Wildlife

Various kinds of animals exist to form the wildlife (or fauna) in Kingdom and hunting them serves as the primary source of stable income in the early game (and afterwards, if preferred). Only free-roaming archers can hunt animals. Archers stationed in towers and those accompanying knights will ignore animals. Hunting becomes more difficult as a kingdom grows and wild lands disappear, although the practice can be continued by creating space for open fields outside the walls, and/or by making sections of forest part of the Kingdom.

RabbitEdit

Rabbits in Europe, racoons in Shogun, and chickens in Dead Lands are the first source of income that the Monarch will encounter.^[1] They emerge from patches of tall grass, also known as rabbit bushes, ignoring the Monarch and the hunters while hopping around in the grass.

They take only one hit to kill and will drop a single coin upon death. Idle archers will approach and aim at nearby rabbits during the day while all archers ignore rabbits at nighttime.

Rabbit bushesEdit

Rabbit bushes appear in large patches of grass, known as plain. More bushes can appear by extending grass patches by cutting trees. However, rabbit bushes will disappear if a building is constructed near them. Additionally, in New Lands and Two Crowns rabbit bushes disappear if they become located inside the Kingdom borders as walls are expanded (the rabbits that have already spawned will remain until they are killed).

There is also a limited number of rabbits per land. Thus clearing distant forests can lead to a situation where most or even all rabbits are too far away for archers to hunt. As they pile up in one area, neither dying nor despawning, the Monarch's regular hunting grounds might cease spawning any new rabbits. This can be rectified by extending the outer wall far enough for the existing rabbits to be hunted - or by extending it even further, so that the undesirable bushes are removed.

DeerEdit

Deer are much more difficult to hunt than rabbits, as they take more than one hit and flee if the Monarch or a hunter get too close. Experienced monarchs can make decent amounts of money by herding them towards groups of archers. At night, archers stop chasing deer, but will shoot at a deer that wanders near them.

While deer are more challenging than rabbits, they are also more rewarding:

Kingdom: Classic – They take two hits to kill and will drop two to four coins upon death.

Kingdom: New Lands & Two Crowns – They take three hits and will drop three coins upon death.

The population of deer allowed on an island is capped at seven.

Herding deerEdit

Deer react to the Monarch and the archers by running. Depending on how far away the Monarch is from the deer, the deer will react in one of two ways. If you are approximately two deer-lengths away from the deer, the deer will usually run away from you. If you are approximately one deer-length away, the deer will usually run toward you. If you are zero deer-lengths away from the deer (running beside the deer), the deer will usually continue in its current direction. The deer's reaction is not consistent. Expect deer to react the 'wrong' way about twenty-five percent of the time. In Classic, deer react to the Monarch immediately. In New Lands, there is a random delay in when the deer react, meaning that herding deer is much more difficult in New Lands. Also note that deer only react to the Monarch if the Monarch is in motion. A monarch standing still can have deer walk right up to them.

A running deer will run for six leaps unless attacked. Once those six leaps are done, a deer may randomly continue running for no reason (approximately ten percent of the time), continue to run if the monarch is close enough to trigger another run sequence, or stop. If attacked, the run sequence is reset and the deer will run another six leaps. An attacked deer will usually run away from its attacker, but will sometimes run towards its attacker if it is within one deer-length from its attacker or if surrounded by attackers.

Successfully herding deer usually involves running after a deer until you have approached closely enough to get it to run toward you. The Monarch's mount is faster than the deer and has enough stamina (especially when affected by the well-fed buff), so it is relatively easy to outrun the deer. Once the deer is traveling toward the town, use the Monarch to 'push' the deer toward the archers.

It is best to herd deer either during the day or right after an enemy attack, to avoid accidentally encountering a horde of enemies.

Kingdom: New Lands & Two Crowns – The easiest way of herding deer involves use of the stag mount that can be found after unlocking it on the third island. With this mount you can persuade deer to run up to the archers, even run into the middle of the base. Deer will continue to follow you until they get attacked by an archer at which point they will run as usual. After they flee you can easily go up to them and persuade them to run into the base again.

Another method is using the bear mount that is found after unlocking it on the fourth island. This mount can actually kill deer by using its pounce. The bear needs to hit the deer twice for it to die. Also, attacking a deer with the bear will usually cause the deer to run in the opposite direction. The pounce can also kill rabbits but the actual area that the charge damages is quite weird as it is based off of its movement animation.

FishEdit

Fish swim in the river occupying the foreground and will occasionally jump out of the water and back into it again.

Kingdom: Classic & New Lands – They cannot be hunted and do not affect gameplay.

Kingdom Two Crowns – They will be hunted randomly by the pikemen or fishermen (ninjas) during the daytime, and drop one coin when caught.

BoarEdit

This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.

The boar is an aggressive wildlife that can be found in the forest during the winter. It appears from a specific bush: a large shrub with three to four passive piglets wandering near by. The shape and colour of the bush differs slightly in Europe and Shogun.

For the mother boar to spawn, the Monarch must stand very close to the bush for two to three seconds, after which the creature will poke its head out, grunt loudly and then jump out and begin to charge the Monarch.

The boar will move slightly slower than the sprinting horse, so most monarchs can outpace it. It will destroy wooden walls and disarm huge groups of subjects in its way, which can cripple an unprepared kingdom and leave the Monarch open to the Greed. If the boar hits a stone or iron wall, it'll be stunned and vulnerable for some time before being killed or retreating to its bush, where it'll fully restore its health.

Subjects attacked by the boar will lose their tools and will fall to the ground unconscious for a while, before standing back up and going back to their routine. If the Monarch is hit by the boar, the pouch is emptied, making about half of the coins fall into the water and the rest on the ground, becoming recoverable. If the Monarch has no coin when hit, they lose their crown, after which the boar will disappear back to the bush. After it disappears it can be respawned by simply standing in front of the bush again.

The boar can be attacked by any type of archers (hunters, soldiers and on towers) and is killed with twenty and some arrows. When slaughtered, it drops thirty to sixty coins; and, although the bush and the piglets remain, the boar itself will only be encountered again on another island.

Because the boar only appear during winter, when most wildlife hibernate, it can be a good source of cash if the Monarch is in shortage.

Winter hardshipsEdit

Wildlife are one of the many things to disappear when winter starts. This slows any hunting income a kingdom may have had to nothing at all. However in Kingdom Two Crowns you can find the Boar which - if killed - grants thirty to sixty coins.

TriviaEdit

• In Kingdom: Classic rabbits show a little blood mark when killed for a couple of seconds before fading out. This visual effect would not be included in the next two titles, which is consistent with the "Everyone 10+" (North America) and the "PEGI 7" (Europe) game content rate. This has been the only blood sign on the whole Kingdom series.
• Birds will sometimes appear on bushes and fly away when the Monarch gets too close. They are white in colour and cannot be hunted.

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Or bunnies in Europe, raccoons or tanuki in Shogun, hens or fowls in Dead Lands.