# Islands & Tiles ### Your Island Every player begins their adventure with **one free Island** your personal territory in the world of Townies.\ You don’t pay to mint it. You don’t buy it. It’s yours from the start. However, to activate your Island and perform actions on it, you must **credit your Townies account with 0.001 $ETH on Base**.\ This ETH serves as a **gas tank** used by the protocol to execute all your in-game actions automatically (thanks to Account Abstraction).\ Once your tank is filled, the gameplay becomes seamless: no popups, no transaction spam, no interruptions. ### Tiles Expansion * Expanding your board opens space for new buildings and enables Castle placement. * Strategic placement and spacing matter as your city grows. Each player controls a unique land composed of 30 tiles (3 unlocked - 27 to unlock), most of which are locked at the start. Tiles are used to place core buildings: Houses, Forges, Churches, and the Castle. ### **Tile Unlock Costs** Tile unlock costs scale progressively according to four resource profiles defined in the technical specification.\ Resource costs appear at different tile thresholds: * **Wood** required from Tile **1** * **Stone** required from Tile **6** * **Gold** required from Tile **7** * **Iron** required from Tile **8** ### πŸ”Ή Tile Unlock Costs | **Tiles** | **Wood** | **Stone** | **Gold** | **Iron** | | --------- | --------- | --------- | -------- | -------- | | **1-3** | Free | | | | | **4–6** | 71 β†’ 85 | – | – | – | | **6-7** | 92 β†’ 112 | 50 β†’ 60 | - | – | | **8** | 112 β†’ 119 | 60 β†’ 70 | 16 | - | | **9** | 119 β†’ 126 | 70 β†’ 80 | 16 β†’ 22 | 49 | | **10-30** | 126 β†’ 273 | 70 β†’ 290 | 22 β†’ 154 | 49 β†’ 243 | Tile unlocking is critical: you need at least **16 unlocked tiles** to place the Castle. The layout you choose: clustered, spaced, balanced will affect your long-term efficiency.