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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: My animals keep dying. What am I doing wrong?
A: You aren’t doing anything wrong! Arctic ecosystems depend on death as much as life. Make sure you collect the spirits of the animals in the winter time, and then spend those spirits to create new animals.
However, sometimes players get too focused on their goals. If you are having trouble reaching a particular goal, try to improve the balance of the ENTIRE ecosystem and you may find it a lot easier to increase the population of a particular animal.
Q: What are these glowing spheres for?
A: Those are the spirits of departed animals. They become visible in the winter and can be collected with any of your tools. Their colors represent the “season” of the animal – green is spring, yellow is summer, orange is fall, blue is winter.
Q: What can I use spirit for?
A: You can spend your spirit to use tools out of season. For instance, you could use the snow tool in summer if you have collected blue winter spirits.
You can also spend spirit to create new animals. To do this, choose the animal you want in the bubble on the lower left side of the tool palette. Click on the animal, and then click in the world to create it.
Q: Why do the animals look so simplistic?
A: The animals are modeled after traditional Inuit stone sculptures, which are often quite smooth and simplistic. Try Google Image searching for “Inuit sculpture” and you’ll see what we mean.
Q: Can I control an animal in Venture Arctic?
A: You can directly control animals with the Migrate and Flock tools, which you unlock later in the game. You can also influence their behavior by using the various food tools to draw them in certain directions.
Q: Why are some of the animals blue?
A: Some animals need to be unlocked in the lock shop (you can get to the lock shop by clicking on the little Lock icon on the palette). After you unlock an animal, you may find those animals frozen in the environment. Use the Sun tool to free them from the ice!
Q: The game is in Kids Mode but I want to play Normal Mode.
A: You can switch modes by clicking on the “Kids Mode” label in the lower left hand corner of the “Continue” screen. You can also create a new profile.
Q: What’s the difference between Kids Mode and Normal Mode?
A: Normal Mode is a bit more challenging, and it contains a full tutorial. This is how the game was originally designed.
In Kids Mode, several of the tools, animals, and environments start out unlocked, and all the tools are free to use in all seasons. Kids Mode is intended for those who “just want to play” without reading through a tutorial or unlocking content by achieving goals.
Q: How is my Ecosystem Score calculated?
A: Your score is calculated by combining the number of living species you have with how much variation in population size there is. To figure out population size, count the number of a species and multiply it by the “spirit value” of that animal (which you can find later in this guide).
For instance, hares are worth 5 spirit, while caribou and ravens are worth 25 and wolves are worth 100. So a perfectly balanced ecosystem with these animals would have 20 hares, 4 caribou, 4 ravens, and 1 wolf.
Q: My goal is to get jellyfish, but there are no jellyfish to breed.
A: Sometimes you will have to create an animal in an environment in order to achieve a goal. Create animals by clicking on the animal bubble in the left hand side of the palette.