Getting up to speed on Island Sanctuary

[not_ya_wify]

I’m not sure if this is the right place to make this thread so forgive me in advance.

I haven’t started Island Sanctuary yet and I would like to get up to speed on it. I’m looking for advice to get me started on the right path and efficiently go about upgrading the place. Basically « speedrunning » the content so I can get the the nicer buildings and NPC visits. What would be the gameplan?

Up until rank 9 do the sand loop (7 min/1000exp) at the creek north of the hideaway. Once you unlock flying, do quartz loop (5 min/1000exp) on top of the mountain. You can do quartz loop on one screen while watching TV on another if you have a set up that allows this.

You will be gated by Cowries for upgrades, so I'd recommend joining the Overseas Casuals Discord and getting their daily workshop recs which usually give you 3500-6000 cowries per day if you can min/max. They also have ideal pasture and cropland set ups to keep your workshop going. Don't be tempted to buy mounts and glams in the shop until you have built all the buildings up until the max rank. I know mounts can be tempting but you gate yourself out of island upgrades if you go shopping.