Tales of Dacardia, previously known as Neopets: Island Builders, is a captivating mobile game available on iOS and Android devices. Set in the aftermath of a devastating storm, players are tasked with rebuilding the island nation of Dacardia. This guide aims to provide you with comprehensive insights and strategies to thrive in the world of Dacardia.
Dacardia Overview
Tales of Dacardia is a 3D construction simulation game reminiscent of titles like SimCity. As a newly appointed Town Planner, your primary objective is to oversee the restoration efforts on Dacardia. By constructing buildings, gathering resources, and completing quests for island inhabitants, players can gradually unlock new areas of the island for exploration.
As you progress, you’ll recruit Neopet NPCs to aid in harvesting resources, furthering your restoration efforts.
Support
Despite its wide release, Tales of Dacardia may encounter bugs and glitches. For assistance, visit the Official Island Builders Support page or submit tickets for game issues directly through the app.
Gathering
Gathering resources is central to gameplay in Tales of Dacardia. Utilize Gathering Buildings to send Neopets to generate items essential for quests and construction.
Each Gathering Building specializes in specific items and requires Neopets with matching elemental affinities and attributes for optimal efficiency.
Attributes like Agility, Efficiency, Intuition, Luck, Strength, and Dexterity influence gathering outcomes, affecting gathering time and rare item drop rates.
Available Buildings
Numerous buildings are available, each offering unique resources and challenges. Here’s a breakdown of some key buildings:
- Fast-Grass Farm
- Crokabek Field
- Enigma Wharf
- Mysterious Mine
- Secret Beach
- Shipwreck
- Cenote
- Crash Site
- Keystone Park
- Geyser Valley
- Cliffside
- Cantata Canyon
- And more.
Account Linking
Link your Island Builders game with your Neopets.com account to unlock special bonuses and ensure seamless gameplay across devices. Be cautious, as linking is irreversible, and linked accounts cannot be reset.
Areas
Unlock new areas of the island as you level up, each offering distinct challenges and rewards. Choose your path wisely, considering the order in which areas are unlocked to optimize gameplay progression.
Areas include:
- Dacardian Peninsula
- Mystic Jungle
- Crystal Plateau
Happiness
Happiness forms the basis of a secondary login bonus in Island Builders. Each day, the first time you open the app you will be shown a screen with Skippi Snipps where you gradually fill a meter which awards prizes at set thresholds. You have 15 days to fill the meter completely before it resets, and you will fill more of it per day based on the Happiness rating of your town.
Each individual citizen of Dacardia (aside from quest-based ones such as Lania) has their own individual Happiness meter that begins at full when they are first unlocked. It will steadily drain by sending this citizen on jobs to gather items in the game, with three main colors to denote how happy they are. At full, the bar will be yellow, a mediocre rating will be green, and a blue rating means the citizen is unhappy.
An average of the Happiness rating for all your citizens is also used to determine aspects of your town’s overall Happiness rating, which is shown in a bar at the top left of the screen.
Rather than being a directly related number, the town’s bar is actually a rough average of all your town’s citizens. If the majority of your citizens are in either yellow or green ratings, the overall town Happiness will slowly increase to reflect that. But if they drop into blue, it will slowly decrease to zero.
Happiness also currently affects the gathering ability of your pets. Any pet will need significant Happiness gains from Amenities and Omelettes in order to gather items. At the present time, Style Happiness from painting and hats does not contribute towards the ability to gather. This change to the game is still being developed and does not work consistently at this time.
Increasing Happiness
You can help prevent Neopets from losing Happiness in the first place by only sending them to gather items at Gathering Buildings that have the same element of them. A Neopet will not lose any Happiness if their element matches. Unfortunately, especially in the early game, it is unlikely you’ll have a full range of elemental Neopets available. So you will have to accept some levels of Happiness loss. Neopets will also lose small amounts of Happiness naturally over time.
Although it is currently shown in-game as a single meter, there are, in effect, 3 combined Happiness meters for each of the three main ways of increasing Happiness. Using each method will, as a result, fill only a maximum of a third of the pet’s overall Happiness meter.
If your pets become unhappy, an icon will appear by them to indicate which area of happiness needs to be raised:
- Pet is Hungry
- Pet is Bored
- Pet is Vain
Omelettes
Thankfully, there are means of increasing Happiness too. The Giant Omelette Slab can be used to create Omelettes. These can be fed to Neopets to increase their Happiness by tapping on them and then tapping the wrapped candy icon.
You can then drag the Omelette you want to use over the Neopet to feed them. Each Neopet also has a fullness meter below them on this screen, which increases as you feed them Omelettes. Once it reaches 100%, they become Bloated, and cannot be fed any more until their fullness comes back down again.
Wearables
You can also paint Neopets using brushes made at Skippi’s Paint Shop to increase their Happiness and put wearable Hats on them.
Amenities
Failing all that, there’s also a type of Building that can increase Happiness: Amenities.
These are special Buildings you can send Neopets to and increase their Happiness levels either a little or a lot depending on which of the jobs you select. All Amenity jobs require Power Neggs to complete, which can be generated at the Power Plant. Additionally, all Amenities also generate small amounts of town Happiness that can be collected like resource gathering. However, note that these increases will only really be noticeable if your town’s Happiness rating is already in the green or yellow areas.
As you unlock more of the island, you will gradually gain access to more Amenity Buildings.
Available Buildings
- Dream Bean Cafe
- The Crooked Rook
- Buskin’ Buskin Theatre
- Chrysalis Conservatory
- Glitterbug Disco
- Tiki Shack
- Clock Tower
- Hope Fountain
- Garden Fountain
- Library
- Yooyuball Arena
Trading
Once you have built the Trading Post building in your town, you are able to trade items with other users of Island Builders. Because Dacardia doesn’t typically use Neopoints, citizens have taken to bartering – that is, exchanging one item for another.
Buying
Tapping the buying icon will bring up a list of available trades with other users. By default, this lists all types of items at once, but tapping icons along the left side of the screen allows you to filter the results into different types of items.
Selling
You can sell items by tapping the right side icon on the main Trading Post page. This will take you to a new screen with a set of weighing scales. Each set of scales represents one trade. You have a maximum of five trades available at a time, and you can scroll across to the right to access all of them.
Town Levels
As with many games, Island Builders will not let you loose on the entire island of Dacardia at once. You will need to gradually unlock more of it by leveling up your town.
Quests
As you progress through Neopets: Island Builders, you will encounter residents of Dacardia who will offer you quests. These quests can award items, blueprints, currencies, and experience to help you level up your island. A log of all your current quests can be accessed by tapping on the paw print beneath your town name and level indicator on the top left of the screen.
Conclusion
With this guide, you’re equipped to embark on your journey in Tales of Dacardia. Rebuild Dacardia, harness the power of Neopets, and uncover the secrets of this enchanting island nation. Good luck, and may your town prosper amidst the challenges it faces!
