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Housing[]
Population is the big limitation factor in what the player can do in his or her Outpost. Early on, the player's workers will be living in tents and later on there will be moderately-safe buildings to shelter them from the northern weather. All the Housing needs are listed under this heading. Each building will offer a different amount of taxes at a different time scale, so be mindful of that. Some buildings offer a lot of gold infrequently, while some offer a small amount regularly and quickly.
Most importantly, the different house provide a different amount of population to fill the Outpost and a different spatial footprint. That means they take up different amounts of space, which can sometimes be at a premium early on. Balancing this all is a fine act, but it's worth noting that after a certain point the Hovel will offer all the population you need to keep up with the rising limit, but will take up a large amount of space.
Every house can be upgraded in levels to generate more gold and xp (). The cost to upgrade houses are pretty much the same for any house, and it is recommended that the player spend the few resources to upgrade houses to level 3 at least.
Statistics on each house can be found here: Housing Stats
Military[]
Your troops are all that stand between you and people showing up to take your stuff. These buildings are important for training those troops, providing them with the tools to fight and defending your outpost. The training buildings can be turned off to save you population, but you cannot turn off the foundries and factories to provide you with materials. Be forewarned this can put a crimp in your available population once you invest in these buildings.
Training Facilities
Military Support Facilities
Defensive Buildings
Healing Buildings
Shops[]
So the player has workers, resources and troops but gold and xp are pretty uncommon in this harsh desert wasteland. What's a commander to do? Start utilizing the population as a workforce and provide tools for them. Shops are divided into a few particular categories:
Shops: These are your basic shops, producing things for people. The bulk of what you find producing goods are Shops.
Agriculture: Farms, fields and orchards are covered under this category. Yes, even orchards now benefit from the bonuses meant for "agriculture", so feel free to stack them up.
Ranches: Ranches raise animals for Meat, and are the category with very particular bonus-granting Decorations.
All shops except the Supply Drop can be turned off, even orchards.
See Shops Comparison to choose a right combination of shops for you.
Shops
Resource Shops
Agriculture
Ranches
Resources[]
Without resources you can't build anything to help your Outpost develop properly, nor can you train troops to help you defend it. Everything found here is geared towards allowing you to gather the resources from the land and storing it. The gathering buildings can all be turned off when you hit your limit, but warehouses and Resource Depots cannot be turned off! Building an excess of storage can lead to not having enough workers free to run your Shops, or your training buildings. Furthermore, it takes a long time to build a warehouse, so think very carefully about how much storage you're going to need, and build it in anticipation of what you'll be needing rather than as you need it.
Resource Collector
Storage Facilities
Decorations[]
So the Outpost is working like clockwork. Troops are coming out armed to the teeth with the best equipment gold can buy. Resources flow into warehouses at a rate that ensures the Outpost will not run out even with mills working overtime. The Shops give the player enough gold to line your walls with it, and still have too much left over. What's next?
Making that all look good, of course! Decorations are meant to have the Outpost looking like it's more than a randomly-placed smattering of buildings thrown together by monkeys.
All this is ignoring one large thing about Decorations: Bonus Decorations effect various building types so they produce higher XP , Gold or better Resource production. They're not all cheap, but they all can be a big help when you have the space to set them down. If you want to get started, start putting Shops along roads for a minor boost.
Bonus Decorations
Decorative (no bonus)
Boosts[]
Store[]
Allows the player to purchase Gold and Nanopods.
Land Expansion[]
Land Expansions are located in this menu and you will sorely need to expand your land in order to reach your resources. As well, roads are an integral need for your Haulers to travel efficiently from gathering points to your Depots, so you can cut down on the number of Haulers you have working and free up more working men and women.
The player starts with the equivalent of 4 land expansions, arranged in a two-by-two formation. Additional plots of land can be acquired through the purchase of land expansions. Land Expansions are available only at a limited amount per level, and cost increasing amounts for each plot purchased. They will also take an increasing amount of time to complete, rendering it important to consider carefully your expansion plans if you want to secure a good selection of resources. However, you can use either Nanopods or Gold to purchase each expansion.
Each Land Expansion increases your building area with a 6 x 6 block of land. You begin with four expansions already, and only after Level 3 do you start earning the right to build more. When you finish clearing the area, you can move or remove trees from the land so you can build; however, rocky obstructions such as hills and mountains cannot be moved. Nor can you level out sand dunes which appear in a few areas, as they too will block construction.
See the Land Expansion Chart for a list of the cost and available expansions available per level.