This guide is made for Against the Storm version 1.1.4, and it assumes that you (the player) has finished the in game tutorial, which I believe is pretty excellent to explain the basics of the game.

Basically, the highest priority in any settlement is always food.
Without food your villagers will starve to death, and defeat is inevitable. So take caution if you're embarking into marshlands and orchard.
Humans have the ability to reveal fertile soil which guarantees replenishing supply of food.

The second highest priority is resolve.
If your villagers have negative resolve (red), they will leave. You gain impatience, and if this keeps happening, you lose.
If villagers have enough resolve (blue), you will gain reputation (aka win point). Gain enough point, and you win the game.

However, there's no difference between 1 resolve and 14 resolve.
So unless you can make a species' resolve blue, there's no reason to satisfy a need, like coat, pies.
In that case, literally disable everything you can't make sustainably and use only to prevent resolve from becoming red in tougher storms.

With extra resolve, you can starve your villagers - denying them any kind of food. They will gain stacks of hunger with resolve penalty, some species like foxes will die from 3 stacks of hunger, lizards up to 12. It's a strategy often used when food is sparse.

Most people will tell you that rushing complex food is a great idea because complex food is multiplying. Example : the smokehouse turns 4 meat into 10 jerkies.

The elephant in the room is not all complex food is created equal.
Let's say you picked beanery to make porridge year one.
Storm hits and the lizards are leaving. Lizards don't like porridge.
Humans do, but humans are always last to leave.
So if that porridge can't make your resolve blue, at best, food sustainability, and at worst, wasted blueprint choice.

Let's say you salvaged the situation by trading stuff for pottery to make pickles.
Another storm hits, your harpy ran out of 50 starting coats - and they are leaving.
Now you wished that you get smokehouse instead, because you can make jerky for both species.

However, let's say that once again, you salvaged the situation. You repaired a clothier and make coats. Another storm hits, you didn't ran out of food, but you ran out of fabric to make coat.

And this time you see the real problem.
1. Except everything that grows or made from fertile soil, eventually, you will ran out of things to make things. Even wood.
2. When you ran out of resources, you will be cornered into opening whatever glade fancies you, and hope RNG is merciful at you. I've been there, done that.

And just like I did, you told yourself : if only I had gotten A instead of B at year one, I won't run out of fabric so soon!
This game, A is granary, B is beanery.
Last game, A is carpenter, B is furnance.
Next game, A is probably kiln, and B is probably lumber mill.

Instead of trying your best to deal with RNG, make due with what you have, eventhough you didn't get what you need, what if there's another option?
One that you might not consider yet, until you read my guide.
One that is NOT mutually exclusive, and actually helps you further to reach victory?

You might heard of the guy who had a 88 P20 win streak before losing a single game. He did all the nastier modifiers like forbidden glade, ancient battleground, untamed wilds, and he claims that none of his game is unwinnable scenario. Every defeat is human error. And I believe RonEmpire, 100%.

And then you asked - why?
Because, out of my 100 games, at least half being P20, I haven't lost yet.


Please take note : I do not claim that I am undefeated. I just haven't lost yet. It will definitely happen, and the only way it doesn't happen is by stop playing.

You can see Ron's videos on how he did that 88 win streak, but in my case - I usually win by trading.
Usually it looks like this.


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Again. Same game, same season - call the trader!

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1. Massive added value
Everything in this game has amber value, and the most profitable are pack of trade goods and pack of luxury goods. Even with 1 star recipe it's still handsome profit.
Just look at the number :
6 flour, 0.06 each = 0.36 amber
Becomes
2 packs of trade goods, 0.75 each = 1.5 amber
Even with P10 malus, by selling these directly to trader, you still profit. With trade routes, more.

2. Available upon demand
Remember how many times that you need jerky but what you have is porridge? Need fabric but only have brick?
That's right, with trading, in addition to massive added value, you're "storing" your resources to convert it to whatever you need. Even with goods worth -50% vs trader it's still profitable with trade goods/luxury goods.

"But what if the merchant doesn't sell me the pickles that I need?"
When you don't have many blueprints yet, usually pickles aren't they only thing that you need, and you'll more likely to get that missing puzzle.
That puzzle could be a need that gains you reputation, and consequently blueprint, or a perk that you desperately need, or a building that actually produce pickles and lets you get out of a pickle in perpetuity! (pun intended)😆😆😆

Just remember - some merchants don't sell food, some don't sell fuel. Some don't buy food, some don't buy fuel. Always refer to this page for the most up-to-date trader goods :
https://hoodedhorse.com/wiki/Against_the_Storm/Trader_Wares

3. Diverse list of ingredients
To make pack of trade goods you need either : flour, oil, waterskin, barrel, pottery, or pigment
To make pack of luxury goods you need either : wine, scrolls, ale, tea, incense, training gear
With such a diverse set of ingredients, it's almost a certainty that you'll come across one (or multiples) of them

4. Ridiculously powerful synergies
The perk that gives +1 to all packs of goods.
The added value tax cornerstone.
Guildhouse, prosperous settlement that gives +1 global resolve every 60 amber value traded.
Trade hub = 1 reputation point per 60 amber value traded.
Protected trade was -15 hostility per 25 amber value traded. Even with -10/30 it's still good.
Friendly relations. Generous Gifts
Frequent caravans.
All those perks depends on trading, and if you have them, naturally you will win more!

Rule #1 : Unless food is an issue, always prioritize the 3 major blueprints (Plank, Fabric, Brick)

Why? Remember when you need brick but only have fabric? Well at least you have fabric, you'll DEFINITELY need fabric at some point.

Rule #2 : pick whatever you can use NOW - not later

If you don't get something in this game, you get another. If you don't get brick, you get fabric. You can still trade your fabric. So it goes without saying that the worst thing in this game is a blueprint that you can't use aka nothing.

Plank blueprints :

• Carpenter. Widely considered the best blueprint
  
• Lumber Mill. Cheapest plank, and trade goods
  
• Supplier. Flour and waterskin into trade goods

Fabric blueprints :

• Granary. Pickles is +8
  
• Weaver. Trade goods and training gear
  
• Leatherworker. Cheapest to build. Pigment and waterskin into trade goods

Brick blueprints :

• Kiln. Instant pick if fuel is issue
  
• Furnance. Copper ingots and pies
  
• Brickyard. Cheapest brick, pottery, and blue ingot

What if you get overlapping blueprints?
... You mean like this?

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It might still work. It's coral. Unending supply of blue ingots to make tools with both packs to trade for whatever I need? Sign me in.

Furthermore, whenever you're certain that you'll get ingots, either by crafting or trading, the toolshop is an instant pick.
... Because, the game you saw there was completed in 4 years.

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Besides Coral, I usually prefer Royal Woodlands, where food is least concern, and I almost always survive to year 4-5 without any complex food, until resolve/hostility is a bigger issue.
I probably can count how many times play in marshlands or orchard without humans with one hand.

I also usually embark with plantation, because among three farms, plantation is the clear winner.
The small farm only gives 3 vegetable, and 6 wheat isn't edible, unless you field kitchen it, which requires a rain collector, if you can't find any geyser.
The same goes for herb garden, only 3 root, and 6 herb isn't edible.

Besides 6 berries, there's another reason why plantation is superior : fiber.
Plant fiber is very desirable for 1 reason only : oil.

• Oil as a fuel is used for a lot of recipes, jerky, pottery, incense
  
• Oil is the only fuel which you sacrifice, and ends up with more, because +25% global production speed means more of everything produced... Including oil 🤣🤣🤣
  
• Oil is also used for a lot of glade events
  
• Oil can also be turned into pack of trade goods, and win you the game with 500 amber in bank.

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And surprisingly, all the buildings that produce oil is good!

• Press. 3 stars oil, flour, luxury goods
  
• Druid's hut. 3 stars oil, coat is nice to have, incense not really useful, but some events require it, and incense is easiest in royal. And made into nice luxury goods
  
• Butcher, the only 2 stars oil. Remember when I said not all complex food is created equal? Lizards, harpies, foxes have 5 base resolve. Butcher provides you skewer and jerkies for those three early quitting species!

What about service buildings?
If you have pack of trade/luxury goods running, there is literally only one service building that is an auto-pick. We all know which one - it's the guild house, because +1 global resolve every 75 amber traded.


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How did I get +11? It started with buying things that I need, then after my production chain has enough perks, I call the trader repeatedly and dump everything. Because the added value of my packs was bigger than literally everything else in my production chain. Win🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

You told me this strategy sounds like a winning plan, you embarked with plantation and got press, then you had ship event that you cannot solve with your oil.
And you traded away a lot of oil to clear the glade event. With the trader -50% malus.

BIG mistake.
It took me like 20 games to realize that losing the event does not mean you lose the settlement.

Look, I lost an event in a Mosquito Swarm.
It's the modifier with no orders, and traders come -50% slower.

What was the consequence? Corruption grows 50% quicker, and 1 impatience point - just build more blight post. Was roughly 1 blight post every 10 cyst, now it was 1 blight post every 7 cyst. Use less water every 3rd year. Problem solved.

Now compare that vs losing 3/4 of your wood; all of your bricks; every resin, eggs, wheat you can spare, just to you win the event, but at what cost? If you're out of luck you'll ran out of fuel, or food, that you traded away.

IMHO, out of all the dangerous glade events, there's only one that you CANNOT afford to lose, and that is the fuming machine. Because if it explode, then we lose the entire glade, pop open even more glades, which means more hostility and less of everything.

For everything else, losing the glade is an option



And still win. Also P20. And a rather short red impatience bar.

So what about hostility?
The answer : it depends.



In this P20 Forefather's Statue game, I had 4 malus :

• -10 resolve if open glade during storm : no issue, just don't open during storm
  
• -1 sacrifice stack : if I sacrifice more than 1 stack then usually something went terribly wrong
  
• Can't favor : will lose lizards if I'm not being careful
  
• Hunger double stack : no issue whatsoever, that single plantation there feeds everyone

So in this situation,I realized that I don't need that 2 x -50 hostility because my villagers can tank resolve hit. The malus just aren't hostile enough. It's nice to have them to win faster, but not needed.

The win condition was buying pigment/wine, and made scrolls, to turn them into pack of luxury goods with press. Also infinite oil game.



Still year 7 win with a wasted cornerstone, only get 16 marrow until game is won.
Forefather's statue. Lol

One sentence : DO NOT BE AFRAID.

As weird as it sounds, after 100 games I am almost certain that the RNG in this game is biased towards helping the player.
If you're playing forbidden lands (every glade is forbidden glade), anything that increases glade event work speed, mist piercer, and ancient power is much more likely to show up.

I accidentally started P20 forbidden lands and ancient pact was offered year one. That particular cornerstone allowed me to see whatever the contents of a glade, which means that every encounter is predictable with the maximum loot possible.
(no screenshot sadly)

You might say, ancient power is coincidence.
But in untamed wilds, it's carved in stone. I was offered Hidden Reward three times and picked three of it.

Hidden Reward gives me ancient tablets for every event I completed, combined with the archeologist, I tamed a giant stormbird... In a second.

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And get the chest achievement.

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Again, was it a coincidence? I think no.
But do take note, I did untamed wilds in viceroy, with 4 blueprint choices instead of 2.

And still another example. Fishman Outpost - no orders. I did this modifier twice. The first one, the queen was preoccupied with another matter. Impatience grew 70% slower during drizzle. The first blueprint offered was carpenter.

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Nice skeletons.
The second one, there's only one dangerous glade near my starting point, and it has three ruins.
Coincicence? I still think, no.

Yet another example, Storm Ant Column. It's one of the nastier modifier where you start with no food. Pretty scary, eh?
And this is what I get :

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Even if I didn't get this, I'd probably farm that meat camp nearby - which I did anyway.
Again, was it another coincidence?

Situational :

• Give X if you produce Y is no, unless you have Y unlocked, or Y is easy like 3 barrel for every 10 planks, 3 oil every 10 flour.
  
• More X, but less Y, i.e. +1 wood but planting/harvesting is slower 25%, +100% camp yield, but half farm yield.
  
• Cheap construction is better early, and lame when it's late. You can still abuse it by destroying your expensive buildings, pick that cornerstone, and rebuild it. But is it worth the time?
  
• Woodcutter's prayer
  
• Back to nature. Blood flower = game over
  
• Generous rations
  
• Exploration contract. Almost instant pick if offered early, near zero value if offered late
  
• Secure perimeter : I open forbidden glades mostly in marsh

Usually no :

• More villager means more mouth to feed, more needs to satisfy, but doesn't mean more jobs
  
• I have 100% achievement in dark souls and it's harder without consumption control or trading
  
• Meat, amber, tools, if your villager leave or die. Wasted in P20 games, where you'd probably lose if 3-4 villagers leave, so what's the point
  
• Guild catalogue, no reason to pick a cornerstone that lets you buy one more cornerstone
  
• +1 human/beaver/lizard resolve every 70 incense/wine/training gear produced. Too small, hard to produce
  
• Firekeeper armor, +400 hearth resistance to corruption
  
• Master blueprint, 300 charges is too much although advanced camp gather 30% faster than basic (so it's actually -20% gathering speed give or take)
  
• Blight Filter, probably the worst cornerstone introduced in 1.1, -90% reputation from resolve is a big no, and with corrrect cornerstones having cysts and micromanaging water actually helps you

It's okay but it's not broken :

• Grain/wheat/root/clay/etc per minute
  
• Likewise +X grain, stone, reed, etc
  
• -15 hostility per opened crate, -10 hostility per loyalty decision. Too small to be meaningful
  
• Cooking steam, driving water, calming water, lumber tax. Again, too small
  
• Frequent caravans, woodcutter's song
  
• Firekeeper's prayer, from the ashes
  
• Old fedora hat, rich glades, lost supplies
  
• Family gratitude, the least powerful "win more" cornerstone, but the easiest to activate, and therefore the most reliable
  
• Rain powered steampunk cart hauls stuff screens away without mouth or needs to satisfy, but there's only 2 of them

With the right conditions these are pretty damn strong :

• +50% from farm. You may have 4 plantations, but 500 berries are meaningless unless you can do something with those excess. And needs to ship them before storm
  
• Biscuit diet. +75% chance to double yield. Same as above, but needs biscuits. Applies to every farm type
  
• Protected trade, calming the forest
  
• Sahilda's cookbook, Zhorg's ingredient
  
• Hidden reward. Only in orchard
  
• Value added tax is a nerfed export specialization
  
• Work safety guide, firelink prayer. Ridiculously powerful "win more", but it's only active when you've fulfilled hard to meet conditions, which is usually met when you're winning

Usually strong :

• 10 amber every time a trader arrived
  
• +1 amber value per trade, -1 provision per trade. More reliable and scales very well
  
• Market shift plan, take the most profitable trades and then take the fastest trades and trader will start coming to your settlement again
  
• Crowded houses, rather uninteresting until you realize how expensive to build species housing for everyone in P5+
  
• Flame amulets, prayer book, rebellious spirit, safe haven, friendly relations. Powerful bonus that scales really well
  
• Ancient pact and mist piercers. Forbidden glade + metagaming event knowledge = win big
  
• Exploration expedition. Was +15 (LMAOOOO), now only +5, but nevertheless it's still stronger than most cornerstones

With the right conditions these cornerstones are the most powerful available :

• Export specialization. Yes it's broken but only if you're exporting stuff
  
• Trade hub, prosperous settlement, wins you the game years earlier. But only if you trade often
  
• Alarm bells +25% chance to double anything, and it only requires 150% expected corruption. Micromanage water consumption and half the time you'll get this buff active. Easier to activate it in higher prestige levels
  
• Baptism of fire, -10 hostility per 3 cysts burned. Broke the game if you micromanage water consumption
  
• Burnt to crisp, 20 coal per 3 cysts. Unlike baptism this one lets you sacrifice those extra coals, but I usually prefer unlimited fuel
  
• +1 meat/mushroom/grain every time you produce it
  
• No quality control. Unlimited wood but after every storm it's 0. You get 50 insects though
  
• Improvised tools, barring one particular malus, we always want to open glades during storm. That way, we can deal with resolve malus during drizzle/clearance

Some of the most powerful cornerstones are obviously broken when you see it. The notorious example includes Trade Hub. Prosperous Settlement. Exploration Expedition (it's weaker now).

But there are other subtler, situational ones.

Would you pick protected trade over meat specialization in coral forest? I won't.

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It's a 12 year low prestige game because I want a paradise utopia achievement with 100 resolve. But usually the moment you pick +1 every 25 cornerstone, food is no longer a problem. It has to be gathered, though. If you farm the grain with small farm it's rather slow and tedious process

Some cornerstones are so broken that you win the game effortlessly, and some is a waste of choice. It's rather balanced with species. No species is so broken and overpowered, yet none is so underwhelming either. But, some species do outshine the others in certain conditions.


Consider humans, a long time favorite choice of mine. There are 2 reasons I want a human :

• They start with 15 base resolve, highest of any race
  
• Their starting ability is locating fertile soil

I completed multiple P20 games with nasty modifiers like Flooded Mines (doubled hostility from villagers), Ancient Battleground (starting hostility +50 scaled with difficulty), and honestly with such modifiers I won't embark without humans.
Their starting resolve is so high it allows me to favor the harpies, discriminate the humans by giving only harpies coats, building the lizard species housing, and the humans are still united with me until the end.

Another reason why I'd want human is in biomes like marshlands or orchard, food is really sparse. Even if you embarked with advanced camps, eventually food in marshlands will ran out, unless you got lucky with cornerstones like meat specialization. The trees in orchard doesn't give food.
So this is when the humans come in and shine.

Most people would say, the harpies are broken, and they are right.
For starting out, firekeeper ability of harpy is the most powerful. It gives everyone +5 carry capacity which doubles them from 5 to 10 and translates to halves the time spent walking.
In higher prestige games harpies start to shine because them being less demanding and less decadent means it's much easier to get resolve from harpies.
The downside is obvious, besides having only 5 base resolve, harpies are tied with lizards with 100 seconds of working time before needing a break.

On the other hand, most people would say the lizards get the short end of the stick.

• They are tied with harpies with 100 seconds of break time.
  
• They start with base resolve of -5 like harpies and foxes. But harpies bring their coats, and "hostility of the forest" doesn't affect foxes.
  
• They are most decadent, i.e. once you gain a single point from resolve, the threshold increases. For every reputation point you get from lizard, you need an extra 7 resolve for the next point. 15, 22, 29, and so on.

And I completely agree.

But, as I've said, they aren't completely useless either.
Lizard gets bonus resolve from buildings way more than any other species. They like anything warm, which includes almost every food production buildings, the kiln, furnance, smelter, the blight post, and some buildings like the grill have both bonus resolve and bonus production for lizards.

They is also the most resilient. It took the longest for lizard resolve to dump. So they aren't that terrible. And the best part? They came with tools.

Beavers are the boss when it comes to woodcutting and trading.
The woodcutting being obvious, if you're embarking in biomes where fuel would be an issue like coral or marsh, you'd want beaver.
Embarking with beaver means you get more trade offers and that is always great.
The extra 10% from carpenter and lumber mill, coupled with piping storm water (+25%), coupled with a lot of extra planks, usually means a very strong economy, species housing for everyone, and a quick victory.

Last but not the least, foxes.
They start with -5 resolve, as low as it could be, but the -2 resolve per hostility that affects everyone, doesn't affect foxes.
They work much faster on glade events, so in modifiers like untamed wilds or forbidden lands where failed event could've wiped your settlement you'd definitely want foxes.
Their ability to locate geyser usually means easy porridge, when it becomes actually efficient to field kitchen the porridge.

So back to the original question? Which species we should pick?
You can win the game in so many ways, but before winning, we should prioritize on how NOT to lose the game. If food is an issue, humans if possible. If fuel is an issue, beaver if possible.

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Timed order is so powerful that when you're sure that you can clear it, always pick it.
And we reliably get timed order, to the point that we want to modify our build order to accommodate timed order (pun intended).

The best time to open your orders is in the middle of a storm, when you send your woodcutters away. You have the manpower you need to build and explore, and you have spare time to cut 50 trees/250 woods/stop felling trees. It can be done in less than 2 minute, but if time is a serious constraint, you can use cart push trick : have 3 woodcutters in cart A, fill cart A, swap cart A with cart B. Put 3 woodcutters in cart B, put cart A next to warehouse, put 1 woodcutter in cart A to deliver. When cart A is empty and cart B is full, switch it back and repeat.

Take note that if you get X species resolve, it is USUALLY solveable with favoring, dismissing woodcutter, and satisfying a single need. So if you know that a fertile soil is behind a standard glade instead of dangerous, or you have fox, it's worth to risk it.

With that being said my build order is usually

• Blue prints right away, any 3 major blueprint (plank fabric brick) is usually auto pick
  
• Disable complex food and coat to save them for hard storm/events, disabled coal in hearth by game settings to save them for events.
  
• 3 wood cutters, priority = 2
  
• 3 houses, park, priority = 1
  
• Major 3 blue print, crude workstation, priority = 0
  
• Path, priority = -1
  
• Unpause game
  
• Halfway of drizzle. Species housing if a species has 2 or lower member
  
• Housing for the rest, priority = 0
  
• Clearance. Disable food for everyone. Dismiss woodcutters until no one is leaving. Camps, makeshift post, and trader
  
• Halfway of clearance. Re-enable food for everyone
  
• Rain collector, priority = 2
  
• Storm. Man rain collector, camps, dismiss more woodcutters until no one is leaving
  
• Halfway of storm open order
  
• If timed order is picked, it went all the way to top priority! If X species resolve is picked, I don't open dangerous glade, but 2 standard ones
  
• Accept new villagers right away if fertile soil is already is located, or need manpower for timed order
  
• Accept new villagers if opened glade has food nodes or fertile soil
  
• Dismiss rain collector if fuming machine doesn't exist. Or have geyser
  
• Every first half of drizzle and clearance, disable food for everyone, unless glade event has resolve hit, someone is leaving, or resolve is going blue. Later half of drizzle and clearance, enable food for everyone. Repeat until you have no food issue whatsoever.

May the storm be gentle on you, viceroy
So that others write here : "how to win 200 300 games and lose 0"

Three hundred. RonEmpire had already won 200-0! 👏👏
He hasn't written a guide, though 🤣

Thank you for Eremite Games and Hooded Horse for this game! GG!