Hello and welcome to the Castle Story beginner’s guide.

This guide is intended to teach new players the knowledge required to play Castle Story. It will hopefully walk you through your first steps towards mastering Castle Story’s puzzle/strategy gameplay. You will learn all you need to know to get started playing, from issuing simple commands to planning and executing large construction projects.

Disclaimer: Since the game is currently in development, the gameplay and controls are still being worked on. This means that everything in this guide is subject to change at any time.

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Getting Started

Castle Story is a real-time strategy game first and foremost. Despite the creative and emergent nature of castle building, all your actions will be accomplished through the orders you will issue to your workforce of Bricktrons. Your goal is to guide your Bricktrons and ensure that they will be able to build the structures you have designed.

This means that your primary mode of interaction is the selection of units and issuing commands to the selected units.

• Selecting units : To issue commands to a unit or a structure, you must first select it. The most basic way to select a unit is to left-click the unit on the screen. However, there are other ways to select units that may come in handy.

• Assigning commands : Right-clicking will issue a context-sensitive command to your currently selected units. For example, if you right-click the terrain, your selected units will attempt to move to where you clicked; right-clicking an enemy will make your units try to attack that enemy.

Camera Navigation

The camera is your viewport into the world of Castle Story. So it is very important to learn how to use it to be able to play. Being able to see what you are doing is often key to building complicated structures. Having a good overview of the battlefield can also help you better control your units, and can make the difference between defeat and victory.

• Pan translates the point of origin horizontally across the world.
  • use the W,A,S,D keys;
  • or hold Spacebar and click-drag the Left Mouse Button.

• Orbit rotates the point of view around the point of origin.
  • use the Q and E keys to rotate side to side;
  • hold Shift and use the Q and E keys to rotate up and down;
  • Click-drag the Middle Mouse Button to rotate in all directions;
  • or hold Spacebar and click-drag the Left Mouse Button to rotate in all directions.

• Elevation translates the point of origin vertically.
  • use the Z and X keys;
  • or use the Scroll Wheel;
  • press Alt to toggle terrain hug feature on and off.

• Zoom changes the distance at which the point of view orbits the origin.
  • hold Shift and use the Z and X keys;
  • or hold Shift and use the Scroll Wheel.

Gathering Resources

Resources are essential to accomplish anything in Castle Story. Stone is required to build walls, Wood is needed to build doors and stockpiles, and Crystal is needed to get new Bricktrons. All these resources can be found by digging in the ground or by harvesting them on the surface.

• Wood is the first resource you want to obtain. Thankfully it is also the easiest. All you need to do is order a Bricktron to cut down a tree. You will get three Logs from a fallen tree.

• Stone is needed to make Bricks. All you need to do to obtain Stone is dig in the ground. However, you will need Stockpiles to convert your Stone into Bricks.

• Crystal can be found in the ground. You will need to dig deeper to find Crystal because it is rarer than Stone. There are many kinds of Crystal with different effects; harvest them all to find out what they do.

• There are many kinds of storage Structures:
  • Stockpiles are the most important ones. They will help you convert Stone into Bricks, and will also store the wood you have harvested. They are also the first place a Bricktron will look to find the resources need to accomplish his task.
  • Barrels are important to store Crystal. If a Bricktron has harvested Crystal, he will need to unload his bag in a Barrel.

Building your Castle

This is the heart of Castle Story. You will spend the majority of your time designing your construction and the outcome of the game will depend almost entirely on how well you crafted your environment. There are many types of building blocks, each with their own attributes. It is important to learn what they do in order to build optimal constructions.

• Bricks are the most basic and important block type. Bricks are very resistant and easy to obtain which makes them the most useful type of block.
  • The Standard Brick is rectangular, one unit wide and two units long. The extra length allows you to stack them diagonally for extra strength.
  • The Half Brick is a perfect cube. It is good to close gaps between Standard Bricks, but it costs more to use since you need a complete brick to place it. Stacking Half Bricks on top of each other is generally a bad idea since breaking the lowest one will cause all the other ones to fall down.
  • Stair Bricks allow anyone to climb up a level. Usually, Bricktrons can climb on top of a Standard Brick without any help, but if they are carrying heavy loads, they will need Stair Bricks to reach the top.
  • Arch Bricks allow other bricks to be placed on top, but will only occupy one unit. This allows Bricktrons to walk under an arch where a Standard Brick would have blocked them.
• Wood is less resistant, but more versatile than Bricks. Wood is the base material required to build most Structures such as Stockpiles, Doors and Barrels. Wooden Logs can also fuse together to create the inner scaffolding of your castle.
  • Wooden Logs can be placed horizontally or vertically. When placed end to end, Logs will fuse together to create long beams or long columns of wood.
  • Logs can also be merged perpendicularly in four directions. This way you can attach a beam to a column. If a beam is connected to columns on both ends, it will be considered as solid and will support weight.
  • Planks act the same way as Logs, but can only be placed horizontally. They are excellent to build large floors.

• Blueprints, also known as phantom blocks, are what you must use to tell Bricktrons to build your structure. Placing Blueprints simply adds them to a queue in the selected Task Group. Bricktrons will choose the first Blueprint in the queue that they can reach.
  • To place a blueprint, Left-click on any surface, and the blueprint will be added to the queue. If the cursor is red, this means that you cannot place a blueprint there, and no blueprint will be added.
  • To Rotate your blueprint cursor, simply Right-click and the cursor will rotate clockwise.
  • To Remove blueprints, press Shift and Left-click on an existing blueprint.
  • To ask a Bricktron to break a certain brick, press Shift and Left-click on an existing brick.
  • To ask a Bricktron to dig a certain voxel, press Shift and Left-click on a patch of ground.

• Structures are special items that fill specific roles in your castle. Basic Structures such as Stockpiles and Barrels are essential to sustain a workflow. Other structures such as Torches are mostly cosmetic, but are still useful sometimes. Most Structures require Wood to build, but some require special materials such as Crystals.
  • Stockpiles and Barrels are essential to gather resources. Bricktrons will need somewhere to store the resources they harvested. Always make sure there are empty storage structures available or the Bricktrons will stop harvesting.
  • Doors are excellent defense mechanisms. They will let Bricktrons through effortlessly, but will not open for hostile creatures. Those creatures will need to break the door before going through, giving you precious time to organize your defenses.
  • Ladders can help Bricktrons to climb a vertical wall of any height. Bricktrons that are carrying Bricks or Barrels cannot climb a ladder.
  • Catapults are large offensive structures that can launch various projectiles across long distances. Catapults require a large flat area to be built.
  • Torches are essential to see when it gets dark at night. You can either attach a Torch on the wall or place a Lantern on the ground. You need Orange Crystal to make torches.

Task Groups

Automating work is essential to maintaining a good workflow. By themselves, Bricktrons won’t know what to do, so you need to organize them into Task Groups. Some Task Groups are needed to place construction Blueprints, such as Building Groups and Structure Groups. Other groups are meant to accomplish a task in a certain area such as Logging Groups or Cleaning Groups. Mining and Tunneling are more complicated tasks that automate the creation of complicated structures such as spiral stairs.

For Bricktrons to work you need to assign them to a Task Groups. To do that, select a Bricktron, and Left-click on the Task Group icon in the screen.

• The Logging Group is meant to automate the harvesting of Wood. Bricktrons inside this group will cut down any tree that is inside the radius of the group. They will also pick up any Logs around them and place them inside nearby Stockpiles. If there are no logs to carry, they will cut down a new tree and so forth until there are no trees left.

• The Building Group is essential to automate the placing of Bricks. You cannot place brick blueprints outside of a Building Group. If you assign a Bricktron to a Building Group, they will automatically search for Bricks and Wood and attempt to go place the nearest available Blueprint.

• The Structure Group allows for the placement of special structures such as Stockpiles, Barrels and Doors. Bricktrons in Structure Groups act exactly the same way as Bricktrons in Building Groups.

• In the Cleaning Group, Bricktrons will automatically search for any Rock, Brick, Logs, Crystals and any other item that can be stored, pick them up and put them into nearby storage structures. The Cleaning Group is especially useful after a battle, when you want to quickly clean up the mess that the attackers left behind.

• The Mining Group will automate open-pit Mining. To place a Mining group, simply place it on the ground and a default size and depth will be assigned. You can change the dimensions of the mine with the Radial Menu. The Mining Group will also automatically create a spiral stair to allow the Bricktrons to climb in and out of the pit. As soon as the Bricktrons start mining, the dimensions of the mine and direction of the stair cannot be changed anymore.

• The Tunneling Group allows you to build underground tunnels. Any tunnel needs to start with a doorway of two units wide and three units high. The inside of the tunnel can be expanded in any direction. You can toggle the mode of expansion with the Radial Menu. You can Expand or Shrink the Tunnel shape, and you can add tunnel stairs.

The Radial Menu

The Radial Menu will be your primary tool for interacting with the game universe. For any action other than simply left or right-clicking, the Radial Menu will give you access to all of the relevant actions in a simple, easy to use manner.

There are three ways of opening the radial menu:

• Holding right-click for more than 0.3 seconds
• Drag right-click in any direction.

The Radial Menu then filters the most relevant actions before displaying them. It uses two factors to do that: your current selection (bricktrons, task groups, etc.) and what you are clicking on (ground, stockpiles, other Bricktrons, etc.). For example, clicking on a stockpile with a worker selected will give you different options than if you had an archer selected.

The Radial Menu will then display these options in a circular fashion around the point you clicked. To select an option, simply move your cursor away from the center in the general direction of the option. No need to hover above the button, only the angle is detected. That way, a broad, imprecise stroke can be used to quickly select the desired option.

Several button types can be found in the Radial Menu:

• The Standard Button can be activated simply by releasing the mouse while it is highlighted. Note that the Radial Menu will close upon release, triggering the button’s action.
• The Toggle Button can be changed by left-clicking while the button is highlighted by the cursor.

To cancel your action and close the Radial Menu, all you need to do is bring back your mouse cursor in the middle of the Radial Menu. This way, you need not worry about opening the menu by accident because the default action is to cancel; simply release the mouse button without leaving the center radius, and nothing will happen.

Getting new Bricktrons

Bricktrons are the lifeblood of your castle. They will accomplish any task you give them, as long as they have sufficient resources. Eventually, you will want to summon more Bricktrons than the few you will be given at the start of the game. This is where the Home Crystal comes into play.

The Home Crystal is where you will create new Bricktrons and revive fallen ones. You will need to feed your home crystal with enough energy to do so. This energy will generally come from blue crystal mined from the ground, but other sources can be found.

The number of Bricktrons you possess will determine how much energy is needed to summon an additional Bricktron. The increasing cost means that for each additional Bricktron, you will need to gather more blue crystal.

When a Bricktron or a Corruptron dies, his soul will escape his body and take the form of a Wisp. The Wisps will wander for a while, but will generally be attracted to the Home Crystal. Once absorbed, they will contribute to the energy level of your crystal. This way, if you survive a large wave of corruptrons your Home Crystal will absorb a large quantity of wisps, and will hopefully help you obtain an additional Bricktron.

Since workers cannot defend themselves, you will need to summon knights and archers. However, the combat classes cannot harvest or build, so you must be careful to maintain a balance between combat classes and worker classes.

Combat

At some points during your gameplay, enemies, whether they be Corruptrons or other players, will test the quality of your construction by assaulting it directly. Your first line of defense, other than your actual walls will be the Bricktrons you have specialized in combat.

There are two combat classes as well as a few structures at your disposal:

• The Knight is your primary melee unit. Basically, a Bricktron equipped with a shield, a sword and a helmet. Knights are slower but more resistant to all kinds of attacks. Knights are best deployed inside your castle where they cannot be surrounded by enemies, or in front of entrances to important areas. Knights work well as pairs to avoid getting swarmed, but also to give respite to each other in order to regenerate precious lifepoints.

• The Archer is your main ranged combat unit. A Bricktron armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, he is as agile as a worker, but also as vulnerable to melee attacks. To fire an arrow, the archer needs 2 seconds to draw his bow. If he is attacked while drawing, his action will be interrupted. Because of this, it is important to position archers out of harm’s way, but with a good range of vision on the battlefield. Place him on top of walls, or on towers, preferably with a knight guarding his back.

• The Catapult could be qualified as a weapon of mass destruction. It can hurl various objects at vast distances. Objects such as boulders and barrels filled with explosives can be thrown at enemies or other structures to inflict tremendous damage. Once you have built a catapult, do not forget to assign a worker to become the operator. The operator will wind the catapult, aim it and fire it as well as fetch items to load inside.

Combat bricktrons will generally take action on their own, unless ordered otherwise. There are more specific orders at your disposal that can be activated by using the Radial Menu:

• Defend area: Order a Knight to attack any target inside a radius of 4 units around his position and to ignore any other target.
• Stand your ground: Order a Knight to stay put. He will attack any target that comes within reach but otherwise will not move.