the Kingdom Monument.

### Kingdom Monument

So if doing the tutorial, the player will naturally see the animation of the monument falling to pieces before starting the camp. If not, the animation would trigger the next time the Monarch gets close to the monument.

### Meeting

After that, a few "meters" to the right of the monument the Monarch should meet the Ghost, who would guide him/her to the unlit campfire, and:

* start the tutorial sequence
* fade away, if the tutorial had been skipped.

## Tutorial sequence

#Tutorial

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Kingdom is a game that teaches you just enough to know what buttons to push, while letting you learn the deeper strategic elements through both discovery and trial & error. Failure is not so much a setback, but rather a chance to take what you’ve learned to go deeper and farther the next time.
In all three *Kingdom* titles, the Ghost helpfully shows the Monarch how to start the campfire, recruit subjects, buy tools, and build walls, before disappearing with the memorable instructions: **“***Build, expand, defend***”**.

**Some general differences**

 *Kingdom: Classic* – A sparkling trail will teach the Monarch the first steps of their endeavor.

 *Kingdom: New Lands* – At the start of every new island after the first, the Ghost appears pointing out the direction to the area to light the campfire. If the Monarch goes the wrong way from the shipwreck, the Ghost follows the Monarch and points to the good direction, saying: *"Come"*.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* – Besides this initial tutorial, the Ghost also performs an extended tutorial.

Below are the lists of commands received by the Monarch during the beginners tutorial:

* Classic
* New Lands
* Two Crowns

* Building the innermost wall on the right side does count for the task.
* The sparkles tells the Monarch to "watch" if he/she moves away from the wall before it is fully built.
* The ↓ symbol is replaced with a `X` if the player is using a controller.

* The Ghost will also say "Come" and "Stand here" to guide the Monarch to the next spot.
* The key/button related to each command appears just bellow it.
* That key/button adapts to the platform the game is being played on (`↓` on PC, `A` on Switch and Xbox, and `X` on PS4). On mobile, the animation of a finger tapping on the screen replaces the key symbol.
* The step about galloping will only trigger if the Monarch hadn't gallop once until that moment.

* The Ghost will also say "Follow" and "Stand here" to guide the Monarch to the next spot.
* The Ghost will do a pesky movement pointing with his/her arm to the next spot, to emphasize the given order whenever the Monarch stands still or takes too long to comply.
* The key/button related to each command appears just bellow it.
* That key/button adapts to the platform the game is being played on (`↓` on PC, `A` on Switch and Xbox, and `X` on PS4). On mobile, the animation of a finger tapping on the screen replaces the key symbol.
* The game autosaves right after the tutorial.

## Tutorial restrictions

When starting a new campaign, the tutorial sequence won't let the Monarch:

* drop coins before lighting the campfire
* spend coins on things other than those pointed out by the Ghost.
* explore the land and go deep in the forest before finishing the entire tutorial.

Besides the ordinary annoyance, these obstructions can restrain for the player the access to some achievements. For example, the "On the Third Day (I Lit a Fire/You started your camp)" Steam achievement, present in all *Kingdom* titles, can be easily accomplished if the tutorial is skipped, and really troublesome if not.

## Skipping tutorial

It's possible to skip the initial tutorial if:

* it has been completed at least once on the current player account or game install
* the player has always skipped the tutorial since then.

If, after having completed the initial tutorial, the player starts a new run, and, for some reason, they do not skip the tutorial, the option to skip it will be unavailable on all their next runs, until they complete the tutorial once again.

Players can complete the tutorial and do their normal play through, restarting only after losing the Crown, or they can complete the tutorial and start a new game right away.
There is no difference in there.
If the tutorial has been completed once, the tip on how to skip it will appear at the introduction scene of the next runs.

The instruction appearing on the middle/bottom of the screen would read:

* Hold down `↓`/`X` to skip (in *Kingdom: Classic*)
* `↓`/`X`/`A` Hold to skip (in *New Lands* or *Two Crowns* on PC/console)
* triple tap to skip (in *New Lands* or *Two Crowns* on mobile)

Operating the same command used for paying coins will cancel the tutorial.

Each time the save files have to be deleted though, the basic tutorial has to be followed once more. A fix for this may come with future updates.

## Extended tutorial

*This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.*
The Ghost will reappear in specific moments to give tips about middle and late game mechanics.
In these situations, instead of using direct orders, the Ghost will adopt a more poetic language to offer the hints.
The suggestions may be on how to use hermits, make deposits with the banker, and rebuid a wall destroyed by decay.

Unlike the initial tutorial, the extended tutorial cannot be skipped, but each hint offered may be simply ignored.
If ignored for a moment, the Ghost will eventually go away, to reappear only if summoned by another typical circumstance *(see the table below)*.

 When riding alongside a hermit; at the structure that this hermit helps upgrading.
 In co-op mode, when one Monarch is at the boat ready to set sail, or at cliff portal having already payed the bomb squad to enter the cave; to the other Monarch that's not there.

For experienced players, the extended tutorial may be considered a minor distraction, but it should not affect their overall decisions and performance.

## Trivia

Ghosts are the only characters who are confirmed as dead in entirety of the *Kingdom* series, other than the corpse found next to the warhorse. Although, the fate of past monarchs is unknown (*see Theories/Ghost*).

## History

**Extended tutorial when introduced**
When this feature was introduced, the Ghost wouldn't give other instructions, and wouldn't go away, if Monarchs didn't do exactly what they've been told to do.
A Ghost could go on pestering the Monarch with the same command forever, if the directive wasn't accepted.
That could be helpful for new players, but annoying or funny for others with more experience:

**“***Some see ghost as buggy but I like to think the character is just old and confused... showing up at the wrong time and giving bad advice, having been dead and silent for thousands of years...***”**, said a gamer.

**“***I often think it's humourous that it's the failed rulers of the past trying to advise me.
Some of their advice obviously lead to their own downfall. :(***”**, said another gamer.

## References

1. ↑ Ghost encouraging the new Monarch after having lost the Crown. Seen on video, in July 2020.
2. ↑ Kingdom: Classic (archived). *Raw Fury*. Published: unknown date. Modified: 25 November 2020. Archieved: 26 December 2020.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 We’ll look into making this skippable.—developer Gordon Van Dyke on Steam. 30 April 2020.
4. ↑ That tutorial with the ghost... Is that all? "Come here! Build this, build that! k, thx, byebye"? 12 Dec, 2018.
5. ↑ *I'm opt out from the beta.*—said a player on 6 June, 2019.
Players found the tutorial to be game breaking on
26 Jun,
9,
29 Jul,
12,
16,
20,
21 Aug and
2 Nov, 2019.
Players were looking for a way to skip the basic tutorial on
15,
16 Jul,
22,
25 Jun,
13 Aug,
13,
20,
27 Sep,
14,
18,
21,
24,
26 Oct, and
23 Nov.
8. ↑ In this video (*Two Crowns* v.1.1.9) we see the Ghost harassing the Monarch for 14 minutes. At 4:02 it appears. At 5:30 it says "Follow" just in front of a Blood Moon wave. At 6:08 it shows the wall that has to be repaired. If done, that would have made archers stop hunting on that side, as there's a vagrant camp just in front of that wall spot. The order is given again at 6:37. At 16:40, a crown stealer is announced, and the Ghost keeps pointing to that tragical direction. Three crown stealers are killed, and the winter comes (no more hunting). At 18:06 the Monarch rebuilds the wall, and Ghost goes away.
9. ↑ I might have more important things to do here ghost. *Reddit*. 5 August 2020.
10. ↑ The tutorial ghost is clueless *Steam*. 31 May 2020.