The Elder Scrolls: Castles - Breeding Guide

As you build the castle of your dreams in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, you'll need to fill it with subjects to work at vital stations to produce oil and food. Each of these subjects has unique traits, and aside from pulling new subjects to add to your population, you'll have to rely on the existing relationships to create a thriving community.

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Making children isn't too difficult, but you'll want to make the most of these interactions to create subjects with ideal traits and rarities. Here's everything you need to know about breeding your subjects to make the perfect collection of characters.

How To Make Babies In The Castle

The romance mechanic has more of a narrative element to it, but the short version is any two castle dwellers can make a baby. Whether they're married or not, a couple can create a child when assigned to a bed, regardless of their romantic relationship status.

When you assign the couple to a bed, you'll only need to wait a few minutes for the magic to happen. From enemies to lovers, all castle dwellers are capable of creating a bouncing baby subject with a unique personality.

Married couples and lovers will do the deed faster, as strangers will need more time to get to know each other.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind when selecting who the parents will be.

Breeding Limitations And Guidelines

While you can pick just about any two subjects to create a baby, you can unintentionally start drama in your castle. Whether this is your goal can impact how the parents react to the new child and how well others receive them.

Below are several rules around the breeding mechanic to keep in mind:

• Marriage is an option, not an obligation. A marriage is great for nobles who want to have legitimate children, but otherwise it serves little purpose. Children can be born from any two people in the castle, so long as they aren't related to each other.
• Affairs can lead to fatal consequences. Being married in the castle doesn't mean that a couple can only be with each other. They're free to flirt and romance others, though this will greatly impact their relationship with their spouse. Especially if there is an illegitimate child involved.
• Couples can only have one child per day. Even if you want to use your favorite subject to reproduce with multiple people, each subject can only have one child every 24 hours. If they have a child under the age of one, they aren't in any position to make another.
• Children cannot be banished. It's frustrating to go through the effort to make a child just for them to come out as a Common subject with a trait you didn't want. However, you can't banish them until they're 16.
• Age matters for parents. Subjects cannot be assigned to the bed until they're 16 years of age. They also cannot have a child if they're over the age of 65.
• Traits are inherited, not learned. If you want a child to have specific traits, you need to make sure that their parents have those traits. Of course, there's always the chance that a trait is randomly rolled, but it's better to be safe than stuck with a useless subject.

Familial ties influence relationships, and subjects must be far removed from cousins to consider a relationship.

Even second-cousins are too close for comfort for subjects.

How To Make Better Subjects

Better subjects can be created with careful selection. Higher rarity subjects increase the odds of having better quality children. For example, a couple made of two Legendary subjects will rarely (if ever) have a Common child. In many cases, they'll have at least a rare child.

You can also wait for Baby Boom events to occur so you can get a better chance at breeding higher quality subjects!

Of course, you can always try your luck with an affair baby with two random subjects. On occasion, this can result in a Legendary child being born. There's no guarantee that this will happen, but getting better subjects involves a lot of trial and error.

If you don't have many high quality subjects, you can purchase different packs and hope for the best. You can also complete events that offer Rare, Epic, or Legendary characters as rewards to add to your castle's gene pool.

Be careful not to overpopulate your castle, as too many subjects will leave you with a damaging food shortage over time.

Keep the balance between elders, adults, and babies for a smooth experience.

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