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📋 Work Priorities
🔧 Manual Mode: Better Once Roles Matter
The lower-left control in the Work tab changes modes. Standard mode follows the work-column order; manual mode lets you set a priority for each pawn and job. Once roles start to matter, manual priorities are usually easier to diagnose and adjust.
| Priority | Meaning | Assign To |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Highest—drop everything | Firefight, Patient, Bed Rest (every colonist) |
| 2 | Primary role—specialist's main job | Doctor, Cook, Constructor, Grower |
| 3 | Do when idle | Haul, Clean, Hunt, secondary skills |
| 4 | Last resort | Low-priority crafting or mining |
| Blank | Disabled—never do | Tasks unsuited to the colonist |
⚠️ Critical rule: Colonists finish ALL work at one priority before moving to the next. If Hauling is set to 1, they'll haul every object on the map before doing anything else! Priority 1 ONLY for emergency tasks.
👤 Recommended Setup — Copy This
All colonists: Firefight 1 · Patient 1 · Bed Rest 1 · Basic 1
Specialist assignments (each person gets 1-2 at priority 2):
| Role | Priority 2 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor | Doctor | Highest Medical skill, nothing else at 2 |
| Cook | Cook | Best Cooking skill, dedicated to meals |
| Builder | Construct | Walls, furniture, repairs |
| Farmer | Grow | Planting and harvesting—don't let others compete |
| Miner | Mine | Dedicated miner, other work secondary |
| Researcher | Research | Highest Intellectual, glued to the research bench |
All colonists at priority 3: Haul · Clean · Plant Cut
🎯 Skill Matching — Read Colors, Chase Flames
- Box color: Red = terrible skill (slow, high fail rate). Bright yellow = excellent. Match work to high skills
- Flame icons: One flame 🔥 = interested, learns fast. Two 🔥🔥 = burning passion, rockets through levels. No flame = slow learner
- "Incapable Of" ≠ skill 0: Some colonists literally cannot do certain work (check Bio). Skill 0 = can do it but very slowly. Incapable = never
📖 All Work Types Quick Reference
| Category | Work Types | Key Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency | Firefight | — |
| Medical | Patient · Doctor · Bed Rest | Medical |
| Social | Warden · Childcare | Social |
| Production | Cook · Construct · Smith · Tailor · Art · Craft | Cooking/Construction/Crafting/Artistic |
| Outdoor | Grow · Mine · Plant Cut · Hunt · Handle | Plants/Mining/Shooting/Animals |
| Logistics | Haul · Clean | — |
| Research | Research · Dark Study (Anomaly DLC) | Intellectual |
💡 Efficiency Tips
- Right-click force: Select colonist → right-click target → force immediate action. Shift+click to queue tasks
- Allowed areas: Restrict colonists to zones to cut pointless long-distance travel
- Proximity layout: Kitchen next to freezer, workshop next to storage—minimize hauling distance
- As population grows: individual micro-management becomes harder to sustain. Move toward bills, allowed areas, and stable work assignments.
🧭 Reprioritize by Situation, Not by Habit
The Work tab is a live control panel, not a one-time setup. Temporarily change it for a real bottleneck, then return to normal roles.
| Situation | Bring forward | Return to normal when |
|---|---|---|
| Fire, raid, or downed pawn | Firefighting, patient care, doctoring, rescue, and rest | Immediate danger and unstable injuries are handled |
| Harvest time or meals run low | Harvesting, cooking, and food hauling | There are safe meals and a workable buffer |
| Weather damage or broken essentials | Construction, repair, and moving key supplies indoors | Roof, temperature, and power are stable |
| Quiet period | Research, crafting, cleaning, lower-priority projects | The next urgent bottleneck appears |
💡 Debugging a "lazy" pawn: check for a higher-priority job, an allowed-area block, or no valid work target.
⚠️ Work-Tab Mistakes That Create Chaos
- Everyone can do everything: your cook can drift into hauling; give critical roles an owner and backup.
- Hauling and cleaning stay on top forever: promote them for a specific problem, then lower them again.
- Assigning by skill alone: check backstory restrictions and health first.
- Changing the whole grid at once: adjust one cause, observe, then move to the next.
For a small colony, pair this with the survival guide. If care backs up, inspect medical care.
📋 Your work tab changes with colony size
1. Goals for 3, 5, and 10 colonists
| Colony size | Someone must cover | Can become dedicated | Do not dedicate yet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 colonists | Firefighting, doctoring, cooking, building, growing, hauling | One low-priority researcher only | Long-term single-person cleaning, art, or production roles |
| 5–7 colonists | Every critical job still has a backup | A primary cook, builder, grower, or researcher | Everyone permanently hauling and cleaning |
| 10+ colonists | Doctors, cooks, fire response, and defense have rotation | Logistics, production, and research can be stable roles | Maintaining daily work only through forced orders |
2. When trouble starts, temporarily change only four job groups
| Signal | Raise now | Lower now | Restore when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crops mature or food is low | Harvest, cook, haul | Research, art, nonessential production | Meals and a safe reserve exist |
| Injuries, fire, or a raid | Firefight, patient care, doctoring, rescue | Mining, trips, long projects | The threat ends and injuries stabilize |
| Freezer, power, or roof failure | Build, repair, haul critical supplies | Low-priority cleaning and processing | Temperature, power, and roof recover |
⚠️ Do not leave hauling and cleaning at top priority forever: they can consume the whole day. Raise them temporarily for harvests, moves, or hygiene failures.