Your First Settlement

A walkthrough of your first game session, covering what happens in the first 50 ticks and the key decisions that shape your colony.

Starting State

When you begin a new game, you have:

• 5-8 elves with randomized skills, aesthetic positions, and starting needs
• Resources: a small starting stockpile of Wood, Stone, and Food
• No buildings — your elves are in the open
• Season: Spring (the most forgiving season — resource regeneration is doubled)
• Forest Spirit: at 0 (Harmony)

The Dummy Curator is active by default and will auto-assign initial roles based on each elf's highest skill.

First 25 Ticks: Establish Basics

Priority 1: Check Your Elves

Press 1-9 to select each elf, then Enter to see their detail panel. Note:

• Who has the highest Music skill? They should be composing.
• Who has the highest Gathering skill? They should be gathering.
• The curator usually handles this, but check the Work Assignments screen (w) to verify.

Priority 2: Watch the Events Panel

Press e to open the events panel. Early events tell you what's happening:

• Role assignments from the curator
• Elves starting to forage and gather
• Social interactions as elves meet each other

Priority 3: Start Building

The curator will typically queue a Dwelling first (10 Wood). Dwellings provide shelter and faster rest recovery (+5/tick vs. base rate). Check the Build Management screen (b) to see the queue.

If you have a Builder-role elf, they'll start quarrying stone and constructing automatically.

Suggested early build order:

1. Dwelling — shelter from weather, faster rest
2. Workshop — composing station, stimulation boost
3. Garden — beauty +3/tick, calms forest spirit -2/dawn

Ticks 25-50: First Compositions and Social Bonds

Compositions Begin

Composer-role elves will start creating music once they have enough inspiration. Watch for "composed" events in the event panel. Early compositions are typically low quality (skill level 1-3), but they improve as elves gain XP.

XP note: each level costs level × 50 XP. A level 1 elf needs just 50 XP to reach level 2. See Skills.

Relationships Form

Elves form bonds through proximity and shared experiences. After ~25 ticks, you'll see Friend and occasionally Rival relationships appearing. Elves with similar aesthetic positions bond more easily. See Relationships.

Watch the Needs

Needs decay continuously:

If any elf's morale drops below 50 (Stressed tier), they'll appear with a warning indicator in the roster (r).

First Revel

The Dummy Curator schedules a revel when:

• A Feast Hall exists (15 Wood, 5 Stone), or the curator decides to hold one anyway
• Food stockpile is sufficient (>= 5, or >= 15 in Winter)
• Cooldown from last revel has expired

Revels are the core social event — they satisfy Beauty and Stimulation needs, generate mood modifiers, and reveal how your elves react to each other's compositions.

See Revels for the full lifecycle.

Key Milestones

What to Watch For

• Forest Spirit: if you clear too much forest, the spirit meter rises. Stay below 20 for Harmony. See Forest Spirit.
• Discontented elves: if an elf shows the discontented indicator, their satisfaction has been low for 300 ticks. You have 500 more ticks before they depart. Prioritize their needs.
• Seasonal shift: Winter starts at day 75. Foraging drops to ×0.5 (halved again with snow). Summer (×1.5) and Autumn (×1.25) are your stockpiling windows. See Seasons & Weather.

Tips for New Players

• Pause early and often (Space) — take time to explore screens and understand the UI
• Don't clear Ancient Forest unless necessary — it gives the most wood but angers the spirit the most (+5 anger, +7 in Spring)
• Gardens are powerful — +3 beauty/tick for nearby elves AND -2 spirit anger/dawn, even in Winter
• Let the curator work — the Dummy Curator makes reasonable decisions. Override via Work Assignments (w) only when you disagree
• Use artistic direction (d) to guide the colony's cultural output without micromanaging