Dungeon Settlers Recruitment

Recruit is a colony verb

The Guild sends you to barren land. Candidates appear at camp, not as random dungeon NPCs you “talk into joining.” If the button is grey, you are usually at population cap for the current clan rank, or a tutorial beat still wants a workstation. Fix the cap or the quest, then reopen Recruit.

After hire, the new member is a colonist: they eat, sleep, haul, and research. They only become a dungeon problem when you put them in the four-person party. That split is why a “pretty fighter” who cannot research still has a job — and why a combat-only hire with no bed still tanks mood & stress.

Inspect is not optional

The list lies by omission. Portraits do not show talent bands, and background names do not list every tree. Open inspect, read Strength through Perception, then the trees. If inspect is skipped, you are gambling a permadeath body.

Some candidates list inscriptions for an extra cost. Treat those as permanent traits, not cosmetics. If the extra fee buys a tree your party is missing, it can be worth it; if it buys flavour, wait for the next pool.

Talents are the growth ceiling

Talents are not the current number; they are how far that major can jump on level-up. A mediocre Strength score with a high talent still becomes a carrier. A high Strength with a dead talent stalls. For a beginner party, prefer talent bands you can read at a glance over a single inflated stat.

Head and torso health later depend on Constitution and gear, but the inspect screen is where you refuse a glass cannon who will eat an Aid Kit on the first elite. Combat numbers belong on combat; here you only decide whether the body is allowed to exist.

Backgrounds gate the trees you can even click

City Guard, Poacher, Mage, and the rest are not cosmetics. They decide which main trees appear at the top of the skill window. Inscriptions can later graft a missing tree — that is a level-up gamble, not a day-one plan. If you need a shield wall this week, hire a background that already has Shield or Spear, then read skills.

Sub trees (Warrior, Guardian, Fortress, and siblings) also ride the background. Do not assume every sword user gets the same sub row. If the inspect pane lists nothing you can equip, skip the hire even if the face is rare.

Race is a kitchen problem

Humans and Lizardmen are the usual opening pool; Elves appear once clan rank allows (verify on your save). Elves punish meat; Lizardmen punish vegetables. If your settlement food policy still auto-eats whatever is on the floor, a mismatched race is a mood leak before the portal.

Four through the portal, more at camp

Clan rank raises expedition population above four, but combat does not. Extra hires research, cook, haul, and become replacements when permadeath deletes a slot. If you only ever hire four pretty fighters, the first death ends the run’s depth, not just the fight.

Pack weight is Strength plus inventory. Overloaded members crawl, miss pauses, and die to packs. Split loot so the Intelligence mage is not also the bone mule. Equipment and resources are where that math continues.

Do not clone the same background

Four City Guards look disciplined and then you have no bow and no research speed. Duplicate trees also fight over the same inscriptions you wanted to specialise. Diversity is not flavour — it is coverage when stun, bleed, or a magic resist wall shows up.

Once four names are locked, stop recruiting “just in case” until beds, food policy, and a research node exist. Idle mouths without rooms are a mood & stress tax.

Waiting is cheaper than a bad body

Permadeath does not refund Hire. A filler colonist with no trees still eats, still needs a bed, and still can die on a panic fourth slot. If the pool is junk, queue research, enclose another room, and come back when the list rolls.

Do not confuse clan-rank race unlocks with refresh. Elves showing up is a rank gate; the same Human poacher disappearing is a timer. If a race you expected is missing for days, check rank first, then the pool.

What to do during the wait

Start a research node, set food policies so high-tier meals are not auto-eaten, and craft the weapon the next hire will need. The beginner guide loop is settle → recruit → research → short expedition. Standing in Recruit with an empty camp is how days evaporate.

Main points versus sub points

Level-ups grant main skill points and sub skill points separately. A background that opens a main tree you never equip wastes the main points. Sub trees still want a plan — Guardian versus raw damage is a pause-combat decision, not a recruit-screen afterthought.

Skill Reset Elixir exists (dungeon chests; clan rank can guarantee one — verify). Do not hire on the assumption you will reset. Hire as if the first tree is permanent.

Inscriptions on the hire ticket

If inspect shows a pre-installed inscription, you are paying for a trait you cannot reroll on level 1. That can be a grafted weapon tree or a dead legendary-looking name. Read the effect. If it does not help the four-person party or camp labour, skip — Retry on later levels is for inscriptions, not for this screen.

One habit that fixes most hires

Read the trees out loud against the weapons on your benches. If you cannot finish the sentence “this person swings X,” do not hire. Then send the four through a short expedition instead of a vanity deep floor.