Settling

[Miskinis]

What should i look for before i settle down? Biomes? Soil Q? Caves?

[Miss_Min]

Distance from other claims, natural resources, swamps and suspicious criminal scents, mostly.

[Reiber]

settle at least one minimap away from water, but you want some access to the local river network or ocean still,
if there are swamps or mountain around great(you still dont want to settle to close or you will hinder spawns)

and for gods sake scout the area if there are alread settlements nearby, nobody wants someone putting up a tent on their porch

so basically you optimally want to be in walking distance of everything, but far enough away that you cant be seen from there.