Hearthfall Duties Guide: Steward, Marshal, Mason, Warden

Hearthfall splits the village into four duties. This duties guide, in short: the Steward feeds everyone, the Marshal runs the army, the Master Mason raises the walls and does every upgrade and repair, and the Warden explores the wilds. The stockpile is shared, but each duty can only do its own work, so you'll be talking a lot.

That's the whole trick. The Marshal can't build a Farm. The Steward can't upgrade the Keep. So the call fills up with "can someone put archers in the north tower?" and "who spent all the stone?", and that chatter is half the fun. The full Hearthfall guide covers the rest of the game. Here we go duty by duty, so you can pick your seat. To try one now, play Hearthfall.

The four duties at a glance

Whatever you pick, you also get a hero for the whole run: a character you steer yourself, with two abilities on Q and E. Heroes grow stronger from kills and discoveries, and a fallen one is back in about 20 seconds, so throw them at problems.

What does the Steward do?

The Steward is the one who keeps everyone alive between fights. You place the farms, mills, quarries and mines, decide what the villagers should work on (food, wood, stone, gold or trade), and once there's a Market you can swap one resource for another. Higher Market levels give better deals.

Two tricks are yours alone. The night shift keeps villagers working through the dark instead of hiding (set it by day, and be brave). And if a workplace burns down, you can send villagers out to gather wood, stone or food by hand while it's rebuilt.

Your hero: the Reeve. Inspire doubles the output of the buildings and workers around you for a short burst, so stand by the busiest farms and press Q. Coin Purse flings gold at the enemy, hurts everything it lands on and somehow leaves you richer.

Best research. Iron Tools (every worker faster) is the safe first pick. Later, Three-Field Rotation for a big food boost or Royal Mint for gold, and at the top, Merchant Guilds for trading or Town Levy for tougher villagers who arrive twice as fast.

What does the Marshal do?

The Marshal raises the army and tells it where to stand. You build the training halls, train eight kinds of soldier between them, set their stance (Hold, Guard, Patrol, or Follow a friend's hero), choose where new recruits gather and send archers into the towers. That last one matters more than it sounds: an empty watchtower doesn't shoot.

Each soldier has a personality. Footmen jump in front of your archers and villagers. Spearmen love big targets and hit them more than twice as hard. Knights are fast, armoured and ride down enemy archers and casters. Crossbowmen pick on the big armoured brutes. Clerics hang back and heal. Battering Rams and Catapults are for knocking down lairs and the Citadel in the campaign.

Your hero: the Knight-Captain, the toughest hero in the game. War Cry makes every ally nearby deal 50% more damage for a few seconds; save it for the moment the wave crashes into the wall. Charge sends you barrelling through the enemy line.

Best research. Your first step has three options, not two: Tempered Blades (everyone hits harder), Militia Drills (a bigger, faster-training army) or Bodkin Fletching (archers and towers hit harder and reach further). Later come Chain Mail or Horseshoes, then Plate Armor or War College. Your research also needs the Mason's Smithy at the same level, so make friends with the Mason.

What does the Master Mason do?

The Master Mason keeps the village standing. You lay walls (drag to draw a whole line), gates and watchtowers, and build the Smithy. Most of all, you're the only one who can upgrade anything, the Keep included, and the only one who orders repairs. Everyone will need you. Constantly.

At night you're the busiest player in the realm. Repair crews walk out to whatever you mark, and the bigger the Keep, the more crews you have at once. A building only mends while a builder stands beside it and not while it's being hit, and every repair costs stone (or wood for wooden buildings), so keep an eye on the pile.

Your hero: the Master Mason. Mortar & Pitch instantly patches up every building around you by a quarter of its health. Raise Ballista plants a temporary turret that chews through the wave for half a minute. Building and repairs go three times faster with you standing beside them, so at night, live on the wall.

Best research. Masonry (every building tougher) or Hoardings (one more archer in every tower), then Boiling Pitch (towers set foes on fire) or Lime Mortar (much tougher walls), and at the top Tower Ballistae or a Bastion Keep that heals itself.

What does the Warden do?

The Warden owns everything outside the walls. You explore the fog, visit landmarks, build Outposts anywhere you've explored to claim new ground, plant War Banners that hold land for a few minutes, and lay Spike Traps and straw Decoys where the monsters walk.

Two Warden jobs win runs. Scouting: get a building or a unit near a lair by day, and the whole team learns where tonight's attack comes from and which omen is coming. Regions: clear a region's guarded hold, push an Outpost onto its heart, and everyone gets its bonus plus room for more soldiers.

Your hero: the Ranger, the fastest hero with the sharpest eyes, but the most fragile, so keep moving. Volley rains arrows on a whole area. Bear Trap snaps a monster in place and bites hard.

Best research. Pathfinders (everyone sees further and Outposts claim more) or Barbed Snares (nastier traps), then Old Lore (heroes level faster) or Forager's Craft (more food and wood), and at the top Wildbane, which makes lairs and bosses take far more damage, or Ranger Corps for stronger heroes.

How do research tiers work across duties?

Each duty has its own research with three steps, done at the Keep. At each step you pick one option and the others are gone for the run, so argue about it first. It's the best kind of argument.

The steps get dearer as you go: the first costs a little wood and gold, the second adds stone, and the third wants a big pile of stone and gold. Each step also needs the Keep at the same level, which means the Master Mason's upgrades open everyone's research. The Research page shows every duty side by side, and tapping a friend's greyed-out option sends them a polite request.

How should two or three players split the duties?

Hearthfall seats one to four players, and the lobby has three ways to handle a smaller group:

• Spare duties (the default). Everyone keeps what they picked, and any duty nobody holds is shared by all. Good for most groups.
• Dealt out. Spare duties go to whoever holds the fewest, so every duty has one owner.
• Everyone runs every duty. Nobody owns anything and everyone can do it all. Heroes stay one each.

Two players: one takes Steward and Warden (growing and exploring), the other Marshal and Master Mason (the fighting). Flip between your duties with the keys 1 to 4. Three players: leave the Warden unclaimed. It's shared, so whoever has a quiet moment can scout, build an Outpost or lay traps. Solo: you hold all four, and your days are a quarter longer to make up for it.

One thing to know: the night brings more monsters for every extra player, about one and a half times a lone player's wave for two and about 2.4 times for four. A full room is a bigger fight, not an easier one.

The Tasks board keeps everyone honest. Ask another duty to upgrade, repair, build here, train or send soldiers, and they answer with one button, "I'll take it" or "Not now". Unanswered asks fade after a few minutes.

Where to go next

New to the game? The Hearthfall beginner guide puts these duties to work in your first three days. Ready to win? The Hearthfall campaign guide shows how each duty helps storm the Citadel. And if splitting the work between friends is your thing, our list of co-op RTS games with friends compares the others. Pixaplay's other team game, Rogue Defenders, has heroes of its own for wave defence.

Pick a seat and play Hearthfall.