Dungeon Settlers Beginner Guide: What to Do First

If you are starting Dungeon Settlers for the first time, do not try to solve the whole settlement at once. Build a reliable first party, learn the recruitment and levelling rules, then make longer dungeon trips once your camp and resource plan are ready.

Start with the right first party

Start with Crawling Doom, not the sandbox, while you are learning the basics. Your first four settlers do not need perfect stats. They need a workable spread of jobs, enough food to finish a trip, and skills that keep the party alive.

Read the full beginner party guide for the starting roster, the first recruit, early skills and the first craft worth making.

Recruit for growth, not starting numbers

Recruiting is not a simple search for the biggest starting stat. Candidate growth symbols matter more, and the list can be rerolled for 100 gold. Before spending your early money elsewhere, learn how the candidate list works and why a fifth settler is not immediately available.

Continue with how to recruit settlers.

Level up at the Goddess Statue

Dungeon Settlers has no normal experience bar. Settlers level up by praying at a Goddess Statue and spending mana stones, so do not assume a party member is stuck because no XP number is moving. The current Early Access level cap is 6.

See how levelling works before spending mana stones or planning around a higher cap.

Put down a camp before long dives

Once you are planning a trip of two days or more, research Campsite Setup and prepare a Basic Camping Kit. A camp restores energy and lets you cook and repair underground, but it is placed from the build menu's special tab and cannot be picked back up.

The camping kit guide covers the placement rule and the mistakes that waste one.

Plan the first resource runs

Two resources are easy to misunderstand early:

• Clay starts dropping from enemies on floor 3 of the first region; it is not in the early chests.
• Carapace and Hard Shell comes from the second region's enemies, including Gloth, and the drop rule is scheduled to change.

Do not spend a whole expedition searching the wrong floor. Match the resource to the region and take a camp when the trip is long enough to justify it.

A simple first-hour route

1. Start Crawling Doom and make a balanced four-settler party.
2. Recruit with growth symbols in mind instead of chasing the highest starting stat.
3. Unlock the Goddess Statue and spend mana stones deliberately.
4. Gather the materials for a Basic Camping Kit before planning a deep dive.
5. Reach floor 3 before farming clay for settlement buildings.
6. Return to the full guide index when a specific question comes up.

The goal of the first trip is not to clear the game. It is to return with a party that can make the next trip longer and safer.