Just keep breeding them, sometimes it takes a few tries before you can get that ne: child that you will need. XD

There is a brilliant hint in some other thread on this forum: just checkmark the breeder skill as the preferred one on one of your male builders. Before you know it, multiple women (in my case: four within three minutes) are nursing

You don't have to have inborn skill to make an excellent builder; I too had a run of kids with no inherited building skill, so I just put them (2 at a time) on a project and watched for a little while to see if any had hidden talent. Some had no knack or desire at all, some made a little progress, but one, a researcher, went nuts, and now, at age 28, he has ~70% on his construction skill bar and 80% on his research bar.

Thanks Brett. I'm glad to hear that there is hope. I just can't seem to get any of my builders past that 70% mark!

One other crucial hint, not really a spoiler in my opinion: A builder apparently cannot make Master if s/he has never done beach cleanup. I gleaned this from careful reading of other posts, having had a LOT of frustration with this issue in previous attempts. So, this time, I made sure to postpone beach cleanup until I really needed it, and then made sure to force every teenager I could find to do it. As a result I now have two master builders, 46 and 52 years old, and maybe thus a shot at the mysterious Puzzle 12, I am told.

Sometimes a random Island Event will force another beach cleanup, but you can't count on this. I'm not absolutely sure the following is completely true, but my understanding is: No beach cleanup experience, no master builder, and you need at least one MB alive when you finally get all your tech levels to solve Puzzle 12.

Brett, I do not agree with your statement (but I am willing to be proved wrong). Considering there is only 1 definite beach cleanup, I am sure that I have had builders who have developed all their skills only after this puzzle has been completed.

I think what those posts are trying to say, is that if you finish all the puzzles offering building experience, the only way at present to gain more building experience, is to wait for another beach cleanup or two

Savi

There are at least 6 other opportunities after clearing the beach (and hut #1) to gain building experience. It is possible to get master builders after the beach, but it never hurts to get a head start. Don't wait to long to begin though, or you may run into food supply issues.

Who knows, maybe in a later version the villagers will be able to enjoy fine aquatic activities such as surfing, snorkeling, an parasailing. I can almost see the Golden Child flying the hull on a 16' catamaran. Oh well, we can dream, no?

Well, actually I hope I'm wrong too. It just seems to me that requiring beach cleanup experience puts one in too much of a time crunch to get everything done in the lifetime of one villager. Foodleking is correct, by my count there are about a half dozen activities which provide building experience IN ADDITION to beach and hut work. Seems reasonable there is enough variety there to make a Master Builder.

It is definately not necessary for a villager to clean the beach in order to become a master builder. This is just another task which can aid in the development of a master builder. I think the confusion arises because people lose thier masters late in the game and then have to wait for an island event to train a new one (cleaning the beach).
Personally, I do puzzle #12 at the same time I'm doing #9!!
Then, I don't run into the "no more master builders" problem!!

I was just able to get a villager (who has never cleaned a beach in his lifetime) to become a master builder from working on Puzzle #9 !!! YAY! And he is only in his 20's! ^_^