Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord: 10 tips to help you conquer the world

By Jason Rodriguez, Contributor

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a massive, open-world strategy RPG from TaleWorlds Entertainment. Although you start out as a lowly vagabond fighting in tournaments and chasing down brigands, you’ll soon make a name for yourself. Who knows? You might even ascend to become the undisputed ruler of an empire.

Our Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord beginner’s guide has 10 tips to help you get started on your journey. We discuss various facets, including the ideal options when first creating your character. We also talk about combat mechanics, sieges, settlements, and more.
 

Conquer the world in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is set in the continent of Calradia, a sprawling landmass where eight factions are vying for control. From time to time, wars may erupt and you might find yourself in the middle of the action. Although there is a story campaign with a lengthy quest chain, we suggest exploring the world so you can experience the game’s sandbox nature.

 

Choose the ideal Culture and Origin

There are six Cultures to choose from when you create a new character in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. We feel that the Battanians and Empire are the top two choices.

As a Battanian, you’ll be able to move faster and see farther in forests. This allows your army to catch up when chasing opposing forces. You’ll also gain extra militia production in the towns you control, but projects will be slightly slower.

Those who pick the Empire, meanwhile, have more influence and reduced garrison wages—though there’s a penalty to Village Hearths.

Once you’ve settled on a Culture, you’ll need to pick your character’s Origin. We suggest the following options:

• Family: Healers
• Early Childhood: Your way with people
• Adolescence: Sold products at the market
• Youth: Stood guard with the garrisons
• Young Adulthood: You treated people well
• Story Background: You organized the travelers to break out

Fine-tune your character’s skills and perks

Mount & Blade II has a proficiency-style leveling system. That means you need to keep doing certain actions to master a skill. For instance, you have to keep using specific types of weapons to improve your capabilities. Riding on horseback increases your Riding skill (naturally) whereas the Athletics skill is boosted if you run around without a mount.

We suggest focusing on the following for your main character:

• Vigor: Any – This really depends on your preferred melee weapon and playstyle.
• Control: Bow – Regardless of your chosen melee weapon, you’re still likely to shoot enemies with a bow.
• Endurance: Riding – Helps with mounted combat and charges.
• Endurance: Athletics – Increases movement speed and reduces encumbrance.
• Social: Charm – Helps boost your influence gains, relationships with nobles, and persuasion chance.
• Social: Leadership – Grants additional experience points, more troops in your party/army, better morale, and faster prisoner recruitment.
• Intelligence: Steward – Helps you manage your resources and bonuses, such as wages/upkeep, food consumption, and morale.

Earn renown and gold via quests

As a lowly adventurer, you’ll have to start small by accepting quests from NPCs with exclamation points. These include delivering various goods, escorting merchants, and eliminating brigands. You may also join arena fights to test your mettle.

You’ll notice helpful information while exploring during the first few hours, such as the goods that settlements produce, as well as their prices. Moreover, you can check the Encyclopedia by pressing the “N” key, which helps you learn about kingdoms, supporting characters, clans, troop types, and other game mechanics.

 

Gain information and discover companions in taverns

Taverns can only be found in towns. Tavern keepers tend to have information on NPCs that might need your assistance, as well as the locations of nearby heroes/companions. Sometimes, you might even see a recruitable companion either on the top panel when the tavern is selected on the map, or when inside the tavern itself.

Hero companions require gold to recruit, and also need to be paid wages. They can be leveled just like the player character. We suggest looking for companions with high Medicine and Engineering skills so that you have the right people with you once you establish your own clan.

 

Recruit troops—but watch your food and gold

Soldiers in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord are normally found in settlements when you click on the “Recruit Troops” option—though some high-tier units might be located in taverns.

Initially, you can only have a few troops. Later, you can obtain perks from the Leadership and Endurance skills to increase your party’s size. An army requires gold to pay for its upkeep and food to keep everyone happy. If you lack food, your soldiers will start slaughtering pack animals and mounts. Once they’re starving, morale will plummet and your troops will desert you.

As such, it’s often important to buy food stocks from settlements or keep them as spoils when you win battles. Similarly, the aforementioned Steward skill helps you manage your supplies. Later, you can also assign a Clan Quartermaster with a high Steward skill to earn more bonuses.

 

Create formations and assign companions to lead them

Once you have more than 20 units in your party, you can create formations. These split your party into groups, usually based on a specific troop type. For instance, you could have one group that only has melee units and another with ranged units. You can also combine some of these to create a mixed squad (i.e. spearmen protecting crossbowmen). It’s even possible to assign your companions to lead these squads during battles.

This mechanic allows you to control each individual squad using the Function keys—though if you’re only fighting weaker foes, you could always hit F1 and then F3 to make all units charge the enemy.

Master directional attacks in combat

Hacking and slashing aimlessly won’t get you far. You need to consider the direction of your attacks in conjunction with how you move your mouse. Dragging forward does an overhead swing, whereas pulling backward leads to a thrust. Meanwhile, moving the mouse slightly to the left or right as you attack causes your character to do a slash with their weapon.

Blocking is also imperative so you can negate damage. If all else fails, you can always shoot a target from afar with a ranged weapon.

 

Don’t forget to manage your troops and prisoners

You’re likely to have prisoners if you’re victorious in battles. You can keep them in your party as you roam the world (though a few may escape). If enough time passes, some of these prisoners can be recruited.

Unit upgrades work in a similar manner. As time passes and they participate in battles, they’ll gain experience. Later, you’ll be able to upgrade them to better variants.

You can manage unit upgrades and prisoner recruitment by pressing the “P” key to open the Party menu. You should see two buttons in the upper-right corner of your screen if there are units that can be selected.

Establish your own clan

One particular task you’ll want to complete within the first year in-game is called “Establish Your Clan.” This requires the following:

• Earn 1,000 denars (gold)
• Have a party with 20 units
• Reach Clan Tier 1 by gaining 150 renown
• Hire one companion

Completing the above tasks allows you to set up your own clan with several companions. You can press the “L” key to assign roles to your character and companions:

• Quartermaster (Steward skill) – Affects morale, wages, and food consumption.
• Scout (Scouting skill) – Increases army movement speed and sight radius on the world map.
• Surgeon (Medicine skill) – Speeds up passive healing regeneration and improves the chances of troops surviving injuries instead of outright dying.
• Engineer (Engineering skill) – Speeds up the construction of siege engines.

Become a mercenary or a vassal

After establishing your own clan—and assuming you don’t control a settlement—you’ll be able to pledge to a faction leader of your choosing. As a mercenary, you can capture lands for your liege and receive a stipend for your efforts. Be forewarned that you’ll likely get embroiled in various conflicts as you set out to undertake more tasks.

Of course, there are other options, too. If you already own a settlement, you can try to be an independent faction. Or you can increase your Clan Tier and ask to become a vassal, which leads to bigger rewards depending on your influence.

From there, the world is yours for the taking in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. You can declare yourself the ruler of an independent kingdom, get married and have children, amass wealth through caravans or workshops, oversee the continued growth of your settlements, or forge your own path any way you see fit. Let’s not forget that there’s also a story-driven campaign, which eventually leads to more conquests.

Hopefully these tips help you find your footing in this vast world. If you’re keen on experiencing an adventure like no other, pick up Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on the Epic Games Store.