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Some Newbie tips
By Cheezfri1513
Collect pretty much everything you can at first. You'll need it later. If you are wasting too much time collecting, and you can't keep your motives up, then focus on harvesting wood from coconut palm trees, driftwood, banana leaves, vines and food. Don't worry too much about shells at first. Or flowers. Save all the messages in a bottle. You'll need the glass. (Unless you don't mind waiting for the Fine Sand that you can get later.) Also don't worry too much about various foods like citrus & berries. Not much nutrional value, but they are good later on when you can make meals with 4 ingredients. Pineapples and Watermelon have better nutritional value, when you can find them.
Pretty much all the wood is good (hard and soft). Get it while you can, then do something else while it grows back. Driftwood too. It doesn't show up very often, once you've taken it all.
The farther you get in the game, the less you need banana leaves, palm fronds, vines, etc. You'll move up to things using twine or rope. When you start seeing Sisal, keep grabbing all of it whenever you can. It takes 5 Sisals just to make one piece of rope. And sometimes you need alot of rope.
If you don't have enough materials to make a hut, at least make a roof of some kind. Your sim won't sleep in the rain.
Don't put any fire, torch or stove too close to any shrubbery or buildings. Ask me how I know
Don't worry too much about clothes or jewelry if you don't have the time. Your clothes will wear out, but you will find crates of clothes later. And you can also make a sewing kit that repairs your clothes.
Keep some bananas on you at all times, and give them to the chimps. If you talk to them enough, they will become your friend and you can ask them to get stuff for you. They are not the most reliable, but every little bit helps. If a chimp tries to give you an item but you are busy, he will drop the package (wrapped in banana leaves) somewhere. So you might see some little yellow packages laying around some time.
There's obviously alot more to the game than that, but I think that should do it for now. The farther in the game I get, the more I realize "I should have been collecting xxxxx a long time ago because I need it now!"
Skills by tashthorpe
Cooking: Cook a meal, or harvest fruits and veggies
Mechanical: Make tools, or build huts
Charisma: Socialising
Body: Climb trees or spear fish
Logic: Fish with apole, find map and hieroglyphic
Creativity: Sew some clothes or make some music
Geyser Plains
Can't get through the steam? Try this... Next to where the opening is, there's a bit where you stand next to a rock and examine it there. My girl looked at it and shrugged. I then sent my guy up there and he fixed it. I *think* you need all 4 logic skill points. He pushed the rock onto the geyser. When you go into this area, it just gives you a shortcut down to the Volcano Overlook. This is also the back way into the temple if you haven't found all the hierglyphic pieces.
Chickens
You'll get the option to build chicken traps on the third island (was it the third???). You'll have to make a crafting bench, and leave the trap out. Don't check it for a few days, because it takes awhile to catch one. When you do catch one, you should get new plane for building nests for them.
Boars
They're rather simple, really. Just pull out your spear and chase them. I've been told you need a certain skill, but I don't know what it is. Chase him round, and he'll eventually attack your Sim, leaving you with a pile of ham. You'll also gain some leather and boar tusks, which you can use for clothing.
Gardens
You know how when your camp fire burns out there's an option to "collect ash"? That's because the ash is used to make a garden plot. The option comes up when you reach the Airplane Island. Go under plans, Misc, and there it is! You can grow practically any resource or food. It's good for the hard-to-find food/resources. You can grow them right outside your hut!
Sending an SOS From High Ground
Are you on Volcano Island? You need to have reached the Volcano Summit. Place the radio on the ground. You need to have the Transmitter in your inventory. There should be an option on the radio saying "repair transmitter". After that's done, there'll be an option saying "send sos". A nearby ship will pick up your signal, and rescue your stranded Sims. There'll be a short "movie" showing your Sims being rescued, and your Sim returning home to pay the bills. A message pops up asking if you'd like to go back to the Island or leave without saving. (something like that). I had other stuff to do on the Islands, so I haven't left yet. I went back to the Island. I quite like it there. If you take the radio and transmitter to Crystal Island and send an SOS, you'll be abducted by aliens and your motives will all be maxed out.
Fishing
Have you figured out the secret to fishing yet? My sister told me. You watch the little red floating thing. It'll duck under water when there's something on the end of the line. Reel it in and see what you caught. The good thing is, you can't catch boots! You always catch a fish.Spear Fishing This took me awhile to figure out, and I have to thank the Prima Guide for it. When a fish jumps out of the water, that's when you "stab fish". You only ever catch small and medium fish, but it's better than eating coconuts and bananas.
The shark-you need a fishing rod, and I've heard the best spot is in the Tidal Pools. I caught some Tiger Sharks down there.
Squid I am yet to catch a squid, but I've heard that you can only catch it using the Fish Traps. Make some and leave them where you would normally spear fish. Check on the in a few days.
The Heiroglyphic Pieces by ThatCrazyGuy997
There are nine Heiroglyphic pieces scattered around the 3 islands. When pieced together they reveal the history of the Llama People who first inhabited the islands. The massive heriroglyphic tablet can be used as a giant decoration in your sims house (the best room score in the game!) or can be used to open secret passages on Volcano Mountain. These include the doorway on the Geyser Plains which leads to the Llama Temple Interior, and another door from the Temple to the Volcano Summit. This is extremely handy if your goal is to get your sims off the islands. These passages waste no energy and can get you to the summit where you can use the Radio Transmitter to send out the SOS. They also provide handy access to the Temple Forge and metal ores on the summit.
There are 9 Heiroglyphic Pieces located in:
Shipwreck Island
1. Deep Jungle (Crossroads near glowy bugs)
2. Pier Beach (Next to the pier where you dock the raft)
3. Shipwreck Lagoon (On the deck of the ship)
Airplane Island
4. Dark Cave (Next to the ancient door)
5. Skull Rock Jungle (Next to the skull rock)
6. South River Jungle (Banks of the river, near rock formation)
7. East River Plains (Next to quicksand ruins)
Volcano Island
8. Volcano Jungle (On a ledge near the hot springs)
9. Geyser Plains (Ironically next to gateway)
The Treasure Map based on ThatCrazyGuy997's findings...
You have to have all the map pieces and craft them together at the work bench.
There are 2 Entrances. One is from the Skull Rock Jungle (you move the Skull out of the way), the other is from the West beach-walk into that little spot where you can harvest heaps of food, and to your left there is a rock that can be pushed out of the way. Walk through, go onto the pirate ship, and open the treasure chest to find your prize!
Wood
First you need to build the axe on your crafting station.
Soft wood is found in Payapa Trees and Okoume Trees.
Coconut Trees are good for wood. Just straight out wood. On Volcano Island, there's the option to "chop wood" on Teak trees. I think you need a better axe, though.
Hardwood can be found on Koa Trees.
Sandalwood is found on Sandalwood trees, and can only be harvested after you've gotten to the temple on the third island, rebuilt the forge, and made all the new tools. There's a heap of sandalwood trees in the Geyser Plains
Ti Leaves are good for clothing.
Getting Through The Ancient Door
This door is located in the Dark Cave on Airplane island. You can't get in here until you've located all 9 of the hieroglyphic pieces (which are listed above, in Part Two). You then have to use the crafting bench to put them all together (they're located under the LEISURE menu of the plans), and you'll then be able to open the Ancient Door in the Geyser Plains on Volcano Island (does this make sense?). When you get into the Llama Temple, behind the throne, there's a crown. This was one of your goals. Having this crown enables you to open the Ancient Door in the Dark Cave. You now have access to the Hidden Lagoon!
The Hidden Lagoon
Harvest all the flowers you can, you'll use them later for making dyes for your clothes and jewellery (well, I do). I think you have to stay in the lagoon for awhile before you can complete the "Enjoy The Palace" goal. When you're done, find the other exit (not the one you came in), leave.... Ah, you can't get past that quicksand? Examine the pillar on the left. Your Sim should knock it over, and you can now leave. Yea!
Your Crew
Many people have posted saying they can't find their crew. They're not on the first island. You have to have created more than one Sim to have other crew-some people didn't know this. You'll find them on the second island, Airplane Island. When you do find them, you have to befriend them and ask them to join your tribe before you can control them. Good luck!
Marriage
It took me ages to figure this out, but I have finally wed two Sims! They need to have a high relationship (probably over 70, mine were at 100), and they need to be wearing Wedding Clothes. These can be made on the Crafting Benches, and consist of: the Wedding lei and the Wedding Beanie. The Lei is found under jewellery and teh beanie is found under hats, both in the clothing section. Get one Sim tp propose, and they should accept. Nothing special happens, and if they decide to divorce, the one been dumped is kicked out of the tribe. You should be able to regroup them again, though.
Perfect Meals
Spicy Fish Pot Pie #1
127 Hunger, 37 Energy, and -20 Bladder.
Honeycomb, Cashew, Yellowfin Snapper, Corn
Spicy Fish Pot Pie #2
143 Hunger; 54 Energy; -26 Bladder
Coffee, Corn, Tiger Shark
Meat Pie
169 Hunger, 15 Energy, and -19 Bladder
Chicken, Brazil Nut, Long Bean, Wheat
Fish Noodle Casserole
133 Hunger; 17 Energy; -20 Bladder
Carrot, Cashews, Sea Bass, Almond Nut
The Fire Below
153 Hunger; 55 Energy; -34 Bladder
Cherry, Clam Meat, Coffee Beans, Moonfish
Read the note that comes with it...
All of this and more can be found at this BBS Thread