Settlement Survival: Tips & Tricks to Play Better

Settlement Survival is a new City builder game where players have to make their settlement thrive against all odds.

Similar to other city-building games, starting out can be confusing since there are a lot of elements to keep track of.

In this guide, I will provide the best tips and tricks for beginners to help you make the most out of your playthroughs.

Choose Starting Location Carefully

Choose a starting location with multiple buffs around it.

When choosing where to start your settlement, it’s important to consider as many factors as possible.

The most essential part is to keep an eye on land bonuses and try to utilize them.

For instance, building in certain locations increases farm or pasture production, while others provide buffs for fishing, hunting, or other activities.

Also, make sure to build fairly close to a river to ensure you can start fishing fairly early on.

Lastly, make sure to start on the large land masses and not be fully surrounded by rivers.

Otherwise, you will be limited until you unlock bridges. One issue is that hunters will be unable to cross rivers without bridges.

Learn and Utilize the UI

The user interface (UI) is the most important element in building games and Settlement Survival is no exception. It is important to understand all the metrics shown in the UI.

This way, you’re always aware of what’s going on in your village and can deal with any issues immediately when they come up.

Some key metrics to keep in mind include homeless people, laborers who aren’t doing anything at the moment, and available resources.

Keep Happiness High

Since happiness levels affect productivity, it is essential to maintain as high happiness as possible.

Specifically, here are all the happiness buffs and debuffs:

Enraged (0-50%) – Criminals may emerge
Agitated (50-100%) – Food consumption +10%
Balanced (100-150%) – No effect
Comfort (150-200%) – Efficiency +10%
Encouraged (200-250%) – Movement speed +10%
Zealous (>250%) – Efficiency +20%

As you can see, the higher the happiness level, the more productive the villagers.

Gather as Many Plants as Possible in Year 1

During the first years, players will have a buff that grants 100% extra gathering efficiency and +1 production when gathering plants.

This effect lasts only for the first year in the game, so it is essential to try and take advantage of it as much as possible.

Keep Health High

In any colony simulation game, illnesses are a huge concern. In settlement survival, players can keep an eye out for illnesses through the health metric.

Similarly to happiness, health has different tiers that buff and debuff villagers:

Feeble (0-50%) – High outbreak probability
Exhausted (50-100%) – Increased citizen fracture and sprain probability
Coordinated (100-150%) – No effect
Healthy (150-200%) – No accidental deaths at work
Vital (200-250%) – Stamina consumption -20%
Vigorous (>250%) – Gain immunity against plague, fracture, and sprain.

Some of the bonuses speak for themselves in regard to the importance of maintaining a high percentage of health.

Build Roads

Build dirt roads in the early game to increase efficiency.

Roads aren’t simply cosmetic in Settlement Survival. Instead, they increase citizens’ movement speed when walking on them.

The movement speed increase depends on the road but even a dirt road increases it by 25%.

Prepare for Travelling Merchants

Try and keep an eye on the timeline (top right on UI) to see when traveling merchants are passing by.

Make sure to sell stuff to make coins for whenever they are around because they often sell useful resources.

Conclusion

To sum up, these are some of the best tips and tricks for Settlement Survival to ensure you’re starting your playthrough on the right foot.

If you enjoyed reading this article, consider checking out our guide on how to get animals in Settlement Survival.

Do you have any other tips and tricks to add to this list? Have these tips helped you understand the game better? Let us know in the comments below.

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Harry

Harry has been a fan of video games from a very young age and writing allows him to share that passion with others. His favorite genres include MMORPGs, survival, and FPS.

He has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, which allows him to always come up with a fresh approach to solving in-game puzzles and challenges, but also to create content that’s to the point, clean and easy to follow.