Guide for all levels (from Prestige 20 player)

[Not a cop]

I would consider clearing prestige 20 to be the current equivalent to ‘beaten the game’, as there is no difficulty higher than that. As someone who has ‘beaten the game’, I figured I had the acumen to point out some of the keys to success and to spot certain things that will help you win more.
It is hard to make a guide for each level of the game as certain strategies work well or even great on prestige 10 or lower, but are abysmal on prestige 15 or higher. So this list is going to try to incorporate all difficulties as best I can.

Start of game
Build 3 woodcutter camps and cut through to a dangerous glade immediately.
These glades will require 1 of 3 things. Either it will ask for difficult resources (oil / scrolls / etc.), easy resources (coal / resin / etc) or it will ask for no resources and just give an effect.
When you embark you normally start with automatic coal. There is about a 66% chance you will immediately be able to clear this glade no problem. If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves.

Resolve
The game will always tell you why your villagers are happy or unhappy but does a poor job explaining how to clear some of these negative effects. Some effects I still do not know what causes them.
Hostility of the forest is the main one. If you are losing resolve rapidly during the storm, STOP cutting wood. Hostility of the forest comes from woodcutters. In the earlier stages of the game your resolve should never get low during a storm if you take all your woodcutters off from cutting trees.
You can also juggle resolve with zero consequences. This means that you can favor one race for their resolve to get higher, and then favor another if theirs starts to get too low during a storm.

Warehouse
The biggest trick I learned that helped myself at higher prestige is to create many warehouses. If your woodcutters are clearing too far from your main storage, create another one closer to them to drastically improve yields. If you clear out an area at the current warehouse, you can easily refund the entire thing with no penalty and set up a new one elsewhere. All camps and high traffic areas should be close to a warehouse.


Best cornerstones
I want to make a list of some of the best and worst cornerstones I found that are independent of certain builds. There are some cornerstones that are much better (gain +1 permanent global resolve each time you sell X goods…but those require certain builds to be useful).

1. Exploration Expedition
This cornerstone gives you a constant -5 global resolve but +15 for 5 minutes each new glade discovered. Duration stacks.
It is very rare that you would not take this cornerstone, it allows you to survive any storm and any glad event at any stage of the game. The most dangerous glade events often lower your resolve by a fair bit. This effect will make it very difficult for your resolve to ever drop too low allowing you to complete anything in the game as long as you cut through glades.

2. Crowded Houses
I assume most people ignore this one as it doesn’t seem good at first glance. ‘All houses have room for 1 more villager’. Now if this just applied to regular houses, then yes it is not very good and just saves you some space and some lumber…but it is ALL HOUSES. Race specific houses hold 2 people, with this they will hold 3…that is a 50% increase! This corner stone allows you to have a constant +3 to global resolve with special housing while also increasing your space and saving your resources on expensive housing.

3. No quality Control
‘Gain +2 to wood production. After each storm, all stored wood is removed, and you get 50 insects in return’.
By far this is the greatest cornerstone of all time. Most higher level games you will take all your woodcutters off from cutting trees during the storm as they raise hostility too much. You need to make sure you have enough fuel for your fire as well as producing blightfighters.
This cornerstone gives you infinite wood when you need it while at the same time giving a large amount of food. I fail to see a greater cornerstone than this except for in specific situations.

4. Peasant Supplies
‘Receive 3 packs of provisions for every new villager.’
This one is not game breaking, but is always nice and I will always pick if there aren’t any super strong ones immediately available.
It works in every build and has zero downside. Helps with quests early on and allows you to constantly be able to create trade routes without having to make a makeshift post.

5. Woodcutters prayer.
‘+1 to wood production. Lose all stored fuel upon picking this cornerstone’.
Similar to number 3 – No quality control. But with less wood and only losing fuel once.
Best situations are when you get this right after a storm and have already used up all your fuel. In high prestige wood Is king and so is this cornerstone.


Worst cornerstones

1. Mist Piercers
This cornerstone lets you see what’s behind certain glades, but each discovered glades increases queens impatience by 0.5.
This one has essentially no good in it and a whole lot of bad. In reality if you want to see what is behind a certain glade, just save the game and cut through the glade and if you don’t like it just alt f4 and pick up from your last save. The constant growth in impatience is devastating. NEVER pick this.

2. Workers Rations
‘All workers have a +10% higher chance of doubling their production, but they also have a +25% higher chance of consuming twice as much food during a break.’
Much production in the game is food, as hunger will kill you at higher prestige. Villagers eat more and hunger effects lower resolve at a much higher rate. Never take this cornerstone unless you have a build that is creating infinite food. Even then there are likely better choices.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you found this helpful!

[Thror]

using alt+f4 to get around the ironman enforcement doesnt seem like an actual strategy. it seems like an *exploit*.

other tips seem fair though

[Olleus]

Originally posted by DUNKED ♥♥♥♥♥:

There is about a 66% chance you will immediately be able to clear this glade no problem. If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves.
....
if you don’t like it just alt f4 and pick up from your last save.

That's rather like saying I can beat Solitaire, if I start with all the cards in the right order. Obviously the numbers aren't quite the same, but I don't see much difference between what you're doing and someone who edits their meta-save file so they have 99999 artifacts to sacrifice to the storm forged altar right off the bat. I really don't see how anyone can have a sense of achievement from cheating.

Your tips generally seem solid to me though, even though I haven't climbed such prestige heights. I'm glad that Crowded House is getting some love though, it isn't huge over powered (only saving some building materials at the end of the day), but it's decent, versatile, and easy to use.

The only thing I disagree with (gameplay) wise is starting with 3 wood cutter camps. I prefer to building paths, houses, decorations (for first upgrade), trade post and basic fabrication materials in the first year. And after a few minutes 2 or 3 of those pop are going to be working on events anyway. I just don't have the manpower to do anything with a 3rd wood cutter post. Maybe I should try it when I have an 11 pop caravan start though.

[Not a cop]

Originally posted by Olleus:

Originally posted by DUNKED ♥♥♥♥♥:

There is about a 66% chance you will immediately be able to clear this glade no problem. If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves.
....
if you don’t like it just alt f4 and pick up from your last save.

That's rather like saying I can beat Solitaire, if I start with all the cards in the right order. Obviously the numbers aren't quite the same, but I don't see much difference between what you're doing and someone who edits their meta-save file so they have 99999 artifacts to sacrifice to the storm forged altar right off the bat. I really don't see how anyone can have a sense of achievement from cheating.

Your tips generally seem solid to me though, even though I haven't climbed such prestige heights. I'm glad that Crowded House is getting some love though, it isn't huge over powered (only saving some building materials at the end of the day), but it's decent, versatile, and easy to use.

The only thing I disagree with (gameplay) wise is starting with 3 wood cutter camps. I prefer to building paths, houses, decorations (for first upgrade), trade post and basic fabrication materials in the first year. And after a few minutes 2 or 3 of those pop are going to be working on events anyway. I just don't have the manpower to do anything with a 3rd wood cutter post. Maybe I should try it when I have an 11 pop caravan start though.

You can always sell woodcutter camps later. Purpose of getting 3 early is to get through that first dangerous glade as soon as possible. At higher prestige glade events take twice as long. The only way to complete it before the start of the first storm is by clearing through to it as early as possible. If you don't cut through near the start of the drizzle you will have to either complete it during the storm (likely means you lose) or the end effect will trigger and you will also lose. In most situations you can clear a dangerous glade immediately.

I used to start trading post early too, but at higher prestige everything thing you sell is at a 50% discount, and everything they sell costs more. Making trading post very difficult to use early game.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by DUNKED ♥♥♥♥♥:

You can always sell woodcutter camps later. Purpose of getting 3 early is to get through that first dangerous glade as soon as possible. At higher prestige glade events take twice as long. The only way to complete it before the start of the first storm is by clearing through to it as early as possible. If you don't cut through near the start of the drizzle you will have to either complete it during the storm (likely means you lose) or the end effect will trigger and you will also lose. In most situations you can clear a dangerous glade immediately.

I used to start trading post early too, but at higher prestige everything thing you sell is at a 50% discount, and everything they sell costs more. Making trading post very difficult to use early game.

I'm well familiar with longer glade events, I've been playing ~P10 for a while. I just don't find I need 3 woodcutter camps to get there in time. I pre-cut towards the nearest one, wait until first orders (because often there are some about opening/solving glades), and then power through. Even if I take a little into Storm, for the first winter it's just not critical. With houses and a hub upgrade I'm sitting on +5 resolve for everyone which gives me a nice safety blanket.

As for the trader, sure, it's way less useful after P7 or 8. But it's still good, either as an emergency to plug a hole somewhere, or to sell off things I find in glades that I have no use for. It's not super efficient, but it does provide extra security.

Maybe not save-scumming has made me adopt a more defensive, reactive strategy? But at intermediate prestige it certainly works well enough for me, not a loss out of 30+ games so far.

[Not a cop]

Originally posted by Olleus:

Originally posted by DUNKED ♥♥♥♥♥:

You can always sell woodcutter camps later. Purpose of getting 3 early is to get through that first dangerous glade as soon as possible. At higher prestige glade events take twice as long. The only way to complete it before the start of the first storm is by clearing through to it as early as possible. If you don't cut through near the start of the drizzle you will have to either complete it during the storm (likely means you lose) or the end effect will trigger and you will also lose. In most situations you can clear a dangerous glade immediately.

I used to start trading post early too, but at higher prestige everything thing you sell is at a 50% discount, and everything they sell costs more. Making trading post very difficult to use early game.

I'm well familiar with longer glade events, I've been playing ~P10 for a while. I just don't find I need 3 woodcutter camps to get there in time. I pre-cut towards the nearest one, wait until first orders (because often there are some about opening/solving glades), and then power through. Even if I take a little into Storm, for the first winter it's just not critical. With houses and a hub upgrade I'm sitting on +5 resolve for everyone which gives me a nice safety blanket.

As for the trader, sure, it's way less useful after P7 or 8. But it's still good, either as an emergency to plug a hole somewhere, or to sell off things I find in glades that I have no use for. It's not super efficient, but it does provide extra security.

Maybe not save-scumming has made me adopt a more defensive, reactive strategy? But at intermediate prestige it certainly works well enough for me, not a loss out of 30+ games so far.

Great thing about this game is that there are many ways to play. Since I started I always went 3 woodcutters. Is it the best? Who knows, but I have always done it each game.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by DUNKED ♥♥♥♥♥:

Originally posted by Olleus:

I'm well familiar with longer glade events, I've been playing ~P10 for a while. I just don't find I need 3 woodcutter camps to get there in time. I pre-cut towards the nearest one, wait until first orders (because often there are some about opening/solving glades), and then power through. Even if I take a little into Storm, for the first winter it's just not critical. With houses and a hub upgrade I'm sitting on +5 resolve for everyone which gives me a nice safety blanket.

As for the trader, sure, it's way less useful after P7 or 8. But it's still good, either as an emergency to plug a hole somewhere, or to sell off things I find in glades that I have no use for. It's not super efficient, but it does provide extra security.

Maybe not save-scumming has made me adopt a more defensive, reactive strategy? But at intermediate prestige it certainly works well enough for me, not a loss out of 30+ games so far.

Great thing about this game is that there are many ways to play. Since I started I always went 3 woodcutters. Is it the best? Who knows, but I have always done it each game.

Haha, so how about this: next game, I try with 2 and you try with 3, and then we report back?

[Ragnaman]

"If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves."

This is just an indicator of glaring problem with current game design. And OP is good to highlight this.

[schnappkatze]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

"If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves."

This is just an indicator of glaring problem with current game design. And OP is good to highlight this.

I don't think it is an issue that needs to be fixed. This is not a competetive game and sure, if you are determined to win every game on prestige 20 and don't want to waste time with suboptimal starts, this helps. But you can play without it, and if a miniscule minority likes to do that, why not? I wouldn't do it because that wouldn't be fun for me (I'd rather take the "embark with oil just in case" - approach), but it is not really an issue if some minmaxing players play like that.

edit
@dunked
Maybe put this guide in the guide section here on steam, I don't think there is a "how to win on prestige 20" guide yet. Here it will get buried soon and that would be a shame, good tips.

[was_fired]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

"If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves."

This is just an indicator of glaring problem with current game design. And OP is good to highlight this.

I mean the only issue here is that it doesn't autosave immediately prior to showing the player the results. I wouldn't call that a glaring issue. They're just trying to play a high risk / high reward game without actually taking the risk.

I generally also push for early dangerous glades, but I'm still playing two difficulties down from the highest. So that means that for resource based glades you generally get 8 minutes to get the resources you need. In general I try to make sure I can get a trading post around the same time as a glade, or have one up first.

Then if you run into a resource issue you can't solve and NEED to you can wait for a merchant or summon them fast and pay the irritation cost. In the worst case scenario you might need to sell off parts of hearth stones in order to afford the emergency materials you need, and that CAN set you back longer term, but that's the risk with this strategy.

Other times you're safe just eating the penalty once or twice until you naturally grow enough to deal with it.

[Not a cop]

Originally posted by schnappkatze:

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

"If you get unlucky, simply alt-f4 and choose a different glade before the game saves."

This is just an indicator of glaring problem with current game design. And OP is good to highlight this.

I don't think it is an issue that needs to be fixed. This is not a competetive game and sure, if you are determined to win every game on prestige 20 and don't want to waste time with suboptimal starts, this helps. But you can play without it, and if a miniscule minority likes to do that, why not? I wouldn't do it because that wouldn't be fun for me (I'd rather take the "embark with oil just in case" - approach), but it is not really an issue if some minmaxing players play like that.

edit
@dunked
Maybe put this guide in the guide section here on steam, I don't think there is a "how to win on prestige 20" guide yet. Here it will get buried soon and that would be a shame, good tips.

Thank you! I use few areas of steam and did not even know about this!

[Averagedog]

Originally posted by Thror:

using alt+f4 to get around the ironman enforcement doesnt seem like an actual strategy. it seems like an *exploit*.

other tips seem fair though

I wish I didn't read that... the ring of sauron is now in my grassssssp.

[Kyresti]

I'm currently at P6 and counting, but everything listed so far makes a lot of sense. It also vibes pretty close to my current playstyle (and I've been just leering at the game for not giving me crowded houses to counter some of P5's building cost).

Also, that alt-f4 exploit sounds both very savescummy and like something I'll probably actually do if I hit P19, because the whole glade-fee debuff sounds like the kind of artificial difficulty that makes a game actually not fun.

Speaking of building cost though, how do you keep enough parts around to plonk down warehouses wherever you want? That's like the biggest limiting factor I run into with a lot of vital buildings now, even demolishing unused ones.

[Not a cop]

Originally posted by Lightning Paw:

I'm currently at P6 and counting, but everything listed so far makes a lot of sense. It also vibes pretty close to my current playstyle (and I've been just leering at the game for not giving me crowded houses to counter some of P5's building cost).

Also, that alt-f4 exploit sounds both very savescummy and like something I'll probably actually do if I hit P19, because the whole glade-fee debuff sounds like the kind of artificial difficulty that makes a game actually not fun.

Speaking of building cost though, how do you keep enough parts around to plonk down warehouses wherever you want? That's like the biggest limiting factor I run into with a lot of vital buildings now, even demolishing unused ones.

in reality you will only need 1 maybe 2 down at a current time. Focus an area - put a warehouse down and clear out everything it has. Then destroy the warehouse for a full refund and set it up else where.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by Lightning Paw:

Also, that alt-f4 exploit sounds both very savescummy and like something I'll probably actually do if I hit P19, because the whole glade-fee debuff sounds like the kind of artificial difficulty that makes a game actually not fun.

If those difficulties aren't fun for you (and they don't sound it for me), why not simply not play them? Using a not-fun and slow technique of alt-f4 to avoid playing a not-fun difficulty level seems a very inefficient way around that problem lol.

[CATGIRL]

> 3. No quality Control
‘Gain +2 to wood production. After each storm, all stored wood is removed, and you get 50 insects in return’.
By far this is the greatest cornerstone of all time. Most higher level games you will take all your woodcutters off from cutting trees during the storm as they raise hostility too much. You need to make sure you have enough fuel for your fire as well as producing blightfighters.
This cornerstone gives you infinite wood when you need it while at the same time giving a large amount of food. I fail to see a greater cornerstone than this except for in specific situations.

I thought this one breaks and 0s your wood in the middle of Storm if you take the +clearance duration // +drizzle duration

Did they fix it?