Defending the Kingdom

*This is a strategy page with tips for defending against the Greed, specially during Blood Moons. For a full description of these elements, see: Greed and Blood Moon.*

*Tips are ordered from the more basic at the top to the more advanced at the bottom. All tips are compatible with each other, unless otherwise stated; and all have advantages and disadvantages.*

## Basics

The Monarch can set up various defenses against the Greed. Walls can be built to temporarily hold back all ground monsters. Archers can fire volleys of arrows over walls at the Greed or directly at them if encountered face-to-face. They automatically mount towers to gain elevation and better line-of-sight over walls. Worker-operated catapults launch boulders to flatten mass quantities of greedlings but are slow to reload. Lastly, knights defend ground troops in face-to-face combat against greedlings when the outermost walls of the Kingdom fall. Pikemen impale the greedlings when they get to the wall and ninjas will run out into the woods and ambush the greed with swords and shurikens.

## Passive defense

The following tips do not require the Monarch to be near the outer wall during an attack.

* **Upgrade the walls.** Stone walls cost more but are much stronger and Tier three walls are pretty much necessary after the first ten or so days. Stone buildings require upgrading the architecture shrine or the stone mine. In *Two Crowns* you can also upgrade the walls to tier five when you build the Iron Mine.
* **Hire more archers**. Archers can hunt during the day to provide some income and will group together behind the outer wall at night. There is no upper limit to how many archers can be hired. If the Monarch has the means to hire four or more archers per day, they can actually reach a **tipping point** in the archer count after which they shoot so many arrows that they can kill a Breeder before it reaches the outer wall and a floater before it crosses the wall.
* **Have catapults and at least eight builders in total**. Catapults are always worth the trouble due to their effectiveness. If the Monarch hires enough builders to have four near each outer wall, two of them can reload and move the catapult quickly while two of them repair and rebuild the walls quickly. If the catapult has been destroyed, having even more builders helps because those near the town center can rush to rebuild them as soon as the Monarch orders it.
* **Purchase fire barrels for catapults** (in *Two Crowns)*, at least before Blood Moons or portal retaliation attacks*.* These can be purchased at the catapult workshop on each side of the Kingdom for five coins each. After each purchase a builder will roll each fire barrel from the workshop to the catapult and load it or stack it next to the catapult if there is already one loaded. Fire barrels are advantageous over rocks because 1) if they miss and land early, enemies can still walk over the burning ground and catch fire and 2) breeders cannot pick them up and throw them back unlike rocks.
* Hire **pikemen/ninjas** (in *Two Crowns).* These defensive units offer alternative ways to take out enemies. Pikemen are great for hitting enemies that archers are missing, hence preventing unnecessary damage to walls. They can also catch crown stealers. Ninjas target enemies from behind, sometimes before they even reach the walls. Both these soldiers also go fishing when idle during the day, providing income when hunting is unavailable. Both have limited tool durability but tend to pay for themselves.
* **Hire knights/squires/ronin for defensive purposes** if you have many archers.
	+ Knights do not fight when defending, but they **retreat** one wall back, with their assigned archers, as soon as the outer wall is highly damaged but not yet destroyed. Their archers will not be fighting if they are retreating, and this is troublesome if the next wall is very far, but they will be covered by towers on the way and then be ready to face the Greed if the front line of archers falls (which is likely when facing multiple Breeders). It is also worth noting that during the day the knight's archers don't hunt they usually *walk* back up to the outer wall as it gets repaired/rebuilt.
	+ Knights are also helpful for defense because when holding enough coins, they can **sometimes block rocks** thrown at them by breeders, protecting the archers just behind them from being hit.
	+ In *Two Crowns* it is important to **buy swords** at the blacksmith once you unlock iron. This will upgrade your Squires/Ronni (not archers hired by Knights/Samurai Squires) to knights/Samurai in full armor. This means that they can block the greed better and survive for longer if directly confronted.
* **Activate the statues**. The Statue of Archery is particularly worthwhile because it also makes archers hunt more efficiently during the day, and it makes a big difference when defending against agile floaters. The additional wall durability buff from the Statue of Building remains after the statue deactivates, so activating the Statue of Building at least once between each Blood Moon is advantageous. **However, be careful about when to activate the Statue of Knights** **in *New Lands***, because their charge attacks are not always useful.
* **Build towers, but not at every available spot.** Towers outside the walls are good for picking off greedlings before they arrive or as they retreat after stealing something, *but* floaters will target these towers first and will succeed in their abductions unless more archers are nearby on the ground. Archers will then constantly try to reach and man the towers again, leaving the safety of the walls and possibly running straight into the Greed. On the other hand, towers deep within the Kingdom are good for protecting the Monarch's retreating subjects, *but* unless the Monarch has many archers already, the archers in these towers would be more useful on the ground, for preventing the breach of the outer wall in the first place. Towers near walls are much more effective because the Greed is constantly within their range while being stalled by the walls. With all this considered, it seems like the best places to build towers are just inside the outer walls, if the rocks exist.
	+ In *Two Crowns*, once iron is unlocked, upgrading towers until they have roofs is possible. This is highly recommended because Floaters cannot attack roofed towers (although Breeder rocks can still knock off the soldiers). A roofed tower just outside the outer wall is remarkably efficient because archers do not need to shoot over the wall and can attack both incoming and retreating greedlings, without worrying about Floaters.
	+ As of the Conquest Update, towers construction in *Two Crowns* is much more forgiving because archers no longer try to station in them if they are beyond the walls at night time or if they are too far within the Kingdom.
* **Don't upgrade any farms near the town center**. This is important in earlier days, when the Kingdom is small. The town center, with its double walls and towers, is the safest place for farmers to be during a Blood Moon. They will need to walk there and back every night, but the protection is worthwhile if the walking distance is small.
* **Consider using hermit structures.** Hermits offer a variety of defense options that allow different play styles.
	+ **Ballista towers** have become more accurate in the Conquest Update of *Two Crowns,* making them more worthwhile.
	+ **Stables** allows easy access to slow, defensive mounts before a Blood Moon starts.
	+ **War horns** placed on walls help rally troops during one-sided attacks, like Blood Moons.
	+ **Knight towers** allow hiring more knights, which in turn protect more archers when a wall is falling.

## Active defense

These following tips require the Monarch to be near the (correct) outer wall before or during an attack. To quickly find and reach the side being attacked, the Monarch has options like looking for the active portal(s) during the afternoon, or checking with a dog, or using Teleporters to quickly cross the Kingdom.

* **Drop a few coins just outside the outer wall before an attack**, if you have coins to spare. Greedlings will go for the coins instead of the wall and then try to run away. When one greedling dies another will pick up the same coin. Like this, up to three greedlings will not attack the wall thanks to one coin. Depending on one's budget, it may be better to use coins to defend instead of rebuild and rehire. Make sure to not empty the gold pouch entirely, as the Monarch will become vulnerable, and take into account that builders wandering near the wall at night might pick up *some* of the coins the Monarch had dropped there.
* **If the outer wall is falling, drop a few coins just inside it.** This is a frustrating tactic because the Monarch needs to avoid being hit and make sure not to drop all of their coins while not dropping coins too close to archers, but it helps if one can pull it off because then the archers get a few precious seconds to get away from the breeders while firing directly at them. Again, sometimes it is better to use coins to protect rather than rebuild. Dropping coins throughout the whole retreat is too risky as greedlings will run faster than archers and target the Monarch as well.
	+ The economy of this tactic: to protect a single archer from attacking greedlings—let's say he just spent too much time outside in the evening—it becomes worth it to drop up to four coins to save the archer from losing his bow. Anything more than that, the Monarch might as well purchase a new bow for two coins and recruit another villager for one. This takes judgement, though, as if you've dropped three coins to save an archer from three attackers, then a fourth one appears, from that point onwards the three coins is a sunk cost, and it still may remain worth it to drop a fourth coin, as long as you determine there aren't even more attackers.
	+ Remember that greedlings are just as happy taking a single coin as they are taking a bow (two coins).
	+ Don't spend more than your subjects are worth. Unless you feel you'd rather be a benevolent ruler.
* **If you have the warhorse**, use its protection boost as the wall is falling. The boost will make up to twenty or so of the Monarch's nearby subjects not fall in one hit. This is particularly useful when a breeder punches protected archers, who will be thrown back but still able to fight from the newly gained distance.
* **If you have the bear, griffin or lizard** (last two in *Two Crowns* only) use it to attack greedlings, if there aren't too many of them. The bear is particularly useful against greedlings that are carrying something (such as coins the Monarch drops to "distract" them), but the bear will be attacked by greedlings otherwise and so this tactic is very risky. One good way to use the bear's attack is to position behind the outer wall and pounce at the greedlings attacking the wall before immediately retreating. The attack does area damage and so many greedlings can be hit with once strike, although the bear may also be hit back when there are too many greedlings.
* **Keep your knights strong with coins**. A knight can hold six or so coins that function as their health points. A knight who has lost all his coins will lose his armour in the next hit while a knight with full health can stop a moderate amount of greedlings, or a couple or so floaters, by himself.
* **Use the wall horns.** (In *Two Crowns* only) It is important that after you gain the horn hermit you upgrade your outer walls with a horn. When you use the horn (for one coin) it will attract some of the units from the other side of the Kingdom to defend the side you are on. Make sure you only blow the horn at your outer most wall. The horn upgrade can be done to a tier four or five wall. If you put a horn on a tier four wall, it can still be upgraded to tier five later. The horn is best used during blood moons or when one side of your Kingdom is much weaker than the other.
* **Buy bows and pikes/ninjatos.** If you already know that you will need reinforcements, like at the start of a Blood Moon, it is better to buy weapons sooner than later so that villagers rush to pick them up.