Getting Started in Kin and Conquest

Kin and Conquest casts you as a Fox chosen by the sacred Evertree to climb a mountain overrun by the Evil Geomancer and his conjured fiends. The Fox Knocks built the game as an incremental idle action adventure: you guide movement and positioning while combat, mining, and loot collection happen in real time around you. This getting started guide explains how to play Kin and Conquest in your first hour, which settings to check, and how early choices in Blessings and the skill tree set up later floors.

The game is available on Steam and itch.io as a PC download. Released August 3, 2026, it supports mouse, keyboard, and gamepad input with several movement modes so you can play actively or more passively depending on your preference.

How movement works

By default, Kin and Conquest uses simple click-to-move: left-click a spot and your Fox paths there. Open Settings if you want a different feel. Auto-follow mode sends the Fox toward your cursor continuously, which suits idle-style play but can cause odd pathing near totems or tight corridors. Keyboard and gamepad options move the Fox directionally without clicking each tile.

Pick one mode and stick with it for your first run. Switching mid-floor disrupts muscle memory for dodge spacing covered in the Combat Basics guide. If you enable auto-follow, read the Totems guide soon—auto pathing prioritizes totems aggressively and can waste golden activations if you are not prepared.

Kin and Conquest Demo Gameplay

Your first hour loop

A typical opening session in Kin and Conquest follows a repeating cycle:

1. Select a floor and difficulty from the run menu. Hover difficulties to see what changes—higher tiers generally make non-boss enemies move faster, increasing pressure during mining and pack fights.
2. Enter the dungeon, engage enemies in proximity range, and break ore nodes when the area is safe enough.
3. Collect coins, essence, and level-ups. Each level offers a Blessing, a permanent run bonus such as Chain Lightning or other effects depending on what the game rolls.
4. Return to town when you fall or choose to extract, then spend coins on weapon upgrades and skill nodes.
5. Repeat until you can challenge the floor guardian.

The town hub can look busy at first. Recent versions hide irrelevant NPCs until you unlock their systems, which reduces early overwhelm. Focus on the weapon vendor, skill tree, and whichever shop features you have access to; other services appear as you progress.

Early combat expectations

You do not manually swing. When your Fox stands near an enemy, attacks fire automatically based on equipped weapon stats. Your job is positioning: move in for damage, move out before contact damage or projectiles stack. This is intentionally low mechanical overhead so incremental progression stays readable.

Do not face-tank packs. Kite backward, use choke points, and mine between waves when possible. The Mining guide explains why ore breaks are worth the pause even when leveling feels fast.

Blessings on level-up

Each level-up presents a Blessing choice—a major permanent bonus for that run. Options vary by run and unlock state, so treat early picks as foundation layers rather than chasing a single internet build. Offensive Blessings help clear packs faster, which accelerates leveling and coin income. Defensive or utility Blessings stabilize bad floors when weapon upgrades lag behind enemy health.

If a Blessing causes a brief hitch the first time it procs, that is often a preload issue the developers have patched for effects like Chain Lightning. Continuing the run usually smooths out after the first trigger.

Skill tree: Survival and Cunning

Between runs, invest coins into two skill tracks:

• Survival — thorns, shields, absorb mechanics, and other defensive tools. Patches have buffed this tree so defensive paths feel viable rather than purely optional.
• Cunning — haste duration, movement speed, and offensive utility such as multi-attack or critical bonuses depending on nodes unlocked.

Nodes unlock in tiers as you reveal more of each branch. Hold the tooltip button on a node for extended info when deciding purchases. You can respec for a coin cost if a path underperforms, but early Survival or Cunning commits still matter because floor difficulty ramps quickly.

Weapons and equipment

Kin and Conquest offers six weapon types unlocked gradually. You start with whichever melee option the game assigns and discover recipes for stronger gear per floor. Entering a new floor before upgrading can feel rough until you craft floor-appropriate equipment, though balance updates softened the spike so upgrades feel rewarding rather than mandatory.

See the Weapons hub for tier discussion, upgrade timing, and when Books and Staffs enter the roster.

Settings worth checking early

Open Settings before your first serious run:

• Toggle movement mode (click vs auto-follow vs keyboard/gamepad).
• Adjust Player Skill Opacity if projectiles or blessing effects clutter the screen.
• Confirm audio and language preferences—Kin and Conquest ships with broad localization on Steam.

These tweaks prevent misreading combat feedback during dense pack fights on later floors.

First-hour goals checklist

• Complete at least one full floor run on Normal difficulty to learn guardian pacing.
• Mine a meaningful stack of coins even if leveling tempts you to rush.
• Pick Blessings that either clear packs faster or prevent deaths you repeat often.
• Buy your first few skill nodes in one tree rather than splitting coins evenly.
• Upgrade your weapon once costs become affordable at the vendor.

Where to go next

After your first hour, deepen combat spacing in Combat Basics, learn ore economy in Mining, and prepare for guardians in How to Beat Bosses. The Guides hub lists every page if you want a structured path through Kin and Conquest systems.