Hey everyone! I make guides for Wildermyth and write...things? And now Bad North! I may eventually share some of my (original) fictional works when I get the time and inclination!

I have played Bad North for years, since way back when the enemy still had red shieldy bois and you could get away without using archers, and I play on Very Hard, allowing level restarts (because I already did my many no restarts runs, and don’t feel the need for stresso) and at minimum attempt to visit every island and protect every house. Even at this difficulty, there’s a fair few ways to go about assembling your armies, and I’ve probably missed something. If you do things differently to me and it works for you, that’s awesome! Please let me know how you do it!

This means you can be sure that my guides will work on all difficulty settings. It doesn’t mean I believe in a handful of hyper-specific builds as the only way to play – I said it in the last paragraph and I’ll say it again; I love to hear what works for others!

I am committed to free, unlimited access to my writing for everyone, forever.

Anyone may freely excerpt, reference, and build on my works, provided they are clearly cited and referenced, and that my works are never used to promote hatred or bigotry of any kind - including but not limited to:

fascism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, polyphobia, bi/panphobia, acephobia

Further, while I may throw my voice behind things from time to time, I will never accept money or control over my works to do so. There will be no adverts here or anywhere else I create

If you enjoy my work and want me to keep making it, here’s a link to my Patreon[www.patreon.com]

THIS GUIDE CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS! If you want to discover the traits for yourself, maybe come back later?

If anyone has feedback, I'd love to hear it! There will always be a few mistakes slip through and it’s nice to catch those

This guide is of short-ish length (2.8k words including intro and titles)

This guide was written for Jotunn edition and finished on 2024-03-23 – I will list any updates it receives here
2024-04-15: minor adjustments to Fleet of Foot on Archers
2024-04-15: deleted a confusing and partially incorrect line in the Popular section
2024-04-18: swapped the word “ability” for “trait” in some of the ranking descriptions. Not sure how that slipped in but eh

Throughout the guide you’ll see me refer to what the game calls “infantry” as “shields” this is because every unit in the game is a type of infantry and the most important thing about this unit is the shields that allow them to block ranged attacks.

I draw a distinction between melee and a melee. Only archers aren’t melee units, but shields and militia both fight in a melee (intermingled and loose) where pikes are melee units that fight in formation

There are 13 commander traits, each with a unique flag design, though they can be of any colour. I will be covering them in alphabetical order and will rank them for each unit type as follows:

S = Super: this is a superlative option, will specialise the unit in a positive way, and competes for the best trait you can have on a unit of this type

G = Good: a solid trait that’s a distinct buff for this unit type. You’ll always be happy to recruit a unit of this type with this trait after your run starts

N = Neutral: this trait isn’t detrimental to this unit type, but it doesn’t really help it out either. You’d be just as well off with a trait-less unit of this type

B = Bad: this trait is actively harmful to the way this unit type operates, or at best is extremely situational and risky in its downsides

T = Terrible: you will curse your luck when you see this trait, and hope to Hel you never have to face the music for it

Additionally I will have + & - within the ranks, and I will be handing out one * for the best trait you can get on each unit type. S+ traits will be contenders for the coveted S*, so if you see your fav not getting the star and it has S+? know it was a close-run thing, in some cases tipped by my own preferences.

And with no more ado, the rankings!

“Receives a 50% discount on all item upgrades”

All: G-

I’m not going to rank this for each unit type, since it is so dependant on relic – a unit with a Jabena will find this completely useless, whereas a unit with ring of command will find it pretty solid. Overall, I’d say it sits at a G- because you can often get more ahead on economy by having a stronger trait that lets you do more islands. and you can end up in a situation where you need to pretend it’s not useful because you need a unit with a Jabena or something like that. Not the worst but I don’t rate the economy traits highly. The economy relics are just better.

“Reduced cooldown time on all abilities”

Militia N+
Pikes S
Shields S+
Archers S-


Militia:
I think militia can *technically* use this trait if they have relics with cooldowns, but it’s far, far better on actual units with skill abilities, since it can change a “once per battle, maybe twice if you used the first instance early” into a twice per battle, maybe 3 times if you get going early”.

Shields:
Plunge is an essential part of the shield unit’s kit, without which they can suffer greatly (RIP shield units on flat islands), in addition to some of the best relics for shields (Warhammer, War Horn) having cooldowns this trait can affect.

Pikes:
Charge is a very solid and easy to use ability that can really help out pikes in a pinch, and give them a way to handle units they otherwise stand no chance against but normally they won’t need it more than the once or twice, and they need it less against their good matchups.

Archers:
Volley is good, but annoyingly slow and thus slightly harder to use.

“This commander will never flee from battle”

All: T-

It’s a pure downside. It should be called “Stubborn”. And it should say “flee from an island” not “flee from battle” because it is extraordinarily vague otherwise. At best it never comes up. At worst you’ll lose the unit over it. Absolutely awful and the entire reason the T ranking exists. I’d be less cross about it if there were other negative traits and/or it was correctly labelled and described.

“Increased movement speed for the whole squad”

Militia G+
Pikes S
Shields S-
Archers S+

The actual speed difference is shockingly large – Fleet of foot units are extraordinarily fast, maybe twice the speed of regular units. It won’t help you when you’ve reached the enemy, but it might help you be there in time to lower your spears, loose your arrows before they land, or bail out a beleaguered squad (pikes, archers, and shields/militia respectively), so it can make a pretty big difference, especially on islands where the fighting is done at battlegrounds far from each other (especially common if you try to protect every house – which you should). This effect is especially notable with archers on account of how far away they can start attacking from

“Gains one extra use per level on all abilities”

Militia S-
Pikes G
Shields S-
Archer G+

This is another trait that affects relics (since skills have unlimited uses, but on a cooldown), so how good it is depends on your relics and whether it has limited charges.

So this is good for War horn, Mines, Bomb, etc. When it’s good it’s dramatically better than Collector, but it is more relic-specific and, since some relics are better for certain units, there’s a bit more granularity – War Horn specifically and arguably Mines (both of which are generally best on shields/militia) are the best two, and Bomb (which is best on archers) is a distant second (because it’s so easy to explode your own troops (yeah, yeah, skill issue, but I really dislike the slow travel speed and how shields/militia just love to run up into the splash zone)

“Basic attacks from this squad deal increased knockback and stun effects”

Militia: S
Pikes: B
Shields: S
Archers: S+

Militia & Shields:
Getting more knockback means more enemies end up on their arses for you to kill quickly, and they won’t be killing your soldiers in the meantime. It’s a solid trait.

Pikes:
On paper it seems like this should work out the same way as it does for militia & shields. In practice this trait increases the time a pike unit takes to kill enemy units, because the knockback will sit the enemy down beyond the range of the spears. This can lead either to getting flanked and murdered by the next wave, or several waves stacking up together to overwhelm the block. which is uh.. really bad.

Archers:
This was extraordinarily close to my S* for archers. With this trait you can knock every soldier in a shielded unit off ships with shocking reliability, even if the angles aren’t particularly favourable. Dramatically increases the favourability of the matchup if you can loose at them from the shoreline (not always possible, but commonly an option).

Militia S
Pikes G+
Shields S
Archers S*

Militia:
Not dying on the first hit is pretty strong for a unit type known for being extraordinarily squishy. Really helps keep the squad in the fight

Pikes:
it is strictly better than nothing, and pikes will occasionally catch a stray arrow or hit that will reduce their effectiveness without this trait, but really you should be avoiding that enough for it to not matter

Shields:
Very solid, can make individual soldiers pretty tough to kill, even so far as to survive a shot from the great creaking bows

Archers:
It seems weird to call a boost to defence the best possible upgrade for a ranged unit, doesn’t it? So what makes this not only an option, but the option? This upgrade sees your archers survive the first arrow that hits them, allowing them to fight enemy archers with extraordinary efficiency. Every archer unit will take casualties from enemy archers from time to time, especially if you’re smart enough to use shields to tank most of the shots and kill them before they reach the shore (losing shield units to enemy archers in melee is very frustrating). With this skill and a bit of luck you don’t even need the shield unit (although you should use it if given the option). You’ll also take fewer casualties when enemies leak past your other units for one reason or another

“This Commander is a giant, towering over other soldiers”

Militia S*
Pikes N+
Shields S+
Archers N+


Militia & Shields:
the BEEG commander is an awesome asset in a melee, with bonus damage, knockback, and durability. One of the few traits that can let shields take on some brutes without destroying the unit, and the toughness can be the difference between losing the commander and survival in desperate circumstances

Pikes & Archers:
You.. shouldn’t be engaging in a melee with these units. Very occasionally the BEEG commander will bonk back something that slips through and it’ll be cool, but you get very little out of your 1 militia troop (because really a commander is just a quasi-immortal militia with a flag) being stronk.

If there was a trait that let the actual squad be BEEG? That’s be awesome. Get yourself your own creaky bows or pikes that can reach forever, that’d be Hela strong. Probably OP, since it’d effectively be equivalent to like, 2-4 other traits combined (heavy weapons, ironskin, and maaybe sharp weapons, sure-footed) you’d have to increase replenishment time and reduce troop size or something, and then watch it be insanely strong with ring of command.

“Increases maximum squad size by 1”

Militia G+
Pikes S
Shields G+
Archers S

It’s just really solid. Every unit benefits from an extra soldier, the only downside is a fractional increase in replenishment time (which affects militia and shields the most) – but, unlike Ring of Command, it’s only by 1 soldier, so it isn’t ever crippling the way it can be when you’re juggling an extra 3 or 7

Pikes and Archers specifically benefit the most from this since they deal damage based on the number of soldiers, without taking any in return (most of the time) so it can be a 12.5% damage boost for them (increasing the number of active (i.e. non-commander) soldiers by 1/8 from 8 to 9), and keep them in the fight when they otherwise might have fallen below the required effectiveness.

“Reduces the time taken to replenish in a house”

Militia S+
Pikes G+
Shields S+
Archers G+


Another really solid pick. Every unit’s gonna end up in a house sometime, and this will get them up and at ‘em faster – maybe even fast enough to fight the wave that’s incoming when they entered the house! Also pretty solid to stack with Ring of Command, since it can take the edge off the increased replenishment time problem.

Militia & Shields benefit the most because they take the most casualties and thus need replenishment more often

“Basic attacks from this squad deal increased damage, but with reduced knockback and stun effects”

Militia G+
Pikes S*
Shields G
Archers B-


Militia and Shields do ok with a bit of extra damage, but the loss of knockback & stun effects is a bit sad. It’s not the most meaningful trade-off when a lot of their enemies are 1-hit anyway, but it definitely matters for their worse matchups, giving them a slight edge (pun intended) as well as reducing kill time against brute/giant archers, a surprisingly useful feature

Pikes love Sharp weapons for the same reason they hate Heavy Weapons – less knockback more damage is some 200% of what they need to clear waves quickly and efficiently

Archers do in some ways benefit from sharp weapons, but is one of those “this slightly helps my best matchups and completely destroys my ability to fight a bad matchup” I really don’t recommend giving up the power to efficiently knock shield units off boats for marginal damage increases

“Recieves a 50% discount on all Skill upgrades”

Militia N
Pikes G
Shields G+
Archers G-


It’s an economy trait, and frankly that just makes it a worse version of energetic. Slightly better on shields because Plunge is life, slightly worse on archers because Volley’s a bit slow, perfectly ok on pikes because Charge is solid. Obviously doesn’t do anything for militia, but they do upgrade into the others so eh.

“Resistance to knockback, stun, and launch effects”

Militia S
Pikes S
Shields S*
Archers N+

This trait allows melee units to stand in the path of a beaching ship and murder whatever is trying to disembark. It does exactly nothing for archers outside of the nichest cases. Shield units? They get to fight in the big leagues with this, able to go toe-to-toe with brutes of all stripes and those stupid jumpy bastards. It’s still not ideal to be taking those fights but they’re no longer an untenable matchup, and you won’t be run through the wringer when you’re forced to take them. Plus the creaky bows of doom can’t push you into the sea as often

There used to be more banner designs, something that confused the meme out of me when I was looking through my old screenshots – it’s sad that we lost a couple of good ones, and all we’ve really got left is this image gamefile and whatever screenshots veterans like me happened to take. But there weren’t traits back then so I get why they were depreciated.

I’d like to thank the folks on the Bad north channel of the Raw Fury discord who helped me puzzle out the mystery of the missing banners, and shamelessly re-plug my Patreon[www.patreon.com]! I’d love to spend more time making guides but… well, gotta pay bills