A Few Tips On The GEOLOGISTS SKILL TREE

Hello everyone,

Lately there has been a lot of talk about what to pick, what to do and what not to do with the books we've been building in regards to the Geologists Skill Tree. As such I have decided to do a brief post, mostly describing what I am doing (and why) in hopes to make matters a bit clearer. I am also going to point out a few things that have since come to light.

The first thing I would like to say is this: take your time selecting the skills. Read what bonuses they give you and plan ahead. Planning ahead is key in this game - if you want to develop faster.

The second thing is directly related to the first: if you make a mistake and want to go back you only have two choices - either get HALF of the books back for free. OR PAY GEMS to get the books back. And yes, the more books you have assigned... the more gems you will pay...

The third thing is directly related to the previous two: after you have PRODUCED 10 books (of each type respectively, so after 10 manuscript, 10 tome and 10 codex) the price for each book type will INCREASE. This means after producing 10 Manuscript the price for Manuscript INCREASES. After producing 10 Tome, the price for Tome INCREASES. And after producing 10 Codex, the price for Codex INCREASES.
And there are SEVEN INCREASES to be had!

Click HERE if you want to know more about these Book Costs!

You may think this is not a problem at first but, trust me, after the Geologists Skill Trees we will have the Explorers Skill Tree, the Generals Skill Tree and the Buildings Skill Tree! We will be producing books for years to come! So the costs WILL amount to A LOT in the long run.

And, as such, it is important that you decide a bit now just HOW MUCH are you going to level up your Geologist.

My current plan is to level ONE Geologist all the way up (or close). And have my SECOND one only half levelled. In this way I will have one to do high end stuff (Gold and Iron perhaps), and another to do Copper and Marble.


With this you can now see pretty much what I am going to do. Only TWO Geologists (normal ones at that) - and ONLY focusing on COPPER, MARBLE, IRON and GOLD.

This because I prefer to trade for stone rather than produce it (and save licenses there). This because I think Coal mines are a pain... and much rather have Coking Plants that require ZERO time spent taking care of them...


Now, even with these constraints, what to pick?!

Well, Nedrakus (thanks Ned!) pointed out something very important and that had completely skipped my notice:

If you pick an ability of the type Two Deposits In One, whenever this ability becomes active, it will disable another which is Find Larger Deposits (Natural "Deposit Name" Vein).

For clarity I will give an example:
Let us imagine you put some books into Finding Two Marble Deposits In One (8%, 16% and 24%).
But you are also interested in having Larger Marble Deposits (Natural Marble Vein). Perhaps even to it's maximum percentage (which is 24% larger deposit).

Now, you are going to send you Geologist out for marble as there are a few deposits that have ran out on your map.

And you get lucky - you find two deposits at the same time.

Only there's a problem with that - they ARE NOT LARGER DEPOSITS! One ability cancels the other!

Since I am much more interested in having LARGER deposits - which will last longer and mean fewer searches anyway - I have skipped entirely the ability of finding Two Deposits In One altogether. Not just for Marble but for everything else.

This is just me of course - you will have to pick something that will suit best your playing style. In any case, I only wish to remind you again that, if you choose to go back and restart the Skill Tree... you will either have to pay Gems for it  or you will have to lose some books that took a lot of time to be produced.

Click HERE if you want to see the full specs for the Geologists Skill Tree.

Hope this helps you decide what's best for you and your island productions!