Wrath of the Righteous — Crusade management guide

So, you’ve just conquered the citadel of Drezen, but you’re far from finished with the campaign in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. We’re only at the halfway point, and we need to consider new mechanics as we defend the lands against the demon host. Here’s our Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous crusade management guide to help you with your base of operations in Drezen, your additional forts, the buildings you can construct, and the endless threats that assail you from all sides.

Note: For more information, check out our Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous guides and features hub. You may also take a look at our main guide for the game’s crusade mechanics.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Crusade management guide — Drezen Citadel, forts, and buildings

What’s new in Act III?

You’ll start Act III in control of Drezen. It will serve as your base of operations. Once you enter the citadel itself, you can click on the hand icon to see the new crusade management mechanics in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (some concepts might even remind you of Kingmaker).

Anyway, the first thing you’ll notice is that demon hordes can actually move and besiege settlements on the world map. That means we’ll need to prepare our crusader armies. We’ll be able to recruit new units based on the buildings that we’ve constructed, with more units appearing each week.

It’s also possible to receive new recruitable units and mercenaries based on decrees and events, as well as our chosen Mythic Path. You can see an example in the image below where I receive 600x Zombies and 600x Skeletons immediately because I chose the Lich Mythic Path. This particular option even adds these fodder units to the recruitment pool after winning battles (it’s like you’re raising the dead).

Constructing buildings so you can recruit more units

Speaking of buildings, you can construct these in Drezen and other forts or outposts (you can see an example of an outpost in the image above). Drezen has several building slots that you can fill up, though there are some options that are larger. As for outposts, they tend to be very limited.

Buildings take several days until construction has been completed. Some can only be built once and others can be built multiple times (the costs do increase). Try to be careful when plopping them down. Even though you can cancel the process, you’re only refunded a fraction of the resources that have been spent even if a day hasn’t passed yet.

Note: Don’t forget that you can use gold to purchase finance points and materials. These resources can also be obtained by winning tactical battles as per usual.

Morale changes

Morale has also undergone a change with the new crusade management system in Act III of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous:

• Banner of Victories – Same as before, this banner stays green for four days when you beat demon armies in tactical battles.
• Banner of Conquest – This adds 30 days where this banner would stay green as long as you capture new demon-held forts in the Lands of Yath, Gray Road, Lake Lost to the Sun, and the Wintersun Lands. Recapturing old forts won’t count.
• Banner of Defense – This banner will remain green as long as no fort is besieged by a demon army. It will turn yellow for three days, then red. As long as a fort is held by demons, this banner will remain red and cause issues with morale.

An endless loop

I’m not entirely sure if I encountered a bug or if this is working as intended. Basically, I had my crusader armies marching out of Drezen and it was besieged by a demon army. I only had weak garrisoned troops there which is why I knew I would lose.

I decided to see how things would play out if my units kept retreating. They all got wiped out and, to my surprise, another battle occurred. Again, I had weak troops, so I let them get annihilated. This went on and on, an endless loop of unwinnable battles. There’s also no way to avoid this since it’s Drezen, and I don’t think it’s allowed to get recaptured by hostiles. As such, always make sure you’ve got an army or two that can clear the way or defend it from invaders.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is available via Steam.