Hearth and Hamlet Best Policies and Tax Rate Guide
Official Hearth and Hamlet policies cover tax, worker rules, and guard drafts. There is no verified best tax number yet. Do not copy demo policy tables into a
Last verified: August 20, 2026 — Hearth and Hamlet full release on Steam (app 4315040, launched August 19, 2026). Demo numbers are not treated as live data.
Official copy says you set laws and policies: taxation, worker rules, and city guard drafts. A 4-minute full-release overview shows Keep tax as Low / Medium / High, each listing gold vs goodwill. Happiness can be pushed to a 200% cap or into the floor.
There is still no single best tax number. Church Tithes in 1.0 footage was about −20% happiness for gold-per-population; several runs turned it off because the production hit was larger than the gold. Soup Kitchen (+10% happiness / +10% food consumption) was the policy they left on.
What policies are confirmed
| Policy family | Official job | Live-build caution |
|---|---|---|
| Taxation | Boost income | A sanitation income debuff can erase a tax bump |
| Worker rules | Keep morale / happiness up | Exact sliders are not yet confirmed |
| City guard drafts | Protect the population | Drafts still compete with food |
| Civic decisions | Change the character of the kingdom | Flavor plus systems; do not assume hidden multipliers |
Store page language is the source for those four families. Named in-game policy titles beyond that are not yet confirmed here, because we will not scrape a demo wiki into a 1.0 guide.
From Community Gameplay
- Soup Kitchen: +10% happiness, +10% food consumption, stays on while you can afford it. Early/mid runs treated it as nearly free because happiness is a production multiplier. (K full start, 1:17:02)
- Tithes: −20% happiness, plus gold per 15 population per second in one run. The runner compared it to the gold mine, turned it off, and called the spend a waste until happiness was already over the 200% cap. (Campfire Kingdom, 1:30:41)
- Keep tax sliders: Low / Medium / High. High tax is a real goodwill cost, not flavor. (4-min guide, 01:16)
- Happiness cap 200%. Once you are over cap, a −20% policy can be “free” because you still sit on 200% production. Before that, Tithes often lose. (Campfire Kingdom, 2:09; 4-min guide, 01:41)
- Immigration / growth policies later trade food + happiness for faster population. Turn them off when food security drops.
Tax without a magic number
Raise tax only if:
- Food is stable (people are not leaving).
- Sanitation is under control or you have road / Town Square upgrades queued. See Sanitation Guide.
- You are not about to pay a caravan send cost. See How to Get Another Caravan.
If gold is tight because trade wages are high, one medium-difficulty endgame player said it was better not to trade. That is a report, not a law. It means “max tax + max trade” is not a default.
Happiness / morale is named in the official feature list. The exact tax rate that tanks happiness is not yet confirmed. If people start leaving after a tax change, revert and rebuild food before you touch drafts.
Drafts versus buildings
Drafts are the policy answer to How Many Soldiers Do You Need?. Buildings are the Keep / walls answer. Research is the scouting answer. Pick the one that matches the next raid label, not all three at once.
Manor presentation (Lord vs Lady) is unrelated to tax math. See How to Change Manor Lord to Lady.
Sources
- Official Steam store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4315040/
- Steam Community hub: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4315040/discussions/
- Endgame fairness thread (trade wages): https://steamcommunity.com/app/4315040/discussions/0/588435430711624515/
- Tithes / Soup Kitchen footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQqbBSyw6-w
- Tax slider overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHLR1S-mdK4
Fan-made guide. This site is not affiliated with Phorust Studios, Runic Forge, Gamersky Games, Steam, or Valve; all game content and media belong to their respective owners.