Hearth and Hamlet Policies: All 15 Laws, Taxes & Effects
Hearth and Hamlet policies set taxes, welfare, immigration and foreign policy. See all 15 policies with effects and how happiness boosts production.
Hearth and Hamlet policies are settlement-wide rules that exchange happiness, Food, and Gold upkeep for economic and growth benefits. They are grouped under three sources — the Church, the Keep, and the Town Square — and the confirmed list contains 15 policies covering taxation, welfare, church services, immigration, and foreign policy.
The short answer
- 15 policies sit in the data, split across Church, Keep, and Town Square
- Only Soup Kitchen is demo-enabled (+10% Happiness, −1 Food per 10 population)
- The other 14 are later-game data from build 0.80 — not confirmed as final at release
- Taxes trade happiness for Gold: Low −20%, Medium −40%, High −60% happiness
- Happiness feeds a production bonus, so a tax that earns Gold can still slow the whole kingdom
How policies work in Hearth and Hamlet
Policies are not cosmetic flavour text. The Steam store’s official description lists “taxation rules to boost income, rules for workers that keep morale high, city guard drafts to protect your population and civic decisions that change the character of your kingdom” as core systems, and the policy layer is where most of those levers live.
A policy is never good or bad in isolation. The real question is whether its benefit is worth its cost in your current situation. A tax that earns Gold but drops happiness can be a poor exchange during an expansion, because happiness multiplies your production; the same tax looks more reasonable once your economy is stable and the extra Gold has somewhere to go.
Read a policy as two numbers pulling in opposite directions. One side raises Gold income, population growth, or happiness; the other side draws down Food, Gold, or happiness. Before you flip a rule, check whether Food is rising or falling, how many spare workers you have, and whether a raid is approaching.
All 15 policies at a glance
The table below lists every policy found in the build 0.80 data. Treat every number here as later-game data rather than a confirmed launch value.
| Policy | Offered by | Effect (later-game data) |
|---|---|---|
| Soup Kitchen | Church | +10% Happiness, −1 Food per 10 population |
| Alms for the Poor | Church | +10% Happiness, −1 Food per 5 pop, −1 Gold per 10 pop per sec |
| Community Outreach | Church | +15% Happiness, −2 Food and −2 Gold per 10 pop per sec |
| Social Welfare | Church | +20% Happiness, −3 Food and −3 Gold per 10 pop per sec |
| Tithes | Church | −15% Happiness, +1 Gold per 10 pop per sec |
| Low Taxes | Keep | −20% Happiness, +1 Gold per 10 pop per sec |
| Medium Taxes | Keep | −40% Happiness, +1 Gold per 6 pop per sec |
| High Taxes | Keep | −60% Happiness, +1 Gold per 4 pop per sec |
| Unjust Foreign Tax | Keep | −10% all Production, −10% Happiness |
| Outrageous Foreign Tax | Keep | −15% all Production, −15% Happiness |
| Unacceptable Foreign Tax (×2) | Keep | −20% all Production, −20% Happiness |
| Recruit Immigrant Workers I | Town Square | −20% Immigration Happiness; population +1% every 60 sec |
| Recruit Immigrant Workers II | Town Square | −30% Happiness; recruits 1 + 1.5% of population every 60 sec |
| Recruit Immigrant Workers III | Town Square | −40% Happiness; recruits 1 + 2% of population every 60 sec |
The count works out as 5 Church policies, 3 Keep tax tiers, 4 foreign-tax entries, and 3 immigration policies. The foreign-tax group lists “Unacceptable Foreign Tax” twice in the data, which is why it shows as two entries and brings the total to 15.
Taxes: Gold income at a happiness cost
The Keep offers three core tax rates on a clean sliding scale. Low Taxes cost −20% happiness and return 1 Gold per 10 population per second; Medium Taxes cost −40% and return 1 Gold per 6 population; High Taxes cost −60% and return 1 Gold per 4 population.
That is a direct exchange: the more Gold you take per citizen, the heavier the happiness penalty. Because happiness feeds production, raising taxes does not simply add Gold — it can shrink the output that your entire economy runs on. The official store copy describes taxation as a way to “boost income,” but the morale cost is the other side of the same trade.
Each tax tier also carries a small ongoing Gold upkeep, so the net return is lower than the headline rate suggests. Treat the rates above as later-game data; their current release values are To be confirmed until verified in-game.
Happiness and the production bonus
Happiness is the multiplier that ties policies back into your economy. In the build 0.80 rule data, the starting base happiness is 1, and settlement happiness contributes directly to global production.
Happiness is tracked through ten modifier groups: Tavern, Church, Conscription, Battle, Alchemist, Tax, Food, Immigration, Luxury, and Foreign tax. That list shows why a policy is rarely free — an immigration rule, a tax tier, or a foreign tax can all press down on the same happiness total that your production multiplies.
Events matter too. Starvation conditions (Recent Starvation I through V) and being Recently Raided are tracked as status conditions that feed into happiness, so a kingdom under pressure can lose both morale and output at once.
Demo vs. later-game: what is actually confirmed
Only one of the 15 policies, Soup Kitchen, is marked as build-enabled in the data — meaning it is the single policy the demo (Demo v1.0.46) can actually use. It grants +10% Happiness for −1 Food per 10 population and is unlocked by the Soup Kitchen building in the Church.
The other 14 policies are labelled “later-game data”: they exist inside the build 0.80 package but are not claimed to be enabled there, and none of them should be treated as final at release. If you are reading an old screenshot or video that shows a different tax percentage or welfare cost, that number may already be out of date.
How to evaluate a policy change
Change one policy at a time. Note whether Food, Gold, and happiness are rising or falling first, then read both sides of the policy — not just the Gold line — and let the new production trend become visible before you also move workers.
A welfare expense is easier to carry once trade and Gold income are stable; a foreign-tax penalty hurts more when it lands during a Food shortage or a defense buildup. The governing idea is that population, economy, and defense form one system, so a policy that looks profitable in isolation can still stall the settlement.
Frequently asked questions
How many policies does Hearth and Hamlet have? The build 0.80 data contains 15 policies, but only Soup Kitchen is demo-enabled; the rest are later-game data.
How do taxes work in Hearth and Hamlet? Taxes exchange happiness for Gold income. Low, Medium, and High taxes return more Gold per citizen while costing −20%, −40%, and −60% happiness respectively.
Which policy is available in the demo? Soup Kitchen, which grants +10% Happiness for −1 Food per 10 population.
Does happiness affect production? Yes. Happiness contributes to a global production bonus, with a starting base of 1 and ten tracked modifier groups.
For the full picture, read how workers turn that production into resources, how trade stabilises your Gold income, and the beginner guide if you are new to the game.
Sources: Steam store page · Steam announcements · Official policies, taxes & happiness page · Hearth and Hamlet Wiki — policies