The King is Watching Guide | Quick Tips & Farming

This guide collects practical mechanics, recommended unit and advisor choices, a reliable method to farm Town Denarii, and prioritized unlocks to streamline progression in The King is Watching.

It preserves original tips and recommendations and reframes them so that the guide speaks directly to you: use these suggestions to tighten play, reduce RNG losses, and optimize denarii gains.

Quick Tips

Right-clicking on a square allows you to rotate your gaze in early gaze (this does not work at max level square shape). Shift + dragging will enable you to move structures; note that there is a minor penalty to production after a structure is moved.

Units may be chosen to deploy or remain in the barracks, and can be manually moved in and out. When selecting resource rewards, picking Flour or Metal can net significantly more Gold when sold on the market compared to taking straight Gold. Regular wells incur no penalty when moved.

Barracks Unit Picks

For the Levy Barracks, the guide recommends Swordsmen mainly as tanks for ranged units and Archery if the two-second stun upgrade is found, since that upgrade becomes extremely powerful. In the Veteran Barracks, prioritize Longbowmen and the Academy of Fire. 

For the Elite Barracks, aim for Academy of Lightning, Ballista Factory, Catapult Factory, and White Unicorn Field. When choosing upgrades, prioritize ranged damage, ranged health, and warrior health in that order.

Farming Town Denarii

The recommended Town Denarii farming route should be attempted after clearing at least difficulty 2 or 3 in the Swamp; performing it without Sophy requires more luck, while having Sophy unlocked makes the method easier and more lucrative. 

Play Village on difficulty 2: This is the easiest difficulty that includes the third boss and provides the run length needed to execute the method reliably. Expect to average between 100 and 250 Town Denarii per run using this approach. 

Playing on difficulty three or in the Swamp may offer small increases in denarii from prophecy rewards or Ankh trades. Still, the added difficulty generally reduces reliability and may not be worth the tradeoff.

To execute the method, rush a Forge and a Carpenter to craft furniture, then build a Furniture Shop and sell furniture for Town Denarii. This is the best way to generate an uncapped number of denarii beyond run-end rewards and Ankh trades.

Farming — Easier Method with Sophy

With Sophy, rush to the Research Table to unlock Established production buildings (such as Sawmill and Iron Mine) and then secure Forge, Carpentry, and the Furniture Store from Advanced production so that furniture sales can begin as early as possible. 

Early Wheat Fields and Gold Mines may be necessary to sustain troop levels and continuously upgrade your gaze.

Once the basics are in place, pursue a Fuel Pump to generate enough fuel to fill a full 6-cell gaze with Legendary tile enhancers; Legendary tile enhancers require six Kingdom Infrastructure research or can occasionally appear as prophecy rewards. 

Limit rerolls to one or two each time to avoid wasting denarii that may be needed for shop purchases. If the Legendary tile enhancer does not appear, the Epic enhancer or King's Statue are decent alternatives. Late in runs, consider using the Research Table to pick up some Elite Barracks to avoid unit losses.

A recommended advisor setup for this method is Julian, Fancy Beard, Zeus, Flunkey, Ember, and Sophy.

Farming — Without Sophy

Without Sophy, prioritize Advanced production during prophecies to roll for required buildings. Efficiency will be harder to maximize without tile enhancers, so expect slower or less reliable returns.

Tier Lists

S Tier: Sophy — grants more options at the Research Table and dramatically reduces RNG by allowing repeated fishing for desired buildings; this control over research and prophecies makes Town Denarii farming much easier.

A Tier: Flunkey (+10 denarii per wave) supplies enough denarii for frequent shop activity without sacrificing upgrades or artifacts. Zeus (1k damage to an enemy per wave) is extremely early, and when prophecies are selected appropriately, a single instant kill can clear a large portion of a wave. 

Ember (+2 musketeers at start) bolsters early production focus and can carry early waves. Fancy Beard (troops 20% cheaper and 20% production speed bonus) provides a consistent advantage, especially for replenishing troops against bosses like the dragon.

Gustav (5% increase in production) is a solid, consistent helper. Julian (Celebration to boost output) offers a cheap, repeatable production boost when used.

B Tier: Twins (+Basic construction) is decent early, but falls off. Silkweaver (random tile improved) is strong early but does not scale well. Felix (choose an artifact from the start) can be overpowered depending on RNG, but is otherwise unreliable.

C Tier: Wise Tree (removes wood, adds killing artifacts) is a niche experiment—removing wood can become a bottleneck late unless used with Sophy. Flunkey outclasses the accountant (+100 denarii) for most shop-focused strategies. 

Phoenix (7% chance of unit revive) is too low-probability to be reliable alone, but may combo with other effects. Jacques (20% discount on resources and buildings at the trader) only applies to resources and buildings (not artifacts or upgrades) and is therefore mediocre compared to denarii-per-wave options. 

Lyanna (+2 militia and giant militia to start) may be weaker than Ember, but could place in B or A depending on testing. Ether (+20% spell production speed), Angry Eye (+50% spell damage), Unicorn (+3 spell slots), and Wise Guy (3 spells at start) all perform better when pursuing spell-heavy strategies; some are RNG-dependent. 

Mushroom King (temporarily summons three mushroom warriors for 50 crystals) suffers from long cooldowns and temporality, though certain artefacts may extend their usefulness. Manager (increase base unit limit by 2) is a small but sometimes useful boost.

D Tier: Jester (+2 Wheel of Fortune) introduces too much RNG and is limited to functioning within the gaze. Automaton (+5 Tree and Small Wheat Fields) scales poorly, as basic production is typically phased out. 

Golem (10% cheaper buildings) is a minor saving that rarely impacts meaningful decision-making. Panther (10% unit level-up bonuses) appears weak without clear stacking benefits. 

Betty (removes wheat production buildings but gives 40 denarii per wave) is challenging to accommodate, given wheat dependencies for units and gaze upgrades.

F Tier: Branamir (+100 Castle HP) is rarely worth a slot unless paired with unusual gold-for-castle-damage synergies. Court Harpy (see upcoming bosses) is generally the least helpful advisor and likely requires reworking to be viable.

Unlock Priority

S Tier: Tile Seals, more building upgrades, Banish the Nobles (removes three noble palaces), King's Quests, extra advisor slots, and run-start bonuses are top priorities for progression and flexibility.

A Tier: Tile Enchanter, extra troop limit upgrades, additional Research Table copies, and more troop limit slots are strong picks.

D & F Notes: Playable kings are situational and belong lower on priority lists if they do not suit a chosen playstyle. Troop damage and troop HP upgrades that cost crystals, other advisors that do not contribute toward advisor slot upgrades, spell damage, and Archmage & magic ball-related buildings typically rank lower in priority.