The fun of Simmiland is figuring out how to progress. Consequently, I encourage players to try to figure things out on their own before using this guide. The most spoiler-heavy information is in the endgame section.
I think the one piece of information that players are unlikely to be able to figure out on their own is that UFOs must be taken down with Thunder in order to get the best ending. Otherwise, the rest of the game can be finished by reading the Compendium and experimenting in Endless mode.
Beginner Tips and Common Mistakes
If you’re still struggling, here are some common mistakes and bits of advice for new players:
1. If your Faith goes over 1000 too early in the game, humans will build a Church which gives you infinite Faith but caps your IQ at 120, preventing further progress. Faith goes up when you fulfill wishes, so if you have too much, stop fulfilling wishes and start spending as much Faith as you can manage to avoid going over 1000. In the event that you accidentally allow a Church to be built, you can take it out with a Meteor card, resetting your Faith to 0.
2. Human nature determines how humans treat animals, several researches, and several endgame factors. If the nature meter hits 0%, humans will become permanently evil, and if it hits 100%, they will become permanently peaceful. Their nature goes up when you fulfill their wishes, and it goes down when their wishes are unfulfilled or you commit a violent act (e.g. Thunder, Quake, Meteor, fire). Fires count as violent acts even if they’re not started by the player. As a result, creating a Volcano too early will generally cause humans to become very violent unless Law is researched.
3. Humans are fairly inefficient and can only do one thing at once. If you give them too much to do too early on, they’ll stall. I recommend you focus on getting sustainable food running early in the game (check to make sure all your humans are consistently at moderate-to-high hunger levels and food is not running out). After that, start researching some of the later-game things that tend to take up a lot of time, like Smelting. If you’re in the mid-to-late game and humans are spending most of their time gathering or trying to replenish their food supply, you likely did too much too quickly.
4. You can open the Compendium from the menu to get hints about how to progress. Read up on things you’ve already seen that you don’t understand. The Researches page contains hints about how to find new things. Any research you’ve completed in your current game is highlighted in yellow, so be sure to check the Compendium every once in a while to ensure you don’t forget anything.
5. If you’re struggling with biomes, there’s a section in this guide that details how to create each biome. Temperature and humidity levels will never change naturally unless a Volcano causes fires to spread, so you need only create each biome once. One tricky biome is the Tropic, but a good way to create it is three Sun followed by one Rain on the same space, in that order.
Be sure to get the following food-related researches and items early on:
1. Fire (a good way to get this is to place a Tree on Sand or Desert and use a Sun card on it, which will let you avoid wasting a Thunder card)
2. Fishing Rod, Fish (play Critter on Sea)
3. Seaweed (play Plant on Sea)
4. Market (discover Currency before a Sky Tower has been built. Markets produce Rice, which creates Sushi when combined with Seaweed and Fish. Sushi is one of the best food items, it’s produced in batches of eight and restores hunger by 75%)
5. Domestication
6. Knife (preferably after Domestication and while your humans are peaceful, to ensure they don’t kill all your animals)
7. Chickens, Sheep, and Polar Bears (use Sample on a dead Polar Bear for a considerable
amount of meat)
8. Farms (this research must be made after humans have seen Wheat. Place a Plant on Plains)
9. Cooking Pot, Oven, Charcoal, Windmill (when researching the Cooking Pot, note that Water is an item that appears when using Rain on dry ground, and is independent from the Sea and Deep Sea biomes)
Starter Cards
The following is a table of the fifty cards the player starts with before purchasing cards from the Card Shop. Note that The End and Mankind both count toward the total.
Card / Quantity
- Mankind – 1
- Tree – 6
- Mineral – 7
- Plant – 8
- Rain – 4
- Wind – 4
- Sun – 4
- Thunder – 2
- Human – 1
- Inspect – 6
- Sample – 6
- The End – 1
These numbers were determined by manual count, and it is assumed that these numbers are consistent between games and not randomized.