With so many games releasing this year’s end, Icy Village: Tycoon Survival might just be one of the newer gems that could’ve easily slipped under your radar.
It’s simple and convenient to get into, provided you understand the basics of how to manage your own tight-knit colony against harsh environments.
If that sounds like something you’re interested in, here are some great insights that can help you get through things quicker.
Surviving The Unforgiving Winter
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As its name implies, Icy Village: Tycoon Survival is all about you leading a small group of people to live and thrive against the never-ending cold. It’s that straightforward.
There isn’t much storytelling apart from the occasional in-game dialogues that you get when you’ve progressed past specific milestones in the game, which are usually tied to the latest content you’ve just unlocked.
Photo: Unimob Global
What you do need to keep in mind is that Icy Village has different maps to challenge you, each replacing the previous one once your community’s maxed out everything there is to do.
Things become relatively simple and habitual when you’re already into the latter stages, but in the beginning, a lot of the game’s interrelated mechanics aren’t properly explained, so here’s what you need to know.
Building A Thriving Colony in Icy Village
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Similar to games like Fallout Shelter, you’ll need to set up all the necessities required for your people to survive. This means housing, food, and building materials.
Icy Village does a good job of catering the maps to your level, meaning the beginning levels let you understand what the priorities are, even if new resources become available later on.
Photo: Unimob Global
First things first, just like any other survival game, the correct structures will need to be built in Icy Village. Depending on the map, there are different types, each normally falling into the following criteria:
- Shelter
- Residence Tent
- Healing Hall
- Etc.
- Food
- Kitchen
- Hunter’s Hut
- Etc.
- Resources
- Grass Field
- Chicken Coop
- Etc.
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As you progress to newer areas, more sophisticated buildings, such as the Winery, will then be unlocked.
These will create new resources that’ll gradually stack on top of the basic ones that are commonly farmed early on, like Feathers replacing Grass as upgrade materials for the Residence Tents.
Regardless, for every community, the core is still the Furnace, as it manages the heat production to ensure everyone is kept warm throughout the cold season. If not, the people will suffer, leading to fewer resources gathered and so on.
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Generally, when it comes to the common Icy Village gameplay loop, it’ll look something like this:
- Check the Furnace
- Ensure sufficient resources are being mined/ farmed/ collected
- Guarantee enough food for everyone to eat
- Upgrade buildings one by one
- Repeat
This rings true for every map, regardless of the newer buildings that will eventually need to be built. So, stay on top of your daily habits and you’ll get the hang of Icy Village: Tycoon Survival in no time at all.
Photo: Unimob Global
Speaking of which, you can instantly monitor your community’s present resource consumption by tapping one of the three icons located on the right side of the screen.
It’ll show you everything that’s currently being consumed every minute, which is extremely important.
Leading The Community
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When it comes to managing a colony, the most important element is actually not the structures nor the resources, but its people. In Icy Village: Tycoon Survival, without enough manpower to do the everyday tasks, nothing can be accomplished.
As such, you’ll need to regularly monitor your village’s current population. Are they being provided with sufficient resources? Is everyone already being given roles and jobs to do? How big is your current colony?
Photo: Unimob Global
Thankfully, these things don’t need to be micromanaged after you’ve assigned the villagers to vacant slots in the respective production buildings.
In fact, you only need to make sure they’re being fed enough every day during the interval hours in Icy Village, meaning all will be fine as long as your food-gathering hunts are on point.
Additionally, you can also recruit heroes to become the ‘managers’ of their respective specialties. For instance, Dawin is a good early-game hero that helps maintain the Furnace, ensuring better heat production.
Photo: Unimob Global
The most important heroes in Icy Village are normally accessed when you enter Map 3 and above, and they’ll provide even more boosts and benefits to your society. To unlock all of them, you simply need to complete the Tasks provided in-game according to each map.
Your heroes can be leveled up as well, and this involves a rare resource called Elixirs. These aren’t acquired through normal gameplay, and can only be collected via the completion of Tasks or as idle rewards automatically generated by a team of heroes chosen.
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Of course, higher-level heroes in Icy Village will ensure even better resource production and faster collection, making your gameplay that much smoother. Still, it’ll take some time for you to reach that phase, so just enjoy the ride in the meantime.
The Premium Currency
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The developer, Unimob Global, still needs to monetize the game for its efforts, and they do so in two ways:
- In-game ads
- Red Gems (premium currency)
The ads are self-explanatory, but the red Gems can only be collected as rewards for completing Tasks or through actual purchases from the Shop.
Gems are only needed for purchasing more valuable Chests (containing various hero cards or items) or increasing the time required for building structures and upgrading them.
Photo: Unimob Global
So, although Gems are the premium currency in Icy Village, they’re only offered as a bonus luxury if you’re willing to spend some money to accelerate in-game progress or growth.
Tips & Tricks
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Now, Icy Village: Tycoon Survival isn’t exactly hard. Since there isn’t any final boss to defeat per se, your community will eventually grow to become an established settlement in due time.
However, here are some tips & tricks that you might find useful in the beginning:
#1 Toggle Overtime and Boost
Photo: Unimob Global
For resource-production buildings, many of them have an Overtime toggle at the bottom of their respective screens. This will force the workers to work during the wee hours if the colony’s materials are running low.
Although it’s not advisable to abuse it to avoid your people becoming fatigued, you can use it sparingly when you’re forced into a corner if your village is struggling to beat the cold during a winter storm (or you’ve accidentally used too many resources for upgrading structures).
For the Furnace, you can Boost its heat produced just by toggling its option. However, it’ll consume twice as much resources, so keep that in mind.
#2 Watch the ads
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As a free-to-play game, Icy Village: Tycoon Survival also has a plethora of in-game ads you need to contend with.
It’s not exactly intrusive, but it becomes somewhat of a necessity because you can easily overuse your colony’s resources without understanding the long-term repercussions.
Many buildings share the same resource for production (e.g. insufficient Grass for the Furnace, etc.), so as soon as you find yourself short on materials, a pedlar will sometimes visit your settlement, waiting for you to talk to him near the Furnace.
He’ll let you watch ads in exchange for tons of stuff, so spare around thirty seconds to support the devs and you’ll get extra resources to save your colony.
#3 Prioritize resources on production buildings first
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In Icy Village, it’s tempting to upgrade all your buildings the instant your resources meet the minimum requirements. That being said, this usually spells trouble later on because other more important structures might need them too.
Between food-producing structures and hunting-related buildings, always focus on using your materials to upgrade the one generating basic resources (in this case, the hunting-related one).
#4 Frequently check the clock
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Unlike many other games, you can easily lose track of time in Icy Village: Tycoon Survival because there isn’t an in-game clock to gauge it. Or is there?
Actually, your people’s daily activities revolve around a timer that’s accessible at the top-middle of the screen, denoted in the 24-hour format above a blue-colored refilling bar.
It’ll also specify the current ‘phase’ your colony is in (eating, sleeping, etc.), and you can open the overall schedule by clicking on it.
Check it often to plan your building upgrades and other stuff ahead of time.
#5 Use the Tasks as guidelines
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Since there isn’t any storyline to follow, you can get lost on what to do pretty quickly. Plus, you need to know how far you’ve progressed too, so this is where the Tasks tab comes into play.
It’ll list out everything you need to achieve to progress to the next map. Furthermore, Tasks reward you with heroes and invaluable items too, so completing them becomes one of the most crucial things you need to do in the early game.
#6 Claim free Gems daily
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For anyone who doesn’t know, you can claim ten free Gems every single day just by playing tIcy Village. You simply need to visit the Shop and scroll down to the Gems section to retrieve them.
They’re claimable up to three times per day, upon which the subsequent two require you to watch sponsored ads first. Nevertheless, it’s only a time investment, something which is also free by itself.
#7 Get Common Chests
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Chests are quite important in Icy Village because they offer more hero cards and Elixirs outside of completing Tasks. If you intend on breezing through the game, then opening free Common Chests could be fruitful.
Just like Gems, they’re also claimable from the Shop, but they’re replenished around every eight hours after you’ve opened them.
Conclusion
Icy Village: Tycoon Survival is one of Unimob Global’s latest releases, and it has a nice charm and casual vibe to it if you’re looking for a simple, relaxing game to invest yourself in.
While you’re here, make sure to check out any free Icy Village game codes you might have missed out on too! If you have something to say about Icy Village, feel free to share it in the comments section below!
