Overthrown just launched its full 1.0 release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Developed by Brimstone Games, this chaotic kingdom builder lets you play as a superpowered monarch who can pick up and throw literally anything in the world.
The catch? The game doesn’t exactly hold your hand.
You’ll get a brief nudge to build a Town Hall and some houses, and then you’re pretty much on your own to figure things out.
That’s where this guide comes in. These beginner tips will help you get your kingdom off the ground and keep it from falling apart.
Pick Up Your Crown First and Don’t Lose It
When you first spawn, you’ll notice a glowing crown nearby. Pick it up immediately.
The crown grants your supernatural abilities and defines your kingdom’s territory.
Wearing the crown gives your monarch a massive stamina boost that grows as your population increases.
Without it, you’re limited to a single stamina bar, making everything feel sluggish.
Here’s the critical part. If you get defeated in combat, you drop the crown. When that happens, your citizens lose morale and may start abandoning your settlement entirely.
A red crown icon will appear on your compass, so retrieve it as fast as possible.
Start With the Essentials: Town Hall, Housing, and Food
The game gives you a quick checklist to get started. First, build a Town Hall, then place some Townhouses to attract citizens.
Don’t build production buildings faster than you can house the workers who come with them.
Your next priority is food production.
Set up a farm plot and a Soup Kitchen as soon as you can.
Without food, citizens starve and abandon you.
Build outhouses too, since citizens need those and they generate fertilizer as a bonus.
A Sawmill is equally important early on. Lumber is the backbone of nearly every building in the game, and you’ll burn through it fast.
Master the Throw Mechanic for Faster Resource Gathering
The throw mechanic is what makes Overthrown special, and it’s the fastest way to gather resources.
You can pick up entire trees and hurl them into your Sawmill for instant processing.
But it gets even better. You can pick up the Sawmill itself and sprint through the forest. The building absorbs trees as you run through them, chewing up lumber at an incredible rate.
This same logic applies to other production buildings too.
Grab crops and throw them into your food production buildings for instant processing.
The game actively rewards you for using this mechanic instead of waiting for workers to do it manually.
Your monarch can also throw boulders, buildings, enemies, and even your own citizens.
If a villager is standing around idle, pick them up and toss them into a building to assign them to work there.
Keep Your Citizens Happy or They’ll Join the Outlaws
Citizen happiness is one of the most important systems in Overthrown, and the game barely explains it.
Your citizens have multiple needs including housing, food, and access to outhouses.
The tricky part is that citizens want variety in their food sources.
A single Soup Kitchen won’t cut it forever. You’ll need bakeries, butcher shops, bars, and other food buildings to keep happiness levels up.
There’s also a hidden range mechanic for citizen needs.
Each building only serves citizens within a certain radius.
If you move a Sawmill far away to reach a forest, the worker there may lose access to housing and food.
Keep essential services centralized.
Unhappy citizens will desert your kingdom and defect to the outlaws, making your enemies stronger while weakening your settlement.
Use the Research Tree to Unlock Better Buildings and Defenses
Progression in Overthrown is driven by the research tree.
Citizens generate Knowledge over time as they work, and you spend that Knowledge to unlock new buildings, tools, and upgrades.
Early on, prioritize food production buildings and basic defenses.
The tree branches into agriculture, construction, military, and advanced structures. Don’t rush straight to the flashy stuff like airships and cannons.
Each unlock also takes real time to research, so queue things up and let them work in the background.
The tree eventually leads to powerful military options like Ballista Towers, Mortar Towers, and the brand new Airships added in the 1.0 launch.
Some nodes have prerequisites, so plan your path carefully.
Prepare for Winter Before It Arrives
Overthrown uses a seasonal system where each season lasts five in-game days.
Spring, Summer, and Fall are productive seasons. Winter is a completely different story.
Crops do not grow during winter. If you haven’t stockpiled enough food before the cold hits, your citizens will starve. Berry bushes and apple trees produce fruit daily during Summer, so take full advantage of the warmer months.
Be careful about where you place polluting buildings like workshops.
If they’re too close to farmland, the soil turns barren. Keep industrial buildings separated from agricultural areas.
Start preparing for winter as soon as Fall begins. Make sure food production is fully staffed and farms are planted.
Build Walls and Defenses Before the Raids Hit
Outlaw raids are one of the biggest threats in Overthrown. Bandits attack seasonally, and if you’re not prepared, they can wipe out buildings and citizens fast.
Start building defenses early.
Use your shovel to build dirt walls or research castle blocks for sturdier fortifications.
Place Hunting Towers on top of walls so archers can fire on approaching enemies.
As you progress, you’ll unlock Ballista Towers, Mortar Towers, and Cannon Towers for both ground and aerial threats.
Military barracks let you recruit soldiers who defend your settlement automatically.
One of the best strategies is to go on the offensive. Clear out bandit camps before the end of the season. No outlaws means no raid.
The 1.0 Airship Update also adds new enemy types: Scrappers who repair defenses, armored Ringleaders, and Firestarters who sneak in at night to set your buildings ablaze.
Use Monster Nests to Your Advantage
Here’s a clever trick the game never tells you about. You can pick up monster nests like Tuskar spawners and physically move them wherever you want.
Drop a monster nest next to a bandit camp and the two factions will fight each other. You can swoop in afterward to collect the free loot without breaking a sweat.
This strategy is incredibly useful in the early game when your defenses aren’t strong enough to handle bandit camps head-on.
Just be careful not to place those nests too close to your own settlement.
Don’t Ignore Ore Deposits and Clay Sources
As your kingdom expands, you’ll need ore and clay for advanced structures, weapons, and research. These resources are found at fixed locations marked with pickaxe icons on your map.
This means you’ll need to spread your operations out across the map.
Place mines at the resource nodes and make sure workers assigned to them still have access to housing and food within range.
Clay is especially easy to miss since Dredgers are placed on the same nodes as Mines.
If you line up buildings carefully, you can sometimes fit both on the same resource vein.
Combat Tips: Fight Smart, Not Reckless
Combat in Overthrown plays out like a fast-paced action game.
Your monarch can equip a Sword, Greatsword, Greathammer, Spear, and Shield. Fighting enemies levels you up, increasing your strength and HP over time.
The charge run is one of your most powerful tools. Sprint at full speed to run across the surface of water, close gaps on enemies, or lead into a devastating charge attack.
The spin attack is another standout move. Spin fast enough and you’ll launch yourself into the air like a helicopter, then crash down on enemies from above. It’s ridiculous and incredibly effective.
Don’t forget that you can throw anything at enemies too.
Boulders, trees, entire buildings. When bandits have you surrounded, sometimes the best move is to pick up the nearest heavy object and send it flying.
Explore the Map Early and Scout for Resources
Your monarch is absurdly fast.
Use that speed to explore the map early before you commit to a settlement location.
Take note of where the ore deposits, forests, fertile farmland, and bandit camps are so you can plan your kingdom layout efficiently.
While exploring, keep an eye out for Snappers near bodies of water.
These amphibious creatures are dangerous, and in the 1.0 update, they can eventually mutate into massive Devourers capable of eating entire buildings if left unchecked.
Co-Op Makes Everything Better
Overthrown supports up to six players in online co-op, and the game is much more manageable with friends. Split duties between building, combat, and resource gathering to keep everything running smoothly.
Only one player can wear the crown at a time. The crown bearer gets the full stamina buff and monarch powers, while others are stuck with a single stamina bar. Coordinate who wears it and when.
Co-op is especially helpful during raids when enemies attack from multiple directions.
Having one player defend while another intercepts attackers makes a huge difference.
Overthrown is available on Xbox Game Pass and currently discounted on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.
If you want a co-op city builder that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s well worth checking out.
–
Images in this article are from the Overthrown page on Steam and used under Fair Use.