How to get more food & firewood in Manor Lords

Food and firewood are fundamental resources in Manor Lords that'll help keep your settlement going and your population alive during the winter - so figuring out how to get more of each one is arguably the most important thing you can do.

Each one has a couple of different avenues that you can take in the game, but each one has its own downsides that you'll have to weigh up against every other plate that you're likely balancing.

How to get more food

There are five main ways to increase your food stocks in Manor Lords, but each one has its own benefits and drawbacks:

• Hunting wild animals (Meat)
• Foraging (Berries)
• Farming (Bread, Honey, Apples)
• Burgage expansions (Eggs, Vegetables)
• Trading

Hunting wild animals

Building a Hunting Camp will allow your villagers to start targeting wild animals - as long as you have at least one family assigned, of course!

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Zooming out on the map you should be able to see a nearby area with a wild animal deposit, which will be where your assigned workers will hunt. You'll also be able to see how many animals are currently in the area, and you can set a 'Hunting Limit' within the Camp's menu to ensure that the number of animals doesn't go below what you set.

Hunting will give your camp Meat and Pelts, with the former accepted as a food source. I found the Hunting Camp to be good in my first year, but I made the mistake of over-relying on it, and it became less viable as the years went on. I also accidentally wiped out a Rich Deposit in my second save, despite unlocking the policy that increases animal reproduction rates, as I had two separate camps with the same Hunting Limit so they might have accidentally overhunted between the four families.

Foraging

Something good to pair with a Hunting Camp is a Forager Hut, as this allows your villagers to collect Berries and eventually Herbs with an upgrade for your settlement.

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I found this to be one of the more reliable sources of food you can put into your settlements - although berry deposits will completely dry up in the winter so you'll need to have at least one fallback option or just a tonne of berries in storage!

Berries do have a deposit that can be depleted, but unlike natural resources or wild animals, this replenishes seasonally - even if you forage every single one. You can also unlock a Development node that increases the number of berries that are foraged, which is one of the best you can get in the early game.

Farming

While it may not have the quickest turnaround, farming can be a really good resource for food - especially as a secondary or tertiary source. You'll need to make sure that you're growing wheat in your fields, and then use a mill and then a communal oven to turn it into tasty bread that everybody loves! This cycle does take at least three seasons to enact though, so make sure that you've got a backup.

Alternatively, while not strictly 'farming' you can also unlock an Apiary through the 'Beekeeping' Development Module and provide a consistent source of honey for your settlement. This isn't too regular either, and you can only have two in any settlement no matter the size, but it's still great to have as a source of passive food.

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Finally, you can unlock the Orchardry Development Module to be able to place an apple orchard in your settlement, which lets your villagers collect the fruit. This is a once-a-year harvest like wheat for bread, and it will be reduced for the first three years as it grows - but this is definitely one to consider for the long-term health of your settlement.

Burgage expansions

Something that won't be an option immediately but can be helpful down the road is burgage expansions, which allow your villagers to grow vegetables or farm chickens in their back gardens - space permitting, of course.

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These also won't give your village a whole lot of food, especially if you only have a couple of occupied backyards, but it's once again a good additional source of food that'll help in the long run.

Trading

Finally, trading for food is the most reliable and consistent place to find it, although it comes at a literal cost, and can drain your regional wealth very quickly.

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You can either set up a Trading Post and have a regular and direct route for a specific food source, or unlock the 'Foreign Suppliers' Development Module which will add a food import stall to your Marketplace area. I'd personally opt for the former as you can control the amount and specific food type, and I also found that the market stall tended to become abandoned at certain points, leaving me low on supplies.

Both will definitely stretch your funds though, so make sure to export materials or expand your population to keep your regional wealth in the positive, as otherwise you'll be left with no money and no food - a dangerous combo.

How to get more firewood

Firewood is just as important as food in keeping your settlement going, but there are only two main ways that you can get ahold of fuel in-game:

• Woodcutter's Lodge
• Trading

Woodcutter's Lodge

Building the Woodcutter's Lodge is one of the first things that you should do after starting a new save, as it's the best way to consistently get firewood and therefore fuel your settlement.

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It does, of course, come at the cost of the surrounding trees - but I found that you gained more firewood per tree than something like timber, and therefore didn't provide such an extreme effect on the environment. Leaving just one family on the Lodge will get you more than enough firewood for the winter and beyond, and there were times when I had more than a year and a half in surplus.

Trading

While falling foul of the same issues as trading for food, using a Trading Post to get additional firewood can still be a good option in a pinch. It will take a little while to get going so it may not be ideal in an emergency, but it can be reliable as a supplement to your additional stocks - especially heading into winter.

I had so much that I was exporting some of it at certain points though, so if you focus on the Woodcutter's Lodge you shouldn't need to fall back on this as an option.

That wraps up everything you need to know to keep your village alive and working, but don't forget to also check out our dedicated Manor Lords homepage for more tips and tricks, like increasing your population and approval rating, playing the game on Xbox Game Pass, or you can even read my own glowing review.