The decisions you make in relation to Citizen Requests, Citizen Disputes, New Arrivals, and Policy Decisions will influence the way your planetary settlement develops. The choices you make can impact every element of settlement overview stats and settlement features, such as population, happiness, productivity, maintenance cost, and sentinel alert level. As a result it’s important that you make the right choices to ensure that your settlement continues to prosper, especially considering that some of the consequences of your choices aren’t always made clear. The below tables show all the known outcomes for settlement decisions of each type.
How to Respond to Settlement Decisions in No Man’s Sky¶
(1 of 3) You should never be afraid to turn down requests for glorious expeditions if you can't afford them, or if you don't want to lose population size in exchange for materials.
Citizen Request Choices¶
A Grand Day Out¶
Endorse
Deny
+4 - 5% Happiness and increased settlement debt
-2% Happiness, no increase to settlement debt
A Glorious Expedition¶
Endorse
Deny
Settlers return with items or currency in the form of units or nanites at the cost of -2 Population and increased settlement debt
No impact to overview stats or settlement features
Citizen Dispute Choices¶
Contested Ownership¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Adds the Hostile spy suspected settlement feature
Adds the Hostile spy suspected settlement feature and decreases productivity
Criminal Enterprise¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Reduces settlement debt
Adds the Enemy spy detected and Atmosphere of suspicion settlement features
Faulty Goods¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Adds the Hostile spy detected settlement feature
Adds the Atmosphere of suspicion settlement feature
Relational Difficulties¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
No impact to overview stats or settlement features
No impact to overview stats or settlement features
New Arrival Choices¶
A Good Neighbour¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Adds a random positive feature if you accept technology, adds valuable material if you accept gift
No impact to overview stats or settlement features
A Mysterious Warning¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Adds a Blessed positive feature if you heed the warning, or directly contributes to happiness if you don’t require the feature, also increases settlement debt
Adds a Cursed negative feature if you don’t need the warning, also increases maintenance cost
A Stranger In Need¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Increases standing with the alien race associated with your settlement, also increases settlement debt
Decreases standing with the alien race associated with your settlement, also adds a Cursed negative settlement feature
An Unexpected Guest¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Adds a random positive settlement feature and +1 to population, can also increase or decrease maintenance cost depending on guest
No impact to overview stats or settlement features
Friendly Business¶
Choice 1 (left option)
Choice 2 (right option)
Adds a random positive settlement feature, also increases settlement debt
No impact to overview stats or settlement features
Policy Decisions¶
Fiscal Opportunities¶
There will be a number of Fiscal Opportunities presented in various forms, but all of them relate to whether or not you should tax a specific activity in the settlement. This can range from taxing the consumption of a currently untaxed ingredient, tax a new technological development, or tax a specific leisure activity. It doesn’t matter what the scenario is, since the choices and outcomes are always the same, detailed below.
Tax
Don’t tax
Increased productivity at the cost of -2% citizen happiness
Decreased productivity but +2% citizen happiness
Market Regulation¶
This policy decision is similar to Fiscal Opportunities, in that you’ll have a range of scenarios where specific activities that your settlers have begun to engage in are brought to your attention. The main difference here is that instead of a choice between taxing or not taxing the activity, you’ll have to decide whether or not to ban it. The results of the choices are exactly the same.
Tax
Don’t tax
Increased productivity at the cost of -2% citizen happiness
Decreased productivity but +2% citizen happiness
Bettering the Settlement and Improving Our Lives¶
In addition to Fiscal Opportunities and Market Regulation, you’ll have two other main types of decisions related to the Bettering the Settlement and Improving Our Lives categories. These will always have a positive outcome for the settlement and its settlers, although you will sometimes need to pay an initial one-off fee for the choice to take effect.
