Medieval Dynasty is a survival simulation game that places you in control of a character trying to survive in the middle ages. You have the opportunity to construct a village, manage a community, craft a variety of tools and weapons, and survive by hunting, fishing, or farming. This is a remarkably deep game with a ton of features to explore.
This beginner guide will provide you with tips on how to better survive the early game and enjoy more that the game has to offer.
1. Place your home near water
Placing your home near water is almost a necessity to succeed in the game. Early on you will not yet have a waterskin or any other method to carry water with you. This means that whenever your character becomes dehydrated, you have to make a run to the river before your character dies. Being next to the river means that you will have ready access to water whenever you need it.
Later on in the game fishing becomes a way to gather additional food. Being next to a river makes this infinitely easier to accomplish and to minimize your travel time.
One other benefit is that other villages tend to be by the river as well. Trading or doing quests with other villagers can give you substantial bonuses in the game and this close proximity will make your use of time more efficient.
2. Put early skill points into “Knowledge” to increase skill point gain
Some of the early perks are not quite as useful as the later ones. Investing the early points you obtain in each skill category into the “Knowledge” perk will improve your rate of skill point gain. This pays off later on when you are able to obtain more useful skills like having an additional 15 carrying weight.
One example of this is in the gathering tree where the early perks are essentially just increased gathering time. A simple increase of 2% in gathering speed will not make a substantially huge difference in how much time you spend in gathering. The largest bottleneck by far is the carrying weight since you fill up very quickly. Gaining more skill points faster brings you closer to this perk and you end up saving a ton more time in the long run.
3. Store materials inside of the box in your home
Maximum weight is the biggest bottleneck in this game. Once you start playing, you will quickly see that logging is a huge part of the early game. Unfortunately, your character struggles to carry more than 10-12 at a time and will greatly affect how fast you can build. The more over the limit you are, the slower your character travels. Anything in the red zone already limits your ability to sprint, and once you get past half of the red zone you are basically crawling.
Store materials in the box that you do not immediately need. This includes things like food, sticks, and even tools like wooden spears. It all adds up substantially and will affect your efficiency.
One way to maximize your time is to only bring with you the tool you need, a waterskin (if you have one), and enough food to last you through the day. Anything else can be left in your home since you will be coming back anyways.
4. Use the Crouch function when hunting
The most common animal you will likely hunt early on is the deer or rabbit. They spook easily and will run away very fast if you try to run up to them. The only way to get closer is to crouch and slowly move your way up. This can be a little tricky sometimes since there is no indicator of whether or not they can sense you.
Get into close enough range to accurately throw the spear, but don’t push too far ahead. Once you hit the animal once, you will likely have to sprint after it and repeat the crouch and advance tactic once more. The only exception is if you have good aim and manage to hit the head. For most animals, all it takes is one headshot to finish the hunt.
5. Craft multiple spears for hunting
Hunting an animal can be fairly difficult in this game. Aiming takes some practice to get used to and non-headshots will require you to attack them multiple times. In the early game, your only real option is to throw wooden spears 2-3 times.
Once you hit an animal, the spear typically stays lodged in and you will need more than 1 to complete your hunt. For this reason, I usually bring at least 4-5 spears whenever hunting in case I miss and need to chase down the target.
This will also be useful if you end up getting attacked by a bear or other larger animal. They will require more than 1-2 spears to take down and the extra ones you have will improve your chances of survival.
6. Keep at least 2 stones on you for crafting replacement tools
Stones are not always in great supply in this game depending on the area you are established in. Tools break fairly quickly when you are mass gathering for materials, and it can be a time drain looking around for more stones.
One way to overcome this is to always pick up stones until you have at least 2-3 on you. This way when your tools break you can easily replace them. The most common example of this is when you are logging and your stone axe breaks. The replacement will cost you two stones and several sticks that you can usually find lying around. Keeping the materials on you will minimize your downtime and ensure you can get your job done.
7. Always cook your meals (except mushrooms)
There is virtually no reason to have to eat raw meals except for the raw mushrooms that are safe to eat. The 20% chance of food poisoning is not worth it. Once you have constructed your first house, you will have a stone fireplace available for cooking your meals.
Any meat that you obtain through hunting or trapping should always be cooked to prevent disease. Another benefit to this is that the cooked meat provides more energy to you than raw meat.
8. Use Rabbit Traps for leather and food
Rabbit traps are one of the best tools you should construct in the early game. They will provide you with precious leather and food without you having to go out on hunting trips. Unfortunately, you can only set one trap until you advance, but maintaining this trap will go a long way to sustaining your character.
The leather can be very useful for crafting and the meat will provide you with sustenance if you are not able to hunt. It is an extremely easy way to obtain materials early on. Just make sure to check it at least twice a day since that is typically how often the trap triggers.
9. Craft a Waterskin to save time
Waterskins allow you to carry water with you and give you more time to do things in-land without having to go back to the river. It can be a very valuable tool to have on hand whenever you go on hunting trips. This is one of the early tools to aim for after you have built your first house since it will consistently be used throughout the game. See this guide here for a free waterskin if you do not want to craft it.
10. Complete Quests to increase Building Limit
Completing quests will allow you to construct more buildings. There is a limit to how many you can build depending on where you are at in the game. Constantly check the journal for the main questline and what objectives you still have to meet in order to progress to the next stage.
At the start of the game, you will likely have the objective of “Survive until the next season”. You should spend some time at this point to do quests with villagers in the nearby villages and to try flirting. The reasoning behind this is that the next main quest will require you to complete 3 quests from villagers and to successfully flirt once. Completing this objective earlier will help speed up your progress.
11. Shower before interacting with other villagers
You can get an opinion decrease if you attempt to talk to other villagers while dirty. This is especially important if you are trying to flirt and find a partner in the village. The bath takes 2 logs to build and should be no problem for you to use before making your way to the other villages.
12. Right-Click when holding the Hammer to switch modes
Right click to switch to other modes such as Repair. You will also want to periodically switch to this mode and walk around your village to find buildings that are in need of repair. Damaged buildings will not show up otherwise.
13. Make money from Stone Knives and Berries/Mushrooms
Stone Knives sell for quite a bit of money and will be one of your most consistent ways to obtain money throughout the year. Even though stone can be a little bit hard to find in large quantities, the money you make off of them is definitely worth the time.
Depending on the season, picking berries and mushrooms will also provide you with a great source of income. The berry bushes typically have a ton of berries available for you to pick, so make sure to dump everything else out of your inventory before going on your gathering trip. Just be mindful that unripe berries carry a chance to poison you and the benefits of eating them are not great.
Mushrooms are also useful as another source of food and you should consider picking them whenever you see them – even if you do not intend to sell them. Unlike berries, mushrooms are safe to eat and will not poison you.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my Medieval Dynasty Beginners Guide and Tips! I hope that this guide has been of some help for you on your way and hope you enjoy the rest of the game 🙂
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