Choosing the best starting location in Settlement Survival is key to surviving longer. You’ll want to choose an area that has access to water, as well as dense forest and rocks/mountains for mines.
Once you’ve found the perfect spot, place your marketplace down. I recommend placing a road around the perimeter of your marketplace, to begin with.
Next, branch off several paths in different directions, ensuring they touch the edge of the marketplace’s radius. This will give you a good indication as to where you can place your houses.
As you progress with Settlement Survival, you will unlock essential buildings that will need to be in reach of your houses. Reserve some spaces and hit two birds with one stone by placing open warehouses and additional builder huts.
Getting Money Quickly at the Start
If you want to earn some quick money, you can complete the guidance achievements. By placing down houses, essential buildings, farms, etc., you can claim rewards that offer you coins.
While it’s not necessarily essential to have money at this stage in Settlement Survival, you may as well complete the tasks as most of the buildings you’ll need to begin with.
Essential Buildings and Developments
First and foremost, ensure you have enough houses to cater to your settlement. You will need to build more houses as people demand them. However, for now, you can just build the amount you need.
Before looking into the Development tree, place down a Big Well within easy access of your marketplace and housing area. This will ensure your citizens do not get thirsty.
In order of recommended buildings for Settlement Survival, I tend to plan my area out as follows:
- Logging Camp (will plant trees and chop them down)
- Gathering Station (will gather plants and herbs)
- Hunting Cabin (will gather meat, wool/leather, and search for new animals)
These essential buildings will ensure your citizens have enough wood to make fuel and build houses. You’ll also have basic crops and food covered as well as the materials to make clothes later on.
Next up, you’ll need to head to the Development window and research Sawmill under the Construction tab. If you have access to water, I suggest building the Water Sawmill. It’s much more effective than the Sawmill, allowing you to make planks and fuel from Wood or Animal Dung.
To make sure your citizens aren’t complaining of the cold in Settlement Survival, unlock the Mine Pit under the Mining tab and start mining Coal. This will reduce the need to use wood as fuel, meaning you can use it more for building.
Placing down two Standard Fields will complete one of the tasks and it also means you can start growing crops. Until your gatherers discover new crop seeds, you’ll be limited to what you can grow.
When you have enough development points, it’s worth investing them into unlocking the Fertile Field, replacing your Standard Fields.
How to Make Citizens Happy in Settlement Survival
Keeping your citizens happy in Settlement Survival can be a challenge. As you start to overcome one need, another will crop up.
At the beginning of the game, I recommend placing down a Clinic as soon as you can. This will ensure any injured or sick citizens will get the treatment they need. While you don’t have to do this, I’ve found it beneficial to research Medical Research and Skin Disease in the Education tab.
Sick citizens become unhappy citizens and they also negatively affect the health and happiness rating in Settlement Survival. Another option is to research Soap, however, you’ll need to research the Nursery to grow herbs (if you’ve found them), or the Apiary to gather Beeswax.
To increase the happiness of your citizens in Settlement Survival, you can place a Church and a Cemetery. The Church increases happiness and the Cemetery offers a place for citizens to lay their (dead) loved ones to rest.
Keeping Your Citizens Equipped
Once you’ve nailed down your citizens’ staple needs, you’ll need to consider other resources. Soon, your citizens will run out of tools, decreasing the effectiveness of their work.
To make tools, you’ll need to place down a Blacksmith. The Blacksmith can make Stone Tools from Wood and Stone, or Iron Tools from Iron Ore and Wood.
Personally, I go for the Iron Tools option as I usually have a couple of mines down at this point.
In addition to needing tools, your citizens will soon start complaining about clothes. The Tailor will provide your citizens with clothes in Settlement Survival, but you’ll need the right resources to make them.
If your Hunters have picked up any Leather, Wool, or Alpaca Wool, now is the time to use it in the Tailors. You can easily switch between the type of clothes you are making as and when you have the resources available.
Struggling to get enough wool or leather? Place down a Ferry Port and import Wool. Wool is the cheapest clothing material you can import at 12 silver.
How to Get More People in Settlement Survival
Getting more citizens comes with pros and cons. On the positive side, you’ll have more people to work in your buildings and more laborers to build. However, you’ll also need to build more houses and feed more mouths.
If you’re struggling to meet the demands of housing, you can always place down a Boarding House. It’s more of a temporary solution to ensure your citizens aren’t homeless while you build sufficient housing for them. The Boarding House reduces the rate of reproduction.
You will be able to tell when immigrants are ready to join your town by the person icon displayed in the timeline at the top right-hand corner. To take in immigrants, you’ll need a Town Hall.
Here, you can elect a mayor which comes with its own benefits. Each person can offer different increases or decreases to your settlement. For example, one mayor could decrease the rate of accidental injury, whereas another can increase the rate of reproduction. Choose wisely!
How to Tell What Herbs, Crops, or Animals You Have in Settlement Survival
As the game progresses, your citizens will soon discover new animals, crops, and herbs that you can use. By clicking on your pasture or fields, you can see what items you have available.
Navigate to the top left-hand corner of the screen to find the Statistics menu. Click the Statistics menu to open it up (bar graph icon).
Next, click on the Seeds and Livestock tab to see what crops, animals, and blueprints you currently have. Although the game will notify you if something new has been discovered, it’s worth knowing where this menu is to check back regularly.
Why Can’t I Find Any Herbs?
Herbs will soon dwindle and your citizens will become sick. If this happens, your citizens will become unhappy and their productiveness will decrease.
If your Gatherers are struggling to find herbs, make sure that you’ve researched Herb Knowledge in the Agriculture tab of the Development menu. This will increase the chance of finding herb seeds.
I recommend selecting the Gather Plants option from the menu at the bottom, represented by the Pick Axe icon. Cover as much of the available map that you can and soon you’ll find herb seeds.
Place down a couple of nurseries and select Herbs as the crop. This will mean you can grow your own herbs and you’ll soon have a steady flow to ensure your citizens don’t get sick.
