Synergy overview
A handful of settlers, an unfamiliar landscape and a small pile of supplies: that is the position Synergy starts from. The job is to turn it into a functioning city by learning how the nearby plants, soil and weather behave, then placing housing, workshops and districts to match what the land can support. It is a single-player game with an isometric view, and it moves at a deliberate pace.
The full version launched on April 16, 2025, following an Early Access period that began on May 21, 2024.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
The land sets the puzzle
Nearly every resource in the settlement starts as a plant, and the species growing around the starting square differ from map to map. A start with plenty of shade trees plays differently from one where housing has to be placed carefully to stay cool, and a missing food source has to be replaced by whatever the surroundings offer. Studying the local flora is where each map begins.
An art direction with a point of view
Buildings, clothing and animated citizens share one consistent style, and expedition events get full illustrations. Reviewers have compared the mood to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, though the Aftermath review treats that influence as a starting point rather than a template.
Expedition events that react to the settlement
Outings end in short encounters where the player picks an approach, and some options only appear once the settlement has the right equipment back home. Protective gear can open a toxic swamp to explorers, for example, and tools can get an ancient turbine running again. Some of the choices carry an ethical edge, and the writing and splash art behind them draw regular praise from reviewers.
Story and Lore
The setting is a desert world that is hostile to people. Coverage of the game describes a community heading for a new region of that planet, where the habits that worked before no longer apply. Aftermath’s reviewer reads the world as the remains of an advanced civilization whose descendants lost much of its technology and drifted apart into smaller, more tribal groups.
Knowledge drives the plot as much as it drives the economy. Tablets brought back from expeditions hold information the survivors lack, and the same reviewer describes the campaign as an effort to stitch society back together. One campaign places its scenarios in a world pushed to the brink by heatwaves, dying ecosystems and vanishing lakes, and the truth behind the escalating disaster is left to be uncovered along the way. The Anchoring is the other campaign, and it includes scenarios such as A Beacon in the Sand.
Expedition events introduce the rest of the world’s people: a community settled in the ruins of an old city that wants to trade, or a group that needs help reviving a printing press to spread food-safety advice.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Every run begins with a Founding Square. Once it is down, settlers arrive and the first buildings go up around it: a Field Laboratory to learn which plants are safe, a Picker’s Cabin to gather from them, storage, and tents for housing.
Plants and harvesting
Analysis results fill the Knowledge Book and decide which species are worth harvesting, and how. Each species is tied to one of three harvest buildings (Picker’s Cabin, Arborist’s Workshop or Agricultural Farm), and the outcome depends on the action chosen:
- Picking, Pruning and Reaping are the basic harvests of the three buildings.
- Shearing yields more and cuts the chance of injury or intoxication, at the cost of tools.
- Seed Scattering gives fewer resources but may spawn a new sprout nearby.
- Notching turns the harvest into resin.
- Uprooting, available at the Agricultural Farm, pays out the most and sends the plant back to a sprout.
- Cooling and Watering produce nothing directly: one protects a plant from heat and drought, the other helps it grow.
The ground matters as much as the plant. Temperature, humidity, organic matter and mineral richness all vary across the map, the terrain visibly changes once they cross certain thresholds, and plants and some buildings push those values up or down around them. That gives players some control over soil conditions.
Housing, water and heat
Houses start out as tents and have to sit within range of a food source and a water source. Water towers share a single citywide supply, so nothing is carried by hand, and a heatmap shows where the network leaves gaps. Dry seasons stress that system: lakes empty, pontoons stop collecting water and irrigation pumps only run on toxic water. Temperatures rise a little further with every season, slowing production in exposed buildings. End-game buildings help, with the Windcatcher lowering heat and the Fungal Sponge drawing water out of humid ground.
Districts and satisfaction
Districts are built around squares placed among the buildings, and the game marks any house left outside one, since those houses drag the city’s satisfaction average down. A district begins as a basic square and is later upgraded into a specialized type: Display, Green Park, Observatory, Monument, Fountain or Sandy Furrows. Each type scores specific buildings, decorations or plants within its range, and enough score plus population unlocks bonuses that raise satisfaction caps or boost particular buildings.
Citizens are rated on four scores. Wellbeing speeds up work, Social adds a cooperation bonus that grows with the number of workers in a building, Culture raises Heritage Point output, and Knowledge raises Science Point output.
Research and expeditions
Research runs on two currencies: Science Points from the Research Center and Heritage Points from the Hall of Wisdom, both produced by assigned workers. A tablet found in the field can be exchanged for a large batch of points of either kind, or saved for a special technology.
Expeditions leave from Expedition Huts. Before setting off, the player chooses which food to pack and in what quantity, and every portion competes for carry capacity with whatever the party hopes to bring home. Each region has several destinations, and finishing them guarantees the region’s headline reward. Citizens may be injured or killed along the way. Trade contracts won on these trips are spent at an outpost that swaps resources instantly with other settlements or isolated groups.
A resource panel tracks production and consumption over recent days and lets players cap either one for each resource.
Characters and Factions
The cast is the settlement itself and the people the map gradually introduces.
- Settlers live in houses and staff the buildings the player assigns. Adults and children both appear, and they can fall ill or be wounded, which an Infirmary treats with remedies.
- Explorers are settlers sent out through Expedition Huts, carrying food on the way and loot on the way back.
- Survivors met during expeditions can sometimes be persuaded to join the city.
- Trading partners are other cities and isolated groups, reachable through the contracts found on expeditions.
Editions
Synergy is a single full game: the tutorial, the campaigns and free play all come with it. Any bonus material sold alongside it, such as art and soundtrack extras, is cosmetic and does not change how the game plays.