Strategies for starting off on certain islands?

[seahorsepie]

I'm really curious about how other people start on certain islands, so please share your strageties. I'm going to explain how I start on the Deep Jungle island, since i'm proud of how I managed to survive for over 100 days on it after starting on that very island. 

First, I zoom out to study the island. I look to see if there's areas without too many trees and with a few food sources. I've noticed that the trees where that have the branches for winged creatures to fly into don't seem to spawn any apes. After I find a place that looks somewhat safe, i'll send my creatures over there immediately.

After that I fix up their mutation menus, if they have inactive bad eyesight, I try to fix that. I normally would fill the slots with black fur and spots. If one slot is taken up by normal eyesight, I check to see if black fur or spots would be more useful. Like if they have two no pattern genes, i'll definitely give the dots.

Then i'll just have them gather up as much food as I can before they have their babies, in order to make sure they don't starve. That results with them starting to have children very late in their life. I'll breed the starter pair until they have two children who can have healthy babies with each other, or until a wanderer who can breed with one of the babies arrive.

Once everything is going well in camp, i'll begin to send a few of each generation out to explore the jungle and find out where the apes are. But the rule is, if you find an ape, you can't come back to camp.

Thanks for reading this, it was just really fun to type all of this out.

[Jojo]

Here are my strategies for a few islands (Also I am very impressed that you managed to survive in Deep Jungle by starting there)

Oasis

Make sure one of your starters has a claw. Set up camp by the lake in the middle and have the clawed one fish (if it is the female a little bit of swapping is in order). If you have unwanted Nichelings, let them pick from the cacti. Keep an eye on your population and make sure the claw is passed on. As soon as you have water body unlocked start breeding clawed, water bodied Nichelings. Last but not least you'll probably want big ears Optional: have gilled creatures with lean body, or cracker jaws with water body so that they can crack the shells.

Deadly Hills

Don't clear out grass and make sure that you mutate moss brown fur and or stripes on your Nichelings until you have a high enough strength skill to face the killer bearyenas. The bearyena genes are a great help. Setting up by a tree is usually a good idea if you have cracking, otherwhise stick close to the normale berry bushes as they will attract bunnies. Unwanted Nichelings and Nichelings with one day left on their lifespan can pick from the toxic berry bushes. Once you have toxic body unlocked you might want to breed a line of toxic bodied collectors.

Burning Savannah

This also depends a little on luck. Hunt down all the berry bushes you can find. Set up next to them. Make sure you are strong enough to kill Bearyenas swiftly they are a great source of food. Again have unwanted Nichelings pick from the cacti. Keep a close eye on your population. Even if you don't have matching children yet don't breed to much. Starvation kills you faster than sickness.

[seahorsepie]

6 hours ago, Jojo said:

Here are my strategies for a few islands (Also I am very impressed that you managed to survive in Deep Jungle by starting there)

Oasis

Make sure one of your starters has a claw. Set up camp by the lake in the middle and have the clawed one fish (if it is the female a little bit of swapping is in order). If you have unwanted Nichelings, let them pick from the cacti. Keep an eye on your population and make sure the claw is passed on. As soon as you have water body unlocked start breeding clawed, water bodied Nichelings. Last but not least you'll probably want big ears Optional: have gilled creatures with lean body, or cracker jaws with water body so that they can crack the shells.

Deadly Hills

Don't clear out grass and make sure that you mutate moss brown fur and or stripes on your Nichelings until you have a high enough strength skill to face the killer bearyenas. The bearyena genes are a great help. Setting up by a tree is usually a good idea if you have cracking, otherwhise stick close to the normale berry bushes as they will attract bunnies. Unwanted Nichelings and Nichelings with one day left on their lifespan can pick from the toxic berry bushes. Once you have toxic body unlocked you might want to breed a line of toxic bodied collectors.

Burning Savannah

This also depends a little on luck. Hunt down all the berry bushes you can find. Set up next to them. Make sure you are strong enough to kill Bearyenas swiftly they are a great source of food. Again have unwanted Nichelings pick from the cacti. Keep a close eye on your population. Even if you don't have matching children yet don't breed to much. Starvation kills you faster than sickness.

I use a similar strategy for deadly hill. I always make sure that one of my starters has the cracking ability and settle them down under a tree, and just keep them hidden until i've got bearyena genes. I never really thought about using the berry bushes as bunny traps, that's a really smart idea. I usually just try to find a bunny burrow in the area and have a creature set up near it, so they can catch the bunnies when they arrive. 

[PopsicleNinja]

3 hours ago, seahorsepie said:

I use a similar strategy for deadly hill. I always make sure that one of my starters has the cracking ability and settle them down under a tree, and just keep them hidden until i've got bearyena genes. I never really thought about using the berry bushes as bunny traps, that's a really smart idea. I usually just try to find a bunny burrow in the area and have a creature set up near it, so they can catch the bunnies when they arrive. 

I started off at Archipelago for a water challenge, and I intend to go to Oasis. The north port in this save file is Deadly Hills, and I think that port will be the quickest way to the Oasis. I thought I'd have to spend a huge amount of time on the last island preparing for the killer bearyenas, then I found a loophole:

There are no killer bearyenas in the ocean.

[seahorsepie]

58 minutes ago, PopsicleNinja said:

I started off at Archipelago for a water challenge, and I intend to go to Oasis. The north port in this save file is Deadly Hills, and I think that port will be the quickest way to the Oasis. I thought I'd have to spend a huge amount of time on the last island preparing for the killer bearyenas, then I found a loophole:

There are no killer bearyenas in the ocean.

I once had a non-waterbreathing creature who had to be born in the ocean so she wouldn't be eaten a killer bearyenas, thanksfully she managed to survive and heal all of the damage she took from drowning.