I tried out my first hard island x.x RIP me and my poor creatures

[bostonlobstah]

Basically, I made a save and started on the oasis. One creature had platypus beak but neither of the starters had claw. Both had recessive fishing tail but none of their children had fishing tail. No one could catch any fish, the tribe was down to three members, all females, and starving to death. I abandoned the save. 

I started again, this time thinking, I need to be prepared. I need CLAW!

So I started on whale island. Unlocked claw. Then I went to the Oasis. I quickly unlocked a lot of the water genes. Life was...okay. We typically had less than 10 creatures, 30 food and not many immunities. We found a couple wanderers but most of them didn't have kids. Bearyenas kept showing up and killing all my cactus collecting omegas. But my bad luck was that no matter how many clawed creatures I bred, and no matter how many times I put claw in the mutation menu, none of the kids had double claw, and a lot of them had no claw at all. Also, not enough of the creatures were good swimmers, which made them terribly slow at catching fish.  

Then, things started going downhill. The main problem was, I was so paranoid of starving to death that I spent up all my turns chopping cactus and catching fish. Then I didn't end up ever having many kids. But soon I grew desperate. My last remaining females were all about to die. I made them all have their final children. Boy. Boy. Boy. Boy. Girl!

This final girl was a blessing! But we were kind of starving, so I decided that we were going to leave. Everyone ran to the ports. This one girl, who was getting older, and like 7 males. On the day we left, a bearyena showed up right next to the ports. Also, our only female was impregnated by a rogue male. But, I was so relieved that we were able to travel to the burning savannah before the bearyena got to take a bite of his fast food literally 'to go'.  

So we get to the savannah. Everyone without big ears has only two turns. We grab a bit of food and try to book it through the tall grass to the easy island ports. Our female gives birth along the way. BOY. By this point our female is getting old and had taken a bit of damage before, probably from cacti and drowning and such. I skip the day. Half my tribe dies of old age. Also, my only female dies. All I'm left with is a of half-rogue male and a random platypus beaked, fishing tailed son of a wanderer. (Maybe one other male. I can't even remember.) In a burning savannah. With practically no food as we've spend all our energy running. Halfway to the easy island ports. 

I give up at that point and delete the save. I guess I should have restarted from the same bloodline so I could keep all the useful water genes. 

Next time, I guess I will try a water genes or sirens challenge, but start on an EASY island. And STAY there. Maybe going to the oasis eventually. 

But for now, I think I am a bit worn out from playing Niche. x.x I think it's time for a tiny break.  O O F !

Hey, I have a Roblox account. I haven't played that in a while...

Sooooo, any tips for surviving on the oasis? Or any other non-easy islands, for that matter? What did I do wrong, or was it just terrible luck?

[Jojo]

I looooove starting in the Oasis. It's one of my fav places.

The second run started pretty well. Sounds like you had some bad luck with the claw inheritance though. For Oasis: claw is more important than water body. My order is always: claw (double slots in the mutation menu if you have it unlocked (it is way more fun if you go to the Oasis without having it unlock ) and then worry about everything else. Works for me usually. Also it is very useful to have the females either breed on the island in the middle of the lake or on the edge to give them the opportunity to fish to if they have claw and so that the kids can go into the water as soon as possible.

Can't think of anything else of the top of my head right now except that you might want to consider some cracker jaws to pick up coconuts and shells

[Goggles-kun]

Aah... Oasis always gives me trouble. Half the time I just use the consle to make my creatures have Oasis-friendly genes.

This is coming from a person that forced herself to beat Zelda without having to use a walkthrough.

For your last question: breed in those island-friendly genes FAST. Especially on hard and killer islands. It saves you from that massive headache you'll get 😅

[Spacestar TheThundersuncat]

I do wonder, there usually are very few fish midisland. Do you explore the ocean? 

I never go water and just find a good berry spot, a there are usually one or two. How do you make a good profit with water genes?

Even on the most fitted islands with full blown water genes, my final food stack grows so slowly.

[bostonlobstah]

55 minutes ago, RandomWanderer said:

I do wonder, there usually are very few fish midisland. Do you explore the ocean? 

I never go water and just find a good berry spot, a there are usually one or two. How do you make a good profit with water genes?

Even on the most fitted islands with full blown water genes, my final food stack grows so slowly.

I explored 3/4ths of the lake before leaving, but very little ocean. And now, thinking back, I actually did okay on the oasis. I bet I could have actually survived if I didn't decide to leave. 

Without the water genes, my creatures are super slow in the water. All the fish get away, or my creatures just aren't fast enough to make it over to them to catch them that day. 

My berry pickers were the omegas with no claws. Like I said, Bearyenas ate them all.

[bostonlobstah]

Even though I kept quitting on the oasis, I actually really enjoyed playing there. I think I can say that Oasis is one of my favorite islands so far (along with whale island and archipelago)

[Jojo]

On 9/9/2018 at 1:12 PM, RandomWanderer said:

I do wonder, there usually are very few fish midisland. Do you explore the ocean? 

I never go water and just find a good berry spot, a there are usually one or two. How do you make a good profit with water genes?

Even on the most fitted islands with full blown water genes, my final food stack grows so slowly.

I haven't played in the Oasis recently but I never had a problem with to few fish. Sometimes my Nichelings would overfish the lake and to prevent that I just moved them to the ocean or the outer edge to leave some darkness so that fish would spawn better.

Your foodstores usually don't grow as fast when you only eat fish but if you don't overpopulate the place it is fine. Usually the ocean isn't a feasable place but can be useful with cracker jaw+water body Nichelings, especially now since we have piranhas in the ocean

[LordOfCider]

Honestly my first save with Oasis went really well. It was a slow grind in the beginning, but I believe I started off with one clawed Nicheling and was able to unlock a lot of fishing genes that way. I'm had nearly 100 food, so life was very good.

I think it's really luck of the draw when you decide to make a hard island your starting point. If you aren't lucky I'd suggest plunking those creatures in the water ASAP and hoping you unlock genes before they all die out.