TL;DR
- Service buildings require road connections and proximity to residences for immediate effect
- Production buildings need complex resource chains and warehouse connections to function
- Monitor residential buildings to track evolving needs and maximize occupancy
- Balance workforce distribution carefully when upgrading to prevent production halts
- Strategic tier upgrades boost income but require maintaining essential worker populations
Successfully managing your settlement in SteamWorld Build hinges on mastering the intricate citizen satisfaction mechanics. This comprehensive system requires strategic planning around diverse goods and services that your population demands throughout their development.
SteamWorld Build transforms city management into a dynamic balancing act where meeting citizen demands directly impacts your progression speed. As you fulfill these requirements, residential buildings gain increased capacity and generate more revenue, while unlocking the ability to advance to superior citizen tiers with expanded capabilities.
Service buildings
Service structures provide immediate benefits once constructed, requiring only proper road connectivity and strategic placement near relevant residential zones. These facilities address basic quality-of-life requirements without complex supply chain dependencies.
Strategic placement proves crucial for service effectiveness. For example, positioning General Stores within two road segments of Worker residences ensures optimal coverage. You can verify service radius by selecting any service building and observing the highlighted residential structures within its influence area.
As you can see in this image, the General Store affects almost all Worker Residential buildings, save for one.
Production buildings
Production facilities demand intricate supply chain management before becoming operational. Beyond basic road connections, they require warehouse access for product distribution and specific resource inputs from connected production chains.
The Moonshiner establishment exemplifies production complexity, requiring coordinated operations from multiple specialized buildings:
- Cactus Farm – Generates essential Cactus Water base ingredient
- Sand Sifting Factory – Must be positioned on sandy terrain to harvest Sand resources
- Glassblower – Transforms raw Sand into refined Glass products
- All production structures benefit from clustered placement near warehouses to minimize transport inefficiencies. The Moonshiner then combines Cactus Water and Glass to produce Moonshine, fulfilling Engineer luxury demands.
Advanced production facilities will eventually require supplementary materials extracted from underground mines to manufacture premium goods. For detailed mining mechanics, consult our comprehensive Workshops and Extractors guide.
You need several buildings and materials just to make Moonshine for your Engineers.
How to check the needs of citizens
Monitoring citizen satisfaction requires regular inspection of residential complexes. Selecting any residence reveals current requirements and satisfaction percentages through an intuitive interface.
The progression system unfolds systematically:
- Newly constructed residences display minimal requirements with limited occupancy capacity—Worker housing starts with five slots and basic service needs
- Expanding your settlement and reaching population milestones unlocks additional service and production structures, introducing new demands for each citizen class
- Fulfilling each requirement incrementally increases maximum occupancy, expanding your workforce and tax revenue simultaneously
- Achieving perfect 100% satisfaction for any citizen tier enables residential upgrades to advanced classes
Citizens end up having more needs, though their residential buildings also gain additional slots if you satisfy these needs.
What are the needs of Workers?
Worker class citizens form your settlement’s foundation with these essential requirements:
- Direct road access to central Train Station infrastructure
- Service: General Store – Construction cost: 200 Money units
- Service: Service Shop – Requires 400 Money and 3 Board resources
- Production: Cactus Farm – Demands 600 Money investment and 5 Boards
- Production: Charcoal – Requires operational Forester and Charcoal Kiln facilities
What are the needs of Engineers?
Engineer tier citizens introduce sophisticated production demands requiring careful resource management:
- Maintained road connectivity to Train Station hub
- Service: General Store – 200 Money construction cost
- Service: Saloon – Substantial investment: 2,000 Money and 12 Boards
- Service: Surveyor Office – Requires 2,400 Money, 5 Tools, and 4 Boards
- Service: Wash Service Shop – Advanced facility: 7,000 Money, 8 Tools, 24 Boards, and 12 Sheet Metals
- Production: Charcoal – Dependent on Forester and Charcoal Kiln operations
- Production: Moonshine – Complex chain: Moonshiner, Cactus Farm, Sand Sifting Factory, and Glassblower
- Production: Spare Parts – Manufacturing needs: Spare Parts Maker, Scrap Extractor, and Ironium Extractor
- Production: Water – Purification system: Water Purifier and Dirty Water Extractor
- Production: Robo Burger – Advanced food production: Robo Meister, Cattle Farm, Ironium Extractor, Forester, and Charcoal Kiln
Maxing out the satisfaction of a particular citizen tier lets you upgrade a residential building to a new tier.
When to upgrade to higher citizen tiers
Achieving complete citizen satisfaction unlocks tier advancement opportunities, mirroring mechanics found in premium city-building titles like Anno 1800. Upgrade requirements vary significantly:
- Workers to Engineers – Moderate transition: 300 Money, 3 Boards, and 3 Tools
- Engineers to Aristobots – Substantial investment: 7,500 Money, 6 Boards, 4 Sheet Metals, and 3 Plastics
- Aristobots to higher tiers – Requires specialized resources and advanced infrastructure
You have to decide when it’s the best time to upgrade to a higher tier. Be mindful of instances when factories or farms might cease to function.
Critical Workforce Planning: Upgrading citizens creates permanent workforce transitions that can cripple essential operations if mismanaged. Converting all Workers to Engineers eliminates your agricultural and forestry workforce, potentially halting resource production. Similarly, upgrading all Engineers to Aristobots leaves factories unmanned without operational personnel.
Since residential downgrading remains impossible, strategic planning demands maintaining balanced population distributions across tiers to ensure continuous operation of critical infrastructure.
This comprehensive guide establishes the foundation for citizen management excellence in SteamWorld Build. For advanced progression strategies, explore our specialized guides covering underground mineshaft access techniques and Old Tech/Rocket Parts discovery methods to accelerate your settlement’s technological advancement.
Action Checklist
- Construct General Store within two road segments of Worker residences for optimal coverage
- Cluster production buildings near warehouses to minimize transport delays
- Regularly inspect residential buildings to track evolving needs and satisfaction percentages
- Balance workforce distribution before tier upgrades to prevent production halts
- Maintain essential Worker population for agriculture and forestry operations
No reproduction without permission：SeeYouSoon Game Club » SteamWorld Build – How To Satisfy Citizen And Worker Needs Master SteamWorld Build citizen management with strategic tips for worker and engineer satisfaction optimization