Tinker Island 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to Tricky Tribe’s highly successful survival RPG, Tinker Island – Survival Story Adventure. Tinker Island 2 promises to be bigger and better than its predecessor while maintaining the core concepts and features that players of its previous incarnation loved and enjoyed. As much as every game you may have come across is unique in its own right, Tinker Island 2 certainly takes a bigger slice of the creativity cake spread across every element of its package.
Castaways and survivors stuck in some mysterious island is nothing new in the world of gaming. However, how Tinker Island 2 works around the premise and creates a unique adventure around the concept is definitely what sets it apart from categorically similar games on mobile. The game’s story is certainly something to behold as reading and taking note of the narrative is required for progression.
There is action involved as you engage in battles against cats, rocks, and whatever other challenges that stand in your way and you need your wits and stock knowledge available to complete some of the puzzles. With more survivors recruited comes strategic team-building and camp development certainly needs a bit of planning.
While the above description as well as your first minute into the world of Tinker Island 2 may seem overwhelming given how it seems to deviate from the conventional mechanics that come with most games, but gameplay mechanics are actually simple and the overall atmosphere of the game is light and relaxed, leaving little to no room for pressure at all.
Tinker Island 2 provides basic guides on every introduction of an activity or feature and the initial minutes of gameplay serves as a tutorial session of sorts. There are different paths towards the ultimate goal and players can very much progress on their own regardless of which path they choose.
If you have just started diving into the uniquely challenging island adventure within Tinker Island 2, and need a helping hand to better explore and tame the island, then be sure to read our beginner’s guide. Our dedicated article comes with a bunch of tips and strategies to build the best camp and teams to conquer the island!
1. Understand The Basics
The island photo on the loading screen of Tinker Island 2 basically shows you its layout once fully uncovered. Although there are lots of details or areas of interest to uncover, it all boils down to just a few types by category. Tinker Island 2 also provides a convenient way for players to shift between the base camp and the island map, through an icon on the upper left side of the screen.
Your camp will start off with hardly anything on it but developing it will soon form part of the usual activities you engage in. While the camp stands as a resting spot for your survivors, where they can eat as well as get stronger, building structures and upgrading them will also require work, which consumes energy.
Progression on your adventure is largely, but not entirely, based on how much of the island you have uncovered through exploration. Exploration entails a lot of activities, from engaging in combat and solving unique puzzles and mini games, to answering trivial questions and making the right decisions in certain scenarios.
Exploration, of course, is not the exclusive activity available on the island as some areas you uncover will either be a spot to secure resources from or places to gain XP and other materials through combat. Note that you can zoom in and out of the map using a pinch gesture and doing so will help you determine some of the resources you can gather from areas you have already ventured in.
Performance in combat is affected by the character or characters’ attack and HP stats but the more important skill to have is timing and precision. Tinker Island 2 employs a unique, but otherwise easy, mechanics in battle. An icon moves back and forth along a meter with different colored blocks and all you need to do is time your taps on the green blocks 3x to deal more damage and do so again 3x on the red blocks to defend better.
2. Attentiveness And Research Can Help You A Lot
We have played hundreds, if not thousands of games before and Tinker Island 2 is among the few that really drove us to pay close attention to whatever we read within its world. It is a bit of a spoiler, but after you have been introduced to the initial trio of survivors you will be checked a little later on if you remembered their names. This may be a trivial yet surprising predicament at first, but it should be considered as a solid hint of what you should expect from your journey moving forward.
Tinker Island 2 is designed in such a way that players have to be very attentive to what they read and remembering the names of some survivors as well as the general layout of the island are just some of the small details you have to take note of. There are numerous instances across your journey when a simple and seemingly harmless narration will contain information you need to solve a puzzle or series of questions that come after it.
The idea of discovery in Tinker Island 2 is also not limited to uncovering new areas of the map, unlocking more survivors, or constructing new structures within your camp. Some of the questions you have to answer correctly in your adventures relates to facts that are worth knowing in real life. While it is highly likely that no player can absolutely know the answers to these trivial questions beforehand, it certainly is an aspect of the game that we appreciate and enjoy.
In line with this, Tinker Island 2 does not set a limited period of time within which you must answer questions. As such, consulting Google or any other search engine for the correct answers is an easy way of getting around these challenges.
It is also important to understand that while a lot of the puzzles and challenges in Tinker Island 2 are based on facts and simple logic, there are also instances when a choice that does not seem to make sense is the best way to go. To some extent, reading through the narrative alone may not entirely suffice. A bit of analysis must be exhibited considering both the information at hand and the list of available choices. The developer’s name is Tricky Tribe, after all.
3. Pick The Right Crew For Each Task
Tinker Island 2 comes packed with a total of 38 very distinct characters to collect and upgrade. Each one has different stats to consider, with the first one being their health or HP and 4 others being indicators of their skill levels. The 4 skills are Fight (green), Build (blue), Explore (yellow), and Forage (purple). Each character also has different energy caps based on their level.
The skill levels determine how effective each character is across the various tasks you will encounter in the world of Tinker Island 2. While the initial trio of survivors you will gather at the start of your journey have fairly balanced overall stats, most of the ones you will unlock are potentially specialized in the sense that one or two of their skill levels are higher than normal with the rest being below average.
Beyond meeting new survivors and having opportunities to recruit them as you progress through the story, you can also earn character shards from treasure chests you earn as rewards for your accomplishments. There is also a ship you will come across early on in your adventure where you can continuously gather random character shards. Character chests can also be purchased from the shop using gems, but we recommend saving your gems for other stuff you cannot obtain for free like extra slots and so on.
Tasks scattered across the island can only be performed by utilizing your survivors, sometimes one at a time, sometimes in groups. Tasks consume energy, which all survivors have a limited supply of at a time. More importantly, tasks require specific skills to be performed, making some of the survivors more efficient than others in their performance. Areas across the map your survivors can be deployed to basically indicate the skills needed for their completion.
At the base camp, construction and upgrade of structures will only require Build Skills. This is where survivors with a high blue stat can shine. On the island map, tasks are mostly divided between Explore Skills and Forage Skills as indicated by icons in the area but battles can take place in random pursuits and there are also locations that specifically require Fight Skills. For best results, utilize the survivors with the best skills for the right job as much as possible, to get more progress with every bit of energy they consume.
You have a limited number of survivors early on as well as a limited number of ones to bring along on your team. However, as you make progress in your journey, you are bound to recruit more members for your group as well as have the means to make them stronger. Back at the base camp, the pillar or green statue at the lower left side of the area is where you can check each survivor’s details, manage your team, and upgrade them as well.
As soon as you get a character shard of a survivor you have yet to recruit, that character’ identity will already be revealed to you. Once you have enough shards, you need to spend a bit of gold to unlock the character.
Although randomized, every bit of extra character shards you obtain has value as these are needed to level up existing characters and boost their stats. While some units have specialized stats as we mentioned earlier, stat growth can work differently for each survivor. A survivor’s job or role will often make a logical connection to his or her stats as well.
Take note that whenever you unlock a new character, or level up an existing one, they may try to engage in a social conversation with you. Be sure to always be in the affirmative for these scenarios as listening to whatever story they want to share will yield you a free treasure chest.
Beyond spending gold, the green statue will also need to meet certain upgrade levels to be able to initiate an upgrade for the survivors. To some extent, this will be capped based on your overall progression as well and construction also has its own costs. Once a survivor reaches level 6, his or her special skill will be unlocked. These are passive abilities that can make each survivor even more valuable for specific tasks within or outside the camp. Certain upgrade milestones on the statue will also enable you to unlock extra slots for your team.
On the survivor screen that pops up when you click on the green pole, you can swap characters in and out by dragging the slot to the character you want to have on your team. An important note you have to keep in mind regarding this is that survivors who join your party will have depleted energy. As such, it is best to expend a survivor’s energy as much as you can before you switch him or her out.
With limited character slots on your team at the early part of your journey, you should consider members for specific tasks. For example, if you want to perform constructions and upgrades within camp, then it is best to switch your team’s members first to ones who have the highest blue stats. If you decide to venture out to explore after that, then switch your team’s members with survivors who excel with their yellow stats.
4. Unlock Structures Within Camp As Soon As Possible
Tinker Island 2 incorporates a nifty camp-building mechanic into your adventures in the game and while you will seem to start off your journey with the most basic structures inside your base camp, you will come to discover that all other structures you can build and upgrade provide perks that you simply cannot do without as your journey progresses.
There is no recommended way on how to progress the camp’s development as far as prioritization of upgrades are concerned but, at the very least, strive to put up new structures once you are able to do so.
Your headquarters stand as the main building within the camp and tapping on it enables you to see other structures available for construction or upgrade. Upgrading headquarters can unlock new buildings or new upgrade levels for existing buildings.
The camp fire is basically where your survivors can replenish lost energy through eating various food types. You can also cook food depending on the camp fire’s level. To replenish a survivor’s energy, simply drag him or her to the food item you want for that survivor. Do not worry about giving any survivor more energy than their max capacity so long as you get to consume their energy before you leave the game to avoid wastage.
Relative to the statue we discussed earlier that deals with managing survivors, having the tricky totem around will boost all of your survivor’s skills levels. Each higher level upgrade gives better boosts as well. Given that managing resources can be grueling task, having the factory available as soon as possible can help you convert one type of resource into another. Based on our experience, gold seems to be a resource we secure more than the basic materials, which is why using them as materials to obtain other items is a general consideration.
The Smithy is yet another important structure you need to build immediately. This is where you can craft equipment that can further boost your survivor’s skills. Equipment types are basically divided into 4 columns, each representing a specific skill type. Gears on the lower floor are of a higher level and requires 3 copies of lower level gears to be crafted.
Crafting items do not have waiting times like the camp fire and the factory. You can drag a survivor to any 1 item for him or her to equip it. You are also free to switch gears for each survivor any time you visit the smithy but each survivor can only carry one equipment at a time, as indicated at the upper left corner of their icon.
The amount of resources you can hold has an upper limit and while it may take a while for you to reach the cap early on, you will soon have more than what you can keep. Resources earned from exploration, foraging, as well as from treasure chests will basically be lost if you earn them while your resources are at its max capacity. Having a warehouse will increase the capacity of what you can keep and each higher level upgrade increases it further.
Your characters’ energy replenishes over time, even when you are offline and away from the game. While the regeneration rate is decent at base level, it can still be improved by building the water well inside the camp. Likewise, any improvements on it will also improve the energy regeneration rate for your survivors.
5. Cycle Across Exploration, Construction, And Foraging
For almost every RPG that we played, regardless of subgenre, we always recommend pursuing the main quest or the story quest to unlock as many features and content as much as possible. Exploration in Tinker Island 2 is largely the equivalent of story modes in other RPGs. However, progression through it will be difficult or impossible without balancing your overall progression across construction and foraging as well.
Although progression exclusively focused on one of these 3 distinct sets of activities is possible, it will be very difficult and counter-productive. Exploration not only costs energy from the survivors tasked with the engagement, resources are likewise consumed at the start of each one. As you will need improved performance from your survivors, the key to doing so largely rests from the buildings you have back at camp and their respective upgrade levels.
Construction and upgrades of structures also require energy from partaking survivors as well as increasing amounts of basic resources. As such, you will need to occasionally put both construction and exploration on hold as you engage in foraging activities to sustain your resource needs.
Foraging is not limited to gathering basic resources like wood, stone, and metal. As you uncover more of the map, these areas also hold chests as rewards that can net you unique building materials difficult to obtain through other means like ropes, nails, bricks, and cogs.
Forage areas you can gather materials from can be upgraded using stones and you will need to fully upgrade them before you can start foraging from the next areas that provide the same resource. In this sense, be sure to choose “collect and upgrade” after finishing a task in that area if you have enough stones to do so. Each upgrade you perform in a forage area increases the number of materials you can gather from them as well as the forage points needed for each run on them.
Always remember that the ship wreck you visit early on is a unique gathering location that can earn you random survivor shards. As much as gathering materials are more of a priority, taking chances with runs in this area can help you regardless of which shards you obtain as higher level survivors are always more efficient across whatever task they do.
The wreck can also be upgraded and doing so will improve the chances of obtaining higher grade shards. However, upgrade costs are gems and, again, we recommend spending on this only if you have more than enough gems for the more critical items you cannot obtain anywhere else.
The mysterious den at the northwest end of the map is a place for combat and we can essentially consider it as a gathering area even though fighters are more efficient team members in the location. Once you have entered, you will always be asked about the kind of challenge you are looking for so you are free to choose the difficulty level of the random enemy whom you will fight. The difficulty level will determine the chest rewards to obtain, making this area an excellent source of high rarity survivor shards if you have strong fighters in your team.
6. Accomplish Daily Quests For Extra Chest Rewards
The rate at which you earn materials and chests in Tinker Island 2 considering the effort and time you dedicate to spending on it is actually pretty decent. Once you have set up your teams and camp enough, it will only take a short while for you to deplete your team’s supply of energy and hang back until it replenishes some time later. Progression can be felt even with the little things and if you have a good supply of food in stock, you can extend your play time some more.
Beyond items and chest rewards you can gain from foraging, as well as some items that you create with your factory and your smithy, Tinker Island 2 provides extra rewards through its daily quest feature. To unlock the daily quests, you need to build the Job Board within your camp. Once built, you can click on the gold icon at the upper right side of your screen to see available quests.
Although we have yet been able to level up the Job Board, doing so should increase the number of available daily quests that you can accomplish. Each daily quest you accomplish will earn you a treasure chest and an extra one awaits you if you complete all daily quests.
The daily quest targets actually do not entail additional effort from you as the daily targets all directly relate to the usual activities you engage in as you play Tinker Island 2. Relative to this, we also recommend that you build the Daily Dog back at camp as well as having him around will improve the daily sign in rewards you can receive moving forward.
As a final tip, be sure to grab the opportunity to learn as much as you can from Mark the Frog. He will appear just to the southeast side of the wreck and you can ask him questions about the basics of Tinker Island 2 after the tutorial. There are some details that were not deeply covered in the tutorial as well as our beginner’s guide that will certainly improve your understanding of the game’s basic concepts and key features.
Once you are certain that you have learned everything you can from Mark the Frog, be sure to tell him that you know everything and that he should go home to his family. This will earn you a free treasure chest but will have him unavailable for the rest of your stay in the island.
And that sums up all we have for our Tinker Island 2 beginner’s guide. We hope that the tips, tricks and strategies we shared help you out a lot across the various challenges waiting for you on the island and that you enjoyed reading it as much as we did preparing it. If you have spent some time on the island and have discovered something we haven’t, we would appreciate hearing from you about them. Be sure to tell us about your discoveries and experiences down on the comment area!