Ni no Kuni 2 Tips: How to manage your Minapolis kingdom

Ni no Kuni 2: Fate of a Kingdom takes its title extremely seriously. Because unlike its direct predecessor, the game is not only a role-playing game, but also a building strategy - albeit a very shallow one.

In the course of Ni No Kuni 2's campaign, you'll found your own city, Minapolis, which you'll be able to grow from a small settlement to a huge metropolis throughout the game. In the following lines we'll tell you what you should keep in mind, how the construction mode works and how you can best get started.

Basics of the government mode of Ni No Kuni 2

When you sit down on your throne in Minapolis or press the displayed button in the city, you switch to the government mode.

The look of this mode is reminiscent of classic building games like Anno or The Settlers. Nevertheless, Ni no Kuni 2 is not a strategy colossus, the governing itself is very shallow.

In the menu you can see the six tabs "Expand kingdom", "King's treasury", "Material storage", "Talents", "Facilities" and "Research". However, only the first three items are important in this view - the rest only serves as an overview of your buildings, inhabitants and research results.

The material store contains all items that your city produces. If you build a farm, for example, it will constantly produce meat, eggs and dairy products. These end up in the warehouse, which you have to empty from time to time. After all, it can't hold an infinite number of products.

The cash register, on the other hand, is the foundation of the build-up mode. Unlike in the rest of the game, you don't pay for new buildings and everything related to them with guilders, but with crowns.

Minapolis generates crowns by itself - how many depends on the number of buildings and the expansion of the city. You can find more details in our separate guide to earning money. Therefore, you should regularly put the crowns into your pocket.

How to expand your kingdom

The heart of the build mode in Ni No Kuni 2 is the "Expand Kingdom" tab. Clicking on the button will allow you to raise your land. In doing so, you place buildings on fixed locations and assign them talents, i.e. employees.

Talents are your inhabitants who make themselves useful in facilities and make research possible in the first place. Pay attention to the special abilities of the people.

Aunt Martha, for example, belongs best in the Gnuffi kitchen. You will later have enough citizens, so you should only use talents if they are marked with a star in the selection.

At the beginning, you'll build four buildings: the Workshop, Magic Lab, Weapon Workshop, and Gnuffic Kitchen - that's what the campaign dictates. After that, you can build and expand the rest of the houses as you see fit.

Since expansions for existing huts are expensive, you should try to build all the basic buildings, especially at the beginning.

For every building you get influence points for the whole kingdom. With more influence you can, for example, expand your treasury and your castle and collect more crowns.

Besides, in Ni No Kuni 2 you can only expand your castle once you have constructed enough buildings and recruited talents. The latter usually happens via side quests in other cities.

Which buildings are the most important

Since you won't have many crowns at the beginning, but you'll already have plenty of materials, the Gnuffi Kitchen and the Magic Lab are the first choice. Only here you can level up your little companions and make them stronger. In return, you'll feed them with plenty of items. You can also create completely new gnuffis here.

In the magic lab, on the other hand, you can build spells. Evan's fireball can only be upgraded here in exchange for guilders and items, and that's what you should do. The effect in battle is also very quickly noticeable.

But the Pathfinder and the Barracks also make a lot of sense at the beginning. Because in the former you can not only expand your city camp, but also explore convenient improvements like faster movement across the overworld map.

In the barracks, on the other hand, and only there, you improve the skills for the skirmish mode, which makes it much easier.

What are the expansions for?

You can expand every building. Especially the castle should be expanded as soon as possible. The requirements for the first upgrade are: Recruit at least 25 talents and build at least 10 facilities. If you also have 150,000 influence and can pay 5,000 crowns, a new castle is yours.

The effects are enormous: Not only do you get a fancier Minapolis including a castle, but also 28 new places for buildings, which in turn means new research opportunities and more income. For example, you can build a main square for 25,000 crowns.

For regular buildings, the effect of expansions should not be underestimated either. This is the only way to unlock more places in the huts and thus be able to use several talents at the same time. This means more efficiency, which in turn means more crowns and thus more capital for new facilities.

Thus, you will gradually create a beautiful and increasingly important city. So building up Minapolis isn't just fun in itself - you'll also need the buildings and research in the rest of the game.

In addition, we'll tell you how to best enter battles in Ni no Kuni 2 and quickly gain experience in separate guides.

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