We’ve finally passed that long anticipated point. While there will still be a lot of additions to the game and many cool enhancements, the horse genetics system is finally settled completely and so Horse Isle 3 is now Live. That means no more resets, we no longer lose our progress, and the huge world has been completely refreshed so it’s completely new to all of us.
That also means we all have to start from scratch, with the main advantage anyone can have being whether they are a subscriber or not. The fee for that is nominal, only $5 a month, and if you don’t have real world money you can trade in-game currency for it provided other players want to sell. Right now, that seems a pretty common occurrence.
So, barefoot and wearing the game’s starter white shorts and shirt, I stood at the base of the giant horse head, and considered my options. Other players, all similarly clad, all stood around, or ran back and forth. I had previously decided to just pick a direction and go until I found something interesting, such as a good place to put a temporary ranch. Nobody in the whole world had tack to sell as we all still needed to find ranches, build buildings on them, and gather raw materials to make said tack. So we were all barefoot and horseless. Luckily you can run at about 8 miles an hour so travel isn’t two tedious.
I picked Southwest and started running in that direction. I ran through forests, through rivers, over plains and savannah, through a huge swamp, and swam through more ocean than I care to remember – at the swimming rate of three miles per hour. Occasionally I’d stop to gather wood or stone, and once leather when I found a big patch of Wondershrooms. (In Horse Isle 3, leather is harvested off the tough sides of giant mushrooms, to avoid the issue of having to raise cattle, and so it can grow back. Vegetable leather isn’t entirely unrealistic, in ancient Rome sometimes pomegranate skin was used as a leather substitute for sandals.)
I ran and swam pretty much all day, while doing other things on my computer of course. Through the oceans I weighted down a key to take breaks. I finally found a fairly nice spot for a temporary ranch in a patch of Fall Forest. My dream ranch is on one of those lovely islands you find in the middle of rivers, but this will do for now. Priority is to build the crafting buildings so I can make tack – and therefore ride horses much faster and more safely, so I can find better gathering regions, and find a better spot for a ranch. Oh, and more horses so I can sell them to get money.
This isn’t a bad little spot for a ranch, and it already has the main house (the cheapest version) and a crafting shed. I still need to build the textiles shed and the ever important furnace and then I’ll have what I need. I’ll save barns, hay shed, water tower, gardens, etc for later – this is a temporary while I find my perfect ranch. I may put in some hay fields so I can start growing bales though, they are cheap and easy to put in. It takes four real days to grow a hay bale and I may be able to build my permanent ranch within that time.
Next priority was to find a nice spot in a Jungle area to build my club. You can’t move those, like you can move Ranches, so I had to be extra picky. At the same time, when I found a decent sized forest, near a nice stand of Jungle mountains (love those rock formations), without too many big holes in the landscape and with a nice wide flat spot, I snapped it up quickly. I put up the first story of my club tower and left it like that. This way I can teleport to the spot if I need to, but with building my ranch being priority at the moment I will put off building other things for later. Rest assured I have a plan!
Tips for conserving energy when you’re new
When you’re first starting the game, it can be hard to do everything you want in a day because energy is a finite resource. This is especially true if you’re not subscribed. So here are some ideas for getting the most for your energy.
Have a plan. Just like the real world, you’ll go farther if you have a plan. For example, my plan today was to finish my crafting shed. I already had low energy from all the stuff I did yesterday so I decided I’d focus on collecting building materials, but ignore other things like horse feed or dye materials I could also collect.
Pick up logs before you cut down trees. If you pick up a log, you get 1-2 wood for 10 energy. By contrast, if you cut down a birch tree, you will spend 66 energy, or even 100 energy, and usually only get 2-3 wood. Different trees have different energy costs, but in the beginning you’re better off mostly picking up logs and driftwood because it doesn’t take much energy.
Do minigames/riddle posts to earn money. One of the nice things about minigames is they don’t take energy. You also get bonus money/essence every so often for earning achievements related to minigames and such. Here’s an example of a minigame that can be found in Fall Forest. They are big logs with a word jumble on them. The long one here really made me laugh.
As you can see, they range from really easy… to SHENANIGANS.
Get thee to a library. In most clubs, if not all, you will find a library. In them you will find “tomes worthy of study,” which will allow you to pick a specialty in game. It can be anything from getting a higher chance of gathering double items when you pick things, to being able to have double the normal amount of horses, and a whole bunch of other really useful things. Subscribers get to pick two specialties. The thing is, they take time, (around 2 real days) to learn and become fully active, so you are better off picking them early so you can get the benefit as soon as possible.
I’ll be adding some of these tips to my previously existing “Getting Started” guide.
Mindflight 
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