New Game

Upon the selection of New Game on the main menu you are met with a few choices to make.

Kingdoms
At the beggining of the game, you'll have to choose between two base game kingdoms.

The Ascendancy: "Earnest and hardworking, loyal and well-rounded. Citizens of the Ascendancy chop, build and farm, confident that the known world is theirs to inhabit". This is the base kingdom to start with. They live in the Temperate biomes and start with the Carpenter.

Rayya's Children : " The people of the desert learned earily that to survive, they needed each other, and preferably as many others as they could reach. Now, visitors find them generous hosts with access to goods from all over the world". These are the second playable kingdom that you can choose from, there base biome is the desert.

Biomes
There are two base biomes for the game.

Temperate : " Forests, rivers and mountains. Default hom of the Ascendancy". This map will spawn a lot of trees, as well as lakes, mountains and plains.This place is perfect for the Ascendancy, as all of their buildings and tool require wood.

Desert : "Dry and sandy, with chunky hills and sparse vegetation. Default home of Rayya's Children". This map is perfect for the Rayya's Children, because there is a lot more clay for the potter to build everything they need, from tools to houses.

There are a couple of mods that adds biomes like Achipelagio, Swamps, Canyons and more.

Difficulty
There are three base game difficulties.

- Peaceful : "A sandbow-mode, where you're free to build your town without worrying about invaders whatsoever." In this game mode, you won't have to build an army and nothing will attack you.

- Normal : "Adventure forth in a world fraught with danger. Your town will be subject to raiding enemies." This is the base difficulty where you will have to face enemies and defend your town.

- Hard : "Face more difficult monsters than normal mode." In this one, be ready to get raided by more monsters that are stronger than on normal mode.

There are some mods that add more difficulties, such as easy or harder.

Expedition Roster
The hearthlings that'll be in your world. An expedition initially consists of 5 hearthlings, determined randomly by the game.

Stats & Attributes
Each hearthling rolls between 1-6 in three stats: Mind, Body & Spirit. These stats then influence the attributes of your hearthlings: Mind represents the ability to think intelligently, allowing hearthlings to quickly grasp mental activities such as crafting and keeping their head clear. Body represents competence at physical activities, allowing hearthlings to move faster, attack harder, and live longer. Finally, Spirit represents faith in other people and themselves, allowing hearthlings to befriend animals easier, stand strong against enemies, and craft exceptional things more often.

A higher stat results in extra points in each attribute it affects. A rundown of the attributes and their effects can be seen in the table below.

Traits
Each hearthling also generates with 0-2 random traits. They affect hearthlings in various different ways, such as increasing movement speed, increasing hunger gain or getting a mood boost while it is raining. They also tend to have an effect on conversations your hearthlings have in your settlement. Certain traits are also mutually exclusive with one another.

A rundown of each trait, their effects and mutual exclusivity can be found in the table below.