desertopia

The information on this page of the guide is fairly general and is meant to help out with the basics of the game. Some of the sections below have expansions that give details and show images that could be considered spoilers. Use the orange links to turn mysteries into knowledge.

I apologize for any inaccuracies. I’m not claiming to be an expert on Desertopia; I made this guide to offer what information I have and created the forums so that we can combine our knowledge. At the moment, there is very little information out there, at least in English.

Get in on the forums if you have anything to add or correct and help fill in this guide!

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• Windmill
• Rain mode
• Life Detector
• Weather
• Field Guide

  Full content: Spoilers

• Habitats

  Full content: Spoilers

• Creature Survival
• Work Ship
• Cargo Ship
• Cruise Ship

  Full content: Spoilers

• Special Items
• Conch
• DNA Storage
• Pollution
• Meteor
• Legendary Creatures

  Full content: Spoilers

• Camera
• Achievements

The windmill generates a steady stream of energy, and more if you tap it. Levelling it up increases your earnings per minute and per tap. Its level also determines how much energy you get from watching ads at the cargo ship.

Without the energy of the windmill, you can’t create new habitats or tend to the rain and sun needs of your various creatures. As in reality, the weather changes continuously on your islands and you will need energy to keep your terrain watered or sunned the way you like it. If you want a lush, richly populated island, you will want to spend some of the free gems you earn to upgrade your windmill early in the game.

If you’ve been away from your game for awhile, you may have to watch an ad to redeem the energy you gained while you were gone.

The current weather is indicated in the upper right of your screen. If you tap the icon, you can toggle through a list of creatures that are easier to find at the moment. You can see their silhouette in the list even if you haven’t found them yet.

Regular Habitats

These habitats are all available to you from the beginning of the game, with the exception of the coral reefs, which you can’t use until you have collected 60 creatures. You can get this terrain by sunning or watering the tiles.

Special Habitats

The following habitats are only available through a visit from the botanists. You get some options you can scroll through (probably not everything listed here, though). They all occupy multiple tiles. Scroll using the circular arrow through the habitats you are offered.

The options you get at any given time seem to vary based on availability of the terrain these habitats require. The existing terrain must be compatible. Careful not to place a special habitat on the tile of a creature it can’t support if you value that creature. You can turn the special habitat back into regular habitat tiles if you allow or force it to dry out.

These habitats can only be created on the main island. All of them unlock new non-legendary creatures (except volcano, which only unlocks a legendary one). You will only detect these new creatures if you search the following habitats and the tile you search meets their food and elevation needs. If you really want to know what legendary creatures are to be found and where, see Legendary Creatures.

How to Get & Unlocked Creatures

You can save the DNA of any animal you currently have. You might want to do this if you have rare, mutant, or event creatures you’d like to preserve. DNA storage can be obtained from the store for gems, from daily rewards, or through the recycling program. If you have a DNA storage in your backpack, choose it, then hit “Use”. Find the animal whose DNA you want to save and tap on it. The game will give you a confirmation dialog. The creature’s DNA storage container will appear in your backpack. The icon will tell you what kind of creature’s DNA it holds. Orange is for regular creatures (as they appear in your field guide), brown is for mutants, and other colors are for creatures with event skins. Each event has its own color for this icon.

When you want to restore the creature, choose its storage container from your backpack, then choose a tile where you want to put it. The game will only allow you to place the creature on a tile that can currently support it.

Note: If you restore DNA from a container that you received as a reward, and you have never discovered the original form of that animal, you might have to restart your game to add it to your field guide.

The meteor resets a huge section of your terrain, destroying everything in the area. Be cautious! You do get to choose a center tile for the destruction, which will extend two tiles outward in every direction, resulting in the resetting of up to 19 tiles. When you tap this tile, it happens immediately. There is no confirmation dialog!! Consider your rare, mutant, or event creatures before you do this.

There are several legendary creatures to be found in the game. Some are more elusive than others. You must search tiles with the correct food and elevation requirements, but in some cases there are other conditions. Only go here if you want to know about all the legendary creatures!

Legendary Creatures

Take pictures of your creatures and island and save or share them. When you find a new animal for the first time, first exit raining mode if you are in it, tap on the creature and a picture will automatically be taken with the caption “NEW SPECIES [species] DESERTOPIA [date]”. This picture will appear in your field guide as the animal’s cover photo. If you want to take more pictures of that animal later, go into your camera window, tap the creature (when the camera starts tracking it, a tiny white animal head appears to the left of your frame), and snap a photo when you are ready.

The photo will automatically be saved to the animal’s field guide entry unless you overwrite it with the retake button. You can hop directly to that entry with the “View Field” button. You can also share the photo or save it to your device using the “Share” button.

Note: If you delete the app from your device, and then restore it, you may lose your field guide photo album pictures even if you were using cloud storage. It seems the pictures are stored locally and don’t come back when you restore.

If you know how to photobomb, please share!

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Earn a gem for every goal you clear. A notification pops up telling you when you’ve made an achievement. Go into the achievements screen and look for numbered items that have a full bar. Touch to receive your reward. The ones with stars are complete.