Plain

**Plain** is the walkable area with no trees on it, and where, under certain circumstances, grass can grow.
Along with forests, plains form the totality of the natural environment in *Kingdom*.

Plains are the common place used for the expansion of the Kingdom, where most of its structures are built.
They may exist inside or outside the Kingdom borders.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* – Due to several important differences, the space inside the cave is not considered a plain.

## Initial plains

Upon arriving on a new land, the Monarch will find it almost fully occupied by forests, which generally obstruct the expansion of the Kingdom. Plains represent at this stage only a small percentage of the land.
Below, these initial plains are classified according to their locations and the way they're used by the Monarch.

### Central plain

The central plain is the big open space roughly located at the middle of the land.
It has the unlit campfire, from where most Kingdoms start their expansion process.
It's by far the largest strech of initial plain.

### Clearing

* Typical clearing
* With no grass
**Typical clearing**
**With no grass**

Typical clearingWith no grass
Clearings are open spaces found between two extents of forest, with no trees on the background, and from where it's possible start felling.
The trees around them are far enough to allow for the growth of at least a tiny patch of grass.

Clearings should not be confused with spaces inside the woods, where trees are quite far each other, usually around bridges, ruins (with coin/gem chests), and the habitat of mounts.
These spaces in the woods are covered with dense foliage in the background, making them dark even during the day, and it's not possible to start felling from there.

Some clearings may have a bridge in the middle, but the bridge will typically be surrounded by tiny patches of grass.
Larger clearings only occur if they're the habitat of some typical mounts.
Clearings are mostly used on expasion strategies where deforesting is done past a wooland containing a vagrant camp and/or a Merchant settlement, so those structures can be preserved.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* –
Some clearings may occur with bridges and no grass around them.
It's possible to start logging from there, but grass isn't available in the area at the beginning.
Some islands are generated with no clearings in one of the sides of the Kingdom.

### Extremity plains

* Cliff plain
* Beach plain
**Cliff plain**
**Beach plain**

Cliff plainBeach plain
All lands are surrounded by two cliffs, or by a cliff and a beach.
In *New Lands* and in *Two Crowns*, cliffs are notable for their cliff portals, and beaches, for the docks—in *Two Crowns* also for the dock portals.
Just before each cliff and each beach, there is always a small plain with a tiny patch of grass.

When scouting the land on early stages, the extremity plains are remarkably useful for grazing, especially if there is no clearing in the way from the town, or if the mount wasn't allowed to graze in the clearings.
On extremity plains, if the grass patch is too close to an active portal, there's a risk of being considered a threat by the portal, which could meanwhile release one or two greedlings.
Due to the distance from the Kingdom borders, the risk is usually worth taking, unless the Monarch has no coins to pay off the incoming monsters.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* – The extremity plains may lack grass, even outside the winter.
It's unknown if this is caused by the cycling seasons, the land layout generation, or a bug.
This occasional absence becomes irrelevant when riding a griffin, which can restore its stamina anywhere.

## Expansion

Monarchs can expand a plain by cutting the trees around it.
After the edge of a forest is felled, it is slowly replaced by plains biome. The buffer of fellable trees moves inwards, and the Kingdom is allowed to expand. Boulders, streams, and dirt mounds can only be constructed upon in the plains.

* The grass grows enough for mounts to graze and restore their stamina.
* Travel is easy across the plains, except for the stag.
* Rabbit dens spawn in any grassy parts of the plains unless it's wintertime. These grassy areas stop growing near any structures a kingdom has built on.
* Vagrant camps and the Merchant settlement disappear if the trees around are cut. These structures cannot exist within the open plains.

If there's a clearing in a forest, it can be widened enough for walls & towers to be built there, effectively including some forest within a kingdom.

## Structures

Structures occurring naturally in a plain include:

* the starting campsite on the central plain
* three types of building spots 【  】Building spots in fact may occur *anywhere* on the land, but they only become useful if found on plains. If they're found in the woods, deforesting the area around them solves the problem.

	+ mounds (for walls)
	+ boulders (for towers)
	+ streams (for farms).
* rabbit bushes (only outside the walls in *New Lands* and in *Two Crowns*)
* some mounts habitats
* berry bushes during winter (*Two Crowns*)
* the extremity structures
	+ the black cliff portal
	+ the (far side) dock
	+ the dock portal (*Two Crowns*).

### Mounts habitats

The table below shows the few mounts that have their original habitats in the plains:

## Grass

* Grass patches can be found around in plains inside or outside the Kingdom borders.
	+ Small patches can usually be found at the town center at any of its levels.
	+ Farm plots can only have grass patches between them if they're not belongin to the same farm.
* Grass cannot be introduced to an area unless it is outside the forest and next to an existing grass patch.
* The grass patches can be extended by clearing forest areas around it by cutting trees and then waiting for the grass to slowly grow.
* Grass patches will grow to the right and left as long as there are no obstacles.
* Some buildings like walls, farms, and shops interrupt grass.
* In *Kingdom: Classic*, the water stream will permanently block the grass patch expanding.
	+ Building them clears the grass around, and the obstacle stops grass from growing across it, causing large open areas with no grass at all. 【  】

		- Some obstacles can be temporarily removed by ordering builders to upgrade them, because grass is able to spread from below scaffolding. The time it takes to construct a tall stone wall or a farmhouse is usually long enough for grass on one side of the structure to grow, reach the other side, and remain there after the finished building cuts it off from the main patch.
		- On faster upgrades, it's possible to keep disturbing the builders by droping coins on them, to artificially increase the building time.
		- In *Two Crowns* this technique cannot be used on walls with shops behind them (typically the pike vendor, the dojo, and the siege workshop), because shops are "attached" to the back walls, which do not fall during the upgrade.

* When a grass patch is wide enough, it sprouts tall grass, which allows rabbits to emerge. In *New Lands* and *Two Crown*, the grass must also be outside the outer walls for the bushes to spawn.
* The grass dies in winter, usually after the first time the snow covers the ground. Thus, not being able to graze is one of the many hardships of winter.
* In *Two Crowns* the grass regrows on all plains during the sixteen days of the spring.

## Grazing

The horse or another mount can start **grazing** on grass (eating it) to regain its lost stamina, as well as receiving further benefits.

Mounts graze only:

* **On green grass** that covers open fields, with no forest above it. 【  】This does not include farm fields at all, with or without crops. Mounts cannot graze on them.

* **If they're hungry,** like when it has been at least ten seconds since the last time they grazed.
* **If they're not moving.** They need to stop completely to start eating. And they cannot be interrupted by a move order for at least three seconds to complete the action.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* – Opening the menu before this time makes the grazing in course ineffective. The animation is completed after unpausing, but, unlike the previous game, the mount remains tired, requiring an extra animation cycle.

A mount's stamina is fully restored as soon as it is done grazing. In addition, the grazing temporarily largely increases stamina. The effect is represented by a white trail left behind by the mount's feet as it runs. The effect lasts for forty-five seconds for the original horse (replacing its normal sprint duration of fifteen seconds), while other mounts are affected according to their own stamina. For example, the bear receives about twelve seconds of stamina that helps with both running and recovering from attacks. The effect depletes over time regardless of running, walking, or standing still.