Tips for newbies

[RubyHummingbird]

Since there are no guides yet, post some small tips you've learned as you play.

For me:

-Signposts expand build-able terrain. (For some reason I assumed these were decorative at first, so I was building in tiny cramped areas and only using houses to spread terrain.)

-Most memory unlocks add new features to your next run, not your current one. If you unlock fish, for instance, it will not add fish to your current map. Memory unlocks are a meta-progression, while the tech tree is for your current run.

-At the start of a game, look at which techs you have available to unlock. Make a note of which resources they take as inputs--you might assume your heating will take wood as an input, but it turns out this run it takes hemp. If you don't notice this until you need the heating, you could end up in trouble.
Do you have wells (which use a water source) or mountain springs (which require a rock to place)?
Do you have pools (which take water as an input) or fans (which have no input but require hemp to build)?

-Some buildings have the requirement 'path to dwelling.' This means that there must be a nearby house and all tiles between the two buildings must be cleared.

-Some fancier buildings require cobblestone paths that lead to your town centre. Similar to the 'path to dwelling' these must have a path paved in cobblestone to be placed.

-Snow will not melt in the spring/summer. Every snowy tile will get a -1 penalty, so events that fill the whole map are tough to recover from. (On the plus side, snow is only created by random events or failing dooms.) You can dig up snow using tools.

-You can use a resource the same turn as it's produced. This matters a lot more than you would think it does--it means you can move workers around to prevent a shortfall immediately.
Example: If you have zero hemp, but you have a forager producing hemp this turn, you can use the hemp in any building that takes it as an input.

-A segmented arrow on a building's production means that the production takes multiple turns. Example: The initial hunter's tent takes three turns to produce anything, while the upgrade does it in one turn.

-You can 'store' hope/health/etc for future events. For example, you can produce hope even when there are no negative events looming. This gives you a bit of a buffer against your next fear event. (But it will reset to zero at the end of the event, so you can only store for the next event, not any after that.)

-One of the domains is stronger than the others every run, so focus your initial efforts there.

-There is no way to stop omens, so you don't need to focus production in preventing them unless there are other negative events that will follow. Instead, focus on buildings that let you cure negative conditions. (e.g. Sick)

-The season change always triggers a hot/cold countdown, even if you can't see it on the prophesy. Changing to fall flips to 'cold' events and changing to spring changes back to 'hot' events.

-Because of how seasonal events work, you'll need 'cooling' buildings for your first two seasons no matter which domain is dominant, You will also need to create some 'heating' buildings before fall. Knowing this allows you to plan ahead. For other domains, you may get lucky and not need counter them this season, but there will always be seasonal events.

-You can milk sheep.

-If you have a chicken coop, but there are no wild chickens on your map, you can still lure a chicken. Same with rabbits, cows, or sheep. We can only assume these animals are captured outside the map or perhaps summoned from the void in an eldritch ritual.

-When fishing, only fish on reachable land-adjacent tiles can be exploited.

-When researching techs, you may find a '!' on some buildings: if you hover your mouse over the building, it will tell you what technology is missing to make that building work. The ! only appears if you missing requirements, so you don't waste turns researching something that will be unusable.

-Tilled soil gives a bonus to many (though not all crops), but you do not need to till soil to plant. Your pips don't need to starve early on while you research tilling and then crops. Instead, you can plant your carrots or tomatoes right in the ground, so you can research crops first.

-You can till soil under trees to boost their production. (This works for trees that already exist on the map, not just trees planted on tilled soil.)

-Tilled soil and fertile soil bonuses do not stack. That means there's no benefit to tilling fertile soil.

-The combination of hunting/BBQ is a great early sustainable food source. A single tier 1 hunter takes 3 days to produce 3 raw meat. A tile of chickens naturally regrows 1 chicken every 3 turns and a single BBQ cooks a single unit of raw meat per turn and produces 7 cooked meat. So 1 chicken tile, 1 tier 1 hunter, and one BBQ pit ratio will be self sustainable until winter. 2 pips will produce enough for 7 each turn, letting you have 5 other pips doing non food work while staying food neutral.

-Raw meat is also fantastic because raw meat and cooked meat are two different items, meaning each has its own supply cap. 40 raw meat is actually 280 cooked meat once converted at a base BBQ. Letting you store a lot more food even when you're still at the tier 1 town hall and only have 40 units of storage per resource.

-You can remove a Pip's job from the 'Pips Recap' in the top right corner of the screen. Click the red X next to the pip's job to remove it, allowing you to train them to do something else.

-If you have an injured/sick pip and you don't have the tech to heal them right now, you can remove their job and train another pip rather than waiting for them to recover.

EDIT:

There are guides now. See this guide for the accumulated tips from this thread in a bit more of an organised form: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3050444570
My next goal when I have some time will be to collect some screenshots to illustrate the tips, since most users find that helpful.

[AngelofAnger]

Thank you very much for taking your time and write this!

I am pinning this discussion: while is also nice when people manage to figure things out by themselves, is good to have answers at disposal when needed.

this post will also avoid to have the same questions asked over and over again.

[AngelofAnger]

-You can 'store' hope/health/etc for future events. For example, you can produce hope even when there are no negative events looming. This gives you a bit of a buffer against your next fear event

But all the defence resets to 0 after the event.

[RubyHummingbird]

True, it does. I'll edit the post to make it more clear. :)

[RubyHummingbird]

Also, happy to help. I had some 'things I figured out' in my head so I figured I might as well write them down for others to use, since the game is new.

I'll edit the post to add more tips as others comment.

[AngelofAnger]

My tip would be:

- when researching, you may find ! On some buildings: if you hover your mouse on it it will tell you what tecnology is missing to make that building work, the ! Only appear if you missing requirements so you dont waste turn in researching something that will be unusable.

[RubyHummingbird]

Added!

[Catman]

About the removal of job, you can also SHIFT + right click on a Pip to see its details, and you can see the Job removal action there too

[Catman]

Thank you for doing this!

[Gamer7956]

Another tip: A segmented arrow on a building's production means that the production takes multiple turns - the initial hunter's tent takes three turns to produce anything, while the upgrade does it in one turn

[shoobers]

Tilled soil and fertile soil don't stack - it'll waste actions if you do this. Ofcourse, I learned this the hard way.

[RubyHummingbird]

I made the same mistake with fertile soil. I kinda wish it did stack, since it would make 'intensive' farming in really good placements possible.

I've added both those tips! (I put them in the list close to related concepts.)

I'll add some subheadings to logically break up information when I transcribe the tips to a guide.

[RubyHummingbird]

I'm going to create a guide based on what I have so far, since not everyone changes forums, but I'll keep adding more details as people post things or as I notice questions get answered on other threads.

[HopperUK]

That signpost thing should probably be mentioned, like, anywhere. I was completely stuck once my initial berry bushes ran out.

[Pinstar]

If you have them on your map/tech tree, hunting/BBQ is a great early sustainable food source. A single tier 1 hunter takes 3 days to produce 3 raw meat. A tile of chickens naturally regrows 1 chicken every 3 turns and a single BBQ cooks a single unit of raw meat per turn. So 1 chicken tile, 1 tier 1 hunter, and one BBQ pit ratio will be self sustainable until winter.

2 pips will produce enough for 7 each turn, letting you have 5 other pips doing non food work while staying food neutral.

Raw meat is also fantastic because raw meat and cooked meat are two different items, meaning each has its own supply cap. 40 raw meat is actually 280 cooked meat once converted at a base BBQ. Letting you store a lot more food even when you're still at the tier 1 town hall and only have 40 units of storage per resource.

[RubyHummingbird]

That's a great tip. I hope you don't mind if I add it to the guide as well?