How to Recruit Settlers in Dungeon Settlers

Quick answer: Open the recruit menu at the top of the screen to see a list of candidates. Rerolling the list costs 100 gold or a wait. Judge candidates by the small growth symbol next to each stat, not by the stat itself — and you cannot hire a fifth settler until your Expedition Rank raises the population cap above four.

Where recruiting happens

Recruitment runs from a menu at the top of the interface. Opening it shows a list of candidates, each displaying their race, background and traits.

The tutorial pays 500 gold on completion and then immediately asks you to hire a fourth settler, so your first recruit is effectively scripted. Everything after that is a spending decision.

Rerolling the candidate list

If nobody in the list is worth hiring, you can refresh it for 100 gold, or wait for it to refresh on its own. Patch v0.4.12 fixed a bug where the recruit-refresh confirmation dialog could get stuck open when using a Confirm Notice keybind, which is a useful confirmation that the reroll is a normal, repeatable action rather than a one-off.

Unconfirmed: how long the automatic refresh takes. We have not been able to verify a figure, and we are not going to invent one.

The growth symbol is the whole game

Next to each stat on a candidate card is a small symbol showing how much that stat will rise when the settler levels. That symbol is worth more than every number beside it.

The reason is simple: a level 1 settler with high current stats and poor growth will be overtaken, permanently, by a settler with mediocre stats and strong growth. High numbers at level 1 mean very little.

This single mechanic explains both of the complaints you will find on the Steam boards:

• "Recruiting is a gamble with little reward." It is, if you compare current stats — because current stats are close to noise at low level.
• "A settler raised from level 1 beats a high-level recruit." They do, because you control their growth: more mana stones spent over a longer career, and your choice of inscriptions and traits instead of whatever they arrived with.

The game does not display every aptitude up front, so there is still guesswork. A candidate who is already level 2 and carries an uncommon trait is a lucky find — they will usually be visibly stronger than a level 1 candidate at the same price.

Race matters more than looks

There are four races — Human, Elf, Lizardman and Lychan — and they have different aptitudes. Lizardmen have low magic aptitude, so a Lizardman spellcaster is a trap. Elves are strong with bows.

Racial food reactions are also a hiring consideration, because a settler who cannot eat what you stockpile becomes a mood problem. Lizardmen who eat plants suffer plant rage; Elves are unhappy eating meat. You can set per-settler consume policies, but the more mixed your settlement, the more food logistics you are signing up for.

The fifth settler question

"Is there a point to recruiting past four units?" is one of the most active questions on the Steam forums, and the honest answer starts a step earlier: at the beginning, you cannot recruit a fifth at all.

Your population cap is set by your Expedition Rank, which begins locked at four. The rank rises with contribution points, earned by completing expedition objectives and other in-world actions. Only after the rank goes up does a fifth settler become possible.

Once it is possible, the value is real but indirect. You can only take four settlers into the dungeon — that limit does not move. A fifth settler stays home, which means they work the settlement while the party is underground: crafting, farming, research. So the question is not "is a fifth party member worth it" but "is a fifth worker worth the food and housing", and that depends on whether your settlement bottleneck is production or supply.

What to do with your first 500 gold

A practical order of operations for the tutorial payout:

1. Open the recruit list and read the growth symbols across all candidates before spending anything.
2. If two or more candidates have strong growth in stats your party lacks, hire the one whose race fits your food situation.
3. If none do, reroll for 100 gold — a reroll is cheaper than a settler you will regret for the rest of the run.
4. Keep enough gold in reserve to rebuild. Death is permanent here, and rebuilding a wiped party is a gold problem.

FAQ

See also: how levelling works, your first party, and the camping kit.