Here’s a guide about the NPC Needs System. It’s all about making your people happy and more productive in version 0.2.1.0. But, keep in mind, the levels of happiness, needs, and production can shift because Superkami is tweaking the game. So, the numbers might not stay the same.
NPC Needs Overview
Making your people happy is super important to get the most out of their work. Right now, there are six things your villagers need in the game:
- Meals: Unlocks when you add your first villager (Ako or Sayuri).
- Beverages: Unlocks when your total population reaches 4.
- Heating: Unlocks when your total population reaches 7.
- Maintenance: Unlocks when your total population reaches 9.
- Health: Unlocks when your total population reaches 14.
- Security: Unlocks when your total population reaches 18.
These needs start small and get bigger as your village gets more people. But remember, the numbers can change, so I won’t give you specific info on that. In the beginning, you’ll give meals and drinks as you play. But as your village grows, your villagers will need to make these things themselves.
Now, how do these needs work? Look at the Dynasty screen. On the main page, you’ll see something like this:
See, my village is big, and it needs all 6 things. Look at the numbers: the first one in black shows how many points of that Need I’ve got stored, like 4,395 meal points. This comes from all the food sources. Then there’s a slider with an orange smiley and a green smiley. I’ll talk about that in a bit. Last, there’s a green or red number. That tells me if I’m making more than I’m using or the other way around. If you want a better look, go to the Jobs tab.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of your Needs system. It shows the type, how much is in storage, the green numbers for what your villagers are making, and the red numbers for what they use each season. It doesn’t show the balance like the main screen, but it’s way more informative.
Let’s talk about the emojis in the next section.
Now, what provides for these needs? Some are obvious, but for others, you might need to check. Open your inventory or storage screen and click on an item. The middle part of the window will show you all the important info.
To figure out which inventory item meets which need, check out your stuff. For many, it’s clear where it goes. But for some, not so much. How do you know? Open your inventory, pick an item, and click on it.
In the middle part of this window, you get all the stats when you click on an item. From top to bottom: what kind of item it is, where it’s stored, what needs (if any) it covers, and the cost in coins. In the picture, my sticks fulfill Villager Needs (Heating): 1. That means it adds 1 point to the Heating Needs in storage. When in doubt, just read the item’s description here.
And don’t forget, only items in their correct storage building actually count.
NPC Happiness
In this part, we’re talking about a game feature that might change soon. Right now, every time new people join the game, they have two levels of stuff they need. The Orange Smiley is the least they need to be happy. If they don’t get at least this much, there’s a penalty. The Green Smiley is the most they can get. Giving them this much makes them even happier. It’s a bit tricky, and that’s why it’s still being worked on. A lot of people are confused, so let me try to explain.
When you give the ‘green smiley’ for a need, all the people in the game get a +1 boost to their happiness. This boost can go up to 6, but that’s if you do it for all 6 needs. And here’s a cool thing: the boosts add up. So, even the first people who joined the game can get happier when you take care of later needs.
If you give enough stuff for the orange smiley, your villagers stay happy with no change. Their happiness stays the same, not going back to the starting level. If you have +5 happiness, the orange smiley keeps it at +5. No need for maximum rations all the time!
If you don’t meet the basic orange smiley needs, your villagers get unhappy. For every unmet need, they lose -2 happiness, up to -12. This is really bad. Don’t let this happen. If it does, your village’s productivity will suffer, and if villagers can leave later, your village might die. These penalties add up over time. Even if you lose some points in a bad season but recover and keep giving orange rations, your people stay unhappy but won’t get worse.
So, the plan is to provide at least the minimum orange needs for all categories to keep happiness. You don’t have to stick to green-level needs once your population is maxed out in happiness.
Here’s a simple plan: In regular play, use green rations to make everyone super happy, then switch to orange. When you get new villagers, add them in groups. Use green rations to make everyone happy by paying more once. Then switch back to orange.
NPC Productivity
Now, let’s talk about the real problems and why there’s a warning. The boost in productivity from happiness is a temporary part of the game and will be replaced in a future update. But for now, here’s how it works.
At the start, your villagers are neutral with no production bonus. Supposedly, each happiness level gives a 5% bonus, up to a max of +30%. But (and this is where it’s a bit messed up), this is calculated for all NPCs at once when you adjust needs! If you switch a slider from orange to green, the productivity bonus becomes 5%. This sets everyone to 5%, even if they’re super happy! Ouch! So, how do you fix this? Whenever you raise a need to green, you must make ALL needs green to reset everyone’s production to the max allowed by the number of needs. But, as mentioned earlier, you only have to do this for one season. That’s why it’s good to get new villagers in groups. You take the higher needs hit once, and then you have multiple seasons to deal with it, recover, or both.
It’s not perfect, but it’s what we have for now. Let’s hope the new system will be clearer.
That's everything we are sharing today for this Sengoku Dynasty guide. This guide was originally created and written by Winter's Embers. In case we fail to update this guide, you can find the latest update by following this link.