Niche - Everything to know about Travel Ports

With a clear description of each travel port, this guide aims at helping Niche players to anticipate migrations from an island to another and travel with confidence.

About the Author / Support

Hello ! My pseudo is Jekkil.

I like strategy games the most but also enjoyed puzzles and other cool games like Niche. I like to fully explore games and unlocking the achievements is one of the best ways.

I had a lot of fun creating this guide : exploring the world, taking pictures, drawing tables and diagrams, organizing the sections.

If you apreciate the guide, if it is helpful and you would like to express your gratitude, I would be more than happy to get some collectible cards to improve my badges (from this game or another).

Thank you, enjoy the guide, enjoy the game !

Introduction

In the game Niche, you are leading a herd of Nichelings on an island. From time to time you'll need or want to migrate to other islands through the use of Travel Ports.

Each Travel Port leads to a specific island and this guide will help you recognize them all. You'll be able to answer the question : "Where does this Travel Port lead ?"

Then if you're asking yourself "How many nichelings can travel to the next island?", this guide will make sure you do not forget anyone behind (unpurposely).

After that, you'll find some information regarding the travel rules and be able to answer the question : "How can I get to this Island I want to visit ?"

Where does this Travel Port lead ?

Each Island can be accessed through a recognizable Travel Port. A Travel Port consists in a Stele and several tiles, the Port Area. To know what Island is next, you'll need to identify the Travel Port characteristics :

• its stele type
  
• its tile base
  
• its tile decoration

Stele

Travel Stele are erected grey stones. There is one stele in each Travel Port (for a total of 2 or 3 on each island). There are three types of Travel Stele : with or without flowers, with or without a skull. These differences indicate the difficulty level of the Island :

Stele	Flowers at base	Nothing on top	Topped with a skull
Island level	Easy *	Medium **	Hard *** Killer ****
Pict.

In previous versions of the game, all the steles were identical. The differences pictured here were implemented somewhere between v1.0.7 and v1.2.3.

Tile base

Islands in Niche are associated with a main Biome. They differ one from another in fauna, flora, and climate. One can know what type of Biome is to be expected on the next island by identifying the tile base of the Travel Port :

Biome	Temperate	Jungle	Swamp	Hot climate	Cold climate	Whale (special)
Pict.
Desc.	green grass	blue-green leaves	mud-green leaves	yellow grass	dark blue	light blue

Tile decoration

The final difference between Travel Ports is the decoration one can find on the tiles of the Travel Area.

Decoration	Pink Flowers	Branches	Bones	Skeleton	Tall grass	Reeds
Pict.
Desc.	Random number	Random number	Random number	Fills all the tiles of Port Travel Area	removable	removable

* Easy Island Travel Ports Table

	Tiny Green *	Peaceful Meadow *	Grass Adventure *	Archipelago *
Stele / Tile / Decoration
Comments	Identical to Peaceful Meadow * and Grass Adventure *	Identical to Tiny Green * and Grass Adventure *	Identical to Tiny Green * and Peaceful Meadow *	Stele without flower the first time from Grass Adventure * ?

** Whale Island

	To Whale Island **	To the island of your choice	Whale's head
Stele / Tile / Decoration
Comments	-	Found only on Whale Island **	-

** Medium Island Travel Ports Table

	Grass Mingle **	Burning Savanna **	Rain Forest **	Overgrown Jungle **	Swampy Hill **	First Snow **
Stele / Tile / Decoration
Comments	-	-	-	-	-	-

*** Hard Island Travel Ports Table

	Crossing ***	Oasis ***	Jungle Gate ***	Sleepy Reeds ***	Summer Mountains ***	Long Winter ***
Stele / Tile / Decoration
Comments	Identical to Deadly Hills ****	-	-	Sometimes, no bones	-	-

- From Overgrown Jungle ** to Sleepy Reeds ***, there are no bones on the Travel Port because the tiles are or were covered with giant plants.

**** Killer Island Travel Ports Table

	Deadly Hills ****	Deep Jungle ****	Frost Lands ****	Home Island ****
Stele / Tile / Decoration
Comments	Identical to Crossing ***	Branches are optional	-	Only found on Crossing ***

How many Nichelings can travel to the next island?

The maximum number of Nichelings you can bring to the next island is given by the number of tiles in the Port Travel Area : one nicheling per tile. When you activate the stele to travel, a warning reminds you that any Nicheling outside it will be left behind.

The number of tiles in the Travel Port Area is the same as the Arrival Port Area. The only difference is that there is no Travel Stele at the Arrival Port : you can't go back.

Departure	Arrival
15 blue-green tiles with branches and a stele topped with a skull.	Arrival at Jungle Gate with 15 blue-green tiles with branches ; there is no turning back.

Port travel Area borders

When you are ready to move your nichelings to the next island, move them within the Travel Port Area. We are talking about the tiles surrounding the Travel Stele. Most of the time, the Travel Port Area is clearly identifiable as it differs in color and pattern from the rest of the island. It's a flat area at the lowest altitude of the island ground.

Identification	Easy	Difficult
Pict.
Comments	Clear color difference (grass and sand vs. blue tiles and bones) and a small step.	Both Travel Port Area and Island are of the Swamp biome. Only a small step allows the player to see the limit of the area.

Number of tiles in the Travel Port Area

The number of tiles you can use to travel can be one the the following : 5, 7, 10 or 15.

To	Easy Islands *	Whale Island **	Medium Islands **	Hard Islands ***	Killer Islands ****	Home Island ****
Through West Port	10 / 15	-	10	10 (/15)	-	-
Through East Port	10	15	10	7 / 10	5 (/10)	-
Through North Port	-	-	10	5 / 7	5	5
Through Whale Port	15	-	15	15	15	15

Some other general observations :
- Number of tiles at the West Port ≥ East Port ≥ North Port.
- (/xx) in the table are observations made only when travelling from Crossing *** and Home Island ****.

In the following screenshot, the Nichelings arrived on Crossing *** from Home Island **** where there were 10 tiles in the Travel Port Area. From here, the Nichelings can travel :
- West to Sleepy Reeds *** (10 tiles), or
- East to Deep Jungle **** (10 tiles), or
- North to Home Island **** (5 tiles).

How can I get to this Island I want to visit ?

Islands port are randomly chosen when you settle on a new island. Even though it's random, there is some logic behind it. Understand the basic rules, have a look at my home made map and you'll be a true Nicheling Navigator in no time.

Travel Rules

Rule number 1 : Nichelings always arrive at an island from its South extremity.
Rule number 2 : Nichelings can never go back to a previously visited island (but you can keep visiting new islands of a biome you already explored). It also means that you'll never encounter Nichelings you left behind (nor their offsprings).
Rule number 3 : Nichelings can only travel forward, using the Travel Ports found on their current Island (West, East and/or North side).
Rule number 4 : Travel Ports will always lead to islands of types differing from the current island (e.g. : Nichelings can't travel to Tiny Green * from Tiny Green *, not even to Whale Island ** from Whale Island **).

Generally (but not always) :
- travelling West will get your Nichelings to an island of a lower difficulty level.
- travelling East will get your Nichelings to an island of an equal difficulty level.
- travelling North will get your Nichelings to an island of a higher difficulty level.

Simplified Travel Map

This is only a simplified map, which shows the general principles. Please refer to the next section for all possible paths.

> Detailed Travel map !

(Without considering Whale Island) Have you ever noticed that there is only one way to reach Long Winter *** or Overgrown Jungle ** ? Have you ever noticed that when you choose to travel West from a Killer island, it always leads to the same type of Island ? Well, please find below the result of my observations after hundreds of migrations. I tried to draw the following maps as completely as possible. If you find paths I haven't explored yet, please share a printscreen and I'll update them.

[eryoshimura]

Woah, whale island is supposed to be cool? I thought it was annoying. Great guide!

[demonlady84]

I would be lost without this. Thanks for all the effort.

[SInfulPrince]

Thank you for making this! Super Helpful!!! ^-^

[bearfamily]

ya taffy true

[taffyswirl]

This is the best in depth guide for island travel period, it helped me figure some things and you clearly put in a lot of work so thank you for making this guide :)