What skill to prioritize to recruit?

[Vault_Tec]

Hello. my problem (more or less) is that I always wonder which skill would be the most correct or important to have a colonist with the same skill or several

[Narrowmind]

I've actually found recruiting all I can normally works best. When I try to prioritize, I normally end up spread thin. Making a stable colony is often about working with what you get.

[ShadowTani]

I personally don't really look that closely at the initial skill values, I rather look for pawns with a large number of passions as these pawns grow and become skilled in a number of jobs fast. Sure, I set some up with priority jobs, but they will generally end up taking on additional jobs, especially early on, so why not make sure they have optimal growth in a number of jobs? x3

With that said I generally maintain a "small" colony where it becomes necessary for everyone to maintain a broader skill set.

[Astasia]

For a typical size colony of 12-20ish: Focus on getting one of everything at least (except animals maybe), then having two good doctors is important so they can tend and operate on each other, 2-3 builders is usually useful if you are building big, several miners is useful on a mountain map otherwise 1 is fine, 2-3 growers helps if you are growing more than just food, 2-3 researchers is good for scanning for resources later and researching faster. Those are the only skills you really need to stack for the most part. One cook is generally enough, one social is fine, one skilled crafter is ideal (you want them getting all the exp), one artist is always enough. Animal skill only matters if you are dealing with animals of course, and how many you'd want depends on how many animals and what kinds.

Other than that you tend to look for colonists good at combat who can do dumb labor and unskilled crafting.

If you are going for a very large colony of like 40, maybe double everything above.

[martindirt]

I'm recruiting 1 artist, 1 doctor, 1 scientist, 1 (later moral guide). All the other recruits are soldiers. If a non combatant pawn has a good skill, or passion, I'm enslave it.
But I don't aim to beat the game, nor to minmax my productivity.