Dungeon Settlers Expedition Guide

Before a Dungeon Settlers expedition, prepare suitable food and recovery supplies, check Auto-Pickup's weight threshold, and gather the members you intend to take. Rank 2 supports six members and Rank 3 eight. In v0.4.29, normal floor changes keep dungeon stay penalties progressing, and leaving living members behind produces a named confirmation warning.

Prepare the party and its supplies

Choose one result for the run: a material needed by a recipe, a progression objective, or a merchant visit. Then check the following before leaving:

For a counter, water-support, or fire setup, use Builds for the current mechanical checks. Normal and Easy Combat Difficulty have published Active Skill Energy reductions of 25% and 50%; compare difficulty before copying another player's supply plan.

Auto-Pickup stops: check weight before chasing a bug

v0.4.29 adds a weight threshold in the Auto-Pickup options. Its default is Until becoming Heavily Encumbered.

1. Open the pickup options and read the selected weight threshold.
2. Inspect the inventory and load of the member expected to collect the item.
3. If the threshold is reached, reduce that load or use another available carrier, then recheck pickup.
4. If there is carrying room, check the relevant pickup permissions and access to the item.
5. Before leaving the area, confirm that the material is in a member's inventory rather than still on the floor.

Keep the material required for the run's objective in mind when deciding what to carry. For a Clay trip, check reported Clay sources and the actual construction cost before filling every carrier with unrelated loot.

Automatic pickup in the dungeon and hauling into settlement storage are different jobs. If the item is already home but will not enter a container, use the storage and hauling checks.

Floor changes do not refresh the stay timer

Normal floors now share continuing dungeon stay duration and penalty progression. Moving deeper does not give the same fresh time budget that the earlier reset bug could appear to provide.

Before an extra room or rest stop, inspect the active stay effect and the party's food, Energy, and recovery. Returning after obtaining the target material may protect more progress than spending the rest of the trip searching for one additional drop.

The patch also separates floor-specific monster patrol timers from expedition stay duration. Do not infer the expedition penalty stage from a new floor's patrol timing. Loading an older save without a stored start time begins its stay-duration calculation from load; that compatibility handling is not a general reset method for current saves.

Move floors without abandoning a living member

The v0.4.29 departure warning lists surviving members who would remain behind. If everyone is supposed to leave:

1. Cancel the transition when an unexpected name appears.
2. Locate that member and finish or cancel the action keeping them away from the departure.
3. Move them into the intended group and start the transition again.
4. Read the confirmation before committing.

Treat the message as a final check, not a replacement for gathering the party. If a member cannot travel because the situation is unsafe, pause and handle that member's condition before continuing.

Return Scrolls and carried bodies

The earlier v0.4.23 rule says a Return Scroll brings back deceased Expedition Members currently being carried. Check the carrier and body before activating the return; the rule is about carried members, not every body elsewhere in the dungeon.

A living-member warning and a carried-body check solve different problems. Do both if the expedition has suffered losses. If a Soulstone is missing afterward, use Soulstone Recovery to check current-campaign kills, the stone's location, and living members' Soul Traits before a merchant trip.

Pause at contact and choose the next action

At the first dangerous encounter, pause, identify which member is exposed, and assign a protective or control action before resuming. Keep ranged members away from the immediate melee pressure where the encounter allows it.

For a Sword Counter member, seek melee contact deliberately: ranged attacks no longer trigger the counter. For barrier support, check which ally actually has space below the cap. Those choices connect party preparation to the next action rather than simply adding more automatic skills.

End the run when the objective is met, the next fight exceeds your recovery plan, or a needed member can no longer do their job. Back at the settlement, fix the specific shortage through research, food, equipment, or recruitment.

Sources and review scope

Official notes reviewed October 18, 2026; the checklists are practical guidance derived from them, not site-run expedition tests.

• v0.4.29 official notes — pickup weight, living-member warnings, and stay timers.
• v0.4.23 official notes — party size, difficulty, carried bodies, and Auto Use.
• Dungeon Settlers on Steam — pause combat, supplies, randomized expeditions, and permanent death.