Fastest Way to Gain Renown in Mount & Blade Ii: Bannerlord

In Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, renown is the most important currency in the game besides the actual currency. It is a measure of your character’s fame in the world of Calradia, and it affects how peasants, lords, ladies, and kings perceive you at a glance. Perhaps more importantly, elevating renown unlocks different tiers for your clan’s prestige.

Each time you go up a tier, certain game-changing perks are unlocked. Tier 2, for example, allows you to become a mercenary for established lords, which is vital for finding good battles, earning income, gaining favor, and establishing yourself in the early game. Raising tiers also lets you recruit more soldiers and companions, and at Tier 4, you can even create your own kingdom if you have a settlement. That said, the following covers the best ways to earn renown in Bannerlord.

Enter and win every tournament you can 

Each time you win a tournament 3 renown is awarded to your clan. This might seem a small sum, but it’s very useful when you’re at 47 renown and the next tier is at 50. It’s also an excellent way to enhance the grind between battles when you’re regrouping in a city between fights. You’ll thank yourself later in the game after you’ve toured the world for years winning tournaments if you’re skilled enough to reach the very top of the leaderboard.

This leads to a daily boost of 1 renown per day, and once it’s activated, you’ll see that number constantly going up even during times of peace. It may seem a small bonus, but considering there are 120 days in Bannerlord’s calendar year, you can imagine how that will contribute to much faster gains.

Fight Battles Against Tougher Opponents

Winning battles is the most straightforward way to earn renown in Bannerlord. Facing off against evenly-matched parties yields decent returns of 6-10 renown. If you really want to elevate your renown quickly, though, you’ll need to engage in battles where you’re outnumbered; the more the better.

In the early stages of the game–when your party is, say, 20 troops–you’d be looking for bandit troops of 35-40 to really test your mettle. You’ll lose some soldiers if you’re playing on the standard, non-easy difficulties, but the renown gains will be 15-20. 

Once you’ve reached the first tier performing mercenary work and joining armies will allow you to participate in some truly epic battles which are always good for renown.  It’s a gamble at the standard difficulty to participate in battles where you’re facing 1,000 troops with 600 but wins in these circumstances max out the renown gains at 60 or more.

Joining a large battle that is already underway leads to much smaller renown gains than initiating one, so the ideal situation is to find two large armies that are about to clash–with one of them as your faction–and engage the enemy with your compatriots nearby. You’ll get credit for starting the battle that led to glorious victory and reap the resulting renown.

Engage in Sieges Often

Taking castles is always the best way to maximize your renown, especially if you manage to do it solo. This tip is more for warlords who have made it beyond Tier 3 and can command larger forces. However, you can find opportunities to take castles if you pay attention to the tides of war. Whenever a computer-controlled faction takes a keep or settlement in the middle of a war, they will rest up and reinforce before leaving the castle to resume the campaign.

This is when the settlement is most vulnerable, as enemy CPU lords will often leave only 70-80 troops there and take all the elite soldiers with them. In this scenario, you can take an enemy castle with 100 men if they are veterans. Renown for taking castles is generally at least 20 for the cheap wins and can be anywhere from 50-70 plus for the real battles where you engage a full garrison. 

The same rules apply to joining armies that are about to storm a castle. If you happen to find an allied army attacking a castle with even numbers, you can either join that army as they set up their siege engines to get full credit for being there. Joining an ongoing siege is taken like you showed up after the day was won, and rewards far less renown.

Use Perks to Gain Renown

As of the 1.8 BETA for Bannerlord, these are the working perks that grant additional renown in Bannerlord. These are all based on the role of party leader, which the player character is by default. Note that ‘Artisan Community’ and ‘Great Investor’ are choices you must make at Trade level 125, and that you can’t select both of these.

The ideal choice depends on if you use workshops more or caravans. ‘Famous Commander’, ‘Duelist’,  and ‘Public Speaker’ are must-haves if you’re trying to maximize renown gain: