How to start a new game of SteamWorld Build - part 2: Engineers

If you followed along with part 1 of this tutorial, you'll have a thriving village full of Workers. In part 2, we'll get them upgraded to Engineers, expand the settlement and start up new production chains. 

TL;DR: a list of buildings

What will be building today? Here's the list!

• 18 Worker Residences
• 25 upgrades to Engineer Residence
• 2 Forester
• 1 Lumbermill
• 1 Saloon
• 1 Sand Sifting Factory
• 1 Glassblower
• 1 Moonshiner
• 1 Warehouse (optional)
• 1 Surveryor Office
• 1 Toolmaker
• Repaired Abandoned Mineshaft
• 2 Pillar (at least, depends on your mining)
• 15 tiles Miner Quarters
• 1 Pickaxe Maker
• 33 tiles Prospector Quarters
• 1 Sheet Metal Factory
• 1 Spare Part Maker

Step 1: Engineers, Boards and (a place to) shine

It's important to know that you can't actually build Engineer Residences. You need to upgrade a Worker Residence to be able to house Engineer citizens. 

As soon as you upgrade your first Worker Residence, you'll trigger a cut scene and more land will open up for you to build on. We won't need it just now, but it's good to have it on standby.

Engineers needs start off with Moonshine and access to a Saloon. The Moonshine production chain involves 4 buildings costing 29 Boards in total. The Saloon costs 12 Boards. This would be a good time to either build another Forester and Lumbermill or, seeing we have the money anyway, import a few extra Boards using the Trader.

While you're considering the trader, head over to the Train Station set up a new trade for Tools. You will need at least 2 more tools in the final part of this step. There should be enough money to buy 2 Tools at 1000 a piece. You might as well get some more Tools though, as you'll need another 5 Tools right of the bat in Step 2. 

The Saloon is just one building to build, so do that first. It will add 2 Engineers and 5 income per Residence. 

To set up a Moonshine production chain, start by building the Sand Sifting Factory and a Glassblower. Build a Moonshiner, which will turn Glassware and Cactus Water into Moonshine. Be sure to read this post on Sand Production if you want. Maybe add another Warehouse close by if you feel the need for it. 

Note: you don't need another Cactus Farm, the current farm produces enough to meet both the Worker's demand as well as the Moonshiner's production demand.

To make these 3 production buildings work, you need Engineers. Upgrade 6 of your Worker Residences to Engineer level. By now, you should have 140 Workers and 36 Engineers citizens, which should be enough to provide all buildings with enough workforce.

As soon as the Moonshine will hit the market you'll have more Engineers moving in, but not enough to take it to the next step. Build 3 Worker Residences, but with the purpose of upgrading them to Engineers. So place them on the Engineer side of town, but with access to the Service Shop so the upgrade will work. 

Upgrade those 3 new Residences. You might have to wait for the train to come in and deliver you the Tools required for this step. 

A note on citizen tiers

Worker needs are different than Engineer needs. This is important to note, especially when placing buildings or planning ahead. 

For instance, Workers need access to a Service Shop. Engineers don't. It is a good idea to make specific areas in your village for separate citizen classes. That means you can build a Service Shop on your Worker side of town, leaving room on the Engineer side for a Saloon. 

Both Workers and Engineers require Charcoal, but only Workers need Cactus Water. That means that as soon as you start upgrading your Workers to Engineers, the demand for Cactus Water will go down. But, demand for Charcoal will ultimately go up: more Engineers will fit in a single Residence than Workers. 

Step 2: deeper underground

In this step, Engineers open up another need: the service provided by a Surveyor Office.

Bummer, this costs 5 Tools, which you don't have any more (unless you were smart and got some extra tools in the last step). 

Bonus: you've just unlocked the Toolmaker as well. 

There's 2 ways to go now:

1. Import Tools at 1000 money each, build the Surveyor office;
2. Import Scrap at just 500 money each, build the Toolmaker;

You'll need a Toolmaker at some point anyway, so you might as well go for the second option. Hint: a Toolmaker takes just 15 seconds to turn Scrap into Tools. A train arrives every 5 minutes. If you import 20 Scrap at the Train Station, you'll keep import and production in line until you can produce your own Scrap. 

In the meantime, spend 8 Boards and just 1200 money to repair the Abandoned Mineshaft. It will allow you access to the first mining level. Yes, we're going underground and yes, you will be able to find Scrap there. 

Repairing the Mineshaft does require road access, so connect a road from the Train Station to the Abandoned Mineshaft. Finally, click that Repair button.

The Abandoned Mineshaft needs to be repaired first, before you can go down into the Mine in SteamWorld Build.

As soon as the Mineshaft is repaired, a new symbol will appear next to the minimap. It signals the Dusty Caverns mine floor. Go there to enter the mine.

The first thing you'll build here, is a Pillar. Select the pillar, then look for striped, highlighted tiles. They are prone to collapses in the mine. Build the Pillar in a way all highlighted tiles are captured in the white square around the pillar. 

Congratulations, you just saved your mine!

Also, click on the chest. You'll get some Gold as a reward. 

Step 3: just keep diggin', just keep diggin'

Still down in the mine, select the Quarters icon (the one with the robot face) and build Miner Quarters. You can squeeze 15 tiles in the area around the Pillar, which will be enough to house 2 Miners. 

Place a Pillar down in the SteamWorld Build mine to avoid collapsing

As soon as that is built, you'll see the lift crashing down in the Mineshaft, bringing down 2 Miners. They'll immediately start clearing up rubble. Let them work for a bit and enjoy their enthusiasm 😊

Note: Read 'How to recruit Miners in SteamWorld Build' to learn more about the relation between Miners and the Quarter sizes.  

Next, select the dig tool and click on some tiles. Get some of the Gold tiles to fill up your Gold reserves. Clear up some Dirt blocks and select the 2 Tools blocks as well. Breaking down the one closest to the Mineshaft will open up a whole new territory.

First, build another Pillar in that area to avoid collapsing. Then, mine to your heart's desire. There are some Rubies and Gold to collect! Keep an eye out for possible collapses and build Pillars as needed.

To develop any further in the mine, you'll need to unlock some more buildings. These are unlocked by attracting more Engineers. So let's go up to the city and spend some time there. 

Step 4: more engineers, first prospectors, scrap and ironium

Back in the city, start by building 15 Worker Residences and upgrade them to Engineers as soon as they are able to. Keep an eye on the location and reach of your General Store, as Engineers have a need for this service as well. 

If you can't work out a lay out within the current city , consider building a second General Store to cater to the Engineers, or upgrading some of your Dirt Roads to Paved Roads. The upgrade will cost 1 Tool for every 8 squares of road, but will increase the range of the buildings using that road. It might just be the extra range the Store needs.

Once you hit the 200 and the 240 Engineer mark, a lot of new buildings and needs pop up, both in the City as well as in the mine. None of them are buildable yet though as they require Ironium. Which, you guessed it, needs to be mined.

Before you go down again, build a Pickaxe Maker. You'll probably want to build another Forester as well to keep up with the demand for Logs.

Note: the Pickaxe Maker will turn your dig tool into a pick axe. It will also allow you to dig through Sandstone, allowing you to reach other areas.

In the Mine, build a Prospector Quarters (the one with the blue hat) of at least 9 tiles. 15 Is better, if you have the space.

To the left of the mine shaft, you'll find a Scrap Vein. It's surrounded by impenetrable bedrock, apart from 1 side. Find the way, dig it up and then select the Scrap Vein with the dig tool. Your prospector will start collecting Scrap from the vein and bring it to the mine shaft to bring it to the City. 

Note: still importing Scrap through the Train Station? You can stop that now!

With the Scrap production going, it's time for Ironium. You can dig around a bit for a Ironium Vein. There are 2 available not too far away from the Mineshaft, but you will need an active Pickaxe Maker to be able to reach them. 

A Scrap Vein in the Dusty Caverns mine which can be extracted by Prospectors

Once you have, select them with your dig tool to have your Prospectors start to mine them. They will bring the Ironium to the Mineshaft to have it transported to the city. 

You will need a fair bit of both Ironium and Scrap, so it's probably a good time to expand the Prospector Quarters. 33 Tiles will allow for 5 Prospectors to rest their tired tires, which will set you up pretty nicely. 

With Ironium and Scrap being mined, let's go back into the sunlight and start using them.

Build a Sheet Metal Factory, which turns Ironium into building resource Sheet Metal. We'll need this to build more advanced buildings and upgrading homes to the next level. 

Also build a Spare Part Maker, which will turn Ironium and Scrap into Spare Parts. This will fulfil the need your Engineers have. As it takes 60 seconds for each Spare Part to be created, you won't be able to sustain all Engineers with just the basic production for 1 Spare Part Maker. Either build another one, or, if you were lucky enough to find a Production Chance ++ item down in the mine, apply it to the building. 

A note on supply and demand

You've noticed not all buildings produce at the same rate. 1 Forester can supply 2 Charcoal Kilns for instance. Or 1 Charcoal Kiln and 1 Pickaxe Maker. But how do you keep track of this? And how do you know if you produce enough Cactus Water for your Workers and for the Engineer's Moonshine?

Just above the minimal, you'll notice a green arrow on a graph. Maybe it even shows a number in a red circle. If you activate that panel, your supply and demand screen will pop up. 

For each resource either produced or required, it will show a couple of things. How much you have stored, the current balance and the production and demand rate. 

The Resources screen in SteamWorld Build, showing supply and demand for all goods.

If you've followed along, you will right now have 140 Workers and 240 Engineers living in your city. Together, they demand 3,4 Cactus Water every minute. The production is 4 (15 seconds per water), so you're good here. 

240 Engineers need Moonshine. We're producing 2 Moonshine per minute, with a demand of 1,9. We're good for now, but surely we'll get more Engineers in the near future. Another Moonshiner will have to be built, which will require another Cactus Farm and Glassblower as well. But not another Sand Sifting Factory, as 1 of those is enough to supply 2 Glassblowers. 

As you progress in the game, use this overview often. It will help you immensely to figure out when to build another (part of a) production chain. 

Down, down and away!

We're not completely done with Engineers just yet, but we're getting close. In part 3 of this SteamWorld Build tutorial series, let's make sure we can upgrade Engineers to Aristobots and open up a new layer of the mine.

We'll also focus on a more effective way of mining Ironium and Scrap to be able to keep up with demand.