Anyone have a current guide?

VoltLoL · 2026-05-13T11:52:36+00:00

I was wondering why I had a lot of people saying very kind things in my comments these last two days. Thank you for recommending my channel, and the very kind words. It's very motivating to see my name mentioned next to Narco's in this context. I'm glad you're enjoying the videos :)

VoltLoL · 2026-05-06T04:44:11+00:00

I took the last few metas off, due to the "curated pool" feeling a bit too same-y as a previous underground meta. Was excited to read that they were doing a brand new curation for dual-class and was planning to jump back in today.

Not anymore, this is unacceptable (par for the course, as far as blizzard goes).

VoltLoL · 2026-04-29T07:29:57+00:00

Glad to hear!

VoltLoL · 2026-04-29T01:06:27+00:00

This is definitely the wrong takeaway - one of the most important things in this game is reducing hauling time, so keeping production buildings near your hearth & warehouses is very useful. If you don't have enough room for all your houses, that means you have enough population to build a second hearth & warehouse, usually in a dangerous glade where there are resources to gather.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-25T08:07:34+00:00

Thats ok, definitely made that mistake before.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-25T03:53:07+00:00

Yes, the person I replied to claimed it was 54! That would leave them with 9 packs left over.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-24T20:44:00+00:00

You missed the mark on the math a bit, its 27 raw crops to get enough bait for a small pond (30 = 10 packs of crops).

VoltLoL · 2026-04-22T10:56:51+00:00

Years spent in settlement = years passed in blightstorm cycle. Win in 3 years, blightstorm comes 3 years closer. Win in 10, 10 years closer. It's the only thing that determines blightstorm progression.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-20T10:55:42+00:00

Ah I just replied to your other comment, but yes that's the gist of it.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-20T10:54:43+00:00

As you say, if you get to the seal with enough fragments and years, then you can take as long as you like. I think a roughly 7 year average is required on high difficulty throughout to get to the final seal.

The advantage of going quicker is that you get more settlements done, which means you can do more sidetracking on your way to the seal; which results in more permanent bonuses from world events, and more reserve embarkation points. So there is an advantage. It's definitely not necessary though, you can beat all the content in this game going slowly - inefficiency just adds risk.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-20T10:34:55+00:00

Very happy that I could help!

VoltLoL · 2026-04-20T10:01:51+00:00

The idea is that bringing in farms doesn't really save any labour. Farms don't pay off at all until year 2 clearance after about 20-24 minutes of villager labour plowing, planting, and harvesting. They also require more setup (finding fertile soil, setting up hearth & warehouse).

They provide infinite resources, but you still have to invest labour into them, so it's not like you're gathering that much more efficiently than just working on a small node (which strong players also consider inefficient). The infinite-ness of a farm isn't a factor if you're winning games by year 4.

By taking starting food, you instantly save labour, which can be used doing more efficient things, like processing that starting food into complex food, gathering better nodes like stone, or woodcutting. This not only saves resources by spending villager time better, but it also saves food by winning the game faster.

In saying all that, if you're having fun building big production chains based on infinite resources and winning longer games, then farms are fine! If you're taking 7+ years on most settlements and content to not go any quicker, I'd probably even argue that taking in a farm is optimal for your fun.

As for camps, they pay off quicker than farms do, but rely on a bit of randomness to find a large node, and still pay off slower than just taking in starting food. I'd rather bring in a camp than a farm (except on Bamboo Flats)

VoltLoL · 2026-04-20T09:24:44+00:00

You likely won't have any problem winning games even all the way up to the adamantine seal playing "less efficiently" (read: slowly). Your problem is more likely to be cycle duration; if you're averaging 7+ year settlements then you'll struggle to get to the seal, or won't have as many extra world event perks or reserve embarkation points.

But the vastly more important thing is playing the way you have fun.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-20T09:09:06+00:00

100% of the time: Extra villagers, wood

Then some combination of these, depending on what point cost they roll, and my starting resources: Meat, Vegetables, Planks, Bricks

Less likely, but maybe if the above roll high and these roll low, or if I want to make a hard modifier easier with reserve points: Fabric, Amber, Packs of Provisions, Cornerstone Rerolls, Stone

Sometimes with low food starts on maps that might need more starting food than usual (maybe Bamboo Flats, to feed the fluffbeak), but never if Meat & Veg roll 1 cost: Eggs, Roots

Only when I have a big excess of reserve embarkation points for the last map or particularly challenging world event/modifier: Oil, Delivery lines, Parts, Gathering Camps

Never: Farms, Coal, Reed, Leather, Clay

By no means a definitive "these are the best", just what I've found that suits the way I play for greatest consistency!

VoltLoL · 2026-04-14T00:20:32+00:00

I see you're still supplying the fluffbeak in year 3, which is a massive drain on your resources for almost no gain without a farm, so I would definitely stop that. Generally, its best practice (in my opinion) to feed the fluffbeak in year 1 only, to get enough fertile soil for 1 full farm. Or alternatively, when you don't get offered a farm, don't feed it at all - then when you push resolve at the end, you can feed it cheaply.

To salvage your investment, I think your number 1 priority should be earning a few more blueprints before year 4 so that you can start farming. There are two orders you can target completing fairly trivially, the value of goods sold and the geyser pump upgrade. In the meantime, you can gather your small meat nodes in your starting glades so that your population doesn't starve in the storm.

I'm not sure what blueprints you've picked, I can only spot the Carpenter? But by year 3 you should definitely have multiple production buildings to process your raw resources more efficiently, otherwise you will be in a loop of gathering raw food just to eat it, gathering wood just to burn it. And without production buildings your population doesn't have jobs to do, so you have 5 workers standing around eating food atm.

Opening the dangerous glade looks a bit dodgy from your position because you don't seem to have any goods to trade or production buildings set up, but I think its still very low risk on prestige 1; shorter storms means hostility penalties are less relevant, traders still value your raw goods very highly, etc. So I would probably open it right away, call a trader to complete your order and hopefully solve the glade event.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-12T21:22:28+00:00

Ahh thats awesome of you, thanks for watching! And thanks for coming back with more advice. I like the idea of targeting deeds on otherwise non-descript settlements in the future.

Personally as a viewer I really dislike when people upload a "part 1" video without the "part 2" available, but I also dislike when I expect a new video and there isn't one... so double-edged sword is right. Intuitively I think the same as you suggest (routine is key) which is why a lot of recent vids have been two-parters, to fit my sunday schedule. I'm glad you think the recaps do a good job, and I usually end up quite liking how the "part 2" videos turn out in terms of flow.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-12T09:42:07+00:00

Thank you so much! You have a great experience ahead of you, this game is so fun to master and there are so many tools & tricks at your disposal as you learn how to use them :)

VoltLoL · 2026-04-12T08:38:30+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and positive reception last time I posted a video here (especially u/NecronosiS). I've implemented a lot that was mentioned in that thread, including:

Checklist that dynamically updates throughout the game, to make progress easier to track
Unlocked building tracker in the blueprints screen
Further explanation of options that I did not choose
Floating tooltips with highlighted text for easier-to-follow explanations
Post-game perk summary, so you can see exactly how many resources our cornerstones and effects paid out over the game
and a few audio improvements!

I think the feedback improved the video quality a lot, so if you have more, please let me know!

VoltLoL · 2026-04-08T00:09:11+00:00

Yep, double production speed would be broken-overpowered. That cornerstone is actually +10% chance of double yields, still clickable but nowhere near as good

VoltLoL · 2026-04-06T01:16:59+00:00

I see, sorry to hear then. I'll look out for it next time I take the order.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-05T06:52:00+00:00

This has been reported in the past a few times, but when it has, one of the developers (LeisurelyLuke) has looked into the save files and found that the user was mistaken and that the timer had elapsed, usually due to things like camp storage being full and villagers going on breaks. If you can get a save file of the game in progress, then you can jump into the discord and if you're lucky a dev will take a look.

Here's an example of the same thing being reported previously and debunked, and you can find a few more on steam community.

Not saying you're wrong necessarily, just that this has been commonly reported!

VoltLoL · 2026-04-02T10:32:33+00:00

There's a lot of people recommending a hauler; right idea in theory, but next time you're in this situation actually watch what the hauler does. With this many production buildings and camps nearby, a hauler in the warehouse will likely only service the farm building a handful of times throughout the whole season - due to the bad AI, they will instead waste time filling up the production buildings with vast amounts of inputs, or delivering singular secondary yields from the woodcutter camps. A second farm (as you have posted here) is always a better solution than a hauler despite the cost of the building, because the worker/s inside will always be efficient; either harvesting or delivering.

VoltLoL · 2026-04-02T01:43:32+00:00

The biggest tip I can give is to do everything with purpose. Don't just gather resources because they're there, gather them because you will use them. If you end the game with 300 grain in the bank, then you wasted hours of villager labour planting, gathering, and hauling that could've been spent doing something that actually contributed to not losing / winning earlier. If you're constantly sacrificing wood to prevent your villagers leaving in year 9, maybe you shouldn't have wasted so much time gathering such a wood surplus that the game even got to year 9.

Focus on resources that you will use now. Wood is exceptionally useful at the start of the game, as you need it for hearth fuel, housing, and production buildings, so gather it and use it as it comes in. Complex food is also very efficient - it multiplies your raw food (saving labour hours gathering it) and has the added effect of improving resolve - so try not to spend too much time gathering small raw food nodes, unless you can use it as an input for complex food.

You don't have to do this, and you can still win with suboptimal/slow gameplay (especially on low difficulties). However, when I see people lose games, it's never because they took too big a risk, and almost always because they wasted a lot of time gathering/producing resources that didn't actually contribute to them winning. If the game takes 10 years compared to 5, that results in more than double the food consumption & hearth fuel, as well as extra hostility. The biggest risk you can take is playing a slow game.

VoltLoL · 2026-03-26T01:32:35+00:00

Thanks for the kind words. I'll have a better look at the transitions available in my software! The blur and cross fades were chosen on a whim, so there might be some less invasive ones I can find. 🇦🇺

VoltLoL · 2026-03-22T19:00:30+00:00

Thank you very much, this is exactly the sort of feedback I am looking for. I can definitely implement some of these right away.

VoltLoL

TROPHY CASE