Get ahead in Ice Age Village with our Windows Phone Achievement Guide

Ice Age Village from Gameloft is a free Xbox city building game for Windows Phone 8. As far as we know, any Windows Phone 8 device can run it and the game only takes up 79 MB of storage, so it should have a sizable player base already.

The city building genre is a time consuming one since many tasks involve returning to the game at a later time or date to reap their rewards.  Wouldn’t it be nice to speed up the process a bit and get your village making money faster right off the bat? Darn right it would.

Windows Phone Central has a bunch of codes for free Coins, animals, and items, plus a handy Achievement guide. Don’t spend a single Acorn until you’ve read it!

Get your free stuff!

Ice Age Village Bonus code

First off, let’s get those Coins and special animals. All you have to do for these is change your village name. Tap the name of your village at the top-left corner of the screen and you'll be able to change the name. After receiving the bonuses, change it back to whatever you like.

Here are the codes:

  • Alpenliebe (a caramel toffee candy sold outside the US)
  • BestBuy
  • Bonus
  • Danimals (a brand of yogurt)
  • McDonalds
  • Post
  • Saturn

These codes are the gift that keeps on giving, because each special animal is part of a collection. Complete these animals’ families by buying a second adult and two children. Once the family and collection are complete, you’ll receive more rewards (as with any collection), including precious Acorns.

One more code!

Gameloft snuck in another trick that doesn’t involve a name change. Your village must have reached level 2 to pull this one off.

During gameplay, tap Sid the sloth four times and then Manny the mammoth three times (without tapping anything else in-between) and you'll get a bunch of coins and a snowy fox.

 

Collection-based Achievements

Many of the game’s Achievements involve completing various collections of animals. The rub is that some of these animals cost Acorns, the game’s premium currency! Now, you can actually earn Acorns through gameplay. You’ll receive them for completing collections, as prizes in the Kung Fu Scrat minigame, in snow piles, and by leveling up. Still, Acorns don’t come quickly. If you want to earn all of the Achievements without going broke in real life, it’s imperative that you save them to buy the premium animals associated with these Achievements.

These animals are:

  • Brown Mammoth (costs 80 Acorns per family member, so 320 Acorns total. Can also be won as a Kung Fu Scrat prize on certain days)
  • Gravelbeast (costs 110 Acorns per family member, so 440 Acorns total)
  • Leopard (costs 120 Acorns per family member, so 480 Acorns total)
  • Rhino (costs 50 Acorns per family member, so 200 Acorns total; can also be won as a Kung Fu Scrat prize on certain days)
  • Weasel  (costs 60 Acorns per family member, so 240 Acorns total)

Now, here are the collections that have Achievements:

Birdies Collection – Tweet tweet! Achievement

  • Orange Bird (unlocks at Level 5; costs 5,000 Coins per family member)
  • Diving Bird (unlocks at Level 20; costs 185,000 Coins per family member)
  • Beaky Birdie (unlocks at Level 3; costs 3,000 Coins per family member)

Chomp Chomp Collection – Om Nom Nom! Achievement

  • Beaver (unlocks at level 2; costs 2,000 Coins per family member)
  • Possum (unlocks at level 8; costs 15,000 Coins per family member)
  • Weasel (costs 60 Acorns per family member, so 240 Acorns total)

Four-Legged Runners Collection – Dashing Dashers Achievement

  • Gazelle (unlocks at Level 26; costs 280,000 Coins per family member)
  • Reindeer (unlocks at Level 25; costs 260,000 Coins per family member)
  • Leopard (costs 120 Acorns per family member, so 480 Acorns total)

Main Characters Collection – The Star of the Show Achievement

  • Sloth (unlocks at level 1; costs 1,000 Coins per family member)
  • Mammoth (unlocks at level 6; costs 8,000 Coins per family member)
  • Possum (unlocks at level 8; costs 15,000 Coins per family member)

Not Extinct Collection – Survival of the Fittest Achievement

  • Mammoth (unlocks at level 6; costs 8,000 Coins per family member)
  • Brown Mammoth (costs 80 Acorns per family member, so 320 Acorns total. Can also be won as a Kung Fu Scrat prize on certain days)

Scary Time Collection - Aiiiiiiieeeee! Achievement

  • Armadillo (unlocks at level 7; costs 11,000 Coins per family member)
  • Bonycap (unlocks at Level 27; costs 300,000 Coins per family member)
  • Sneaky (costs 50,000 Coins per family member)

Tiny Family Collection – Big Hearts Achievement

  • Orange Bird (unlocks at level 5; costs 5,000 Coins per family member)
  • Ermine (unlocks at level 21; costs 200,000 Coins per family member)
  • Hedgehog (unlocks at Level 15; costs 110,000 Coins per family member)

Walking Bulldozers Collection – Outta the Way! Achievement

  • Rhino (costs 50 Acorns per family member, so 200 Acorns total; can also be won as a Kung Fu Scrat prize on certain days)
  • Musk Ox (unlocks at Level 28)
  • Mammoth (unlocks at level 6; costs 8,000 Coins per family member)
  • Hippophant (unlocks at Level 14; costs 95,000 Coins per family member)

 

Level-based Achievements

When your village gains enough experience, it will level up. This usually a new animal or item and awards the player one Acorn.

Villages gain experience from blue stars. Acquire these by feeding animals after collecting coins from them, completing goals given by the story characters, and completing collections. To level up faster, prioritize buying new animals over Fun Stuff (swings, etc.) since Fun Stuff doesn’t provide experience..

  • Caretaker – Reach Level 5
  • Community Organizer – Reach Level 10
  • The Mayor – Reach Level 20
  • The Gov – Reach Level 30
  • The President – Reach Level 40
  • The Bestest of the Best! – Reach Level 50

Miscellaneous Achievements

Expert Slasher – Win Kung-Fu Scrat three times.

You'll gain access to the minigame early on when one of the main characters gives it to you via a Goal. To place the object, go to Stuff and then Collection. It looks like a small whirlpool. Once you've placed it, tap on the pool and choose to play the game.

The game costs tokens to use. You get a free token to start with and sometimes find them within snow piles. You also get one free token per day from the Kung Fu Scrat object/building itself. If you don't have enough tokens to play, you can choose to use Acorns, but I wouldn't recommend it. For the purpose of the Achievement, you can just choose to Practice three times without spending any tokens.

The minigame works like Fruit Ninja. Slash the blue fish that pop out of the water and avoid hitting a spiked puffer fish. You lose a life by missing a blue fish or hitting a puffer fish. Avoid running out of lives and try to get the highest score you can within 30 seconds.

Rewards are completely random, not based on performance. You’ll want to keep coming back to the minigame whenever you have tokens in order to try for Acorns, but you don’t need to win any more. Losing right away will save time.

I’m the Richest – Spend 30,000 on decorations.

Just head to the Shop and purchase a few high-value decorations. This is cumulative, so you needn’t buy a single 30,000 Coin decoration.

Most Famous - Get 5-Stars Village Status.

Your village has a star rating which you can view in detail by tapping the stars at the top-right corner of the screen during gameplay. Four ratings combine to create the overall rating:

  • Animal Families - Based on the number of complete families
  • Friends - Earn hearts by visiting other villages through the Social option and sending hearts to the village owners.
  • Fun Buildings - Based on the number of Fun Buildings (swings, etc.)
  • Village Size - Based on the amount of village expansions purchased

All four ratings must be 5 stars in order to have 5 stars overall and get the Achievement. If your village has less than 5 stars overall, just look at which individual ratings are below 5 stars and work to increase them.

The Friends rating is the most challenging one to raise up to five stars. You can only earn so many heart per day by visiting other villages. It will take at least 15 consecutive days to max out Friends and thus get this Achievement. Remember, Facebook and Gameloft Live integration is broken at launch. For now, you can boost your Friends rating by visiting random villages. Gameloft has promised a patch to fix the social network integration soon.

Update: The 'Most Famous' Achievement for earning a five-star village rating is broken. In fact, unlocking it seems to cause the game to glitch out and become unplayable. :(

Rule the Roost - Complete 7 land expansions.

To buy a land expansion, tap just outside of your active village area. You'll be offered the chance to buy an expansion for either coins or acorns. After a certain point, each successive expansion costs 50,000 more coins than the first one. I believe the seventh will cost 250,000...

Catching Scrat

This doesn’t relate to an Achievement, but here’s a beginner’s tip. The longer you leave the game actively running, the more likely snow piles will develop and Scrat will run by. When Scrat appears, he’ll first pop his head out of the left or right side of the screen and make a sound. As soon as you see or hear him, scroll a little away from your buildings and start tapping the bottom corner of the screen below where his head popped out. You’re guaranteed to catch him and win Coins with this method.

You can also find Scrat once daily when visiting another player’s village, though it works differently. He randomly hides behind an object and you’re tasked with tapping wildly to find him. A visual indicator appears over his head after a few seconds, but you’ll get more Coins if you find him before the indicator shows up.

Ice Age Village is free for Windows Phone 8. Get it here from the Windows Phone Store.

QR: Ice Age Village

Cheating Notice

We’ve intentionally left time manipulation strategies out of this guide. Feel free to discuss those in our forums, but don’t mention them in the comments of this article.

Paul Acevedo

Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Central. A lifelong gamer, he has written about videogames for over 15 years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don’t hate. Appreciate!

45 Comments
  • Lol app news kill me :'(
  • i think the reward for tapping the sloth and mammoth is 30,000 not 120,000
  • The screenshot I took after doing it says differently. ;)
  • hmm that's weird mine gives me 30,000 which i did after seeing this article
  • Mine was 160,000
  • Wondering if it is level based, I just got 140,000 at I think level 13
  • Definitely seems to be level-based.
  • 120,000 at level 12
  • Thx Paul for this article, my GF will be happy! She loves the game
  • Great write up, Paul. As usual. :) The game is quite good. Certainly repetitive, but good for getting achievements without too much hassle. If only there was a way to get more acorns. Without purchasing them of course. ;)
  • There is... But it works only if you have Dino World and I don't know if WP version's got it yet -_-
     
  • If people use the time manuplation tactic for getting a 5 star village you will screw urself due yo the friends section
  • Tapping Manny and Sid without tapping anything in between is almost impossible once your village gets full. I recommend doing it early if you can. I guess I could put away everything but setting it up again would be a pain. Thanks for the other bonus tips though, they worked like a charm!
  • Okay I got lucky and Sid walked down to my recently purchased land expansions so I was able to tap him there with no problem. Manny was much easier to tap due to his size. 
  • Paul! Is Dino World included in this version or is it not? I've searched for 3 days on the internet and so far NOTHING. I know that you must reach lvl. 35 to unlock it but I'm only 31 ATM.
    And when are they going to update the app? We're missing the Collect Frenzy and few animals... Please Paul!
  • Good guide paulster! small typo Bestest of the Bestest is level 50. Also, you could mention that you can get the expert slasher achievement in practice mode. doesnt require silver coins. Just win 3 practices.
     
    I been working on this game and it does seem from what I have heard you wont be able to get 5 stars in Friends if you used the time exploit trick. Just a warning.
  • Wow, great guide! Thank you for putting this up. I was kind of hesitant to get started but now I'm looking forward to it!
  • There is not really any reason to look forward to it. There is no gratification as you progress through the game. The zoom and scroll controls are so bad it is not even worth it to zoom in on your village so you just look at it from very far away and tap coin and apple icons mindlessly for no real reason. The social features are broken. The one feature that maybe would have made the game fun. I'd you don't want the achievements, there is absolutely no other region to play this garbage
  • Paul you put level 10 twice. Aresnic17 beat me to it.
    Thanks for the codes :)
  • Not that id spend real money in a game like this anyway, but the payment system is also broken. $1.99 will get you millions of coins while $99 will get you barely anything. They've priced them backwards.
  • OMG your right, same on the Acorns as well, might be worth doing spending $1.99 on 2,000 acorns they'll probably patch it soon lol. Edit: I just clicked it and the confirmation screen shows the correct price...damn lol.
  • Actually if you click to purchase them, on the next screen the prices are correct. You wont get the deal you are thinking of.
  • Gameloft has promised to fix the IAP prices along with the social features in the next update.
  • My game doesn't load anymore after i did the codes 8x. I'm not a happy bunny.
  • That's really strange. Did you adjust the time or anything like that? And have you tried rebooting your phone?
  • Alot of people are experiencing this problem, just read the newer reviews in the marketplace
  • Ah, well they do have AN update in the works. I too hope it fixes that issue - all depends on whether they had discovered it when they submitted the patch.
  • Same here. Hope gamelofts update fixes it
  • These codes helped out a lot.  Thanks!
    Nice achievement guide too!
  • Good guide (not as good as mine however :P), but it seems you left out some of the achievements randomly?
  • I count 19 Achievements...
  • you have 18. There is 20 in the game. you are missing the achievements for the Starter Pack and Big Guys collections.
  • hi, whe i changed the name of  my village in one of  theese(
    Here are the codes: Alpenliebe (a caramel toffee candy sold outside the US) BestBuy Bonus Danimals (a brand of yogurt) McDonalds Post Saturn) how can i get the animal'sbonus?
    should i wait  the automatic daily bonus or i have to check in a specific page?friends, storage or what else.....
    thanks
  • WP Users, the game was updated at the end of May 2013 and the cheats were all disabled. Only clicking on Sid and Manny still gives players a bonus. Hopefully the Five Star bug has been fixed. Also, Android version has more features than Windows Phone so hopefully we still have another update coming soon.
  • Hi Paul. May I know what animals did you get from changing your village name? I'd tried McDonalds, Alpenliebe and Post but did not get any bonus from that. Oh, by the way, I play in Android.
  • I was wondering something. Why is it that the animals I got from the code words. Always cause my game to close when I tao on them. I can't even tap on them to move them without my game closing. I'm not happy about this cause by the looks of it I'll have to uninstall then re install again to get rid of them. Can anyone help me with this?????
  • That sounds like an unsual bug. I would report it to Gameloft support.
  • Hi! I'm at level 41 and I win 500,000 coins and snowy fox after tapping the sloth and the mammoth. P.S: Excuse me if my English is not perfect because I'm french.
  • That's a good reward. The amount of coins you get is definitely based on your current level.
  • I have a iPad and I can't seem to get the McDonalds or the Alpenliebe cheats to work !!!!
  • Anyone could tell me what will happen if for some reason I decide to reinstall the game?
  • Ice Age Village does not use cloud saves, so youwould lose your progress.
  • Hello, I'm french user of ice village game. This game is a good one. But why  - We not have the dino world ? (i've reached the 35 level but nothing, my wife with Android gave it à level 24) - We have less collection than Android or IOS version ? - We have less animals than Android or IOS version ? - Animals are more expensive on WP8 (exemple Leopard WP8 : 120 Acorns; Android : 80 Acorns) ?   Do you know if the WP8 version have an Update ? Thank you,  Regards,
  • Sadly, it seems that Gameloft does not intend to update the Windows Phone version of Ice Age Village. The versions on other platforms are better.
  • Hello! I write from Italy. I use a windows phone, Nokia Lumia 820, and play this game about 3 month but just 2 month ago a discover time bug and now i'm reached level 60. Last day i found this blog on line while i'm searching cheats for the game and receive White Fox. So happy, but unfurnately code bonuses doesn't work for me. I search italian blogs and name of code bonuses are the same but it say that they are for iOs or android.  Why code bonuses doesn't work for me? it's why i changed time in my game ( although now it's correct) ? I try code bonuses while i'm be offline and on line but nothing. Which is my mistake? Thank you very much for your response...