Skills and Technology

The two advancement systems kept straight. Six personal Skill trees that grow from doing, and four settlement-wide Technology categories that unlock buildings and schemes.

At a glance


Skills	Six personal trees, max level 10 each. Earned by doing the matching activity.
Technology	Four settlement-wide categories. Generated by everyone in your settlement.
Skills do	Set your (and each villager’s) efficiency and unlock talents.
Technology does	Unlock buildings for free and make item schemes buyable with coins.

Skills and Technology are separate systems that new players tend to conflate. Skills are per-character. Technology is settlement-wide. You grow both at once by playing, but they pay off in different ways.

The six Skills

Each tree maxes at level 10 and is earned by doing that activity. You gain an extra skill point on every even-numbered level and can spend up to 15 points per tree. Reset with a Potion of Possibilities.

Skill	Governs	Villager jobs it boosts
Extraction	Resource gathering	Lumberjacks, Miners, Water Carriers
Hunting	Hunting wild animals	Hunters
Farming	Farming actions	Farmers, Barn Workers, Millers, Beekeepers, Animal Breeders
Diplomacy	NPC interaction, reputation gain	Stallholders
Survival	Surviving and gathering	Herbalists, Fishermen
Production	Crafting and cooking	Craftsmen, Seamsters, Cooks, Innkeepers, Blacksmiths, Builders

Skill XP thresholds to reach each level (per the wiki): 1=100, 2=250, 3=500, 4=750, 5=1,000, 6=1,250, 7=1,500, 8=2,000, 9=2,500, 10=3,000.

The four Technology categories

Technology points are generated by the actions of everyone in your settlement, you and all villagers. Accumulate enough in a category and buildings unlock instantly for free, while item schemes become buyable with coins.

Category	Generated by	Unlocks
Building	Constructing buildings, logging	Storage and extraction buildings, fences, furniture, decoration schemes
Survival	Hunting, gathering, fishing	Hunting buildings, schemes for hunting gear, campfires, traps
Farming	Farm work	Farming and animal-husbandry buildings and schemes
Production	Crafting at Workshop, Smithy, Sewing Hut, Kitchen, Tavern	Production buildings, schemes for most tools, clothing, food

Do this in order

Push Hunting early. A wildlife-highlight perk around Tier 2 helps you survive winter.
Spend a skill point during Chapter III (one of its goals).
Let routine play build Technology points, then buy schemes for the tools and food you need.
Once you have villagers, their job actions add to settlement Technology too, so a busy village advances faster.

Watch out for

Treating Skills and Technology as one bar. They are separate systems with separate sources.
Expecting a Skill to rise from anything other than its own activity.
Hoarding coins instead of buying the item schemes a Technology category has already unlocked.