Start Here
Beginner Guide
Practical starting priorities for your settlement, party preparation, and first dungeon trips.
Quick Answer
Start with one achievable goal: get your settlement supplied, check your party's equipment, and choose a resource you need from the next trip. Use combat pause to reassess before committing to another fight. This is a preparation checklist, not a tested build order.
How To Use This
Choose One Upgrade
Our starting recommendation is to work backward from a specific shortage. Choose the improvement you want, read its recipe, and list only what is missing. That gives your next trip a purpose and helps you avoid spending the same materials on competing projects.
Check The Party Before Leaving
Look at the recruits you actually have, not a theoretical best team. Our advice is to give each member a clear job and check whether their equipment supports it. If you cannot explain what a member contributes, review their skills before spending more resources on them.
Pause Before A Bad Fight Gets Worse
Use the pause function to inspect the situation. Our checklist is simple: who is under pressure, which enemy needs attention, and are your members positioned where you intended? Do not assume that repeating the same orders will fix a fight that is already going badly.
Review What Held You Back
After a trip, note the biggest obstacle before starting another one. Was the problem a missing material, an unsuitable recruit, or a decision during combat? Fix one cause at a time. That makes it easier to tell whether your next change actually helped.
What Players Can Rely On
- Your settlement supports dungeon exploration with food, equipment, and supplies.
- Expeditions begin around four clear roles; v0.4.23 raises the maximum size to six at Rank 2 and eight at Rank 3.
- Member death is permanent, so survival matters more than squeezing in one extra fight.
What Can Still Change
- Check recipe costs and unlocked options in your current save before planning construction.
- Dungeon layouts vary. Do not treat a floor number as a promise of an easy trip.
- Dungeon stay penalties now persist when you move between normal floors. Watch the stay timer before pushing farther.
Before Your Next Run
- Pick one immediate shortage to solve rather than starting several projects at once.
- Check each recruit's skills against their equipped weapon before leaving.
- Review available rations and camping supplies for the trip you intend to make.
- Pause a difficult fight and reconsider positioning and targets before issuing more orders.
- Before returning or changing floors, read the new warning if a surviving member would be left behind.
Official Links
Check the official store page, patch notes, and current player discussions when a version-specific detail matters.
Open Dungeon Settlers on Steam
Use the Steam page for price, screenshots, system details, reviews, and official launch updates.
Open Steam pageRead official updates and patch notes
Use the Steam news hub to check patches, roadmap posts, balance changes, and release announcements.
Open Steam newsBrowse player discussions
Check current bug reports, gameplay questions, and solutions shared by Dungeon Settlers players.
Open discussionsFAQ
What is Dungeon Settlers?
Dungeon Settlers is presented on Steam as a colony-sim based dungeon crawler where players manage an expedition, build a settlement, provide food and shelter, and push into a dangerous dungeon.
Is there a fixed first building order?
This guide does not claim a tested optimal order. Follow the available tutorial steps, then prioritize the shortage in your own settlement rather than following an unsupported universal sequence.
What should new players focus on first?
Based on the confirmed premise, the safest early focus is settlement stability: food, shelter, rooms, production basics, research, expedition supplies, and party readiness.
Sources
Facts are checked against official pages and clearly linked third-party reporting where noted.