Battle Brothers: Legends Starter & Troubleshooting

Guide
Discord Server Link: https://discord.gg/NGazDM
Legends wiki: https://legendmod.fandom.com/

Battle Brothers: Legends Starter & Troubleshooting Guide

Preamble

Installing:
Installing Legends:
Quick Notes:
Installing Patches
Mod Compatibility:
Alternative mods included or already done by Legends

Troubleshooting
Checklist for bugs

Settings and Customisation:

Map options & game settings
Additional notes:
Origins for New Players:
Adventuring Party:
Noble:
Crusader:

Overview of New Features:

Gender:
Gamespeed:
Dynamic Spawning:
Magic and Runes:
Dynamic Perk Trees:
Overview of Camping:
How to Assign Brothers to Tents:
Assigning Brothers to Tents to do Tasks: Repair, Healing, and More.
Surviving Your First Week:
World Economy and how it Affects You:
Attached Buildings:
How Do I Raise Wealth?:

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Preamble
This beginners guide will help you get started playing and learning about what Legends has to
offer. Legends touches almost every area of the game and reworks or adds in new mechanics
to give a deeper experience of Battle Brothers. This guide will go through the basic mechanics
you need to get started, and touch on the troubleshooting and general questions you may have.

It is also worthwhile reading the wiki as it covers many of the subjects

in this document already;
https://legendmod.fandom.com/wiki/Legendmod_Wiki

Installing:
IMPORTANT: You must have all of the non-supporter DLC. This includes: Beasts &
Exploration, Warriors of the North, Blazing Deserts, and Lindwurm. You will not be able
to play without all of these DLC. Supporter DLC such as the Fangshire Helmet DLC are
optional.

Installing Legends:
● Download either of the following files
○ The “Stable” Legends from https://www.nexusmods.com/battlebrothers/mods/60
○ The “Unstable” Legends from the #test-builds section of the discord
https://discord.gg/NGazDM
● Go to your Steam library and right click on the “Battle Brothers” game

○
● Click on the “Properties…” in the drop down menu

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 ○

● Click on the “Local Files” and then the “Browse…” button

○

● This should bring you to your Battle Brothers folder, now open the “data” folder
○

● You should see some number of `data_00X.dat` files, these are the games DLC. Copy
and paste your file `mod_legends_version_number.zip` here.

Quick Notes:
● Legends has the “mod hooks” built in, which many mods require you to use. This means
you do not need to add the “mod hooks” mod, and you will experience errors if you do.
● GOG Installations should be similar, you can simply go to your Battle Brothers
installation and find its data folder there.

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Installing Patches
What are patches and why do we use them?
Patches are small snippets of code or artfiles that fix issues in builds. They are normally very
small files that fix aspects of the game quickly without having to make a completely new build.

How do I use a patch?

Patches install the same way the mod does - you put the patch into the data folder alongside
the version of legends it was made for. You only need one patch at a time and it must but in a
.zip or .dat file, like Legends will be.

Can I use just the patch to play?

No. patches are in addition to the builds they patch, not a replacement of. You need the patch
and the build it patches to play as patches do not contain all the files of legends, just a few
fixes.

Mod Compatibility:
Legends overhauls much of the game and as such will conflict with most mods.
Mods will generally not be compatible if they edit the following:
● Recruitment
● Levelling
● Weapons/armour
● Perk trees
● Events
● Origins
● (And more)

While there are patches available for some mods, like Vazl’s “Animal Companions” or TaroEld’s
“Stronghold”, there’s a number of mods that are unlikely to work without a patch. Mods that add
music or have font changes, which is currently not touched by legends, usually don’t conflict.

Always check modpages for compatibility info. If you are unsure, visit the discord link above and
ask us there!

Alternative mods included or already done by Legends

These mods below are either included in Legends or are covered by a feature in
Legends, using one of the mods below will cause issues with your game.
● Sell loot for more
● Craft named weapons/buff named weapons
● 9 in reserve, more reserve
● Event frequency mod
● Weighted talents
● Recruitible necromancer

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 ● Bigger cart/cart ambitions/inventory ambitions
● Max resource increase
● More perks
● Common paints/craftable paints
● Tweak and fixes mod (most of these are incompatible, or included in Legends already)

Troubleshooting
This section will go over some steps you can perform yourself that will allow you to fix any
issues you have with legends.

Question: I get a black screen on startup.

Answer: this is mostly commonly caused by;
1) Not having the correct legends version
2) Only having the patch and not the whole mod for a version
3) Not having an up to date version of vanilla that works with legends

Question: I get lots of errors and crashes to desktop (CTDs) when playing
Answer: this could be multiple things, but it is most likely an issue with you not having the
needed DLC (see: Installing Legends), check you have all the DLC needed to play

Question: I get stutters when my mouse moves

Answer: Nvidia brought out drivers recently that caused this issue, to fix it, go to your options
and turn off hardware cursor. As of 22/8/21 this issue has not been resolved by Nvidia.

Question: Some ambitions won’t complete and some perk trees are broken.
This can be caused by heavy use of other mods that allow you to edit stats, perk trees, etc.
directly. In some cases this can cause save corruptions and softlocks, even if removed
afterwards. We cannot troubleshoot these issues.

Question: Some features in Legends aren’t working

Answer: This is normally a mod conflict, if you have one, if not, report it to the development
team on the Discord!

Question: I often get errors or infinite loading screens

Answer: This is normally caused by unzipping legends and attempting to run it.
Follow up question: But I zipped it back up!
Answer: Doesn’t matter, if you unzip legends you will break it. Delete it completely and reinstall
legends again.

Checklist for bugs

If Legends is not running, I should check that I;
1. Do not have multiple versions of legends installed

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 2. Have not unzipped legends or any of its patches at any point
3. Have the correct vanilla game version
4. Have the needed DLCs
5. Have legends installed correctly
6. Have checked my modlist to ensure that it is compatible
If the above does not fix your issue, come to the Discord and we can troubleshoot with
you!

Settings and Customisation:

Legends adds more layers of customisation to your starting scenario and world generation,
these can be somewhat overwhelming to begin with, but are very simple in function.

Map options & game settings

The first screen is similar to vanilla, with a few
additions.

Legendary is a new difficulty, which offers a

very high level of challenge for players who
want a brutal experience.

Legendary combat difficulty typically spawns

fewer units than Expert, however each unit is
stronger with new perks.

If you’re just getting into Legends it’s

recommended to start one combat difficulty
lower than you played in vanilla. E.g. “Expert”
vanilla roughly translates to “Veteran” difficulty in Legends.

The next allows you to alter your map

generation. These settings start at vanilla
values, meaning you can skip this menu if you
wish.

By default, Battle Brothers will attempt to

generate a map that resembles Europe,
with high amounts of land mass at the top
and oceans at the bottom. One side will
always be dedicated to a wilderness where
late game threats and events spawn, however
this can be either on the left or right.

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Map Width and Map Height: Currently locked, due to Blazing Deserts changing the state of
which the map spawns in.

Land Mass Ratio: A higher LMR generates a more pangaea-esque map. It will contain fewer
waterways and ports, and have a more cohesive landscape. Lower settings generate more
isolated islets, peninsulas, and shoreline.

Water: The amount of water on a map, higher water means more coastlines, while lower water
means less coastlines. A higher water generally also means more ports.
Setting “Land Mass Ratio” and “Water” too close to extremes can cause maps to not generate.
If you drastically change the settings here and can’t finish loading, try settings that are closer to
default for these two.

Snowline: This affects the Y-Value that snowline starts at. Setting this lower means more snow.

Settlements: Sets the actual amount of settlements on the map. Attempted to be spread
between the amount of Factions (Noble Houses) evenly. Lots of settlements can mean that the
map will be crowded and limit the amount of wilderness that will be generated, even though the
game attempts to place them 3-5 tiles away from one another.

Factions: The number of noble house factions present. The default is 3. Having more factions
will divide the settlements up more, which can be advantageous or a hindrance depending on
playstyle.

Unexplored Map: The map will be covered in fog, you must travel to discover more. Highly
recommended.

Decked Out Citadels: Guarantees that citadels will always spawn with armories,
weaponsmiths, and fletcher buildings. All the things map rollers are looking for.

All Trade Buildings Available: Forces there to be at least one of each trade or resource
building on the map. Including mushroom groves, cloth spinners, breweries, etc.

Show Entire Map: Debug option; lifts fog of

war and shows all roaming armies and
current encampments on the map. Resource
intensive and will cause performance issues,
not recommended for actual gameplay.

The third and final screen will set up your

micro game options.

Battle Sisters: Dictates the type and variety

of female backgrounds in the game.

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Disabled will only spawn historically specific backgrounds, like washerwomen, widows, etc. The
specific setting will allow women and men to swap some roles, but still block them both from
becoming some backgrounds. All will allow women and men to be any background from the
game, with minor exceptions.

Dynamic Perks: Grants backgrounds a randomized perk tree. Many backgrounds will still have
a few guaranteed perks, such as Nuns and Monks with Fortified Mind.
Half of the perk tree of a background is assured, the other half is random.

Layered Armour: Puts layered armour and helmets into the game, increasing the amount of
choice and tactical flexibility you will have. This is a recommended option.

Equipment Scaling: Adds a minor scaling modifier to increase the difficulty based on the value
of your equipment. This is very minor until late game.

Distance Scaling: Camps and their patrols scale depending on how far out they are from the
nearest settlement. The further out a camp is, or its patrol, the higher the scaling. Only starts
once a minimum distance is reached. Fully optional.

Skip Camp Tutorial: Disables the camping tutorial of legends. If the tutorial is skipped you
receive all of the camp from day 1. If you choose to not skip the camp tutorial, upon leaving a
city you can “learn” something about your camp from there. E.g. you unlock and have an event
to read about the “Training Tent” in your camp when you leave a citadel.

Recruit Scaling: Recruits can be hired at higher levels, increasing based on the average level
of your party. This is generally helpful, but the cost of new recruits can rise substantially later in
the game.

Bleeds Count as Kills: Addresses the vanilla issue where kills from bleeding damage does not
award the player with xp or loot, recommended.

World Economy: Adds a dynamic and functioning economy to the game, recommended but
fully playable without.

All Crafting Recipes Unlocked: Shows all crafting recipes when at a taxidermist or crafting
tent. You will not be able to make them without the requirements, just view them. Optional.

Legend Magic: Adds more frequent magical aspects to the game. When disabled, magical
aspects will be there still, but much, much rarer. Optional, disabling will hide some content.
Disabled in current builds 15.0.1.1 and beyond.

Therianthropy: Adds beast forms and “were creatures” to the game. Each with their own
mechanics and playstyles. Optional, recommended off for a longer playthrough at the time of
writing. Disabled in current builds 15.0.1.1 and beyond.

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Additional notes:
● Settlements are only divided up by Noble houses, southern states are limited to one
settlement each per faction.

● Factions will not affect southern settlements, there will always be 2-3 southern
settlements per map. No more, no less.

● In rare situations, it is possible to have settlements not connected by roads or by ports,

causing some settlements to be cut off and hidden from the world. However, settlements
will always be accessible by some other means, like walking there.

● Since Blazing Deserts, the map sliders have become very temperamental if toggled. You
can get away with +10 or -10 or either side of each slider, but any more may result in
your map failing to generate. Settlement and faction sliders are unaffected by this.

● All crafting recipes unlocked can cause crafting menus to load slowly.

Origins for New Players:

While you can play any vanilla or Legends origin, some are easier than others and may help
you acclimate yourself a little more to the game. Below are some suggestions of which origins
are the easiest to play, based on player feedback.

Adventuring Party:
Six (6) commanders that are slightly weaker than their solo counterparts. A commander, seer,
assassin, crusader, ranger and berserker. All have their own strengths and weaknesses but
support each other very well, leading to a party that only has a weakness of being slightly
expensive early on.

The adventuring party showcases many of the new skills and styles of play in Legends, allowing
you to see the variation and changes quickly. This start is generally considered overpowered for
good reason.

Noble:
The Noble is a player commander who starts with 2 Footmen (shield users), a two-hander, a
servant, and an arbalester. All of which are well equipped and solid starting brothers. You start
hostile and in the land of a noble faction..

It is a strong start with a good starting bias and 6 total brothers. It offers a more “traditional”
Legends take on the “New Company” start. It is straightforward but may present a somewhat
difficult day 1, as you must evade enemy noble armies.

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Crusader:
The crusader is a lone wolf style of commander who focuses on fighting the undead. They have
very high melee defense and are typically focused towards heavy armour. Their origin bias
gives them an advantage against undead and a bonus to resolve. They are straightforward to
play with few complex mechanics but may struggle in the later stages of the game.

You will start with a single crusader outside a walled town, equipped with strong starting gear
and a few free perk points.

Overview of New Features:

Gender:
Gender plays a part in legends in a couple of
ways.

Firstly, some backgrounds are gender specific,

even with “all battle sisters” on. Backgrounds like
Shieldmaidens will always spawn as females,
whereas some backgrounds like Nuns are
identical to their male counterparts, Monks.

Secondly, female backgrounds have a natural

stat bias. Females will have -10 to health but +10
to fatigue, which may be a defining factor in
hiring a mercenary.

Gamespeed:
In vanilla, we appreciate that some fights can drag on for a long time. Specifically fights against
goblins, webkneckts and other small creatures that can spawn in large groups..

Legends solves this by giving you the ability to speed up or slow down the game to your
liking. To do this, go to your options menu and to gameplay - here you can change the AI
battle speed to something you prefer.
1.0 is the default speed, where you can safely do the dishes or fold the laundry while waiting for
the AI to finish its turns.
This option can be changed whenever you wish. So feel free to find a speed that suits you best!

On the world map, you may use keys 3 and 4 respectively to accelerate movement speed.
Be aware this will also speed up all other parties on the map.

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Dynamic Spawning:
Legends overhaul spawning. In vanilla, groups and strongholds were from fixed lists. In
Legends the spawns are procedurally generated; meaning you can get more varied armies and
encounters where possible. One fight you may get several thugs and a raider, another may
spawn 2 hedge knights and a leader - the possibilities are almost endless.

Magic and Runes:

Magic is a part of legends as a resource and strategic option. These can be divided into runes
and spells

Runes are attachments for weapons and armour that may grant bonuses like stat changes or
increase an aspect of a brother when equipped. Runes can be looted from specific enemies
(such as Alps), but can also be made through a specific background, the Vala..

Spells are skills that magic backgrounds can use in battle, magic backgrounds are varied and
provide different effects and uses.

Dynamic Perk Trees:

In Legends, perks are generated dynamically, meaning that some backgrounds may have a
selection of perks that splits from trees.

Perk trees are themed, for example, a brother with battleforged will always have brawny, full
force and other armour related perks. Backgrounds will have guaranteed perks in their perk
trees and will have other perks that are selected from a pool. For example a Fisherman will
always have Net perks, but may not always have the Heavy Armor perks, such as Battleforged.
There is a 1% chance any brother from any background may spawn with an additional random
perk tree.

There is a 50% chance a “hidden” tree will appear when hiring a background, which is always a
specific tree. For example, merchants can gain sling perks, but half the time that tree is hidden.

Overview of Camping:
For more information, use the camping tutorial in world creation!
Camping is a new mechanic in legends that allows you to repair, heal, craft and perform other
activities that you would do in a town anywhere you wish. In vanilla camping services as a way
to pass time, but in legends you can get tasks completed here to help your company, making
you less reliant on towns.

Depending on your difficulty, healing and repairing will be slower passively if played on veteran
or harder when not camping. If you have no scouts, your vision while camping will be nothing,
making you very vulnerable to ambushes.

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Hunting: Hunt animals and other game, provides raw meat that spoils quickly but can be used
in crafting or eaten on the road
Upgraded: Allows you to obtain better quality meat like venison or pork

Repairing: Repair equipment here using your current tools, if you have no tools you cannot
repair
Upgraded: Repair faster and more efficiently

Salvaging: Break down weapons and armour into tools, tools gained depends on the current
durability of what you are salvaging
Upgraded: Salvage faster and more efficiently

Healing: Heal brothers over time faster, additionally spend medicine to treat injuries
Upgraded: More efficient and faster healing

Scouting: Gain an expanding sightline from your camp. The longer you camp the more you will
see
Upgraded: Get reports at the end of camping where you can learn what has been happening
near to you.

Enchanting: Unlocks after obtaining a Vala (or anyone capable of runecraft), with the
appropriate skills a Vala can make runes here while assigned to the tent.
Upgraded: Better quality of runes and faster rune crafting.

Gathering: Look for wild medical herbs and ingredients. Provides medicine.
Upgraded: Better medicine gather rate, you may find other things like herbs and even potions
with the right brothers and skills.

Training: Gain xp per time trained, at the risk of an injury

Upgraded: Significantly less chance of being injured and a chance to gain 1 random stat point
per training session. 1% chance to gain a perk point per training session.

Painting: Change the styles and colours of items equipped on brothers, like shields, vanity
layers, armours, etc. This costs crowns.
Upgraded: No upgrade.

How to Assign Brothers to Tents:

1) Click on the encamp option, at the top right next to retinue members. The keybind is set
to “T” like in vanilla.
2) You will see a screen with a central tent and other posts around it
3) Click the middle tent, another screen will appear
4) You will see several boxes, each showing a type of tent. You must click on a box, then
click on the brother in the bottom bar you wish to assign them to.

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 5) Be aware some brothers will work better in some tents than others, you can see their
preferred tents by hoving your cursor over them. Characters will be sorted in the bottom
assignment bar by order of effectiveness. E.g. the character in the top left will be better
at doing that task than someone further down the list.
6) After you have assigned your brothers, exit the main tent and choose “camp” at the
bottom of the screen. You will complete the assigned tasks as needed.
7) To leave, click the encamp button again or begin moving, you will receive a camp report
of all activities completed and if you want to re-camp or start moving.

Assigning Brothers to Tents to do Tasks: Repair, Healing, and More.

The healing, enchanting, repairing and salvaging tents all have sub menus where you can
allocate tasks to brothers. To do this;
1) Go and encamp
2) On the screen with the large tent click on one of the smaller, individual tents
3) For this example, we will be using the repair tent
4) There will be a new interface of weapons in your inventory (left) and weapons to be
salvaged (right)
5) Click on weapons or armour from the left to add them to the right, take note of the
counters increasing at the top of the screen
6) The tools icon means your yield from salvaging all of the equipment. The day/night icon
is the number of hours this will take in total.
7) Exit from the tent
8) Encamp, you can see it working based on the count of salvaged tools increasing.
9) You can stop this anytime.
Be aware; you cannot treat wounds, salvage, hunt, gather, scout, train or enchant if you
do not have at least 1 brother working in that respective tent. However you may heal and
repair passively with no one in any tent. This gain is usually quite small and becomes less on
harder difficulties.

● You may buy tents from markets, however weaponsmiths, armoursmiths, etc. will almost
always sell their respective tent upgrade, but at a higher cost than the market.

Surviving Your First Week:

Depending on your origins and difficulty, this may vary for you, however there are a few things
you can do to make money and build up to a strong point in the game to play off.

1) Package contracts are mundane, but give you experience and gold, they rarely have
twists or dilemmas and are an easy way to not only get gold and experience, but also to
discover new locations.
2) Break down weapons and armour into tools using the salvaging tent, this will save you
hundreds of coins in the long run from not needing to buy tools.
3) With the right backgrounds and tents, it is very possible to become self-sufficient and live
off the land completely and without needing towns to resupply from at all.

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 4) Scaling is dynamic in legends, some encounters may be small, but impossible to deal
with. Lead enemies into noble armies or caravans to gain a numbers advantage.
5) Caravan contracts will give “well supplied” to their arrival location. If this location
contains weaponsmiths, armoursmiths or fletchers, you may be able to buy famed items
easily.
6) Caravan contracts will also unlock a higher chance of buying new tents from the market.
7) The market will always be cheaper than any dedicated store, you can also pick up mid
to late game weapons and armour here at a discount due to them being damaged.
Check markets before you check stores!
8) Expand your roster out to suit your camping requirements. Do you have a lot of
battleforged brothers? If so, why not invest in blacksmiths or ironmongers to aid in
repairing lots of armour quickly?

World Economy and how it Affects You:

World economy is a new option in legends that massively reworks how the world works. Over
time, settlements with a high wealth level can upgrade themselves, turning them from quiet
towns into bustling walled cities. Likewise settlements that are sacked often will have fewer
things to trade and less wealth. If a settlement is sacked too much, it can be temporarily
destroyed.

When a settlement is sacked, it can lose attached buildings, this will happen when it stays at 0%
wealth for too long. Likewise, settlements at above 100% wealth have a chance of growing -
becoming more fortified and gaining things like stores, training grounds, attached locations and
more.

Attached Buildings:
Attached buildings are things that produce for a settlement, like mushroom groves, furnaces,
vineyards, etc. Not only do they produce resources, they can also influence what kind of recruits
you may find there.

You won’t find many archers in the snowy north, but you will find them in forests where fletchers
are. If you see blast furnaces, there's a good chance of finding blacksmiths in their attached
settlements.
Attached buildings can be razed and rebuilt, but may be completely lost if a settlement becomes
sacked.

How Do I Raise Wealth?:

Raising wealth is simple; you need to keep the town safe and perform contracts for it. This
brings in money to the settlement and allows it to grow.

Selling trade goods to a settlement also increases its wealth.

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