Tutorials/Getting Started Guide
In Banished, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. You'll have to help them survive.
Contents
Starting the tutorial
The easiest way to start learning how to play the game is by selecting to play one of the tutorials from the main menu:
- Getting Started - Learn the basics of the game, including camera movement, constructing basic buildings, assigning workers to jobs, and starting a new town.
- Survival - Learn which buildings produce goods that can increase chances of survival, such as blacksmiths, tailors and foresters.
- Food Production - Learn to produce food from fishing, hunting, gathering, farming, crops, growing fruit trees and raising livestock.
- Trade - Learn how to trade produced goods for new grain seeds, orchard seeds, livestock, food, tools and other resources.
Difficulty Levels
- An easy game begins with six families. A large amount of clothing, food, firewood, building materials, and tools are provided. Houses and storage areas are have already been built. Seeds for fields and orchards are available as well as a herd of livestock."
- A moderate game begins with five families, food, firewood, tools, and construction materials are provided. A storage barn has been built. Some seeds for fields and orchards are available."
- A hard game begins with four families. A small amount of clothing, food, firewood, and tools are provided, however, no seeds for farming or orchards are available. Note that seeds and livestock will only become available once you build a Trading Post and trade with a merchant.
Controls
- Main article: Controls
| Rotate View Left | Q |
| Rotate View Right | E |
| Move View Forward | W |
| Move View Back | S |
| Move View Left | A |
| Move View Right | D |
| Pitch up | PgUp |
| Pitch down | PgDown |
Placing a building
Placing a building will leave a light brown rectangle where it will be built. To get the townsfolk to start construction, you'll have to collect logs for the structure, stone for the foundation, and iron for some buildings. The townsfolk will clear the plot of trees, stone, and iron, and will then collect and deposit the requisite materials. Once all the materials have been placed at the plot, a small frame will appear and the building is ready for a builder.
First Steps
When you begin a new game, it is important to secure certain resources and buildings within the first year. Depending on the difficulty level, resources can dwindle quickly and cause your citizens to die of hypothermia or starvation.
Food
- Food is one of the highest priorities in the game. Starting food stores deplete quickly and can easily lead to mass starvation, so it's best to get your food production up as fast as possible. The best food buildings are as follows:
- The Gatherer's Hut produces the largest amount of food both in variety and quantity. They are most productive in thick, mature forests where stone and iron have been removed. They work well with the Herbalist and Forester.
- The Fishing Dock can be placed half in large streams or lakes. It does not produce as much as Gatherer's Huts but can be placed close to town, allowing faster transit to your town center.
- The Hunting Cabin is the third viable food option during the first year. Hunting can be done in both forests and open areas, unlike Gathering. This makes it a good option to place near a Forester's Lodge, which will also remove stone and iron thus increase productivity. Hunting produces Leather in addition to meat and is required to make a Hide Coat, a necessity in the early game made by the Tailor to prevent Hypothermia.
- Crops, orchards, and livestock are not recommended early on as they are time consuming and susceptible to early frost or disease. A combination of Gatherer's Huts, Fishermen, and Hunters is best for early food production.
Housing
- Your starting families need housing from the get go; winter should be an absolute maximum time to wait. Citizens without houses will die very quickly in winter due to the cold.
- Wooden houses are recommended at first. Each family requires one house, which should be placed as close as possible to work buildings. This increases productivity by decreasing the distance a citizen has to walk from their home to their job.
- A Stone House requires a large amount of stone to build, and can be a waste of resources early in the game. They use less firewood in winter, though, which increases the amount of spare logs. Wooden houses can be upgraded to stone houses after being constructed, so to conserve resources, it's best to stick with them early on.
