In Starsand Island, you’ll play as a young farmer looking to return to their home island after a long time abroad in the corporate rat race. Finally coming home brings a breath of fresh air, along with a whole new set of adventures for you to embark on. From making new friends to uncovering secret locations around the island, there’s always something new to do.
We’ll break down some of the best things you can do to make the most of each day on the island, as well as tricks you may have missed that can help you get ahead. Here’s everything you need to know to get started on Starsand Island!
Check Charity Bins
Outside of many shops and local hangouts are Charity Bins. These yellow containers often have something inside that you can take, be it fish, crops, dishes, or more! It’s a great way to recycle within the community and compile resources you might not have access to yet.
Starsand Island: Bus Stop And Station Guide
Get around Starsand Island in double-quick time!
In addition to the Charity Bins, you can also shake vending machines and search through trash cans for anything usable. While not pretty, it’s a good idea to search them every once in a while to see if you get luck and find something worthwhile. One resident’s trash could be your treasure!
Prepare Meals Each Morning And Night
You’re going to need a lot of stamina to get through the day, whether you’re tending the fields or exploring the forest for ore. Cooking is a valuable profession, and you can passively prepare meals before you go to bed and right after you wake up.
Be careful when preparing meals, as some restore HP instead of stamina!
You can buy meals and recipes in town, but there are plenty you can make at home using readily available ingredients, like mushrooms! Forage around your farm each day to make sure you have something to cook so you never run out of energy.
Visit Shops Daily
As you get to know your favorite residents, you’ll find that shopkeepers offer deals daily. Loren gives out 20 arcade tokens for free each day, Pastelle offers two random feed bags, and the General Store runs regular sales.
Make sure to visit the shops in town regularly so you can take advantage of the great deals that will help you stock up on animal feed, ingredients, and other goodies that can help you acclimate to life on the island much faster.
Talk To Everyone
Aside from the residents on the island, there are plenty of tourists you can talk to. Some of them will have interactions, like a child asking where to swim at the beach, or another set of tourists who need you to take a photo for them.
Completing these small, untracked requests will grant you some rewards, and they only take a moment to complete. Think what you want about tourists, but they have plenty of money to spend, and it could be yours if you just stop and talk to them for a moment.
The community board in town is often filled with menial tasks and requests for materials. Completing these is a great way to make money when you’re just getting started, and it will help you build affection with your neighbors.
Be aware that there are time limits on most requests, so don’t take them if you’re not sure how to complete them. You can only take a certain number of requests at a time, so save those limited slots for requests you know you can get done quickly.
Feed The Wildlife
All over the island are different animals, from panda bears to capybaras. You can interact with them all. Each of them has a name and is marked on your map. As you interact with them, you’ll raise their heart levels!
Feed them snacks, pet their fur, or play short games with them to build affinity. You may even be able to bring them home as pets if you befriend them enough! Be sure to check your map so you can find the animals you love most and build meaningful relationships with them.
Right out of the tutorial, you can start crafting new tools. It’s important that you do this right away so that you can unlock all aspects of resource collection. This includes the bug net–for which there is no mentor.
Your tools can also be upgraded, so be sure to keep tabs on what’s necessary to improve your workbench, processors, and other tools so that you’re never slowed down when a new quest pops up. There’s nothing worse than wasting a couple in-game days to gather materials you could have already had.
Invest In Ranching
Ranching is about more than just raising animals. Each animal is different, and they offer a variety of products you can use to make cloth or different dishes. Some of them can even be ridden as mounts, like ostriches and pigs.
As you improve your wildlife collection, you can unlock even more variants, like different colored sheep and pyrox livestock. You’ll find that these animals, like rabbits and chickens, will also help you maintain your farm by weeding and catching pests. Work smarter on the farm, not harder.
Clear Out Your Farm
You have a lot of room on your farm to start with, and while you can’t use it all right away, you can start clearing it out and collecting those resources for a rainy day. From the trees that sprout up to the boulders littered around the property, all of it can be collected.
Once you expand your farm from your phone, you can immediately start plotting things out in more detail. Your farm layout will determine how efficient you can be, as well as whether you have a dedicated workshop for all the devices you’ll use to refine the resources you gather. Even if home design isn’t your forte, you can make room for the premade house plans that will improve your workflow.
Give Gifts Daily
Residents of Starsand Island love gifts. Even if you don’t know what they like, you can still give them fresh crops or flowers to show your appreciation. This takes a few moments out of your day, but it can greatly improve your relationships with your neighbors. Whether you want to romance anyone or just make friends, gifts are the way to go.
If you need ideas for what gifts to give, you can check out our guide for more details. Since Starsand Island is in early access, the items each resident likes are likely to change before the full release. However, you can never go wrong with Moonflowers. Be sure to collect them in bulk so you can distribute them to the residents each day for an additional affection boost!
Starsand Island: Complete Guide To Farming
It’s time to sow some seeds and harvest fruit!
