Beginners Guide Stranded Sails

Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Island is a simulation game that is out on all the consoles and Steam. New to the game?

Find our review for Stranded Sails here.

This guide is for the Switch version of the game, though I should imagine the other version work the same.

In Stranded Sails you are stranded with a crew on a deserted island. Learning to survive by farming, cooking and crafting. And as exploring is a big part of the game, you will soon find the island is a part of an archipelago. And you start to wonder if it’s as deserted as you think!

Let’s start our journey

The first few hours in Stranded Sails are spent getting to know the ropes. You have to set sail with your father, leaving for a big adventure. What you don’t know is that it’s gonna be much more of an adventure than you bargained for!

When there is an item you can pick up and take with you, it briefly colours yellow. Like in your first assignment to pick up the barrel of apples. Pick it up simply by pressing A and holding it.

One of your first chores on the ship is to unfurl the sails. Walk toward the rope netting and press A. Don’t worry about falling off the ship, you’ll automatically clamber on them to shimmy up. Note that you can also climb further into the mast to find the parrot there. 

While you are on the ship, chat with the entire crew. Not that they have much to say that you have to remember, but you’ll have to live with them at close quarters. 

Shipwrecked!

Pretty soon things go seriously wrong, your ship wrecks and you wake up on an island. Time to explore, to find other survivors. I was appalled at the slow pace I was going until I found that holding Y down makes you go faster. (On the PC version, use X for this) Use it, energy depletes quicker but you won’t be annoyed. 

As in all simulation games: pick up everything you find ( that lights up yellow), you will need it later in, saving time. Find Sven, and make a raft together. Mind you, there’s no real crafting involved. Just make sure you have the materials needed, press A and you are off on your raft. 

When you reach the main island where the wrecked ship is found crafting involves a bit more. You need a crafting station, or cooking station, depending on your need. But once they are up, all you need is recipes to use them. 

Let’s get things going, your father is unwell and it’s up to you to gather everyone and get the camp up. The first task is to sow three corn plants. You get all the equipment you need from Fiola. Working with the equipment wheel ( in the form of a ship’s wheel!) was a bit of a challenge for me at first. It seemed cumbersome to choose the item needed. Just press the right shoulder, go to the thing you need with the left stick. And when you are at the right item, click the R shoulder again. 

Farming: time to work on surviving

Fiola has set aside a plot of land, so you can sow some crops. Use your shovel to break up the plot, and sow the seeds you have.

Watering: Water the plants by equipping your bucket and filling it at the little pond to the side. It’s a nice feature that your water bucket, once filled at the creek, waters all the plants that need it. No need to run back for more water after every couple of watered crops. When you put it back in your pocket you do have to fill it up again.

It’s not like plants die when you don’t water them every day. But you will know when plants can be watered: you will see little puffs of dust flying off the ground.

Harvesting: When a crop is ready to be harvested, it moves slightly. Have your gloves selected in the equipment menu and press A until the ring fills. 

Some crops are a one-time only, like onions. After harvesting, dig them up which gives you a new seed to replant. 

Exploring is key to the game

Staying up past curfew: If your energy meter runs out you faint, and you wake up with half your energy meter filled on the ground next to your bed. I see no other ill effects. It seems though that messing up your day/ night cycle might have implications for your energy usage. 

Map of the island: Once your father gives you an old map, managing your energy gets easier. When you venture far, getting back to camp is much easier. Open the map and you’ll be able to return to camp immediately. Be sure to have the campsite portion of the home island selected. Then you can press Y and select the option of returning to camp. Remember: even though the green line around the yes button is lighted up, doesn’t mean that that option is chosen. Choices are made by pointing the golden arrow at the right box. 

Marking the map with X: One of the next items you get is the telescope. Comes in handy, because when you use it, you can also put a red cross marker on your map. As you get a rowboat from Sven at the same time, this helps a lot. You have to find Fritz who is stranded on one of the little sandbanks north of the camp. And I lost my bearings pretty quickly. The red cross made me find my way back more easily. 

And further on, when you have to save the rest of the crew stranded on islands scattered around at sea, it’s very easy to set the marker to where you want to go. 

Using the rowboat: Sea travel in your rowboat works by pressing Y (I’ve heard that on PC, it uses X for this!). Remember, the bluer the water, the more energy it takes to row. Further out of the islands, the water gets downright choppy, making it harder to go on. That’s because you don’t have to further so far yet I guess, you just have to reach the islands around the main one. 

Pressing Y on the map while you are on another island works a charm too. You are returned to camp, and so is your rowboat! Phew, what a relief!

Caring for the crew

For each crew member you save, you have to take care of their housing. After the various shacks are built and you have uncovered more of the island, you have to try and discover more recipes.

Recipes for cooking: Discovering what dishes you can make works quite nicely: put two different ingredients in the slots, choose Discover and you might find a new dish. The fun thing is that it gives you the result above the ingredients. A green tick shows this ingredient is good, a red cross encourages you to try new items. If you get it wrong, no ingredients are wasted, which is nice. Little yellow arrows indicate the item is right, but the place isn’t. It’s like the game Mastermind. 

Stew for the Crew: After you’ve made four recipes this way you unlock the Stew for the Crew, next to the cooking pot. You find a ship’s wheel with the crew members pictures next to it. Putting ingredients in and activating it will get the stew bubbling. What’s fun though is that every crew member has a preferred ingredient. Put the right one with the right crew member and the stew will generate more friendship.

For instance, Fiola likes corn, and Sven likes onion. Fritz likes blue fish and the cook likes allspice. Build enough friendship, fill up the heart meter in the stew wheel and you get Stew rewards.  They mostly are to better your equipment, like I got a better shovel from Fiola and a bucket that can water more crops at once from Sven.

What’s perfect is that you can eat from the stew and in this way, can easily regain energy. Of course, this only works when you’re in the camp. However, you can build up some surplus energy to keep you going. On the road, you need your foodstuffs that you cooked for yourself. 

I have found that specific recipes give additional health effects too, like fish and some spices. This is represented by little coloured dots next to your health wheel. 

Fishing comes into play once you have saved Fritz (he has the parrot to thank for that!). Luckily fishing is a pretty straightforward affair. You go to the ruffle rings in the water, but not too close. Stay on the beach and wait for the A to appear. That’s when you cast. Try not to pull too hard immediately. It takes a bit of finesse, pull in short bursts. You’ll get stars near the pulling line, and when it gets closer to shore, it’s going well. Fritz will eventually upgrade your fishing rod ( when he is happy with your stew) and fishing will cost less energy. 

The mystery awaits in Stranded Sails

Once the crew is back together and their shacks are built the next phase of the game is reached. For me, that is after day 22 and 15.40 minutes into the game.

You go on a quest to find the three pieces that will be forged into your sword. More exploration is needed, as you get a bonafide treasure map!

Be aware that the spots for the three sword pieces are blinking spots in the sand where you have to dig. Just follow the treasure map and you’ll find them soon enough. Take the pieces back to Brenda, who will make your sword. And what’s great too is that she will give you the recipe for a bridge kit, allowing you to form a bridge when there are pillars such as these in the picture. Even more islands to explore after that!

This concludes this Beginners Guide. I hope you are having just as much fun with Stranded Sails as I’m having!

And remember, if you need info on things the game already taught you, you can find it in your Handbook! To access the handbook, relationship status, inventory and furniture functions, you need to tap the D pad quickly. If you don’t tap quickly, you won’t be able to access these important functions. And using a PC and keyboard, you tap the number keys (1-4) also very quickly!

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