This guide is made for those who miss the fact that you can feed your horse and frustrated about deer hunting.

TL:DR: Walk your horse when herding deer back & Stand on grassy tile to feed your horse.

• This guide is written as of patch update v1.01.
  
• Observing and learning the game mechanics is part of the gameplay (in my opinion). So the following contents can be considered a spoiler for some.
  
• This is my first guide. Sorry for its quality in advance. Comments, corrections and feedback are welcomed.

• TecThor

• The game design principle of Kingdom seems to be "simple input with deep choices", as I have seen the dev posted somewhere on this forum. Thus, the game offers you set of simple interactions/controls, which in turns makes the "timing" even more critical in this game.
  
• You kind of have to embrace the AI behaviors (no matter how dumb it is) and find a way to work with those limitations. As such, we will not likely given an archer rally point flag mechanic, or call back to base feature. Consider dumb AI as challenge and "rules of the game".
  
• If you embrace the above, you may find the taste of Kingdom different and interesting, which is what it should be for an indie game, right?

As you have noticed, your horse will get tired after running for awhile, as shown by heavy breathing animation. After that it will refuse to run (15 seconds or until feed on grass), and in some crucial moments, you can lose the game by getting your crown knocked off by a mob. It is annoying, but it is part of the gameplay. However, if you have not noticed, you can feed your horse. So, you will have to "manage" your horse stamina by purposely stopping and letting it feed on the grass from time to time.

• After feeding on grass, the horse can run continuously for about 58 seconds, as compared to 13 second of unfed stamina (about 4x improvement). Thanks to TecThor for these numbers! Well-fed buff is very useful for deer herding and late-game running from end to end.
  
  
• While in this state, your horse will have extra dirt cloud or sparkle glow animation while it runs.
  
• You can keep track of the running cloud or glow to see when the bonus stamina is depleted. After that your horse will still run for normal duration.

• You can let your horse feed on grass by standing still on a "grassy" tile. It takes a few seconds.
  
• Grassy tiles can be found at:
  
  • the long grassland patch of the rabbit fields which can be found around your base and also in the middle of the woods on both sides, thus making it a good re-fueling spot, (note that the map is randomly generated, so sometimes the fields in the woods maybe behind the first portal)
    
    
    
    
  • the super-small patch of grass in your castle/camp! Yes, you can feed on these. They are always there even after you expand your border.
    
    
    
    
  • the grass/plants in the woods can NOT be fed.

Deer herding can net you a lot of golds and is very useful in the early game.

• Each deer requires two arrow hits.
  
• Each deer drops 4 golds.
  
• The deer may change direction if
  
  • you run close to it. The timing is quite random. This happens at both when you are rounding them up and herding them back.
    
  • it run past your other recruited minions. This happens at random, but quite often when you are also recruiting at camps in the woods.
• The deer will run away after the first shot hits, and it seems to ignore whether your block its way or not. Thus the herding will be more effective if you have at least 2-3 archers at the ready.

See the horse stamina and feeding section. Feeding your horse will allow you to round up more deer in one run, as you can run continuously longer.

If you run chasing them back, at random, a deer will turn around if you are "too close" to them. If you just walk your horse after them, it seems 100% they will never turn around (unless get shot by the archer). You can sprint and walk from time to time, just keep the distance. However, they may turn around if running past other recruited characters. So, try not to recruit on the trip away from base, but recruit on the way back, if time permits for recruits to reach base before night time.

When you get close to an "active" portal, it may spawn some mobs. In the early game (Day 1-5 at least), it will spawn only 1 mob. You can drop a gold coin for the mob to leave you alone, then keep exploring. It seems only the first portal on each side is "active". The second portals are "inactive" meaning you can just stand there and no mobs will come out. The inactive portal will not have red dimensional warping and hissing sound, when you get close. See image below for inactive portal.


I always scout all the way to the right on Day 1, then scout all the way on the left on Day 2. I learned this from Galactimus_Zero's videos, see (spoiler alert - pro's strategy!) http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/368230/discussions/0/483368526589743410/
Just keep 2-3 gold pieces with you. If you recruit beyond the portals, the recruits may provoke the monster to come out when they walk past the portal back to your camp. I don't recommend that.

When exploring, you expect to find 2 loot chests randomly placed. It is very helpful for the early game. Also, keep track of locations for the two shrines and stone-upgrade statue. You don't need to restart your game because the stone-upgrade statue is behind the first portal.

On the day of blood moon, the closest portal on one side (randomly chosen) will be "active", the other is "inactive". You can scout during the day to determine at which side the night attack will come.

The day and night, right after the night of the blood moon, the portal on the side of blood moon attack will be "inactive". You can also safely explore this side during that time. Also, you can dispatch your knight troops right at dawn on this day to make sure your troops reach the portal with no/less night wave intercepts.

This section is not that important, and can be skipped.

Personally, this game is awesome due to its simplicity and everything ties into gold-interaction mechanic. Even for the combat hit point for your character and minions!

• Once got attacked by a monster, your minion (not including knight) will first drop his/her tool (bow, hammer, or scythe).
  
• The minion will pause for a bit, slowly walk back and pick the tool up and continue the task.
  
• If the minion does not have any tool and got attacked, he/she will become "un-recruited" state, and will no longer pick up the dropped tool.
  
• Knights and walls will tank the minions to give them chances to re-pick up the tools and continue the fight/repair/etc.
  
• It seems the only cause of "permanent" death of your minions is being abducted by the certain later game mob. The un-recruited minions will crouch in fear and are safe/ignored by the mobs.
  
• It seems the knight team also got un-recruited if they failed. They will survive and linger at the farthest away camp before the portal. (? not sure if permanently remain, help please)

• You can have towers beyond the wall. They kind of have more chance to hit the mobs because there is no wall to block their arrows.
  
• They may be vulnerable to some tougher late game mobs, but they are safe from and ignored by the basic steal-er mobs.
  
• The scythe tool manager is safe/ignored as well. See image below.

• Filled in the tower > Hunter-mode
  
• If a knight is just made (shield becomes flag), 3 hunter archers (not in the tower) will be converted to soldiers in that knight team/company right away. Their clothe color will change to match the knight's coat-of-arms. Cool, isn't it?
  
• Only archer hunter mode will hunt and gather gold.
  
• Archers in the tower will never leave unless got attacked.
  
• If you lose a soldier while its commanding knight is still alive, a new soldier will be recruited.

The farmhouse (Lv.2 farm) can host farmers (6 max?) AND builders (at least 4) at night.

• Having farmhouse close or next to wall will allow builders to "quickly" slowly walk to repair wall and reload catapult.
  
• When night falls, it seems builders will go to closest farmhouse to where they are during the day?
  
• Lv. 1 farm allows 4 farm plots, 2 on each side of it, (if no other buildings are already on top of it).
  
• Lv. 2 farm allows 6 farm plots, 3 on each side.

• It seems 2 newcomers regen per day, but ONE at a time. So, one per half a day.
  
• Cutting down the innermost tree next to the camp, will remove it. Be careful, not to accidentally order to cut down the last tree, while recruiting. You can clear up other trees up to the last innermost tree and the camp will be fine.

Thanks TecThor for this tip! I will just quote him :P "If you remove trees next to a water place, the land will turn into grass and spawn additional rabbit holes. From one rabbit hole you can earn 9 coins per day."

Once you feel the attack is over, don't wait till dawn comes. You can leave the camp, just go with some back up golds. So you can do more in a day.

***this section will be expanded/edited later.
You can dodge the smasher troll attack, lure it around, to reduce damage on your minions.
Its priority is to attack (knock gold/crown of) you. If it is the last type of enemies left, you can run around dodging attack, while your archers/catapult killing it. If the crown got knocked off, you can pick it up, they don't care about stealing. If they smash your crown on the ground, you will lose the game as it will fall into the water. Their attack drops tool from minions, and sometimes, tools on the ground will drop to the water, thus making your troop getting weaker, as your minions cannot resume the fight/repair/reload the catapult.

• As game progresses, the monster troop is getting stronger in number, and with new higher-tier varieties. While your maximum number of knight teams are capped at 2 per side.
  
• You can spread extra coins between your marching troop and the portal to bribe incoming night wave, so your knight will be able to reach the portal. Or dispatch right at dawn after the blood moon night, since there is no incoming wave the night after. (Right?) Or you can forward expand your wall to get closer to the portal. Sometimes, there will be a grass field/ clear opening in the middle of the wood, which you can cut down nearby trees and build towers/walls. So, you do not have to tear down camp, and absorb the camp into your realm instead.
  
• Also, if you have access to the archer shrine, pay the tribute, so your troop also got accuracy boost. You will see the arrows glow. (?not sure if builder shrine boost the knight defense, probably not)

• There is always one rabbit grassy field on each side of your base, immediately next to your camp. They will be replaced if you build wall on top of it, or expand your base. It will regrow at dawn given that there is a free spot next to your base.
  
• As you upgrade and expand your base, the right one will first be replaced by scythe manager boot, then the left one will be replaced by the catapult workshop.
  
• On the right side, consider not building the 2nd wall (to the right of scythe manager boot), until you have farming going. As the wall will remove the rabbit field, and it will not regrow unless you cut down the tree which also remove the recruit camp. Thus, rendering the right side archers useless, until you clear the recruit camp. (In my run, I always keep this recruit camp, as you will have tons of money after you have farms going on the left side).

The map is randomly generated. The game can be somewhat harder for new player if you don't have access to the stone upgrade statue between the camp and the first portal. However, exploring beyond the first portal is not that dangerous, just bring some golds with you to pay the mobs coming out.

• Fixed
  • It seems they will be 3 recruit camps on each side of the map.
    
  • It seems they will be 2 portals on each side.
    
  • There are 3 statues (Wall/repair temporary boost, archer accuracy boost, and stone structure upgrade).
    
  • There is a merchant on one side. It seems the merchant is always before the first portal as well, (at least for all my runs).
    
  • The recruit camp on the right side is always there, right next to your base. Consider keeping it as it is the closest recruit spot.
• Randomized
  • The order of the appearance of the camps, portal, statues, merchant, grass field in middle of the woods, are randomized.
    
  • There may be one or more gold loot chests in the forest before the first portal.
    
  • The appearance of plots for building towers, farms, and walls are randomized, apart from the tower and wall spots around your base.