How to Play
Everything you need to grow a happy colony.
Your first minutes
The easiest way to learn is the Tutorial Colony. On the colony chooser tap Play tutorial colony, or open the menu, tap How to play, then the gold tutorial button. It walks you through 17 short steps with glowing hints, and it never touches your real saves.
Prefer to jump in? Tap New colony, give it a name, and follow these basics:
Building and placing
- Big buildings need a road beside them. Small homes and huts can go anywhere.
- Shore buildings such as ports, docks and fishing spots must touch the water.
- Landmarks are one of a kind. Build each once, move it later if you like, but it can never be removed.
- Bridges must connect to a road or another bridge.
- Tap a building to select it. From there you can upgrade, move or remove it (landmarks cannot be removed).
- Drag the map to look around, and pinch or scroll to zoom. Buy new land at the edge of your colony to expand.
Some buildings get a bonus from their surroundings: Lumber Camps like neighboring trees, Quarries like rocks, and Farms near a Well make more food.
Resources
| Resource | What it does |
|---|---|
| Food | Made by farms and orchards. Feeds a growing colony. |
| Wood | Made by lumber camps. Needed for almost every building. |
| Stone | Made by quarries and mines. Used for sturdier buildings and roads. |
| Coins | Earned by markets, workshops and banks. The main currency for later eras. Quests, the traveling merchant and golden sparkles also give coins. |
Some buildings use resources to run, such as a Workshop spending wood and stone. If you run short, they pause until you have enough.
The top bar also shows Villagers , Happiness and your Era .
Roads
Roads are how your colony connects. Every producer next to a road earns a bonus, and roads make villagers happier too.
Bridges let you cross water. They unlock in Era 3.
Happiness and growth
Happy villagers grow your colony faster. Raise happiness with Joy buildings such as Wells, Parks, Plazas and Fountains: each one cheers up a few homes within a certain distance. Roads add a little happiness as well. Hospitals speed up population growth, and landmarks add a production bonus to your whole colony.
Eras
Your era depends on how many villagers live in your colony, and there are of them. Each era unlocks new buildings. Locked buildings appear greyed out with their era shown. The first era is the Hamlet, and the journey ends at the legendary final era.
Weather and seasons
The world changes as you play. There are four seasons and several kinds of weather.
| Weather | Effect |
|---|---|
| Clear | Normal production. |
| Rain | Farms make 25% more food. |
| Storm | Production is cut in half. |
| Fog | A calm, quiet day. |
| Snow | Farms make 30% less food. |
| Heatwave | Farms make less food, but Markets earn more coins. |
| Wind | Lumber camps make 20% more wood. |
Events and quests
Things happen in your colony all the time. Watch for a traveling merchant, golden sparkles to tap, a bumper harvest, a feast, and visiting tourists, explorers and travelers. They are short and friendly bonuses.
A quest banner at the top always gives you a goal, such as earning a number of coins. Complete it for a reward and get a fresh one.
Colonies and saving
You have three colony slots. Start a different colony in each one and switch between them from the menu (Colonies). Your game saves automatically on your device. Updates never erase your colonies.
The menu also has sound sliders for master volume, music, effects and nature sounds, a Center button to jump back to your town, and info about the developer.
Quick tips
- Place a Well near your farms for a +40% food bonus.
- Keep a road along your busiest streets. It is cheap and it pays off.
- Build homes before you build many producers, so you have villagers to do the work.
- Do not forget to collect. Full buildings stop producing until you tap their bubble.
- Check the Boost tab. Windmills, Town Halls and Power Plants lift everything near them.
- Stuck? Re-play the tutorial colony any time.