S3 Studio and Thermite Games put you in charge of a fallen clan in an ancient China setting, starting from a crumbling estate on 14 May 2025 in Early Access. You marry family members off, push them through imperial exams, build income properties and outlast roughly 30 rival noble houses across generations. Characters are defined by eight attributes and die of old age, so the clan matters more than any single person in it.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best builds, equipment worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Eight character attributes
Writing, Might, Business, Arts, Cunning, Charisma, Luck and Renown decide what a family member is good for. Each runs on a 0 to 100 scale broken into tiers at 0 to 4, 5 to 59, 60 to 79 and 80 to 100, and the tier determines which titles and roles open up.
Generational family succession
Family members marry from age 18, produce children who grow into the next generation, and eventually die. A clan that stops producing heirs stops existing, so marriage planning is a permanent background task rather than a one-off decision.
Imperial exams and officialdom
High Writing lets a character sit the civil examinations, with roughly 20 Writing needed to clear the first one. Passing opens government posts that pay a monthly salary in gold ingots, from around two ingots at the bottom to 20 to 40 for Minister or General rank.
Coins and gold ingots
Coins handle everyday spending while gold ingots are the royal currency and the form official salaries arrive in. Banks convert ingots to coins at a floating rate that swings between roughly 8,000 and 12,000 coins per ingot, so timing the exchange is worth real money.
Fief taxes and discontent
Fiefs generate tax income shaped by the laws you enact, and military camps inside them recruit your personal army. Discontent rises with taxes and army upkeep, and reaching 70 or above triggers rebellion, so tax rebates and donations to the city coffers act as pressure valves.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our House of Legacy combat guide.
Builds Overview
| Build | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Might | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Business | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Arts | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Cunning | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our House of Legacy builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Equipment Guide
| Equipment | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Smithy | The workhorse income building. | The core of any economy, scaled to 24 or more buildings once the capital allows |
| Exchange | A costly mid to late game building that opens buying and selling of every resource type at local prices. | Resource arbitrage and for cheaply supplying materials to strengthen fief troops |
| General Store | The cheap early option that keeps the lights on before Smithies are affordable. | The first decade of a run, and for raising province prosperity alongside public shops and market stalls |
| Military Camp | Built inside a fief to recruit and hold your personal army. | Defending fiefs, quelling insurgencies, and supporting a Might-focused heir's career |
| Farm | A land asset that feeds the clan and contributes to the estate's basic upkeep. | Food supply and stabilising a fief's population growth |
Smithy: The workhorse income building. Placed in a high prosperity province with employees hired at the minimum wage of roughly 400 coins, one Smithy can clear six figures of coins a month.
Exchange: A costly mid to late game building that opens buying and selling of every resource type at local prices. The value is not the building itself but the price gap between provinces it lets you exploit.
General Store: The cheap early option that keeps the lights on before Smithies are affordable. Returns are modest, but they are far better than housing, which pays poorly for what it costs.
Military Camp: Built inside a fief to recruit and hold your personal army. Upkeep pushes discontent upward, so the camp is only worth running when there is a campaign or a rebellion risk to answer.
Farm: A land asset that feeds the clan and contributes to the estate's basic upkeep. It is one of the asset types you inherit and manage across generations rather than a profit centre in its own right.
Full breakdowns in our House of Legacy weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Family Estate | Generation one onward | Freeform base building, housing for family members, the base for all early income |
| Provincial Capital | Accessible from early on, worth targeting once you can afford Smithies | Highest prosperity for income buildings, court appointments, bank access for ingot exchange |
| County | Mid game, after the first exam successes | Governorship posts, local building slots, stepping stone toward provincial rank |
| Fief | Mid to late game | Tax revenue, private army recruitment, law-making that shapes long-term income |
| Military Camp | Mid to late game | Private troops, rebellion suppression, the military route to high rank |
Family Estate: The crumbling compound you inherit at the start and rebuild from over 200 available building components. Everything else in the game flows from how quickly you turn it into something that generates income.
Provincial Capital: The administrative centre of each province, where appointed officials handle taxes, military affairs and public order. Prosperity here rises with player shops, public shops and market stalls.
County: The subdivision beneath a province, holding its own governance and a slice of the population. Counties are where mid-tier appointments sit and where a rising family typically gets its first real authority.
Fief: Land granted to your clan that produces tax income shaped by the laws you enact. Population growth depends on how flourishing the settlement is, and discontent at 70 or above tips it into rebellion.
Military Camp: The recruitment site inside a fief where a personal army is raised and maintained. Materials for strengthening troops are cheapest when bought through an Exchange rather than sourced locally.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Build General Stores first and switch to Smithies the moment the treasury allows. Housing looks appealing because it is cheap, but its returns are the worst of the major building types.
- Drop employee wages to around 400 coins per worker. The hiring roll is random rather than wage-gated in a strict sense, so keep retrying after a failed attempt instead of raising the offer permanently.
- Target roughly 24 to 36 Smithies as a mid-game goal. That is the point community guides identify as enough to fund the rest of a playthrough without further economic management.
- Check the bank rate before converting gold ingots. The exchange swings between roughly 8,000 and 12,000 coins per ingot, and holding a stack until the high end is worth tens of thousands of coins.
- Get one child per generation to Writing 20 as early as possible. That is the threshold for the first imperial examination, and every year of delay is a year of ingot salary you never collect.
- Watch discontent in every fief you hold and keep it well under 70. Tax rebates, dismissing surplus soldiers and donating to the city coffers all pull the number down before rebellion becomes a problem.
- Raise province prosperity with your own shops before building income properties there. Prosperity feeds building returns and also offsets the discontent that taxes and army upkeep generate.
- Marry heirs off close to 18 rather than leaving it late. Characters age and die, and a generation that starts having children a decade behind schedule loses ground it never recovers.
- Buy improved marriage candidates from matchmakers when they appear in your houses. Better attributes in a spouse show up in every descendant, which makes it one of the few purchases that compounds.
- Buy troop materials at Exchanges and take the cheapest grade available. Strengthening fief troops through local sources costs noticeably more for the same result.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Filling the estate with housing because it is affordable, then finding the monthly income never grows.
- Converting gold ingots to coins the moment they arrive rather than waiting for the exchange rate to swing toward 12,000.
- Neglecting Writing across an entire generation and locking the clan out of the ingot salaries that officialdom pays.
- Letting fief discontent climb past 70 while campaigning, and losing the territory to rebellion.
- Leaving heirs unmarried into their twenties, which pushes each subsequent generation later and shrinks the family tree.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is House of Legacy finished?
No. S3 Studio released it into Early Access through Thermite Games on 14 May 2025, and systems have continued to expand since. Treat any specific numbers as version dependent.
What is the fastest way to make money?
Smithies in high prosperity provinces with employees hired at the minimum wage of roughly 400 coins. Community estimates put a well-configured Smithy at somewhere between 150,000 and 400,000 coins a month.
How do imperial exams work?
A character with sufficient Writing can sit the civil examinations, with around 20 Writing needed to pass the first. Success opens government appointments that pay monthly in gold ingots, from roughly two ingots at entry level up to 20 to 40 at Minister or General rank.
What happens when my characters die?
The clan continues through their children. Family members marry from 18, produce the next generation and eventually die of old age, so the run is about keeping the family tree populated rather than protecting one person.
Can I lose the game?
The clan can collapse if it runs out of heirs, and fiefs can rebel once discontent reaches 70 or above. The officialdom system also allows decline as well as promotion, so a family that stops producing capable members slides back down the ranks.
More House of Legacy Guides
- House of Legacy Best Builds
- House of Legacy Tier List
- House of Legacy Walkthrough
- House of Legacy Beginner's Guide
- House of Legacy Tips & Tricks
- House of Legacy Weapons Guide
- House of Legacy Combat Guide
- House of Legacy Boss Guide
- House of Legacy Maps & Locations
- House of Legacy Crafting Guide
- House of Legacy Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy House of Legacy, check out these related guides:
- Sid Meier's Civilization V Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
- Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
- RimWorld Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
