Settlements are areas of the game which a company can claim and control. If you are in a big company you can contest settlements. If your company own a Settlement then you can control taxes for different parts of the game such as crafting, refining, auction house and property taxes. Different lands have different bounces attached to them.

After server launches, you should be able to join a faction after roughly 30mins to an hour of gameplay doing the tutorial. But once you have joined a faction you can join or create a company at level 10. After joining the company you can go to an empty settlement and claim the territory. To claim a Settlement costs 100,000 gold at launch. So if you are quick enough you can claim a territory so be quick out the gates!

Once the servers are loaded and all the territories are claimed then the way you’ll be able to retake a territory you’ll need to declare war vs the opposing faction. You cannot compete against the company if it is the same faction as your own. Once the war has been declared then a random company will be chosen out of all those who declared war.

If you are quick enough and own territory then you have to pay upkeep. As a governor of a territory, you’ll be able to set taxes for housing, crafting, refining and trading. Also as you are in charge, you’ll have to decide which town projects will be active for everyone to work on. This can be worked on by people from other factions so it gets complete fast. These town projects can upgrade stuff like smelting levels so everyone that enters your settlement can smelt better weapons or resources. If you really wanted to big brain it you could get on comms with other settlements and all focusing on a couple of things to upgrade so it helps everyone progress quicker however we can’t see many servers doing that!

In order to stay in power, you will need to complete faction missions because it will reinforce your influence on the settlement. If you are sick of the company currently in charge and you’re in an opposing faction then you can declare war. To do this you’ll have to undermine the influence of the controlling company. Currently, there are 2 types of faction missions. There are ones for the peaceful goers which is PvE and there are the gladiators the PvP players. By having 6 actives quests you can quite quickly gain the influence to declare war! PvP quests will generally give better rewards.

Once you become governor you can appoint your counsel which can look after the Settlement whilst you’re AFK which let’s be honest probably won’t be for long but remember guys and girls even the most powerful people sleep so don’t neglect it! The council can look after the Settlement whilst your away and they have similar rights as the governor.

When the town projects are active, anyone visiting the settlement can look at the board in the town hall for missions to improve the settlement quicker which is beneficial for everyone visiting the settlement.

If your faction owns the territory then you’ll get global buffs so if you can focus on the ones with better rewards!

• First Light – Reduces fast travel weight costs from 5 azoth per 10 weight down to 1 azoth per 10 weight for controlling faction.
• Monarchs Bluff – Reduces fast travel distance costs from 5 azoth per 100 meters down to 1 azoth per 100 meters for controlling faction.
• Windsward – Increases the volume of items gained when gathering by 5% for controlling faction.
• Everfall – Reduces trading taxes by 5% for controlling faction.
• Brightwood – Reduces housing taxes by 5% for controlling faction.
• Cutlass Keys – Reduces base Azoth cost of fast travel by 50% for controlling faction.
• Weavers Fen – Increases coin, experience, territory standing and faction token rewards from Faction Missions by 5% for controlling faction.
• Restless Shore – Increases coins, experience, and faction token rewards from Corrupted Breaches by 5% for the controlling faction.
• Mouringdale – Increases coin and experience rewards from Expeditions by 5% for controlling faction.
• Ebonscale Reach – Reduces refining taxes by 5% for controlling faction.
• Reekwater – Reduces refining taxes by 5% for controlling faction.