Quick Links

Setting up Outposts is an essential part of the early game in Humankind. They provide the foundation for your future cities as well as collecting natural strategic and luxury resources. Knowing when to attach them is an important part of successful city management.

RELATED: Humankind: The Best Wonders

This short guide goes over how to attach Outposts, when to attach them, and how you can use the Detach feature to manage your sprawling cities in the late game.

How To Attach Outposts In Humankind

Humankind Outposts

Outposts can be placed down during the Neolithic Era and right through the rest of the game. Each Outpost costs Influence to place, scaling from 20 all the way to a few hundred in the late game.

Your first Outposts are the most important in the game. You need to choose one that will act as your first city, and then attach the surrounding Outposts to form a larger city. We cover attaching Outposts and other starter tips in our beginner tips list.

  • Outposts cost Influence to Attach. Outposts must be adjacent to the original city's territory to be attached.
  • Outposts cost more Influence to attach per the number of Outposts already attached.
  • Outposts grow as quickly as the Industry on its tiles allow, so you want to aim for an Outpost with five or six Industry at least, especially at the start of the game.
  • Resources are important, but so is how defensible the position is. War is an important part of Humankind, and you will be attacked on the harder difficulties. Mountains, cliffs, and rivers are all important tiles to consider.

When To Attach Outposts To Your City

Humankind Outposts (1)

There are some important things to consider when attaching Outposts to your cities.

  • You want to make sure your resources are balanced. An Outpost with loads of Food is perfect when attached to the main city that has lots of Industry, for example.
  • Attaching Outposts will also reduce the Stability within the main city. This scales quite hard into the late game, so attach two or three Outposts to your main city as early as you can.
  • Two or three Outposts seem like the best number of attached Outposts on a city. You want to leave room for more cities in the future, as more cities mean more buildings, infrastructure, and independent construction.

For more advanced tips and information on how to manage cities in Humankind, check out our full city management guide.

RELATED: Humankind: Best Unique Units

The Best Build Order And How To Manage Your Cities

Humankind Outposts (2)

So what is your priority in Humankind? Seeing as attaching Outposts and evolving cities costs Influence, do you prioritize civics? Build loads of Outposts but not attach them? Rush toward a second city? Here are some tips.

  • Placing down lots of Outposts is generally a good idea, as this basically claims the territory as yours and prevents expansionist AI from grabbing it, and prevents the spawning of neutral independent cultures.
  • You don't need to attach Outposts. Ever, really, but you should eventually incorporate them into your city so that the resources are better distributed towards production or food.
  • You will have a base city cap of two in the early game. Hitting that second city early is a huge power spike, but the cost of evolving a city with Influence is very high. You're better off incorporating an independent culture or going to war with your neighbor.

A rough progress plan would look something like this: original capital city, attach two Outposts. Claim just about as much territory as you can in neighboring regions with Outposts. Spend Influence on Civics when you can, as these can provide larger boosts to your empire than a simple Outpost.

Attach Outposts to a maximum of three. You can be flexible here, but three does seem to be the perfect number. This leaves room for the formation of another city within the first 50-100 turns.

Remember, you can detach Outposts at any time. Be careful when doing this because it can cause your city to starve, lose stability, or miss out on extra Industry.

NEXT: Humankind: The Best Cultures For Each Era