I have started this post to give a walk through of the different feature of the game for beginners. There are a lot of new player who have to go through the entire forum to understand all the aspects of the game. I will keep updating this till it gets complete. Would appreciate if the players can help incase i miss a topic.

1. Own Castle Interactions
   
2. MailBox / Letter / Inbox
3. Chat
4. Communities
5. Resources and Currencies
   
6. Building and structures
7. Castle Defense and Intelligence bonus
   
8. Lost Arts
9. Building units
10. Offense and Defense Strength
11. Player Stats
12. Feats of Valor
13. Map
14. Other castle Interactions (Raiding, Spying, Sieging, Liberation)
    
15. Counselors (Grand Marshal, Scribe, Lord Steward, Herald)
    
16. Settlements and Hamlets
17. Experience points and Player level
18. Leagues
    
19. Additional Features after joining a league
    
20. Privileges based on Ranks in a league
    
21. Influence Points and League Ranking
22. Achievements
23. Individual Player Ranking
24. Diplomacy
    
25. Beacons
    
26. Fortress
    
27. Heroes
    
28. Dragon Stone
    
29. Global Conquests / Contests
    
30. Battlegrounds

Let us start with the basics and then move into each topic in more details.

1. Own Castle Interactions

There are a lot of interaction points in the castle. Most of them are explained in the screenshot below.

We will briefly explain each of them below moving from the top and clockwise:

• Castle Name - This is where the name of the castle is displayed.

• Castle Coordinates - This is where the castle is located.

• Server - This is where the name of the server that you are playing on is displayed. Clicking on this will allow you to change the server.

• Full Screen - This will make the game be displayed in Full screen mode.

• Player Name / Link to Profile - This is where the name of the player is displayed. If you click on this, it will take you to the profile page from where you can see the list of your friend, accepting friend request, Changing password, Changing your profile details like Player Name, Email address, Password, etc.

• Sapphires Bank - This is where the number of sapphires you have is displayed. Details on the Sapphires in the Resource section of the post.

• Offers for Sapphires - These are the offer available to you to buy the sapphires. The offers are available after regular intervals and you can choose what you feel is best for you. Special offers during festivals / holidays are also displayed here.

• Other Game interaction - This is the most used portion / buttons in the game. Most of the main interactions are here. Naming all 6 of them from the top in order are - Black Market, Construction, Map, Lost Art, Keep / Training , League / League Fortress. All of them will be discussed in separate section elaborately.

• Castle Edit - The arrow button will enable you to edit your castle and move structure around.The + and - sign will allow you to zoom in and zoom out of the castle to change the view height of the castle.

• Wheel of Fortune - This gives you different discount offers for buying things in the Black Market using sapphires.
• Chat - This is where you can interact with other players in the game and your league. There are 2 chats normally:

                               1. Global Chat

                               2. League Chat

         Some player may also have VIP chat which is provided to some players who are selected to help in the VIP program to gather feedback on the game and are selected from the list of most active players based on a defined criteria.

• Castle Protection - This is a protection provided to players when you start playing. This is active for a maximum of 3 days from the time you start or unless you cross level 30 in the game, which ever is earlier.

• Battle Interaction - This is the shortcut battle interface. This will enable you to select the nearby player that you can attack or the player that you have attacked in the past. Details of this will be explained with screenshots in the upcoming sections.

• Item Inventory - This where all your usable items are displayed. This enables you to use special item that can help you get more experience points, make your troops stronger temporarily, automatically hide your returning or built troops, protect your castle and many more things. All Inventory item will be explained in the later sections in details.

• Quests and Event - The three buttons are where your Daily Quests, League quests and Quests from Lord Oberon are displayed. We will explain this in more details in the coming sections.

• Resources - This is where all the different types of resources that you use in the game are displayed. There are 3 tabs which change on clicking the symbol on the left of the Resource section, all displaying the different types of resources that are used during your game play.

• Inbox - This is where you can read all the messages that Lord Oberon or the players in the game send and respond to the players accordingly. You cannot respond to Lord Oberon in the game.

• Daily Reward and Paragon Status - 

• Counselors - These are the council members that help you provide reports during the various interaction in the game.

• Hero - The Hero enable the troops to be more powerful by providing them extra defense and offense bonus. We will discuss on the hero later in more details.

2. MailBox / Letter / Inbox

You can send letters to other players through the game message system. To send letters to your friends and Allies, click “Letters” on the user menu. In the inbox folder you will find letters received from your friends, Allies, and Enemies.

To write a new letter, click “Pen a Letter”. Choose a Lord from the list, type the text, and click “Send”. You can also exchange letter with other players by going to the map, placing your cursor over the player’s castle, and clicking the "Letter with Arrow" icon. Then simply enter your message text and click “Send”.

To stop receiving communications from other users, add them to your blacklist. Messages from users on your blacklist will be automatically deleted. Open the “Mail” window and click the “Block User” button (highlighted in green box) to blacklist a player.

3. Chat

You can send messages to other online players in real-time using the game’s chat function. To use chat, click on the Chat button on the right side of the bottom bar, on your friends panel. 

Highlighted in Red is the Settings Button, in Blue is the Regional Chat, in Green is the League chat button.

You can interact with other players from the Chat interface by clicking on another Lord’s name and choosing a desired action (Open Profile, Send Letter, Blacklist, Add to Contacts and Add as Friend ) from the pop-up menu.

From the Setting, you can select the things that you want to view in League Chat and Regional Chat.

4. Community

The Community comprises of 3 parts as shown below:

Support - This is where you can log a ticket for any issue. This will directly connect you with the technical team to resolve your issues that cannot be resolved from the Forum. The most frequently asked question are also answered there in details which might help you solve your issue.

Forum - 

Blog - 

5. Resources and Currencies

There are 7 type of resources in Stormfall; Gold, Iron, Food, Maranian amulets, Skull Runes, Soul Stones and Sketches. You need them to construct buildings, discover Lost Arts, enhance your troops speed or build time, buy special items and produce units.

The amount of Gold and Iron you can gain per per hour depend on the number of Townhouses and Mine you have for these Resources. It can be placed anywhere in the castle and it usually helps keeping all resource building together. The higher the level of the Townhouse and Iron mine the higher the resource production.A maximum of 5 of each Townhouses and Mines can be built to a maximum level of 25. Levels post 20 need Sketches to  upgrade.

You can make up for the deficiency of resources by trading Resources with other players or by raiding and sieging castles.

You can even request for resources in League Help. A maximum of 50k iron or gold can be received by a player per day from other players. However, the players can override this by send 50k resource from the receiver of the resource and cancel it as soon as the sender sends it. This will enable a transfer of a maximum of 100k resources.

How do you produce more Gold, Iron and Food?. To gain more resources, construct and upgrade Townhouses and Mines and resource buildings – such as the Forge and Dungeons. The amount of Gold and Iron you can store is limited by your warehouse capacity. Upgrade your warehouse to store more resources (once you reach the Gold, Iron or Food limit, you will see the “limit” word in red letters right next to the resource, upgrading the warehouse increases the limits.) Forge can be upgraded to maximum of level 7 giving a boost of a maximum of 40% on Iron Production. Dungeons can be upgraded to a maximum level of 5 giving a boost of a maximum of 25% on Gold production.

Food is collected from Farms. Build and upgrade your farms and the Spring of Life to increase the rate at which you collect Food.

The amount of Food you can store in your Castle is limited by the capacity of your Barns. Make sure you upgrade your Barn at the same rate at which you increase your food revenue or anything over your capacity will go to waste. (The same goes for your warehouse).

You also need Food to maintain your Units. Every military Unit in the game consumes its own set level of Food per hour. If you run out of Food, your will have to raid and trade to make more units. You can exchange excess Resources or Food at the market for Resources or Food you’re low on. Your friends and allies can also gift them to you. – or you can steal them from other Castles during Raids.

You can use Sapphires to temporarily boost your resource production for 1 or 3 days by 25%. There are also special relics which can improve the production statistics of your Castle (see the “Relics” section for more details).

The Barns and Warehouses can upgraded to a maximum level of 25 and 3 of each can be build. This gives you a total capacity of 389997 of Iron, Gold, Food or Maranian Amulets.

Additionally, Altar of Weor also provides a maximum of 25% boost on Iron and Gold production.The Altar can be bought using sapphires only. The best time to buy the Altar is when there is discount available on the Altar.

The other buildings will be discussed in more details in the later section.

Maranian amulets - Maranian Amulets are magical, enchanted items which allow you to summon the special type of Units - Vampires. When in possession of the Amulets, you are able to summon all types of Vampire Units - Seekers, Lost Ones, Priestesses, and Reiters.

To receive Maranian Amulets, you must first honour her by sacrificing Gold and Iron at the Altar of Mara.

Go to the Altar of Mara to begin sacrificing Resources in exchange for Amulets. The amount of Resources you choose to give is completely up to you. Honour Mara by sacrificing both 500 Gold and 500 Iron, and just 1 hour you will be rewarded with 500 Maranian Amulets. Mara will always reward you in the same ratio; however, selecting shorter periods of time will increase the speed at which your offerings are rewarded with Amulets.

Sapphires

Sapphires give you extra advantages in the game (these are considered hard currency since it can be bought using real money) .

You can also win them in Global quests and Feats of Valor rewards. If you are in an active league, you have more chances of getting more sapphires.

There are a lot of items that can be bought using the sapphires from the Black Market. The details of the items will be discussed in the later section.

Boost the rate of your building construction ,reduce the time needed to discover Lost Arts, and speed your Unit production.

They allow you to produce Imperial Units , Purchase Fortifications, Improvements, Revive units, Purchase Chest and Keys for Hero Equipment and purchase exclusive Units like Thieves, Legendary and Champion units and Wrath of Weor.

It is always recommended to buy items and boosts when there is discount. 

6. Building and Structures

There are several types of buildings in the game, and each is connected to a different sphere of your Castle’s life. They fall under the following categories: Military, Command, Resource, Improvements, Fortifications and Black Market.

Without some Buildings basic player interactions such as war, trade, and exchanges between Allies are unavailable. You will need to discover certain Lost Arts and produce resources in order to construct new buildings.

To construct a building do the following:

• Once in your Castle, click on the Constructions icon on the right-hand side of the screen (hammer icon) 
• Choose the desired tab (Resources, Defensive, Etc) and building. 
• Read the information regarding the cost and requirements for construction – many of the buildings require a certain Lost Art or substantial upgrading of other buildings before they can be built 
• Click build, choose a place inside the Castle, and start construction. Some buildings can also be constructed in designated areas within your Castle, they will be highlighted with a green frame. 
  

For example, Fortifications can be constructed only on the Castle Perimeter sections highlighted in Grey. The same goes for several of the Improvements that can only be installed on Gates and Towers.

Now we will take each building and explain them in details.

<-->

7. Castle Defense and Intelligence bonus

Fortification

The fortifications can be built from Fortifications tab of the Construction Menu. To Purchase Fortifications you need Sapphires. There are 2 types of Fortifications: 

1. Defense Building

2. Intelligence Building

Screenshot of Construction Menu

Screenshot of Fortification Tab

There are 5 levels of Fortifications and there are 6 types of Fortifications (5 Defense + 1 Intelligence) at each level each having different Castle Defense and Intelligence Bonus. 

The different types of fortifications are

 1. Wall

 2. Tower

 3. Gate

 4. Ballista

 5. Catapult

 6. Sentry

Walls, Towers and Gates can be placed on the perimeter of your castle. Sentries, Ballistas and catapults can only be placed on top of Towers or Gates. You can build a maximum of 4 Gates and 12 Towers, so plan your fortifications accordingly.

Upgrading Level 1 to Level 5 Fortifications or directly buying the Level 5 Fortifications have the same cost, so it does not matter if you directly put a Level 5 Wall or upgrade it slowly from Level 1 to 5. However, it is wise to keep buying Fortifications when you have discounts on fortifications that way you will have some bonus from the start. 

Castle Defense Bonus

The Castle defense Bonus works on the units that are defending the castle. The units can be your units or units from your  friends, league members and allies. All units in the castle will be getting the Castle Defense bonus. For every 100 Castle Defense Bonus your unit defense will be 1% stronger. 

The Castle Defense Bonus and Intelligence Bonus can be seen on the left top corner as shown in the screenshot below:

Intelligence Bonus

The higher the Intelligence Bonus the more difficult is for other players to spy on your castle but you have to remember to keep Silent Ones / Assassins / Succubus. The Intelligence Bonus will only work if you have related unit to use the bonus. 

The Intelligence Bonus can be increased by making Sentries. At each level of Sentry the intelligence bonus increases by 10. For every 100 Intelligence Bonus your unit defense will be 1% stronger. 

 Sentry

Note: There is a Feat of Valor for Fortification Building which can get you upto 50 griffins by making 100 Fortifications.

Improvements

The Improvements can be built from Improvements tab of the Construction Menu. To Purchase Improvements you mostly need Sapphires but some also can be got by using Resources. Improvements provide mostly Castle Defense Bonus. Some of them also provide other facilities like Sarcophagus which provide Souls which can be used to raise Wraiths. Few of the important improvements and their use are described below 

Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus which provide Souls which can be used to raise Wraiths. Wraiths are like free units which are best to use in multiple places like Saga Quest, holding Settlements, etc.

Summoners

These help in automatically raising your dead Immortals, Red Dragons, Hydras, Crusaider, etc faster. With each summoner you decrease the revival time by 5%. A Maximum of 5 Summoners can be bought which can decrease the revival time by 25%.

Crusaider, Belrathian Guard, Red Dragon, Hydra, Troll

These provide some defense and also Castle Defense Bonus. They only provide the Castle Defense Bonus and the Defense if they are standing guard.

The Improvements can be placed inside the castles. Refer to the screenshot below.

Some Advice - It is better to buy walls, fortification and improvements when there is a Wheel of Fortune discount.

More effective use of sapphires is when you discover level 5 walls and then start building them. This way you can build the walls when there is a Wheel of Fortune discount and will be able to spend the sapphires effectively. 

Upgrading a wall takes equal number of sapphires as directly building a wall / Fortification of the same level without any discounts.

8. Lost Arts

You must master the Lost Arts in order to access new types of Buildings, Fortifications and Units.

Construct the House of Scrolls to begin discovering new Lost Arts.

The more you upgrade the House of Scrolls, the faster you will finish discovering new Lost Arts. Discovering each Lost Art costs Gold, Iron and Food. The more advanced the Lost Art, the more expensive it is. The cost of discovering a given Lost Art will become progressively more expensive with each Mastery Level.

After a certain point you will find that you need to acquire a set number of Scrolls to unlock discovering on a specific new Lost Art. You will get a new Scroll from your Scribe every day you play, but you must have a complete set of specific Scrolls for a given Lost Art before you can begin research. For example, if you have 3/6 Scrolls for Runic Blades and 5/8 for Wyvern's Blood... you still can't discover either one. You can trade with other players for specific Scrolls you need... so in this case Trade 3 of your Runic Blades Scrolls for 3 more Wyvern's Blood Scrolls, then you can begin discovering Wyvern's Blood.

If you have discovered all Lost Arts that do not require Soulstones, you will receive a boost to your Gold and Iron production. Your boost will begin the day after you have discovered all Lost Arts. Once a new Lost Art appears, your boost will be placed on hold until you discover the new Lost Art; in which case the Boost will begin once again.

Scrolls

After discovering your first few Lost Arts you will need to begin collecting sets of Scrolls to unlock discovery of higher-level Lost Arts.

You will get a new Scroll from your Scribe every day you play, but you must have the complete set of Scrolls for a given Lost Art before you can begin discovery. For example, if you have 3/6 Scrolls for Runic Blades and 5/8 for Wyvern's Blood you will still be unable to Discover either Art.

You can trade with other players for specific Scrolls you need by visiting your House of Scrolls or your Market.

To exchange Scrolls at the House of Scrolls:

1. Open the "My Scrolls" tab at the House of Scrolls.

2. Select a Lost Art.

3. Choose the Scroll you wish to offer.

4. Click the "Exchange" button.

5. Select the Scroll you wish to receive.

6. Click the "Make Offer" button.

7. Go to the Market and open the "Trade Scrolls" tab to view the Offer you've created. You will also be able able to see when your Offer expires from this menu, and delete any pending offers you've made that have yet to be accepted.

To exchange Scrolls at the Market:

1. Go to the Market and open the "Trade Scrolls" tab.

2. Click the "Extend Offer" button.

3. Choose a Scroll you wish to trade.

4. Click the "Make Offer" button.

5. Set the "My" filter to view your Offers.

You can also gift Scrolls to your friends instead of Trading. You can do this in several ways:

1.Visit your Friend's Castle, click "Actions" and choose "Send Scrolls" to send them a Scroll.

2. You can also go to Map, find your Friend's Castle, and choose "Send Scroll" from the drop-down menu.

3. Find a Friend on the Friends' panel, click on the Friend's profile picture, and choose "Send Scroll" on the drop-down menu.

Whichever method you choose will open a window where you can select which Scroll you wish to send. Once you've selected a Scroll click the "Send a Scroll" button.

In order to view Offers from other Lords, go to the Market and set a filter (All, Available, Friends, or My). If your request is not found you will see an empty list. You can also use the "Looking for" and "Offering" drop-down menus to filter your search. 

Few other point to note - 

• Some leagues also have scroll banks that can help you with scrolls to boost up the lost art discovery of scrolls but providing you with additional scrolls every day.
  
• You can also buy scrolls from the Black Market, 1 per day. Always buy scrolls when there is a discount if you want to buy them using sapphires.
• Each scroll also have a resource value. Some scrolls can also be sold to obtain resources. However it is recommended to keep a few incase you want to set up a trade to get more scrolls from the scroll bank of your league.
• Always check within your league for scrolls first by asking for it in the league chat. This way the league players can also benefit and can help making the league stronger by growing faster.
• Always keep doubles incase you need to exchange the scrolls later for the ones that you need.

9. Building Units

10.Offense and Defense Strength

Each unit have offense and defense strength. To see the total offense or defense of the selected units you can see it at the bottom of the screen when you select the units for sending a siege or raid or to beacon or to/from the catacomb.

In Blue box - Offense unit strength or power

In Green Box - Defense unit strength or power

In Red Box - Quantity of selected troops

In Black Box - Speed of the unit and time taken to reach the target. (I was sending it to the Catacombs)

In Pink Box - Force Limit that can be sent to the target. This is calculated basis the food the unit consumes. Each target will have their own Force Limit which will limit the amount of troops and the max strength they can be attacked with.

You can also see the stats of the units when you click on the unit. Please see screenshot below for an offense and a defense unit.

The Marshal can see the combined strength (offense and defense) of all player in the stats. The Marshal can also provide the visibility to other ranks as seen fit. Most leagues have stats visibility till Captain some of them have it to the Commanders.

Tab highlighted in Red is the Statistics tab. Green box highlights the Statistics setting button, only visible to Marshal. The below shows how the statistics view can be provided to ranks.

11. Player Stats

<--continued-->