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Reigns: Game of Thrones Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Cheats & Strategies to Unlock All Characters

Developed by Nerial, the indie game studio that brought us the hit Tinder-like, swipe ‘em up kingdom management games Reigns and Reigns: Her Majesty and published by the well-known brand across multiple gaming platforms, Devolver Digital, Reigns: Game of Thrones, a seemingly rightful heir to the award-winning HBO TV series, has recently been released on Android, iOS, and Steam. Although categorically a collectible card game, Reigns: Game of Thrones, like its predecessors, dwells more on the decision-making aspect of the game, and the stories that can possibly unfold as you struggle through varieties of challenges with each swipe you make. With the simplest of UI and gameplay that anyone can absolutely enjoy, being a fan of the franchise is not even a requirement to play and enjoy the game. If the Google Play Store ratings and reviewer comments as well as generally positive feedback around the web aren’t enough to entice you to purchase Reigns: Game of Thrones for $3.99, check out this comprehensive review from our friends at Pocket Gamer.

Reigns: Game of Thrones follows where the last season of the TV series left off and lets you play through a variety of possible future storylines of Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and a host of other key characters. Surrounded by familiar supporting characters as well, each decision you make can have an immediate effect or a lasting impact on one or several factions within your kingdom. To consistently ensure your survival and stretch your reign as far as possible, you have to make difficult decisions and maintain balance in your kingdom. As you make progress, you will unlock new cards, providing additional scenes, options, characters, and even abilities that can help you further in the game. With all that in mind, you not only have to consider each decision to address present concerns, as winter will come, and you need to survive through it all.

There are no in-game tutorials for Reigns: Game of Thrones. As easy as it is to swipe left or right to make a decision, the more challenging mechanics of the game, particularly the key elements to balancing decisions to maintain control across all factions, as well as acquiring the key cards to strengthen each character are left for you to discover. While this may not be that difficult for some, patience and memory retention are your best allies here. If you have not yet played any of the Reigns games before, be sure to check out our previous guides on Reigns here and Reigns: Her Majesty here as these will give you a basic understanding of how the game series works. As there are new elements present only in this new game, following our Reigns: Game of Thrones beginner’s guide can help you make better decisions and progress further to eventually unlock all characters, survive the winter, and finish the game.

1. Take Note Of Decision Points And Their Effects

If you went on and read our other Reigns guides then you already have an idea of what you mostly need to do in the game, which is to maintain a balance across all four factions namely: the Army, the Church, the People, and the Treasury. Maintaining balance does not only mean aiming towards satisfying the pleasures of these factions, it equally requires stern judgment to maintain power over each faction and not have any of them bask in too much satisfaction. Emptying out the satisfaction levels of each faction as well as maximizing them will result in catastrophic event (for you at least) and will result in a unique death scene to end your regime.

Over time, and considering that it’s hardly possible go through 2 similar playthroughs, you will encounter a lot of decision points that you have been at before and though each decision should rely on common sense once you understand what should work for and against each faction, some of the decision results are a little far from obvious and may still escape your sense of reason. As a concrete example, crafting more weapons will definitely be in favor of your army while it will put a strain on your monetary resources and negatively impact your treasury. Reopening the brothel may make the people happy and increase their satisfaction but for obvious reasons, it won’t put a smile on the church’s face, resulting in a decrease on your standing with them.

Related: Reigns: Game of Thrones Advanced Guide: Tips, Tricks & Cheats to Unlock Special Abilities and Finish the Game

There will definitely be a lot of choices you’ll make wherein the resulting impact will be different from what you expected. As such, be sure to take note of these situations so that when you encounter them again, you won’t make the same mistake. If you can, try to analyze as well and try to rationalize on which choices and actions lead to which results as that may also be useful as you progress the game with the same character or through any of the others. In the event that the information you have to remember becomes overwhelmingly too much, feel free to literally jot down notes.

2. You Can Preview The Effects Of Your Decisions

Indeed, Reigns: Game of Thrones is a touch move game so once a decision has been made, there’s no turning back. As each swipe may not only bear immediate effects, but lasting ones as well, be sure to carefully consider each action by holding the screen as you swipe left or right and check the dots at the top of each faction icon to determine if and how much they will be impacted by the decision you are about to make. Be especially attentive to the bigger than usual dots as these will have a great impact on the decision being made.

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Although the hinting dots provide you with an idea of which factions will be affected by the decision, it won’t spoon-feed you with revealing if the effect will be positive or negative. Additionally, keep in mind that the opposite swipe may not result in the opposite effects or necessarily have an impact at all. If you encounter these situations, then consider it as an additional hint as well to predict the kind of impact each choice will make especially if you are not certain of the outcome.

3. Take As Much Time As You Need

As most of your decisions in Reigns: Game of Thrones will affect one or more of each faction’s satisfaction levels, maintaining the balance becomes more challenging as you progress further in your game. Don’t be pressured too much on making snappy decisions as matters of the kingdom require careful thought and thorough planning. As there are no time constraints in the game that pushes you to decide on anything outright, be sure to read through the lines carefully and try to analyze the immediate and possible long-term aftermaths of each decision, especially if you are aiming to lengthen the duration of your rule over the kingdom.

Speaking about time as well, be sure you have enough before starting on a playthrough, as the game will only save your progress once you have reached the end of your regime; closing the game before reaching the end would therefore restore your data to the most recent death scene.

4. It’s Okay To Make Mistakes

One thing you need to constantly remind yourself about in any Reigns game is that it’s okay to make mistakes in these games. Specifically, in Reigns: Game of Thrones, making the wrong decisions at some points can reveal a unique sequence of events leading to a variety of new cards for you to acquire. More importantly, what you get out of these seemingly “mistakes” are highly valuable information or even perception-altering knowledge to help you deal better with the other characters on your succeeding playthroughs.

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As you play and go through a variety of situations, you will acquire more cards making each start of the game with the same character an almost unique experience compared to the previous playthroughs. Doing things differently regardless if you intrinsically agree with the decision or not can lead to a result which you may have never encountered before and as is with greatly managing a kingdom, Making good decisions may not necessarily be in favor of what you would want, but rather, what is truly needed by the kingdom. Though some may be against your preferences or perhaps even principles, keep in mind that these issues are what can be detrimental to effective decision-making especially as ruler who sits on the iron throne.

5. Unlocking The Other Eight Characters

The length of your reign in power is measured by moons in Reigns: Game of Thrones. After a few tries of the game, you may be able to reach 25 moons, which is the start of winter. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, then you know that this automatically means reaching the beginning of the end or so, as everything becomes more difficult since you will now have to worry about a grave threat, the white walkers, on top of every other thing you need to worry about within your kingdom. Considering that you have a number of decisions on your journey that has effects lasting through most of your regime, they may begin taking their toll on your kingdom very harshly during this point in time. You may be able to reach this point several times and still continuously fail. Don’t feel bad about it though, as the game is designed in such a ways as to give you just a taste of what the ultimate challenge of the game is about, surviving through the winter.

On top of additional requirements you need to unlock per character, you need to, of course, unlock each of the characters first. Although this feat is actually not that difficult, especially if you have a lot of time and patience, some are a little more challenging to discover more than the others. If after several attempts and still, you struggle to unlock one, a couple, or some of the characters, follow our guide below to finally be able to unlock each character and let them sit on the iron throne. As this will definitely contain spoilers, be sure to watch out for spoiler alerts we will indicate before each character you won’t easily unlock.

Daenerys Targaryen, the mother of dragons, will be the only playable character in the game at the start of your adventure. Regardless of the decisions you make and how long your reign will last, dying in any way will unlock Tyrion Lannister. Perhaps it may not happen on the first playthrough, but after some time playing Daenarys again after you unlock Tyrion Lannister, you will definitely encounter Jon Snow. There are no important decision points to consider here as regardless of what you do, Jon Snow becomes a playable character after your regime ends.

Now before we proceed to the rest of the characters, keep in mind that considering the number of cards you have in your possession, the circumstances or situations that need to transpire may come immediately or not as there are random elements at play in the game as well. As some the things we will be discussing below may not be as easily acquired, consider unlocking the remaining characters as a huge Spoiler Alert!

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While playing as Tyrion or Jon, Sansa Stark will randomly appear to you and will make a request to purchase wildfire. Doing so will result in a series of events that have different implications. Regardless of your choices later on, so long as you swiped affirmatively on the purchase of wildfire, Sansa Stark becomes added to your growing roster of characters.

Similarly, playing as Tyrion Lannister will be the key to unlocking Arya Stark. At some point during the game, one of your constituents will inform you about an assassination made against one of Cersei Lannister’s known subjects. Be sure to go with the investigation of the matter and at some point later on, 4 primary suspects will be put in front of you for you to decide which one is responsible. The only correct choice here is the Septon, and choosing him will result in Arya Stark revealing her identity to you. It doesn’t matter what you do or decide moving forward. Once your reign is over and you witness your next demise, Arya Stark becomes a playable character.

Play as Arya Stark as soon as you unlock her. Keep in mind that while playing as her, you will disguise yourself as Queen Cersei Lannister for the most part of your playthrough. In any case, there will be opportunities for you to meet the blacksmith. Once he tells you that there is an overabundance of iron in the kingdom and ask what should be done, order him to forge swords for your army.

The Master of Coins will interrupt and speak negatively against the blacksmith. Instead of agreeing with the Master of Coins, choose the opposite response and tell the blacksmith that you know him. Next to that, choose to say, ”You can’t fool me” and “Hot Pie sends his regards”. Any other choice within this situation will make him run away and you won’t be able to chase him wearing the queen’s clothes. On the other hand, if you were able to follow these decision points correctly, you will be able to ask the blacksmith to follow you somewhere private and reveal to him that you are Arya Stark. Regardless of what you do and what happens afterwards, you will be able to unlock Gendry after your death in your current playthrough.

Play again as Tyrion Lannister. At some point in your game Varys will inform you that that your sister, Cersei Lannister, has been found in Casterly Rock. Be sure to ask Varys to come closer so you can whisper your instructions on what you would ask him to do. It may take some time, but later on he will be bringing someone whom he thinks will be able to capture Cersi Lannister. Once you pay the person, it will take a short while to capture Cersei so be sure to survive till then. Put her in trial, and regardless of what you decide to do during and after the trial, Cersei Lannister will be a playable character on your next game.

Almost naturally, you would want to try and play as the mad queen on your next game, so go on ahead and play as Cersei Lannister. Don’t give in too much to the role-play element though and be sure to choose in the affirmative when Tyrion and Jaime comes to ask for your help to join the fight against the white walkers. Be sure to let them mine at the Dragonstone castle to prepare for the coming winter. A little later on, you will be presented with 4 choices and picking choosing Jaime’s portrait will trigger the “Retain Jaime’s Loyalty” achievement as well as unlock him as a new playable character.

At this point you will have all but the last character unlocked. Choose Jaime Lannister and regardless of the outcome, you will definitely unlock the Three-eyed Raven, Bran Stark, as the last remaining character to play.

Choosing the Three-eyed Raven at the character selection screen plays differently than the rest as there are neither right nor wrong decisions and instead, you’ll be treated to a few scenes seeing more raven icons after the other. Once you get back to the character select screen again, try and choose the raven a second time and read through the hints you need to decipher and follow to be able to survive the winter with each of the characters.

6. Surviving The Winter

Unlocking all the characters and being able to see the hints provided by the Three-eyed Raven brings you to a step closer in finally being able to stand your ground and survive through the more challenging aspect of the game, defeating the white walkers and making it through the long winter. In all honesty, this is no easy task. If you’re good enough to decipher the clues handed out by the Three-eyed Raven, that’s actually accomplishing a fraction of the hard part as you have a lot of cards collected in the game at this point, waiting for the right signs and circumstances to happen may still take a long while. As mentioned earlier that patience is very important to finishing Reigns: Game of Thrones, yours may be tested here as it becomes difficult to manage everything given the randomness of events transpiring. In any case, if you have played with each character enough times, you should be able to spot new scenarios when they pop up here as well.

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As there are unique requirements following the Three-eyed Raven’s hint that you must accomplish to ensure that you can defeat the white walkers and survive through the winter, jamming everything in to specify how to acquire each will take more on what we can cover in this guide. To give you a good idea, each character will have to unlock an effect by playing each of them again after the Three-eyed Raven appears and surviving until 25 moons of power is achieved to face the white walkers and defeat them. There are no proper sequences on which ending you should go for first. To cite an example of how this is done, we will guide you through how to survive winter with Daenerys Targeryen, so once again… Spoiler Alert!

Even at the first few times of playing as Daenerys, there will be a scenario where Lord Elrin informs you that a raven has arrived from the Eyrie and that your pet monster has destroyed a large part of their main keep. A lot of random events and scenarios may happen after this but play close attention when Tyrion begins to try and speak with you about Rhaegal. Be sure to have Maester Fredric conduct studies on dragons and later on he will discover that Rhaegar needs a rider. Sooner or later, you will meet Rhaegar up close and you can choose to look at him or touch him. By choosing to look at him, there will be an indication about cunning and wisdom (it sort of gives you a clear idea of who the suitable rider is) and you will be presented to choose from among 4 people which one should be the dragon rider for Rhaegar. The right choice here is Tyrion so choose him despite his reactions. This will instantly unlock the dragon riders card, and you will have all you need to defeat the white walkers and survive through winter.

As there are still a lot to see and discover from Reigns: Game of Thrones, we may revisit the game again soon to elaborate on unlocking the rest of the cards for the other characters. Hopefully at this point, though, you have a good idea of what you must do acquire the required cards to defeat the white walkers, survive through winter with each character, and see the true ending. If you have discovered something we haven’t mentioned in our guide, though, we will gladly appreciate hearing about it from you, so be sure to let us know and leave some comments for us below!