Hello and welcome back to another Strat Gaming video guide. In this episode of The Ultimate Guide to Bannerlord, we are going take an in-depth look at the Steward skill: from how it works, to how we gain XP and finally how we can efficiently level it. And if you stick around until the end of the video, I’ll show you how you can convince your party to PAY YOU their daily wages! 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!
Of the 18 skills in Bannerlord, Steward has to be in the top 3 of importance, and probably even #1. It’s also one of the easiest to understand exactly what it does. Every party has a quartermaster and the quartermaster’s steward skill determines what the max unit cap of that party will be. Each level of steward gained adds 0.25 units to the max – TaleWorlds does not round this number so we will only see an increase every 4 levels. Starting out at level 4, we see 1 bonus troop all the way up to 328 increasing the extra troop number to 82. To put this into perspective, you get +25 troops per clan tier level increase, or a total of +125 by the time you reach clan tier 4. Most games end around tier 4 or tier 5, so around 125 – 150 troops extra. By leveling up steward to max, we can increase our party size by well over 50%, which will give us a decisive edge in any battle.
Let’s take a look at how XP is earned for Steward. There are 2 ways to earn XP for companions and only 1 for our main character. Both can earn XP as the quartermaster of a party with at least 1 troop and at 4 different types of food. Companions can also earn XP by being the governor of a city or castle. To start we will break down the quartermaster leveling data. With a single troop and 4 different foods, we will gain 6XP per day, earned at the time wages are paid out. We can increase our XP gain by increasing the number of foods we have all the way up to 23XP with 9 foods. If we increase our troop count to 10, we increase our total XP gain to 36 with 4 foods and 128 with 9 foods, but notice that the XP per troop decreases. There’s a diminishing return the more troops you have, but it does level off fairly quickly. At level 100, we get 336 and 1178 respectively and a per troop XP of 1 & 4. As we can see, past 100 troops the per troop XP essentially does not drop anymore. I also tested to see more expensive troops or foods would give more XP – but it turns out all troop tiers and foods are counted equally. 100 Tier 1 recruits will give the same XP as 100 Fian Champions. Having grain, fish, grapes and meat will give the same XP as having beer, butter, olives and dates.
We can also assign our companions to govern towns and castles that we own. They will earn XP each day as the governor as well as a bonus when any project is completed. I tested each of the continuous projects as well as different buildings and here are the results: Prosperity gained the most at 42.7XP per day and all other projects gave 21XP. When constructing any building, the XP gain was between 15-18XP. Project boosting had a tiny difference for prosperity gain XP, but no difference anywhere else. When a project is completed, the governor is awarded with 1000 bonus XP regardless of the construction cost of the building.
When it comes to leveling steward efficiently, there is only one way – be the quartermaster of a max size party with all 9 foods. Prioritize having all 9 foods over having more troops as food is generally very cheap and the XP difference from having 4 foods and 9 with 100 troops is 3.5x more XP! For example, leading 200 troops with 4 different foods gives 670XP per day, but leading 100 troops with 9 foods gives 1178XP – half the troops but nearly double the XP.
Now that you know the formula for success with the steward skill, let me show you how to screw it up. Or avoid screwing it up I suppose… Our XP gain is tied to the amount of food our troops consume. There are several perks in the game that reduce daily food consumption, which oddly enough reduces our XP gain by the same percent. Let’s look at some examples to demonstrate: The level 25 Steward perk Spartan reduced food consumption by 10%. If we normally earn 1000XP per day without any perks, we will earn 900XP per day once we take Spartan. The level 75 steward perk Stiff upper lip reduces food consumption by 10% while in an army, so if we have both spartan & stiff upper lip then our original 1000XP has now dropped to 800XP per day. I’ve listed all of the food reduction perks in the game for you to stay away from.
I know what some of you are thinking – Price of Loyalty is too good to not pick so you’re an idiot and I’m unsubbing your channel, uninstalling bannerlord and playing League of Legends from now on. You’re right – I am an idiot, but at least hear me out here. Let’s keep our original example going – we gain 1000XP per day. If we pick up the perk right at 275, we reduce our food consumption by 37.5% which instantly drops our XP down to 625 per day. On top of that, every level we gain after that reduces it even further, so at 300 food reduction is 50% and we are only getting half our steward XP! Let’s not forget, the highest XP multiplier in the game is 12.5x which starts to reduce by 0.125x per level at level 241, so your level progression will already be slowing down significantly by the time you hit 275. Still not convinced and thinking about playing League of Legends instead of Bannerlord at this point? Let’s go over a concrete example so you can see the difference for yourself.
We start with 10 attribute points into intelligence and 5 focus points into steward, giving us the max multiplier possible. At level 275, we test with 300 troops, all 9 foods, both with and without the final perk to compare. Without the perk, we need to earn a base XP of 1,985,755. Every month we earn 3511XP. Dividing that out, we get a total of 566 days (about 27 years) needed to go from 275 to 330. If we take the final perk right at 275, the base XP is the same, but instead of getting 3511XP we only get 2194XP because of the food reduction. At level 300, that XP will drop to 1756. It would take us between 1,400 and 1,430 days ( about 66 years) to reach 330, which is almost 3 times as long!
While I don’t think you should wait until level 330 to take the final perk, I do think there is an argument to be made for not taking it at 275. The max beneficial steward level is at 328, but I’m not sure it’s worth giving up all that money from the wage reduction for an extra couple of troops – so personally I would wait until at least level 300. This will give you an extra 6 troops in 65 days where taking the perk would take you almost 120 days to do the same thing.
We are nearing the end of the video and as promised, I’m going to show you how to get your army to pay you a monthly fee for the pleasure of serving under your magnificent stewardship! To do this, we will need to pick up a few perks. All wage reduction perk are calculated additively – meaning if we have a 5% reduction and a 10% reduction, our total reduction is 5% + 10% = 15%. In order to get our troops to pay us, we need to add up enough modifiers to get above 100% wage reduction, giving us a negative monthly expense – technically now called an income.
Let’s start off with the biggest ones and work our way down: Price of Loyalty at level 330 give 65% wage reduction. Efficient Campaigner gives 25% while in an army – which we can do for free with our own troops and 1 companion. Contractors gives another 25% for all mercenaries, giving us a legitimate reason to actually use mercenaries finally! Frugal gives 5% regardless of the troop type. If we add this up, we get a total of 120% wage reduction. An army of 300 Tier 5 mercenaries would normally cost you 3600 denars per day. With our god tier sales skills, we convince our mercenaries pay us 720 denars per day. If we have the level 250 steward perk master of warcraft, then our income will go up to 1620 when we are sieging a settlement.
The level 50 roguery perk Deep pockets gives a 20% wage reduction for bandits, so you could do something similar with that troop type.
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 down below. 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. Thanks again for watching and as always… I’ll see you… on the next one.
Tags: Bannerlord, Guide, Steward, XP, Experience, Leveling
