The folks at YOUZU, the ones responsible for the popular Saint Seiya Awakening, have just released a mobile version of Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming. Originally a browser-based game, players are now able to enjoy journeying into Westeros and grouping up with their friends from the comfort of their phones. However, if you play GOT on PC with BlueStacks, you can continue enjoying it on your computer, just like in the browser version, but with plenty of additional tools to help speed up your progress.

Nevertheless, if you’re just starting out in this mobile strategy game, this beginner’s guide with the best tips and tricks will definitely come in handy since we’ll be teaching you exactly how to get started without losing a beat. Since the game has just launched, you’ll need all the help you can get if you want to outplay the competition.

The Castle Screen

Most of the gameplay in GOT: Winter is Coming takes place in either the castle screen or the kingdom map. In this sense, you’ll have to become intimate with these very quickly. Luckily, understanding these screens is quite straightforward:

Your castle is divided into two parts: your military buildings, and your production buildings. The former are always built inside your main city walls and consist of structures to help improve your military might, and the performance of your castle, in general. Some of these buildings include your military structures where you train infantry, spearmen, cavalry, and archers, as well as the hospital where you heal wounded units, the Observatorium where you summon new heroes, the maester’s tower where you research new technologies, and so on.

On the other hand, your production buildings are just that; the structures responsible for generating resources on an hourly basis. However, there are also two other types of buildings that you can build in these slots: triage tents, and military tents. The former is for improving the capacity and healing speed of your hospital, while the latter is for improving the capacity and training speed of your military buildings.

When it comes to your production buildings, you have free reign to build these as you see fit. In this sense, you can focus heavily on producing a specific type of resource, or distribute your construction evenly across all resources. Alternatively, you could also focus on building more military tents so that you can dramatically increase the number of troops you can train at any given time.

The Kingdom Map

Aside from the castle screen, you’ll also frequently venture into the wilds of Westeros during your time in GOT: Winter is Coming.

The kingdom map holds many treasures for those who explore its far reaches. One of the most important features here are the myriad gathering points that you can send your armies to to collect resources and bring them back to your city. In fact, most of your time on the map will be spent sending out your troops to gather. However, aside from resources, you will also find rebel forts, troops, and countless players trying to build their own castles.

Collecting resources from the map is pivotal for your growth in this game as your production buildings won’t generate enough materials to fund the development of your castle. Moreover, attacking rebels and fortresses is also important as you can obtain many different crafting materials to create gear for your commanders.

Remember that if you play GOT: Winter is Coming on PC with BlueStacks, you can use the tools that our app player offers to automate most of the grind in this game. Imagine instead of having to manually send out troops to gather every single time, you can create a macro for it and have BlueStacks do it for you. You can achieve this and much more by playing on our Android emulator.

Your Titles

GOT: Winter is Coming has a Title system that grants you various benefits after completing certain milestones. Your current progress is represented by the titles you’ve unlocked, with each granting increasing boons for your troubles.

The benefits from increasing your ranks include higher max commander level, more free speed up time for constructions, and more deployable commanders for your castle. However, another good bonus here is that, when you reach certain ranks, you’ll be able to unlock more slots for your production buildings, allowing you to scale your resource generation, or even to construct more military tents so you can train more troops at a time.

You can check your current title by clicking on the shield to the right of your power indicator. You can also check the requirements for obtaining higher titles in this same screen, as well as the benefits you will receive from unlocking them.

The Commanders

One last important thing you should know as a beginner in GOT: Winter is Coming is the commander system.

The commanders in this game are special characters with unique abilities that can help you in many different ways. Though you will always begin with Osmund the Justiciar, you can start summoning new commanders as soon as you unlock the Observatorium building. This is the game’s version of a gacha system, as you can pay premium currency for a chance to obtain a powerful character. Luckily, you can also get a few free summonings per day, so remember to visit this building every time you log into the game.

Every commander has a different set of skills that can make them suited for different purposes. These characters can be used in two different ways: by assigning them to a building in your castle, or by having them lead your armies in the field. By assigning them to a building, you can increase the structure’s efficiency. For instance, if you assign Robb Stark, a commander focused on providing buffs to infantry soldiers, to the Infantry Barracks, the training capacity and speed of the building will improve. Similarly, you can also assign commanders as builders to speed up the construction of buildings and upgrades.

If you assign them as leaders of your armies, your commanders can provide different passive bonuses to their soldiers. Each commander also has several skills that can proc in combat, giving your army the edge they need to defeat the enemy. Of course, in order to access the full potential of every commander, you need to upgrade both their experience and star levels. The former simply increases the characters base stats, while the latter also increases stats, and unlocks more skills. Your skills, on the other hand, can also be upgraded with skill experience stones.

These are all the basic elements that you should know before you start in GOT: Winter is Coming. If you’re a beginner, we recommend also swinging by our blog and taking a look at all the other guides we’ve prepared for you. Did you find this beginner’s guide useful? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!