Is there a way to expand the main islands without gems?

No, after the purchase of the first island every other island is on sale for the first plot for gems. If you do not have the required number of facebook friends then the other plots sell for gems instead of gold. Except for the two special islands which sell for real money, those two you do not have to buy plots and they come with bonus items. Also you should only buy the islands when expansions are on sale.

I mean like, the first island you start off on is small. How do you expand? For the second island, if you dont spend the 20 gems to buy an expansion, can you still get it later, or are you stuck with the small island?

@pluxo You have to pay 20 gems to get it. Then you have to buy expansions with gold. Btw. Buy it when it is on 20 gems. Normally it costs 50 gems.

@pluxo said in How to expand island?:

I mean like, the first island you start off on is small. How do you expand? For the second island, if you dont spend the 20 gems to buy an expansion, can you still get it later, or are you stuck with the small island?

No they will always be available for expansion, the only change would be the cost.

May you direct me on how to start expanding?

So I just found out the hard way that spending the 20 gems just unlocks a few of the locked areas, it does not make your island bigger.

@pluxo said in How to expand island?:

So I just found out the hard way that spending the 20 gems just unlocks a few of the locked areas, it does not make your island bigger.

I am confused as to what you mean by making an island bigger. The islands do not get bigger, when you expand you are buying more islands not enlarging existing islands. For each island you have to buy the 12 plots to have access to the entire island. The first plot sells for gems, the other 11 for gold. You have to buy the islands in order. Once an island beccomes visible you can begin clearing off the debris for gold but you cannot use them until you buy them. This applies to the 12 regular islands.

Also the 12 regular islands have caged dragons on them, you cannot use the space they are occupying until you either buy them or clear them to send them back to the dragonverse. If you lear them, they are gone forever, unless of course they are put in the shop or in an event.

The 2 specialty can be purchased for real money, they do not have any plots, you get the entire island for one price and there are no requirements before you can buy it. Keep in mind I am not sure if there are any game level requirements for these.

EDIT: Wonder island requires level 12, Marvel island did not give me a requirement banner in a level 9 account so maybe that one is available to everyone.

@pluxo Nyn explained it perfect. To buy plots on the islands you need neighbors. That are friends on facebook who also play Dragon City. How many you need is shown in the expansion picture in the build section.

Im so sorry. When I visited a guy level 100 it seemed like his main island was 6x the size of mine. I figured there was a way to enlarge an island.

@nynaevelan This is on the Facebook version only, right? I have had no trouble buying the other plots for gold even though I don't have my Facebook connected. The first plot on new islands excluded of course, those still cost gems.

@pluxo @Leto I am sorry. I gave out wrong informations. You dont need friends anymore to buy plots for gold. That was changed. But if you dont have enough gold you have to use gems.

@bettina-löffler said in How to expand island?:

@pluxo @Leto I am sorry. I gave out wrong informations. You dont need friends anymore to buy plots for gold. That was changed. But if you dont have enough gold you have to use gems.

Thanx for the clarification, maybe that is why I was only seeing the costs in gems, that acct is only level 9 and has very little gold. I can test and confirm this on my gaming accounts tomorrow when they buy the next island in the expansion sale.

Fyi even though all my gaming accounts are linked to fb, I only use the Google sign in to switch between accounts because it is easier and quicker, so no friends show up.

How is that so? Ever since I linked my FB it requires friends. Even when I disconnect from FB and use Play.

@bettina-löffler said in How to expand island?:

@pluxo @Leto I am sorry. I gave out wrong informations. You dont need friends anymore to buy plots for gold. That was changed. But if you dont have enough gold you have to use gems.

Ok this is what my level 9 account needs, this is with the Google login.

This is with the same account logged into facebook.

Perhaps this change is for accounts which started after they made the change? I will test this some more with other accounts tomorrow.

@nynaevelan said in How to expand island?:

@bettina-löffler said in How to expand island?:

@pluxo @Leto I am sorry. I gave out wrong informations. You dont need friends anymore to buy plots for gold. That was changed. But if you dont have enough gold you have to use gems.

Ok this is what my level 9 account needs, this is with the Google login.

This is with the same account logged into facebook.

Perhaps this change is for accounts which started after they made the change? I will test this some more with other accounts tomorrow.

I will take a ss from husbands babyaccount later.

@bettina-löffler nope all my baby accounts still need their Facebook friends. I think this new change is for accounts which started after a certain point. Maybe later I will start a new one just to see which option it gets.

@nynaevelan Sorry for the bad quality. I hope you can see the zero there.