Roguery & Crime

Being a noble in Calradia is honorable, but crime pays—often better and faster. The Roguery skill and playstyle in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord isn't just about being a bandit; it's about exploiting the underworld, maximizing loot, and bending the law to your advantage. Whether you want to be a ruthless raider or a shadowy manipulator, understanding crime mechanics is key to a profitable (if dangerous) career.

Introduction to Roguery

At its core, Roguery defines how well you interact with the criminal element of Calradia. It governs everything from the loot you recover after battles to your ability to sneak into hostile towns.

Unlike combat skills, Roguery is leveled passively through "criminal" acts, but also through smart management of prisoners and bandit troops. A high Roguery skill allows you to:

• Recruit Bandit Troops: Turn Looters into Imperial Infantry or Forest Bandits into Fians.

• Increase Battle Loot: Squeeze more profit from every victory.

• Escape Captivity: Break out of lords' dungeons faster.

Selling prisoners to a Ransom Broker is one of the earliest ways to level Roguery and make quick denars.

For a deep dive on leveling this skill efficiently, check our Roguery Skill Leveling guide.

Smuggling & The Black Market

While Bannerlord doesn't have a dedicated "smuggling" mechanic where you hide goods in secret compartments, the economic principles of the black market still apply. Trading goods into towns that are under siege or suffering from shortages can yield massive profits, though it carries risks.

Historically, smuggling involves bypassing taxes or bans. In Calradia, your "black market" is effectively the Ransom Broker and the Tavern. This is where you offload the human cargo (prisoners) that legitimate merchants won't touch. The higher your Roguery, the more efficient this process becomes.

For legitimate trade routes that pair well with a criminal lifestyle, see our Economy & Trade Guide.

Bribing Guards & Infiltration

Need to enter a town owned by an enemy kingdom? You can't just walk in the front gate. You have two options: sneak in or pay a bribe.

Infiltration relies on your Roguery skill and the total weight of your armor. Lighter armor makes you harder to detect. If you fail, you'll be captured by the guards.

Bribery is the safer, albeit more expensive, route. When accosted by guards or when trying to enter a keep to break someone out, you can often pay your way past.

Paying off guards can be costly, but it grants access to enemy towns for sabotage, recruiting, or tournament participation.

Raiding Caravans & Villages

The bread and butter of any criminal enterprise is raiding. Attacking Villages & Raiding creates chaos and disrupts the enemy economy, but raiding caravans is where the liquid cash is found.

Caravans are guarded, often by tier 2-3 troops. Early game, they are dangerous targets. However, once you have a mobile force of cavalry or horse archers, you can run down caravans, slaughter the guards, and seize thousands of denars worth of trade goods and horses.

Raiding caravans provides high-tier loot and horses, but beware: it instantly declares war on the caravan owner's faction.

If you are looking for targets, check our guide on Bandit Factions & Hideouts to see where the lawless zones are.

Managing Criminal Rating & Consequences

Crime has consequences. Every time you raid a village, attack a caravan, or smuggle into a town, you risk your Criminal Rating and your reputation.

• Criminal Rating: Tracks your notoriety with a specific faction. If it gets too high, you will be barred from entering their settlements, and their lords will attack you on sight.

• Honor: Raiding and executing lords decreases your Honor trait. This makes it harder to persuade honorable lords or maintain high relations.

• Relations: Raiding a village permanently damages your relation with the village notables. This hurts your ability to recruit troops from there in the future.

You can reset your criminal rating by paying a fine to a faction leader or taking a diplomatic deal, discussed more in our Diplomacy & Influence section.