Manor Lords Development Points and Upgrades Explained

We’ll explain how the Development Points and Upgrades work in Manor Lords.

Manor Lord is now in Early Access, and people are going head-over-heels for this game. It offers an immersive real-time strategy/city-building experience that’s simply breathtaking. Everything from its beautiful medieval landscape to deep and intricate mechanics keeps the players coming back for more.

Now, the game itself is pretty tough. It has a steep learning curve, but once you get through the basics, things start to make a lot more sense. One of the things that we struggled with was understanding the Development Points and Upgrades available in the game.

But with our help, you don’t need to worry about all that.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything there’s to know about Development Points in Manor Lords so that you don’t face any of the troubles we did during your early hours with the game. 

What Are Development Upgrades in Manor Lords

You can think of Development Upgrades As the Tech Tree in Manor Lords. As you gain levels in the game, you can use the upgrades available in the Development Upgrade to add new buildings, unlock new abilities for your citizens, get more trading options, and all sorts of cool things in the game.

To access your Development Upgrades, click on the name of your Settlement at the top of your screen. The Development Upgrades in Manor Lords are split into four categories: Farming, Trade, Industry, and Gathering.

You’ll need to invest 1 Development Point to get each new Development Upgrade. When your Settlement reaches a new level, you’ll earn a point. If you upgrade a single settlement from a Small Village to a Large Town, you’ll get a total of 5 Development Points to access these upgrades.

How To Get Development Points

As we said, the Development Points in Manor Lords depend on the level of your Settlement. As you progress through the different levels, you earn points. So you need to upgrade the buildings and enhance the Burgage Plots to earn Development Points in the game.

To get to Level 1 Settlement, you need to upgrade five Level 1 Burgage Plot. And for level 2, you need to upgrade two Level 2 Plots. Upgrading a Burgage Plot is no easy feat though; you need to make sure you meet the needs of the families residing in it. You can check the Amenities and Market Supply Requirements to see what you need to upgrade it.

Simply click on any Burgage Plot, and you’ll see a pop-up window showing you what you need to build to level it up. To upgrade a Level 1 Burgage Plot, you need to build a Well to ensure a water supply and a Wooden Church.

You also need to set up stalls in the Marketplace to ensure a steady supply of things like firewood, food, and clothing. The requirements mostly depend on the level of your Settlement. 

Hovering your mouse over a Burgage Plot will show you the upgrades you need, giving you a good way to track progression. To see how many Burgage Plots you need to level up, you can hover your mouse over your Settlement’s name.

Best Development Points to Get Early

The Development Upgrade option adds an extra layer of immersion to Manor Lords. Each of the Upgrades in the game offer something new to your settlement. However, since there are few resources and getting all the upgrades isn’t really possible for a settlement, you need to prioritize. 

Usually, we recommend going with a single category for each region. That means, when you’re putting points in the Upgrade menu, go with a single category instead of spreading it out. This will allow you to maximize efficiency for each region.

That being said, some Upgrades certainly stand out among the pack. Here’s a quick rundown of some of our favorite Upgrades that are worth investing your Development Points in early on in the game.

1. Trapping

Enables hunters to skillfully lay traps in the forest, which give a passive income of Meat.

Food is an invaluable resource in Manor Lords. When you start your Settlement, your main source of food for your citizens would be Berries. But that’s a finite resource and when the winter hits, berries stop growing.

With a Hunting Camp in your town, you’ll be able to assign families to go hunt Wild Animals. With the Trapping Upgrade, your hunters will be able to give you a steady supply of Food that you can reserve for the Winter. It’s one of the best Upgrades to get early on in Manor Lords.

2. Charcoal Burning

New building: Charcoal Kiln

Charcoal Kilns convert 1 firewood into 2 charcoal, making refueling twice as efficient.

The Charcoal Burning Development Upgrade unlocks a new building called a Charcoal Kiln. It lets you craft Charcoal, which is a better source of Fuel than the Firewood you’ve been using until this point.

Fuel is another essential resource that you can’t ignore in the game. Each summer, your families consume one unit of Fuel, which bumps up to two when winter comes. With Coal Kilns and a good supply of Coal, your Fuel requirements will be taken care of for the coming winter.

3. Heavy Plow

New upgrade: Add a Plowing Station

Enables employing Oxen at the Farmhouse for significantly faster plowing of large fields, as well as bringing crops back to storage more efficiently.

Figuring out how to stretch your food reserves as far as possible is one of the main challenges of Manor Lords. Think about it – you’ll need more Families as your town grows. When the number of Families increases, so does the need for extra Food.

Now, the Heavy Plow Development Upgrade doesn’t necessarily give you extra Food, but it makes setting up a farm much faster. With this Upgrade, the time it takes to plow large fields significantly cuts down. The logistics also improve, allowing you to bring back crops to the Granaries faster.

4. Better Deals

Removes the tariff from foreign imports, effectively reducing all import prices by 10.

If you want to focus on Trading in Manor Lords, Better Deals is one of the best Development Upgrades you can get. Basically, it gets rid of the Tariff when you’re importing goods from foreign Settlements.

That means, compared to the earlier 12 Regional Wealth import costs for Eggs, you’d now have to pay only 2. While it might not benefit you much early on, getting it during the mid-point of the game will allow you to fully equip your army with weapons without breaking your bank.

5. Deep Mining

New Upgrade: Upgrade to a Deep Mine

Enables the building to extract resources indefinitely if placed over a rich deposit.

Deep Mining isn’t unlockable at first. But if you’ve got the Charcoal Burning Development Upgrade, get Deep Mining as soon as you can.

When you play Manor Lords, you’ll sometimes come across rich deposits of Iron, Clay or Stone. With this Development Upgrade enabled, you’ll never run out of resources from a rich deposit. In Other words, you’ve got an infinite supply of resources!

To make the most out of your Settlement, you need to spend your Development Points wisely. Hopefully, our guide could help you plan out a proper upgrade strategy the next time you boot up Manor Lords.