How to Increase Population in Elder Scrolls: Castles

Population count doesn’t increase on its own in Bethesda’s latest mobile game, Elder Scrolls: Castles. Just like in the studio’s previous mobile game, Fallout Shelter, couples will produce a child only when directly ordered to. But how do you create children? And what is the best way to Increase Population in The Elder Scrolls: Castles?

How to Increase Population in The Elder Scrolls: Castles

There are two ways to increase population. The first is to wait for new citizens to arrive at your castle. Citizens can be a reward for gaining levels or solving quests, and they can be found inside card packs. Better card packs and higher levels will give you better odds of finding a great citizen.

The easiest way by far to increase population is with “breeding,” as the game calls it. By building the Bed structure and assigning two characters to it, you will create a newborn with traits more or less derived from their parents.

A couple can’t have children more than once every 24 hours, which is one in-game year. Though it’s hard to say for sure, it seems like couples will always produce exactly one child, no more and no less.

The Best Way to Increase Population in The Elder Scrolls: Castles

Although The Elder Scrolls: Castles allows you to marry your subjects and even the ruling royal, this doesn’t limit breeding. That said, marrying couples with good synergy and then breeding them selectively helps avoid unhappiness and even murder. A character is free to have children with any other character as long as they are both between 16 and 64 years old.

Unlike Fallout Shelter, gender is not a concern, not in marriage or breeding. The only hard limit on breeding concerns direct family members (siblings and parents) but not cousins.

But which should be your go-to couples? You want a population with the best traits in the game, and parents with good traits are more likely to produce children with good traits. We have a whole guide on the best traits in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, but those are some of the ones you should be on the lookout for:

• Leader
• Headstrong
• Considerate
• Mighty
• Perceptive

Since there is a hard limit of 200 on population, you’re best off only producing offspring from good couples and banishing any adult with bad or mediocre traits. Of course, you should only do this once you’re approaching the population limit. Every subject is a good subject if they’re the only worker available.

One last thing to keep in mind is the age of your best couples. Especially when marrying two characters, a stable breeding couple should be of similar age. Ideally, you want them to have lots of time to try for a perfect child, banishing every failure as soon as they reach age 16. The Elder Scrolls: Castles is a cruel game sometimes.

That’s all for our guide on how to increase population in The Elder Scrolls: Castles. For more info about the game, visit our TES: Castles guide hub.