Stronghold Definitive Edition: Multiplayer Guide (2025)

This guide covers specifics on adjustable multiplayer settings, how to make alliances after the game has started, how to make a King of the Hill map without triggering a bug, how to set up teams so they are on the same side of the map, how to place iron, and more below. Please take a scan over the table of contents.

To see guides on economy building, or combat, reference: Stronghold Definitive Edition: Economy Guide or Stronghold Definitive Edition: Combat Guide

Multiplayer Settings[]

Free For All Alliances[]

To make alliances with players after the game has started, it must be enabled in settings. Only one alliance may be made at a time. An alliance is made by holding alt and clicking on the king of another player. The player is notified that you want to make an alliance. If the other player then holds alt and clicks on your king, you will be notified that you have joined forces and your units will not attack each other. You can end an alliance by holding alt and clicking on your ally again. However, if you and your ally are the only 2 at the end of a match, then you both win the game, no backstabbing required!

Tech Level[]

Adjusting the tech level determines what structures and goods are available to build and purchase during the game. There is no actual tech research in the game, but the tech level option controls what goods can be traded and what troops can be trained in a barracks.

• Low Tech: The barracks can only produce spearmen and archers. The Marketplace can only trade wood, pitch, meat, apples, spears, and bows.
• Middle Tech: The barracks can produce spearmen, archers, macemen, and crossbowmen. The marketplace can also trade iron, pitch, cheese, crossbows, leather armor, and maces in addition to low tech marketplace items.
• High Tech: All units are available. All goods can be traded.

The Engineer's Guild, Tunneler's Guild, Mangonel, and Ballista can be built in all tech levels. All buildable siege equipment are also available in all tech levels. Although these can be limited in single player scenarios, there is no way to disable these in multiplayer.

The map may allow the player to produce weapons for units that cannot be produced. For example, in low tech, the player can always make crossbows and leather armor, but these items cannot be traded or used to purchase units from a barracks. If peace time is enabled, you will not be able to open the barracks interface until the timer is up, thus it is important to look at the multiplayer settings before starting the game.

Starting Goods[]

Controls the amount of starting goods sent to each player's stockpile and armory. Each setting also depends on the tech level. Low goods setting gives no weapons.

Starting Troops[]

Controls the number of troops that are spawned at the beginning of the match. If peace time is enabled, troops will not spawn until the timer has ended. Troop count is also affected by tech level:

Starting Troops (Late Tech)

Few	2	2		2	2	2	1	2	2
Some	8			4	6	4	4	3	4
Many	10			6	8	6	6	5	4

Starting Troops (Middle Tech)

Few	2	2	2					1
Some	4	4	2					2
Many	8	8	4					3

Starting Troops (Low Tech)

Few	2	2
Some	3	3
Many	6	6						1

Other Settings[]

• Peace Timer: Sets the amount of time until players can attack each other. During peacetime, units cannot be trained and enemy buildings cannot be targeted. (0-60 minutes)
• Gold: Sets the amount of gold that player will start with (0-10000)
• Trading: You can disable the trading of food, weapons, and other goods
• Troops: Can be set to cost gold or free. They still require the appropriate weapons in the armory.
• Allow Auto-Trading: If auto-trading is on, you can auto-buy resources that fall below a threshold, or auto-sell resources that rise above a threshold. Configured by selecting the market.

Map Placement/ Setting Up Teams[]

Players cannot choose which castle they will spawn in on the map. Rather, the order that they join the lobby determines their map placement. When the map was made, the map maker could place various colored castles. The priority order of the castles is Blue, Orange, Yellow, Red, Black, Purple, Teal, Light Green as displayed in the image below. Players are assigned to castles according to their priority order, blue being the first castle to be filled, and light green being the last. Thus the host will always be assigned to the blue castle if it is on the map. In the image below, the blue castle is on the bottom right, the orange castle is bottom left, and the yellow castle is at the top. Thus the first player in the lobby is on the bottom right, the second player in the lobby is the bottom left, and the third player in the lobby is on top. It is difficult if not impossible at times to determine castle color from the map picture. Thus maps are designed to typically have adjacent colors on the same team. So to team a 2v2 match, the first and second lobby player should be on one team against the 3rd and 4th. This also means that maps intended to be 2v2 or 3v3 cannot be played 1v1 effectively, as players will spawn adjacent to each other.

If the player chooses a different color before the game starts, they will still be assigned location based on the description above. For example, if the host chooses to be red, they will still be assigned to the blue castle if it exists. Additionally, the color of their units on the minimap will be blue even though all their units in game will be red.

King of the Hill[]

King of the hill is an alternate game mode available for multiplayer. To win the player must reach an amount of points that can be selected in the lobby. Points are earned at a constant rate when one or more of a players troops are in a keep that is the capture point. No points can be earned if the keep contains troops from multiple teams. On game speed 40, every 1,000 points takes about 40 seconds, so a 10,000 point game requires one player to hold the keep for about 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

How to Create a King of the Hill Map[]

To Create a king of the hill map, you must select "King of the Hill" under "Edit Map Settings". The map must include an additional keep that will serve as the capture point. The lowest priority keep will be used as the capture point. However, using one of the first 4 colors (Blue, Orange, Yellow, Red) as the capture point may result in a bug where the capture point does not spawn, resulting in a normal game being played. A safe bet is to use Black as the capture point. Additionally, if you place any troops in the capture keep on the map editor, the keep will not spawn. Additionally, the capture keep will not spawn if it is within 34 tiles of a sign post. All buildings and units of the same color as the capture keep will be destroyed at the beginning of the game.

• TLDR: Use black as the capture keep and DONT place any troops in the capture keep or the keep will not spawn.

Map Design Considerations[]

Limiting Building Range/ "Tower Jumping"[]

In Stronghold, characters can only build initially within 29 tiles of their keep. However, walls can always be built next to adjacent walls and towers always be placed up to 9 tiles away from walls and other towers. If a map allows, a player can place walls and towers over the entirety of the map. To prevent this, the following map design techniques can be used:

• Sign Posts: No building may be placed within 34 tiles of a sign post in any direction. It only takes a 2x2 area to place a signpost, but you constrict a large area of building. However, this is the only option that does not limit troop movement. If a capture keep (King of the Hill) is placed within 34 tiles of a sign post, it will not spawn. However, other buildings may be placed next to a sign post in map editor and will not be deleted.
• Fjords and Marsh: No building may be placed on fjords and marsh, but troops are slowed when moving over them. Fjords and marsh must be 9 tiles wide to prevent "tower jumping", where towers can be placed on one edge, then on the other side.
• Rivers, sea, rocks: No building may be placed on these tiles, and troops cannot move over them. Again, 9 tiles are needed to prevent "tower jumping".
• Boulders: Only quarries can be build on these. Limiting building in this way, consequently provides more resources in the game. A game with too much stone often leads to an exhausting exchange of towers and trebuchets.

Note that cliffs by themselves are NOT a way to limit building range. Walls can still be placed adjacent and even connected with stairs.

How to place Iron[]

Iron can only be placed on the maximum elevation. After iron is placed, it can be lowered using "Lower Land" or "Min Height." Although an iron mine is a 4x4 placement, a minimum of 4x3 iron is needed to place an iron mine.

Placing Neutral Units on the map[]

All troops placed on the map in map editor without a keep of the corresponding color on the map will turn into neutral units that default to a yellow-brown color. If units were of a different color, they will become the same neutral color and will stop fighting. Siege equipment without engineers will become neutral even if its starting color keep is on the map. However, neutral siege equipment can be captured by any color by placing their own engineers in them. Any animals placed on the map will instantly die when the game starts leaving behind a trail of carnage and wasted meat. Don't place animals on multiplayer maps. Don't hate animals.