Your first hour should build a stable resource engine before you chase every shiny unlock.
Quick Route
- Keep the core loop alive first: food, wood, stone, workers, and storage.
- Upgrade resource buildings that directly improve output. Into Indie Games specifically calls out the fishing hut, quarry, lumber, and iron mining as early upgrade targets.
- Use research early because it can add long-term workforce and resource-gain buffs.
- Train guards after the town guards building unlocks; resources spent on defense are painful, but losing progress is worse.
- Push the next Town Square or settlement tier only when production and storage can support the jump.
Early Priorities
The official Steam page frames the game around gathering resources, assigning workers, constructing buildings, researching technologies, passing laws, trading, and expanding toward a kingdom. That means the opening route should improve the systems that make every later choice faster: production, workforce, storage, and research.
Worker Allocation
Move workers toward the resource that blocks your next meaningful upgrade. If food is low, stabilize food. If stone blocks research or buildings, shift workers there. Avoid leaving workers split evenly when one bottleneck is clearly stopping progress.
When To Expand
Expand when your current loop can keep running without manual rescue. Before upgrading the Town Square or pushing a new phase, make sure resource buildings have at least one meaningful upgrade and storage is not wasting idle production.