A short guide & tips to prepare for the challenges of the Easter Island mode.
 
 

Foreword

This guide is by no means a steps by step walk-though, but more for a tips & tricks guide based on my experience in playing the game. I am not an expert in this game, I just want to help other players complete the Easter Island Mode. This is my first guide so please go easy on me.
 
 
 

Starting Out

Don’t be intimidated by the difficulty setting of Easter Island, although it’s set to the highest difficulty. It actually starts off on the lowest difficulty with disasters turn off. The game will introduce those later and slowly ramp up the difficulty based on the objectives completed and not on time played. With that in mind, we can take our sweet time and only progress on the story only when we want to.
 
 

The Beginning

 
 
When you start the map you’ll be greeted by a brief story about our islanders. And start off with over 200 population and some buildings, a few fields and 3 technology points. You’ll only start with five seeds (Peas, Pumpkins, Oats, Flax and Agave) and no animals. This is fixed.
 
For orientation’s sake, North is where the statues are, South the ocean and East and West respectively.
 
 

 
 
I suggest pausing the construction of the statues (Objective) even with the abundance of man power. If you’ve read the introductory message, it gave us a hint that we’ll run out of supplies in 2 years.
 
 
Here’s the most immediate problems we need to address in order of importance.
 

1. Medicine & Health
2. Happiness
3. Getting Animals

 

Herbs for Days

 
Upon starting you should have exactly 3 Technology Points, put them all into Agriculture and get the Herb Knowledge. RNG plays a role here and just hope you get the herb seeds early. The next Technology point should be an easy pick, Sand Mining so we could get Clay to construct our Herb Nurseries. And don’t forget to construct at least one clinic.
 
 

The Staues of Happiness

 
 

 
Let’s ignore the fact that you have a lot of homeless islanders, they won’t complain … well not just yet. In the Blueprints construct all three of the stone statues, the small, medium and Moai Stone Statue. These statues reduce your city stress by 10% giving you a total of 30% reduction in stress.This should counter stress just enough so that your islanders will still be productive and not kill each other. Also it’s never too early to get the Police Station Tech. This building provides a happiness boost to houses in its radius as well as notifying you of murderers.
 
 

Where are the Animals at?

 
 

 
It would be best if you demolish the two Hunter’s Hut on the west side of your settlement, they won’t be very productive there. Instead reposition them on the north and south of your village, I left those places for Apiaries, Forester’s and Gatherer’s Huts. Those are the places where wild animals tend to wander. There are three animals you can get; Alpacas, Buffaloes and Turkeys. It’s all RNG but, if your Hunters are bringing home a lot of game they also have a higher chance of bringing home a cub.
 
 

A Few Important Notes

 

• DO NOT DEMOLISH THE BREWERIES. You won’t have access to the Brewery tech and you can’t build more of them. So, just turn them on/off depending on your needs.
• Expand Eastward, hug the foot of the mountain. You’ll need to be somewhat close to the other end of the Island for an easier construction on the next phase of the statues.
• Don’t build houses just because someone wants it. Expand only when your production can support it.
• The last Upgrade for the Mines & Quarries, The Deep Mine & Quarry have UNLIMITED resources. Just in case you missed that part like I did.

 
 
 

Constructing The Statues

At this point your settlement should be stable. And you can now complete the objectives at your leisure. You can even get the entire tech tree and not finish a single phase of your objective.
 
 
There are 7 Statues that needs to be completed, and each statue has three phases of construction;
 

1. Phase One: Chiseling (Construction)
2. Phase Two: Moving (Resource Dump)
3. Phase Three: Setting up (Construction)

 

 
Phase one and three is pretty self-explanatory. It’s just elbow grease and a lot of manual labor.
 
In Phase Two, you need two techs; Reed Farming & Knitting. You’ll need a lot of rope and timber.
 
And in Phase Three, the construction part will be on the Eastern most part of the island. If your settlement is nowhere near the construction site, pause it again and expand enough so that your islanders won’t risk dying of hunger,thirst or cold.
 
 
Before you complete the first statue, make sure you have the Sawmill tech and a stock of at least 20 planks. Because at the completion of each statue will be a dilemma.
 
 
First Statue Dilemma: Record the milestone in planks.
 

Yes	No
-20 Planks, + Happiness	– Happiness

 
Second Statue Dilemma: Wanna hunt & eat rats to save the trees?
 

Yes	No
Hunter’s hut now produce rat meat, + Tree Growth Rate	– Tree Growth Rate

I don’t have to tell you that eating rat meat is bad for your health, right? You can get the Barbecue tech and cook the Rat meat to negate its health penalties. You could also turn off all your Hunter Huts so you won’t get rat meat. Although, I’m unsure if this will affect the tree growth rate.
 
 
Third Statue Dilemma: Foreigners want to stay. Please correct me if I’m wrong
 

Yes	No
+ Population, – Happiness, Possibility of Plague	No Effect?

 
 
 

Disasters On: Build Shelter

 
After completing the third Statue the game will now throw disasters at you. This can be anywhere from Fires, Droughts, Plagues, Pasture Plagues, Blizzards to full on Natural Disasters like Sandstorms and Tornadoes. It’s All RNG. All said disasters are ones that I’ve seen so far.
 
Keep an eye on the upper-right corner of the screen, the time-line.. bar.. thingy. It will tell when a disaster is about to hit. It’s the most accurate news forecast out there.
 
 
At this point, if you haven’t yet built a shelter, you really should start building a shelter. It’s at the Blueprints tab and costs 100 Cut stone & Iron Ore and built at the side of a mountain. You can only build one, so consider putting it a at least somewhat central location. Don’t worry your entire population can fit in there.
 
 

 
The shelter SHOULD ONLY be used for Tornadoes and Sandstorms.Food and Water isn’t stored in there, meaning some might die if you called them in too early or released them too late.
 
I’m not entirely sure, but both disasters spawned at south-west corner of the map, that’s all water. So It will take a little more time before it hits. You can call you islanders to shelter right when the Tornado is near the coastline. and release them as soon as it’s behind the mountains.
 
 
Fourth Statue Dilemma: Foreigners “accidentally” burned our historical planks.
 

Show them mercy	Retribution!
– Happiness	Casualties

 
Fifth Statue Dilemma: Merchant Ship Has Arrived. Want to Trade?
 

Yes	No
New livestock: Sheep, Unlock Docks	No Trade Forever

 
 
 

Plague Alert

If you accepted trade, the plague will be a common occurrence. Every time the merchant ship arrives, your islanders get the plague and it will spread. Don’t panic, plagues are easy to manage, so long as your prepared. In order to deal with sickness of this frequency and magnitude.
 
Not only do you need to have Medical Research & Skin Disease Research, you should have unlocked the Hospital and the Pharmacy and better medicine aside from raw Herbs and Medical Soap. The easiest Fine Medicine to make is the Medicinal Oil, all you need is Herbs and Fat. Keep a nice stockpile of these and you be safe.
 
Once the infection starts, don’t worry that everyone gets sick, if you have appropriate medicine reserves and hospital coverage, the sickness will peak and one by one everyone will be cured. Just keep an eye on the message box and make sure no one dies from “not being treated in time”
 
 
Sixth Statue Dilemma: Birdman Warrior Event
 

Yes	No
Get Coral & Obsidian (No Effect)	No Effect

This dilemma doesn’t seem to have an effect whichever you choose. There’s no Coral or Obsidian resource in the game, right? This is probably a placeholder and said items are not implemented yet.
 
 
Congratulations
 
Your Settlement by now should be more than just thriving. And your just waiting for the seventh statue to finish. And once that’s done. You’ve won the scenario.
 
 

 
 
Here we come to an end for Settlement Survival Easter Island Gameplay Tips hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!