Albion Online personal island: what it's for and how to start

What the personal island is

The personal island is a private plot you buy in a city. Only you and whoever you give access to can enter, and nobody can take anything from it. According to the game itself, there are no taxes on the island, so upkeep is free.

It is where you can build your own crafting stations, plant and raise animals, and have houses for your laborers. For many players it is the base of operations of the game.

What it's for (the advantages)

• Your own crafting: build the stations you need (Smelter, Lumbermill, Stonemason, Tanner, Weaver, Warrior's Forge, Cook and more) and craft without depending on the cities.
• Farming: plant herbs and crops and raise animals, which give ingredients for food and potions, meat and mounts.
• Laborers: laborers go on gathering and crafting jobs for you, even when you are not playing.
• Safety: what is on the island cannot be stolen by other players.
• No taxes: building and keeping the island has no land tax.

What you need to start

You need Premium and silver. Premium is required to buy the island (you need at least 7 days of Premium). Once bought, the island is yours and you can manage and upgrade it even without Premium. The island costs 20,000 silver and is bought from the Island Merchant, who is found in the cities.

Before you buy, it helps to have a reserve to build with. An island without resources for the first buildings just sits idle.

Choose the city well

The island is tied to the city where you buy it, and you reach it from there. Since the Wild Blood update (2023), each island's look follows its city's biome and some crops and animals yield more on one island than another. So choose the city according to what you want to grow or raise. According to that update, you can have one island per city.

You can travel to your island, but the trip has a cost, which the game shows before you confirm. Check in the game for the current island limit per player.

Island levels and plots

The island has 6 levels. The first is the purchase, and each next level costs more and gives more plots, where you can build whatever you choose:

Upgrading takes about 2 minutes, and nobody can be on the island while it happens. The discount applies to the first island you buy and to the first time you upgrade an island to each level. Without the discount, the costs are 1,000,000 (level 1), 2,500,000, 4,000,000, 5,000,000, 6,000,000 and 8,000,000 (level 6), which is 26,500,000 in total. You can have one island in each royal city and one in Brecilien, and islands support buildings up to tier 8. Costs can change with patches, and the Island Merchant always shows the current value.

Buildings: what you can place

Each building has tiers (from Novice to Elder) and costs resources to build and upgrade. The main ones are:

• Crafting stations: Smelter, Lumbermill, Stonemason, Tanner, Weaver, Toolmaker, Warrior's Forge, Hunter's Lodge and Mage's Tower, Cook and Butcher.
• Farming: Herb Garden (herbs and crops), Pasture (animals) and Kennel.
• House: where laborers live. Without houses, you have no laborers.

The game only shows icons for each building's resources. On the Builds Forge Island buildings page you see the amounts and the total cost in silver using Market prices.

Farming: plants and animals

You buy seeds and baby animals from the island's Farming Merchant. Plants can be watered and animals nurtured, spending Focus, to yield more. The daily Focus comes from Premium, which also doubles the harvests. Each animal has a favorite food that speeds up its growth.

You can spend Focus to improve yield. Crops and animals have bonuses depending on the island they are on, so check the bonuses before you plant.

Farming is steady, low-risk income. Profit varies with prices, so compare crop prices on the Market before deciding what to plant.

Laborers

Laborers live in houses and do jobs for you: Lumberjack, Stonecutter, Prospector, Cropper, Gamekeeper and Fisherman for gathering, and Blacksmith, Fletcher, Imbuer, Tinker and Mercenary for crafting.

Each laborer needs their own bed and a table of equal or higher tier than their own. The happier they are, the more resources they bring. Happiness depends on the house's beds, tables and trophies. To work, they use filled journals of the same tier or lower.

Where to start, step by step

1. Secure Premium and a silver reserve.
2. Pick the city according to what you want to grow or craft.
3. Buy the island from the Island Merchant.
4. Build first what fits your goal: a station for your profession, or a Herb Garden and Pasture if you want farming.
5. Only upgrade the island once you run out of free plots.
6. Once you have income, add a house and your first laborer.

Things to watch out for

• Abandoning the island destroys it for good, along with everything on it. The game asks for confirmation, but there is no way back.
• Anyone with builder permission can build on your island. Hand out permissions carefully.
• Don't spend your whole reserve on the island: you need silver to repair and replace gear.

The guild island

Guilds can also buy a guild island, with building plots, a combat training area and, from the first level, a Guild Marketplace. It has personal and shared banks. It is a guild purchase, paid with the guild's gold or silver, and only members with permission can buy or upgrade it.

What to check in the game

The game changes with patches, so always check:

• The cost of the island and of each upgrade.
• How many islands you can have.
• Each city's bonuses for crops and animals.
• The amounts for each building (the Island buildings page follows the game's data).