I'm doing the hard fast level now and it's going OK. I have a population of 8, with one 5-year old and one baby. Two of my researchers are shown as "weakened" but they've been like that for a long time. I thought they would improve once there was a garden but they're staying at the same health. I've had them eating and drinking but there's no change. I hope they'll be OK!

At this speed and level, they are doing more planting at the same time as harvesting. Is that indicative of this level or are they just naturally smarter than the last ones I had? The last ones were always emptying the garden completely and someone had to forage until it was growing again.

I have 3 doing research, 2 farming and one Mother. One of the researchers just did some planting all on her own and then went back to researching!

Villagers will be different every game- some are better at some things than others.
As for your weak villagers, if there is plenty of food (several hundred and up) they tend to get better. Also, you can move your researchers to another job perhaps to see if it helps. Farmers tend to be a healthier bunch!

I had to start over again! My weak ones died and there was no food. There were 4 children and I think I started them too soon, as well as doing the building instead of research. Now I've started with only 5 (is that unusual?) I have noticed that the farmer is the healthiest so I'm getting everyone to take their turn to try and keep them healthy!

It's an awfully fine line between research to get them farming and keeping them healthy without running out of berries!

It can be tricky finding the right balance at first.

The number of villagers you start with can be either 5 or 6. You always start with 6 on easy setting and 5 on hard. Normal difficulty can be either - it's random.

That's OK then; I have it on hard fast. I've got the fat forager cleaning up the beach and the researchers are foraging so hopefully their health levels will go back up. There's not much food in the bin so I think they're eating it as they pick it, sort of like what I would do, especially if it's a blueberry patch!