Description[]
Recruiting villagers is how you gain more people for your settlements. They are the backbone of your settlement. They do all of the tasks and some that you can't do. They research, they hunt, they cook and they are better builders. A villager like the player, can develop their professions (skill) by performing the tasks repeatedly. Many settler skills start at 0 and require training to even begin being useful to your settlement. The earliest food dish requires a level 2 in the cooking profession. Grilling meat requires the appropriate raw meat then a campfire and wood. They can also read skill books once every 30 minutes for various experience points depending on the skill book quality. All of your villager tasks are based by their attained profession skill levels. By assigning priorities you have better control over the tasks they do. Lower numbers on the priority bar will be done first, higher numbers will be done last. If you click the very last priority 🛇 (general prohibition symbol), settlers will not perform that task at all.
You need to be aware of the settlers profession level. Everything in game has a Profession level requirement or a stat requirement. Some recipes need level 5 cooking to be cooked. If you don't have a villager with level 5 cooking it will not be cooked. You'll also need any required resources. You'll also need to schedule the task. In most cases you'll probably want to use the Top-Up order to maintain a consistent supply.
Settlers and their performance in your settlement are impacted by food buffs, equipment, many have their own unique personal traits and additionally are impacted by a morale buff. There are also negative buffs from damage, lack of food and other factors. Some settlers are picky and don't want to live in your village if more than 2 other villagers originate from the same village.
You can leave a settler homeless in your settlement if you want, but it impacts their morale which impacts their productivity and if it gets low enough they will leave your settlement. If you have enough room the game will automatically assign them a housing. In some cases (reconstruction of settlement) you may need to directly assign a home to your settlers. Some places such as the Tavern also provide housing. You can always opt to "Expel" a villager from your settlement. They will return to the village they were recruited from. The game will warn you that the NPC may not want to join you again afterwards. However, this does not seem to be a problem testing shows NPCs are re-recruitable, though that may change in the future.
Your settlers will sustain injuries from bandits, creatures and even yourself and "die". While it does seem like they die... it's probably more appropriate to say your villagers get knocked out. When they take too much damage the game will tell you they have sustained injuries and they will remain lying down wherever they were knocked out. After advancing the in-game days enough, they will respawn back in the village. Some respawn quickly in a day some take longer 5 days or more. This is probably impacted by their overall profession level or "tier".
All professions can attain a max level of 10. However settlers do have level caps that cannot be exceeded. Certain NPC's called Apprentices are only recruitable after earning enough respect/trust from they villages they live in. This usually involves becoming popular in a village, achieving rank 3 trust (Protector) with the village then assisting the village in rebelling, you could also choose to attack the Brigand Faction members in a village to start this, building a Village Belltower and then advancing the trust level to 4 "Bellwright". However there are some apprentices that you can recruit before becoming a Bellwright. The Apprentices are far more proficient than non-apprentices. In general "Apprentices" have higher skill level caps and start out at higher levels 3 in a profession unlike most villagers you can recruit. A village marked as an Expert Blacksmith contrarily is not recruitable to your settlement. Generally, an expert will serve as a quest giver NPC in a village.
Roles[]
Settlers can be assigned one of three roles: Worker, Companion, Guard.
- A worker is a settler who does everything crafting, cooking, hunting, researching and so on.
- A companion will fight alongside you, serving as a bodyguard. They assist with difficult combat situations. They can also carry items for you, more so if you equip them with bags and backpacks.
- A guard protects your settlement and the other settlers. They reduce the likelihood of a bandit raid occurring.
Trivia[]
- You can beef up a village's resistance to a bandit raid or reclamation party, by recruiting a villager investing in their skills, and providing them better equipment and expelling them back to their home Village.