Overview
i want to compile all information on skills here neatly. this is mostly work in progress, so suggestions and corrections are much welcome and valuable to me
help me write this guide properly
hello everyone
as im writing this i have 130 hours in eco, most if not all is spent early game. so my overview of each skill is very lacking. there are a few skills i have invested time in, like basic engineering, and i was able to provide ample info on that, but then the rest of the engineering profession is still shrouded to me. there are other things i learned from a friend. but it still covers far from it all.
when i started playing this game, i was very intimidated by the various skills and the little explanation on each of them. i could get down with the idea of mining and logging, gathering and farming and so on, but other skills looked to require some knowledge. and i dont like messing with the flow in multiplayer games, so for this reason i stayed stuck in these simple skills and let strangers handle the skills that appeared to be more difficult. ultimately, i quit servers when i felt useless in this timid approach. the official wikis are not really helpful either, often empty. with an experienced friend i dared to try some new skills with his guidance. so it made me realize, we could really use some informative explanation on each skill, with tips and tricks, what is required of you and what the best about those skills are, where you are needed, and what makes certain skills tedious or require more time and so on, so that newer players can better figure out which skills suit their playstyle best and be more prepared to try them out, and hopefully not abandon the server for this reason.
so, i can really use some help writing it all out, as for now its a big work in progress, and i provided what i can and is ready to change or add more. let me know if there is something written that is completely wrong or needs changing or should be added too. also let me know if you think some info is unnecessary too. while i want it to be as informative as possible, it also has to be easy to navigate and not be confusing or too long a read for individual professions. i am open for any suggestions, tips and tricks, whatever you have picked up over your time playing. my goal is to make this a useful wiki instead, and will update it whenever i can.
lets see if we can reduce the amount of abandoned citizens specialized in gathering, in each server. together, we will make it happen.
first picking a server
the guide will focus primarily on high collaboration games. its a lot of fun and makes your specialization feel a lot more valuable. i highly recommend it if you like having a special place in the world that others benefit from, and if you love steady teamwork in general. low collab games can feel a bit clouded with who does what, because nearly everyone can take on same skills and can make teamwork a weak experience.
before you join a new server, first pay attention to how many citizens there are, and how many are currently online. the more citizens there are versus who are online, the less you will have an understanding on whats needed on the server. a lot of professions may be taken by players who abandoned the server, and you will have to ask around whats currently needed. its best not to assume that a specialization is occupied if it has a name on it. if you have an idea which specialization to pick, and its not occupied by too many to go through, you can check the citizens on it to see if any of them has been online recently. an ideal server would be one where most of its overall citizens are also online, same time as you. so its a good idea to take into account at which time of the day you are looking for a server too.
which specialization to pick?
while all specializations can be useful, some are in higher demand than others. and in a server where few are playing, picking unnecessary specializations can potentially ruin the whole process of the game. some specializations can be carried out by anyone at any time, where other specializations will unlock you recipes that many need but cannot get. you can skip mining and logging and refine your own stones and make your own hewn logs for example, but you cannot make any iron bars or furniture without specializing in smelting or hewing.
this is the most to least useful list of starting skills, as well as easily acquired skills:
smelting
hewing
basic engineering
tailoring
mortaring
advanced campfire cooking
farming
mining
hunting
gathering
logging
logging, gathering and mining are far down because everyone can accomplish this, and hunting too because everyone with a carpentry table can make a bow. fishing and diving for sea plants (counting for fish food) also requires little to no skill, though its important to note that fish and sea plants also has a number to them and can be exhausted. those who pick hunting skill have been known to do so for trolling by overkilling certain species, so beware that you do it right. smelting and hewing is high up because nearly everyone needs smelted bars eventually, and furniture is a big source for experience gain throughout the game. basic engineering is necessary for trading big loads, and getting better carry capacity with those trades, but is also needed to make paths to areas uninhabited with important resources. mortaring and tailoring are also fairly high up, for the resources they produce are important for a large part of the game, and to advance skills further. though you rarely need more than one active player specializing in both respectively.
professions explained
the carpenter
the skills in carpenter consists of logging, hewing, lumber and paper milling.
the logging skill may not be so useful to specialize in, as you can get most people to sell logs to you for what you create with hewing in the beginning, specifically furniture. furniture is used to greatly boost peoples experience gain over time for both skills and character level, and they will want a lot of it in high collab games. you will find that specializing in this branch will have people flocking to you selling logs in return of refined woods and furniture, which, with the log purchase, in return make you create more refined wood and furniture. very self sustaining and much needed profession.
the chef
the skills in chef consists of advanced campfire cooking, cooking, baking, advanced cooking, advanced baking and cutting edge cooking.
everyone can char their own vegetables, fruits and fish, but the chef can take that time off from everyones shoulder by focusing on it entirely on their own, and getting it done much faster. even better is the unlocked recipes that are much more nourishing to the pie chart diet, and can eventually keep people working longer in fewer meals. if done efficiently, you can play an important role in leveling people and their skills up much faster. one important thing to note about any food in general besides the 4 base nutrients, is that the higher quality it is, the more nutrition it adds, which stays in the consumers stomach for 24 hours and provides more skill points if its a high quality meal. chefs will also eventually be the strongest source for fat, which is very difficult to raise to an even amount without a bakery. or bacon. remember, there are no fast food chains in eco. imagine that.
the engineer
the skills in engineer consists of basic engineering, mechanics, electronics, industry and oil drilling.
the engineers are the backbones when it comes to trading and creating communities. for while everyone can get around and shop by feet, its limited how much they can carry on those trips to make it worthwhile. and because each biome plays important roles, its good to help the people connect to them, as every resource eventually matters in the end. it also makes navigating easier, and a lot faster once the roads are upgraded. you just cant imagine a functioning community without it.
the farmer
the skills in farmer consists of gathering, farming, fertilizers and milling.
while in the beginning farmers may look useless when there are plenty of resources around, they are the number one reason plants do not become extinct. while some plants are plentiful and often replenish themselves, others can go extinct simply by picking enough of them. the farmers are there to avoid this happening. after all, everyone needs food and everyone can pick plants, but not everyone puts the seed back in the ground in the right place, so farmers carry that task. they also work well in unity with the chef, especially later on. farmers are also eventually capable of planting specific type of plant in their own garden, where they would otherwise die out.
the hunter
the skills in hunter consists of hunting and butchery.
there are people who will claim the best strategy is fishing, or cooking camas bulb for fat and protein. hunting may seem redundant, or even dangerous when carelessly performed, but its important to note that fish and sea plants can go extinct too, and that camas plants are actually very few on the planet, so there is no easy and secure way out of getting the fat and protein needed. a careful hunter can however take fair use of the various animals in every biome, without putting them to a threat, and in combination with butchery and a skilled chef they can turn a single animal into a very filling and long sustaining meal. butchery is also needed to unlock tailoring, which in turn unlocks a chain of other important skills.
the mason
the skills in mason consists of mining, mortaring, bricklaying, glassworking and cement.
the mason branches out to engineering and smithing, both for stone roads and later cement and glassworking, and for the ores they dig out. they also add to the resources for tier 3 and 4 houses, where carpenters can only take you to tier 2 and instead have their focus on furniture. it is definitely worth considering investing in this branch even if you dont plan to do the actual smelting or engineering yourself, and some of the resources created like bricks are also necessary to advance later research. glassworking helps out on various later creations of the engineer too.
the smith
the skills in smith consists of smelting and advanced smelting.
having a smith is an absolute must if you want to advance beyond early game. the carpenter, engineer and cook specifically need a smith for their advancement. iron bars will always be in high demand, and the engineer will make their road come first at the smiths door, assuming they know how much engineers needs the smith as much as everyone else. never underestimate the smith! they will need a lot of ores from different parts of the world too, ranging from the desert, boreal forest to the rainforest. they are kind of like the crossroad of all specializations, making everyone come together, to advance together.
the tailor
the skill in tailor is tailoring, simply.
you will probably at max want just one tailor in the whole world. they are necessary for researching lumber and bricklaying, both unlocking tier 2 houses and making further research possible. besides that, tailors best serve selling clothes, some that provide bonuses to the character, as well as extra furniture for more experience boost. its decent, necessary too, but definitely avoid picking this trade if it already exists.
below i will explain each skill in detail, what they are good for and how, and in which biome and how it cooperates into other skills, specifically other players. it is WIP for now, any help explaining each skill is much appreciated, i dont know how they all work equally
carpenter
logging
research: already learned
good for: extensive log collecting, cleaning debris and stumps (from other people).
works in synergy with who?: other carpenters, log is their main resource. masons, mortars specifically for wood pulp. others may buy logs too for various small needs.
which biome(s): boreal, cold and warm forests are safer to the environment for larger fellings. preferably not the rainforest, be careful with plants around. pick them and replant them after felling if you can. camas also only grow in warm forests as far as i know, so be careful around the blue plants
as much as loggers are no more necessary than someone cutting down wood for themselves without skill, you can still pick this skill in populated game for one reason: cleaning up from others. many people do not bother removing tree stumps and debris, even though it ruins new tree growth. in that case, you can be an indirect farmer, helping trees grow back again, and have a hoe on the side to plant more trees with seeds collected from debris. you can always team up with a hewer too, to help them speed up the process of making furniture, as well as giving more resources to make hewn logs and boards. you will also collect a lot of wood pulp from debris, which is very useful to masons for turning into mortar. its overall not the most useful skill to directly specialize in, but if you focus on it entirely you can do a lot of good things with it. try to pick bigger trees in the middle of other trees instead of taking those on the edges of where you log, it will help keeping the trees expanding back to their areas. the more you travel away from society to pick out a tree, the better. keep an eye on the name of the tree species through their seeds too, and check every time you log into the game in the chat, by pressing on the list of species “and many more” button. it will give you a full overview of how many of trees of each species there currently exists, so you can avoid felling the rare ones and pick out the common ones instead.
hewing
research: already learned
good for: furniture, crafting stations, building houses early game, hewn logs and boards for various recipes inside as well as outside profession.
works in synergy with who?: pretty much anyone, considering everyone needs exp and that everyone can supply you with log.
biome(s): on the edge or inside forests and close to other players.
they are the most important source of experience and quick house building in the beginning. you can expect people will gladly supply you with logs in return of what you create.
for furniture specifically, for each room people need 1 butchery table and 2 icebox to get the most out of a kitchen, 1 latrine to make a bathroom, and 2 beds for highest gain in bedrooms. you make the most efficient general room by adding 2 tables and 4 chairs to it. people will also add 2 tables and 4 chairs in all the other rooms for even more skill boost. yes, people will surround the toilet with tables and chairs if they want most experience out of that room. so you will want to keep a high stock of chairs and tables in general, but always make sure you have a good stock of everything. people will flock to you very early on and throughout the game to buy, and can carry these furnitures in their backpack. they will also gladly buy hewn log and boards which you produce cheaply and effortlessly too.
lumber
research: 20 iron bars, 40 hewn logs, 20 cloths. provided by: smiths, hewers(you), tailors
good for: recycling hewn houses, making tier 2 houses, and (?)
works in synergy with who?: (?)
paper milling
research: 30 hewn logs, 30 mortared stone. provided by: hewers(you), masons
good for: bit more furniture, adding titles to citizens with benefits or punishments
chef
advanced campfire cooking
research: already learned
good for: progressing cooking in general.
works in synergy with who?: everyone needs a good, filling meal, especially those that are busy on other tasks and those that work with tools more than tables, using up their calories.
which biome(s): somewhere close enough to farmers and/or hunters, but also close to the general public.
this skill is a must to learn any other cooking skill, as it unlocks ingredients used to research the next ones. remember, only recipes with more than 2 ingredients level this skill, and you need a variety of them, farmers and hunters play an important role for that. this can be a very time consuming, even frustrating skill, if you are left alone to gather the ingredients. if you cant get the help from farmers because there are none or they plant the wrong crops, you can place yourself somewhere close to a warm forest, it has a lot of ingredients needed for campfire recipes. remember, they yield enough both to cook and also replant, which is important you do too.
cooking
research: 25 iron bars, 20 hewn logs, 10 campfire roast, 10 wheat porridge. provided by: smiths, carpenters, adv campfire(you)
good for: variated diet, flexible dishes.
cooking is the best direction to go if there are no active farmers on the server going for milling, as you will be dependent on them for sugar and yeast for that branch. cooking is more straightforward with its ingredients and still is capable of raising the need for fat with bacon. you can serve up a much more variated diet in general, though people can in general take care of their own carbs and vitamin needs. still, if no one wants to bother cooking, then the cook can easily keep the piechart diet perfectly balanced for everyone, though it may take a variety of purchases.
baking
research: 30 bricks, 30 hewn logs, 50 flour, 20 bannock. provided by: masons, carpenters, farmers (for mill grinding flour), adv campfire(you)
good for: fat and protein meals, evening out piechart diets, less need for ingredient variations.
works in synergy with who?: farmers, millers in particular.
baking is the way to go if you have a reliant farmer who is going for milling, or happen to be one yourself through a long game. while there is a couple recipes you can make to boost vitamins and carbs, you are absolutely strongest on the protein and fat part of the diet, which is the most difficult to even out. it makes you a very valuable chef, but again, it takes strong teamwork with a farmer to achieve it.
advanced cooking
research: 20 basic salad, 20 fruid salad. provided by: smiths(creating stove), cooking(you)
reaching advanced stage cooking, you have to focus fully on being a chef, at least early game. with this skill you are also awarded with several new recipes to boost out different piechart needs specifically, and to give a huge nutritional boost in general, so people can pick out the food they need the most in fewer purchases. keep your prices fair to make you a popular chef on the server.
advanced baking
research: 50 bricks, 25 lumber, 15 yeast, 15 sugar. provided by: masons, carpenters, farmers(for mill grinding sugar), engineers/carpenters(for kitchen to turn sugar into yeast)
advanced bakers probably have the most outcome of their nutritions in the most controlled amount of ingredients. however it may take some help from an advanced cook to make the most of it too, but if you focused on both lines, you can make the best out of everyones diet in probably the whole server, and with little effort. remember, it still requires a loyal miller.
cutting edge cooking
research: 50 steel, 50 yeast. provided by: smiths, adv cooking w/ kitchen(you)
good for: this skill has not yet been implemented in the game properly, but it looks like it will work in combination with the engineer. for now it can be used for nothing.
engineer
basic engineering
research: 10 hewn logs. provided by: carpenters
good for: connecting people and biomes by road, speeding up and increasing trade outcome, creating carts with higher cargo load, creating windmills and watermills, and road tools for others to create paths.
works in synergy with who?: masons for stone road, hewers for carts and wind/watermills. generally has a good relation with and respected by any they provide a road for.
which biome(s): this will depend on what the engineer sees on the map. if there are a lot of people in a single area but no road, its a good place to connect. on the other hand if there is a good place surrounded by biomes to connect, they can give easier access to resources for new players.
its a good idea to place yourself somewhere in the middle of wherever your road will expand from, so you are never too far from new expansion projects on it. a good trick before laying out a road is to start up a law to change districts, the tricky part will be to navigate this pale map with no clear view of biomes, you will have to navigate by the coordination numbers. if you draw with the smallest pen size, you will draw up a to-be road that is 5×5, which is the ideal size for later vehicles. the best you can make sure for this road, is that it connects to the desert, rainforest and boreal forest. you can always leave or minimize this law page you are working on and come back to it later with the draw saved, so you can adjust it by looking back at the real minimap with colors for reference. once you have drawn that out and named the district something like “road district”, and the law has passed, the name of the district will appear in the corner of the screen when you walk on it, and you can lay out the road on it. you can then make a law that punishes or even makes it impossible to remove stone roads and stone ramps from this district, securing your work from trolls. you can also add laws so that when other citizens add stone roads to this district, they get rewarded with coin, making the road building a public task. its a good idea to set up two separate shops with separate stockpiles that takes mortar and stone used for making roads, in return of creating free stone roads and ramps (this is what you separate so the ramp or road doesnt get overproduced over the other). not only can people create and lay down their own roads then for fairly easy acquired resources, but you also level your basic engineer skill faster, making stone roads a much cheaper production over time. because it is generally hard to level this skill with the limited amount of things you can create.
mechanics
research: 5 waterwheels, 20 copper bars, 20 iron bars. provided by: basic engi(you), smiths
electronics
research: 50 copper bars, 50 gold bars. provided by: smiths
industry
research: 100 steel. provided by: smiths
oil drilling
research: 50 reinforced concrete, 4 combustion engines, 80 lumber. provided by: masons, mechanic(you), carpenters
farmer
gathering
research: already learned
good for:
works in synergy with who?:
gathering is the most useful for farmers alone, especially when dealing with rare crops or crops that can only be picked once, as it will increase the yield too and work against extinction of plants. but you really should not pick this skill even if you feel you will be going around grabbing everything on your path, that skill point can be invested better in your main profession. maybe with the exception of being a combined miller and baker, as you will need a lot of certain plants to create sugar and yeast.
farming
research: 5 huckleberry seeds, 5 cornseeds, 5 crimini mushroom spores. provided by: gathering(you)
good for: bringing useful crops to one area, your garden.
works in synergy with who?: chefs, and anyone who takes cooking into own hands
farmers bring every available crop to them and in abundance. they can quickly make threatened plants come back, as long as they pay attention to the general amount of plants in the world. you can always find the full list of current plants when logging into the game, inside the chat.
fertilizers
research: 10 dirt, 30 plant fibers. provided by: gathering(you)
fertilizers work to figure out the temperatures, soil and water levels of the ground and how to manipulate it for every plant, and a soil sampler can be used to make a balanced fertilization of your plot for specific plants.
milling
research: 15 mortared stone, 15 hewn logs, 30 wheat, 30 corn. provided by: masons, carpenters, farming(you)
hunter
hunting
research: already learned
being a hunter makes you responsible to keep species alive too. always remember to check out how many species of animals there are every time you log into the server, clicking on the “and more” button of the list of species at the top. hares are usually plentiful but hard to get a clear aim on. it helps looking at where their population is, on the minimap, find a hill with a good overview in the area, and then stand still for a few minutes and look out for them. they may jump slowly out into view if you wait, giving you a clear shot. walking around is more likely to spook them before you see them. standing still can have animals come up very close to you even with zero hunting skill.
butchery
research: 3 hare carcasses, 3 elk carcasses, 1 bison carcass. provided by: hunter(you)
mason
mining
research: already learned
mortaring
research: already learned
bricklaying
research: 50 mortared stone, 50 mortar, 20 cloth. provided by: mortar(you), tailors
glassworking
research: 30 sand, 30 mortared stone. provided by: mortar(you)
cement
research: 80 bricks, 40 lumber, 50 iron bars. provided by: bricklayer(you), carpenters, smiths
smith
smelting
research: 20 hewn logs, 20 mortared stone, 40 iron ore. provided by: carpenters, masons
advanced smelting
research: 200 coal, 100 iron bars, 100 bricks. provided by: masons
tailor
tailoring
research: 40 plant fibers, 5 fur pelt, 5 leather hide. provided by: farmers, hunters