Growing my island

Taking your island up in levels is what unlocks everything else. It happens in /is, Upgrades button.

You need two things at once

Money in the island bank, not in your pocket.
Island value, from level 5 onwards.

If one of the two is missing, the button refuses and tells you which one.

What each level gives you

Your island's size, which starts at a square 50 blocks on each side and gains 5 blocks per level, up to 550. It is a limit on the ground only: upwards and downwards, you go all the way to the edges of the world.
The number of members: 3 at the start, 10 at level 7.
The number of teleport points: 5 at level 5.
Your generator's tier, up to level 25.
Hoppers: 50 at the start, 550 at level 10, 1,300 at level 25, 2,550 at level 50, 3,800 at level 75, and 10,000 at level 100, the last one.
Pistons: 50 at the start, 100 at level 10, 175 at level 25, 300 at level 50, 525 at level 75, and 1,000 at level 100.

The pace is not steady: both curves speed up towards the end, each in its own way. Do not work out the rest yourself, the upgrade menu always shows the real figure.

Those two limits belong to the island, not to the player: three of you on it means you share them. Monster spawners, on the other hand, are capped at 15,000 from day one, with no upgrade.

What it really costs

Level 1: 5,000 $
Level 5: 9,100 $, and 10 island value
Level 10: 19,000 $, and 200 island value
Level 25: 180,000 $, and 2,000 island value
Level 40: 1,600,000 $, and 15,000 island value

Adding it all up from the start: 34,400 $ to reach level 5, 106,400 $ for level 10, 1,243,400 $ for level 25 and 11,703,400 $ for level 40. Each level costs about 16% more than the one before.

There are 100 levels in all, but let us be blunt about it: taking all 100 costs around 86 billion dollars in total. The levels past 50 are not made to be reached by playing normally, they act as a ceiling for the few most advanced islands on the server.

The right order when you start out

Aim for level 10 first. That is where gold arrives in your generator.

Then be clear-eyed about the scale: level 25 costs 1.2 million in total, level 40 costs 11.7. The first one plays out in weeks, the second in months.

To give you a scale, here is what the shop pays per unit: stone 1 $, coal 5 $, raw iron 6 $, redstone 10 $, raw gold 15 $, diamond 35 $, emerald 63 $, ancient debris 135 $.

A block out of your generator is worth 1.27 $ on average at tier 1, 1.59 $ at tier 10, and 4.81 $ at tier 25, once sold to the shop.

A player with no enchantment breaks about one block per second, so 3,600 an hour, so roughly 4,500 $ an hour at the start. The 106,400 $ for level 10 therefore ask for around 24 hours of bare-handed mining.

With an Efficiency V pickaxe you break stone about five times faster, which brings those 24 hours down to around 5. And selling to players often pays more than the shop.

Continue with: Making money