CastleVille is the new medieval themed game from the social media gaming giant Zynga, and it certainly lives up to the polish and playability of their previous titles. If you are familiar with the mechanics of FarmVille then you will feel right at home playing CastleVille, its familiar enough to pick up and play yet different enough to keep you interested.
The goal of the game is to build your kingdom, amass wealth and resources, and follow a storyline as you complete quests. We will be walking through the first set of quests together as we get acquainted with some of the basic mechanics and features of the game.
The Basics
Let’s get ourselves situated with the controls first so we can move around with ease. To move anywhere in the kingdom, simply click the ground where you want to go. To pan the screen around, click and hold the mouse while dragging.
Also, you should at least have a general idea of how energy works before you start playing. Energy is expended by every action you do, and once you are out of it, you’ll need to wait a long time for it to replenish before you can continue playing. You can use items to give you a boost, but they are hard to obtain for beginners so try to be conservative with your actions at first.
One last thing before we start questing: I should mention that one of the best things you can do to progress through the game smoothly is to play with some Facebook friends and share rewards with each other. You’ll often need extra hands to make things happen without grinding, so if you are a player who doesn’t like to wait or do repetitive tasks, make sure you find some friends to play with.
Now log in to the game, customize your avatar, and let’s start playing.
Beginner Quests
The Duke is in trouble and needs you to fend off a few enemies, the first encounter begins.
Defeating them is easy, simply click them and your character will attack. Defeating enemies and performing actions reaps rewards such as gold and items, and collecting them is as simple as scrolling your cursor over them.
Once the beasties are gone, the Duke will tell you that he presides over the neighboring kingdom and that you can travel there anytime you want by clicking his portrait on the bottom of the screen. This is the same way that visiting kingdoms works for your friends as well.
Keep in mind that you can gain loyalty hearts by helping out your neighbors, so be sure to make your daily rounds around other kingdoms to reap the benefits.
Yvette is now a guest in your kingdom and needs you to build a house for her.
This quest introduces you to building structures, this is how you will be expanding and improving your kingdom. Keep in mind that you can clear out any rocks, trees, foliage, and other items in your way as you progress, but doing so will expend energy.
Buildings require that you gather enough materials for them, so don’t assume that having enough gold to buy a structure means you’ll have access to it right away. Chop a couple trees and mine a few rocks to get the required materials to build the house, it’s as simple as clicking on them.
Next, we will learn about taxing your kingdom. Occupied buildings are taxable, meaning that they award you a certain amount of gold once a certain time limit resets. In Yvette’s case, you can gain 300 coins every half hour if you remember to click her house. Once you start building more structures occupied by your subjects, you’ll be making rounds around your kingdom to collect taxes regularly.
Now it’s time to learn about raising your castle level and exploring the gloomed areas around you. The Duke will give you a quest to raise your castle level to 10 so you can uncover a certain gloomed area.
Revealing these darkened areas is how you expand your kingdoms territory and gain access to new characters, resources, and other goodies. Each gloomed segment as a different requirement for revealing it, and they often include a castle level requirement. You can raise your castle level by enhancing your castle with certain structures, one of which is rubble walls. You just need to build a few rubble walls anywhere you want until your castle level reaches 10, and then you can explore the new area.
Once you explore the gloomed area, you will find another subject, Rafael. You will need to build him a house as well, which will of course be taxable.
That about covers the basics of CastleVille, keep completing quests and advancing through the story to unlock new features, level up, and expand your kingdom. We’ve only just scratched the surface, there is a whole lot more complexity to the game than is presented in this first string of quests, so be sure to read up on the finer points lest you find yourself running an inefficient kingdom.
