To reach Floor 12 Normal in Kin and Conquest, follow the requirement shown on the floor selector instead of clearing every difficulty in order. The first gate asks for Normal and Hard clears on Floors 1–4. Extreme is visible, but it is not part of that opening unlock sentence. When a later floor set appears, read its footer again rather than assuming the same requirement. Your first-clear route ends when Floor 12 Normal registers You Win.
This guide covers Steam AppID 4540820 after Hotfix 1.0b, checked August 8, 2026. The retired Demo is a different boundary: material that stops at Floor 3, counts only four weapons, or shows only part of the skill tree cannot map the full release. Version 1.0 has twelve floors, three difficulties per floor, six weapon types, and a larger progression system.
The selector decides which difficulty matters
Start with Floor 1 Normal and continue along Normal while new floors become available. Normal is where you learn the current enemy spacing, ore positions, and guardian approach without also forcing the higher-difficulty speed change onto ordinary enemies. After Floor 4 Normal, look at the selector before starting another run.
If the next set is still hidden, complete the missing Hard clears for Floors 1, 2, 3, and 4. You may interleave Hard earlier when a floor already feels comfortable; the gate cares about the eight recorded clears, not whether you finished all four Normal runs first. Leave Extreme alone unless a later footer explicitly asks for it or you have chosen to pursue its achievement.
This order prevents two different dead ends. Grinding Extreme cannot satisfy a sentence that names only Normal and Hard, while repeatedly farming Floor 4 Normal cannot replace a missing Hard clear on an earlier floor. After each set opens, treat the new footer as the current rule. The official screenshot proves the first four-floor requirement, but it does not justify inventing identical text for every later set.
Use Manual to learn; earn the right to use Auto
Choose Manual for the first Normal attempt on a new floor. In this mode, clicks or cursor position steer the Fox, and Settings controls the precise response. You do not need to add a separate attack command: the equipped weapon swings when the Fox reaches a valid target. Move in until the attack begins, leave before the hostile pattern closes the space, then repeat. Against an unfamiliar enemy, learn that range with one isolated target before entering a pack.
Auto takes over movement, avoidance, damage opportunities, and item collection, but the mode screen explicitly warns that it is imperfect. Use it only after you can recognize why a particular floor fails. Watch the first room. A run that walks through danger for loot, lingers on an unsafe target, or ignores an exit warning is not ready for automation. End it at the hub and learn that floor under Manual control. Automation is useful when it repeats a route you already understand; it is not a substitute for learning the room.
The mode cannot be changed mid-run. That makes the choice more important than a convenience toggle: switching requires Game Over or a return to the hub. Non-QWERTY keyboard users should also confirm the client is current before remapping around unexpected movement. Hotfix 1.0a changed WASD handling to physical key positions.
Make room for the mine before you touch it
Combat and mining share the same arena. A run that kills quickly can still collapse because the Fox stops beside ore while enemies or projectiles own the surrounding space. Clear the nearest threat, open an exit lane, then mine. If the lane disappears, abandon the ore and rebuild the gap; the resource is useful only if collecting it does not end the run.
Read damage and movement separately. When normal enemies remain alive long enough to surround you, inspect the weapon and offensive investment. When enemies die quickly but the Fox is hit while leaving, more damage may not repair the timing. Higher difficulties speed up non-boss enemies, so an exit that barely works on Normal can become late on Hard even when the weapon still kills at the same point in the approach.
Coins and Essence can merge into fewer visible pickups. The merge retains the underlying pickup count for effects that respond to collection, and an earlier update fixed that count carrying across a floor transition. Do not diagnose missing rewards by sprite count alone. Collect the merged stack, then read the currency display. If the Equipment Shop count appears wrong while using the Exchange NPC, update the game first: Hotfix 1.0b fixed a visual desynchronization there.
Your build runs on two clocks
Weapons and skill nodes persist at the hub
The full release unlocks six weapon types over time, and each type has its own ability. That makes a fixed launch-week tier list less useful than the weapon screen in front of you. Compare the damage, range, ability, and upgrade investment of the weapons you actually own. Before the June balance pass, progress into a fresh floor could hinge too sharply on discovering its matching recipe. That curve was softened: a recipe can still be a strong upgrade, but lacking it does not mean the run is impossible.
Spend in the branch connected to the current obstacle. Power is the first place to inspect when packs stay alive and close around the Fox. Survival is relevant when you understand the threat but cannot absorb one imperfect exit. Fortune addresses a stable clear that is starved for gold, harvest value, or pickup reach. Cunning is the movement-oriented branch to inspect when the build has enough damage and health but cannot create or exploit a safe window.
Do not distribute one purchase to every branch just because each will matter eventually. Buy for the blocker, repeat the same floor, and see whether that blocker moved. The Fortune screenshot also shows nodes bought with Souls. An official tooltip correction states that Souls are attached to Challenges, not automatically awarded for a first boss defeat. If the expected Soul does not appear, open the relevant Challenge condition before replaying the guardian.
Blessings answer the current run
Blessings are permanent upgrades selected at level-up, but each selection is still a choice among the cards offered in that run. In the official example, Reaper’s Harvest rewards killing three enemies within two seconds and raises its requirement after each trigger on the floor. Shockwave Shell converts an Absorb stack being removed into floor-wide enemy damage. Essence Siphon doubles Mercy’s duration and adds Essence to kills made during Mercy.
Select the condition your run already produces or the failure it repeatedly suffers. Reaper’s Harvest fits a build that can create quick clustered kills. Shockwave Shell converts a recurring Absorb loss into pressure instead of pretending that loss never happens. Essence Siphon serves a safe run whose limiting resource is Essence. Keep the weapon, control mode, and difficulty stable for several encounters after the choice; changing every variable hides whether the Blessing helped.
Hotfix 1.0b added safeguards for rare crashes while swapping Blessings at the Blessing NPC and while opening a chest during a move to the next floor. If either transition is unstable, install the hotfix before discarding the build or repeating a long route.
The achievement name shows which clear registered
The current Steam list contains 36 achievements, all tied to a specific floor and difficulty. That makes the list a reliable audit when the selector still shows a locked set. The percentages are omitted because they change; the names and clear conditions are the useful part.
| Floor | Normal | Hard | Extreme |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slime Slayer | Goo Gone | Slime Sublime |
| 2 | Bone Zone | Mr. Bone’s Wild Ride | Spooky Scary Skeletons |
| 3 | Blaze Craze | Burn Notice | Fire Extinguisher |
| 4 | Cold Cull | Frost Tossed | Shark Week |
| 5 | I don’t like sand. | It’s coarse and rough and irritating… | …and it gets everywhere. |
| 6 | Ghostbusters | Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good | Bustin’, Bustin’, Bustin’ |
| 7 | Jungle Japes | Lumberjacked | How is there a jungle inside a mountain anyway? |
| 8 | Royal Rumble | Night Night, Knight | Regicide |
| 9 | Gardening For Dummies | Ruinbringer | Pushing Up Daisies |
| 10 | Hideout Hijinks | Monster Hunter | Demon Destroyer |
| 11 | Mystic Mischief | Quiet in the Library! | Anti-Magic |
| 12 | You Win | A Winner is You | The Last Achievement |
For the opening gate, use the table to confirm the Normal and Hard names for Floors 1–4. If all eight are present but the next set remains hidden, return to the selector and read the current requirement before spending another run. A missing achievement identifies the floor and difficulty to replay; a complete set means the problem is no longer “more power.”
Let You Win end the first-clear run
Continue reading each newly exposed selector footer, learn unfamiliar floors on Normal, and add only the Hard clears that the active gate requests. The first-clear task is complete when Floor 12 Normal awards You Win. The two remaining Floor 12 badges are A Winner is You for Hard and The Last Achievement for Extreme; both are deliberate mastery passes, not prerequisites you should silently add to a Normal first-clear goal.
The official Steam page for Kin and Conquest is the single public reference for the current game and release record.