Necesse Beginner's Guide: Surviving Pixels, Bosses, and Needy Settlers

Alright, so you've jumped into Necesse. Looks kinda like Terraria, maybe a bit of Rimworld with the whole settlement thing? Yeah, it borrows ideas, but it does its own thing too, especially with the quest-guided progression and making little pixel people do your bidding. It can be a bit much at first, so here’s the essential info to stop you from fumbling around like a zombie in broad daylight.

This isn't one of those games where you need a wiki open 24/7 just to figure out how to craft a wooden stick. The progression is pretty straightforward, but there are definitely some things that'll make your life easier right off the bat. Let's get into it.

Quick Tips Before You Die (Probably)

Just a few quick hits to save you some headaches:

• Sort Your Goddamn Chests: Go into Settings > Controls and set keybinds for "auto sort chest" and "auto place into nearby chest." Trust me, your inventory will thank you.

• Stop the Pausing: If the game pausing every time you alt-tab to check Discord drives you nuts, disable "Pause on focus loss" in Settings > General.

• The Wiki Exists: Yeah, there's a wiki. It's helpful if you get really stuck, but honestly, the game does a decent job guiding you. Don't feel obligated to have it glued to your second monitor.

• Got Questions? Ask on the official Discord.

How to Actually Progress (Without Getting Lost)

Necesse uses quests from the Elder NPC to point you in the right direction.

• My Elder is Mute: He only gives quests when he's part of a settlement. Plop down that settlement flag the tutorial gives you. You can move it later.

• Can I Ignore the Quests? Mostly, yeah. You can go off-script, but you'll eventually need to kill three specific bosses to hit the endgame. Be warned, they'll likely stomp you if you rush it.

• Is This Timed? Nope, take your sweet time. Build that giant wooden phallus statue if you want before fighting the first boss.

• Boss Count? Loads. They're split into roughly three tiers: Normal Caves (7 bosses), Deep Caves (6 bosses), and Endgame Incursions (7 bosses). You fight them in a mostly set order within the cave tiers.

• Deep Caves? How? Kill the last boss of the Normal Cave tier. It drops an item that lets you access the deeper, nastier levels.

• My Pickaxe Sucks: If you can't break a block, your pickaxe isn't good enough. Get better materials from later caves/bosses. Keep an eye out for a special pickaxe found in the deep swamp cave.

• Making Bank: Early on, smash pots in caves and look for gold rooms. Once you have farmers, grow wheat and sell it back to them (make sure they're happy for better prices!). Late game? Mob farms selling bone arrows print money.

Settlement Stuff: Making Pixels Work For You

Settlements are a huge part of Necesse. Set 'em up right, and you've got passive resource farms and automated sorting. Mess it up, and they'll starve while standing next to a chest full of food.

• Is it Mandatory? Nah, you can beat the game without ever playing mayor.

• Getting More Minions: Settlers visit your base over time, or you can find them in villages or randomly underground and recruit them (costs more from villages).

• Feeding Time: They need access to food in designated settlement storage chests. Check out guides for the specifics, but basically, put food in a chest and flag that chest for settlement use.

• Hoarders Anonymous: If settlers aren't emptying their pockets, make sure there's a valid settlement storage chest they can actually put that specific item into. Check the chest's filter settings.

• Stop Stealing My Shit! If settlers are taking things you don't want them to, remove that chest from the settlement storage system via its UI. If they still grab stuff, they might have been heading there already; wait it out or just break and replace the chest.

• Crafting Beds: Wool + Logs at a Carpenter Bench (made at a Workstation). Easy.

• Happiness Matters: Happy settlers give better trade prices and work more efficiently. Good food (variety and quality - gourmet > fine > raw), nice rooms (size, furniture variety), and living in a village boost happiness. Tiled floors are a must; sharing rooms or having no floor tiles pisses them off.

• Raiders: Once you hit 3+ settlers, baddies will periodically attack. Group your armed settlers and fight back, or just turn raids off in the world settings if you can't be bothered.

• Farming Basics: You need Farmland (from Workstation). Any settler assigned to farming can harvest/replant, but only actual Farmers fertilize. Bees help with fertilizing too.

• Giving Tools: You don't give them tools like axes; they magically have their own. The equipment slot is for their weapon.

Playing With Friends (Or Trying To)

Multiplayer is pretty straightforward, usually.

• Hosting Options: You can host directly from your game client ("in-game hosting") or set up a dedicated server.

• Which Host Type? In-game is easier and free but requires the host to be online. Dedicated servers can run 24/7 but are trickier to set up and might cost money if you rent one (or require a spare PC if self-hosting). For most casual groups, in-game hosting is fine.

• Hosting In-Game: Just hit "Host World" from the multiplayer menu or the pause menu in singleplayer.

• Joining: Easiest way is through Steam invites or the "Join a friend" option if you're Steam friends.

• Connection Hell: Can't connect? Stuck on "Connecting..."? This is common, often blamed on Steam servers being overloaded. The usual fix is for everyone (host included) to change their Steam Download Region in Steam settings, restart Necesse, and try again.

• Lag Fest: Similar fix to connection issues – try changing Steam Download Regions.

• Dedicated Server Setup: Check the wiki guides, they cover it well. You can edit a .json file to allocate more RAM if needed.

• Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Use /invite <playername> in chat to team up. This lets you work on settlements together and see each other on the map.

• Offline Raids/Work: Settlements only get raided if a team member is online. Settlers keep working (and eating) if any player is nearby or if any team member is online, keeping the area loaded.

Combat, Stats, and Not Dying Immediately

Combat's pretty standard top-down action. Here’s the stat breakdown:

• Difficulty Settings: Only really changes enemy HP and damage. Doesn't affect loot drops or attack patterns. You can change it anytime. Classic is the baseline the game was balanced around.

• Best Build? Ranged, Melee, Magic, Summoner – they're all viable. Melee gets tanky mid-game with Resilience gear, Summoner is arguably strongest late, Magic has variety, Ranged is consistent. Pick what looks fun.

• Swapping Builds: Super easy. Just change your armor (usually just the helmet), weapon, and trinkets. No permanent choices here.

• What is Resilience? It's that yellow bar below your health – basically a regenerating shield. You regain it by hitting enemies. It drains over time but can be sustained with certain gear. Makes you tanky, especially for Melee, on lower difficulties. Absolutely crucial stat, don't ignore it.

• Changing Enchantments: Use Enchanting Scrolls or talk to the Mage NPC.

• Best Enchantments? Depends on build, but generally +damage, +crit chance, +attack speed are good offensive choices. Attack speed is great for Resilience builds.

That's the gist. Necesse has a surprising amount going on under its simple pixel art. Get your settlement started, follow the Elder's quests (or don't), gear up, and start digging deeper. Good luck.