Thronefall beginner strategy guide

First days: buy time for the economy

Early gold has two jobs: create future income and prevent the next night from ending the run. Start by checking the attack direction and the structures already exposed. If the current defence can survive one more wave, an economy upgrade can compound. If the Castle Center or a critical income cluster will be overrun, buy the wall, unit, or tower that solves that specific lane first.

Avoid upgrading every category evenly. A scattered kingdom can look busy while having no strong income engine and no decisive defensive line. Build a small number of complementary pieces, then expand after they prove they can hold.

• Read the wave marker before every purchase.
• Upgrade the economy behind a line that can actually survive.
• Keep the king free to reinforce the weaker side.
• Use mobile units where the attack direction can change.

Build defence in layers

A useful defensive line has delay, damage, and a response plan. Walls and durable structures buy time. Towers and ranged units turn that time into damage. Mobile units and the king solve leaks, siege threats, flyers, or a lane that received more pressure than expected.

The exact tower upgrade depends on the enemy mix. Community Frostsee answers repeatedly mention area damage for slimes, durable towers near the shore, and focusing the boss when it is vulnerable. These are player reports, not an official guaranteed build.

Sturmklamm shrines: activate deliberately

A Steam community thread asks how to activate all six shrines and whether the Shrine perk is worth taking. The repeated community idea is to study which wave reaches each shrine, activate hard-to-reach positions early, and use the king or movable units to keep enemies near the activation area.

One contributor warns that towers can kill or redirect enemies before they reach the shrine you are trying to activate. That makes “units first, towers later” a situational activation tactic—not a universal build order for every objective.

Frostsee boss: separate the boss from the swarm problem

The Frostsee discussion contains conflicting weapon and perk recommendations, but the answers converge on two jobs: clear surrounding enemies efficiently and maintain boss damage during the windows when the fish is exposed. Fire or other area damage is repeatedly suggested for slimes; players also recommend keeping durable towers around the shoreline and committing the king to the boss when safe.

If the run collapses with several boss health segments left, diagnose the failure before changing everything. If slimes overwhelm the line, add area damage. If the structures survive but the boss escapes too many windows, improve direct damage and king uptime. If gold runs out before the late wave, revisit the economy rather than adding another late defensive purchase.

A five-question reset check

• Which lane or enemy ended the run?
• Was the failure missing damage, missing delay, or missing mobility?
• Did an early purchase generate value before it was destroyed?
• Could the king or a movable unit have covered the weak point?
• Did a quest or mutator change the objective enough to require a different loadout?