Hello to you, fellow Gnomad! I've created this guide to help anyone and everyone playing Gnomoria. It is by no means a comprehensive guide to the game, rather a guide to efficiently starting the game.



The Checklist - a list of things that should be done, so you have both the resources and the manpower to build your kingdom. Most of these are gone over more thoroughly in the following sections.

• Before we unpause, we should have
  
• Once we unpause, we should

Starting Off Right (Parts I + II) - an in-depth look at what should be done before you unpause the game, just after you've generated your map.

• The Pioneer/Provisioner Professions Method
  
• The Militia/Monk Military Method
  
• The C-V Digging Method
  
• (II) The Expanding Walls Method
  
• (II) The Necessities

I've Started... Now What? - an attempt at what you should be doing over the course of your first spring. Hopefully, this will help some of you learn from the many many mistakes that I have.

• Tracked Items
  
• The Next Steps
  
• Stockpiling Efficiently
  
• Final Notes

The final section is credits and thanks.

Most importantly, have fun!

A few notes:

• This is by no means how you MUST play, but an accumulation of knowledge I've gained through experience, fellow Gnomads, and ALOT of failure. Play however you wish, that's the wonderful thing about the game!
  
• If any of the pictures are too small, I apologize.
  
• There is a trick for mining that may not necessarily be in the spirit of the game, but is helpful when descending levels. With Terrain>Replace Wall selected, click and expand over any area underground to reveal ore veins, coal, caverns, and gems with precision. If this tip is a problem, I can remove it from the guide.
  
• As you grow in Kingdom Worth, more gnomads will join your settlement, but also more and better equipped goblins will spawn. Be mindful of Kingdom Worth!
  
• The Worth of any item placed in your Great Hall is doubled.
  
• When creating your gnome army, have your soldiers only be soldiers. Create a Soldier job with Woodcutting, Farming, Mining, Horticulture, and Hauling checked. This will give them small boosts to corresponding weapon/nimbleness skills. The benefit of this is efficiency and loss prevention. Which ever gnome you designate to be a soldier will need to train, taking time away from their other tasks. Should they die, a gnome with the Soldier profession won't have died being your most skilled Brewer. Regular workers should be put into a Militia Squad for their own safety.
  
• 90% of this game is failing upwards! That's how you learn and get better. Have fun with it!

Before we unpause, we should have:

• changed our professions and assigned accordingly (optional, details in guide)
  
• set up our militia (optional for peaceful)
  
• designated a wheat farm, priority 1, minimum 5x5 (or 25 plots)
  
• designated a pasture, minimum 6x6 (or 36 plots)
  
• dug stairs down to at least a depth or -7 (or dug into stone on maps with elevated terrain)
  
• set to mine some rooms (either underground or into the hills)
  
• designated a soil wall to be built around our base, giving us room to build (optional for peaceful)
  
• foraged any plants, then felled any trees within the walled-in area

Once we unpause, we should:

• set up our Tracked Items list
  
• patch up any areas in our wall that had been previously obstructed
  
• build 1-2 crude workbenches (I use 2, making 1 only craft planks and not accept generated jobs)
  
• designate a dormitory with 5 straw beds (enough so we can feed our yaks until crops grow)
  
• designate a dining room and make it our Great Hall
  
• designate 2 more farms, one for strawberries, priority 2; one for cotton, priority 3
  
• expand our farms when we have the available seed to 7x7 (optional, but efficient)
  
• build the following workshops in order: Stonecutter>Stonemason>Sawmill>Carpenter
  
• deconstruct our crude workbenches (upon completion of the previous)
  
• designate stockpiles for each item near it's corresponding workshop (specifics in guide)
  
• build at least 3 of each: wheelbarrow, bucket, and sack (when able)
  
• build crates, barrels, and bags on the corresponding stockpiles (when able)
  
• designate a small grove for each type of clipping you have (expanding when you expand walls)
  
• slaughter our 3rd yak, born in the beginning of Summer (whichever gender you have 2 of)
  
• set Bandages to be crafted to at least 30, when Tailor Shop is complete (recommended 50)

Welcome! Let's get started!

For new players, I recommend playing on a flat map. To achieve this, click New Game>Advanced Setting> move the sliders to the left, like so:
To start with the same map as I have in this guide, type the following number into Kingdom Seed: 491019972

Click Generate Map, and we're on our way! The flat map allows you to get used to the basic concepts of the game without feeling the clutter of elevated terrain.

You'll spawn in the center of the map, with 9 happy gnomes, 2 yaks, and some supplies. It'll be zoomed in, and you may notice that your mouse scroll wheel goes up and down Depth levels, but doesn't zoom out. To zoom out hold Ctrl while scrolling down (this took me too long to figure out).

You should notice the game starts off paused. This gives us as much time as we need to set up how we want the simulation to run. Remember: you can't tell any individual gnomes what to do. You modify their jobs and priorities and they choose the next appropriate available task once you start the game.

Speaking of jobs, lets give our gnomes theirs! Your gnomes come with pre-designated jobs, but we're going to change those up for this first season. Once you have enough gnomes to fill out your jobs, you can change their jobs to be much more specified. To change jobs, go to the Population tab at the top of your screen. Click Professions. In the dropdown menu, you can see all the jobs currently available to your gnomes.

The Pioneer/Provisioner Professions Method

Click New and create the following job title: Pioneer. Check off the following boxes: Stone, Wood, Metal, Gem, Engineer, Doctor, Misc. Give them the following Priorities starting at the top: Mining, Agriculture, Workshop. It should look something like this.

Next, click New again and create: Provisioner. Check off the following boxes: Cloth, Rancher, Agriculture, Doctor, Misc. In Misc Craft, click Leatherworking, and Bonecarving. Give them the following Priorities: Agriculture, Pasture, Farm, Grove, Workshop. It should look something like this.

*NOTE: This Pioneer/Provisioner professions start is not mine. It was initially created in Aavak's Castlegoat, found here. Thanks to redditor UFTimmy for sourcing it.

Now it's time to give our gnomes their new jobs! Click the Assign tab and assign your new jobs to your gnomes like so: Provisioner, Provisioner, Provisioner, Provisioner, Pioneer, Pioneer, Provisioner, Pioneer Pioneer. You can check your gnomes skills by hovering over the job dropdown menu. It should look like this.


Keep in mind, we still haven't unpaused the game. Exit out of the Population Panel.

If you're playing on Peaceful, skip the following entry.

The Militia/Monk Military Method

Now we're going to set up our military. Go to the Military Panel at the top and click Uniforms. Rename Platemail to Militia (some people like to call them Monks). For each piece of armor, click the dropdown menu then click None. It should look like this.

Next, click Positions. Set up the position 'Militia', give it the Way of the Gnome perk (why we have no armor/weapon), and the Militia Uniform. Make sure you have Maintain Distance, Retreat if Bleeding, and Retreat to Equip Uniform checked. It should look like this.

Next, click Formations. Create a Militia Formation, give it the perk Keep Your Eyes Open, and check Avoid Enemies. It should look like this.

Almost done! Click Squads, New Squad, give it the Militia Formation you just created, and assign your gnomes! You should have 2 squads (one with 5 and one with 4). Done!

Now, we want to make sure we have some rooms for our gnomes to perform the many tasks we have for them, and a place to store it all.

The C-V Digging Method

Click Terrain on the panel at the bottom of your screen. Click Dig Stairs Down. This is a key tool for ascending and descending levels of depth in Gnomoria. You can bind any tools you find essential to what ever keys you like in the settings. Hit escape>Settings>Controls. Scroll down until you find the task Mine Wall. Bind it to the 'C' key. A few below that is the task Dig Stairs Down. Bind it the the 'V' key. Now you have a quick and easy method to create a large stairway going down! Let's put it to some use.

At the same level as your gnomes, Dig Stairs Down (V key) to the depth below. Rotate with (R) key. Scroll down and you'll see a green (or yellow) outline of where the stairs will be. In front of that, Mine Wall (C key) just that one block. Continuing in the same direction, Dig Stairs Down (V) again. The one mined wall in between will give us room to place a Wall Torch. Enemies from below can't spawn in lit areas. Torches are essential. When finished, you should have something that looks like this.

Now that we're digging into the ground, we should set up some rooms for our gnomes. Branching out from the wall we mined between the stairs, click one more box up for an entryway. From there, create 9 7x7 rooms, connected in the middle by a 1 block entryway. The 7x7 allows us to create our 3x3 workshops later on, and still have enough room to Stockpile specific goods in that room. It should look something like this.

Note: Be wary of caverns when mining. If you hover your cursor over an area with Mine Wall selected, you may see grey boxes going down in depth. This is a cavern and should be avoided with enemies enabled.

Excellent work! We're really coming along! Now that we have some rooms ready to be dug out, it's time to think ahead. We're going to need food, drinks, straw, and crafting materials if we're going to survive out here. Let's start with Stone, because it's needed in crafting many important items. To get stone, we've got to delve down to -7 or below. For now, we're just going to -7 Depth. To strike some stone, let's use the C-V Method to get to -7. Scroll down from the rooms you just made and you'll find the stairs you dug earlier. In front of it, Mine Wall (C) then Dig Stairs down (V). Continue this until you get to the depth of -7. When you get there, Dig out an 11x11 square in front of the stairs. It should look like this.

Awesome! Now you're set up to have over 100 stone once it's all mined out. Scroll back to the main level with all the pretty grass and trees.

The Expanding Walls Method

Since we're thinking ahead, let's talk about enemies. If you're playing on peaceful, skip this section. Beginning in the summer, goblins will spawn to steal your goods and attack your gnomes (mants spawn Year 2). We need to protect ourselves with some walls! Without walls, our enemies will bee line to attack the first friendly it can. Walls make it so there is no entrance into your base without having one of your gnomes Mine out a block from the inside. Your enemies will wander around outside your walls for around 3 days, then head home. When our gnomes start mining that soil from the rooms we created, we'll have plenty of materials to create a wall. For now, let's bind the task Build Wall to the 'X' key. When we press X, a menu will pop up asking us which kind of wall we want to make. Click soil wall and make a small wall around your base. If you used the map seed I did, the 2 small bodies of water are perfect for borders. Keep it small for now, you don't want everyone spending too much time building. We can expand later after an attack or during Winter when our farmers and woodcutters are idle. As an example, mine looked something like this.

You can see there are some gaps where some trees and plants are, but those can be cut down and foraged out. Once they're gone, you can put a soil wall in it's place connecting it all. As we get gnomads, we mine out a wall to let them in, then rebuild the wall in it's place. As we expand, we can also upgrade the quality of the walls. When you feel you have the total amount of map space you need walled in, use Terrain>Replace Wall to replace it with something nicer. Granite Block Walls look just like a medieval castle, and block walls can help against Tunnelers!

Note on mining: you can keep mining for more and better materials during your first Spring. Dig to -10 or below for more abundant ore veins, gem clusters, and coal. Watch out for caverns! Opening one can lead to Beetle invasions or worse! If you open one on accident, build a wall to block it off. If your game starts to lag later on for seemingly no reason, you may have a horde of beetles running around a cavern.

The Necessities

Still paused and still thinking ahead! We have these yaks, and only start with 32 straw. It takes a wheat farm 7 days to grow, so we're going to need to plan ahead. Build a farm between 5x5 and 7x7 on a patch of cleared land. I didn't have a 7x7 patch so I went with a 5x5. Give it the Priority of 1 and designate it a Wheat Farm. It should look like this.

We'll want to plant 2 more farms for both Strawberries (priority 2) and Cotton (Priority 3) once we have the space, but to start off we just need the Wheat Farm. Remember: you can always change anything around later - it doesn't have to be perfect right now.

Next is a Pasture to place our Yaks on. Each animal in Gnomoria has a specific number of slots it takes up. For Yaks, we need at least 36 plots of lands in order to accommodate 3 yaks (enough room for 1 more). Again, this can be expanded later, but it's important to get it done before you unpause. It should look something like this.

Sweet! We're almost ready to start the game and let our little gnomes run free! Go to Agriculture>Fell Trees. Inside the walls you created, designate all trees to be chopped down. This will open up a bunch of space to create your master kingdom! Don't forget to chop down the trees in the gaps in your walls! It should look something like this.

Awesome! Now you're all set to click play! You can set it to 1x speed or 2x speed, whichever you feel comfortable with. You'll see all your gnomes begin their tasks and start your kingdom off right. We're ready to head on to the next section.

Tracked Items

Now that we've started, we'll begin to see our creation unfold. The rooms will become hollowed out, and our resources will start adding up. But what resources do we need to keep track of? You'll notice on the left hand side of the screen, you have Food and Drink being tracked. You can add any other item you want to be tracked over there. Go to the top of your screen and click Stocks>Tracked Items. Click New and track whichever items you like. I have created a list of the main items you'll want to track here, if you would like to use it. The following should have their own categories, renamed and checked with the corresponding item:

• Food
  
• Drink
  
• Soil
  
• Raw Stone
  
• >Blocks
  
• Logs
  
• >Planks
  
• Coal
  
• Ore
  
• >Bars
  
• Fibers
  
• >Bolts
  
• >Bandages
  
• Grain
  
• Straw

I have provided an image of what the menu should look like upon completion for Straw.

The Next Steps

Next, you'll want a place for your gnomes to sleep. On the bottom panel, click Designate Area>Dormitory. In one of those 7x7 rooms you just made, designate the whole room as a Dormitory. Now click Build>Furniture>Straw Bed. Place 5 Straw Beds on the Dormitory floor. Now more than half of your gnomes have a place to sleep.

Once your gnomes are finished with their tasks, you'll want to make a few workshops. In order to do that you'll need to start with a Crude Workbench. For that you need 1 log and 1 stone. I create 2 Crude Workbenches when I start - one creating only planks of wood, the other only creating the workshops I need.

Your first 6 workshops should go as follows:
1-2. Crude Workbench
3. Stonecutter (when finished craft blocks to 25)
4. Stonemason (when finished craft 1 sawblade)
5. Sawmill (when finished craft planks of the logs you have most of to 25)
6. Carpenter (when finished, use this for all other crafting)

The Dormitory and Workshops should be placed similar to this.

Once your Carpenter is finished, deconstruct your 2 Crude Workbenches. All crafting options available at the Crude Workbenches are available at the 4 workshops you just created.

It's important to note that you should create only the Workshops you have the materials for. If when you place it down, you notice you have 0 of a required item, try not to place it just yet, as it may take your gnomes more time than necessary to create the items. For example, If I place all of the workshops I want all at once, my gnomes will craft individual items needed (4 chairs, then 4 workbenches) instead of all the items needed for one. So I would get 4 workbenches and 4 chairs, then my gnomes would build the actual workshops.

When crafting any item, you can control every component it is made of. Again, be sure to use only the items you can see you have when you click the dropdown menu. For example, if I want to make a wooden chair, I will go to my Carpenter, click chair, and choose which type of wood to make it out of on the left hand side. Then, click Craft Item to have it queued.

Stockpiling Efficiently

While you're waiting for your materials to be created for your workshops, lets open up our base a little more. Behind where your Carpenter/Sawmill and Stonecutter/Mason are, dig out another 7x7 area. In the 3x7 area you won't be using for workbenches, Designate a Stockpile like this.

When you click, a menu will appear. This menu lets you decide exactly what items are allowed on this stockpile. Let's rename it to Logs, and click the same box. Give it the Priority of 1. It should look like this.

Great job! You now have a storage spot for your logs! Do the same for the room you have your Stonecutter/Mason. Designate it Stone and check only Raw Stone. Now we want to have a spot for all produced good from those workshops. In the 7x7 rooms we just made behind the workshops, let's Designate another Stockpile like this.

Label this new stockpile 'Carpenter', give it the priority of 1, and set it to hold all Wood items except logs, like so.

Do the same for your stoneworks. Label the new 7x7 stockpile 'Mason', give it a priority of 1, and set it to hold all items except raw stone.

Using this efficient stockpiling method with each other set of Workshops that work in conjunction with each other, our gnomes have very little distance to travel to get/drop off what they need. Placing crates on stockpiles makes that one plot able to hold 32 of most items. Bags hold 32 of one type of seed, grain, clipping or fiber. Barrels hold 64 of one type of drink. Some items instead get stacked on top of each other on stockpiles. These include: dirt, stone, straw, clay, and silica. Each should have its own stockpile. Placing your Straw stockpile near your pastures allows your ranchers ease-of-access to your animals food source.

The following Workshops should be placed together or as near each other as you can:
-Stonecutter + Stonemason
-Sawmill + Carpenter
-Butcher + Kitchen
-Bonecutter + Leatherworker (both get their mats from Butcher)
-Loom + Tailor (Tailor requires Bonecarver for needle - kill first yak born early Summer)
-Smelter + Furnace + Forge (metal slivers can be combined with coal from furnace for bars at forge)
-Armorer + Weaponsmith
-Gemcutter + Jeweller
-Engineer + Machine Shop + Tinker Bench
-Prospector Shop + Kiln
-Woodcarver + Stonecarver + Metalworker (I like to keep the money-makers together)

The rest is really up to you! By using these techniques, you should have most workshops completed by the end of Spring, a wall around your base for protection, and enough resources to push through.

---

Final notes:
-It's important to expand your farms/groves. Once you have enough seeds or clippings, expand on the farms you currently have to get them up to 7x7, then build more from there. The 7x7 farms allows your gnomes to pick it clean and have enough time to do other tasks, while still collecting enough to have a steady supply. When you create groves for Birch, Pine, Apples, and Oranges, try not to make them too big or they will be very time consuming. Once I'm certain I have enough gnomes to fill out the job, I will make my groves 10x10, giving me enough wood to last through Winter.
-When you start specifying job assignments, keeping the number of jobs a gnome has to a max of 5 will benefit you in the long run. Your gnomes will level those skills faster and eventually pump out legendary items to really knock up your Kingdom Worth. An example of this would be as follows:

Farmer
[x] Farming
[x] Horticulture
[x] Building
[x] Hauling

Priorities set to:
Farm
Grove
Building
Hauling

This means any gnomes you give the Farmer profession will seek out any work at your Farms first (starting with the Farm with the highest priority), then when all Farms are complete will do the same for all tasks at Groves, then Building tasks, then Hauling tasks.

-Renaming your gnomes will cause you to become attached to them.

Thanks to RoboB0b for making this awesome game!

If you noticed any incorrect information, or have any suggestions, politely leave a comment and I'll address your concern.

All images placed within this guide were created by the author, using GIMP and/or Paint.

For a detailed guide on all things production, check out my Unofficial Production Guide.

For a detailed guide on all things involving your Military, check out my Unofficial Military Guide. The guide also contains a quick reference for statue (and other material) colors.

For a detailed guide on how to mod your game with multiple mods, check out my Unofficial Multiple Modding Guide.

Finally, thanks to you, fellow Gnomad! If you felt this guide helped you, rate it up for more visibility to help other Gnomads!