The Wandering Village Villager Needs Guide

Keeping your villagers happy and healthy is a key aspect of The Wandering Village, though doing so can be easier said than done if you're just starting out. They're prone to wanting better living conditions the higher through the Village tiers they rise, and the world they live in is less than hospitable to those looking to do more than survive. Fortunately, we've constructed this Wandering Village Villager Needs guide to help you out, breaking down everything you need to know about keeping your denizens alive and thriving no matter the environment.

Villager Needs Guide - Basics

To start, it's worth noting the basics of keeping your Villagers alive and happy in The Wandering Village.

Your Villagers' Happiness is the best indicator of how well their Needs are being met, and will always be shown by the face indicator in the upper righthand corner of the screen. A smiling or happy face indicates high Happiness and that most all of their needs are being met. A more middling, sad or angry expression denotes low Happiness and several needs that should be addressed ASAP.

Taking care of Villager needs isn't too complicated though. In general, you'll just need to do whatever you can to ensure they're fed, have shelter for sleeping, and can be cared for properly in toxic environments. This means providing them with the necessary buildings, materials and food needed to keep your village growing and thriving, while also building Village Doctor huts and Herbalist buildings that can handle things like treating poisoning and sickness.

The game is good about providing you with the means to create facilities you'll need for these purposes, so you won't have to worry too much about grinding to unlock a vital facility. No matter which buildings you choose to research and in what order, you'll almost always have the basic facilities needed to deal with whatever problems are thrown your way. 

The only real obstacle that will hinder your ability to keep people happy and healthy is how many resources and Villagers you have to work with. Resources are needed to build new facilities, cultivate food and crops, and otherwise keep your Village thriving. The number of Villagers you have, meanwhile, impacts how many people you can assign to tasks like utilizing facilities and harvesting crops.

The more Villagers you have assigned to a task, the faster and more efficiently a task will be done. The inverse is true too though; Having too few villagers assigned to a task could prevent it from being done quickly, if at all. This can lead to you not having a resource or service necessary to keep your Village moving properly, resulting in a hit to your Villagers' Needs and Happiness.

As such, it's highly recommended you make sure you aren't stretching your resources and Villagers too thin. Expand your Village at a steady pace, and take your time doing so to ensure you don't end up with a settlement seething with animosity toward their leader.

Villager Needs - Population Levels

It's also worth noting that the size of your Village's population will impact what it takes to keep your Villagers needs managed in The Wandering Village.

There are four different population levels you can have at any given time, and the needs the Villagers will have while at these levels are as follows:

1. Basic - At this level, your Villager Needs are minimal and they'll require the bare-minimum to be happy. Tents to sleep in are a must, but otherwise they'll be happy to eat anything so long as they're kept healthy.
2. Camp - At this level, Villager Needs will start to be impacted more heavily by what they eat. You'll need to make sure they have at least two Refined Foods out of every five meals they're given, using a Kitchen to create said refined foods. They'll also need Tents to sleep in, and will need to be kept healthy or treated when they get sick as soon as possible.
3. Settlement - At this stage, Villager Needs will become more varied. Your Villagers will want to start living in Huts instead of Tents. They'll also want to eat at least three Refined Foods and two different foods out of every five meals they eat, making multiple Kitchens and different crops to plant a must. Keeping everyone healthy is also paramount too, making multiple Herbalists and Village Doctors a necessity.
4. Village - The final population stage, this tier is the hardest to maintain. You'll need to have multiple Village Doctors and Herbalists to keep people healthy and treat Poisoning as soon as possible. Everyone will need to be living in a Cottage, and they'll need to be eating four Refined Foods and three different types of food in every five meals they have.

Understanding the needs of each population tier, and how they affect your Villagers' Happiness, will prove key to making it through the game with as high of a Happiness level as possible. To that end, make sure you prioritize the specific needs tied to whichever Population level you're at. This will ensure you always have your Villager Needs handled and their Happiness at a level that's as high as possible.

Hopefully this Wandering Village Villager Needs guide gives you a better understanding of how to keep your Villagers happy and healthy. For more on the game, check out our full review of the current build, as well as our other guides on topics like taking care of the Onbu and the best way to farm crops.