Story Mode: Recruit Emma Early

TLDR; ~30 campfires; with 3 community members, Cooper and Emma broken up, Kelly used for recruitment, but Paul alive.

I was doing a new Story Mode run. I wanted to keep my group as small as possible in the early game. Despite this, I wanted Emma to join early. So I messed around with building and lighting campfires to see how many I need to recruit her. What's the result?

I only have 3 people in my community. My main character Tanya Greyson, Kelly Salas and Christina Riley after rescuing her from the Ritz Creek vs Weatherman storyline. In this playthrough, I told Emma of what Cooper did but did not kill Paul Powers (I refused directly, so the quest with Cooper ended there). I mentioned this because this may have swung the pendalum towards making her easier to recruit.

Regardless, with 3 people, Emma broke up with Cooper, Paul still alive and using Kelly for the recruitment, the amount of campfires I needed to light up for her to join is about 30. Give or take, add or remove 5-10 more campfires for factors that may improve or reduce the chances of recruiting her, like Paul being killed or Emma and Cooper still in a relationship.

BEWARD: The amount of burning fires being rendered will strain your graphics driver. I suggest lowering the graphics to Low temporarily while you burn the campfires. Once you recruited her, you can extinguish the fire and refund the Wood used. Ideally, be near a river or a well before starting. Carry as many bottles of water as possible to reduce the number of trips needed for the extinguishing.