How to Increase Approval Rating in Manor Lords

The indie superhit Manor Lords is all about getting the approval of your citizens and ensuring your small medieval village becomes a grand city. To do that, the game has a lot of systems in place. While some are as simple as building something, others involve ensuring your citizens are happy. While increasing your approval rating is vital, it can be difficult to know how to do so. Well, if you’re struggling too then keep reading as I show you how to increase your approval rating in Manor Lords quickly. So, with that, let’s begin!

What Is the Approval Rating in Manor Lords

Hover over the Thumbs symbol to check your approval rating.

As you would expect, Manor Lords is full of settlements with people. Whenever a new family moves into the Burgages, it comes with certain wants and needs. These are denoted by an Approval Rating, mentioned on the top-center bar. Fulfilling these will ensure their level of satisfaction goes up and, with it, your approval rating.

The higher your Approval Rating in Manor Lords, the better chances you have to rule your citizens peacefully and rally them for war against other lords. The rating closely ties to your population’s approval.

If you have over 50% approval, at least one family will move into your village every month. If you have over 75% approval, at least two families will move into your settlement every month. Conversely, having a low Approval Rating of 25% will ensure families leave!

How to Increase Approval Rating in Manor Lords

One of my Manor Lords towns.

Unfortunately, increasing your approval rating in Manor Lords is easier said than done. While sometimes the game will outright tell you what a family wants, other times, you must figure it out by yourself. Here are the best ways to increase your approval rating in Manor Lords:

• Ensure a wider variety of food: If your townspeople only sell one kind of food, villagers will get tired of it. As such, diversify the choices of food in the market. The best way to do this is by upgrading a Burgage with a back-plot to start farming or petting hens. This will allow them to produce carrots and cabbage, sell eggs, etc. This will directly increase the approval rating of a town.
• Build and level up a Church: The Church is one of the mid-game structures. You can build it after you set up your essentials and you have some families living in Burgages. Setting one up increases your overall approval rating in the region. You will need 5 Timber, 20 Planks, and 10 Stone to begin.
• Have more clothing options: Once you start collecting animal hides, set up a tannery to process the hides into leather. The Tannery will set up a shop in the market and start selling clothes. Just like food, approval rating will increase when villagers have more variety.
• Ensure you have a Tavern: Medieval times were all about drinking Ale and enjoying life after work. Manor Lords has tied that into the approval rating. If you set up a Tavern and get it running, you’ll make the villagers happy, increasing their approval rating. However, to run the Tavern, you need to farm Barley and process that at a brewery into Ale.
• Tax smarter, not harder: Just like in real life, your citizens will show dissent if you tax the citizens harshly. If you tax them too much, they’ll start leaving your village. If you tax them lightly, your treasury will look empty. As such, find the right balance for taxation in-game.

That is how you can increase your approval rating in Manor Lords. I agree that it might seem daunting and can even freak you out. However, once you get the ball rolling, you’ll be home with a 100% approval rating. Let us know about your Manor Lords experience in the comments below. Thankfully, it’s also easy to begin with the game with our Manor Lords starting guide.