How to build a Great Hall in Going Medieval (and why your settlers want one)

A Great Hall in Going Medieval is a specialized room type that grants settlers a mood bonus when they eat there. If you are building one, it’s easy to think that all a Great Hall requires is sheer size, but that’s not quite true. The room must include specific furniture, decorations, and lighting for the game to recognize it as a Great Hall.

Lo, here be precisely that which thou requirest to craft one with success. 

The Escapist recaps

• A Great Hall must be an enclosed room with at least 50 tiles of space.
• The room needs one medium or large table and six seats.
• You must add eight wall decorations, such as banners or weapon racks.
• The hall also requires four torches or wall torches to be deemed worthy. 

Requirements for a Great Hall in Going Medieval

To create a Great Hall, you need to build a fully enclosed room and add the correct furniture and decorations. When the room meets the requirements, the game automatically classifies it as a Great Hall in the room overlay.

The essential requirements are:

• Room size: at least 50 tiles
• Dining furniture:
  • One large table or medium table
  • Six chairs or stools
• Decorations:
  • Eight wall decorations such as banners, trophy racks, shield racks, or weapon racks
• Lighting:
  • Four torches or wall torches

Once these elements are in place, the chamber shall forthwith be declared a Great Hall.

A Great Hall improves settler morale when they eat there, which makes it especially useful once your settlement grows and daily mood management becomes more important.

How to build a Great Hall

If you are building your first Great Hall, this simple process usually works well.

Create a large enclosed room

Start by building walls and flooring to form a room that is at least 50 tiles. A simple 10×5 room works perfectly and is easy to decorate.

Make sure the room is properly enclosed and roofed. If even one tile is missing a roof or wall, the room will not register correctly (because it’s not a room, silly).

Make sure the dining setup’s correct

Add one medium table or large table, then place six chairs or stools around it so settlers can eat there.

Six is the minimum requirement, although should thou intend to hold a grand feast, feel free to set forth additional benches and seats for gathered guests. 

Add wall decorations

Place eight decorations on the walls. These can be:

• Banners
• Weapon racks
• Shield racks
• Trophy racks

This is the step that many seem to miss, and now you know that, you won’t be one of them. Decorations are the most common reason a run-of-the-mill dining room fails to qualify as a Great Hall. A hall can’t become great without decor befitting of its name.

Get the lighting right

If you’re at a dinner party, there’s nothing worse than reaching for a hunk of bread and instead grabbing your neighbour’s elbow… or worse, your own thumb. So good lighting is integral. 

Add four torches or wall torches inside the room. These must be the torch-type lights specifically.

Once everything is in place, check the room overlay to confirm that the building is recognized as a Great Hall.

Why your dining room isn’t becoming a Great Hall

If your room is not registering as a Great Hall, here’s what you’ve probably got wrong. Luckily, they’re all pretty easy to rectify. 

Missing wall decorations

The game requires a minimum of eight decorations, which may seem excessive to some. 

Using the wrong light source

Only torches or wall torches count toward the requirement. Other lighting options will not qualify. No dodgy IKEA numbers in the corner. 

Room not fully enclosed

Even a small gap in the walls or a missing roof tile can stop the room from being detected properly, which makes sense when you think about it. How can a hall be great with a leaky roof? 

Wrong furniture

The room needs a medium or large table with six seats. Smaller tables or fewer chairs doth not a Great Hall make. 

Ask The Escapist

Some useful Going Medieval pages to help you get started:

• Going Medieval Beginner’s Guide: how to get off to a good start
• How to get hay in Going Medieval
• Going Medieval: First impressions