Isla Ámbar

Hostile

A dinosaur park eleven days from opening, the night after the power went out.

At a glance

Kind of world	Hostile
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Cold Foam Canister
Quests	Yes: see your Traveler's Guide

Screenshot comingisla-ambar-arrival

The helipad at the island's hilltop: a wrecked helicopter with its rotor still ticking, the arrival Box beside it, jungle and a distant long-neck below

What happens when you arrive

The Box sets down on a helipad on a jungle hilltop, beside a wrecked helicopter whose rotor is still ticking over. Someone cloned dinosaurs back from blood kept in amber and built a park around them on this tropical island. It was eleven days from opening. Last night, in a storm, the power went out, and every fence on the island went dark.

Follow the road south through the Great Park Gate (one half hanging off its hinge) toward the Visitor Center. A Brachiosaurus, twenty blocks tall, is usually waiting near the gate to meet you. Somewhere on the PA, a cheerful cartoon called Mister Helix is still welcoming guests.

The rule: the fences are down

Isla Ámbar is one big story world. The island is shared: whatever anyone powers, and however the story ends, stays that way for every later visit.

Danger	What it does	How to deal with it
Tyrannosaurus rex	Seven blocks tall. Hunts by movement. Its footsteps shake puddles and cups long before you see it.	Stand perfectly still and it can't see you. It will come up, sniff and breathe on you. Don't move.
Velociraptors	Person-tall, in packs of four. One walks out in front to hold your eye while the others flank through the long grass. They open doors, test fences, and remember anyone who hurt one.	Watch the sides, not the one in front. Never hurt one you can't finish.
Dilophosaurus (Frill-spitter)	Follows you, curious and hooting, then its frill snaps open and it spits venom that blinds you.	Keep your distance. Don't let them get close.
Pteranodons	Circle over the Aviary. When you walk out under open sky they dive, grab you by the shoulders, climb and drop you.	Stay under trees and roofs near the Aviary.
Mosasaurus	Thirty blocks long, in the Lagoon. Takes anything that swims and breaks boats from underneath.	Stay out of the Lagoon's deep water.
Compsognathus	Chicken-sized scavengers in swarms, all over the island. They follow you, chirping.	Keep moving.
Specimen 13	Later in the story. Rex-sized, bone-pale, long-clawed, and clever. It slips out of sight when you look at it and closes in when you look away. Walls don't hold it for long.	Keep looking at it, and keep flares ready.

The plant-eaters (Brachiosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Gallimimus, Pachycephalosaurus) are not out to get you. You can walk right between a long-neck's legs, and if you stand near its head long enough, it sneezes on you.

Darts, not bullets

This is the most important thing on the island. Put dinosaurs to sleep instead of killing them.

• A Dart Rifle fires TDTranquilizer Darts. Every species takes a set number of darts to drop, and its head droops as they go in.
• Use the CTCrane Truck Radio (Dr. Ortiz gives you one) on a sleeping park animal and the crane truck lifts it home to the middle of its paddock. The park pays you its bounty in Amber Chunks.
• Killing one pays nothing but Dinosaur Meat and Dinosaur Bone, takes many times more hits, leaves its paddock short, and Ortiz never forgets. She can grow a replacement for amber (at least 4, or that animal's bounty), which takes half a day.
• Darts work in any world: anything that isn't a player or a boss takes one dart per 20 health and sleeps 20 seconds.

Animal (sign name)	Home	Herd	Darts to drop	Bounty (amber)
Long-neck (Brachiosaurus)	Gentle Giants Valley	2	8	24
Cresthead (Parasaurolophus)	Gentle Giants Valley	5	2	6
Spike-tail (Stegosaurus)	Gentle Giants Valley	2	4	12
Three-horn (Triceratops)	Horn Meadow	3	4	12
Club-tail (Ankylosaurus)	Horn Meadow	2	4	12
Runner (Gallimimus)	The Runner Plains	12	1	3
Dome-head (Pachycephalosaurus)	The Runner Plains	3	2	5
Frill-spitter (Dilophosaurus)	Frill Creek	3	2	8
Raptor (Velociraptor)	The Raptor Pen	4	3	16
Rex (Tyrannosaurus)	The Rex Paddock	1	10	40
Flier (Pteranodon)	The Aviary	4	2	8
Sea giant (Mosasaurus)	The Lagoon	1	12	50
Tiny scavenger (Compsognathus)	none	swarms	1	none: the truck won't carry them

Screenshot comingisla-ambar-crane

A sleeping Triceratops being lifted by the crane truck, amber chunks popping into the player's inventory

Restoring the grid

Each paddock has a Paddock Substation that needs three things, in order:

1. Fuses. Find Park Fuses in the Parts Crates all over the park (2 per crate; maintenance restocks opened crates now and then). The first three paddocks need 1 fuse each, the next three need 2, the last two need 3.
2. The breaker board. A puzzle: throwing a breaker flips it and the four beside it. Get every breaker up. The board is 3x3 at the first paddocks and grows to 6x6 at the last. It always starts the same way, so it can always be solved.
3. The herd home. The fence won't take power with animals outside: the substation tells you who is missing. Use the Lure Horn (plant-eaters within 32 blocks follow you for 30 seconds) to walk a herd through the gate, or dart them and radio the crane truck.

Then throw the switch, and the fence lights up. The Park Control Map in the control room shows every zone as Live, Breakers set or Dark.

Screenshot comingisla-ambar-breakers

The breaker board puzzle screen at a substation, half the breakers up

Your quest: Isla Ámbar

The quest tracker follows the story in eight acts and points you at where each step happens.

Act	Title	What you do
1	Welcome to Isla Ámbar	Find who is left at the Visitor Center: Augustus Hale (the founder, in the ice cream parlor), Dr. Jasper Crane (a mathematician with a broken leg, on the restaurant floor) and Dr. Lena Ortiz (the chief geneticist, locked in the lab behind a Keycard Door; Hale gives you HSHale's Keycard). Then power Gentle Giants Valley.
2	Pelly's Password	Dwight Pelly locked the control room on his way out. Find the four pieces of his password: a note on the freezer (Hale has it), a note under his keyboard, his keychain behind the gift shop counter, and his voicemail in the theatre. Type it at the Control Room Monitor. Then find Pelly's Jeep at Frill Creek and power the creek.
3	The Rex Paddock	Hale's grandchildren, Nico and Pilar, are hiding in the rex paddock. Find them, then get the rex paddock's fence back on so they can climb out.
4	Life Finds the Gap	There are nests out past the fences. Bring a Raptor Egg from a wild nest to an Incubator in the Visitor Center hatchery and stay near while it hatches.
5	Clever Girls	Talk to Roland Kaye, the game warden, at his hut. Follow him through the long grass to the main breakers, throw them, then reach the kitchen and hold it while Pilar reboots the park.
6	Specimen 13	Hear Ortiz out, meet Mr. Kessler of Novagen at the East Dock, and find Pelly's can.
7	The Rotunda	Get to the Visitor Center rotunda. Bring flares.
8	What the Island Becomes	Decide the island's future with Dr. Ortiz.

Tips for each act

• Pelly's monitor mocks you until you have all four pieces. The password is spelled out on the notes.
• The rex paddock: Ortiz's advice is the only advice. If the rex sees you, stand still.
• The raptor egg: taking an egg, or breaking a nest, tells every raptor within 32 blocks who did it. Grab one egg and run. The incubator takes 2 minutes, cracking in three stages; stay nearby.
• The kitchen: Pilar needs a minute and a half. Two raptors at a time come through the restaurant at the kitchen doors, with fresh ones every 15 seconds replacing any that fall. If the kitchen is lost, go back and try again.
• The rotunda: a Flare Gun lobs a SFSignal Flare that burns for 15 seconds and pulls hunters within 24 blocks to its light. The rex follows light.

Screenshot comingisla-ambar-kitchen

Holding the kitchen door while Pilar types at the terminal and a raptor's claw taps the glass

What really happened, and the rotunda (spoilers)

Kaye leads you through the long grass to the breakers, and the raptors are waiting for him there. His last words: "Oh. There you are."

When Pilar reboots the park, the doors lock, but three fences go dark at once: Horn Meadow, the Aviary and the Raptor Pen. Something in Sector 0 has learned the grid. Ortiz admits the truth: the fences had been failing for weeks from the inside. Hale asked her for something bigger and scarier than the rex, and she made Specimen 13. It learned which fences carried power, and Pelly's blackout let it out. She gives you the Specimen 13 File.

Pelly had stolen a can of embryos for Novagen, hidden in a SFShaving Foam Can. It's wedged under the seat of his wrecked Jeep in the creek. Kessler, waiting at the East Dock, wants the embryos, the file and Ortiz herself, in exchange for a boat off the island.

In the rotunda, Specimen 13 comes for the Visitor Center and the fossil skeletons collapse. Fire a flare and the rex comes in to fight her (if you don't, the rex comes anyway after half a minute). You can also dart Specimen 13 to sleep; she goes back to her pen.

The ending: what the island becomes

After the rotunda, Ortiz asks you to decide. The choice is made once, for the whole island, forever.

Ending	How	What changes	Your reward
Reopen the park	Only if every paddock is powered. Choose it with Ortiz.	Every fence on, tourists in the rotunda, a "NOW OPEN" sign at the gate. Hale names you head warden.	Hale's Cane (walk faster with it in hand) and 8 Polished Amber.
Let it go wild	Choose it with Ortiz.	Every fence goes dark for good. The rex at the Visitor Center, Ortiz in her treehouse writing down what they become.	4 Amber with Mosquito and 8 Polished Amber.
Sell to Novagen	Give Kessler both the Shaving Foam Can and the Specimen 13 File.	Every fence on, Kessler at the gate, Ortiz taken. Mister Helix announces it's "a proud Novagen property".	A Dart Rifle and 64 Amber Chunks. Kessler then sells a dart rifle for 40 amber or 4 flares for 8.

Your raptor

The egg you hatch in act 4 imprints on you: "She looked at you first. She's yours." Your raptor is the island's biggest reward, because she follows you into every world.

• She grows from a knee-high hatchling to a full adult over three in-game days out in the world.
• Order her to follow, stay, guard a spot, or stay out of fights from the Companion Wheel, or sneak and right-click her with an empty hand.
• She attacks whatever hurts you or whatever you hit, and never you or your other animals.
• The Raptor Whistle calls her out and back. Put a Raptor Saddle on a grown raptor and ride her: fast, and hold jump to leap.
• If she's beaten in a fight she's knocked out, not killed.

You can only have one raptor.

Screenshot comingisla-ambar-raptor

The player riding their grown raptor with a saddle through the jungle, mid-leap

The Park Jeep

A green-and-amber two-seater that drives in any world. W and S throttle and brake (then reverse), A and D steer. It keeps its speed, climbs a block without slowing, lights the road at night, and has a horn on its own key. Use the PJPark Jeep Key and it comes up under you, engine running; step out and it folds back into your Garage on the Companion Wheel.

Gear and recipes

All the park gear is made from ordinary ingredients, so you can make more anywhere.

IIIIIICIOPOP

➜

Dart Rifle (Crafting Table)

INSEF

➜TD4

Tranquilizer Dart (Crafting Table)

IIIIIITHOD

➜

Flare Gun (Crafting Table)

RG

➜SF4

Signal Flare (Crafting Table)

GNCICICICI

➜

Lure Horn (Crafting Table)

SF

➜

Raptor Whistle (Shapeless: any arrangement)

LLLLIIL

➜

Raptor Saddle (Crafting Table)

GDTHGDIIIBII

➜PJ

Park Jeep Key (Crafting Table)

HSS

➜

Hale's Cane (Crafting Table)

IIIIIIRLIIIICIII

➜

Incubator (Crafting Table)

What to bring home

Find	Where	Why it's worth it
Amber Resin	Mine Amber Seams (stone pickaxe or better).	Four make Polished Amber, four of those make 4 Amber Bricks. Eight around a spider eye make Amber with Mosquito.
Amber Chunk	Bounties for sleeping animals.	Pays Ortiz for replacements, and Kessler after a sale.
Park blocks	Everywhere.	Park Paving, Visitor Center Stone and Tile, Park Thatch, Bamboo Panel, Paddock Fence, Park Gate and more.

➜

Polished Amber (Crafting Table)

IBRIBIBRIB

➜6

Paddock Fence (Crafting Table)

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules, and the tape mailbox beside the Box's door holds a Cold Foam Canister.
• Native stand-in: Cold Foam Canister, a cold chamber from an embryo can. It runs the Cryo Stabilizer without ice. Make more:

IISPISII

➜

Cold Foam Canister (Crafting Table)

• When you've seen enough, step back into the Box with Serum still in you and shut the door.

Tips

• Craft a Dart Rifle and a stack of darts before you leave the helipad area. Iron, copper, planks, spider eyes and feathers.
• When you feel the ground shake, stop moving. The rex can't see what doesn't move.
• Darted animals pay. A sleeping rex is 40 amber; a Mosasaurus is 50.
• Leave raptor nests alone except for the one egg you need, and never hurt a raptor you can't finish: they remember.
• If you want the Reopen ending, power all eight paddocks before you talk to Ortiz at the end. The choice can't be undone.

Birds

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

• Archaeopteryx: common
• Terror Bird: rare, dangerous

Everything this world adds

5 blocks and items (click to open)

Incubator

Raptor Nest

Dinosaur Meat

Cooked Dinosaur Meat

Dinosaur Bone

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

A brachiosaur sneezed on me this morning, and I cried a little, and not because of the sneeze. The gates said WELCOME, and one of them was hanging off its hinge. Everything here was built to be looked at from behind a fence, and the fences are dark. This evening I watched the water in my cup shake on its own. I haven't moved in an hour. I'm writing this very slowly. When you have seen enough, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door.