King of Nothing

The starting king. Its deck has no destruction or gold cards: three troops, two support buildings, a tower, a level-up tome and a defensive enchantment.

Unlock: Unlocked from the start
Base card: Castle
Other 8 cards: 3 troops, 2 buildings, 1 tower, 1 tome, 1 enchantment
1.0 decrees: Men-at-Arms, Nativism

High-difficulty build

Castle plan (TomarEmerald, Vao, and Aevean in November 2026, who says it may still work):

Years 1 to 4: play Castle duplicates and Wildcards on the base and leave the other plots empty. Restart if the opening hand has neither, and spend no free re-rolls.
Year 5: re-roll the council for Development, which gives 1 Wildcard per empty plot, then play them all on the Castle.
Then put a Paladin in front, because damage buffs also raise its HP. Give it Steel Coat stacks and put a Blacksmith between Castle and Paladin to buff both. Gunpowder and the Mauler perk widen the boulder area. A Greed Beacon beside the Castle adds attack speed.
Perks: Ingenious x2 (+6 base levels), Castellan, Stubborn or Persistent for council re-rolls.

Troop plan (Matsuri, Aevean): stack Recruiter, the Soldier stat perk, as high as the board allows and play every Soldier on one plot. Raise unit count before damage, because a Soldier gains damage for each new unit. Farms add units every year and Men-at-Arms doubles them. Aevean instead keeps a Soldier or Paladin at level 1 and re-rolls for Freshmen, which triples all stats of level-1 troops (up to 3 times).

Enemies: avoid Blood, whose Bombers break the front line, and Stone where possible. Fight Progress early for Overhaul. Three independent players call Nothing the most consistent king; the Castle plan has three sources and the troop plan two.

From Builds for every king, where the player guides behind each plan are listed. Run plan for all kings: How to beat King difficulty.

Deck: 9 cards

The first card is the base. You start a run with the base and 3 random cards from this deck.

Castle
Base
Hurls a stone projectile at your enemies.
Soldier
Troop
Balanced melee warrior. Gains damage for each new unit.
Paladin
Troop
Melee tank. Damage buffs also increase its HP.
Archer
Troop
Deals weak but fast ranged damage.
Farm
Building
Every year, adds 1 unit to one adjacent troop per level.
Blacksmith
Building
Every year, adds damage to adjacent plots (+2% per level on the official wiki table).
Scout Tower
Tower
Shoots powerful single-target arrows.
Wildcard
Tome
Levels up target plot.
Steel Coat
Enchantment
Cancels the first hit the target unit takes every battle.

How the cards fit together

Farm adds 1 unit per level to one adjacent troop every year, and Soldier gains damage for each new unit, so a Soldier plot beside Farms grows on both axes.
Blacksmith buffs adjacent plots every year, so it pays off when it touches several troop plots: a centre plot touches four.
Wildcard levels up any plot, including another king's card you won in battle.
Since Patch #29 Scout Tower fires 3 more arrows per level (3, 6, 9) and Twinshot doubles Archer arrows instead of adding one.
Patch #30's Benevolent perk gives a Wildcard after each Jack of Rainbows battle; the Jack attacks twice per run.

Royal decrees

Decree	Effect	Limit
Agronomy	Gives you 1 Farm card for each occupied plot in your kingdom.	Repeatable without limit
Armory	All troops gain 3 stacks of Steel Coat.	Repeatable without limit
Development	Gives you 1 Wildcard for each empty plot you have.	Repeatable without limit
Fireball	Castle hits now leave a trail of fire on the ground that deals damage per tick.	Repeatable without limit
Freshmen	Triples all stats of all level 1 troops.	Up to 3 times
Men-at-Arms 1.0	Doubles the number of units of all your Soldier plots.	Up to 3 times
Nativism 1.0	Gives you 9 gold whenever any King of Nothing card is used.	Up to 3 times
Smith Tower	Scout Towers now give damage to adjacent plots and Blacksmiths now shoot arrow projectiles.	Up to 3 times
Twinshot	Doubles the number of arrows shot by Archers per hit.	Repeatable without limit

Perks

Perk	Effect per rank	Ranks
Agricultural	Start with Farm cards in your hand.	3
Benevolent	Gives you +1 Wildcard after every Rainbow Army battle.	3
Farsighted	Archers have +50% range.	3
Mauler	Castle boulders start with a larger attack area.	3
Protector	Troops start with Steel Coat stacks.	3
Recruiter	Soldiers start with a bonus to all stats.	3
Sentinel	Scout Towers start with extra arrows.	3
Stubborn	Start with free re-rolls.	3
Valiant	Paladins start with extra units.	3

Perk slots and ranks open with king levels. How perks and king levels work.

Guides for this king

Beginner guide: a first run with this deck
How to beat King difficulty: perk board, year-5 decree, enemy re-rolls and the year-33 battle
Unlocking kings: every unlock counter and how it accumulates
Royal Council decrees: how the decree offer is built and which pools it draws from

Card, decree and perk lists: game data for version 1.0, imported 2026-11-13.