Banners have finally been added into the game of Mount and Blade: Bannerlord thanks to a recent update. With this update, heroes and lords can equip themselves a banner with different effects based on which banner they hold.
This guide will tell you how to get yourself a banner to take into battle, what they do and how you can equip banners to your character an companions.
Contents:
Banners Explained
Different Methods of Getting Banners
How to Equip Banners
What Do Banners Do in Bannerlord?
Well we’ve finally made it. Banners have been added to as game which literally has the word in the title. Banners aren’t just there for show however. There are multiple different banners that you can collect and they all have different effects. Depending on which banner you equip, this is the effect you will have on the formation you are leading.
This effect will not be for your entire army, only the section you command in battle. That means if can have a different banner assigned to each commander you have over your formations.
Your character will not physically equip the banner however, so don’t think that you will be losing a weapon slot. It will simply be carried by one of the AI troops in your formation.
The bonus you will receive depends on the type of banner you have equipped. For example in the image below you can see the Steel banner. This banner’s effect can be seen by hovering over it in the Inventory screen. This decreases melee damage by 0.1
What this number actually means is 10%. So every decimal place needs to be converted into a percentage of 1. For example an effect of +0.05 means it will increase that effect by 5%.
How to Get a Banner in Mount and Blade: Bannerlord
Now that I’ve got your attention with the passive bonuses that banners bring, we can move onto actually finding one for yourself. You can get one guaranteed banner by playing the game’s campaign mode. The story will bring you on a quest to find the missing pieces of Calradia’s lost Dragon Banner. Thanks to the update which adds banners as a physical item. This too can be used in battle.
Another way to get a banner is by winning one in tournaments. You can often find random banners as tournament prizes in the towns on Calradia. Look out for towns with the helmet symbol next o the name indicating a tournament is currently being held. Once entering you can see what the prize for the winner will be.
This prize is dependant on how many hero characters are apart of the tournament. If there are more lords and ladies present, the prize will be greater in value. Since banners aren’t all very expensive there’s a good chance you’ll run across one eventually.
There are two other very easy methods of getting a banner in the game. More often than not, if you choose to marry a lord or lady who is actually a vassal of a realm, they will have a banner equipped automatically. You can then unequip this banner from them and use it for yourself.
There’s also a good chance you will be given a banner when you decided to swear fealty to a king and become a part of a kingdom. When joining the Sturgians, I received my first banner which reduced damage taken to shield in the formation. I believe the banner your receive is dependant on the faction. (For example Kuzaits will give a banner with more horse speed.)
To wrap that wall of text up, you can get banners by Winning them in tournaments, Marrying vassals or joining armies.
How to Equip Banners
Banners will not simply give bonus effects just for being in the inventory. You will have to choose only one banner to equip per character/companion. This bonus will only affect the formation that the character is leading in battle.
You can equip a banner in the inventory screen where you equip all the other items. Simply drag the banner you wish to equip into the empty slot on the bottom right of the character’s equipment.
You can also simply drag the item onto the character. You can also equip your companions and clan members banners if you have more than one. This will strengthen the formations they are leading and ultimately give you a stronger army.
