At first, this game starts out very RimWorld-esque; you have a ragtag group of a few people, and you assign them priorities which they carry out autonomously.

Eventually, the game does its first gameplay shift and you start working on cultivating some of your disciples into true warriors to be reckoned with. This requires an entire separate set of skills, materials, and building styles.

Then there's one last shift as you go from haphazardly cultivating whatever works, to intentionally optimizing the systems to draw out every advantage you can. That's when the game gets brutal, and where the game's community comes in clutch because god help you if you try to do it by yourself.