How to get herbs in Manor Lords

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here

✓ At A Glance

To get herbs in Manor Lords, you’ll need to unlock the Herb Garden upgrade at a Forager Hut.

Shortly after firing up a new game in Manor Lords, you’ll typically receive an ominous tutorial tool tip urging you to start gathering herbs to prevent disease spreading through your feudal fiefdom and ward off sickness. Much like berries, wheat, and meat, herbs are a resource that you’ll need to set your peasants to work gathering, though the process isn’t quite as straightforward as constructing a certain building.

Other than the tool tip, you’re left to figure out how to get herbs in Manor Lords. We’ll walk you through how to ensure your population has a reliable source of medicinal herbs to stay healthy.

Manor Lords herbs: top down view of a small village with an overlay message warning players to grant access to herbs to avoid disease. — An ominous message. Capture by VideoGamer.

How to unlock herb gathering in Manor Lords

To start gathering herbs in Manor Lords, you’ll first need to build a Forager Hut using x1 Timber and staff it with one or several workers. The building is chiefly used to send your villagers out to gather berries from bushes out in the wild, but also allows you to unlock the Herb Garden. Once unlocked, Forager Hut workers will grow herbs passively at their Burgage Plots. It’s somewhat similar to an extension, except it’s done invisibly and there’s no need to select the option at a Burgage Plot.

Manor Lords herbs: top down view of a small village with the Forager Hut and Herb Garden upgrade highlighted with a yellow circle. — Unlock herb gathering at the Forager Hut. Captured by VideoGamer.

To get Herbs in Manor Lords, click on the Forager Hut and at the top of the window tap the circular herb button with a plus sign to ‘Add A Herb Garden.’ The upgrade will cost you 25 Regional Wealth and x2 Planks. You can dip into your starting Regional Wealth allocation, or alternatively, build a trading post and sell resources and commodities for Regional Wealth. As for Planks, these are made from Logs at the Sawmill.

Once you have the upgrade, workers will automatically deposit any gathered herbs into the Forager Hut’s pantry. They’ll then be distributed to Granaries for storage, then on the marketplace, and finally distributed to Burgage Plots for consumption by your population.

If illness hits and you’ve haven’t yet managed to unlock the upgrade or your stocks are low, you can use the Trading Post to import Herbs. Click on the Trading Post, Trades, Materials, then set Herbs to import, costing you 12 Regional Wealth per item. You also have the option to establish a direct trade to speed up delivery, though that will cost you 40 Regional Wealth.

Manor Lords herbs: aerial view of a village with a drop down menu highlighting the settlements herbs stockpile in yellow. — Keep your villagers healthy by stockpiling herbs. Captured by VideoGamer.

As with all resources, you can check your stock of herbs by hovering over the Commodities portion of the resource bar at the top of the screen. If you do happen to amass a surplus of herbs, you can always trade them for Regional Wealth like you would crops, Ale, building materials, Clothes, and commodities in Manor Lords at a trading post. They sell for 2 Regional Wealth a pop.

In the grand scheme of a Manor Lords playthrough, the costs are marginal so we recommend getting the Herb Garden upgrade as soon as you’ve built a Forager Hut. That way, if the worst does happen, you’ll have a hefty stock of herbs ready to cure diseased citizens. To increase disease resistance, make sure your villagers have a varied diet – meat, berries, bread, eggs, vegetables, apples, and so on.