Stronghold Definitive Edition Tips and Tricks

Back to the castle Milord? We have Stronghold Definitive Edition Tips and Tricks for you Sire.

If you've just picked up the Stronghold Definitive Editon or are a seasoned veteran of the city builder RTS you might want to check out this neat little list of ours. Here are all the tips and tricks your rival lords don't want you to know about.

Please note that this will include tips for the campaign, economic missions, and multiplayer. We'll try to cover all the categories but they'll be useful to you nonetheless regardless of the mode you pick.

Stronghold Definitive Edition Tips

1. Play the Campaign and Tutorial

If you're looking for a career in Stronghold esports (I hope this becomes a thing one day) we highly recommend you take a look at the tutorial and the campaign. The tutorial is self-explanatory but the campaign will teach a lot about situations and how to handle them.

You can even take this further by taking on various siege and economic missions. To get good in the multiplayer you have to learn situations and how to deal with limited access to resources.

2. Protect or Attack Vital Buildings

Buildings such as the Granary, the Market, and your Armory are incredibly important in Stronghold. If you're playing against other players or the AI in campaigns, those are the primary targets next to your lord. So if you're building your castle, make sure those are well shielded against attackers and surrounded by traps.

If you're the attacker and the enemy lord is too well-guarded, these should be next on your list to attack. No armory means no new soldiers and no market means no way to recover.

3. Castle Layouts

Something you should always consider while laying out your castle is the pathing of NPCs. This is why you want to divide your thriving Castletown into districts. The granary should be the center of all your food production and easily accessible by farmers while your bakers have easy access to it and your stockpile. The same should apply to your armory and stockpile.

This is why keeping an eye on ‘roads' is important. NPCs will always take the direct path even if that means zigzagging through several rows of houses. So make sure that every building always has a direct path to whatever the destination of their workers is. One field's worth of space is enough which you can always check by hitting Spacebar to flatten.

4. Unit Dynamics

Stronghold units aren't balanced in a traditional sense. Units either deal lots of damage but move/attack slowly or the opposite. Understanding how to mix and match those units is your first step to becoming a conqueror.

Maceman is quite fast and can take a couple of hits before going down which makes them ideal for storming castle walls while picking off archers with bowmen in the back. Spearmen are great for harassing farmlands but terrible everywhere else. They do make for cheap Canonfudder if you're trying to get attention away from the host of your army.

5. A good castle has layers

Like an onion or an ogre's a good castle is built with layers. One around the very vital areas such as your keep, another around your wilder castle, and less important buildings such as weapon smiths and bakeries and maybe a moat or two to be extra sure.

Do be careful though, gatehouses and towers tend to be very vulnerable and create huge openings in your walls once destroyed. So make sure to trap their entrances and the area around them to halt any advancing troops.

6. Moats are OP

No matter what you do, surround your castle with moats. Better yet make sure to disperse pitch in front of the moat to snuff out anyone trying to dig it up. Walls might temporarily stop anyone from assaulting you but are easily undone by siege machines. A moat needs to be dug up by weaker units which leaves them open to be peppered with arrows.

They are your first line of defense in your average Stronghold game so don't sleep on them.

7. The Delicate Balance of Taxes, Popularity, Rations and Fear

Stronghold Definitive Edition is an exercise in managing and mastering the popularity mechanic. Raise taxes and the popularity goes down, increase rations, types of food to eat, and healthcare and the people will worship you.

Torture devices will increase productivity but you need to counterbalance it with other means of popularity to break even. Alehouses, churches, and decorations are a good way of doing so but overdoing it will cause your citizens to slack off so be careful.

And these are all the tips and tricks we got for you on Stronghold Definitive Edition. For more check out or Review here and for everyone else all-around gaming and esports visit us on ESTNN