Tinker Island: Survival Adventure is an exciting new mobile game from Kongregate that is now available for download on iOS and Android platforms. If the game reminds you of Survivor (the TV series, that is), then we can’t blame you. However, this time it isn’t staged, as you’ll be playing one of several survivors of a shipwreck. Tinker Island is a time management game where you take leadership of a group of survivors, fight off enemies, tame savage beasts, solve puzzles, and even kindle romance. Your fate in this game, and that of your fellow survivors, is all up to you, though surviving in a strange island may prove to be very challenging.
Aside from that, you’ve got the mechanics of your average city builder, as you’ll be building and upgrading structures on your island base. You’ll also get to craft items here, namely weapons to protect you from the enemy (and the beasts that lurk within), and tools to help you survive your new lives on Tinker Island. There’s a lot to learn in this game, but if you’ve downloaded it for the first time, we hope you can join us as we bring you our exclusive Tinker Island: Survival Adventure strategy guide for the first-time, er, castaway.
1. Different Survivors Have Different Roles
You’ll be in charge of a diverse group of survivors, each of them having specific occupations and accompanying skills. These skills are classified into four groups, namely build (hammer icon), fight (sword icon), forage (hand icon), and explore (magnifying glass icon). These skills determine each survivor’s strengths, and you should choose the right survivor when it comes to the various tasks to do on Tinker Island.
Consider this basic example: when assigning someone to explore different parts of the map, you should choose someone with a high Explore rating. That’s going to help move the progress bar faster, and as you’ll find out, the movement of the progress bar would depend on how you assign survivors to task. There’s no sense in assigning someone with a sword icon to go exploring, or someone with a hand icon to fight off enemies. You can also assign multiple survivors to the same task, such as having two survivors with 10 Explore ratings go around the island to discover more of their surroundings.
2. Turn Off Sleep Mode And Have The Game Keep Running
As you’ll eventually be assigning a plethora of tasks to different people on the island, it’s a good idea to leave your game open, and have it running, with sleep mode or your screen saver turned off and your phone plugged into a charger. But you’ll also want to be hands-on from time to time, as some tasks only take a few seconds to complete, while others may take at least an hour. So with that in mind, you may want to check regularly on your game’s progress even if it’s left open and active so that the longer tasks can be completed.
3. Watch Ad Videos For Gems
At some point in the game you’ll find a white package, which will then be found on the bottom left corner of the camp site. Tap on that white package and you’ll be shown an ad video that will give you one gem in return. The ad videos, as always, last 30 seconds at the most, and offer a quick and painless way for you to earn premium currency. And while one gem per video isn’t much, you can take advantage of two things in order to earn more gems sans the effort; watch the videos while your survivors are doing tasks to keep yourself productive, and watch as many videos as possible. The game will allow you to watch a maximum of ten ads per day, so that’s ten gems per day, which can add up.
4. Don’t Spend Your Gems Frivolously
Apart from the advertisements, free gems are few and far in-between in the game. And you will be needing those gems to unlock better-quality survivors. That means you should not spend your gems on things you shouldn’t be spending the on. Don’t use gems to expedite tasks; be patient, and once again, make good use of the dead time by watching ads while your survivors do tasks. You can also complete achievements naturally, or check them out so you know what to do, and create a Kongregate account and connect it to the game if you want more free gems.
5. Assign A Forager To Your Fishing Spot
Your survivors will stumble upon a fishing spot after you’ve been to about two areas or so in the game. That’s going to give you a primary food source, and that means you’ll need to have someone keeping watch at the fishing spot so that you can keep on generating food. Also be sure to upgrade your fishing spot regularly; once upgraded to rank 2, the spot will get bonus food from foragers. That means you should assign foragers to the fishing spot, though you can have them handle different things if you’ve got more than enough food.
6. Know Your Buildings And Keep Them Upgraded
As Tinker Island is, in essence, a base management game, you should know which buildings do what, and make sure they’re regularly updated.
First of all, prioritize your bonfire, as that unlocks new buildings which you can set up on the island. Water cisterns are there to increase the skills of your survivors, so you should upgrade them so that your survivors get bigger skill bonuses and become more efficient. Maps should also be upgraded, as that gives your survivors an Explore bonus, allowing them to discover new areas faster. Lastly, tents and shelter are like your forms of storage for your food and other resources.
In terms of upgrade priorities, we did mention your bonfire should go first, and after that, the tents/shelter should follow. Next, work on upgrading the water cisterns. Lastly, upgrade the maps, as it won’t be too important at first to scout new parts of Tinker Island.
This wraps up our list of tips and tricks for Tinker Island: Survival Adventure. If you’ve discovered other hints for the game, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comment section!