How Do You Grind Your Island Medals?

[chet_manley]

I got the Bronze Badge over the weekend. I don't really play the island tours very often, but I wanted to see how far I was from Bronze so that I could potentially hunker down and go for Silver and Gold eventually.

What are your favorite island tours to grind for medals? How long did it take you to get to 5000? Any added benefit to your tours of choice (i.e., finding expensive bugs or fish or whatever)?

For what it is worth, I have the bronze fishing and bug catching badges, so if I do a fishing/bug tour, would that help me get closer to the gold "master" badges? (To be clear, I have the encyclopedia badges for completing the libraries, but apparently I haven't used my fishing rod or bug net between 2000 and 5000 times).

 

[2kimi2furious]

I'm really bad at doing island tours, as I really only do them if I'm there to hunt bugs/go diving and I see an item that I want. I need to be better at this because I do want those badges. But it's kind of a pain to do the tours because sometimes I have to stop in the middle of what I'm doing, and it's hard to do that when you're stressed about being timed.

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

I believe that any of the bug or fish catching tours do not count towards you bug catching/fishing badges, since you dont get to actually collect the fish. For example, if it's a fish you never caught before and you catch it on a tour, it doesn't go in your encyclopedia, right? So it makes sense that it wouldn't count. But if you catch a bug on a fishing tour, it counts, and vise versa. Basically if it goes into your inventory, it counts. If you are forced to release it, it doesn't.

 

[chet_manley]

Thanks for the heads up. That's kind of a bummer.

Edit: This source seems to suggest otherwise, though I cannot verify any of its contents.

 

[dizzy bone]

i only do the fishing and bug catching tours to grind medals. I enjoy the bug catching tour the most though.

 

[carackobama]

Same as dizzy bone, I only really do the fish and bug tours when I?m trying to get a high amount of medals!

 

[drowningfairies]

I used to, but now I stay away from the island usually. I got pretty burned out on the island tours.
I would do the bug tours mainly, along with the hammer ones. They were easy and I prefered doing those multiple times.

 

[stitchmaker]

Elite Scavenger Hunt is my pick. It gives you 16 medals and it's over when you are done. It took about 2.5 minutes.
One winter my 3rd player island hopped looking for the Scavenger Hunt tour. Players towns are on different dates and I was able to play that tour 5 days out of 7.
Playing with other can give you bonus medals. The Giant Dragonfly gives you 10 bonus medals if you place 1st.

Found it was easier to complete the bug amount badge during the daytime on the island. Placed about 14 flowers on the grass and the butterflies kept spawning. It was very fast to complete the badge.

 

[Snowesque]

I would only do the Petaltail and Tuna tours, they give the most metals and they were easier for me to play a ton. If they did not have those tours for the day, then I just would not grind for metals. I did not find it worth it otherwise.

 

[LadyDestani]

I have the silver medalist badge and I'm working towards the gold. I try to do just a few tours each time I visit the island to fish/catch bugs so that I don't get burnt out. Doing too many tours in a row gets boring for me.

My favorite tours that give the most medals for the amount of time spent are the Elite Scavenger Hunt, Elite Ore Hunter, Giant Dragonfly, and Tuna Kahuna tours. I don't mind switching it up and doing the Hammer Tour, Gardening Tour, or any of the Bug Catching tours once in a while. I find the Firefly tour the most relaxing, but not necessarily the best for getting medals fast.

 

[TykiButterfree]

I like to do the hide and seek and the gardening tours with my brother. Then we pick the elite tour and play them repeatedly. Those ones are pretty easily to pass quickly with multiple players so you can do more of them faster.

 

[Aeikurin]

Some tours give you tons of medals, (such as Tuna kahuna or the hardest dragonfly one, both give 20) which is great, but I find that spamming those make them more frustrating so I try to find one or two that I really actually *like* to do, such as hide-and-seek or the labyrinth one for me, personally and rotate them. Labyrinth one gives 16 I think which isn't too bad and hide and seek is just really cute.

Rather than doing one that you don't enjoy over and over, I prefer this method, and I've gotten to 500-600 at a time before. I also try to spend 40-50 medals every so often so I can keep motivating myself to earn more.

 

[chet_manley]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I blasted out maybe 150 or so last night on the scavenger hunt tour. I don't think I could sit and do 500-600 tokens in a sitting, but we'll see if I have some time to binge the Office again.

 

[Peg]

I have the gold medalist badge. For me, the Elite Scavenger (4 minutes; 16 medals for gold) and the Elite Ore-Hunter (4 minutes; 15 medals for gold) were the best tours to grind for the island medals.

Also enjoyed the Tuna Kahuna tour (6 minutes; 20 medals for gold), the Giant Dragonfly tour (7 minutes; 20 medals for gold), the Shark Battle tour (6 minutes; 15 medals for gold) and the Elite Gardening tour (3:30 minutes; 12 medals for gold).

 

[Rabirin]

I usually go for the ones that I find the most enjoyable despite how many medals i'm possibly earning, but I usually go for the balloon tour, and the scavenger hunt tour as well at the hammer tour. Although it may take me longer to grind for medals, I enjoy it so much that I forget all about the grinding side of it and sometimes end up going over by a few medals.

 

[intestines]

I like going to the island with friends as you get the bonus medals. I prefer doing the bug catching tours or the flower ones as its the best for me

 

[daisyy]

my favorite way to grind for island medals is to watch twitch streamers that also do island tours. it's a bit random but i found a twitch streamer that does viewer visits where viewers can come play games on the island with them, and i do that too, but just alone and it makes me feel like i'm playing with others so it's easier for me to get through it all! also i avoid the maze ones at all costs lol. i find that i'm best at the elite bug/fishing tours once i get warmed up

 

[2kimi2furious]

Lol, I went to the island and did tours today because of this thread. I still hate doing them, though.

 

[maralacesphye]

My favorite tours are Gardening, Hide and Seek, Mazes, and Scavenger Hunts. I like to switch it up to keep it fresh, though!~

 

[Sweetstar]

I like doing the dragonfly tours as you can get up to 20 medals. I also like going with friends as you can get a lot of bonus medals!