Choosing a Starting Location in Town Star

The first decision you make in Town Star is crucial since the plot of land you select will have an impact on how you may and should develop your town. The game goes to great lengths to be realistic, so keep that in mind while learning it. Logically, things should make sense here. If you want to learn about everything there is to know and progress through the game at a good pace on your own, trial and error is the way to go. However, if you want to find out all the answers right now, read on!

The game begins with four different plots of land that you can choose from. Your selection will determine what kinds of buildings and facilities you can construct as well as where you can build them. As a result, your selection will also determine what kinds of resources and trade opportunities that plot of land has access to as well as the types of natural disasters it has a higher chance to experience.

This guide for Town Star is written with beginners in mind and assumes you have no knowledge whatsoever about how Town Star works. If you’re already familiar with the game, this guide is just wasting space on your computer/device, so you probably should leave now while there’s still time!

Quick note: If you aren’t pleased with the decisions you’ve made in your life, click the globe icon at the lower left corner of your screen to return to the world map, then select your town and lastly hit the nuke button. You’ll be able to start over and pick a new home for your colony from scratch. In no way will workers or animals be harmed.

There are three important factors to consider while selecting a location for your Town Star settlement – the biome you’ll be constructing in, what surrounds it, and distance. We’ll examine them one by one.

1) Biome:

Every square on the world map is a 16 x 16 plot of terrain that may be one of three biomes: Forests, Plains, or Deserts. Each offers you a distinct combination of starting resources, making certain goods more feasible. The biomes are also important for their own reasons:

Forests (Easy Start)☆

The majority of this biome is covered in forests, ponds and swamps, which means you might frequently find yourself running out of building room. This although gives you an edge over others when it comes to obtaining industrial goods sooner.
Forests are considered an easy start because it offers you a variety of options for early game money.
Early money in forests comes from being able to sell your ponds for $5000 each and the abundance of trees provides a steady source of income in wood $2500 per truckload which should keep you afloat even if you make bad decisions early on in the game. Having more money early on in the Town Star Game allows you to experiment faster which will help you figure out how things work in less time, or you can just read more of our guides.
Cons: Forests biome demands more from you financially once you start expanding your town because clearing the marshes, trees, and rocks costs a hefty sum.

Plains (Average Start) ☆ ☆ ☆

Plains have only 2 ponds, and significantly fewer trees, but a field full of pastures which makes great for ranching – see our How to Ranch in Town Star guide.
This is advantageous if you’re looking to produce products that would require farm animals or if you decide to go the ranching route.
Plains are good for more adventurous players who have an idea of what they want their Town Star settlement to look like in the end-game.

Deserts (Difficult Start) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Deserts have no trees, no ponds, but you do get an oil seep.
Can produce Gas Fast in Town Star.
Great for mining Sand which is used to produce Glass Bottles needed for Wine Production. See our Ultimate Wine Production Guide in Town Star!
The presence of an oil seep increases your potential for oil production, but lack of a water supply makes things tough for early game farming. You also have the option to sell the oil seep for a quick $25,000.

2) Surroundings:

What you may create and how effectively you can do so is also determined by the environment around your site. These sites may be selected on the world map but cannot be built on. The ground tiles on the map are colored to indicate that there is something to consider, as with these surrounding tiles! Freshwater will be shown by Brown coastlines, while Sandy salty sea will be represented by White coastlines.

Oceans (Salt Water)

You can’t grow things near a salty ocean. They do however speed up the production of Brine which is used to make Salt.
Being surrounded by ocean plots essentially make you an island which means you’ll have to transport your products over water.
Great for mining Sand which is used to produce Glass Bottles needed for Wine Production.
If you build on the water, you’ll start with a Trade Pier instead of a Trade Depot. The two are virtually identical, but being by water allows you to purchase a Freight Pier, allowing you to transport more goods for the same amount of gas.

Rivers (Fresh Water)

Think of them as one huge pond at the edge of your map that provides fresh water to whatever sits next to them. This is a passive water bonus!

Mountains

They’re tall, and therefore they block wind and cast shade. This concept will hold for buildings as well, but mountains are huge so they cast a 5 tile wide shade. Not so great for farming near a mountain.
They allow you to build mines (to produce iron, steel), which you can’t do anywhere else.

BoxCoin Mines

These aren’t the same mines you could build beside a mountain, and they only function if you have a Farmbot. There’s no sense in hanging around here unless you own one.
Here Farmbots will be able to mine BoxCoins, the premium in-game currency.
There are only 1000 complete Farmbots in existence, and you must gather all of the necessary components to construct one by purchasing the pieces on the market, choosing to buy a whole at a premium cost, or competing in weekly contests.
These are extremely rare, and their value is unrivaled. You may also buy nodes and help the Gala blockchain by purchasing parts.
When you’re in your hometown, BoxCoin Mines appear as Forests. Though they make more sense to show up as mountains rather than forests, because mountains are unpathable, they were built that way to preserve the illusion of a realm border. To mine BoxCoin, FarmBot must be able to reach that world square.

Bonus: Plots of land you can find but currently serve no purpose.

Ice

All they have on them is a snowman.
No news yet on how being close to ice will affect your town.

Bridges

They’re mainly aesthetic for now, they turn out similar to the bodies of water they’re on if you build your town next to one.

3) Distance:

When I talk about distance, I’m mostly talking about how far cities are from which you trade your goods. The farther away the cities are from your town, the longer it will take to transport them and the more gasoline you’ll need.
The most extreme scenario is to live on an island that is as far away as possible, as shown in the image above. You can sell your items for $20,500 and 5 gallons of gas from a remote island closest city being Los Angeles, which costs $20,500 and 5 gasoline. Please note that you begin with $25,000.
Distance to other players is also a factor. This is because we are given the option to ship goods to our neighboring settlements. When this element of the game is added, it will be important for team play. You can already see Clans and Guilds forming.

Now that you’ve learned what selection is, it’s time to focus on location choice. Depending on which goods you intend to target and how you intend to approach them, you’ll need to select the optimum site for your needs. It’s important to choose correctly, and choosing incorrectly might be the difference between being a Town Star or not.

Check out our other guides:
Creating a BOOMING Economy in Town Star
What is “Crop Operation”? in Town Star
How to Build an Economy in Town Star for Gasoline Production
How to make Gasoline?
The Guide To Proximity Effects In Town Star