Overview of Animal Jam Insiders

Hey jammers! Over the weekend I got the new Animal Jam Insiders guide, and read through it all during the afternoon.

 It was pretty good! There were a few minor errors; most that are acceptable for a guidebook for a game that constantly changes, but overall it was great! The layout was nice and while I'm sure only long-time players are going to buy it, Animal Jam Insiders certainly is an informative thing to start with on AJ.

It talks about all of the basic stuff; how not to be scammed, information about each animal and land, but even if you think you know it all already there are some interesting pieces on inspiration for each land, as well as information on that particular environment.

Even though in a year or so AJ will be completely different and this guide will be a puzzle missing pieces, there is some interesting educational content about everything! From rocks that move on their own to the koala's dietary habits, this guide keeps the "Animal" in Animal Jam.

To begin, here is a brief overview of what this guide includes, ordered by frequency:

1. Educational material about nature, which actually is pretty interesting.

2. General knowledge you would normally be acquainted with after playing for a few months.

3. A whole new elaboration of the story of Jamaa.

4. Little bits to give us guesses on what new things will come, but nothing clearly stated.

It takes a bit long if you read every single page, and took me about an hour and a half to read without pause. If you get this and are serious about reading, make some time!

Before you continue reading, here is a key:

Probabilities for the future are colored green.

New information is blue.

Things of note are brown.

Part 1: Jamaa's Beginnings

The whole book begins with a newer and (in my opinion) better take on the ever-changing story of Jamaa. I'm not going to copy everything down word-for-word and make people who already ordered the book feel cheated out of their money. I'll leave the majority out, but focus in on the major changes.

This is a possible *spoiler*, but to repeat, this is not the whole story.

It focuses in on a peaceful time in Jamaa. Everyone is together and happy... but then they're not. They become exclusive in friendships, which causes underlying tension in their world.

Next thing you know, phantom portals are popping up everywhere! Mira's tears are not mentioned anywhere, much unlike the originally told story. 

The phantoms all look the same and act the same, but the main thing the phantoms are antagonized for now is the pollution they spread into the air, the water, and into the earth. Pretty scary, actually.

Mira's creation was not told anywhere, but may be added on later. Mira and Zios are no longer Sky Mother and Sky Father, but guardian spirits. They may or may not be different words for the same things.

Heartstones are introduced! Heartstones were referred to in a very old Jamaa Journal around 2010, either by the same or different names. There are Heartstones for each species, and when a new animal is discovered, it isn't the animal being discovered, but the Heartstone! No wonder why there are so little animals in Jamaa in comparison to real Earth.

And finally, after some events I'll leave you to read about in the book, some loose ends on Mira and Zios' disappearance are tied up. They're sucked into phantom portals!

This will probably lead the way to a brand new adventure– quite possibly the last and the hardest one –where you have to rescue them!

The story is much more fleshed out and longer than the older ones, and is actually pretty good for something AJ might write. This short blurb doesn't really do it justice, so if you're getting the book, don't be discouraged by this new information.

Part 2: Hints

There aren't many really obvious hints about future events or abilities, but here are a few... hints of hints that you may want to take note of.

1. Heartstones are said to have been hidden in the basement under the Chamber of Knowledge. Confused? Find the trap door on the first floor.

2. On the list of animals, a special symbol was noted to be next to aquatic animals, or animals you can play as that can go to places like Kani Cove. This symbol was next to a crocodile, but as of now you cannot swim as a crocodile. Crocodiles can swim in salt water, and they haven't been getting much attention from players recently so this would be a very likely thing to happen in the future.

3. Hints are still being dropped about the bridges breaking. In the Alpha Notes, Graham remarks "[...]the bridge has not broken– yet. I wonder what will happen when it does..." (page 116). As of now, all signs point to the bridges breaking finally at some point during some update.

I wonder in the future how many of these predictions will prove right!

Part 3: Things of Note

Looking through, I found at least one thing that could prove unfortunate if the player takes action on it. On the wolves page, it says that Arctic Wolves can be purchased only with a gift card while they can be acquired in the Diamond Shop. I'm pretty sure this is a mistake.

For now, this is all I have on the new AJ Insiders guide. I will add on to it maybe at a later date, but for now...

Jam on!

~DoomyPanda