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No Man's Sky

How to Respond to Settlement Decisions

By
Scott Peers

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.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Hello Games
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, XB One, XB X|S
  • Guide Release
    27 April 2022
  • Last Updated
    11 January 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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This ongoing guide for the amazing No Man’s Sky includes the following:

  • Tips and Tricks to get started
  • Technology Upgrades
  • Building a Base guides
  • Crafting Guides
  • Mission Guides
  • Encounters
    As well as this there is also information on the game’s numerous updates, as well as the forthcoming Nintendo Switch version of No Man’s Sky.

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