Noble vs Underworld · one meter, two paths
The choice between the Town Hall and the Hideout.
Lawful work pulls you up, illegal work pulls you down, and where you settle decides which half of the guild's content you can reach.
Alignment is a single number from −100 to +100, starting at 0 (Neutral). Completing Noble quests and choosing contrite Town Hall resolutions pushes it positive; running illegal jobs — smuggling, thieving, spying — pushes it negative. Where the meter rests sets your tier, and the tier gates whole branches of guild content — but the exact value is also a dial that continuously scales your quest payouts and prices (see below). Left alone, alignment decays toward 0 by 1 point per day, so a path is something you keep choosing, not something you set once.
How the meter moves
| Action | Shift | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Noble quest | +4 | Scaled by star rating. Also builds NPC trust and reputation. |
| Town Hall — “humble” negotiation | +4 | The most contrite resolution to a noble dispute. |
| Town Hall — “compensate” negotiation | +2 | Pay your way to a clean reputation. |
| Spying | −2 | Lowest alignment hit of the three illegal jobs; yields intel. |
| Smuggling | −3 | Pays raw gold scaled by reputation; adds Heat. |
| Thieving | −4 | Biggest swing down; doubles resource loot, chance at gear. |
The seven tiers
The threshold is the point you cross to enter a tier; the band is the range you sit in. The further from 0 you commit, the deeper the matching path opens — and the harder the opposite path closes.
Peak Noble standing — strongest NPC discounts and reputation, full lawful content.
Town Hall level 3+ upgrades unlock.
Town Hall opens. Underworld deep tiers (Hideout L3+) lock from here up.
Both paths' level 1–2 content is open; neither path's deep tiers are. Decay parks you here.
A criminal Guild Archetype and the Guild Hideout become available. Town Hall L3+ locks.
Hideout level 3+ and the top black-market tiers unlock.
Peak Underworld standing — deepest illegal economy, full hideout.
The value of the meter, not just the tier
Tiers are gates, but the exact number is a dial. Past the unlock thresholds, every point you push toward a path quietly bends the economy in your favor — and against the other side. The effect is smooth, so +100 pays better than +50, and the deeper you commit, the more it shows.
Quest payouts
Noble quest rewards rise as you climb toward Paragon and fall as you sink toward Villainous; illegal jobs do the exact reverse. The swing reaches roughly ±30% at the extremes, scaling both the gold and the XP a job pays. Committing to a lane makes that lane's work pay more.
Prices
Honest merchants reward a lawful reputation: their prices drop as you climb toward Paragon — up to about 15% cheaper at +100 — and creep up as you sink negative. The black market mirrors it: contraband gets cheaper the deeper into the Underworld you go, down to about 15% off at −100. Each lane makes its own goods cheaper to buy.
Advantages & disadvantages of each path
Noble path — positive actions
Town Hall, NPC trust, the lawful economy.
Advantages
- The Town Hall unlocks at Good (+20); its level 3+ upgrades open at Virtuous (+50).
- Noble quests build NPC trust — merchant discounts of 5% / 10% / 15% at 3 / 8 / 15 quests — plus reputation and development points.
- No Heat. Lawful work never triggers interceptions, jailings, or bribe/bail costs.
Disadvantages
- At +20 or higher, the Guild Hideout, black market, and criminal archetype lock past level 2.
- Illegal quick-gold and the intel economy stay closed to you.
Underworld path — negative actions
The Hideout, the black market, Heat.
Advantages
- Unlocks a criminal Guild Archetype and the Guild Hideout at Shady (−20); Hideout L3+ and top black-market tiers open at Corrupt (−50).
- Illegal jobs pay more raw: smuggling adds gold scaled by reputation, thieving doubles resource loot with a chance at gear, spying yields intel. Heist planning stacks reward multipliers up to 1.5×.
Disadvantages
- Every illegal job builds Heat (see below) — rising interception odds, jailed members, and bribe/bail gold.
- At −20 or lower, the Town Hall locks past level 2.
Heat — the cost of the Underworld path
Heat is a per-region suspicion meter that only illegal jobs generate — smuggling +8, thieving +12, spying +5 per run — and it cools off on its own over time. The hotter a region, the more likely a job is intercepted; a caught member is jailed on a short cooldown. You can pay it down with a bribe, or bail a jailed member out for gold (the cost rises with the region's Heat).
Caution
Heat 30+Interception chance starts to bite; the region is watching.
Danger
Heat 60+Interception is likely — jobs get pulled and members risk jail.
Lockdown
Heat 85+The region clamps down; running more jobs here is reckless.
Why you should pick a lane
Cross-path locks
Crossing +20 locks the Hideout's deep tiers; crossing −20 locks the Town Hall's. You can dabble in both near 0, but the level 3+ payoffs of either side demand you commit to it.
Streak reward
Hold the same direction for 7 days and the daily decay halves — the game makes it easier to stay committed than to drift back to Neutral.
Betrayal cooldown
Flipping the meter across 0 — positive to negative or back — triggers a 72-hour cooldown. Flip-flopping is punished; specializing is rewarded.
Not to be confused with Titan Alignment. The endgame Wrath / Dominion choice tied to your monuments is a separate system with its own bonuses — it has nothing to do with the Noble vs Underworld meter on this page.
See also: Quests for the Noble and illegal boards that drive the meter, and Faction loyalty for the separate per-region patron system.