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The Fear Factor is a popularity mechanic.

Overview[]

Fear Factor involves building 'good' and 'bad' buildings for gold that influence your workers' morale, troop damage and your popularity in a positive or negative direction.

Good buildings make peasants more relaxed, as they spend some of their idle time visiting them, reducing their workforce efficiency but giving positive popularity in return. Bad buildings yield the opposite effect, making your workers deliver more goods, as these buildings constantly remind them of a looming threat, should they not be working. This makes you lose popularity however.

Mechanics[]

Stronghold / Stronghold Crusader[]

Fear Factor buildings come with considerably small footprint and can be built for gold anywhere on the map. They are available in the 'Town Buildings' tab.

The number of good and bad buildings determines the final effect on your castle, with one good building cancelling out one bad building. For each degree of fear factor, you need 1 building per 16 population. Note that flags and heads on stakes do not affect Fear Factor.

Troops gain red or green dots equivalent to the current Fear Factor above their health bar. This is different from those blue and yellow ones found at AI computer lords, who have a preset difficulty level. The Lord is unaffected by Fear Factor. The list of effect found below:

Fear Factor Troop damage output Production efficiency* Popularity
-5 -25% 150% -5
-4 -20% 140% -4
-3 -15% 130% -3
-2 -10% 120% -2
-1 -5% 110% -1
1 +5% 90% +1
2 +10% 80% +2
3 +15% 70% +3
4 +20% 60% +4
5 +25% 50% +5

* Positive fear factor further affects productivity by moving workers off of their normal routes, increasing travel time if good buildings are far away.

Stronghold Warlords[]

Fear Factor buildings are unique buildings with varying footprint, effect and gold cost. Each building affects a certain number of peasants, which improves with more expensive buildings. Fear Factor grants bonuses depending on their combined effect on the total population, with one degree attained for 20% of the population affected. Having both good and bad buildings cancel out each other's effect on one peasant.

Due to the fact that each good/bad building can only be built once in a skirmish match, Fear Factor has diminishing returns beyond a population of 41, making it somewhat unfeasible to employ, even early on. The list of effects can be found below:

Fear Factor Troop damage output Production efficiency Popularity
-5 -25% 150% -15
-4 -20% 140% -12
-3 -15% 130% -9
-2 -10% 120% -6
-1 -5% 110% -3
1 +5% 90% +3
2 +10% 80% +6
3 +15% 70% +9
4 +20% 60% +12
5 +25% 50% +15

Utility[]

Positive[]

Positive Fear Factor brings yields in two aspects: popularity and troop attack damage.

  • The popularity gain can be mainly used to obtain an extra tax rate or two, or to skimp on rations in order to squeeze more gold out of the peasants.
  • Idle workers gather around good buildings, making it easier for priests to bless them to increase religion popularity, as they do not need to travel as much.
  • The benefits of troop attack damage is obvious, boosting the overall combat power of troops present.

Negative[]

Negative Fear Factor boosts production rates, allowing conserving manpower and faster development. The surplus goods can also be converted into bonus gold, which can be invested in more resources or troops.

Gallery[]

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