Challenge Islands

*This is about Kingdom Two Crowns.*

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>  | Challenge Islands represents the greatest challenge ever seen for hardened veteran monarchs. Can you survive long enough to claim the gold crown?—Raw Fury  | „
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Challenge Islands represents the greatest challenge ever seen for hardened veteran monarchs. Can you survive long enough to claim the gold crown?Raw Fury
**Challenge Islands** is an alternative experience to the campaigns. There are currently five types of challenges, each one with their own custom rules, where Monarchs, in only one reign, will to try to accomplish their respective goals and reach the crown ranks.

## Access

To access one of the challenges:

1. Press `Esc` to open the menu
2. Click "*Challenge Islands*"
3. Select the game mode by clicking:
 the single pawn tab for single player
 the double pawn tab for cooperative
4. Select the challenge by clicking:
	* the crowned skull for the Skull Island
	* the greed-citizen for the Plague Island
	* the wolf teeth for the Dire Island
	* the direction road signs for Trade Routes
	* the golden compass for Lost Islands.
5. On the briefing menu of the challenge, press:
	* "New Game" to play that challenge for the first time
	* "Play" to continue an already started run
	* "Restart" to start that challenge again
	* "Back" to choose a different challenge.

The grayed out button with a worker and a warning sign means that a new challenge may eventually be released.

## Characteristics

Challenge Islands is an alternative game mode inspired in the legacy games *Classic* and *New Lands* with a tougher roguelike gameplay, and the following characteristics:

* no Ghost tutorial
* no gems **\***
* no unlockables (no statues, hermits, or alternative mounts) **\***
* goal is to reach the crown milestones which have different rules on each island type
* can be played in either single player or cooperative mode
→ unlike in campaigns, the player mode can only be chosen when starting the challenge
* one reign, no heirs, a single attempt: losing the Crown means losing the challenge
→ in co-op, if one of the rulers lose the Crown, the message **“***No Crown, No Rulers***”** will be displayed, and the challenge is over.

**\*** Except in Lost Islands.

## Crown ranks

Monarchs will try to accomplish the goals of each challenge and reach the bronze, silver, gold and cursed crown milestones.
When reaching a goal, the Ghost will appear to give the Monarch the specific type of crown.

The briefing menu of each Challenge Island shows the current rank, and the best rank ever reached by the player on that challenge.
Empty crown slots are displayed if no rank has been reached.

## Crown on campaign

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>  | Your crown in the campaign is reflective of the highest crown level earned in all Challenge Islands.—Gordon  | „
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Your crown in the campaign is reflective of the highest crown level earned in all Challenge Islands.Gordon
The default level of the Crown in all campaign settings is bronze (brown).
Once a player has earned a higher crown rank on all Challenge Islands, their characters will wear a crown of that level on campaigns.

This rule however only applies for the single player mode of the challenges.
Crown ranks earned in cooperative mode won't affect the crowns worn on campaigns.

Additionally, this principle is only effective for the campaigns created after reaching the milestones.
Rulers on campaigns that are currently being played won't get their crowns updated.

Players can freely restart challenges where they have reached higher milestones.
This won't affect the overall tier of their crown, which reflects the best ranks ever reached, and not the current rank.

## References

1. ↑ *Raw Fury* (29 August 2019). Challenge Islands are here!.
2. ↑ *Raw Fury* (14 August 2019). A Challenge Awaits the Wisest Monarchs.
3. ↑ Game director Gordon on *Reddit*. 9 February 2022.
4. ↑ Gordon on *Reddit*. 18 October 2022.