Synergy – Tips for Beginners

Useful Tips and Tricks

To grow your population, you need to build more houses. Each house can hold 4 people, but to have kids, there should only be 2 adults. So if you have 12 adults, make 6 houses instead of 3. It doesn’t always mean they’ll have kids, but it makes it more likely.

Try to build houses in the shade of trees. After a while, there will be a dry season when people can get too hot if their houses are in a hot area. You can avoid this by putting houses in the shade. The easiest way is to look at the shadow map and build accordingly. But in a more advanced situation, check the temperature map.

One of the first things to build is the Field Laboratory. It lets you analyze plants on your map. Plants are the most common source of food and materials, and they grow back. So it’s important to know what they give you.

Focus on research that helps you survive. The research tree has lots of options, but your first goal is to survive. Pay attention to Exploration Missions, Cultivate Civil Engineering, Arboriculture and Advanced Arboriculture, Fruit and Vegetable Preservation, Plant Reintroduction, Sandgliders, and technologies with Points of Interest.

Note, however, that sometimes less promising research might lead to unexpected discoveries and new expedition options:

Prioritize expeditions over research. Research is important, but you’ll have time to get all the necessary nodes. Expeditions take more time to explore everything. They also provide resources you can’t get any other way. Focus on getting new plants, tablets, technological artifacts, culture, and resources you can’t produce or that don’t replenish.

Try to build all houses near the Hall of Wisdom. High-level research needs a high cultural level. The easiest way to get it is from houses influenced by the Hall of Wisdom. And it doesn’t cost resources to maintain.

Move your workers around. Build more production and service buildings than you have workers for, so you can move them around. For example, build several Pickers’ Cabins in different areas where plants grow and switch workers between them for the best harvesting. Make construction materials when you need them, and leave the buildings empty after that. You can also abandon Purification Basins in the dry season when they don’t work as well and make up for it in the temperate season. There are lots of options.

Don’t be afraid to destroy and rebuild a lot. Don’t try to build everything perfectly the first time. During the game, you’ll often realize your city layout is wrong. Maybe you built where plants should go, changed your mind about your districts, or got a new building type from research. Just destroy and rebuild differently. You’ll get all the resources back, so it only costs worker time.

Don’t waste resources on Prosperity early on. One source of Prosperity points is Housing Satisfaction, which is based on Well-Being, Social, Culture, and Knowledge for each house. There are buildings that increase these, but they cost resources. For example, the Weather Station, Scent Garden, and School. You might temporarily spend resources to get Culture for specific research, but most of the time, spending precious materials on those buildings will be a waste early on. Only do it late in the game when you want to maximize your score.