How Sort the Court works
Visitors enter the throne room one at a time and ask for permission, money, protection, or support. You answer yes or no. The input is simple, but a useful answer depends on the kingdom you have at that moment. A request that is affordable with a healthy treasury may be dangerous when gold is nearly empty. A refusal that protects gold may still cost happiness or close a returning character's story chain.
The official itch.io page lists keyboard, mouse, and gamepad support. Follow the prompts in the current build rather than relying on controls copied from unrelated browser games. Read the request, check the three counters, choose deliberately, and watch the result before the next visitor arrives.
A reliable first-run strategy
- 1. Keep a gold reserve. Early projects can create later benefits, but approving every costly request leaves no room for emergencies. Preserve enough gold to absorb one bad event instead of optimizing each visitor in isolation.
- 2. Treat people as more than a score. A large treasury does not compensate for repeated population losses. When a proposal risks citizens, require a clearer benefit than you would for a small gold expense.
- 3. Repair weak happiness before gambling. If morale is already low, choose predictable positive actions before accepting another mysterious bargain. This gives later decisions more room to go wrong.
- 4. Remember returning visitors. Sort the Court is not a set of disconnected questions. Characters return, and some requests continue a chain. Note who delivered value, who caused repeated losses, and which decision is clearly a follow-up.
- 5. Judge trends, not one result. A single unlucky ruling does not require restarting. Change course when the same resource declines across several visitors or when the kingdom no longer has a recovery buffer.
How to read risky requests
Immediate cost, delayed benefit: these requests are easiest to judge when the treasury is healthy. Approve only when the stated cost leaves a reserve and the visitor has a plausible way to return value. If gold is already low, waiting for a cheaper opportunity is usually better than hoping one project solves everything.
Large reward, unclear downside: mystery is part of the game, but it should be treated as volatility. A strong kingdom can test an uncertain deal; a fragile kingdom should first restore the resource most likely to be hit. This keeps discovery fun without turning every run into random approval.
Returning visitor: compare the new request with the earlier result. A character who delivered on a promise deserves a different risk assessment from one whose chain repeatedly drained resources. You do not need a full spoiler list; a short note about the visitor and outcome is enough to make later choices more informed.
Public benefit with a visible price: festivals, services, and kingdom projects often trade gold for population or happiness. Judge them by the weakest meter and by timing. Spending for morale can be sensible when happiness is low, but the same expense is wasteful if it leaves the kingdom unable to answer the next urgent request.