Rebuilding civilization from scratch in a bleak, plague-ravaged medieval world is the core challenge of the colony-building strategy game Going Medieval. Developed by Foxy Voxel, the game plunges players into a harsh wilderness where managing a small band of survivors requires meticulous attention to food, construction, research, and defense. for New Players“>for New Players in Colony Builder Going Medieval”>For new players, the depth of systems can be daunting, but mastering a few fundamental principles is key to transforming a vulnerable encampment into a thriving fortress.
Foundational Choices for Your Colony
Success in Going Medieval begins long before the first tree is felled or the first wall erected. The initial decisions regarding your colony’s starting scenario, location, and personnel lay the groundwork for all future challenges and triumphs.
Selecting Your Starting Scenario
The game offers four distinct scenarios, each tailoring the early experience to different playstyles and difficulty levels. ‘A New Life’ is the recommended beginner path, starting three settlers in the forgiving season of Spring with a narrative focus on communal rebuilding. ‘Peaceful’ mode removes the threat of enemy raids entirely, allowing four settlers to concentrate purely on construction and settlement management, making it ideal for learning the economic systems without pressure.
For those seeking a greater challenge, ‘Lone Wolf’ begins with a single settler in the harsh conditions of Winter, demanding extreme efficiency and survival skills. ‘Pioneer’ also caters to experienced players, starting with three settlers in Autumn but subjecting them to frequent and unpredictable attacks, testing defensive capabilities from the outset.
Choosing Your Map and Biome
The biome you select dictates the resources available and the environmental challenges your colony will face. The Valley offers plentiful vegetation, fertile soil, and clay with mild winters, providing a balanced and resource-rich start. The Hillside features uneven terrain advantageous for defense, with fair amounts of limestone and clay but moderate soil fertility.
The Mountain biome is rich in critical minerals like limestone, gold, iron, and silver but suffers from harsh winters and scarce fertile soil, prioritizing mining over agriculture. Conversely, the Marsh is a watery landscape teeming with fish and plant life but scarce in land animals and mineable resources, with mild winters forcing a unique focus on aquatic resources and foraging.
Assembling Your Starting Followers
Your initial group of three followers is your colony’s most valuable asset. A balanced team covering core early-game pillars is essential. You should aim to secure a skilled Builder, proficient in Construction and Mining to erect your settlement’s structures. A Farmer/Cook with high Farming and Cooking skills is vital to establish a sustainable food supply. Finally, a Fighter with competent Melee or Ranged ability will defend the colony and hunt for early meat.
Beyond skills, each follower possesses traits that profoundly impact their behavior and efficiency. Positive traits like Hard Worker, Industrious, or Iron Gut provide significant boosts to productivity or resilience. Negative traits such as Glutton, which increases food consumption, or Pyromaniac, which risks destructive fires, can create severe management headaches. Investing time in rerolling or manually selecting your starting group to minimize negative traits and maximize key skills is a worthwhile pre-game strategy.
Critical First Steps for Settlement Survival
The opening hours of a new colony establish the rhythm of survival. Progress must be swift yet deliberate, as growth inevitably attracts hostile attention. Following a structured sequence of priorities can stabilize your colony before the first major threats emerge.
Step One: Immediate Resource Gathering and Stockpiling
Your first action should be to designate a stockpile zone and command your settlers to gather all loose resources scattered around the starting area—primarily wood, stone, and berries. Leaving resources uncollected leads to waste and deprives you of essential building blocks. Efficient stockpile management from day one prevents logistical bottlenecks later.
Step Two: Constructing Basic Shelter Before Nightfall
Settlers sleeping outdoors face risks from animal attacks and exposure, which negatively impact their mood and health. A simple, rectangular wooden structure with complete walls, a roof, a door, and a few beds is sufficient for the first night. Overengineering early shelter wastes time and resources; functionality is the priority.
Step Three: Establishing a Sustainable Food Source
Food is the most pressing early-game resource. Initially, you will rely on foraging for wild berries and hunting game with ranged weapons. However, you must quickly transition to cultivated food production. Building a campfire or clay oven for cooking raw ingredients is a crucial upgrade, as cooked meals provide superior nutrition and grant mood bonuses. Planning and planting farm plots as soon as farming technology is researched is the cornerstone of long-term food security.
Step Four: Prioritizing Research and Technology
Establishing a research bench early and assigning your most intellectually skilled follower to it is non-negotiable. The early research tree unlocks technologies critical for survival: improved farming tools, advanced food production methods, more durable building materials like brick, and essential defensive structures. A fundamental tip is to never leave the research queue empty; always have a next project lined up to maximize technological progression during any follower downtime.
Step Five: Preparing for the Inevitable First Raid
On standard difficulty and above, raids are a certainty, often occurring within the first in-game season. Preparation is key. Before a raid arrives, ensure every follower has a viable weapon, even a simple club or bow. Create a defensible position, such as a perimeter wall with a designed choke point to funnel enemies. Stockpile sufficient food and basic medicine to sustain your colony through a potentially extended engagement, as wounded settlers will require care.
Mastering Food Production and Management Systems
Beyond initial setup, food management is an ongoing, complex challenge integrating agriculture, hunting, cooking, storage, and spoilage prevention. A robust food system is the backbone of a healthy, productive colony.
Optimizing Early Food Sources
In the earliest days, utilize all available food sources efficiently. Forage all berries and edible wild plants from your immediate area. Assign followers with ranged skills to hunt animals for meat, providing a valuable protein source. However, reliance on these finite, scattered resources is temporary; they are a bridge to established farming.
Setting Up an Efficient Farm
Once farming is unlocked via research, use the zoning menu to designate a growing area on level ground with rich soil, which boosts crop yield and quality. Select crops appropriate to your biome’s climate and the current season, as most crops only grow in warm months. Planting in early Spring is ideal. Staple crops include Wheat for its long shelf life and role in bread production, Turnips for their hardiness in cooler conditions, and Herbs for medicinal uses, though these are a lower initial priority.
Elevating Cooking and Food Quality
Raw food provides minimal nutrition and no mood benefits. Cooking transforms ingredients into meals that are more nutritious and boost settler morale. As you research advanced recipes, food quality and nutritional value increase significantly. Building a dedicated kitchen area with a stove, a nearby workbench, and adjacent storage for ingredients optimizes your cook’s efficiency and output.
Managing Food Storage and Preventing Spoilage
Food spoilage is a constant threat. Constructing an underground or partially buried larder creates a cooler environment that dramatically slows decay. During winter, cold outdoor temperatures can act as natural refrigeration, but exposed stockpiles risk theft by animals or raiders. A critical management strategy is to prioritize consuming the most perishable fresh food first before it spoils, rotating stock effectively.
Ultimately, survival in Going Medieval is a meticulous balance of proactive planning and reactive adaptation. While the early focus is on securing basic needs—shelter, food, and research—growth naturally escalates risk. The transition from a vulnerable group of survivors to a formidable medieval stronghold hinges on understanding these interconnected systems: choosing a viable start, executing a disciplined opening sequence, and building a resilient, scalable infrastructure for food and defense. The quiet rhythm of building a home in the wilderness is always punctuated by the threat of conflict, making every strategic decision a step toward either prosperity or ruin.
