This page is to list tips and techniques to help provide you with an entertaining and fulfilling time at Paradise Cove!
Ruby Gathering[]
Pocket Gems wants to make money off you, so rubies in the game are VERY FEW and FAR BETWEEN. (eg 1 per level gained).
So, get to Level 6 and implement as much coin earning capacity as you can and, once your free mermaid spins are done, buy spins on the coin spinner (Kelp Forest, Sunken Ship or Undersea Forest) until you've either gained all the rubies you want, or you are so bored you'd like to progress on with the game!
Here's my optimal way of getting to Level 6.
And here's my take on spin statistics and what return you can expect by doing "Mining for Rubies at the Mermaid Casino".
Iluvatar464 has an alternate method to maximise income at Level 6 using Premium Merchants on his blog here.
"Milking" a Level[]
Forum posts say that the price to explore a block of land goes up each 5 blocks explored.
As the price jumps significantly each time, it is recommended that you buy all the houses, merchants and ships you can before buying and clearing that next block of ground.
You only get one new coin merchant per level (up to level 42), so its best to buy everything (houses, merchants, ships) and upgrade merchants and ships to the max tier available before levelling up. This means that your economy is the strongest its going to get when you hit the next "buy me now" session at the new level and its possible that you will be able to afford that new merchant immediately instead of waiting a day or so for sufficient coins to do it.
I also work towards having the necessary number of gems (pearls, sapphires, emeralds, black pearls) to upgrade each merchant immediately on reaching the next level - this maximises your cash return!
Levelling Up[]
Levelling up mainly occurs by exploring and chopping trees. (I say mainly because I did stay away from exploring and chopping trees and noted that my experience meter DID jump up at one stage, for no known reason).
On level up, you'll normally have your energy restored to full and be given 1 Ruby, a random number of other gems (mainly sapphires) and some pearls. See the Level page for specific level-up rewards.
Levelling up will also unlock new merchants, houses, ships and decorations.
Quests[]
There are many Quests in Paradise Cove, some of them are to progress the story of the cove, some of them are for a particular level and some of them are limited time quests for PG to make money off you (if they can).
There are pages on most Quests at the link here.
A few general rules to help you.
Rule 1 - Decide whether you want spoilers or not.
Some people LIKE to run Quests blind, that is, not knowing what comes at the next step (what currencies will be needed, what times will it take). If you are one of these, please leave now. These tips are not for you. ;-)
If you DO want spoilers, or to know what will happen/is required for a certain stage of a quest, then you can do no worse than to visit the Quests page, or type the Quest name into the search box at the top right of this page.
Rule 2 - Check out what a Quest and/or Quest Step needs BEFORE starting it!
If you are using spoilers, then the first thing that makes sense to do is to check out what the entire Quest will use in terms of resources and currencies. You can then decide whether to start the Quest or not.
Obviously if its a Specific Date/Dates Quest this isn't going to help much, but for the standard Quests (Story Line, Side Quests, Level Quests) this can help you so that you will have the necessary items/currencies at the correct times. Or you can avoid starting a Quest where you may not have sufficient currency (mainly rubies) to complete it.
Rule 3 - You CAN Pause Quests.
Once you've started a Quest, you can PAUSE the Quest by NOT tapping on the Tap Here to Complete Quest button.
This works, even for limited time Quests, as the time limit is to complete the stages of the Quest.
The only Quests where this can hurt are Specific Date/Dates Quests, wher ethe Quest has to be completed before a specific time/date.
Rule 4 - Merchant Collections.
Especially on an LTQ, if a Quest requires collection(s) from a merchant, then make sure that you start the step of the quest JUST BEFORE you collect from the required merchant. Doing this will save you one collection cycle on the merchant and may give you time to get other parts of the quest completed.
Rule 5 - Check to see if any other quests you are doing have a similar requirement at any point.
Just before stepping off with one quest I had recently, I checked all of the other quests I had running and saw that a second quest had a similar requirement ("Defeat 5 Pirates", "xx Mermaid Spins", "Collect from xyz Merchant") at the stage after the current one. So, by waiting on the first quest, when the second quest was "lined up" I started the both quests, defeated 5 pirates, completing the requirement for both quests (one quest had "Beat 5 pirates", the other had "Beat 4 pirates"). Similarly with Mermaid Spins... Save time, save money...
To be continued....
Good (and Bad) Uses for Rubies[]
From the forum posts I've read, speeding up land exploration with rubies this seems to be a VERY BAD IDEA.
Prices for land, etc jump significantly and some reports are that prices do settle and go back down, other reports are that the prices stay high.
So what are rubies useful for?
Good Uses
Now that iOS and Adnroid both have Battle Boost and Ship Repair, I have re-considered this use of rubies and now think the following....
Rubies are useful (if you have enough) for : -
- Buying Premium Merchants.
- Buying Premium Ships.
- Do the Ruby Quests.
- Use them in Battle to boost your cannon shots for 3 shots or repair all damage to your ship.
Then you can : -
- 5. Buy Premium Houses.
- 6. Buy Premium Decorations.
The return from houses make them more palatable than the decorations, but there's very little to recommend either, unless required for a quest.
Neutral Uses
If you have enough rubies, I have not heard detrimental effects from : -
1. Speed up repair of ships. (Confirmation required).
2. Speed up ship voyages. (Confirmation required).
3. Speed up building (Ships, Houses, Merchants & Decorations). (Confirmation Required).
Bad Uses
I've never had enough to use them, but the forums say that using them to : -
1. Speed up exploration. (Makes land price go up).
THis is counter productive - you get the immediate benefit, but costs go up and MAY NOT come back down if you wait.
Battling Pirates[]
This is quite different between Paradise Cove on Android and Paradise Cove on iOS. Version 3.2 of Android TPC has made the differences much less than they were, but they still exist....
iOS and Android now have equipment (cannons and shields - called "hulls") and in-battle power-ups. All iOS ships have space for three pieces of equipment, some also have space for up to three members of crew. Android ships do not all have equipment slots and those ships that do have varying numbers of slots from 1 to 3.
Remember that one scratch on your shiny battleship means a full repair cycle at the full cost!
All players are now able to repair their ships to full health (100%) for 5 rubies during battle, regardless of the extent of the damage (i.e. whether you lost a quarter of your health or half of it you'd have to pay 5 rubies). The other boost increases the damage inflicted by 50% for 3 rounds, also for 5 rubies.
iOS users may have a crew to soak up damage (1 crew member has a 20% health boost; recruited via facebook/paying rubies - they may die in battle and the repair boost does not apply to them) or "hulls" which increases health (referring to the number next to the green shield in your ship's stats). So it is possible for an iOS player to take damage and still emerge from the battle without having to undergo a repair cycle.
REMEMBER that one scratch on your shiny battleship means a full repair cycle at the full cost!
What does ths mean?
Well, from the viewpoint of an Android user, I now no longer upgrade my fighting ship unless I meet a pirate that it can't handle on its own (eg Tier 1 Capt Richard's Battleship [CRB] is 202/202, sufficient to take on up to Pirate Alan Armundsen - 194/194). who appears at level 18 (level 22 on iOS). But anything over about Pirate Antagonistic Anthony (70/70) is going to inflict some damage and require a repair cycle at cost.
I have a Tier 5 CRB (260/260), who can take on up to Pirate Killer Kenneth (257/257) (yet to appear - listed as Level 25), but still cannot win with one shot against Pirate Allen the Axe [AtA] (95/95)! This means that my CRB is down for 8 hours and costs 312,264 to repair instead of only 126,084! I could have saved 186,180 for use in pearl/sapphire voyages, exploring, building per battle contested!
Another option, of course, is to send in a "loss leader" - a ship that costs less to repair and can get in one or two good licks before being knocked out so that your best battleship can come through and take out the pirate with one shot. In my situation, I have a level 8 Capt Beth's Cruiser [CBC] who does sufficient damage to AtA that when CBC runs away fully damaged, CRB comes in and takes out the damaged AtA with one shot. CBC goes down for repair (4 hours) and costs 28,544 to repair. Crikey! I've saved 283,720!
DaSud has written an excellent battle strategy page here.