• Planning ahead:
  
  - Once you see how your new island looks like, you need to start deciding how you want it to look at the end. Your island should have three main areas: The city, the park cluster and the industrial area. This guide from xesolor gives a good idea of how your main areas should be distributed, it is from the first game but can still be applied to this one.
  
  - You must examine the best spots for each area and make use of your spatial perception to imagine said areas filled. Take your time, once you start building anywhere you are locked with that.
  
  
• Proximity and verticality:
  
  - These two are the foundations to a great island.
  
  - All the areas previously mentioned should be interacting with each other somehow (I will detail this ahead), this will depend on the geography yor are working with, sometimes you can't have the ideal distribution.
  
  - All three areas should have some sort of verticality that allow buildings to overlap in the same reaching spot, you should aim to build your things vertical rather than horizontal whenever is possible.
  
  - Be ready to simulate a lot of building, by this I mean you should constantly be checking where you can build and where you cannot. Some examples and tips:
  
  
  • Houses/mansions come in different shapes and sizes, place the first one and then check what shape the second one will have and where you could place it. Your can then press redo button and get back at where you were.
    
    
  • This is crucial with some buildings, especially highscoring ones like market, temple or hermitage. Always try to make sure they get the best possible score simulating where they can fit, getting this kind of buildings asap is the best since you can start building around them safely.
    
    
  • Another important buildings that you should always simulate where they can fit are terraces, plateaus and wall platforms. Again getting them asap is key to better plan your city and benefit anything you build around them.
    
    
  • You want to simulate how a building would fit somewhere but you don't have it on your toolbar? Then use another building. Some buildings have the same size and shape like squared houses and parks or tower and hut.
  
  This works with anything really... Use this to your advantage to simulate where stuff can be built getting the best possible score. Sometimes you can fit stuff in places where you wouldn't think it is possible. Some buildings can clipp into the terrain on certain spots. Always, ALWAYS check if there's a way.
  
  
• Understanding how your score works:
  
  - There are several bonus that are applied to your score between islands aside from the base score you get on the island itself.
  
  - The most important one that will boost your score significantly is the score loops bonus, if I understand it correctly it will % increase your score based on the ammount of times your compass completes a full cycle (when you get a new building on your toolbar). This alone can grant 20-30k+ final score to your island on mid run islands, so needless to say this is what we are aiming for.
  
  - You won't get that many score loops relying on high score buildings only (Temple, Hermitage), your entire scoring through the island must be sustained whenever is possible. This is why designing good areas that interact with each other to constantly increase your score is so important. You will eventually have to make sacrifices but we are aiming for the best possible score for every building placed.

So you already decided how you will distribute your three main areas... now let's talk about them more in depth. Keep in mind this is how your island should look like, but many times the distribution won't be ideal... Try to do the best with what you are given.

The city should split into two different sides one consisting in mansions and all buildings related and the other of houses and their buildings.

• Main Buildings
  
  Basically city centers, houses, mansions and anything that adds value or benefit from them, I'm probably forgeting some interactions as there are too many of them but basically:
  
  
  • Houses: Mason, Circus, Tavern, Harbor/Docks, Sauna.
    
    
  • Mansions: Cliff Houses, Jewelry, Aviary, Fortune Teller
    
    
  • Both: City Center, Shaman, Park, Fountain, Terrace, Plateau, Market, Tower, Statue, Fortune Teller (benefits from both but only adds value to mansions)
  
  
• Where to build it
  
  - This is going to be your biggest area, you need to make sure you can fit a lot of houses and mansions so ideally and mostly for the early game look for a flat spot, flat sites are also good to fit plateaus boosting the score of the buildings in that area.
  
  - At the same time, you will need walls, mountains or whatever that cand add at least 1 or 2 more layers of building spots through terraces and wall platforms, you can use the landscape itself if it allows to keep expanding your city on a higher layer while being close enough.
  
  - Aim for something in between when possible, keeping a good balance, enough flat space to start building your first layer while also adding verticality for the next layers.
  
  - The City should connect and interact with the industrial area for a lot of added value to your city such as the market bennefit from masons and warehouses, tavern from brewery or city center from pretty much every building in the industrial area like mills or fishers. So ideally there's a medium sized area next to you city where you can build the industrial area, something smaller is fine, you will get less value but the prio is to have them as close as possible.
  
  
• Temple Strategy
  
  - The personal strategy I used in almost every island was to build my whole city and its layers around the spot where the temple will be, this includes all the buildings that bennefit the temple the most, like mansions, masons, plateaus and terraces.
  
  - If the temple will be on the first layer, you want to build both sides around an empty squared spot where the temple will be.
  
  - If the temple will be on the second layer you can build all the area directly beneath. Ideally the temple will be on this layer to reach both first and third layer of the city.
  
  - This can be worth an average of 500-600 points temple with either score multiplier or increased area boons which later in the game are very welcome to keep your island running for longer.
  
  
• General Tips
  
  - Industrial area benefits mostly the house side of your city. Your masons should work as a transition from house side of the city to the industral area since they benefit houses (all 3 layers if placed well) and also add a huge +20 each to the temple score. Then the harbor and docks also benefit houses a lot.
  
  - Cliff Houses benefit more to and from mansions and get negative score from masons so they should be built close to the mansion side. You will be placing a lot of them so to make sure not to end up splitting them look for a big wall or cliff, if they cant be close to the mansions place them elsewhere where there's more room.
  
  - City Pack is often offered as early building option, you should have your design in mind already, try to leave some room around the city center for the first houses and mansions to fully benefit from it but keep it closer to the temple area, leave extra room if you are not sure. Keep a balance between early highscore and city design. Make a realistic vision of how your city will look like, eventually you won't be getting more houses/mansions so don't overextend them all over the place, it is fine to make small sacrifices on the score to get a house/mansion on a better spot if it means it will add long term value to the area around it.
  
  - If you get several city centers early on the island it can be worth stacking two next to each other, the long term benefit will outweight the negative score, ideally you stack several with the neighbourly boon. Otherwise place them as close as you can without letting them score negative, this can be done also to start each side of your city (houses and mansions) separated and eventually build around the core.
  
  - Plateaus, Terraces and Wall Platforms can be used to expand your city and add a lot of value to the buildings around them. However plateaus and terraces can be hard to place once you filled the area too much, try not to obstruct them too much. Ideally you want to get them as soon as possible to start planning better where everything is going to be.
  
  
  • Terraces can fit pretty much anywhere, ideally they are used as the second or third layer next to a wall or cliff (so they don't take the building spots beneath them).
    
    
  • Wall Platforms work in a similar way but they are better used to place other big buildings on them like temple, markets, circus or even warehouses.
    
    
  • Plateaus: They can be built on the first layer on regular terrian or on the sea to add more building space. However they are big, yea you can build on them but the pillars will take extra building spots, that's why I always try to clip them inside the terrain. You can play with this mechanic and realize that they can fit pretty much anywhere if clipped through the terrain, im talking about crazy things like adding them as -1 layer below your city to make all buildings on the next layers get very good scores, this is rare but can happen, usually the best use I got of them was clipping as many as possible next to the core (temple) without letting them take too much of building place.
    Anyway play around the clipping mechanic next to your cities, you will get very good value if it works.
  
  - Shamans are hard to place in cities since city centers and mason hates them and viceversa, if lucky there are enough flowers and hidden spot to make them score decently, always try to fit a few close to the core, even if the score is not that good, you might get it back later from all the mansions and houses that can benefit from them. Otherwise they are better next the park cluster or any other hidden spot with flowers.
  
  - Outter zones of the city should contain buildings related to houses/mansions, the temple hates most of them so is not ideal to have them close to the core of the city even if they get bettter scoring there. These kind of buildings are tavern, circus, jewely, warehouse and similar ones.
  
  - The Market is one of the top scoring buildings if placed well. Ideally you want it somewhere close to the temple so it reaches almost everything.
  
  - Towers take small spots but they go verticaly so they should be in the very core and ideally reaching all three layers of your city so you next layers benefit from them. If you don't get a decent score after stacking a few of them place the other ones in the outter zones.
  
  - Masons are annoying, you definitely want them closer to your core but if placed too early can take very good spots for terraces or plateaus compromising the verticality of your city. I recommend placing a few somewhere close to the core that you see is not going to take essential spots. Once you can plan this better it is worth stacking them up to certain negative score, otherwise split them around the house/industrial are so the score keeps flowing.
  
  - You can rely on water platforms to increase your building area if given the chance but don't build too far into the ocean/lake because there's usually no verticality there.
  
  - A good city should look something like this:
  
  

As mentioned before, the industrial area should be connecting and interacting with your city as much as possible.

• Main Buildings
  
  Mason, Brickyard, Sandpit, Lumberjack, Sawmill, Seaweed Farm, Harbor/Docks, Fisher, Brewery, Mill, Hop field, Wheat field, Warehouse.
  
  
• Where to build it
  
  - As close as possible to your city and ideally connecting and interacting with it. A mix of water, grass field and sand is the perfect spot. Many times you will have to chose between different geography, sometimes there won't be water close to your city, sometimes there won't be grassfields... in such case simply look for a different spot a bit away that can still benefit those buildings like harbor/docks next to a lighthouse/fishing spots or mill and wheat on a extense grass area.
  
  - Verticality matters on this area too but not as much as in the city, still, adding some wall platforms if you have no better use for them can bring extra benefit by adding a new warehouse, brickyard or similar, even a city center will get a decent score if placed somewhere here since it benefits from most buildings in the industrial area. Water platforms are also a good option to add extra building spots nearby.
  
  
• General tips
  
  - Masons and harbor/docks benefit your houses, try and keep them close to the house side of your city if possible. I find stacking masons close on the core of the city brings more long term value than have them too splitted or only in my industrial area. Is all about the geography you are working with, having them stacked on the core of the city or working as a transition to the house side and industrial area are two options that will surely bring value.
  
  - The brewery is kinda big, you want it closer to your house side so tavern can benefit from it, but if this means losing city building spots is not worth it. Otherwise they are good anywhere in the industrial area or somewhere that allows hopsfield to be placed next to them.
  
  - Same goes for the mill, they are often better placed on a large crop field terrain rather than the industrial area but if you can have them closer that's perfect.
  
  - Sandpit/Brickyard and Lumberjack/Sawmill heavily depend on the terrain to score decently by itself, so if you don't have sand or trees nearby they are better elsewhere. Out of these four buildings only the brickyard can bring better benefit to the industrial area by being alone.
  
  - Your water zone should be splitted into seaweed farm and habor/docks + fishers.
  
  - Warehouses benefit from every building here and viceversa, it is worth to keep a spot for them somewhere in the middle.
  
  - The market benefits a lot from the industrial area, ideally you want it close enough to it while reaching most of your houses and mansions.
  
  - This is kinda what a good industrial area should look like:
  
  

First of all parks don't benefit from each other so it might seem better to place them in your city, however they will take away building spots for higher scoring and more beneficial buildings for the city. The idea is to stack verdure on a different area and place them there, parks do benefit from trees and flowers. This area is kinda like your city but with parks.

• Main Buildings
  
  Parks (lol), Fountain, Shaman, Verdure, Hermitage, Monument, Aviary, Hop field, Wheat field, Sauna
  
  
• Where to build it
  
  - This area can be built anywhere that is open and has grass terrain, sand is fine too if no better option is available but trees won't grow here, only flowers. You will be given enough verdure to make these areas be worth stacking parks.
  
  - Some buildings like aviary, tower or mountain shrine interact with mansions, houses and parks so is not bad idea to keep this area close to your city.
  
  - Wheat field and Hop field benefit parks and hermitage benefits from them, if you get the chance it is good to connect this area with the industrial area. But be careful because the monument hates them.
  
  
• General tips
  
  - Verticality is not bad here however the hermitage is a building that can be placed any time as it continue to benefit parks after and monument has a fair enough range to reach most of your parks even on flat terrain, so wall platfroms (only grass ones) are better placed elsewhere. Water platforms have good synergy since they benefit from trees, if you can do this while expanding your building space this is one of the best areas to build them.
  
  - Keep in mind that trees and flowers disappear if you build on top of them so the idea is to build around them to keep them up as much as possible.
  
  - Bloom is the best related boon to this area, it makes all trees count as both flowers and trees hugely incresing the score of all your buildings here and its base score depends and how many trees without flowers can reach so don't hesiate to take this boon if the conditions are right.
  
  - Hermitage can be placed any time you feel is worth doing it since it keeps adding value to your parks after placed.
  
  - Monument is huge here, like the temple to your city. Just remember to leave a square spot for it somewhere in the middle.
  
  - Fountains are not bad, they can score decently in some spots and keep adding value to new parks.
  
  - Sauna is very good here because it scores with trees, if theres water anywhere close place your sauna here rather than in the city.
  
  - Shamans are fine here, they only add value to the hermitage and any more verdure you add to the area but can score a lot with flowers and hidden spots. If that's not the case they are better in your city.
  
  - Aviary is ok here since it benefits from parks but it is better in your mansion side of the city to later benefit the fish kite and jewelry.
  
  How this area should look like:
  
  

• Statue
  Your island might already have but they can be offered as a boon or initial building on your toolbar. Everything likes the statue so building your area around them is the best you can do.
  
  Temple gets +40 from it so if you get the chance to stack 3 together with neighbourly that's already 120 points plus all the benefit it will bring to the city around them. If you don't get this boon early enough don't hold several statues for too long since everything you build can benefit from them.
  
  The base score is based on trees and flowers so the park area is also a good option other than the city. Stacking several on a city without the boon can outweight the negative score in the long term, especially if there's a lot of trees and flowers there.
  
  
• City Center
  They are the base to start building your city, ideally they are placed on the second layer with a wall platform or terrace to benefit both first and third layer. Stacking them with neighbourly boon is very good idea since you want them as close as possible to the core of the city. They can score decently by itself if placed somewhere in the industrial area.
  
  
• Houses
  They should be stacked on the side of the city that leans towards the industrial area.
  They have very good synergy with habor/docks and masons.
  They benefit more than mansions from verticality since they have larger area.
  
  
• Mansions
  They should be stacked on the mansion side of your city.
  They don't have a large area but benefit a lot from terraces and plateaus.
  Try and leave square spots every certain cluster of mansions for fountains, they benefit a lot from them.
  
  
• Cliff Houses
  They have good synergy with mansions and benefit buildings like the tower, is good idea to build them close to the mansion side of your city and ideally having a city center close. Otherwise they are better anywhere where there's enough space for them or the park area. They have decent area reach and they can fit tightly on a flat wall so try to optimize the distribution.
  
  
• Shaman
  They are hard to place in your city because masons and city centers hate them but if you can manage to build them with a decent score they will bring very good long term value to anything around them especially between layers. The other option is the park area or anywhere with flowers and good hidden spots.
  
  
• Fountain
  They are better in your city anywhere reaching a decent ammount of mansions. Otherwise place them in the park area. They can be placed anytime because they keep adding value to your houses and mansions or parks.
  
  
• Tower
  They can fit pretty much anywhere, make sure they don't disrupt the verticality of your city. Is often worth stacking them in the core of your city even with the negative score.
  
  
• Hut
  They score better next to cities because they benefit a lot from city centers, however dont fill your city with them because nothing benefits from them there. They are small so they can be used to fill gaps you might have. They are also good in the cliff house area.
  
  
• Tavern
  It should be in the house side of the city ideally reaching a lot of houses plus the brewery. They keep adding value to the houses so build it whenever you feel like. Build it before the circus.
  
  
• Circus
  It should be in the house side of the city, doesn't have a big reach so try to build your houses around the empty spot where it will be.
  
  
• Jewelry
  It should be in the mansion side of the city, make sure to leave a square spot for it. Ideally it also reaches the gold mine but this won't be close to the city most of the times. Build it after the aviary if you place this one on your city.
  
  
• Gold Mine
  Not much to say, underwhelming building that can only be placed next to the mine and has small reach.
  
  
• Aviary
  You will eventually make its base score 125 so getting this building early is instant profit. You can add more value with mansions and parks but is not huge so place it anywhere asap. If in the city then close to jewelry and mansions, if in the park then anywhere really.
  
  
• Temple
  This is the biggest scoring building, from anywhere to 200 on early islands to 700+ in the latest ones. It should be placed after all the area it can reach has buildings on it.
  
  As I mentioned before, the best you can do is build your city around it. It benefits a lot from terraces, plateaus, statues and masons. Ideally you stack this buildings around the spot where it will be.
  
  The best boon for it is increased area, the second best is score multiplier.
  
  Be careful not to place the buildings it gets negative score from next to it such as tavern, circus or jewelry.
  
  The best spot for it would be the second layer so it reachers the first one and the third one.
  
  Get it asap when offered so you can start planning the spot it will take and how to build around it. Getting it as part of the island initial bonus is a good idea.
  
  
• Market
  It should be close to the core of your city but also reaching the industrial area, using a wall platform to achieve this is a good idea. This means it will often be close to the temple. Stacking two or more in the same spot is fine if that's the best scoring spot. A good boon to use for this is the score multiplier one.
  
  
• Fortune Teller
  Better pick this later on the island when you have more buildings on your toolbar. It brings more value in the mansion side but can be placed anywhere really.
  
  
• Guild Hall
  This is better placed in the outter zones of each area reaching a mix of different kind of buildings. Place it soon before you stack many similar buildings. A good placed guild hall can get you 100+ points easily, a carefuly pre-planned one can give even 300+ points. Score multiplier can be good on this building.
  
  
• Sauna
  They have good synergy with houses but you need water close. I usually build them on the park area since they benefit from trees a lot more, they also like lumberjacks which are often close to the park area.
  
  
• Mason
  They are offered early on the islands and you will need to place them eventually to keep the score going on, the reason why I hate them is because they can only be build on cliffs and placing them early can compromise future terraces, plateaus or wall platforms.
  
  You want them stacked close to the core to benefit the temple and different layers of the house side. They can also be built connecting both the industrial area and the city or straight in the industrial area. In any case try to keep them stacked, they dont get that much negative score.
  
  With all this in mind what I usually do is wait to pick them as much as I can and hopefuly get a plateau or terrace soon enough before placing them to simulate where can they be built without disrupting the design of the city.
  
  
• Harbor/Dock
  They should be in the industrial area as close as possible to the house side of your city. They can score high on houses but they need to be "pointing" to them making it hard to accomplish in some islands. Alternatively they are good placed anywhere with enough fishing points and fishers.
  
  
• Fisher
  They are better close to cities to benefit from city centers, ideally they are on the water side of the industrial area to also benefit harbor and docks. The score will depend on the geography, sometimes you can get very good scores even stacking them and sometimes they will only have the base score.

• Seaweed farm/Seaweed field
  They are better on the water zone of your industrial area. Don't place them on a straight line they benefit more from a "zig-zag" distribution, use nearby cliffs, small islands or a water platform to do this. It can be worth stacking the farms together if you point them to reach enough seaweed fields.
  
  
• Mill/Wheat field
  They need a decent sized open grass area, ideally close to the industrial area but they are fine anywhere, the space is the prio. Is worth stacking at least two to benefit more all the wheat your build around them, sustainable is a worth boon to use for stacking. Otherwise just far enough to benefit from the wheat built without the negative score. They also get good scores on cities if you run out of room in the grass area.
  
  
• Brewery/Hops field
  Similar to the above in terms of space and placement. They are better on the industrial area so taverns can reach them.
  
  
• Sandpit/Brickyard
  Not the best buildings, they are meant to be close to a sand zone but your industrial area won't always have sand around and their scores are not that good honestly. I often found myself placing sanpits anywhere there's sand in the island and brickyards closer to warehouse/masons.
  
  
• Lumberjack/Sawmill
  Works similar to the above but with trees. Sawmills don't bring much value to the industrial area so these two buildings are better anywhere in the island where there's enough trees. Lumberjack can score quite high with enough trees, somewhere close to the park area (without disrupting the buildings there) is the best option. Lumberjacks also benefit Saunas and Pyres.
  
  
• Warehouse
  This is kinda like the temple to the industrial area, it benefits from anything in there, try to place them somewhere in the middle of this area. It also keeps adding value to future buildings there. They bring +20 each to markets so ideally they are close enough to the cities.
  
  
• Park
  They will mainly form your park area. Try to build them around an empty spot where the hermitage will be. They have synergy with hop field and wheat field but is hard to have them close. They can score high on cities so use them to fill gaps there too.
  
  
• Hermitage
  This is meant to be in the park area, ideally somewhere in the middle of it to benefit from all parks and keep adding value to new ones. Can be placed anytime you feel is fine but it is worth to wait for the score multiplier bonus. It is worth to duplicate them if you have room for the second one.
  
  
• Monument
  It gets the best value from parks so it should placed in the park area. It can score quite high so I usually wait until I have a lot of parks placed already and then use the multiplier bonus. It is worth to duplicate them if you can place them further enough from each other. It is also worth to place two together with neighbourly.
  
  
• Fish Kite
  Can be placed anywhere in your city, it benefits from key buildings that should be built before placing it, so is usually placed at the end game. Can be worth stacking two if they get good scores in that area. Precious boon is good for this building. Score multiplier can be good if they have decent base score.
  
  
• Mountain Shrine
  It's score depends on the height mostly so is all about the geography of your island, if the conditions are good they can score very high. Score multiplier can be very good on this.
  
  
• Lighthouse
  The best spots are islands on the ocean or high cliffs, if you can mix both plus being close to harbor/docks and seaweed farms you will get the best value out of them.
  
  
• Pyre
  Another building that depends on the geography if conditions are good you can get average of 70-80 points for each you place. This is one of the best buildings to use precious on them because the reaching area is huge and will target most of the buildings in your island.
  
  
• Wall
  Walls are better placed in the end game somewhere in your city, I personally don't actively leave open spots for them but I'm sure you can get very good scores if you manage to do it. They score with the buildings they protect but if looped score even more.
  
  
• Verdure
  Verdure is always good, it won't take building spots and can score 20+ in some places. I stack them mostly in my park area but can be placed as fishing spots somewhere close to the harbor/docks and fishers. I personally didn't try it but I suppose they can bring good value to the park area if you stack a lot of trees scoring negative up to some point.
  
  
• Plateau
  As I said before, the best use for them is to clipp them into the terrain somewhere in your city, if done properly they won't take much building place and will benefit all the buildings next to them. Ideally you get them asap so you can start planning your city without being afraid of blocking them later on. Place them asap too to benefit all the stuff around it early. Duplicate/bargain are good boons for them. You CAN'T place them on the terrain that looks like the wood water platform, keep that in mind when designing your city.
  
  
• Terrace
  The second best way to add verticality to your city. they can be placed on regular terrain or be used between rock/cliff formations to add more buildable space close to the city. You can build two and a half building below them, masons can be build below them too. Same as the plateau you want to get it and place it asap. Duplicate/bargain are good boons for them. This is the best buildings to use precious on them because the reaching area is huge and will target most of the buildings in your island, an end game precious terrace can give you 300+ score.
  
  
• Wall Platform
  The best way to add verticality to your city and create different layers. They can be placed pretty much anywhere and don't take building spots below them. They are good for houses/mansions and markets. Can be used on the industrial area or park area too to increase buildable space.
  
  
• Sacred Rocks
  They are exclusive to one type of island. They will always be already built when your start the island. Anything benefits from them so just build around them and they will eventually disappear leaving the spot and a +40 score. There's usually like three per island afaik, so that's 120 points plus all the added value from buildings around them, quite decent.
  
  
• Ley Line
  They are exclusive to one type of island. Ideally you build one of your main areas around them because not only every building benefits from them but they will also give you a sealed boon every certain time you score with them. This is obviously huge, this boon transfers between islands and can contain any other boon inside them. The only issue is that they are not always on the best building spots and they are also quite big making it hard to build many things around them. The best situation would be building your city next to them to farm sealed boons.

• Increase Area
  One of the best boons, I used it on the temple in most of my islands but it gives decent value to some other buildings depending on the spot such as market or hermitage, test and see but I recommend using it on the temple. Getting it early will help you planning ahead to see what buildings can reach and what not.
  
  
• Score multilplier
  Is really good on highscore buildings like temple, market, mountain shinre, hermitage, monument or even a nicely placed guild hall. You get two of them at once so that puts the boon up there with increase area. The higher the base score the higher that +60% multiplier will be.
  
  
• Precious
  Another nice scoring boost. The bigger the area of the building the bigger the benefit. Ideally you want to use them on terrace and pyre since they are buildings that's don't score negative with almost any other building if I remember correctly, precious won't count for the buildings that you score negative with. Fish kite is another good option.
  
  
• Duplicate
  This is always good if you have a high value building on your toolbar that is closest to the right which will always be the latest building you get. With that in mind is easy to hold the boon until you get the building you want to duplicate. If you already have the building on your toolbar see what comes before it and decide if you want to place all those buildings first or is not worth it.
  
  I used this boon mostly on hermitage, monument, market, terrace, wall platform and plateau. The ideal use is situational, sometimes you get two of the buildings you want to duplicate by regular drawing. Sometimes you really need that wall platform or terrace to keep expanding your city or planify how you could fit them together. Is up to you to find the best use for this boon.
  
  
• Bargain
  This boon also duplicates buildings but there are two things to consider:
  
  • Positive: It can be used straight on any building, it doesn't need to be on your toolbar, even if it is, you can place it anywhere duplicate it and then redo and you still keep the duplicated building.
    
  • Negative: It will lock you to a single option when choosing the next building or boon and persist between islands.
  
  So with that in mind I avoided to use it on the end game when you are not given more choosing options so I don't lock myself into chosing an island that I don't like. The idea is to use this somewhere during the mid game once you have most of the important buildings already. It is better to be locked into picking a building that you will end up getting eventually than a really good boon that might not appear again.
  
  
• Level-up
  Always a good pick. You want to hold it for the late game when you are out of good options to keep leveling up or simply once you are out of buildings at all. It completes your current entire level but won't go past the next level... so the best is to use it when you only have 0-10 score on a new level. It is worth to do the math and see what building is worth placing to get into a new level with low score before using the boon.
  
  
• Blossom
  The effectivity of this boon will depend on how many trees you have stacked together and how many of them are regular trees without flowers already. In good conditions it can score 100+ by itself plus adding a lot of long term value to your park area, for both parks and hermitage. It will signicantly boost the final base score of your hermitage which paired with a score multiplier can bring insane good value.
  
  
• Wisp
  Decent pick especially early in the island so you get as much value from it as possible. Keep in mind that it will attach to the latest building you scored with. This can be good for some zones like cliff houses but can make the wisp get locked into a building that almost no other building scores with and make it hard to "recover".
  
  
• Sustainable
  Not the best pick, if your city and industrial area are well designed you won't get much value out of it. At least that's how it was for me. Can be worth to use on mills.
  
  
• Demolish
  Another situational one. If you placed a building by mistake or is taking an important building spot for another building. This can be life saver, otherwise there's no value to it. It also takes away 60% of what that building score.
  
  
• Neighbourly
  This is a good pick depending on what you use it on. The best targets are city centers, towers and terraces since you want to keep all these kind of buildings close to each other and they have too long reaching area anyway. But they are also good on any other building that gets a significantly negative score from the same buildings especially monument. And of course using them on statues brings an insane good value, I could only do this on one island.
  
  
• Sealed Boon
  Better than nothing, they only award 15 points when used and can contain any other boon, if you are feeling lucky pick it. They carry over to the next island so stacking them to have a really good island start is ideal. Ley Line islands are nice for this tactic.
  
  
• Shrink
  Not very good. I didn't find myself having issues to fit buildings where I wanted but if you are struggling with that this can help a lot.
  
  
• Reroll
  One of the best picks any time during the island. At the start will help to get the things you need faster, at the end will carry over to the next island and help you choose the island you want. Use them on boons and islands mostly because the building options all end up appearing, they can be used on buildings if you really need certain building on certain situation.
  
  
• Travel
  The worst boon by far considering that we are aiming not only to finish the island but to keep scoring as much as possible. Only appears once per run, so the best you can do is pick it on the first islands and use it once you can't keep scoring anymore.
  
  Advice from @Steven Seagull: A little correction to the Travel boon: it does appear more than once per run. But you can use it only once per run. For beginners, it can be safe to pick it if it appear, and use it only if you cannot reach the score for the next island. It can give a peace of mind. You don't have to use it if it is not needed. It can appear on the next islands too and you can pick it to have it for safety.
  
  
• Statue
  Really good pick at the start of the island, bad on the late game but still can get you a decent score if you have a lot of trees up still.
  
  
• Terrace
  Again, really good at the start, bad at the end. This is the best boon to pick early to help you design your city since is offered usually as one of the last building options. At the end of the island can still bring a lot of value if you have an unused precious boon.
  
  
• Wall platform
  Additional verticality to your areas, good pick if you need that.
  
  
• Cliff houses
  Baaad, low value boon 99% of the times, cliff houses appear as building option already and you get quite a lot per island.
  
  
• Verdure
  Not the best. This is also offered already as building option, so ideally you don't take it, but depending on the situation can bring decent long term value like adding few fishing points next to good harbor/docks and fisher zones. You probably are already good stacked on trees on your park area.

- Remember this a RNG based game too, sometimes you will get extra buildings you don't have good use for, sometimes you won't get buildings you really need.. same goes for the boons. Don't hold your breath hoping for the best possible options and work with what you already have.

- Same goes for the geography of the island, you can kinda tell how it will look like when chosing the island based on the biome but the final thing is random. Obviously if it shows a cliff or a rock formation you know it will have some of them.

- Sometimes you will get the statue or ley line in a very awkward spot that don't allow you building much stuff around them or is too far from your ideal building spots. Don't sacrifice a better area design just for them.

- Don't instantly place anything even if the building spot seems ideal. Check around what other important places you need to fill, you probably left some gaps due to not having a good shape. This is important for houses and mansions because they have different shapes, sometimes you get the shape you were looking for and it's perfect for that spot you left empty.

- I didn't feel like doing a dedicated section for each biome because on my first run I didn't want to risk getting a bad island so I picked mostly the ones that looked better, like fantasy, tempered or tropical. I think more important than the biome is the extra trait they have like the ley line, sacred rocks or stellar or any building that can help you early game to plan ahead better.

- As you probably realized this guide is focused more on mid to late run islands, the first islands of any run will never be too big or score higher.

- Game stages:

• Early game: This is when most of your important decisions will be made, from chosing all your three main areas to deciding what to place first and where to place it.
  
  The most important thing now is getting good scores with the first buildings. Points are worth more early game because you level up faster and unlocking important buildings early will affect how you design your areas. Things like early aviary or a decent early fortune teller bring instant value and help a lot with the process
  
  Holding certain buildings or delaying building options is fine but eventually you will have to build that thing that keeps you scoring. Keeping the things going on is more important than minmaxing for now.
  
  Sealed boons are very good for this early stage.
  
  This stage can feel a bit slow and annoying until you figure out where to build stuff, take your time and try to not make mistakes you can regret later.
  
  
• Mid game: This stage will flow better, if you did it good, your toolbar should be filled with lots of options that will help you make decisions better.
  
  You will start placing your first highscoring buildings here, it is good to hold stuff for longer now but don't heasiate building big things that bring you closer to the next boons, boons are more important than building options in this stage.
  
  
• Late game: Your areas should be pretty much finished, now you will eventually draw less buildings until you can't keep scoring more and go to the next island.
  
  This is the endurance test, keep the temple for this moment and keep scoring as much as you can.
  
  If given the case, farm your ley line now to get more sealed boons for the next island.
  
  Make sure you used all your boons before traveling to the next island.

I enjoyed a lot doing this guide and I really hope it can help both new and veteran players to improve their islands. Please consider that english is my second language so apologies if did any mistake or is sometimes hard to understand me. Let me know anything that can be improved!

I also wanted to recommend a youtube channel from who is for me the best player of the game currently and that helped me a lot to improve designing my islands and understanding game mechanics both in this game and the first one back then:

https://www.youtube.com/@TheConnorRoberson

If this guide helped you please rate it and share it!

That's all guys, thank you for reading and have fun!