Sim Settlements is nothing without settlers! Settlers that you recruit or attract to your settlement will do much of the work, growing food, building homes and defending those homes. There are three types of settlers you can have in your settlements.
Just like the Sole Survivor, your settlers are S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! Sim Settlements 2 has expanded the importance of settler attributes.
You can now:
You can check what your settler's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are by using the Vit-o-Matic on the settler.
You can aquire the Vit-o-Matic during the quest Vim and Vigor.
You can raise an individual S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat by assigning that settler to a recreational plot. There are different recreational plots designed to raise each type of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat.
Settlers with higher S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats can perform their jobs better, or work advanced plots.
The effect that settler S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats have is configurable in the City Manager 2078 Holotape. Under Options/Gameplay/NPC you will find two options that do this.
Vanilla settlers are the ordinary settlers from the base Fallout 4 game. They can obtained by:
They are labelled simply as settlers, unless you have a mod like Better Settlers that renames them.
Sim Settlements 2 changes the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats of vanilla settlers to a lower base level when you initially recruit them, compared to their stats in the base game. This change is configurable, at, Options/Gameplay/NPC/SPECIAL Stats Rolled for Settlers. It is not recommended that you change this setting, as it is a core game mechanic of Sim Settlements 2.
Unique Settlers are named NPC settlers added by Sim Settlements 2. Unique settlers have higher base S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats than vanilla settlers and recruiting them can unlock new plots to use in your settlements.
They can be recruited as part of the story of Sim Settlements 2, or more commonly after completing their unique quest, after which they become available. You can encounter Unique Settlers which you can recruit:
You start attracting visitors, and therefore potentially Unique Settlers, once you start building commercial and recreational plots in your settlements. Once you have unlocked visitors you may also get them in settlements without commercial and recreational plots, if they are large enough.
Once a potential, unique settler has spawned into the world, they will divide their time between three settlements that closely match their interests or needs. This means that you may encounter them in one of the their three settlements, or you may meet them on the road as they travel between them. To ensure that you have a chance to encounter them, if you fast travel into one of their settlements, the game will roll them in on occasion.
The Ron is an NPC added by Sim Settlements 2. He is an information broker found in an office in The Wall in Diamond City.
He is first encountered in the quest The Coolest Cat, where he provides information on locating the Vit-o-Matic. At the end of the meeting he provides you with leads on potential unique settlers. After these two quests (It Came from Planet X! and Grey Matters) are completed you can return to The Ron, who will provide you with leads on further settlers to recruit. Performing these two quests will also unlock the ability to receive Unique Settlers, if you haven't already started getting visitors.