Getting started in Starsand Island seems like a simple task. You’ve got a nice little house in the woods and a lovely bit of island paradise. How hard can life here be? It might be laid-back, but there’s still a lot to do to get yourself up and running and only so much time in a day to do it.
Our Starsand Island tips help you save time and make the most of your resources, including things like how to get around quickly and how to (potentially) get rare resources early.
Check the charity bins
The yellow bins outside shops and at a few other points around town often contain useful – even rare – materials, and you very much need the charity in your first few seasons. Taking these items won’t harm anyone else on the island either. Despite the moniker, the charity bins are basically like the “lost and found” box in Animal Crossing. What’s there is yours for the taking, and no one else minds.
Use your wheels to get around fast
As you progress in the Crafter job (which you should be doing alongside your other jobs), you’ll eventually unlock a skateboard. Make it as soon as you can, and use it whenever you need to get somewhere. There’s only so many hours in a day, and the obligations and “would like tos” of your to-do list start piling up as you start expanding what you can do around the island. Saving time however you can is a must, and unlike other modes of transportation like the bike or animals, the skateboard is free.
Keep an eye on the clock
Similarly, make sure to keep up with what time of day it is so you can plan effectively. In the initial early access version, the in-game clock is rather small and easy to overlook in the cluster of icons on the screen. Keeping track of time is necessary when you’re working around someone else’s, or a shop’s, schedule, of course, but it also saves you from a potentially big headache. Like in Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, if you stay out past 2 a.m., you’ll faint and wake up the next day with reduced stamina.
Be well-rounded
We recommended this in our jobs guide, but make sure to give equal attention to all your jobs. Progressing through career milestones unlocks new blueprints and gives you more ways to make money and generate resources. Ranching, for example, might be reliant on progress in the Crafter job before it really takes off. But once it does and you fill out your farm with several animal varieties, you’ll have a lucrative income stream just from ranching and plenty of animal-based materials for crafting. Fishing is also well worth your time.
Prioritize your friendships
By which we mean talk to everyone and give out presents freely. Giving gifts improves your relationships quickly – assuming you gave the recipient something they like – and if you want to bump up their friendship rating for romance or just because, this is the best way to do it. Early on, focus mainly on a small handful of people you want to grow closer with, since your access to appropriate gift material will be rather limited at this point. And don’t fret if you do miss a day of gift-giving or longer. Like with most things in Starsand Island, relationships are pretty laid-back. You won’t see your closeness decay, and no one else will swoop in to romance your love interest before you get a chance.
Be kind to animals
It’s the right thing to do in general, but in Starsand Island, it also gives you a couple of bonuses. Interacting with an animal who’s trying to get your attention may prompt them to lead you to a bit of hidden treasure. And if you feed them and earn their trust that way, you can eventually take them home as pets.
Check shops regularly
Store inventory might not change that often, but how much you have to pay certainly does. Stores run special offers and sales from time to time, including offering things for free. In our experience, these seem to be fairly random. Zerine, for example, has one or two items discounted, but there’s no pattern and seemingly no way to predict what might be on sale the next day. And Pastelle gives you two feed bags for free each day, though these are also (apparently) random. Still, even if you don’t need it now, it’ll probably be useful at some point later on. Might as well grab it for free or cheap while you can.
Take care of yourself
In the early days, it seems like your stamina never runs out. You can chop wood and feed your animals and still have maybe 100 stamina left. That won’t last. Unless you want to pass out and lose the rest of your day, make sure to plan your projects around your stamina consumption and cook enough meals to replenish your stamina as you go along. Like with gift giving, stamina management grows easier with time, as you have access to a broader variety of raw foods and cooking recipes to help keep your energy topped up.
Use your Starsand
You earn Starsand for completing quests (make sure to do those for people, too), redeeming your stamp collections, and ticking achievements off your list, and once you start leveling up your professions, you can spend Starsand to unlock job perks. These include things like a chance to dig up something special when you’re tilling the earth (for the Farm job). They aren’t necessarily game changing, at least in early access, but they’re certainly helpful.
Get and complete treasure maps
The nice thing about the Exploration job is that you end up finding treasure maps in the Moonlit Woods once you reach a certain point in your career progression. Completing these maps leads you to, well, treasure, and while there’s no guarantee what the buried cache might contain, in our experience it’s always worth your time.
And while you’re here, make sure to keep an eye on our up-to-date Starsand Island codes list for some freebies to help pad your farmer’s pockets. Check out our Starsand Island romance guide for some relationship advice, too.