9 Kings | Achievement Guide

Steam Community guide by Rimeror.

Overview, Terminology and Useful Info

Overview

Game consists out of years (treat them as rounds). Each year consists out of four phases (in that order): card select phase, year-effect phase, building phase and battle phase:

On card select phase you select a new card out of three that will be added to your hand (skipped on year 1, after boss-battles and if "Burglar" perk is selected). Card pool always contains cards from King with which you fought last (+ Castle card, until Castle is max level). Once card is selected "year-effect" phase begins
During automatic "year-effect" phase some year-specific effect will be played (Merchant, Peace or War, etc.). Once that effect is dealt with - building phase begins. This phase is skipped if there are no "year-effect" during that year.
During building phase you're allowed to play cards from your hand, Once building phase is other, some building effects are triggered after which battle phase begins
During battle phase you simply observe as your troops and towers participate in battle against other Kings (you can assist them using your Castle ability). Once battle is over - years ends and new year begins

Terminology

Plot - square on a field
Castle - your base, that will aid your units in battle. If enemy's unit will reach your castle during battle - you will lose a life (up to 3)
Tower - construction that stands on a plot (except "Flamethrower") and will be ignored by enemy units. Towers can't be affected by troop-specific cards ("Farm", "Procreate", etc.) and can't be affected by most spells ("Steal Coat", "Static", etc.)
Troop - unit that will go on the battlefield during battle phase. Troops can be affected by most cards in the game. Significant difference from Towers - there can be more than one unit on a single plot (increased by leveling up, some additional cards and several effects)
Building - construction that occupies a plot. Cannot be affected by most of cards and effects, but provide an effect on adjacent cards (except "Quarry", that provides effect on all towers and a castle, whenever they are) at the end of the building phase
Card - playable card in your hand
Hand - bottom part of the screen, from which you can play cards on the field. Once you left with 2 cards or less - your turn ends and battle begins; as well as you can't start battle until you will have 2 cards or less in the hand. It is unknown (for me) if there is an upper limit of cards in hand, I reached ~12-15 at most

Notes and additional information

All achievements except "True Royalty" can (and advised to) be obtained on easiest difficulty (Peasant)
Most achievements either require or advised to play as King of Greed or King of Progress, so during you playthrough prioritize on playing them (for leveling up and gaining perk points)
Each king has at least 3 unique perks. Perk can be bought for perk-points, which can be obtained from leveling up that King (by playing). Perks are not shared between Kings - each King has its own set of perks, perk-points, level, etc.
King against which you will fight is selected randomly (as far as I saw - you can't fight the same King 2 times in a row, with exception of boss battles). You can always see which King you will fight next for few seconds in the right bottom corner once building phase begins (except year 1)
Due to limitations of characters in Steam Guide sections, I divided lists of year-events, policies, blessings and special cards on separate sections - all that information might help you get an achievement (especially, one of the hardest ones). And only after all that you can find section for every achievement. Huge thanks to Milkyway, Linifimeu and Dr. Husten for awesome guides to hardest (or, at least, "grindiest") achievements to which I referred to in related sections.

List of year-events

Until year 33 every year-event happens on specified year. After year 33 every year-event happens once in 11 years. List of all possible events (and year at which they happen):

Royal Council (5, 14, 21, 29, 37, 48, ...) - during "year-effect" phase you can select a random policy - passive effect that will be applied until the end of the game (some policies have one-time effect). Some policies appear only if you play as specific King. For full list of policies refer to "List of all policies" chapter
Prophet (7) - blessing, that provides some random upgrade. Mostly this upgrade affect random plot (selected randomly from unoccupied slots, if possible) and most likely will affect troops. This blessing will be applied at year 17 (at "year-effect" phase)
Diplomat, War (9, 35, 46, ...) - during "year-effect" phase you need to select new unique enemy (King) that will be added to the pool
Diplomat, Peace (23, 42, 53, ...) - during "year-effect" phase you need to select a King that will be removed from the pool (except yourself, which is represented as rebellion)
Merchant (11, 25, 31, 40, 51, ...) - you can purchase cards during "year-effect" phase. Each next card costs +15 coins more (or +50%?)
The Tower (12, 19, 27) - during "year-effect" phase you can add 1 more plot to the field for free (after year 33 you will be able to add more plots for 30 coins at any year)
Boss fight (33, 66, 99, ...) - year at which you will encounter King alongside with his army. Losing at this year will not take one of your lives - instead you will lose the game
Chaos (44, 55, 66, ...) - enemies become stronger (from stats perspective)

List of policies

Policy is obtained at Royal Council. Policy usually is passive skill that will affect your troops, build or something else. Some policies have one-time effect. Some policies will appear in the pool only if you play as specific King. Most of policies can be obtained more than once. List of all policies, their description and some comments (if needed):

General policies

"Bunker" - Increases the attack speed of your towers by 50%
"Exploration" - Unlocks 3 new random plots
"Eyeglass" - All your units and towers have +20% chance to deal critical damage
"Feast" - Doubles the maximum HP of all troops
"Gambling" - Receive two cards after every battle. You can no longer choose your loot (skips card select phase)
"Gunpowder" - Increases the damaging range of area attacks by 30%
"Iron fist" - Doubles critical damage
"Leatherworks" - Doubles the movement speed of all your units
"Loan" - Receive 99 gold coins
"Outsourcing" - Receive 9 free re-rolls
"Overwork" - Your building apply their effect one more time
"Poison Thorns" - Every time enemies attack your units, those enemies gain 1 poison stack
"Sharp Blades" - Increases the attack of all your units and towers by 30%
"Venom" - Every poison effect is now applied twice
"War horns" - Summons are 50% stronger

King of Nothing policies

Have no unique policies

King of Spells policies

"Abracadabra" - 10% of all enemies turn into frogs
"Glass Staffs" - Your wizards now have 100 attack points but only 1 HP
"Re-enchant" - Doubles all enchantments of all your active troops
"Spiremana" - Doubles the amount of healing rays of your Spires
"Static Fields" - Doubles the attack speed of your Citadel's lightning bolts (Citadel - is King of Spell's Castle)

King of Greed policies

"Bargain" - Merchant's cards cost half the price
"Burglary" - All active troops gain 2 stack of Midas Touch
"Insurance" - Receive 1 gold for every 9 allied unit deaths
"Salvage" - Cards thrown into the pit return 3x more gold (pit - is a well to which you can send cars to sell them for 9 coins by default)
"Scimitars" - Thief attack are always critical strikes

King of Blood policies

"Covenant" - Doubles the stats of all active Demon's Altars
"Embalming" - Enemies killed have a 10% chance to be summoned back to life as allies
"Evil Pact" - Doubles the maximum quantity of Pagoda's summoned imps (Pagoda - is King of Blood's Castle)
"Fireworks" - Bombers have their attack range area doubled
"Transmutation" - All active troops are replaced with level 3 Imps

King of Nature policies

"Fertility" - Receive 3 Procreate cards immediately ("Add 9 units to the troop")
"Nettle" - Your Treant attack now deals damage to enemies (Treant - is King of Nature's Castle; but this policy doesn’t work with auto mode)
"Populate" - Whenever any unit is added to any plot, add one extra unit
"Revitalize" - Doubles every heal effect you receive ("you" - meaning your units)
"Wilderness" - Unlock 3 new random plots, with Forests on each of them

King of Stone policies

"Barricade" - Walls reflect 10% of damage taken
"Dynamites" - Traps now cause double damage
"Engineering" - Doubles the damage of all towers
"Towerdome" - Stronghold can now build tower twice as fast (Stronghold - is King of Stone's Castle)

King of Progress policies

"Franeksteinian" - Converter towers now summon Bombers instead of Lab Rats
"Gentrify" - All currently active plots gain one level
"Scopes" - Adds 9 Precision cards to your hand ("Unit's first hit is always critical")
"Splicing" - The level of all active Lab Rats is doubled
"Ultragravity" - Doubles the attack range of your Mothership (Mothership - is King of Progress's Castle)

List of blessings

Blessing is a random effect that will be select at Prophet (year 7) and will be applied to random unoccupied plot at year 17. At year 7 for most of blessings random unoccupied plots is selected using the following principle:

If there is an unoccupied plot on player's field (field, on which you're able to play cards - including ones you got from The Tower or "Earthworks" from King of Stone) - select random available (plot is highlighted during "year-effect" phase). If blessing requires more than one plot (like "Illuminism") - it may select the same plot more than once (the darker the border of highlighted plot - the more times it was selected for blessing; from light blue to blue to dark blue)
If all plots on player's field are occupied - select random plot outside of player's field (which means, that you will need to get to that plot before you will be able to earn blessing's reward)In other words, if you want to have a small chance of getting blessing's reward - do not occupy all available slots until year 7 (most Kings unable to do so anyway)

List of all blessings:

"Baby Boom" - If you have a troop card on the target plot by the year of the prophecy, doubles its number of units
"Illuminism" - The card on the target plots will level up in the year of the prophecy. Select 3 random plots, if less plots available - select some plot twice (indicated by darker rim)
"Peacetime" - Doubles the HP of the card on the target plot in the year of the prophecy
"Prosperity" - If you have 20 gold or less by the year of the prophecy, multiplies your gold by 9 (does not select any plot; to do that you will need to spend gold on re-rolls)
"Zenith" - Doubles the damage of the card on the target plot in the year of the prophecy

List of Special cards

Special Cards can be obtained only from Merchant. They appear in the pool at low rate, on which you can affect with King's perks (increases chance of appearing Special cards up to +30%). List of all Special cards that I was able to find so far, with their description and some comments (if needed):

"Shrine" - Spends 9 gold every year to level up a random plot (including itself)
"Scapegoat" - Passive backline unit. If killed in battle, generates 3 gold per level
"Unify" - Sacrifice all troops adjacent to target. Target plot gains the number of units sacrificed
"Razing" - Destroys target plot forever. Automatically triggers a Royal Council event ("forever" means that you no longer will be able to play cards on that plot until end of the run; Royal Council - allows you to select a policy)
From various runs, I was able to find only those 4 cards (even with +30% chance), so I believe this is all. If I will find more, or someone will highlight it in comments - I will add them to the list above

His Winningness

Self-explanatory. Just win one game

Like Sardines

You would need to get 99 units on a single plot. This is an easy achievement, that you will get by simply playing the game normally. Or, you can get it alongside with "Ratticus the First" achievement, since it requires you to level up your Lab Rats (King of Progress) to level 99, which means that you will have at least 100 rats at 99 level (2 from the start + 98 from leveling)
There are several ways how you can increase amount of units on a plot:

Level them up - most troops increase amount of their troops upon leveling up
Casting "Procreate" spell (King of Nature) - adds 9 units to a selected troop - simply cast this spell on your troops
Recruiting via "Farm" (King of Nothing) - adds 1-3 (based on Farm level) units to a random adjacent prop (or more with "Overwork" policy), so make sure that only one unit is adjacent to a Farm
By "Baby Boom" blessing - doubles amount of troops on a random plot on year 17, plot is selected randomly at year 7
Using effect of "Shrine" Special card - it levels up a random plot for the cost of 9 coins once per level of Shrine

Beefed Up

One of your plots needs to deal 999.999 damage or more. Most likely, you won't be able to get this outside of endless mode (opens up when you beat final boss at year 33, after you select option to continue playing), since most Kings' units won't have 1 million health in total. To get this achievement you will need to prioritize your power on a single plot (tower or troop), if possible - that way this plot will deal most of the damage (or all of it). This is an easy achievement, that you will get by simply playing the game. Or, you can get it alongside with "Ratticus the First" achievement, since it requires you to level up your Lab Rats (King of Progress) to level 99, and at that level they will most likely deal 1 million damage or more.

Sir Spends-a-Lot

To get this achievement you will need to buy 9 or more cards in a single turn. The easiest way to get this achievement is by playing as King of Greed, since his cards and policies allows you to earn a lot of money during years. Cards can be bought only from Merchant. You can combine this achievement with "Cheapskate" achievement, since it requires you to earn 999 coins, which you will be able to spend afterwards.

Alibaba

Easier version of "Like Sardines" achievement but for one unit only. It requires you to get 40 thieves (King of Greed) on one plot. Easiest way to get this achievement it by playing 4+ "Procreate" spells (King of Nature) on your thieves plot, since it will give you 36 more troops, which will result in 45 total (9 thieves by default on level 1)

Cheapskate

To get this achievement you will need to accumulate 999+ coins at the end of any year. Easily done by King of Greed, since he has lots of ways to earn money through game. Can be combined with "So You Think You Can Speedrun" achievement, since one of the ways to get this achievement will require you to play as King of Greed and get rid of cards, which will help you earn that amount of money

Crossboar

To get this achievement you will need to mount crossbow on a boar. To do that, you will need to play "Crossbow" (King of Stone) and "Boar" (King of Nature) cards on a field in such way, so they will be adjacent to each other - since only adjacent troops can mount boars. To eliminate randomness, make sure that only one troop - "Crossbow" - is adjacent to boars

King of the Hill

To get this achievement you will need to level up your castle at level 9. To do that, you will need to reach level 3 as any King first (by playing the game) and then by selecting "Ingenious" perk. Faster way to get this achievement is by playing as King of Progress, since he has "Overhaul" card, that levels up 2 random plots when sacrificing another and increases amount of level ups each use (can level up the same plot). You can combine this achievement with "Ratticus the First" achievement, since you will most likely play as King of Progress to get it, and will use "Overhaul" a lot

Tower Defense

To get this achievement you will need to win the game (reach year 33) without using any troops. "Using" here means, that they should not participate in any battle. Meaning, that no troop should be on a field once at the end of building phase. Easiest way to get this achievement is by playing as King of Greed using his "Dispenser" tower. You can combine this achievement with "So You Think You Can Speedrun" achievement, since one of the ways to get it will require you to play as King of Greed and to play only "Dispenser" towers

Ratticus the First

To get this achievement you will need to level up Lab Rats (King of Progress) to level 99 or more. Lab Rats are the only unit in the game, that can level up infinitely, and it levels up whenever any adjacent plot is leveled up. To get this achievement you will need ignore "Splicing" policy until your Lab Rats are level 50 and focus all your level ups onto Lab Rats - if you will put them in the middle and surround them with 4 more occupied plots - that should increase your chances with this achievement. For example, if you invest into "Ingenious" perk (allows Castle to be leveled up to level 9), build it next to Lab Rats as well as 3 more building - this will give you +14 levels to Lab Rats when you level up everything around them. Now you need to focus on "Overhaul" card (allows you to level up random plots by sacrificing another) - since it can level up the same plot, and improves amount of level ups after each use. Another card that way help you, apart from "Wildcard" (King of Nothing), "Clone" (King of Nature) and Lab Rats themselves - "Shrine" Special card that levels up random plot for 9 gold at the end of the building phase. Once your Lab Rats reach level 50 - only then focus on getting "Splicing" policy (because during multiple tries, I'm starting to believe that it is impossible to get it more than once during one run) - getting will pretty much get you an achievement
Additionally, while I was writing that guide, Milkyway created one more guide - this time for that achievement. So please, check it out and leave your appreciation to the author: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3488568345

True Royalty

To get this achievement you will need to beat the game on King difficulty. To open King difficulty, you will need to beat the game at least once as any King on following difficulties (each next one opens up, once game is finished on previous one):

Peasant
Squire
Knight
Lord
Baron
Count
Duke
Prince