King Of The Castle - Castle Battles Guide

This guide will serve as a way for you to maximize your score and help you to easily destroy King Skarl's castle, hopefully earning you a brand new trophy for your cabinet. I want to take you through the history and past of the game as well and give a little background as to why Skarl and Hagan are battling. Keep in mind, you play this game as baby versions of the kings, emphasizing they've been playfully at war since birth.

Feudal History

King Hagan, the character you will be playing as, is the more intelligent brother of the pair. He is a green Skeith who oversees Brightvale, a kingdom he has infused with intellect and runs with a large emphasis or education and book-smarts. He appreciates the wise and noble, and if you pay him a visit and give him some sage advice, he will reward you greatly. Brightvale also sustains peace as often as possible, choosing to use intelligence and reasoning over violence when it comes to international disputes.

King Skarl is not known for his smarts, instead for his greed and appetite. He is a blue Skeith who rules over Meridell, a land known for their hardworking farmers and laborers. He's made a few mistakes in his leadership, at one point keeping his people in famine after the theft of Darigan's orb. Skarl also imposes high taxes on his disciples, such as the infamous Marrow Tax.

The two of them have long bickered over who has the better kingdom, though it's quite obvious to outsiders that King Hagan is the better ruler. What you will notice is that King Skarl is quite greedy, his search for wealth comes in very handy in Castle Battles, making it easier for him to sniff out your treasure and defeat you. You have to rely on the intelligence and cunning of Hagan to overtake Skarl before he can best you. Let's jump right into it!

Basics

Castle Battles requires you to choose a castle, hide your treasure, then launch cannonballs back and forth between your fortress and Skarl's fortress. Once you hit his treasure with your ball, you will advance to the next level. Damage done to your castle is retained between levels, occasionally you will have the chance to choose a new castle though, once you reach 1,000 points. King Skarl is able to rebuild completely between levels and he will use different castle types every round. You will be able to re-hide your treasure each round.

As you launch cannonballs, you'll earn points for knocking over different walls. Keep in mind that knocking over a wall could also cause it to block his treasure in further, making it harder to reach. The fastest path to winning each round is to go straight for the treasure. Once you launch your first cannonball, you'll get a better idea where the treasure is hiding and be able to shoot straight for it.

Controls

The controls are very simple and use your keyboard almost exclusively. You will need to move your mouse to position your treasure chest inside your castle. To fire your cannon, you first must aim your crosshairs using the arrow keys. Be aware that your cannonball will shoot in an arch and will land lower than where you aim. You control the velocity of the ball with the spacebar; hold the spacebar down to charge the power sword up on the left, releasing when you feel it has enough power to do the most damage and hit your target.

Bonuses

You'll notice that there are little tiny flags hidden around the castle. These will earn you a lot of extra points at the end of the round if you can knock them over. Often they are hidden on top of the towers, or possibly behind the castle or way off to the side. If you knock over a red and blue flag, Meridell's country colors, then you will earn a 10 point bonus! The real bonus is if you're able to knock down the golden flag. The golden flag will not only give you a whopping 12 points, but it will also give you a large advantage in your next shot: a giant cannonball. This cannonball is huge and gives you a much greater chance at knocking over a wall or slamming into Skarl's treasure. Rumor has it there is an even larger cannonball out there, but you'll need to type in a secret code to get this super cannonball.

Achieving The Trophy

If you want to simply beat out King Skarl, all you have to do is find the treasure. Where's the fun in just winning though? Go for the gold! If you want to earn the trophy, you'll have to make some strategic decisions along the way. You have to strike a careful balance between going for points and going for the treasure, because if Skarl finds your treasure first then you will lose! The more damage you do to his castle, the more points you earn, with up to 7 points being rewarded for completely destroying a wall. The easiest things to take out are the towers, as they crumble and topple into other objects.

Large walls will tend to block the treasure chest in, so avoid these unless you can predict exactly where they will fall or if you need to move it to get to the treasure. For this reason, when you are positioning your own treasure chest, try to hide it behind a big, hard to move wall, which will buy you more time that you can use to destroy your enemy's fortress.

Once you earn your trophy you will have proven yourself as the greatest king in all the land (as if anyone really thought that would be Skarl anyway...) and be able to gloat to all your friends that you are true royalty. Go forth and beseige the toy block castles, young dreamer! Soon you shall reign victorious!!