Kingdom Inc Beginner Guide to Automation and Economy

Automating your kingdom requires balancing raw material nodes, routing basic ingots to early item shops for coin, and converting finished gear into requisition currency to outfit frontline combatants. Starting out in the fortress-city of Yensburg involves placing manual extraction nodes before investing coins into automated workers to sustain steady economic expansion.

How Do You Set Up Early Iron Production?

An iron mine is the foundational extraction building in early logistics lines, delivering raw iron ore directly into a forge. At the start of a run, extraction and smelting require manual clicks. Forging a single iron ingot takes two seconds of crafting time and processes one unit of iron ore.

Manual production yields raw bars that sell for 1 silver coin and 20 bronze coins at an item shop. One hundred bronze coins convert into one silver coin, while one hundred silver coins form a single gold coin. Because early item shops hold limited funds before manual collection, hiring a worker for 8 coins automates sales so that your coin inflow continues uninterrupted.

To achieve complete basic automation, unlock the Drudge Miner upgrade in the mine tech tree node for 17 silver coins and 52 bronze coins, then spend 7 silver and 86 bronze coins to hire the worker. Upgrading the forge attendant node costs 15 silver and 13 bronze coins, with an additional 9 silver and 5 bronze coins to assign the blacksmith worker.

One iron mine extracts ore at a base rate of 1 per second. Because a standard forge consumes raw iron ore every two seconds, a single mine supplies raw materials for two forges simultaneously without resource starvation.

How Do Routing Nodes Split and Merge Goods?

A distributor is a utility node that accepts a single input line and splits goods evenly across multiple connected outputs. Connecting a single iron mine to a distributor allows you to feed two separate forges without manual intervention.

When combining goods from several production sources into a single workshop or shopfront, use a collector. A collector takes incoming lines from multiple adjacent nodes in turn, consolidating items into a single downstream pathway. Placing a collector before an item shop lets two forges or blacksmiths offload inventory into one shared storefront without clogging up individual workshop outputs.

To craft complex recipes like iron armor or iron helmets, you must route multiple items into matching workshop inputs. Producing an iron helmet demands two iron ingots, while standard iron armor consumes three ingots. For more intricate recipes such as the iron sword or iron dagger, workshops require supplementary inputs like softwood planks alongside refined ingots.

You can review developer milestones and updates directly on the Kingdom Inc. Steam store page, where developer Leaping Turtle details upcoming balance updates and system features.

Which Production Path Should You Automate First?

A decision between early gear production lines depends on whether your empire requires high coin flow, requisition points for civil guilds, or balanced combat power for military pushes.

As your factory expands, setting up a supply depot provides imported raw goods in small quantities. You can purchase imports of softwood planks, linen cloth, and rough leather directly from the depot menu to feed tailors, leather workers, and carpenters.

How Does the Requisition Office Work?

The requisition office is an objective structure that demands specific finished items and converts deliveries into requisition currency, displayed as book icons. You cannot advance deeper into military recruitment without this specialized token system.

The office presents active delivery contracts requesting manufactured items, such as an iron dagger or a simple robe. Depositing items like daggers awards fractional amounts of book currency toward city service bonds. Constructing an automated feeder loop directly from a workshop into the requisition node ensures steady bond accrual.

Mines & Supply Depots → Forges & Workshops → Requisition Office → Guild Bonds

You can research Contractual Obligations in the tech tree to unlock additional contract slots inside the office. If an assigned contract requires scarce items like iron greatswords when your smelters are depleted, rerolling contracts provides alternative requests such as simple robes or rough leather vests to keep generation steady.

How Do You Equip Soldiers for the War Effort?

A barracks recruits basic conscripts using accumulated requisition points to fight against enemy factions threatening the fortress-city of Yensburg. Sending naked conscripts directly to the frontline causes steady territory loss against forces like the Southside Brigands.

To bolster combat power, route conscripts through an outfitter node before they reach the frontline. The outfitter accepts a living recruit on one input and an equipment piece on another, dressing the soldier before passing them along the deployment path. Equipping units with iron swords, reinforced wooden shields, and enchanted helmets increases overall party survival.

You can inspect combat power directly on the unit stats display. For example, recruits outfitted with an iron greatsword and simple armor exhibit higher strength and agility ratings than unarmored militia. Supplying cooked rations from campfires—such as seared boar steak or simple salads—further bolsters character stats before deployment.

Setting the Self-Service upgrade on outfitters automates troop outfitting by removing manual input requirements, while adding utility timers ensures soldiers deploy at fixed intervals rather than consuming equipment reserves faster than workshops can supply them.

Sources: Kingdom Inc.: official Steam data

Sources: Kingdom Inc.: official Steam data

Where does this guide's official Kingdom Inc information come from?

Official details in this guide follow Kingdom Inc on Steam, which describes the game in its own words.

A minimalist factory / city builder. Design your workflow by harvesting resources, building equipment, outfitting your adventurers, and sending them on dangerous missions. Recover lost territory and unravel the plot that threatens to destroy your kingdom!

Kingdom Inc on Steam