Terraforming

Overview

Terraforming is a terrain editing system that lets players physically reshape the landscape of Windflute Island. Unlike the other properties, where land comes pre-shaped, Windflute Island gives full control over elevation, water, paths, and garden layouts. The system runs on a custom engine that Seed Sparkle Lab built specifically for Starsand Island, supporting freeform terrain manipulation alongside the game's building and decoration tools.

What you can do

On Windflute Island, players can shape hills and raise terrain to create elevation changes, dig out bodies of water to form ponds or lakes, lay down roads and pathways, and design garden areas with sculpted terrain. The developers described the philosophy behind it as "your island, your rules."

Beyond raw terrain editing, the island also supports landscaping features available on other properties: decking, fencing, banners, and cascading terrace gardens. Combined with the terrain tools, this lets players build things like hillside villages, lakefront cottages, or terraced farmland that would be impossible on flat ground.

Windflute Island only

Full terraforming is exclusive to Windflute Island, the third and final unlockable property. The starter farm (Hopeland), Cloudrest Lake, and Blue Beach do not support full terrain editing. Those properties can still be built on and decorated, but their ground shape is fixed.

How to unlock

Windflute Island sits at the end of a long property progression chain. You need to work through the earlier properties first:

1. Hopeland (starter farm): available from the start. Buy up to eight expansion plots. The first costs 2,000 Coins, the second 15,000, and prices climb steeply from there (the eighth costs roughly 160,000 Gold and 300 Starsand).

2. Cloudrest Lake: unlocks at Home Builder rank, which requires expanding Hopeland six times. The initial purchase costs 6,000,000 Gold and 750 Starsand.

3. Blue Beach: unlocks at Bright Star rank after purchasing Cloudrest Lake.

4. Windflute Island: unlocks at Starsand Legend rank. Requirements include building 10 crafting stations, purchasing Blue Beach plots, and completing all prior Island Life task sets.

Before any land expansion is possible, you must first unlock the Buy Land app on your phone. This requires completing the Junior Talent task set in the Island Life Ranking system: reach Apprentice status in any profession, place six furniture items, accumulate 2,000 Coins, meet ten islanders, reach Junior level, and complete five bulletin board requests.

Controls

Terraforming and building share the same interface. Press C on keyboard to enter build mode. From there:

Tips

• Terraforming consumes materials just like regular building. Make sure you have enough wood, stone, and other resources stockpiled before starting a large project.

• Use the day/night cycle adjuster in build mode to preview how your terrain looks under different lighting conditions before committing.

• If you want to build a lakefront house, dig the lake first. Placing buildings near water after the terrain is set avoids alignment issues.

• Windflute Island is a late-game unlock. Focus on expanding Hopeland first and save terraforming ambitions for when you have the resources and rank to support them.

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