In 2018, Owlcat Games took on the mighty task of turning Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder role-playing game into a full-fledged video game. The title has since cultivated a cult following of dedicated fans. That being said, the game is not all that easy. If you want to master Pathfinder: Kingmaker, there is one part of the game in particular you will likely need help with. You will need to learn how to manage your kingdom.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker features a complex kingdom management system that requires constant care and supervision from the player. There is an option within the game to allow the A.I. to manage the kingdom for you. However, some players have decided to forgo the A.I.’s help in favor of a better challenge.
If you want to learn some useful tips and tricks to managing your kingdom, check out the information below.
1. Know Your Stats
When it comes to managing your kingdom, you will want to pay attention to every single stat available to you. In total, there are 10 primary stats. If any one of these values gets too low, you may be in deep trouble. But, don’t worry. There are ways to keep their levels high.
Each primary stat has an advisor, which will oversee your kingdom with varying success based on their attributes. You can see a full breakdown of the concept down below.
| Primary Stat | Adviser | Attribute |
| Community | Regent | Charisma |
| Loyalty | Councilor | Wisdom |
| Army | General | Strength |
| Divine | High Priest | Wisdom |
| Economy | Treasurer | Intelligence |
| Relations | Grand Diplomat | Charisma |
| Culture | Curator | Charisma |
| Stability | Warden | Constitution |
| Arcane | Magister | Intelligence |
| Espionage | Minister | Dexterity |
In order to keep each of these primary stats high, you will want to appoint advisers for each role based on their correlating ability scores. For instance, a high charisma character will make for a great Grand Diplomat, Curator or Regent.
2. Know Where to Find Good Advisers
In order to appoint advisers, you will first have to find them. Check out the graph below to see where you can find suitable characters for each position.
| Adviser | Position | Location |
| Valerie | Regent/Diplomat | Prologue |
| Amiri | General | Prologue |
| Linzi | Diplomat/Curator | Prologue |
| Harrim | High Priest | Prologue |
| Jaethal | Curator/Minister | Prologue |
| Regongar | General/Warden | Technic Camp |
| Octavia | Regent/Magister | Technic Camp |
| Tristian | Councilor | Temple of the Elk |
| Lander Lebeda | Regent | Coronation |
| Shandra Mervey | Councilor | Coronation |
| Kassil Aldori | General | Coronation |
| Jubilost | Treasurer/Minister | Skunk Ford |
| Ekundayo | Warden/Minister | Ruined Watchtower |
| Jhod Kavken | High Priest | Thorn Ford |
| Bartholomew Delgado | Treasurer/Diplomat | Lone House |
| Kesten Garess | Warden | Aldori’s Banquet Hall |
| The Storyteller | Curator/Magister | Throne Room |
| Tsanna | High Priest/Councilor | Shrine of Lamashtu |
| Vordakai | Magister | Vordakai’s Tomb |
| Maegar Varn | Treasurer | Throne Room Following Varnhold |
3. Use Rations and Camping Supplies
A huge part of properly managing your kingdom is about properly managing your time. It will take a considerable amount of time whenever you travel with your party. However, it can take a considerably larger amount of time if your party is not properly prepared.
If you leave your kingdom for a quest without any camping or other food rations, your party will inevitably have to stop their travels short say they can hunt and forage for food. This process can take hours.
Every passing hour in Pathfinder: Kingmaker is another opportunity for something to go wrong in your kingdom. Your lands and people, after all, require constant micro-managing.
Consequently, you are going to want to reduce your time spent traveling by keeping a hefty supply of rations on hands at all times.
4. You Can Buy BP
Build points, also known as BP, are used for just about everything when it comes to kingdom management. Settlement upgrades, project management and construction are just some of the things you will need this vital resource for.
One issue many players find themselves in early on is a BP deficit. Without this invaluable resource, your kingdom’s growth will come to a screeching halt. Consequently, you are going to want to keep your BP up at all times.
You may notice late in the game that you have a surplus of gold, but a deficit of BP. As it turns out, you can actually buy BP for 80 gold per point at a merchant in central square. Take advantage of this feature to keep your kingdom growing.
5. Complete Your Quests
Sometimes you can do everything right and still find yourself dealing with a crumbling kingdom. The reason for this is because new quests often introduce new problems. Sometimes when you receive a new quest, your kingdom will receive a debuff of some sort. The debuff may equal a numeric decrease in your economy, for instance.
The longer certain quests and other crisis go unfinished, the larger these debuffs will become. The negative effects ignored missions can have on your kingdom can be completely devastating, so make sure to finish each mission and resolve each crisis as they sprout up.
6. Save Before You Begin Major Projects
As part of managing your kingdom, you will have the opportunity to complete certain projects. Some will only take a few days, but many will take upwards of half a month to complete. You will be forced to skip forward through those days, unable to make any other decisions for your kingdom during that time.
Consequently, you are going to want to save your game before ever accepting longer projects. If after accepting and waiting out the project your kingdom ends up in disarray, simply re-load your save file and try another approach to improving your kingdom.
It would also be wise to make a hard save after every major chapter within the game. There will be times when certain decisions lead to your kingdom spiraling out of control. Having a plethora of various hard saves from different stages of your playthrough to fall back on can be quite comforting during these moments.
7. You Will Not Always See Your Notifications
In order to access your kingdom, you will need to be within your own claimed territory. If you are out on a quest outside your kingdom’s borders, you will have to return before further managing your kingdom.
Likewise, you will only see notifications concerning your kingdom if you are within your kingdom’s border. If you spend too much time out adventuring, you may return to your lands to find your kingdom in severe disarray.
8. Problems Always Take Precedent Over Opportunities
There are two different types of kingdom events, being problems and opportunities. Opportunity events are chances for you to improve your kingdom. However, there are no punitive measures for cancelling or simply not starting an opportunity.
Problem events, however, must be completed. If you cancel these missions or simply do not finish them, your kingdom will suffer for it. Consequently, you are going to want to prioritize problem events over opportunities.
Unfortunately, problem events tend to sprout up like weeds. As a result, you will have to be quite vigilant and proactive when it comes to these events.
9. Upgrade Your Towns
If you want your kingdom to grow, then you are going to want to upgrade your towns. You can upgrade your main village to a town after you have claimed two new regions and have built settlements within them.
The more regions you procure and the more settlements you build, the more times you can upgrade your settlements. There are three levels of settlements in total, being villages, towns and cities.
10. The More Unrest You Have, The Lower Your Bonuses Will Be
There are six stages to civil wellness in total. More civil unrest your kingdom experiences, the lower your bonuses will be for problem and opportunity events. Check out the chart below for details.
| Civil Wellness | Modifier |
| Serene | +1 |
| Stable | 0 |
| Worried | -1 |
| Troubled | -2 |
| Rioting | -3 |
| Crumbling | -4 |
11. Build More Bulletin Boards
Bulletin Boards provide a Military bonus of +1 and +2 bonus to resolving problems in the region the board was placed within. However, you will need a lawful barony in order to utilize these boards. While the boards’ effects do not stack with each other, they will make resolving issues in each of your land holdings far less troublesome.
12. Don’t Be Too Hasty When it Comes to Building
Building various structures within your lands will boost your overall kingdom stats. If you have enough additional BP to spend on structures, then this can be a great way to bring your kingdom to the next level. That being said, there are other things you should be doing first.
You will get a great boon of stat boosts from finishing kingdom events. Consequently, you are going to want to minimize your building habits and save a tidy sum of your BP for finishing events.
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