Thronefall Beginner Guide: 10 Tips to Survive Your First Nights

Thronefall arrives on Xbox Game Pass today, November 11, and a wave of new players is about to discover one of the smartest small strategy games around. This Thronefall beginner guide covers the fundamentals that actually matter: how to build an economy that survives the night, where to put your defenses, and how to use your king without getting him killed.

The pitch is simple. By day you build a kingdom: houses, mills, mines, walls, towers, and barracks. By night, waves of enemies attack from a direction the game shows you in advance, and your job is to still be standing in the morning. The loop is easy to learn and surprisingly hard to master, because every gold coin you spend on income is a coin you did not spend on defense. Here is how to get the balance right.

Thronefall Beginner Guide: Economy First, But Only Where It Survives

Your first priority in every run is income. Build houses and mills early, because gold earned tonight pays for everything tomorrow. But income only matters if the building survives long enough to pay for itself, so check the attack direction before you spend. The game tells you which side the next wave comes from, so build your economy on the opposite side and fortify the side under threat.

Mines are strong early, especially on maps where they sit behind natural cover. Farms and harbors look tempting but pay off slowly, so treat them as late-run luxuries rather than opening moves. And never spend every coin on exposed economy before checking the attack direction: a house that gets flattened on night one is gold thrown away.

Spend the Day Before You Think About the Night

The day phase is where most runs are won. Before you start the next wave, walk the map and decide which purchases solve both income and safety. A good routine: collect available upgrades, inspect the incoming direction, place new economy where it is safest, then reinforce the threatened side with whatever gold is left.

Do not hoard gold without a reason. Gold sitting in your pocket earns nothing, and a tower built today is worth more than a tower you planned to build tomorrow. The exception is saving for a specific big purchase, like a castle upgrade, and even then you should have a plan for the night in between.

Troops Beat Towers (Mostly)

New players overbuild towers. Towers are useful, but they cannot move, and Thronefall's waves rarely attack from the same angle twice. Barracks give you troops you can reposition, and mobile defenders can plug a gap on either side of the map. Use towers as secondary defense points and let your troops be the front line.

Position matters more than numbers. Hold your ranged units behind walls or obstacles, and use the hold-position command to stop them from chasing enemies into the open. If your defenders are outnumbered, pull them back behind a wall instead of letting them die in the field. A unit that survives the night fights again tomorrow.

Use Your King, But Do Not Waste Him

Your monarch is your strongest unit and your biggest liability. He can grab enemy attention by attacking, which lets you kite groups of enemies in a circle, ideally in front of your towers or ranged defenders. Done right, you can pull a wave apart without taking a hit.

But if your king dies, the run is over, so never park him in the middle of a horde. Use him to block a chokepoint, pull stragglers away from your archers, or finish off a siege weapon, then pull back. His ability also lasts longer when his health is low, which rewards risky play, but only when you know you can get out.

Perks Are Tools, Not a Script

Perks can push a run toward stronger economy, tougher buildings, safer king combat, or specialized tower play. The mistake is chasing one fixed build every time. Read the map and the enemy mix, then pick the perks that solve the problems in front of you.

Early on, prioritize perks that unlock more perk slots and strengthen your economy. Do not rush the harder quests either. It is tempting to clear every quest on a map right away, but some of them add brutal modifiers, like enemies with extra health or increased damage, that will overwhelm a new player. Do a few runs per map first, level up, and come back when you can equip multiple perks.

Save Mutators and Endless Mode for Later

Mutators are difficulty knobs that make a familiar map more rewarding and more dangerous. They expose weak habits fast, so learn the normal version of a map before you turn them on. The same goes for Eternal Trials, the mode that mixes maps, weapons, and perks into randomized runs with rising difficulty. It is a great test of everything you have learned, and a terrible place to learn the basics.

Endless mode, on the other hand, is a perfect training ground. Once you have unlocked it, use it to practice without the pressure of a fixed wave count. Try an aggressive melee build one run and a defensive tower setup the next, and see what fits your style.

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

• Defending the whole map equally when one side is clearly threatened
• Building farms and harbors before your core economy is safe
• Spending all your gold on towers and leaving nothing for troops
• Starting mutator runs before you know the normal map
• Letting your king tank a full wave instead of kiting
• Ignoring the attack direction indicator before spending gold

Thronefall is at its best when you slow down and read the map instead of following a script. The game is on Xbox Game Pass this November, so there is no excuse not to try it, and if you want another day-one guide for this week's releases, our Warhammer Survivors beginner guide covers the other big Game Pass arrival. Check the official Steam page for the full feature list and the latest updates, then go build something that survives the night.