Renown is how well you and your clan are known throughout Calradia, the amount you have directly determines your clan tier. Clan tier provides great benefits the higher it is, the two main benefits are that it unlocks the ability to create or join a kingdom and it increases the amount of companion characters you can have at once.

Gaining renown

1. Winning tournaments is a popular way to increase your renown a bit in the early game, it provides opportunities to gain some gold and better gear as well as combat experience in a safe environment. Each win provides +3 renown and a reward.

2. Completing quests for lords and nobles isn't a great way to improve renown but there are some benefits to this method which include gold rewards and a moderate boost to your relations with the nobles and lords you are questing for.
Tip:If you have a companion cable of doing these quests and a few spare soldiers you can send them in your place which is much more effective as you can fight in tournaments while you wait for them to come back.

3. Fighting battles is the main way you will be increasing renown throughout the course of the game, the renown gains vary depending on your relative army strength vs the enemy and the size of the battle. Winning large battles against the odds will increase renown a lot more than a battle where you outnumber some looters 200 to 1, for the most part you will be gaining around 1-12 renown. Renown gains can go significantly higher though, in battles where you have a hundred or so of elite troops vs an enemy army of around 200-300 you can receive around 20-80 renown.

4. There is a nice perk in the Trading skill that will passively grant you 1 renown per day for each profitable workshop or caravan you own depending on which you choose. I prefer the workshop one due to it's reliability and the fact that you do not need one of your companions to operate it.

Clan Tier benefits

Level 1 [50 renown]
+1 max companions
+1 party to be commanded by a companion
+15 party size for parties commanded by a companion
+25 party size for your own party
Can join a kingdom as a mercenary

Level 2 [150 renown]
+1 max companions
+1 party to be commanded by a companion
+15 party size for parties commanded by a companion
+25 party size for your own party
Can swear vassalage to a kingdom

Level 3 [350 renown]
+1 max companions
+1 party to be commanded by a companion
+15 max party size for parties commanded by a companion
+25 max party size for your own party
Can create a kingdom after completing the main quest (Nertze's Folly + Assemble the Dragon Banner)

Level 4 [900 renown]
+1 max companions
+15 max party size for parties commanded by a companion
+25 max party size for your own party

Level 5 [2350 renown]
+1 max companions
+15 max party size for parties commanded by a companion
+25 max party size for your own party

Level 6 [6150 renown]
+1 max companion
+15 max party size for parties commanded by a companion
+25 max party size for your own party

Joining an existing kingdom
Once you obtain enough renown to reach clan tier 1 you can speak to a lord about work for their kingdom as a mercenary. The main benefit of this is a small amount of gold income for defeating the kingdoms enemies, as well as a chance to gain increased renown in larger battles between armies. You are also able to raid opposing lords villages and freely for a bit of extra cash and loot, but be warned this will damage relations with the nobles there.

After you have gained enough renown to reach clan tier 2, you then have the option of your clan swearing vassalage to a kingdom by talking to its current ruler. As a vassal you have the right to vote and propose kingdom policies as well as receive new towns and castles that your kingdom takes

Creating your own kingdom
You can create your own kingdom by advancing the main quest "Neretze's Folly" in which you have to talk to the 10 lords in Calradia that have blue exclamations over their parties.

Part 2 of the main quest
Once the quest is completed you must then talk to both Istinia (Located in Epicrotia) and Arzagos (Located in Marunath) and complete a task for each of them to finish the "Assemble the Dragon Banner" quest.
Once the banner is completed you will need to fulfill the requirements which are to be at clan tier 3, have 100 troops, be an independent clan, and own a settlement.

Companions are very useful but it can be tricky to track them down, especially if you want one that excels in a certain area of expertise. You can press "N" to open the Encyclopedia, from there click the "Wanderers" button in the bar on the left to see the ones you can recruit.

Useful Companions for your party

the Scholar (Aserai) [Medic]
Nice medic skills to ensure you get more wounded instead of killed troops, also increases party healing speed.

of the Wastes [Scout]
Great party scouts, they make good fighters as well.

the Swift [Steward/Roguery/Trade]
One of my favorites, they make good traders early game or you can keep them with you as your Quartermaster to increase your max party size with their outstanding Steward skill. They excel in roguery which will increase your loot after a fight and their combat skills are pretty decent. Overall they're well rounded and can fill several roles for your party.

Useful Companions to lead a party

the Golden [Tactics]
High skill in Tactics means they will probably take the least losses in auto-battles compared to other companions, they also have the skills to be decent fighters themselves.

the Wanderer (Aserai) [Tactics/Scout]
Another one of my favorites, boasts a high skill in Tactics paired with a decent Scout ability makes them able to better pick and win or avoid battles themselves. They make for great party leaders later later in the game

Companions are going through heavy changes patch to patch and there can also be several companion variants depending on their culture, it might be better to refer to this reddit post for more accurate and up to date information.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mountandblade/comments/g13gqh/all_bannerlord_wandererscompanions/

As of 1.1.0 companions are now more focused in their area of expertise and have less skills in random areas. This results in them starting at a lower level and making the leveling and development of their skill set much easier.

Encyclopedia Uses
Locate towns and mark them on the map, useful if you have trade rumors from towns and are unsure of their location.

Find and track down lords, companions, or wanderers and see what they have been up to.

View the stats, traits, relations and portraits of the various lords and nobles in the game.
This can also be useful if you want to find a spouse that has good traits, connected to a powerful clan, or that you just find cute or not ugly. (I think your child can inherit traits of its parents but unsure, needs confirmation.)

You can stat check the various units in the game as well as take a quick look at the type of gear they have equipped, useful for planning out army composition later in the game. (and also for avoiding some of the wrong stat soldiers currently.)


The Log
Just recently I found out that you can access a small portion of the notification history log by pressing enter, if you missed any world messages or wanted to re-read one you can use this.

Special thanks to Ironking on the TaleWorlds forums for pointing this out!

Influence is an important part of any kingdom, it's what determines how much sway you have when voting for policies or castles and how many lords you can get to join you to form a massive army.
It can be thought of as currency for all kingdom related benefits.


Gaining Influence

Winning battles against the kingdoms enemies is the most direct way of gaining influence when you have just joined a kingdom, how much you earn is similar to how much renown you earn after a battle.

Donating prisoners you catch to friendly town/castle in the kingdom will net you a bit of influence, this can stack up pretty quick in you have a lot of prisoners. It seems to favor quantity over quality so turn in your looters here vs selling them to the slave trader.

Forming an army with your companions will net you a small amount of influence per day and they cost no influence to maintain. Keep in mind that even though companion parties cost 0 influence to join up, you will not be able to call them if you drop into negative influence.

Policies within the kingdom can vastly affect your influence gain, make sure to vote for policies that are beneficial to your influence gain and vote against any that might inhibit it.

OP Influence Policy
If you own a town or few villages the "Council of Commons" policy is a great way to increase your influence, you will gain +1 influence per day for every notable in your towns and villages. This mean that every village you own will give you 2-3 influence and every town will give you roughly 3-6 influence per day.


Using Influence

Influence is used to vote for policies within the kingdom, make sure that some of the lords are willing to vote for it by checking the "support" meter on the policy screen. If there is little or no support for it than it probably won't pass.

Assemble armies using influence, this is useful primarily if you need some help taking or defending a castle but there are some other uses for this as well that i've mentioned in this guide.

Supporting a clan will give another clan 50 of your influence and increase your relations with them by 1-3. Tip: If you have a lot you can spam this to boost relations quickly, lords with high relation with you are more likely to vote for policies you suggest and their armies cost less influence to summon.

If you are the ruler of your own kingdom you can jump start another clan by supporting them so they can form armies themselves

The more influence you spend on a vote the higher the effect is on relations involving the clans you are voting for/against.

Notables (aka the guys you recruit from)

You can perform quests for notables in towns/villages yourself or by sending a companion, check the portraits in the top right for blue exclamation points and talk to them. (can be slow but provides decent rewards and allows you to focus on certain villages)

Your companions, when sent out as a separate party, will sometimes increase relations whenever they stop at a settlement to gather recruits and supplies. (nice additional passive bonus).

You can create an army and have a party members join it, any city you wait in they will start increasing relations after a few ticks
(fast and useful for improving relations in specific cities, does NOT work in villages/castles)

Maintaining high security in an owned settlement will (very slowly) increase relations with the nobles affected. (rather slow but will passively raise relations over time)

Destroying bandit lairs can be a decent way to improve relations with the nearest 2-3 villages, each one destroyed will raise relations with the notables there by 2.
Some bandit lairs can be very difficult as they seem to be bugged, especially later in the game when you can possibly run into them with 70+ bandits vs 8 of your men.

Lords

Gifting a small amount of gold will increase relations with them and raise you charm skill, this is useful if you have extra cash.

Voting for a lord in the kingdom decision will increase your relations towards them by a lot and decrease relations with the other lords voting against them by a small amount.

You can perform quests for them for a moderate boost to relations, they generally provide a sizable reward upon completion. This can require you to have some renown first though, I think Clan Tier I at least.

Supporting a clan in your kingdom will increase your relations with everybody in that clan by 1-3.

Setting a lord free after defeating him in battle will raise your relations with them by 2, I would not recommend this method at this time if you are trying to take a castle/town due to how fast they gather another army and attack you.

Increasing your Stewardship is one of the most reliable ways to increases max party size early. You recieve additional max party size at a 4:1 ratio to your Stewardship, so 100 points will net you +25 max party size as long as you are the designated Quartermaster of your clan.

Stewardship Perks
(Unfortunately most of these currently do not function but the Steward tree is still a great way to increase your party size)
[Bannerlord] - +2 to party size for each fief the player owns.
[Swords As Tribute] - +10 to party size for every vassal.
[Man-At-Arms] - +5 to party size for each fief the player owns.

Other Perks
There is an early (Lv75) Riding perk [Squires] gives +2 max party size, this stacks with other companions who also have this perk.

There are a few other perks as well but most of them are for level 200+ in skills. I'm not going to be mentioning these at this time as this guide is aimed at newer and more inexperienced M&B players.

Clan Tier Modifiers
You will gain additional max party size for each clan tier (with diminishing returns), your clan tier can be increased by gaining renown through various actions. (Check Clan Tier spoilers if you wish for more info)

Kingdom Policies
If you rule a kingdom the "Royal Guard" policy will give +80 max party size to the ruler as well as some other nice benefits.[/spoiler]

The kingdom policy "Noble Retinues" will grant Tier 4+ clans within the kingdom +1 influence per day and the party size of their leaders is increased by +50.

Positively affects map speed
A few of the early perks in the Scouting tree provide small % benefits, have a companion in your party fill that role by designating them as Scout if they have a decent skill in it because it's a skill that takes forever to raise with minimal benefits imo.

Personal movement speed whether mounted or on foot and the associated stats athletics/riding affect your base party move speed (needs some testing not 100%)

Having cavalry in your party and spare horses for your foot soldiers to ride increases map movement tremendously, foot soldiers riding horses only recieve about 80% of the movement bonus that cavalry provides but it is still a lot.

Negatively affects map speed
Holding prisoners and higher % of your max weight carried (small penalty)

Wounded soldiers (moderate penalty, wounded soldiers don't ride horses so it can increase your herd size debuff as well)

Herding (dynamic penalty), and Disorganised Army debuffs (more below)

Hauling more weight or prisoners than you can manage (Very harsh penalty the more you go over your capacity)

Herding
Reduces movement speed if you lack the soldiers to herd your sheep/pigs/cows/mules/horses, this can be reduced or nullified by having an appropriate ratio of soldiers to cattle (Roughly 1:2 i'll update later).

Note: Horses being ridden by foot soldiers will not be counted towards the herd.

Disorganized Army
This is a temporary speed debuff after any battle fought, incurs a large penalty to your speed for a brief amount of time (1-2 game hours).
(Tip: Be careful when engaging a fight when you're near a large hostile party as they might catch you afterwards, even if you're really fast.)

Saving character presets
CTRL+C in character creation => CTRL+V into a text file
Reverse to load (Needs confirmation)

Encyclopedia
Press "N"

Character Editor (Player Only)
Press "V"

Banner Editor
Press "B"

Thanks for reading, this is my first guide and I hope you were able to learn some of the things that aren't explained very well in the game.

I'll try to update this guide again soon with some of the missing content, for now any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

One last thing I want to mention is that since this game is still in beta most of the game mechanics are bound to be tweaked heavily. I'll try my best to keep up with the updates and continue to provide accurate information for the current versions but no guarantees.


~Punchtown~

(If you want some more music to listen to in the game there are a couple well put together Bannerlord playlists on Spotify that you can play in the background ;) )

- Gaining Renown
- Gaining Influence
- Workshops and Caravans
- Complete relations guide
- Managing settlements
- Useful Perks
- Combat tips and formations
- companions section

I have been playing strictly vanilla right now so my crash reports and bug information can be clean and un-tampered with but i'll expand this later when I catch up on the mod scene again.

Mod name, short description, and a link :)

Community Patch
https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/186

Fixes a lot of the perks that aren't activated as well as some other small fixes the devs haven't gotten around to yet.