In Card Survival: Tropical Island, you play a castaway stranded on a tropical island, and every action runs through cards. One row shows where you are, another shows what you carry and what's around you, and you combine cards to explore, gather, cook, and craft.
In a typical session, you explore new areas, gather wood, stone, fiber, and clay, and turn them into tools, clothing, and containers. Every action takes time, and you can wait, rest, nap, or sleep to move the day along. Meanwhile, your hunger, thirst, body temperature, hygiene, mental state, and weight all need watching, because letting one get out of hand can kill you.
Over the long run, you work toward either escaping the island or settling in and turning your camp into a prosperous island farm. Playing also earns Suns and Moons, which unlock new perks for building your own castaway, so even a failed run leaves something behind.
- Developer
- WinterSpring Games
- Publisher
- WinterSpring Games
- Release
- iOS: 2023-01-19 · macOS: 2022-12-12 · Android: 2022-04-06 · Steam Early Access: 2021-08-20 · Steam full release: 2022-09-16
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Game data
Cooking Recipes
Cooking recipes turn the meat, fish, eggs, and plants you gather into meals that keep you fed. Most dishes are cooked in a clay cooking pot, while others use a water-filled pot, a container, a coconut shell, or no cookware at all. Recipes unlock when you first get a key ingredient card or when your Cooking skill reaches 20%, 50%, or 100%.
Locations
The island in Card Survival: Tropical Island is made up of connected locations that open as you explore the ones beside them, starting from the Beach. Each location has its own materials, dangers and routes, and some routes need a skill or a gas mask to reach. Water, storms and crop growth also vary from one location to the next, so where you build your base matters.
Card Survival Controls
| Action | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Close windows | Esc |
| Scroll the location row | Q / W |
| Scroll the base row or inventories | A / S |
| Open Blueprints | B |
| Open Journal | J |
| Open character sheet | C |
| Open waiting options | T |
| Open equipment | E |
| Open wounds | H |
| Open stats | D |
Card Survival gameplay tips
- Start your first run with the Hunter. The premade castaway plays on Relaxed difficulty and begins with helpful perks such as Swimmer, Spearfisher, and Stealth Master, so the early days are less of a struggle.
- Plan around the seasons. Days 1 to 30 bring balanced weather, days 31 to 60 are the rainy season with mostly rain and storms, and days 61 to 90 are the dry season with very little rain. Fill every container you have before the dry season starts, because rain is your main water source.
- Keep your water in closed containers. Open containers like coconut shells and clay vases slowly lose water to evaporation, and a coconut shell dries out in about 3 days. A Cooking Pot, Glazed Vase, Clay Jar, or Waterskin stops evaporation.
- Go easy on coconuts. Eating coconut meat or drinking coconut milk too often gives you loose stools, which make you lose hydration faster. Ginger, raw or as tea, helps clear it, while charcoal only eases the symptoms for a while.
- Back away from boars until you're ready. Retreating uses and trains your Stealth skill and rarely fails, while a boar fight can leave you with fractures, bites, or bleeding cuts. Fight once you have a spear, some armor, and supplies to treat wounds.