This mission is the hardest of the game by an order of magnitude. Only one character, Taku, with some very detrimental traits : insomniac, poor appetite and chilly, which means that he won’t be able to heal during the first 90 days, and that a single night without shelter during that time is game over.

You are on at least 3 consecutive doomsday clocks : one at day 4 (get a shelter), one at day 62 (get a wattle shack), and the final one at day 255. This means that each hour should be spent to achieve the mission goal or one of the many steps to reach this goal. I achieved it in 205 days on the third trial (not counting figuring out the first 3 days), so there is some leeway, but I also failed my first attempts when not optimizing enough and discovering the building orders.

The island is not very large, with only wild plants that are more a nuisance than anything. The small river is very important for the latest part of the mission, and will serve to place the sawmill and the mill, so be sure to leave a rectangular 3 by 3 tiles spot somewhere to build them later. You will only have 4 permanent buildings at any time, so it shouldn’t be an issue, just don’t build them on this spot near the river.

The best island layout is to have the green rich soil tiles to the east, and a large rectangular area of rocky tiles as you may have to build a quarry at some point, but it is possible to extend the area by filling sea tiles with sand or soil.

The goal is to get Taku in a shelter in under 3 days, because otherwise he will die for sure between day 3 and day 4.

Food is not an issue because of the large quantity of bread in the starting box.

Day 1
Open the box (1h)
Recycle the raft (1h)
Plant the oak (2h)

Day 2
Harvest young broom shrub (1h)
Harvest the oak (1h)
Build the small shelter (2h)

Day 3
Finish the small shelter (2h)
1 free hour to do something minor but useful in the long run (see below)

Don’t bother with fishing, it is not worth it. Only remove fishes, crabs, frogs and shells if you need to free the tile.
The most efficient food source is zucchinis : 1 hour to plant one tile at the very beginning of the mission in the first days of spring of year 2, and then 1 hour each year to get 3 foods worth of zucchinis. About 3-4 tiles should be enough for the whole mission as Taku consumes 12 food per year. One tile of tomato plant should be enough, the harvest is 2 tomatoes/tile/year, and only 4 tomatoes are required to make the 20 pizzas.

Spelt may only be useful for making flour at the very end, and you won’t need more than 4 units of spelt grain to make enough flour for the 20 pizzas (1 pizza recipe takes 1 hour and makes 5 pizzas). BUT, keep in mind spelt also provides 1 unit of straw, and that can mean salvation from failing the mission if you remove all the cattail plants before harvesting enough straw for the whole mission. For the reason, and because it may be difficult to anticipate the need for straw at the right time, spend 4 hours at some point at the beginning of the game and get 4 spelt tiles somewhere near your zucchini. As long as you don't harvest them, spelt plants will replant themselves.

Plant chestnut
Plant Fir
Plant Bamboo
Some free hours to do something minor but useful in the long run (see battle against the wild)

In seeds of resilience, wild plants colonize adjacent tiles during spring. They seem to prefer rich soil but can also grow on clay, or even bare rock. This is an issue, because in this mission each tile is precious and also, spending hours removing weeds to free a tile may contribute to losing the battle against the doomsday clock. Removing all the wild plants from your island is possible but can be a challenge, as removing it during spring just means an already adjacent wild plant will be able to colonize the now freed tile. Removing them during winter or autumn doesn’t seem to achieve anything. The best time to remove weeds is the last day of spring and during summer. One of the best ways to win this battle is just to plant trees, as they occupy the tile for a long time, and even after harvesting by leaving a stump.

Cattail plant : this is the only really useful wild plant after day 4 as it provides straw. But it may also colonize free tiles during spring, so it can be a nuisance as well. Leaving 1 or 2 cattail plant tiles each year is probably the best, but if you get rid of it completely, don’t panic : spelt can also provides straw, you just need to remember that it is way more time consuming : 1 hour to plant during spring and 2 hours at the beginning of autumn to harvest for each unit of straw you need.

You begin with one seed of each plant. This means you have no room for failure, each plant must fulfill its role and you can’t lose a single plant species (except for the single oak at the beginning).

Zucchinis : plant them during spring of year 2, and extract seeds after harvest to get the 4 tiles that should get you through the mission.
Tomatoes : plant them during spring of year 2 and generally don’t even bother harvesting them. You only need 4 tomatoes at the end.
Flax : plant them during spring, harvest them during summer. After you have 6-8 units of fiber, you can stop. It should be enough for your needs : a few stone axes and pickaxes until you get bronze ones, maybe one pronged spear and some warehouses to protect you from tornadoes.


Also, be aware that wild plants can remove domestic plants (like zucchinis and tomatoes) by colonizing their tile during spring. The best way to protect your garden is to have it separated from the rest of the island (like by adding new rich soil tiles elsewhere). Your own plants (bamboo and trees) can also be an issue if you have them nearby : pinecones and chestnut, if not picked up, will spawn a tree on the tile, and fully grown giant bamboo colonize adjacent tiles during spring (this is useful to get more than the first tile of bamboo, 2-3 bamboo tiles should be enough if harvested regularly).

In any case you will need a lot of clay, so you can remove rich soil tiles and place them elsewhere, so you also gain access to clay tiles. The only issue with clay tiles is that they seem to attract frogs, little green intruders that you may need to remove later, so it may be better to quickly remove the clay as well.

The other advantage of moving rich soil tiles during the first year is that it improves your farming skill, so that it is faster to plant when day 13 arrives.

Bamboo : if you want to sustain you bamboo tiles, only harvest fully grown bamboo during spring or the first couple days of summer : after that the bamboo shoots will die during autumn if not grown into young bamboo.

Trees : you only get chestnut and fir in this mission (after harvesting the first and only oak to live through day 4). After harvesting the first chestnuts, plant all 5 chestnuts : you will need them soon. Fir trees will be your main source of wood for all the advanced buildings, it is just much more time efficient when needing all those wood beams. Trees are also very efficient at reconquering your island tiles from the wild plants (see above). It may also be a bug but when I had a lot of tall trees between my buildings and the east, it seemed to protect the building. You can’t really count on it as it seems quite random, but it may help.

Just before the first wind (day 31-32) your trees should produce your first pinecones and chestnuts. Be sure to pick them and plant all of them, as you will need them really soon.

This strength 2 wind should damage your small shelter. As you don’t have access to oak anymore, you won’t be able to repair it. Rebuilding a chestnut shelter is not an option since a strength 2 wind will just destroy it, making you lose the game. You won’t be able to build a cob house before the second wind (at day 61-62) so you have to make a cramped wattle shack. Even a fir one is good enough as it should be damaged but not destroyed. It may be better to leave the chestnut trunks for other more long lasting structures like the wood workshop.

Remember to collect pine cones and chestnuts to plant them, as you will need a lot of trees ! As some winds can get fell some of your trees, you need some redundancy. First you won’t have enough hours to be able to cut the fully grown trees, so just train your woodworker skill on the smaller one that still gives a trunk and branches.

Next, you should aim for a chestnut wood workshop to be able to produce wood beams (and you will need a lot of them). Begin harvesting chestnut trunks, but be sure to always leave extra trees to produce more chestnusts during autumn. It may be possible to complete the mission with only using fir but I haven’t tested it.

You should be in your (damaged) cramped wattle shack, and your previous shelter should be destroyed by the wind (it is not always the case, if you are lucky and still have it, just keep it for now). Don’t bother repairing the shack, you should have your cozy little cob before the next wind

Your next goal is to build a Cozy little Cob. This is a very important goal as it will probably be the best house you will have in this mission. As soon as you have it, Taku will begin to heal as well as have the “good sleep” modifier, granting him +2 hours/day, and soon remove the -1 hour/day due to low health, giving you a whopping 9 working hours/day ! It is such a big deal it is advised to rush it as soon as possible. For this reason, fir is better than chestnut, even if the latter would be more resilient to strong winds. You may even build a temporary shelter (4 hours) and recycle the shack to recover the 2 trunks and some straw. You should be able to get the cob house before day 90. As said earlier : the sooner the better.

Next : get the metal workshop and some bronze tools. You should begin harvesting enough malachite (6) and cassiterite (2) to make a bronze axe and pickaxe while waiting for the third wind to pass. Some 3 chestnut trunks from an adult chestnust tree to build the metal workshop is also a good idea, especially as strong winds have a tendency to fell adult trees.

Now you can get your metal workshop up and running, but not before the third wind as it would just be damaged for no good reason. Chestnut is better as more resilient, but you may get away with using fir (not tested though). It is one of the permanent building even if it may be possible to get enough bronze pickaxes and axes and then recycle it. I haven't counted but I think that with 4-5 bronze pickaxes and 3-4 bronze axes it should be enough for the mission. It is probably more safe to just keep it around.

As soon as you have a bronze pickaxe (and a bronze axe too) you’ll have to find out how badly you are screwed at the magnetite struggle.

As far as I know, there is not enough magnetite veins on the island, but you may be more lucky than me. Equip your bronze pickaxe and begin harvesting magnetite. Remember to always have a spare bronze pickaxe or enough materials to build one as you will get through at least a couple tools to collect all the magnetite.

You need exactly 28 units of magnetite to complete the mission.

When you can’t find any more veins, hold your breath and look at your current stock. If you are like me and fell short, that means you’ll have to build a quarry to get the one or two missing units. First, locate the tiles with magnetite in them : it is easy as it should be exactly where you mined magnetite veins. Magnetite is grey, malachite is green and cassiterite is black, I hope it helps as the difference is not so obvious at first. The best spot is the one that will require the less work : it may not be obvious, but removing granite and other minerals from tiles can prove quite time consuming (but it may also be useful in the long run when placing other buildings). As soon as you have 28 magnetites, you can and should recycle the quarry as it is too big, and quite fragile. You should be able to get the magnetite milestone before or after the fourth wind (day 121-122).

You should now also be sitting on a very huge stockpile of granite, some of which will be useful later.

It should slightly damage your cob house, you may get away without repairing it, but you have to repair the other buildings (wood and metal workshop at this point) because they would be destroyed by the next wind otherwise. Just be aware that if repairing this first damage to the cob house is possible, Taku won't be able to repair any further damage as he won't have enough working hours to do it...

I won’t explicitly mention the next winds as it shouldn’t be much of an issue, or could just screw you so badly to make you lose the game if you are so unlucky and get instead a tornado aimed right at some critical item (like magnetite). Just accept the random nature of this part of the game and make a save the day before each wind event.

As soon as you get the 28 magnetites, your next goal becomes the stone workshop and the brickyard. Now that you have bronze tools and more free tiles, you should be able to get both quite fast. You need only 23 granite cut stones, 6 roof tiles and 2 bricks so you can recycle both buildings as soon as you have that to speed up on making fir beams.

Note that if you recycle a building, the structures that have been unlocked will remain so. So as long as you have the means to build everything else, there is no need to keep buildings that have fullfilled their purpose.

It is a good idea to build a coal mound now as it takes a couple days to burn and produce charcoal. You will only need 8 charcoal so one should be enough. Don’t use clay as you need it for other purposes.

Next up is the foundry and the forge : produce 3 steel ingots and then a steel anvil, next you need 4 steel plates. As soon as you have the anvil and the plates, you can recycle the foundry and build the forge. In the forge you need only 3 saw blade and can also produce a saw for yourself with the extra steel plate. Recycle the forge.

The sawmill is the next building on the list and for it, you will need a humongous number of beams (16) and place it so the wheel is in the river. When finished, spend 1 hour in the sawmill to produce 6 planks, of which you will never ever need more than 2 to build the next building. Recycle the sawmill and build the mill on the same exact spot. When the mill is finished, produce 4 sacks of flour and recycle the building as you won't need it anymore.

It should now be trivial to build the kitchen, and then cook the 4 batches of 5 pizzas, winning you the mission. Congratulation ! You have unlocked the last character, the somewhat underwhelming Alviarin...