Bellwright Beginner Tips — How to Start Your Settlement

Start by covering the basics: gather wood, stone and flax, craft simple tools, and put up a shelter and a few production buildings. Flax matters early because it becomes Simple Cord at a Weaver Loom, which a lot of recipes need.

Your settlement runs on people. Liberate nearby villages and build trust to recruit villagers, then assign them to jobs — woodcutter, miner, farmer, forester — so resources are gathered automatically while you explore and fight.

Assigning workers to a resource node lets it be gathered passively; the more hands you have on the right jobs, the faster your settlement grows.

Metal gates your progression. Secure a couple of iron, copper and tin deposits near your settlement — the map shows every node — and bring a pickaxe to mine them.

Trees don't grow back on their own, so set up a Forester early: see how to plant trees to keep your wood supply renewable instead of clear-cutting the map.

Once you have a few trained followers and some basic gear, start clearing the Easy bandit camps near you — they're the safest way to earn loot, gear and territory. Work up to Medium and Hard camps as your squad grows; the map sorts every camp by difficulty so you can pick fights you can win.