Introduction

Misty Continent: Cursed Island is a MMO strategy game taking place in what seems like a fantasy version of the 19th century. The main focus is on building troops and ultimately subdue enemy alliances with superior forces, but there is a lot of focus on growing your own city with a very elaborate set of buildings with each their own function, and using research to make you stronger.

Tutorial

A new game starts with a tutorial. For first time players it is good to walk through this slowly as the game can get complicated because of its many different features. The tutorial does a reasonable job of explaining the absolute basics, but there is just too much functionality you should know to understand this game. This guide should help you further.

Bind Your Account

Do not forget to bind your account. Even if you do not spend any money on the game, it can be quite addictive and it would be a shame if your phone or tablet crashes and you no longer have access to your game. In the Player Profile window (accessible by clicking on the avatar at the left top), there is a button to access the Settings page at the left bottom. Here you can click Account and Account Management to bind your account. There are several options. I tend to use funplus, but this cannot be changed or unbound, which might be a drawback for some players. Google is a good alternative. I have had problems with using facebook to bind funplus games in the past.

Alliance

An important step is to find a suitable Alliance. Via the Alliance menu you can apply to join an alliance or join one of the alliances that are currently open for new recruits. As with other games with alliances it is important to find a likeminded group of people. Don't be afraid to switch to another alliance if you feel your first is not a good fit, or if either leaders or other members are not active enough. Make sure you have an active group of people. Not only the number of members are important, but also how many actually log in, which you can see in the Alliance menu (select Members and you see for each member when they last logged in). If you are intending to play for a long time, the social aspect is important for many people as well.

Alliance Teleport

When you join an alliance for the first time you get a free alliance teleport (I had several when I started playing, got one as a free gift, not sure where the other came from). You can use this to teleport close to your alliance, but be careful about using it. The game can suggest you to move to a location, which automatically happens if you accept, but this might not be the location your alliance wants to settle down, just where your leader happens to be at that time. Ask about it in the alliance chat first. You can also acquire an advanced teleport from the Alliance Store to teleport later, but this is costly, and Alliance Credits are not easy to come by, so make sure you only use the Alliance Teleport if you are quite certain you will stay.

Unlocking new Functionality

As you develop your account further more functionality becomes available. Some of what I describe below might not be available yet. Just follow the Chapter Quests (scroll item at the left of your estate view) and keep doing those quests.

Most times you upgrade your stronghold a new area becomes available. The misty areas around your estate that can be unlocked normally have some indicator above it. You can also click on them and you will be notified at which stronghold level they are unlocked. Each unlocked area contains a new building.

Academy

One of the buildings in your estate is your Academy. Once you have it, you should basically try to make sure you always have some research project active and you should make your research speed as fast as possible. The Development Research Category contains import projects to increase your construction, research and troop training speed, the Economy Research Category contains important projects to increase your resource production and gathering, the Combat Research Category contains, besides the many projects to improve the strength of your troops also the very important projects to increase the number of March Slots (these influence how many different marches you can use simultaneously, very important if you want to do multiple rallies, attacking enemies, gathering resources, fighting threats etc). The Defense Research Category offers projects that help you defend your Castle in various ways. It is not that this is not important, but if there is one category that you can pay less attention to in the beginning, it is this one.

The Creation category improves your Creation, which I will handle in a separate guide.

After you start a research project do not forget to click the shaking hands items above the Academy to ask your alliance members for help.

Training Troops

There are 5 buildings relevant for training troops. Barracks, Stables, Shooting Range and Artillery Foundry are the building where you can give your assignments to train troop. The level of the buildings influence which troops you can train, the higher tier, the better the troops. Each is associated with a troop type, Infantry, Cavalry, Distance and Artillary. The Military Tents influence how many troops you can train and your troop training speed. For each Military Tent you have for each level the Troop Training Speed increases with 1%, so it is important to build many and upgrade all of them as long as you have sufficient space.

Try to always have troop training for all types active.

Upgrading Buildings

Via the Chapter and Main Quests the game suggests some order of building and upgrading buildings, you don't need to pay attention to that. There are some things to consider. One building to upgrade as fast as possible is the Embassy, it increases the number of Alliance Helps you can receive and the time each Help deducts from your timers. Especially early on in the game, when timers are not that long, it can make a huge difference if you can receive many Helps (and you have an active alliance that provides those Helps fast). Early on I also tend to focus on upgrading buildings that are requirements for the next Stronghold upgrade first to make sure I can start the next Stronghold upgrade when I go offline for a while. All the buildings have their own importance, the Academy unlocks new research project levels, the Barracks, Shooting Range, Stables and Artillery Foundry new troops, the Orchards, Magic Crystal Factories and Stone Quarries increase your resource production rate and capacity (also build many of them and upgrade them). After you start an upgrade do not forget to click the item above the building to request for Alliance Helps.

You can get an extra building queue temporarily by paying gold, or permanently with a bundle purchase. This is a worthwhile investment early on, it will help you grow faster.

Helping Alliance Members with Research and Construction

I already mentioned a few times about asking for help, but also make sure you provide help. If you see the shaking hands icon above your Embassy Building or above the Alliance menu, click it. It will provide timer help to all alliance members who have requested it.

Using Gold and Speed Ups

During the game there are various ways to get gold and speed ups, but they are not that easy to come by. Once your timers start to be more than just a few minutes you might get tempted to use these to speed up research, construction and troop training. My general advice is don't just use these for anything, only use them if you can get something back by winning prizes in the active Events, or for example so that you can quickly finish some builddings so you can start a Stronghold upgrade before you log off. Saving up some gold and speed ups is important so that it will be easier to win the prizes of those Events.

Power

Although the power of a player has no direct meaning for your strength in combat, it is often used by players as a quick measurement of strength anyway. Typically alliances will set certain power requirements for their players which increase over time. As such it is important you get your power up as well.

In your Lord Profile, accessible by clicking on the Avatar in the left top, you will see your power listed at the right information block just below your name and UID. Next to the power is a (i) button you can click to go to Lord Stats. If you scroll down in the stats view a little bit, you will find a breakdown of your power. There are seven basic categories of power: Lord, Airship, Troop, Building, Research, Equipment and Hero. It is an extra reason to always have active research projects, building upgrades and troop training. Your Lord and Airship power increases by leveling up your Lord and Airship, I will write a separate guide on those.

Threats and Undead Army Camps

On the kingdom map you will see various Threats and Undead Army Camps that you can attack. Attacking them costs stamina and gives you some rewards. Your stamins automatically regenerates, so make sure your stamina bar is never full. Threats you can solo attack, for the Undead Army Camp you need to rally and have one or more alliance members join (or join someone else's rally).

Celestial Globe

The Celestial Globe building provides a radar with extra tasks that allow you to get some extra rewards. Make sure to do these. Also accessible via an icon at the left bottom of your kingdom map view.

Mermaid

The mermaid at the right bottom of your estate view allows you to get some extra rewards as well. You can let her dive for treasure. Choose the right time depending on when you think you will be online next.

By clicking the Mermaid menu you can play a small game, and use items you have acquired to upgrade the mermaid, unlocking extra treasure options.

Cleaning up your Estate

The area where you construct your buildings has trees, bushes and all kind of small structures on it. By clicking on them you can send a worker to remove it which will give you some resources or goodies.

Getting Resources

For things like construction, research and troop training you need resources. Early on you get quite some by doing the required tasks, but soon resources will be an issue, so good to be aware of that.

In this game Lumber or Wood seems quite hard to get. You can get some from the Mermaid, killing Threats and Undead Army Camps, and cutting down trees in your Estate, but not with gathering. Other resources such as Food, Magic Crystal and Stone you can gather on the kingdom map.

You get a lot of resource items in your inventory as well, make sure to only open them when you need them, because if you are attacked you can lose open resources.

Events

You can win prizes by completing various stages of Events. You can find the active events in the Event Center menu at the right top. Always check out what is active. Especially if is things you should do anyway, it is good to put some extra focus and get rewards that help you grow.

Alliance Tech and Donations

The leaders (Rank 4 and 5) of an Alliance can do research that benefit the alliance in Alliance Tech and Donations. Any member can (and should) help by donating the requirements. This can be done by selecting Donations in the Alliance menu, by going to one of the projects for which the requirements are not filled yet (typically the one marked with the star), and clicking at the right bottom button to Donate. You not only help the alliance, but also get alliance credits (can be used to purchase items in the Alliance Store) in return. Each Donation increases 10 minutes on the cooldown timer.

Quests

By clicking on the scroll item at the right middle you go to the quest menu. There are 3 type of quests, Chapter, Main and Daily. The Chapter and Main are one time quests. Chapter quests are for early on in the game and required to make certain progress. Main you can basically do whenever you want. The Daily Quests reset each day. Besides getting some rewards for individual daily quests you also get points and extra rewards when you reach point milestones. Try to reach all point milestones each day.

Check List of What to Do When You Log In

Most of the things in this section we already mentioned, but it might be good to have a reminder of what you should look at as a minimum when you log into the game:

• Click on the Embassy Help icon to Help all alliance members with research and construction
• Look at the Events, see whether you can win gold and speed ups by completing your current research, building and/or troop training, make sure you do the activity required for the event
• Do Celestial Globe tasks, kill Threats and/or rally Undead Army Camps until your stamina is depleted
• Start a research if none is active
• Start a building upgrades is none is active
• Start a troop training for each type of troops if none are active
• In the Alliance Donations donate to get your Alliance Credit and help you alliance with Tech
• Claim the completed Daily Quest reward
• Send your troops out to gather resources
• Read your Mails (note that Alliance mails from the game might have gifts for you, make sure to collect them)

If you have more time consider:

• Working more towards completing your Daily Quest milestones
• Working more towards winning rewards from the active Events
• Discuss with your alliance members whether there is some nice targets to attack
• There is actually plenty more to do, but I wanted to keep the Beginner's Guide limited, just explore the map and your estate and have fun!

Conclusion

I hope this helps you getting started. If you have questions, or if you have other suggestions for beginners, please share in the comment section.