The build queue is a difficult subject for any civilization sim. With many needs, resources, and buildings competing for the player's attention, it can be hard to know where to start.
Farthest Frontier challenges players with building a successful city in the wild, creating a thriving civilization even in the face of scarce resources, disease, and harsh winters. Getting off to a good start makes a huge difference, as it will fill villagers' bellies and storehouses alike and give the player everything they need to explore and expand. Here's everything the player needs to know about which buildings should be constructed first in Farthest Frontier.
Resources and the Construction Queue
Stone will become important later, but Wood, Water, and Food are top priority resources at the beginning of the game. Not only are Firewood and Water necessary for industry, but also they are necessary for Houses.
Water also serves a secondary function of helping to put out fires should one's community catch ablaze. Considering the catastrophic potential of a fire in a wooden village, it's obvious why Water is a must-acquire resource, as fans of SimCity and similar titles will understand.
A Storehouse will eventually be necessary to hold all the resources that the village has gathered, but it shouldn't be among the player's first building projects. Nor should a Basic Well, assuming the player placed their Town Center in the general vicinity of Water.
Which Buildings To Construct First
While it may not be a strategy game in the traditional sense, there's certainly a strategic element, and it starts with the Town Center. The player's decision of where to place their Town Center makes a big difference for their construction queue.
The player should always build in a location with access to vital early-game resources like Food, Water, and Wood, and the player's first task after placing their Town Center should be to harvest Wood from the surrounding area.
Once that is underway, the player should construct a Firewood Splitter to begin refining the Wood from nearby trees into the Firewood that will be necessary for most construction.
The next thing the player builds should either be a Hunter Cabin, Fishing Shack, or Foraging Shack, depending upon what wildlife (if any) is nearby. Agriculture can wait, so the player should hold off on building Crop Fields until after their first winter.
With the basics of Wood refinement and Food collection taken care of, the player should get ready to give their villagers somewhere to live. Before jumping straight to building Shelters, it's helpful to first lay down some Dirt Roads in a simple grid around the Town Center before the harsher elements of this great survival game get the best of players. This will make it easy for the player to stay organized as their community expands.
Though it's easy to keep track of things early-on, towns can quickly become far messier and more complex than they need to be if the player doesn't keep an eye on them and have a good plan for the future, as it is in many of the best simulation games.
It pays to invest in Dirt Roads early. Once some Dirt Roads have been laid down, it's time to place eight or so Shelters for the villagers to live in. With that done, the community's most basic needs have been met, and the player is in a good position to pursue other important early goals, like Stone collection.
Farthest Frontier is available now for PC.