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Everyone who plays Bannerlord wants to rule over a kingdom, but there are some things you need to do first on the way to being King or Queen. Being a vassal allows you to finally have some influence in the world of knights and looters. As a Vassal in Bannerlord, you will have official influence over policies and fiefs in your kingdom. You have control over certain choices and events that you wouldn’t have as a lowly mercenary. It’s also a big step towards starting up your own kingdom if that’s something you’d like to do. If you think that you’re ready for that sort of responsibility then read on and find out how to become a Vassal in Bannerlord.

How to Become a Vassal in Bannerlord

A prerequisite for being a Vassal is first becoming a Mercenary. The whole process is quite time consuming, as most things are in Bannerlord, but this journey is at least a little more streamlined. It’s extremely easy to become a Mercenary, check out our guide on how to do that here.

Being a mercenary allows you to fight for a kingdom, but it doesn’t mean that you’re a lord of that kingdom. With each battle and other activities that you take on for the kingdom, you’ll earn renown and influence. The more you fight, the better known you’ll become, and that’s the key to becoming a Vassal. 

Quick Tip

It’s faster to earn the renown you need to become a Vassal if you have a war to fight on behalf of your chosen kingdom. Try choosing one that’s already fighting a war, because you’ll be able to join a range of battles and boost your renown gain by larger chunks in a shorter amount of time. You need 150 renown to become a vassal and it may seem like a huge amount at first, but trust us it’ll go by quick. Looters may only provide one or two renown per fight, but fights against enemy armies of one hundred plus units can provide almost ten renown! And those battles happen all the time when you’re at war!

Transitioning to Vassal

Becoming a Vassal is only possible once you’ve raised your renown enough. You should be able to tell if you’ve earned the correct amount because people will start to recognize you, and talk about your exploits on behalf of the kingdom when you talk to them. Note that you need to be Clan Rank 2 before you can become a Vassal, which equates to 150 Renown as we said above.

If you think you’re ready, head back to the lord that you spoke to in order to become a Mercenary, and say you want to be more. That lord will direct you to a faction leader, who will probably be out fighting a war somewhere. You need to go and find the faction leader and talk to them. If you’ve got enough renown, then they’ll allow you to become a Vassal. If you already know who your faction leader is, you can simply press N to bring up the very useful encyclopedia, find their name, and it will say their last known location. The encyclopedia is a very useful way to locate lords, companions, and settlements.

The Benefits of Being a Vassal in Bannerlord

A Vassal is an entirely new level of interaction with a kingdom. Say that you just captured a settlement, well now you can vote, alongside the other Vassals, to see who gets to control it. After your kingdom takes an enemy castle or town, you should receive a notification that a vote will be held. If you open the clan tab, a screen will pop up with a few different lords you can spend your hard-earned influence on.

You can spend your influence on yourself of course, but make sure to check the percentages. Don’t waste your influence if you only have 5% of the vote! If you do win, you’ll now be the owner of a castle or town. Congratulations! But don’t do too much celebrating. Owning a settlement is a lot of work, and odds are that the one you have just been given is on the front lines meaning it is a prime target for the enemy to take back.

Being a Vassal also allows you to call together an army. You’ll need to get lots of influence to do it, but once you do, you can have a strong force backing you up in every battle. By clicking on the three flags at the bottom right of the screen, you can call your companions (if they’re in a party of their own) or fellow lords to your side. It will cost influence and the army can only stay together for a certain period of time as noted by the ‘cohesion’ bar once you form an army.

By becoming a Vassal it means you have reached Clan Tier 2, and at Clan Tier 3 you can start your own kingdom. If you need help leveling your clan tier check out our guide. From there on you get to manage the said kingdom, and the game opens up even more if you can believe it. Simply getting to this point is half the time it takes you to actually start ruling a kingdom, so if you want that option without quite so much work, this is a great middle-ground to sit in for the meantime. 

So you’re a Vassal, what now?

The biggest part of being a Vassal is gaining influence, and control over the settlements that you conquer as part of the kingdom. You’ll be using your influence over the other Vassals to secure various bits of land to add to your holdings, all of which can help kickstart your kingdom when you try to get it off the ground. 

Outside of the pursuit of power and influence, Vassals are key members of a kingdom. They fight in battles against armies and lords in the field, and are expected to take part in sieges. When sieging a settlement you’ll be building siege weapons and using them to take down said settlement’s defences. It’s grueling work, but can be incredibly rewarding if the land ends up in your holdings during the political talks afterwards. 

We hope you found this guide on how to become a Vassal in Bannerlord useful. If you’re interested in more Bannerlord content, be sure to check out our other guides!