Bellwright Beginner's Guide: Settlements, Straps, and Early Game Domination

Welcome to Bellwright, where your first decisions can make or break your kingdom. This guide compiles essential, hard-earned wisdom from countless playthroughs to help you establish a thriving settlement, manage resources efficiently, and build a formidable force. Whether you’re placing your first tent or fending off your first Brigand raid, these tips will set you on the path to success.

Summary

Step 1: Choose Your First Settlement Wisely

Your starting location is crucial. While you can move later, it’s often easier to expand from your initial base. The ideal spot balances resources, defense, and future expansion.

Central River Valley (The Balanced Start)

This area, centrally located on the map, is arguably the best starting point for most players. It’s open, flat, and close to roads for faster travel before you unlock Fast Travel Signs. You’ll find abundant Tin, Mud, and Copper nearby, along with Hemp and Sage. Crucially, it’s positioned between two key early-game vendors who sell Straps. The main drawback is the initial distance from Herodium and Pedto, requiring some running until travel infrastructure is built.

Eastern Plains (The Classic Start)

Many players begin here due to its open space and proximity to Herodium. Resources like Mud, Tin, and Copper are plentiful. However, the significant downside is the lack of immediate water access, which will hinder your ability to build a Dock later for rapid troop transport. Starting here may force a tedious relocation later.

Western Crossroads (The Strategic Favorite)

This is a premium late-early-game location. It’s highly centralized, near two major bridges used by Brigand reclamation forces heading to towns like Herodium and Pedto. Controlling this area allows you to intercept attacks easily. It’s also adjacent to a permanent Wheat Field (once cleared of enemies) for non-winter food and close to swamp resources like Moss and Peat. While rich in space, local resource nodes like Copper and Tin are limited, so you’ll need to establish outposts quickly. Expect frequent low-level Bandit patrols.

Pro-Tip: When scouting, remember you cannot build on Mud nodes. Plan your layout to work around them until they are depleted.

Step 2: Recruit the Right Settlers

Early villagers form the backbone of your settlement. Hiring wisely saves Renown and builds a stronger community faster.

Avoid Beggars if possible. They come with severe negative traits like ‘Dullard’ and ‘Slacker’ and have abysmal stats. Use them only as a last resort to get basic tasks started.

Focus on 1-star and 2-star villagers from liberated towns. Prioritize these attributes:

Strength of 4 or Higher: This is non-negotiable for early fighters. Armor like the Basic Gambeson requires Strength 4. A villager with lower Strength cannot equip better gear as you research it, making them a long-term liability.
Positive Combat Traits: Look for ‘Swordsman’ (one-handed sword proficiency) or ‘Fierce’ (+50% melee damage). These turn villagers into capable defenders immediately.
Positive Utility Traits: ‘Cooking +2’ is incredibly valuable early on to keep your food production efficient.
Avoid Negative Traits: Steer clear of ‘Slacker’ (-50% productivity) or traits that hamper key skills, like ‘Nearsighted’ (-2 Archery, -2 Agility) on a potential archer.

Walk around the entire town before hiring. A little patience in selection pays off immensely.

Step 3: Establish and Manage Resource Outposts

You cannot rely solely on the resources near your main base. Setting up remote outposts for mining and harvesting is essential.

Building the Outpost

Place a Travel Sign: Before anything else, place a Fast Travel Sign near the resource node. This allows quick access for management and defense.
Place Core Buildings: For a mining outpost, you’ll need three buildings: a Mining Camp, a Stockpile, and a Housing Tent. Do not place buildings directly on top of the resource node, as this can sometimes cause it to despawn.
Create a New Settlement Immediately: After placing the first building (e.g., the Mining Camp), open your Settlement Management tab (Q). Switch from your main settlement to ‘Construction Site,’ then create a new settlement. This prevents workers from your main base trekking across the map to build it. Assign the new outpost a clear name like “Iron Mine West.”
Bring Initial Resources: Carry the logs and planks needed to build the outpost yourself. It’s faster than waiting for a supply chain.
Assign a Worker: Either recruit a new villager at a nearby town or send one from your main settlement. Once a worker is present, you can open the building’s menu and assign production tasks (e.g., mine Iron Ore).

Setting Up Supply Lines (Deliveries)

Your outpost workers need food and tools, and you need their resources brought back. Use the ‘Deliveries’ tab in the Settlement Management menu.

Incoming Supplies: Select your outpost (e.g., “Iron Mine West”). Add a delivery for food (e.g., Smoked Meat) and tools (e.g., Sturdy Pickaxes). Set the source as your main settlement’s stockpile. Set food to transfer daily (start with 2-3 units) and tools weekly (start with 1-2) to avoid clogging the outpost’s small stockpile.
Outgoing Resources: Select your main settlement. Add a delivery for the raw resource (e.g., Iron Ore) and broken tools (e.g., Broken Sturdy Pickaxe). Set the source as your outpost. Set these to transfer daily. The transfer limit is based on the population of the receiving settlement.

Warning: Regularly check your delivery amounts. If your main base stockpile is full, pause or reduce the incoming deliveries to prevent wasted trips.

Step 4: Research Strategically

Don’t waste precious early-game resources and time researching every item. Plan your research based on your villagers’ strengths.

Focus on Progression Lines: In the Armor research tree, don’t research every branch. Pick one vertical line that leads to the best armor for a given Strength requirement. For example, skip the Rugged Shirt line unless required for a quest, and focus on the line that ends with the Basic Gambeson (Strength 4).
Weapon Specialization: If most of your fighters have the ‘Swordsman’ trait, prioritize the one-handed weapon research line. There’s no need to research axes or maces early if no one uses them.
Prioritize the Tool Maker: This is a critical early-game target. Unlocking the Tool Maker allows you to produce Straps yourself, breaking your dependence on vendors.

Step 5: Secure Straps Early (A Game Changer)

Straps are a bottleneck resource early on. They are required for vital research (like the Town Hall) and crafting but cannot be made until you research the Tool Maker.

Find the Exiled Craftsman: Two vendors sell Straps daily for 75 Gold each. The most accessible one is located northeast of Pedto, between Conheirne and the lake. The other is south of the central starting area.
Buy Daily: Make it a routine to visit one of these vendors every in-game day to purchase a Strap. This consistent supply will accelerate your progression dramatically.
Earn Gold for Straps: To fund your Strap purchases, gather and sell resources to vendors. The Craftsman buys Wood. Herodium’s vendor buys Reeds, which are abundant in the central river valley. Killing chickens near Herodium for Feathers to sell is another quick, if morally questionable, method.

Step 6: Invest in Strength Books

Leveling Strength on your main character and companions is slow. The most efficient way to boost it is through skill books.

Visit the Book Seller in any town (you don’t need to liberate it first). Herodium typically has the cheapest prices.
Spend your early gold primarily on Strength books. Check the book’s required Strength level before buying.
The vendor’s stock refreshes daily, so check back often.
Later, you can sell excess lower-tier books back to them.

Step 7: Develop Liberated Towns Efficiently

After liberating a town by building its Bell Tower, you can construct buildings to increase its Prosperity. Higher Prosperity unlocks more militia troops and construction points.

Construction Priority

Village Shrines (Tier 1): Build these first. They are cheap (only 20 Crude Stone) and grant 50 Trust each, helping to raise Prosperity quickly without draining valuable planks.
Scout’s Lookout: This building has no construction point cost and reveals the fog of war for the entire town region, exposing hidden resources and enemy camps. Use it strategically.
Village Vaults (Tier 2+): Once available, these are the best Prosperity-per-construction-point buildings. A common strategy is to build two Vaults and a Cattle Pen to rapidly reach high Prosperity levels.
Military Buildings: Finally, add Barracks, Archery Ranges, and Training Grounds. These increase the quantity and type of militia troops you can raise from the town.

Important Note on Militia: Town militia are useful for bolstering your forces but are not sufficient alone to defeat Brigand reclamation armies. Use them to support your own well-equipped troops, not as a standalone defense.

With these foundations—a strong settlement, skilled villagers, efficient outposts, smart research, a steady Strap supply, and developed allied towns—you are now ready to expand your influence across the land of Bellwright. Your next steps should be securing high-value resource nodes like the safe iron deposits near Creaghaven and planning your campaign against the Brigand strongholds.