How knightfolk works

First steps

Joining takes a few minutes. A short wizard walks you from your account to your first day in the realm.

• Sign in with Apple, or with e-mail and a password; a 6-digit code confirms your e-mail. One account works on phone, tablet and browser.
• The wizard has eight steps: Account, Prologue, Appearance, Name, Origin, Home, Messages and Ready. You can always go back.
• Pick man or woman and one of six portraits, then a name of 3 to 20 letters. Stuck? The dice suggest one.
• Your origin gives +2 to one attribute and a start item: Farmer's child, Squire, Woodland ranger, Cloister pupil or Merchant's child.
• Every new hero also starts with 100 gold, a dagger, two travel rations and two healing draughts.
• Choose your home with care: there you heal for free and spend attribute points. Recommended towns need citizens.
• The First steps card on Home lists easy tasks; finish them all for +100 XP and +50 gold. Your profession waits at the Guild Hall.

Your hero

You play one character per season. It grows through levels, gear and its profession; there is no skill tree.

• Five attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Wits, Endurance and Charisma. Each starts at 8, plus 2 from your origin.
• Every level brings 2 attribute points and +5 health. You spend points only at home, and once spent they stay.
• Each level takes a little longer than the last, and there is no level cap. The hero screen shows every formula with your own numbers.
• At home you heal 10 % of your health every hour, for free. Elsewhere, drink a draught or visit a temple.
• Below 20 % health you are wounded: no quests, no watch, no battles until you are back at 40 %. You can still travel, only slower.
• Death is final. Your gold goes to your home town, your name to the Book of the Fallen, and you can begin anew at level 1 at once.
• Your legacy stays with your account: the Hall of Ancestors keeps every hero you played, and badges last across seasons.

Quests

Every town has a Quest Board in its tavern. You choose the risk, then the quest runs on its own.

• Quests range from danger 1 to 5 and from 15 minutes to 12 hours. Half the board is renewed every six hours; you can take each quest once.
• Pick a stance before you set out: Cautious is safer, Bold is balanced, Greedy brings more loot and more wounds.
• Halfway through, a decision waits for 15 minutes. Choose yourself for a little more loot; if you are away, your stance chooses.
• Rare quests glow gold, appear once or twice a day and hang for two hours. Only the first five players may take one.
• City quests come from the mayor and pay in full, without the town's tithe. Group quests start at a set time for 3 to 8 players.
• Quest chains tell a story over several days, one part a day. A choice in the first part shapes how it ends.
• Each town has a daily goal, such as quests finished or hours of watch. Everyone who helps reach it gets +50 XP and +20 gold.

Map and journeys

The realm lives on a painted map. Roads take time, so plan when you leave and when you arrive.

• Tap a place to see its state and plan a journey. Map layers show who is present, enemy armies and royal campaigns.
• All arrivals fall on half-hour slots. Everyone who arrives in the same slot fights together, so friends can arrive at once.
• Leave now or choose your arrival time. Until you set out you are free, and you leave on time even when offline.
• Each road eats one travel ration from your bag, or 12 gold for food on the way. On the road you defend no town.
• You can turn back; the way home takes as long as the way so far. Wounded heroes travel slower.
• A horse is the only way to travel faster: Nag, Riding Horse or Destrier from the stable. It eats every day and runs off after two days unfed.
• Riding Horse and Destrier charge in the first round of a battle. A rider who flees may lose the horse.

Guard and battle

You defend a town simply by being there when the foe arrives, even while you are offline.

• Stand Guard in town for a small pay of 5 gold an hour, for up to 12 hours. You defend the town with a bonus.
• Watch fires warn you when a host marches on a town. A higher watchtower warns earlier, up to a day ahead.
• Whoever is in town when the battle starts fights, together with the town guard. Heroes on a quest, on the road or wounded do not.
• Battles run live, one round every 20 seconds. Watching is optional, and you can watch it again afterwards.
• You can flee at any time; it takes effect at the end of the round. Below 30 % health you roll to flee every round on your own.
• Set your draught threshold on the hero screen: below it, you drink healing draughts by yourself.
• Healers heal the weakest allies each round, twice as much with bandages. Staying to the end earns renown; fleeing costs renown and loot.

Professions

Choose one profession for the whole season at the Guild Hall. Your rank grows only by practice.

• Field professions work anywhere: the Guard stands watch, the Healer heals in battle and on infirmary duty, the Scout rides out to spot foes.
• Workshop professions need a place: Blacksmith in a smithy, Alchemist in a laboratory, Baker in a bakery. The Mason works on the building site.
• Ranks go Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Grandmaster. You keep your rank when you travel or change home.
• Put materials into your workshop and you are free again; the order finishes on its own. A place unused for five days goes to the next in line.
• Pieces come out Common, Good or Excellent; higher ranks succeed more often. Finished pieces go into your own shop.
• From Master you can make masterworks: one rare material, double the normal materials and a full day of work.
• Rare materials come from hard quests. Give them to the town stores for every master to use, or sell them for a lot of gold.

Trade

Gold is the coin of the realm. Buy from the trader, from your fellow players, or bid at the auction house.

• The Wandering Trader stands in every place: always in stock, but dear and only common quality. He buys anything back at a fixed price.
• Player shops sell what the town's crafters made, at prices they set themselves. Every crafted piece carries its maker's name.
• The auction house runs auctions of 12, 24 or 48 hours, with an optional buyout. The listing fee is not returned.
• If someone outbids you, your bid comes back to you at once.
• Better gear needs higher attributes. You can always buy it, but wear it only once your values are high enough.
• Prices include the town's sales tax, which fills its treasury. The market shows how much goes where.
• A temple heals you to full at once, for 1 gold per missing point of health.

Your town

Your home town is where you heal, vote and build. The more citizens call it home, the stronger it grows.

• Citizens may vote and stand for mayor after 3 days at home, at level 5, with a confirmed account. Moving home costs gold and starts citizenship over.
• Eight buildings make a town: Town Wall, Watchtower, Barracks, Temple, Tavern, Market, Workshops and Masons' Lodge. One building site at a time.
• Citizens elect a mayor for 7 days. Candidates write a speech and make up to three promises, which are checked when the term ends.
• The mayor sets the tax (0 to 20 %), builds, posts city quests, sends a daily proclamation and can mobilise all citizens before an attack.
• A quarter of the active citizens can force a vote of no confidence; two thirds of the votes depose the mayor.
• Without a mayor, the reeve (AI) runs the town by its plan. With one, the town scribe (AI) gives public advice.
• Anyone can donate gold. Every expense and donation stands in the public town book, and citizens have their own chat channel.

The crown

The mayors are the electors: together they choose a king or queen to lead the whole realm against the foe.

• Only mayors, in office or before, may stand for the crown. Each elector weighs as much as their town has active citizens.
• A reign lasts 14 days. The electors can depose the monarch with two thirds of the weight cast, if half of all weight votes.
• The royal treasury gets a share of every town's taxes. It pays the royal army, which fights in every battle where it stands.
• One edict at a time: Call to Arms (+2 armour for every defender), Market Peace (half the sales tax) or Crusade (more battle XP, slower healing).
• Campaigns set up to three waves with arrival slots and an optional rally point. Join a wave and you travel to arrive right on time.
• A wave that arrives at full strength gets +2 armour, +1 damage and renown. Mayors can also call a campaign near their own town.
• The monarch grants honours such as Knight of the Realm. The marshal (AI) advises; without a monarch, the steward (AI) keeps the realm.

The nemesis

Each season a different dark power tries to take every town in the realm. Nobody beats it alone.

• The nemesis changes every season: a Lich King with his undead, or the Iron Horde with orcs and ogres.
• Its lieutenants lead the armies. They remember who beat them and who fled, and one who escapes comes back stronger.
• Armies march along the roads just like you. You only see them once a watchtower or a scout has spotted them.
• A town that loses may be besieged or fall. A fallen town has no market, board or healing until players arrive together and free it.
• The foe rests at certain hours, and twists such as Eternal Winter or the Blood Moon change the rules for a while.
• A season runs through Arrival, Shadow, War and Endgame. After about 28 days the Dark Tide rises and the foe grows stronger every day.
• The season ends when every place belongs to one side. Your heroes and badges live on in the Hall of Ancestors.

The chronicle

Every morning the realm tells what happened yesterday: a new chapter, written from everyone's deeds.

• A new chapter appears every day at 04:00 realm time, with its text, a painted picture and a narrator reading it aloud.
• Every chapter comes in English and German. The foe has the last word, in a voice of its own.
• Real hero names appear in the story. If you are mentioned, your name is highlighted and you gain renown.
• Up to three heroes of the day are painted into the picture, in their own robes. "In the picture" names them below it.
• Tap a highlighted name to open that hero's card and public Hall of Ancestors.
• Missed a day? The Book of the Season under Realm keeps every chapter, starting with the prologue.
• In the settings you can let the chronicle read itself aloud whenever you open a chapter.

Looks and Lapis

Your hero picture shows you on your profile, in the chronicle, in battle and on the map. Looks never make you stronger.

• Every hero starts with a free hero picture in the clothes of their portrait.
• Robes and poses change your picture. They stay with your account in every season and give no battle values.
• The court painter paints every new picture of you. A purchase includes one picture and one repaint; each further picture costs 100 Lapis.
• Add features such as a scar, a beard, jewellery or a raven on your shoulder, free with the painting. Some are earned by deeds.
• Some robes and poses are never sold, like the Royal Mantle or the Mayor's Gown. You earn them by deeds or office, and their first picture is free.
• Lapis comes only for real money, never from play or trade. It stays on your account, never expires and always shows its value in euros.
• Buy Lapis in the iOS app under Settings → Buy Lapis: packs of 100 to 2,500 Lapis from €0.99. Buying in the browser follows later; Lapis bought in the app counts here too.
• No pay-to-win: no loot boxes, legendary items are never for sale, and no money makes a journey faster.

Messages

Battles happen day and night, so knightfolk tells you when something needs you, in the app or in the browser.

• Allow notifications in the start wizard or later in the settings. Every message also waits behind the bell.
• Choose what reaches you: your battles, attacks on your home, royal orders, quests, journeys, the chronicle, rare quests, trade, chat and the foe.
• Messages come at any hour. For quiet nights, mute your phone or switch off a kind in the settings.
• A planned journey reminds you 30 minutes before it sets out on its own.
• Tap a message to jump straight there, for example into a battle that has just begun.
• Delete a message behind the bell with ×, or clear them all at once.

Questions & answers

Is knightfolk free?

Yes, and there is no subscription. Lapis, bought with real money, only pays for looks: robes, poses and new hero pictures.

Do I need to be online all the time?

No. Quests, journeys and work run on their own, your stance decides while you are away, and you defend a town just by being there. A few short visits a day are enough.

What happens if my hero dies?

Death is final. Your gold goes to your home town and your name into the Book of the Fallen. You can start a new hero at once, at level 1. Badges, robes and poses stay with your account.

How long is a season?

There is no fixed end date. A season is planned for about 28 days (a long one for 12 weeks). After that the Dark Tide makes the foe stronger every day, until every place belongs to one side.

Can I join a season late?

Yes, at any time. While you are 3 or more levels below the realm's average, you get +50 % XP on everything.

Can I play on my phone and my computer with one account?

Yes. One account works on phone, tablet and browser. Your hero lives on the server, so you carry on from any device.

Is there pay-to-win?

No. Robes and poses give no battle values, legendary items can never be bought, there are no loot boxes, and money never makes journeys faster.

Can other players attack me?

No. Players never fight each other; only the foe can kill you. You compete only gently: in elections, in trade and for renown.

Which languages can I play in?

English and German. The chronicle is written and read aloud in both, and a chat message in the other language can be translated with one tap.

Someone in the chat bothers me. What can I do?

Tap their message: report it, so it is hidden for everyone until we have checked it, or block the player. Then you no longer see their messages, and neither of you can write privately to the other. Undo a block in the settings.

How do I get notified?

Allow notifications in the app or browser. You choose the kinds in the settings, and every message waits behind the bell.

Can I change my profession or my home?

Your profession is fixed for the season. Moving home costs gold, starts your citizenship over and is possible every 7 days; it is free if the foe holds your old home.

What do I keep after a season?

Heroes never move to a new season. Your account keeps the Hall of Ancestors, your badges, robes, poses and Lapis.