Hello and welcome back to another Strat Gaming video guide. In this episode of The Ultimate Guide to Bannerlord, we are going do an in-depth look at Charm and Leadership: from how they work, to how we gain XP and finally how we can efficiently level both. And if you stick around until the end of the video, I’ll show you my favorite Game of Thrones-like strategy for taking over a faction and ruling with an iron fist! I’m your host Strat and I make Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord guides for YouTube so if you like that sort of content, I highly recommend subscribing so you don’t miss any future guides.
I’ve broken this video up into several chapters so if you’re following along you’ll be able to easily navigate through relevant segments. Check down in the description below for the time stamps. With all that being said, I hope you enjoy this guide and let’s get started!
- How It WorksOne often overlooked aspect of Bannerlord is relations with other Nobles and Notables. For Notables, it can mean the difference from being able to recruit 40+ high tier troops in a town or recruiting none. For Nobles, a higher relationship can net you a great marriage partner or even help recruit more clans to your kingdom. The charm skill helps maximize the effect of each relationship gain action taken. Charm is very simple – you get a bonus multiplier to the relationship gain starting out at 0.5% at level 1 and 150% at level 300. So at level 1, you might gain +5 relations with a noble, but at level 300 that same action would net you between 12 & 13.
- How XP WorksAnytime you see the relationship gain pop up at the top of your screen, you will have gained charm XP. Let’s take a look at all the ways we level our charm skill:(quick note – all relation gains here were done at level 300 charm, so lower charm skill will net you less in your playthrough)
- Clearing bandit hideouts – 40Xp and 2 relations with nearby notables
- Clearing gangs from a town – 40XP for 1st stage with +5 to gang leader you didn’t attack and -5 to the one you did attack. Clearing stage 2 you gain 880XP with -4 to attacked gang leader, +10 to rival gangs and +5 to the clan who owns the town
- Releasing Noble after a battle – 3 tiers: regular noble worth 80XP, 1600XP for clan leader, 2400XP for faction leader. 9 relation gain per release.
- Bartering with Nobles – An even trade will not give XP, but if you gift money or something of value you will gain XP. I couldn’t figure out what amount caused specific XP gains, but here are some of my tests so you can see a few examples: 1200XP for 500k,200k,71k, (8), 60XP for 10M,4k,5k,10k, (8), 720XP for 20k (8)
- The Ice Breaker perk level 25 charm gives 40XP when the event triggers.
- Saving a caravan or villagers from bandits gave mixed results, anywhere from 0XP up to 2400XP. They are hard to encounter, but if you see it happened It’s worth helping!
- Crafting orders gave 40XP
- Improving relation with clans in kingdom tab – 400XP for 50 influence (2-3) or 600XP if ruler clan
- Voting for policies when they are proposed – 800XP for 20 influence (5), 2400XP for 60 influence (12,15), 5600XP for 150 influence (35) If you are voting WITH ruling clan, XP goes up to 1200,3600,8400.
- Voting for fiefs – 2000XP for 15 influence (12,13), 3600XP for 50 influence (12+10), 7600XP for 150 influence (12+50). If voting with ruler clan, XP goes up to same, 4400,10400.
- Some final points before we look at quests:
- If you complete an action that would normally give XP, but you didn’t gain relations for whatever reason, you will NOT get XP.
- Proposing policies doesn’t give XP unless someone is voting with you, giving relationship gain.
- The same action completed will give 25-50% more XP if the relationship gain is with the ruling clan.
- There are over 30 quests in the game, all of which give XP. In order to make the data more digestible, let’s break them up into groups:
- First, quests from gang leaders:
- XP for each of these is quite bad, so if you’re trying to level charm just stay away. Gang leader needs weapons is decent for early game money. Fencing stolen goods is good for relationship gain.
- Next, quests from Notables:
- Once again, these quests are all bad when it comes to XP gain for charm. There are a few decent ones for early money like train the troops or manual laborers. For relationship gain, there are 4 that provide over 20.
- Gained merciful trait upon completing “find daughter” quest, but not sure if it was built up from previous quests as well?
- Finally, the quests from Nobles:
- Several of these require that you be at least a mercenary of their faction to even begin.
- As far as XP goes, most are decent – avoid lady’s knight out and Revolt. If you are lucky enough to get tutor, raiding enemy territory or capture enemy noble, take them! 6k is a huge amount of XP.
- Raiding also provides a huge reward at 15k denars plus 3k for each extra raid on top of the 3 they ask for.
- Capturing a noble and tutor also provide an incredible 38 relationship gain.
- How to Efficiently LevelWhen it comes to efficiently leveling Charm, there are 2 categories: before you become a vassal or start your own kingdom and after. When you are on your own or a mercenary, your best chances of leveling are noble quests or releasing clan leaders & faction leaders. However, it might be best to ignore that and get to vassalage as fast as possible. Once there, be sure to vote every chance you get – even if it’s the lowest tier for 15 influence. Voting for a fief for your clan leader with 150 influence will net you over 10k charm XP. If you have a 12.5 XP multiplier, you will have earned 130k charm XP with literally no effort. 130k XP is enough to go from Level 1 to Level 82, or 100 to 118. With the number of times i’ve seen faction leaders hog all the fiefs, you’ll be at 330 in no time!
- How It WorksIf there is one quality that every major historical military commander has in common, it’s got to be great leadership. The same can be said for Bannerlord. Each level of leadership provides an increase to our army’s morale as well as garrison size. We start with a base morale of 50 and increase by 0.1 per level. At level 300, our base morale goes up to 80. Unless you have all tier 6 units in your late game army, then morale is incredibly important to ensure your army doesn’t route before the fight is over.
- How XP WorksWhile leadership may be incredibly important, it’s also incredibly simple because there are only 3 ways to gain XP for it. You gain leadership XP for each prisoner you recruit starting at 2XP for a tier 1 all the way up to tier 6 giving 12XP. We gain XP for each troop under our command when our morale is at 75 or above – XP values are listed on a per day gain: 1XP for 10 and 8Xp for 100, adding 8XP for each hundred after that. The troop tier is irrelevant as I tested with Tier 1 through 6 and all results were the same. The final way to gain XP is through leading an army. Looking at the results of nearly 100 tests, we can see very clearly how XP gain works leading an army:
- In order to qualify, there must be at least 2 armies.
- An army can qualify if it has at least 1 person (the companion leading the army counts).
- Leadership XP is gained per troop and tier dependent. Looking at the chart, we see Tier 1 at 0.46XP per person per day all the way up to Tier 6 giving 1.79XP per person per day.
- Where the troops are make NO difference – they could be your personal army or all in a companion or all in other noble’s army.
- EX – I ran an army by myself with only me in my personal group and called in all available nobles from other clans and was gaining thousands of XP per day.
- EX2 – I ran an army with all troops in my personal army and solo companion. Then shifted all troops to my companion and ran solo in my personal, both XP was the same.
- XP gain is calculated on a per hour basis, not the usual once per day tick.
- Boosting army cohesion does not grant leadership XP.
- How To Efficiently LevelThe numbers are very clear here – there is one way to level leadership and that is to lead and army. Let’s look at two different scenarios so we can efficiently level early and late game:
- Get to vassalage as fast as you can so you can create an army. Give one of your companions half of their troop limit (if they can take 100, give them 50) and call them into your army. Once they are in, take all of the troops back by clicking on their portrait in the bottom right and inspect troops. You will now gain XP for YOUR troops that you would normally have and you aren’t slowed down any because your companion is solo and on horseback. It will cost you 0 influence to create and 0 to boost cohesion when it gets low. If you can afford more troops, let your companion recruit at each town or village you stop at and recruit prisoners (you can give them some as well). If funds are tight, limit their recruiting on the clan tab.
- Once you are established, have plenty of funds to support large armies and have plenty of influence, you will be ready to max leadership in no time. Your goal is to have as many troops in your army at all times as possible, with an emphasis on higher tier troops – Tier 3 are worth more than 2x a tier 1, tier 6 almost 5x a tier 1. Load your personal companion party’s up with as many high value troops as possible. Create an army and call them in as well as other nobles from your faction. Keep them in the army as long as you can. There isn’t much else to it than that!
We are nearing the end of the video and as promised, I’ll show you my favorite strategy for ruling any kingdom with an iron fist!
There are 2 parts to this: becoming the leader of the faction and controlling every aspect of the faction such as policies, fief ownership, etc.
- To become the leader of the factions is actually really easy to do. All you need is some sort of ranged weapon and be at least a vassal of the kingdom. Find the leader, follow them around until they engage in ANY fight. Join them to “help out”. Save the game before you go in because we have a 10% chance of success each try. Win the battle and don’t exit – go on a search mission to find the leader. Now pretend they have an apple on their head and begin your target practice. Once they are accidentally murdered, you will be voted in as the successor. I’ve done this countless times and have become the leader 100% of the time even without me voting, so don’t worry about influence.
- Controlling each aspect of the kingdom is a little bit trickier… You will need to save of lots of influence. Keep an eye on how much influence other clans have and periodically drain their influence by calling votes that they will participate in. If you have a couple thousand and the other members are in the hundreds, you will be in great shape. Start calling votes for things that others will vote on. If it costs you 200 influence to force another clan to use up 50 influence, then make sure you have at least 5x or more what they have. This will ensure you can drain their influence and then win whatever vote you want when they run out. I’ve done this before where I joined a kingdom to sabotage them – saved up tons of influence, took several towns, voted most of the nobles to be expelled from the kingdom, enacted lots of bad policies, then left with my fiefs and joined the actual kingdom I wanted to join. It may not be the most efficient way to play, but it’s hilarious and good fun! A couple points to help with this:
- Be sure to enact policies that REMOVE influence from everyone. As a human player, you will have a much easier time gaining influence than the AI. It’s much easier to remove 1 influence from you and everyone else at a 1 to 1 ratio through bad policies than it is to call bogus votes to burn their influence, but costing you 5x that amount.
- Towns with Forums are amazing, get as many towns as you can. At level 3 they give off 1.5 per day.
- Level 125 Charm perk “Champion” give 10 influence for winning a tournament. While time consuming, it can be a great way to stack influence without needing late game setups like towns or final charm perk.
- Level 275 charm perk “Immortal Charm” gives bonus influence per day. At 300, you gain 10 per day which really adds up quickly.
I want to thank you all for watching another Strat Gaming video guide. If you like this video please give it a like and subscribe. The likes really help out the video with the YouTube algorithm and a small channel like this one needs all the help it can get! Let me know in the comment section below what kind of guide you would like to see in the future. Up next we will be doing a complete guide to trading, so stay tuned! Thanks again for watching and as always… I’ll see you… on the next one.
