7 Tips for starting a prosperous settlement in Manor Lords

Manor Lords had a big update recently (with more coming soon), which has encouraged a lot more people to start playing it again. I even started a Let's Play, with commentary on my secondary YouTube channel, "MegaBearsFan_Plays". I've been playing the game off and on since it's initial launch into Early Access, and so I thought I might also take this opportunity to share some tips and advice that I have for any players who are new to the game, or who might be struggling.

Remember that it's Early Access

The first "tip" is actually more of a disclaimer. If you play Manor Lords, please remember that it is an Early Access game. Though it is playable (and quite good), it is not fully-featured. It contains bugs, isn't finely-tuned or balanced yet, and has entire features and modes that don't actually work yet. For example, take a look at the Policies menu, and you'll notice that there are only a couple working policies, and the rest are place-holders that cannot be activated.

More importantly for the purposes of this guide, the game will change considerably over the coming months (or years), and leading up to its eventual retail release. These tips apply specifically to the Early Access build (in early 2025), and may not be relevant in the final release version of the game. I may write an additional tips guide for the full retail release, if I think the game has changed enough to warrant additional tips.