Idle Ferry Tycoon joined the crowded idle clicker game space in 2020. Created by elusive American developer AIBY Inc., this mobile title is a pretty straightforward exponent of the idler clicker genre.
In Idle Ferry Tycoon players are put in charge of a ferry business that transports people, as well as goods across bodies of water. Money starts flowing in straight away, but you’ll need to devise a clever strategy in order to ensure profits continue to grow at a steady pace.
The key to success in this game is to build and invest in your port structures so that you can keep customers happy and the business thriving. As you progress, the game will unlock several new locations across the continent and beyond. And if you continue doing good work, you’ll even get to expand your business beyond Earth and set up shop on a different planet. Pretty exciting, right?
As a whole, Idle Ferry Tycoon is a pretty uncomplicated idle clicker. There aren’t any complex mechanics at play in this game, so once you identify a lucrative strategy you can go ahead and employ it in most of the locations you’ll come across. The game progresses at a reasonable speed, but if you’ve haven’t managed to make as much headway as you hoped you would, then our article might be exactly what you should read next.
We’ve put together an Idle Ferry Tycoon beginner’s guide which contains an extensive list of tips, tricks and strategies that examines the steps you need to take so that you can get your idle ferry business off the ground and thriving in no time. Continue reading below if you want to know how to become the best provider of water transport services in the entire galaxy!
1. Speed Up Operations By Tapping On The Display
Operations in Idle Ferry Tycoon mainly consist of moving various vehicles across a canal. In the first location, you start off with a single ferry that moves rather slowly. However, by the time the chapter is completed you’ll be working with three fairies and two helicopter to transport people on the other side more efficiently.
Anyway, one trick to speed up operations at any time in the game is to tap on the display to make all available vehicles move faster. Unlike other idle clicker games, there’s no option to turn on a “auto clicker” mode on, so you can be exempt from tapping duty. Unless you manage to catch one of the power-ups the game makes available from time to time, but more on that a bit later.
Basically at least during the initial phase of the game, it’s recommended that you actively participate in the game by tapping on the screen as much as possible. This will allow you to make more money in a shorter amount of time, which is important if you are to start upgrading buildings and other facilities sooner rather than later.
2. Start Building New Structures And Upgrade The Existing Ones
Another important task in Idle Ferry Tycoon consists in building structures across the locations that are under your management. Once you’ve raised them off the ground, it’s essential that you begin pouring funds into upgrading them as well.
Some of these expansions are dependent on you levelling up in the game. This is done by collecting cash and upgrading your structures. Every time you hit a new level you will also be able to redeem a nice sum of cash. It’s possible to get 5x the original amount, if you’re willing to watch an ad. If you’ve had your share of ads and need a break you can always tap on the “Claim” button below and just grab the standard sum.
Monetary benefits aside, you won’t be able to build higher-tier structures in your ports unless you’ve hit a certain level. This is why you should focus your efforts on leveling up as quickly as possible by being active in the game and constantly performing upgrades. Add a Crew to your vehicles including a Captain, Stewardess and Engineer, and make sure you improve your transportation vehicles.
As you advance in Idle Ferry Tycoon, construction costs will start getting more expensive, and so you’ll be forced to wait until you are able to collect enough cash to pay for these upgrades. During these idle periods, try and tap on the display, you’ll make money a lot faster than if you would just let the game do its thing. Each time you’ve earned enough to unlock a new upgrade, a red exclamation mark alert will appear on the building in question.
It’s important to keep an eye out for these, and once you’ve noticed one to quickly go ahead and unlock it. Now, we should note that from time to time, you’ll have to watch an ad in order to perform a level up. There’s no other way around this, and so if you want to move fast in Idle Ferry Tycoon you’ll have get over your annoyance with watching ads.
3. Alternate Playing With Doing Something Else
Ads are everywhere in Idle Ferry Tycoon and you can’t do much in this game without having to watch one. On the positive side, they do speed up your progress considerably, but it’s true they tend to become very annoying quickly due to their excessive numbers.
To counter their effect, Idle Ferry Tycoon is best played while you’re doing something else. You can open up the game while you’re reading or even working on a project on your PC. The game won’t capture your full attention, because it’s so frequently interrupted by ads. So instead of just staring blankly at the screen for a few seconds while the ad plays, you can return to whatever you’re doing in parallel.
Playing the game in any other way will be exceedingly frustrating. So unless, you want to pay a $10 fee to completely get rid of the ads, we advise that you take up our suggestion and see how it works for you.
4. Don’t Forget To Upgrade Your Port’s Stats
In each port you service, check the lower part of the displays to view the stats for that location. As soon as you’ve accumulated a decent amount of cash, you’ll need to start diverting profits into levelling up these stats as well. The first one has to do with increasing your vehicle’s capacity, while the second improves the vehicle itself and the third upgrades your shipment route.
The maximum level you can reach is 32. While it’s important to be constant in your efforts in upgrading these stats so you can have more money coming in, it’s not necessary to top all of them out so that you can unlock the next location in Idle Ferry Tycoon. Note that in order to open up a new location you will need to pay an inaugural fee, which is quite a large sum. Which means that even if a new location becomes available, you might not be able to move to it right away and instead be forced to spend more time at the old location to collect the cash needed to pay the fee.
That’s by no means saying that you should neglect them. Especially during the initial phase of the game, improving your port’s stats will help you transport more passengers in one go and thus substantially boosting your profits.
Keep in mind that from time to time, one of these upgrades will be offered for free. If you notice the “Free” tag on one of these stats boxes, that means that you can watch an ad for the chance to level up for free. This will save you from making some big expenses, so it’s worth considering.
5. Take Advantage Of The Occasional Power-Ups
As we already explained in section one, you can speed up your transport vehicles by tapping on the display without interruption. This can get tiresome, but alas there is no permanent booster in Idle Ferry Tycoon that can take over for you for extended periods of time.
The good news is that you can get a bit of help in this department from time to time. Keep your eyes peeled and so whenever you notice a circle popping up in the upper right side of the display, be quick about it and tap on it.
These are power-ups that unlock certain benefits for you in the game. Case in point, the Auto Clicker will bestow max speed to all your vehicles for 1 minute and you won’t have to touch the display once! The not so good part is that you have to watch an ad to be able to activate this power-up, and others like it.
Auto Clicker is not the only power-up available in Idle Ferry Tycoon, there are a couple more you need to watch out for. These are:
Time Jump – gives you 30-minutes worth of income right away;
Happy Hour – doubles your income for 5 minutes;
Each requires you watch an ad to activate them. If you feel like you’re doing enough ad watching as it is, you can simply ignore these boosters. On the other hand, given their usefulness, it wouldn’t hurt to take advantage of them at least from time to time.
6. Watch Out For Floating Surprise Boxes And Pearls
Besides booster use, there are additional methods to get more money in your bank. Whenever you notice the occasional odd object in the waters, for example, a surprise box or a pearl shell quickly make sure you tap on them.
The pearl will instantaneously yield multiple cash prizes, and so you should tap on it until it disappears from view completely. The surprise boxes carry a money gift as well, which you can claim or you can watch an ad and get a much larger (5x) sum.
We know what you’re thinking, not ads again right? Well, the good news is that it’s up to you and you only whether you wish to crack open these boxes or not. So if you feel overwhelmed by all the ads coming your way, then just feel free to skip them. You can always pick up the next one that comes along.
7. Don’t Let The Storm Cloud Get Away
Now and again a storm cloud will pass over your ports and trigger a rainstorm. This doesn’t really affect your operations, and the storm blows over quickly enough and does not impact anything below.
So is this just for entertainment sake, you might be wondering at this point? Not quite. The trick is to be swift and tap in quick succession on the cloud while it’s on the screen, to be able to unlock a cash prize.
The only hurdle here is that in order to redeem the maximum reward, you’re supposed to engage in another session of ads watching. But at this point, you’ve probably spent enough time in Idle Ferry Tycoon to know that ads are an integral part of this game, unless you’ve paid to remove them.
It’s a good time to remind you that you should pick up another activity while in the game, so you can fill up the idle times when ads are playing with something to distract your attention.
However, if you really feel like you simply can’t bear watching another ad, then you can go ahead and tap the gray “Claim” button at the bottom of the pop-up and just grab the standard sum.
8. Don’t Forget About Those Idle Rewards
Since this is an idle game there will be idle rewards every time you return from taking an extended break from playing.
You’re actually encouraged to find something else to do for a while, because idle rewards can be quite generous. Especially since you can increase the amount fivefold if you’re prepared to go through an ad. We recommend that you take the offer up each time, so you can grab a nice sum and start a new playing session with enough funds to do whatever you want to do.
Bottom line is this, to move things forward in Idle Ferry Tycoon you require cash and lots of it. Therefore, spending at least two hours away from the game should be an integral part of your strategy when dealing with this game.
With this final suggestion, we wrap up our Idle Ferry Tycoon beginner’s guide. We’re confident that the tips and tricks we’ve outlined above will help you move things along in the game with ease. If you’ve stumbled upon an alternative strategy in addition to the ones we already shared with you, be sure to drop of a message down in the comment section below!
Kuspa
Wednesday 21st of April 2021
How do you get those gold coins with the skull? What to do when everything is maxed out? It's fun to watch how it moves so I finished it fast but this can't be it.