If you’ve just unlocked the bed and you’re planning on breeding, or you’re just struggling to keep your subjects happy, a guide that helps you understand how traits work in The Elder Scrolls: Castles will be extremely helpful, so keep reading!
Elder Scrolls: Castles Traits Guide – How Traits Work
Traits play a major role in how well your subjects perform in The Elder Scrolls: Castles. A subject with good traits can speed up production, work better with others, and even win more fights. On the flip side, bad traits can slow down your castle’s efficiency, cause conflicts, and make life in your castle a lot more difficult. But here’s the thing—some “bad” traits can still be useful if you know how to manage them.
For example, the Bossy trait will make your workers miserable, but it also boosts productivity. If you’re willing to pair a Bossy worker with three Volatile workers (who thrive on anger), you can turn a bad situation into a powerhouse of productivity. Just be careful; not handling Bossy subjects right can cost you more in the long run.
On the other hand, the Considerate and Leader traits are great across the board. Considerate workers are perfect for places like the Kitchen or Loom, and Leaders can boost the happiness and productivity of everyone around them. If you assign four subjects with matching traits to the same workstation, you’ll see a big boost in production, which will cut resource production and item crafting time.
While these traits are the best for work and fighting, some traits, like Charming and Volatile, are more useful for questing. Charming subjects boost your undead summons, and Volatile ones are deadly with shock abilities.
Every trait in The Elder Scrolls: Castles
| Trait | Description |
|---|---|
| Bossy | Bosses coworkers around, making them efficient but miserable. |
| Charming | Distracts coworkers. Skilled with Summoning spells. |
| Considerate | Best at the Kitchen and Loom. Skilled with Protective spells. |
| Devious | Best at the Kitchen, Furnace, and Smithy. Skilled with Fire. Prone to arson. |
| Emotional | Feels everything strongly. |
| Enduring | Lives longer. |
| Envious | Hates it when coworkers are more productive than them. |
| Haunted | Often chased around by a ghost, who will sometimes do their work for them. |
| Headstrong | Best at the Furnace and Workshop. Adept at using Shields. |
| Heartless | Miserable to work with. Skilled with Frost. |
| Jester | Enjoys telling a good joke, even when not appropriate. |
| Leader | Rallies coworkers to work faster, their Happiness aligning with theirs over time. |
| Melodramatic | Prone to overwrought retellings of lengthy stories from history. |
| Mighty | Best at the Oil Press and Smithy. Skilled with Melee weapons. |
| Perceptive | Best at the Mill and Sewing Table. Skilled with Ranged weapons. |
| Pyromaniac | Best at the Kitchen, Furnace and Smithy. Skilled with Fire. Prone to arson. |
| Reckless | Works and fights with zeal, but at the cost of their Health. |
| Sophisticated | Less productive, but easily made happy by music, literature, and art. |
| Tribal | Works and fights better next to family members. |
| Volatile | Fueled by anger. Skilled with Shock. |
As well as these traits, there have been some data-mined traits that appeared on the Elder Scrolls: Castles wiki (no full trait descriptions yet). These aren’t a part of the game yet, but they could appear at any time in the future.
- Academic
- Bookworm
- Bully
- Cheerful
- Deft
- Follower
- Generous
- Gourmet
- Influential
- Inspiring
- Jealous
- Lazy
- Moody
- Musician
Best traits in The Elder Scrolls: Castles
| Trait | Why it’s ideal |
|---|---|
| Considerate | Best suited for the Kitchen and Loom and skilled with protective spells. These workers are all about support and harmony. |
| Enduring | Subjects with this trait live longer, which is especially useful for your ruler. The longer your ruler lives, the more gems you’ll earn. |
| Headstrong | Good with shields and works well in the Furnace and Workshop. They’re your defense experts in battle and solid workers. |
| Leader | The Leader trait is one of the most important traits in the game. Having a Leader at each production station is great because Leaders can randomly trigger a Potion of Speed effect. They can also trigger the effect by passing by a station (something I found out when a jobless Leader was chatting with my kitchen workers). |
| Mighty | Perfect for melee fighters, and boosts productivity in the Oil Press and Smithy. If you’re crafting weapons, these are your go-to subjects. |
| Perceptive | Perfect for archers and boosts production at the Mill and Sewing Table. They’re long-range experts. |
| Pyromaniac | Skilled in fire-based combat and excels in the Kitchen, Furnace, and Smithy. Just be cautious — they’re prone to arson (yikes). |
| Tribal | Works and fights better when surrounded by family members. Keep these subjects near their family members for maximum output. |
Why traits matter in breeding – Elder Scrolls Castles
Once you unlock the Bed, breeding your subjects becomes an important part of daily life in the castle. Breed subjects with good traits to create stronger, more productive offspring.
Each couple can only have one baby per day, so you’ll need to be strategic about who you pair up. Each couple will also only want to have one child running around at any time, so you’ll need to wait until their little one ages up to 16 before they’ll even consider it. A quick note on that — at the time of writing, there’s a bug in The Elder Scrolls: Castles where adults who were aged up via potion are still considered children by their parents. I have a 16-year-old whose parents straight up don’t want “more than one child under one.”
Breeding subjects with positive traits increases your chances of getting offspring with those same positive traits, though it’s still a bit of a gamble thanks to the RNG (random number generation) system.
For example, breeding two Considerate subjects increases your odds of producing a child with that same trait, which can help keep your Kitchen and Loom stations running smoothly if you choose to assign them there. On the other hand, if you breed two Bossy subjects, you’re almost guaranteed trouble. So, it’s important to keep bad traits separated if you want to control your gene pool and avoid headaches down the line.
How to breed subjects for the best results
When it comes to breeding, timing and planning are everything. Since each couple can only have one baby every 24 hours, it’s a good idea to set a regular breeding schedule. This will help you stay on top of growing your workforce as your castle expands.
To get the best results from breeding:
- Pair subjects with good traits together. This increases your chances of passing down those positive traits.
- Keep bad traits isolated. If you breed subjects with negative traits, you’re more likely to end up with unruly offspring, which can harm your productivity.
- Don’t be afraid to banish subjects with bad traits once your castle has enough workers. Traits like Bossy, Envious, or Melodramatic will only slow you down. If you aren’t sure how to banish subjects in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, you can literally just drag them outside the castle walls on the far left of your screen. The alternative is banishing them during rulings, but it can take some time for the option to appear.
Be warned that banishing too many subjects may cause your happiness rating in one or more groups to fall. This happens because children are automatically placed in the yellow happiness category, despite the game not showing you this. Once they’ve aged up, your happiness levels should sort themselves back out. You should also avoid banishing family members or friends where possible.
When a new baby is born into the castle, they can have between one and five traits. Some of these may be passed on from their parents, others may be from RNG. The number of traits is determined by the subject’s rarity, which you can figure out from the color on their card:
- Green cards are common and the subject will have one trait.
- Blue cards are rare and the subject will have three traits.
- Purple cards are epic and the subject will have four traits.
- Gold cards are legendary and the subject will have five traits.
Best traits for your King or Queen in Elder Scrolls Castles
Your ruler’s traits affect your entire castle. For example, a ruler with the Leader trait can inspire all of your subjects, making them more productive and happy. But if your ruler has the Heartless trait, you’ll see a big drop in happiness, even though your subjects will become skilled with Frost abilities. It’s not the best trade-off.
Here are some of the best traits for your King or Queen:
- Leader — Boosts productivity and happiness across the castle.
- Enduring — A long-living ruler means more gems for you over time.
- Mighty — Increases the effectiveness of your subjects in the Oil Press and Smithy.
- Considerate — Makes everyone better in the Kitchen and Loom, boosting overall production.
- Pyromaniac — Your entire castle becomes more skilled with fire-based abilities, though you’ll also burn through more oil.
Keep in mind that having a ruler with bad traits, like Bossy or Heartless, can make managing your castle much harder. In those cases, it could be worth switching rulers.
Want to read more Elder Scrolls content at Moyens I/O? Check out Best ESO DLCs for beginners in Elder Scrolls Online and All ESO DLCs & Chapters in order of release.