Charter towns

A town you build is made of the same parts as a generated one, with real houses that townsfolk walk into.

Founding

Raise a Dragon Beacon as the heart of your town. Its price is the same everywhere. A beacon keeps dragons out: none lands, flies or breathes fire inside its reach. Your town's ward is the radius it covers, and the town ledger (O) tracks its progress. A town must sit at a distance from existing settlements.

Tiers

A town rises to the next tier when it has everything that tier needs, and never falls back. See each tier's needs and unlocks on the towns page.

• Founding: plots, roads and the survey view.
• Hamlet: three homes and a well; shops and an inn.
• Village: an inn, a shop, a road to the world's roads and eight townsfolk; market days and rent.
• Town: a town hall, smithy, chapel and watchtower, three trades and twenty people; taxes, curtain walls and guards.
• City: a keep or great hall, a bank, five trades, a closed wall and forty people; castle works.

Building

Press U for the survey view, which pulls the camera back and shows the grid and your ward. Lay roads that join the world's roads, mark plots and draw walls. Buildings rise in stages (foundation, frame, walls, roof) from delivered materials and work; a door leads to an interior that you furnish. Builders are optional: townsfolk builders are free.

Life and trade

Townsfolk move in, take up trades, run shops and inns in your buildings and keep the watch on your walls. Walls, gates and moats really work, towers can be climbed and a keep has several floors. A town worth defending will, in time, be attacked. Learn the economy in the shops page.