/mbg/ Bannerlord Guide

/mbg/ Bannerlord FAQs/Starter Guide
Last updated: 1.0.5
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FAQS
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Q: What faction has the best trait?
A: At the moment, none of the traits actually work. Well, Battania's sort of works but the values aren't right so it may as well not work. Just pick based on the skills, armor and weapons currently.

Q: What perks do I pick?
A: Few work and those that do work usually don't work correctly. Generally, assume the perk you want doesn't work and maybe get pleasantly surprised if it does. There will be an updated list of confirmed working later in this list. Also anything that works that gives a "percentage" bonus usually works the caveat is listed later.

Q: How do I make money?
A: Go trading (buy low/sell high) on a loop, doing tourneys and grinding looters. Smelt looted weapons for max dosh. Buy a workshop if you have the money or a caravan if you have 20k. Caravans only cost 15k, but you need the buffer to carry their upkeep until they start to make a profit which is roughly 1 week in game time. Caravans earn more than workshops in the long term, but they're also more volatile and don't profit every single day as they're affected by war and the global economy.

Q: What kind of workshop is best?
A: Depends on where you build it. In the current system, workshop profit is primarily tied to the cost of the raw materials. This means you should check what settlements that are tied to the town are producing as well as what raw mats are cheap and in bulk in the town. To effectively double down on this, you can buy the raw mats from a village and sell them in the town further driving down the price. You can also build a caravan in the town which will buy your workshops produced goods thus increasing profit for both your workshop and your caravan.

Q: Where do I build my caravan?
A: Literally wherever you want. Ideally, you want it somewhere safe so it isn't raided by either bandits or enemy stacks. You also want it somewhere where the next town isn't too far away to increase the number of trades in a day. Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. Your caravan will roam the world in search of trade and before long end up far from where you started it.

Q: Can I create my own faction?
A: Short answer: yes. Finish the main quest line. Long answer: None of the features actually work and forcing them to work via the console crashes the game. The only real workaround so far is for declaring war: attack either a caravan or vassal of whatever faction you want to go to war with. Best to just vassalize yourself instead currently.

Q: What quests aren't worth doing?
A: Bandit Hideouts, Artisans Can't Sell, Fencing Stolen Goods, Train Troops are all quests generally considered not worth doing. The first three, YMMV.

Q: Oh shit, I got criminal rating from doing a quest. What does it do? Can I get rid of it?
A: It doesn't really do anything. You can't enter keeps or castles of a faction you have CR with, that's it. It goes away on its own at -1 per day.

Q: How do clan roles work?
A: Not well. Basically how it works: if you place a companion in the role, their relevant skill is leveled up and every party in the clan gains a "percentage" based increase to the relevant matter. Surgeons give a tiny increase to healing, engineers to building, quartermaster to stewardship/party size, scout to scouting. HOWEVER, unless your companion has 100+ it's not worth it to assign anyone to unthing UNLESS you're running several clan parties. The reason for this is if you don't put anyone in the role, then the player auto fills the role for their party and thus gains the relevant skills at a faster rate than a companion would meaning the bonus gained from having a companion in the role will be quickly dwarfed. Thus, unless you're running many parties, don't bother.

Q: What do governors do?
A: They don't seem to do anything, either keep your companions in your party or give them their own. Maybe give your waifu governorship so you can easily find her if you're not dragging her along with you.

Q: My waifu says we can't be together. Is that permanent?
A: Yes. You got XCOM'd by a speech check. Save scum or find another one.

Q: Is snowball fixed? Why does it happen? Can I stop it?
A: No, it isn't fixed. Fixes are months away. The patches were bandaids. It does take LONGER for snowball to happen without direct player intervention, but it's an inevitability even after it gets fixed. As for the rest the short answer: the mechanics needed to prevent it aren't implemented yet. Long answer: We don't fully know. Some anons have a working theory that it's a butterfly effect caused by player interaction with the world. Often you'll notice the snowballing empires are ones where player spends time doing quests and farming bandits, usually along their preferred trade routes. With no bandits to keep them partially in check, they just expand endlessly. You'll also notice that you'll find massive bandit stacks (sometimes upwards of 100+) in areas you don't visit often or at all. Thus the Southern Empire is usually one to quicky go on the offensive as the player farms looters on the way to their first intended destination.

Q: Why can't I hit things, especially from a horse? Why am I blocking and still getting hit?
A: If you made a tall character, that's likely the issue. Weapons aren't really long enough to reach foot troops for a tall character, and since AI is usually average or below average height, they easily swing under and around your shield. Ranged has this issue in third person as the crosshairs are incorrect. You can first person for ranged to alleviate the issue. Either way LANKLETS BTFO.

Q: How do I speed up spear+shield tourneys?
A: Either drop the spear and punch them to death or shield bash by kicking while blocking.

Q: How do I couch a lance?
A: You need a couchable polearm so check the stats. Build up enough speed and a white spear marker shows above your health then press x. Just ram the polearm into someone for massive damage.

Q: Why do keep putting percent in quotes?
A: Turkish coding. None of the "percentages" give actual percent bonuses but instead they give flat bonuses of whatever the value is supposed to be. For example, the perks that give "percent" health or damage instead give respective flat bonuses of whatever the percent number is. +3% health? +3 health. +4% damage? +4 damage. Etc. etc.

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CONFIRMED WORKING PERKS
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+ % Health all confirmed to work, but not WAI. See above.
+ % Damage for weapons all confirmed to work, but not WAI. See above.
Icebreaker in the Charm tree seems to work.
Smithing perks confirmed to work.
All Trade perks up to 125 confirmed to work, as well as the fief trading perk.