Controls

The Kingdom games are notable for their minimalist gameplay that has a handful of controls.

Starting a new game the Monarch will be guided by a sparkling trail in Kingdom: Classic and by the Ghost in New Lands and Two Crowns through a simple tutorial in which the basic controls will be taught. This tutorial is adapted to each platform and its controls.

Game controls

The following control scheme concerns:

• Kingdom: Classic on PC
• New Lands and Two Crowns on PC, mobile, Switch, Xbox and PS4.

PC (keyboard)
Move left	A or ←	2nd player: H	Used keys on an American keyboard
Move right	D or →	2nd player: K
Sprint	Double tap move button, or hold:
	Shift while moving	L while moving?
Drop	S or ↓	2nd player: J
Pay (to circles)	Hold S or ↓	2nd player: hold K
Mount special	Left Shift while standing still	2nd player: G
Monarch special	Hold W or ↑	Hold U

Mobile
Move left	Drag left
Move right	Drag right
Sprint	Drag all the way right / left
Drop	Tap or swipe down
Pay (to circles)	Drag down
Mount special	Swipe up
Monarch special	Swipe up with 2 fingers

Nintendo Switch
Move left	Directional left	N.Switch controller
Move right	Directional right
Sprint	L or R
Drop	A, B, or D-pad down
Pay (to circles)	Hold A
Mount special	ZL or ZR
Monarch special	L, R, or D-pad up

Xbox One
Move left	Left thumbstick left	Xbox controller
Move right	Left thumbstick right
Sprint	Right trigger
Drop	A, B, or D-pad down
Pay (to circles)	Hold A
Mount special	Right trigger
Monarch special	LB, RB, or D-pad up

PlayStation 4
Move left	Thumbstick left
Move right	Thumbstick right
Sprint	L2 or R2
Drop	X, O, or D-pad down
Pay (to circles)	Hold X
Mount special	L2 or R2
Monarch special	L1, R1, or D-pad up

Some mobile versions of New Lands feature touch controls with a virtual game pad. Other devices will accept physical extra controllers as seen in this case.

Character customization

The King wears the Crown and a coloured cape while the Queen wears the Tiara and coloured dress.

Players choose their monarch's appearance when first starting the game. By pressing the S or ↓ button (or by tapping the screen in the mobile version) during the loading screen, sex, skin colour, and the colour of the cape or dress will be randomised, letting the player decide on their preference. Once selected, players cannot change their character unless they start a new game.

Players also get their character a banner with random tinctures, ordinaries and charge after they establish a camp in game. The colour of the banner will be the same with the colour of the character's cape or dress.

PC & console – The pause screen allows the player to alter the banner manually. For details, see Coat of arms.

Two Crowns co-op – There is no way to customize the appearance of the second player. They will just get their characteristics randomized when they join the campaign for the first time.

Dead Lands – It's not possible to customize the appearance of Miriam, the starter Monarch. This cosmetic customization has been replaced with the possibility of changing Monarchs.

Traveling

This section is about New Lands & Two Crowns.

Once on board:

press ESC to open the map use ← left and → right to choose the wanted island when the big arrow is over the wanted island, click the “Continue” button to confirm

As long as the player doesn't skip it, the boat travel scene appears to be indefinite. At some point even the music will end, leaving just the sounds of the sea.

Challenge Islands

This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.

To access a challenge island:

1.	Press Esc to open the menu
2.	Click "Challenge Islands"
3.	Click:	The crowned skull for the Skull island The greed-citizen for the Plague island The wolf teeth for the Dire island.

Cancel order

Trees cannot be unmarked and walls cannot be removed. Once the Monarch gives an order, it cannot be cancelled. There is no cancel command, cancel task, cancel job, cancel work, or cancel build. For further details, see: Cancel.

Beta

When there is public test beta branch available, this is how to access it:

1. Right click “Kingdom Two Crowns” in your Steam library
2. Go to properties
3. Go to the “betas” tab
4. Select “public-test” (or anything similar) in the drop down menu
5. Restart Steam.

In order to experience balance changes you will need to start a new campaign.

Alt-tab without pausing

This section is about Kingdom: New Lands on Windows.

If the player alt-tab to a different application, minimizes the game window, or click on any thing outside the game environment (for example, while using a second monitor), the game will stop running. The game creator Noio explains this behavior:

“

It's simply a choice we made. The game pauses in the background to prevent the player from accidentally changing window and losing the game. I could easily change it but I'm not sure how many people rely on the current behaviour.—Noio on Reddit, 7 September 2016.

„

It's simply a choice we made. The game pauses in the background to prevent the player from accidentally changing window and losing the game. I could easily change it but I'm not sure how many people rely on the current behaviour.Noio on Reddit, 7 September 2016.

Waiting for the boat to reach the dock can take several in-game days and this generally happens when Monarchs have done every task they had to do on that island. In moments like these, even if players spend some time appreciating the music and the pixel-art, they may end-up considering being away from keyboard (AFK) a suitable method to deal with the lack of in-game tasks.

On all platforms, players are limited to stop playing while letting the game open. On Windows though players can alt-tab to other applications without pausing the game. Follow the steps below to keep the game running even when it's unfocused:

1. Have the game on windowed mode rather than full screen
   1. Press Esc
   2. Click "Options"
   3. Uncheck "Full Screen"

   ---

   
   
2. Click the game's icon in the Windows taskbar
   (if the music keeps playing, you know that the in-game time is passing)

You can now alt-tab from the game—and to whatever application you want—during the boat pushing or while going for the Day C achievement without pausing the game.

Steam controler for single player

This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.

Annoying popup keeps offering split-screen.

×

The Steam controller shouldn't cause any trouble in Classic or New Lands. In Two Crowns however, it is set by default to give access to a second player, and will pop up a message requiring a confirmation for the split-screen. If the player wants to play solo with a Steam controller, this default behavior might be a bit frustrating. But there is a way to use Steam configurations to change that. Follow the steps below:

1. On your Steam Library
2. Right-click on the game “Kingdom Two Crowns”
3. Click on “Properties”
4. Down on the “general” tab,
   On the box under “Steam Input Per-Game Setting”
5. Select the option “Forced On”
6. Restart the game.

Sticky keys on Windows

Sticky keys is a feature in Windows that can help users with physical impairments. By default, it can be turned on by pressing Shift five times in a row. But this shortcut can be easily triggered by mistake by users who do not need the sticky keys, especially while playing games with the keyboard. Here's how to turn off Windows 10's sticky keys feature for good, and disable that shortcut:

1. Press the ⊞ Windows logo on your keyboard
2. Search for "Ease of Access"
3. Select "Ease of Access keyboard settings"
4. Toggle the switch under "Sticky Keys" to "Off"
5. Turn off also the shortcut.

Multiplayer

For instructions on how to access local co-op (split screen) and online co-op (full screen), see: Co-op.

Options

The Options panel for Kingdom: New Lands

The game options (image at the right) are self-explanatory, with the exception of blazon setting, explained here.

The player is able to choose zoom, sound and music levels.

The language options are English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Chinese, and Danish.