This The King Is Watching Tier List 2026 – Beginner Guide gives a step-by-step farming route you can copy every run, and breaks down advisors and unlock priorities so you stop wasting rerolls. Read the Quick Tips to tighten your quality of life, follow the Farming Town Denarii section to stack currency efficiently, and use the Tier Lists and Unlock Priority to make smarter long-term choices.
Quick Tips — Small inputs, big returns
Right-click to rotate your gaze in early stages; it’s a tiny control that saves time and helps place buildings efficiently.
Use Shift + Drag to move structures when you need to reorganize; accept a small production penalty rather than scrapping progress.
Keep units in barracks until you need them; manual deployment lets you adapt to wave composition instead of burning resources.
When offered resource rewards, prefer flour or metal over straight gold because selling crafted goods (furniture, etc.) usually nets higher Denarii.
Regular wells can be moved freely without penalty; use them to optimize layout early.
Prioritize ranged damage and ranged health upgrades first, then warrior health—this order keeps your damage output and frontline survivability balanced.
Farming Town Denarii — A repeatable, high-yield routine
When to farm: Run Village on difficulty 2 for the best balance of time, boss length, and Denarii per run; difficulty 3 is possible but less consistent unless you’re confident.
Core buildings to rush: Forge + Carpentry → Furniture Shop. Crafted furniture sells for high Denarii and scales with repeated runs.
Early resource setup: If you have Sophy unlocked, rush the Research Table and secure Established Production (Sawmill, Iron Mine) and the Advanced Production tree (Forge, Carpentry, Furniture Store). With Sophy, you can reliably fish for required buildings; without her, you’ll depend more on prophecy RNG.
Tile enchancers and gaze setup: Aim to fill your gaze with Legendary tile enhancers if possible; Epic or a King’s Statue are acceptable substitutes. If you can’t get Legendary, focus on high production tiles that let you mass-produce furniture.
Advisor loadout for Denarii farming: Julian, Fancy Beard, Zeus, Flunkey, Ember, Sophy is a solid set—Julian for repeat production boosts, Fancy Beard for cheaper/faster troop cycles, Zeus for wave cleanup, Flunkey for constant Denarii income, Ember for early combat power, and Sophy to control research RNG.
Mid-run priorities: Keep expanding production and maintain troop levels so you don’t stall on boss waves; don’t overspend Denarii on vanity upgrades early—buy what directly improves production or opens new crafting recipes.
Without Sophy: Focus prophecies and picks that give you the Advanced Production buildings and tile enhancers. Accept that runs will be more RNG dependent and prioritize safety (more troops, basic production) over perfect output.
The King Is Watching Tier List 2026 – Advisor Tier List
S Tier
- Sophy — The single most powerful advisor for repeatability: extra research options let you fish for required buildings and remove crippling RNG. If Sophy is available, prioritize her above almost everything else.
A Tier
- Flunky — Passive +10 Denarii per wave is extremely efficient and compounds across a run, making shop choices easier.
- Zeus — One-kill per wave scales absurdly well early on and can trivialize early waves if you pick waves with fewer, stronger enemies.
- Ember — Extra starting musketeers reduce early-game pressure and let you focus on production rather than micro.
- Fancy Beard — Cheaper troops and faster production is a broad, always-useful buff that improves almost every build.
- Gustav — Consistent production increase that never hurts; good baseline pick.
- Julian — Repeated production-boost celebrations provide reliable short windows of accelerated output.
B Tier
- Twins — Good early for basic construction but fades as you unlock advanced production.
- Silkweaver — Helpful early when tile improvements matter most, but it scales poorly.
- Felix — Can be busted if you get an OP artifact; otherwise too RNG dependent.
C & Lower Tiers
- Advisors like Wise Tree, Accountant, Phoenix, Jacques, Lyanna, Ether, Angry Eye, Unicorn, Wise Guy, Mushroom King, Manager are situational or early-game only. They can work in niche builds but generally don’t outpace A/B tier choices.
- D/F Tier — Jester, Automaton, Golem, Panther, Betty, Branamir, Court Harpy and similar picks offer limited or fragile value and are usually avoidable unless you’re experimenting with a specific gimmick.
Unlock Priority — What to chase first
S Tier
- Tile Seals; More Building Upgrades; Banish the Nobles; King’s Quests; Advisor Slots; Run Start Bonus.
These choices directly increase your long-term efficiency and replay value—tile seals and building upgrades unlock scaling production, while advisor slots and start bonuses compound each run.
A Tier
- Tile Enchanter; Extra Troop Limit Upgrades; Extra Research Table; Extra Troop Limit.
These unlocks smooth out execution (tile enchanter) and remove bottlenecks (troop limit and research table).
Lower Tiers
- Playable kings and cosmetic or niche bonuses should be chosen only if they suit your playstyle; avoid troop damage and troop HP upgrades until late game when crystals are abundant. Spell buildings and archmage upgrades are typically not worth early investment unless you are specifically building a spell-heavy run.
Advisor/Unlock combos that win runs
- Sophy + Flunky + Fancy Beard — Research control + steady Denarii + cheaper troops = reliable, high-yield Denarii runs once you know the route.
- Zeus + Ember + Julian — Wave domination and production boosts; great if you want safer runs with less reliance on perfect lore or tile rolls.
- Tile Enchanter + Forge/Carpentry — If you land Tile Enchanter early, prioritize production buildings and furniture recipes to maximize ROI on enchanted tiles.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Rerolling too much early: It’s easy to burn Denarii rerolling for a perfect prophecy—limit yourself to 1–2 good rerolls per run unless Sophy is present.
Chasing rare tiles every run: Legendary tile enchancers are great, but don’t stall runs waiting for them; a good production layout with Epic or King’s Statue still farms reliably.
Underbuilding production: Players often skimp on early sawmills or iron mines to buy troop upgrades; this forces stops later. Prioritize a stable production base.
Ignoring troop sustain: Too many people focus on window-shopping for big items and forget troop upkeep; if troops die, you’ll lose runs regardless of how much Denarii you might have accrued.