The Colonists, the adorable and relaxing city building game, is now available and even though the game is meant to be cute and peaceful, you're still going to want to know the best way to ensure maximum relaxation right from the start. We take a look at how you can build a strong and stable colony, both in the campaign and sandbox mode.

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Excelling at the game requires resource management, like any city builder. These beginner tips will teach you the optimal way to get a colony up and running without using up all of your vital resources.

Start With A Well And A Sheep Farm To Feed Your Colonists

a sheep farm about to be constructed

Despite being robots, your colonists require food and water. Instead of eating and drinking though, they turn these things into energy. Your lumber and mining buildings will all require energy in order to work.

  • Tip: While you may think it's important to begin by gathering stone and logs, you'd be wrong, as you won't be able to power your miner or lumberjack robots for very long.

Wells produce a large amount of water and occupy a really small space, and Sheep Farms can be constructed to fit into little nooks and crannies. The only requirement for a sheep tile is that one of the sides of the square touches another side of a sheep tile, so you can end up with sheep throughout all the little gaps between your roads. These essentials will keep your robots, and in turn, your colony, moving.

Build Four Residences To Power Your Colony

a sheep farm flanked by houses

One Well and one Sheep Farm will provide enough food and water to sustain four Residences. That's a lot of energy for the early game, but you may as well have too much rather than too little. Start off by building two, then once they're constructed begin the next three. This will ensure your resources aren't spread too thin and energy actually starts being produced before your lumberjacks run out.

  • Four residences should see you through all of the early game.

Lumberjacks require one Energy, and miners require two - how greedy - so four Residences will produce enough energy to power two lumberjacks and one miner, which is way more than you'll need for initial resources. However, the excess energy you produce will be necessary for research. Your rocket will also provide a small amount of energy, so you'll never fully run out, but you won't get very far if you rely solely on that.

Have At Least Two Workshops For Research

a lab and a residence back to back

Having two Workshops may seem a bit wasteful, but this will drastically reduce the amount of time you spend waiting for research to be completed.

  • Your first research upgrade should always be faster research speed - getting this early will maximize its effectiveness and save you tonnes of time in the long run.

After that, it's really up to you, but faster construction speed and faster mining or seedling growth will help tremendously with resource management. Having two workshops will also help you complete missions faster, essential if you want to get the gold medals.

Start Reforesting Early To Avoid Wood Shortages

a space where trees have been cut down

Within the lumber tab, you may notice there is a reforestation station. Levels in The Colonists are not infinite, and they actually start off pretty small. So, it's important that you begin planting new trees as soon as you possibly can. The station takes no energy to run, so you have no excuse really.

  • Tip: Plant the Cypress trees, as these grow the fastest.

To ensure your forests don't grow out of control and impede colony expansion, choose a specific area that will be used for lumbering. You can then build your Lumberjack Huts and Reforesting Stations around this area, maximizing efficiency; exactly what a robot would do.

Manage Production With Storage Yards

a medium size storage yard

You may sometimes notice that your miner has decided to take a nap. They have energy, there are rocks to be mined, but they just won't do it. This is normally because their outgoing resource queue is full and they don't have space at their workstation to store more.

  • The issue of napping robots can be solved with Storage Yards.

Simply build one and set it to store some wood, planks, and stone. This will mean that even when nothing is being built, resources will go to the yards, ensuring your little worker bots are always busy.

Plan Your Builds

mission compelte screen

You should always be building something to help you progress if you're trying to finish missions as quickly as possible to get those gold medals. Planning what you want to build is essential.

  • Tip: Only build one building at a time to ensure it gets made as quickly as possible and no resources are left idle.

One way to speed up the building process is to place a storage yard near any new build areas and have them request six planks and six stone, this should cover the material cost for most intermediate buildings.

Use Watchtowers To Expand Your Territory

watchtowers on the edge of a colony

You don't get that much space to work with initially. You also never have all the resources you need right around you - you have to expand your territory so that you can grow and get diverse resources.

  • You do this by building Watchtowers that are manned by guard bots.

Level two and three watchtowers provide a greater territory bonus, so upgrade them when you can and remove any old ones that you don't need. Just make sure you save before bulldozing any in the middle, as any buildings outside of your territory will catch fire and turn to rubble.

Crops And Animals Can Only Grow On Grass Tiles

sheep farms cannot be placed on gravel

Those snowy tundras, hot deserts, and peaceful beaches are no place for crops or livestock, unfortunately.

  • You can only place animals and crops on grass tiles, so build your farms accordingly.

The best way to save space is actually to try and build a farm building on sand or snow tiles so that you maximize the amount of grass space you have.

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