I'm sure each of us have our own way of making villagers into Esteemed Elders (EEs), and I'd like to share all of our ideas for those who are trying to find their own strategy and need a little help.

I have found a strategy that works almost all the time. Every now and then, a villager dies before completing my "EE training program", but it's pretty rare. Even after I have created all 50 official EEs, I continue the program for each and every villager throughout the game. But instead of getting a token, I have my own official EE clothing to celebrate each of their accomplishments.

Here's my strategy.

1. If at all possible, while the villager is still a child, I use them to do the healing for anyone who's sick. Whenever someone is sick, I pause the game and go through all my villagers (oldest to youngest), and the first villager I find with 0 Doctor skill is the one I use to heal the sick villager. Early in the game, it's easier to do this with children, but not later (for reasons I'll explain later).

2. Any child who shows even the slightest skill of any kind, I select that skill. So when they turn 14, if I'm away, they will go to work right away instead of wasting away doing nothing.

3. When a villager turns 14, I begin their EE Training Program. Since I'm doing selective breeding, I will frequently have 3 to 5 villagers turn 14 at the same time. So I train all of the villagers simultaneously to save time.

4. First, I change their names to include a "T" at the end to help me keep track of my Trainees.

5. Then I switch all Trainees to the Doctor skill and move them to the blue flower (#2). If I have a lot of Trainees, then I sometimes have to pause the game to find them all. Once they start studying the flower, they'll each either say "no" or just walk away. Those that say "no" didn't gain any skill points; those that simply walk away do. Whatever the case, I keep dragging them back onto the flower. I finally stop when a villager walks away as a "Doctor Trainee". At that point, I leave that villager alone and continue training the remaining Trainees. Once all of the Trainees have reached "Doctor Trainee" skill, I then move them to their next skill.

I continue this process with every skill EXCEPT Parenting (that can really wreak havoc on things so I only do selective breeding, but this is probably not for everyone).

The order of training is:

1. Doctor
2. Builder
3. Research
4. Farmer

6. Once they have reached at least a Trainee status with all 4 of those skills, I leave them on Farmer. This will be their first skill to Master.

The order in which I have them master the skills is:

1. Farmer
2. Research
3. Builder

I have them master in Farming first because they walk faster when they're young, and farming requires a lot of walking. If they walk slowly, this can greatly increase the amount of time it takes for them to master Farming. Plus, I find that the villagers are pretty dedicated to their skills when young so they usually master in Farming pretty fast without being too badly distracted.

I have them master in Research second because they frequently get injured while researching. I have not studied this enough to be sure, but I think they heal from their injuries better when they're still young, as opposed to being Elderly or near Elderly. I also find that they tend to like Researching so they don't wander off too much; although, they do wander. I generally don't get onto them for wandering off.

Then I have them master in Building last because the time it takes for them to do this is highly variable, it doesn't require a whole lot of walking, and they don't get injured very often. So they can use as much time as they need to keep building until they finally master it.

I find that the villagers do not like building! They wander endlessly. They wash clothes; they do other skills; the play in the pond, eat, walk on the beach, get coconuts... they try to do anything except build! However, they do build. If left alone, even with all their wandering off, they usually master this skill.

If a villager is lagging behind, I mark their name with an "R" for redirect. That way, if I find then doing something other than building, I know to redirect them back to building immediately.

One a villager is 59-60 years old, if they have not yet mastered building, I focus on them very strongly. With a lot of villagers in the game, this can be hard. So I change their clothes to a special set of clothes that I use to "mark" them.

For the men, I use the brightly colored outfit that reminds me of a Jester. That outfit is easy to see amongst a crowd, and the Jester connotation works for me to suggest that they're jokesters and not workers which makes them somewhat a village idiot.

For the women, I use the black and white outfit. Those my age will remember the 101 Dalmatians movie and that it prompted many families to run out and get dalmatian puppies. This became a problem because dalmatian dogs are not very easy to train so many families dumped the dogs. So I consider the women in the black and white outfit to be my "village dalmatians" which I see as equal to a village idiot. Plus, the black and white outfit is also easy to spot amongst a crowd.

By marking these villagers with their "idiot" clothes, I can easily keep an eye on them. If I see them wandering around, on the beach, being lonely, or whatever, I immediately move them back to their skill. I also check on them often, even if they are doing their skills to be sure they're do the RIGHT skill and to make sure they're actually fixing a hut and not just examining it.

Generally, by doing this, the villager will master the last skill before becoming elderly which is my goal. I've had a couple that kept working after becoming elderly, but that was because they didn't like running or were a parent that started working on some of the skills a bit late.

Once they master all their skills, I celebrate it by changing their clothes to the red outfits. The men's outfit has a lot of black bands on it so I modified the women's red dress to match. I bumped the color to a red that more closely matches the men's outfits; plus, I added all the black arm/leg bands and belt. I also added a black band at the neck which accentuates the top of the dress which I really like (one arm bare).

The EE clothes helps me to easily pass them by when checking up on everyone's skills. I don't need to be concerned as to whether they've finished a skill because their clothing clearly marks that they've completed the entire EE Training Program. I switch them to Researching until they hit 65 years old so they won't be researching once they become Elderly. The EEs are allowed to do anything they want. They can wash clothes, hang around the beach or whatever. I never redirect them.


One thing that really helps is having each villager trained in all 4 skills at the very beginning. So when I'm checking up on them and discover one has mastered a skill, I can just check off the next skill without having to stop to train them. They will migrate over to their newly checked skill even if you do nothing. However, when I have the time, they seem to benefit from a couple rounds of reinforced training (a couple of times being successful). Since they were trained earlier, they are much easier to be successful than if I were trying to train them at their older age.


When an EE becomes elderly, not only do I take them off Researching, but I put them on Doctor. Keep in mind that EVERY villager is a Doctor Trainee at the very least. By having ALL of my Elderly EE's as Doctors, there are tons of villagers everywhere to heal a sick villager very quickly. I find that some EE villagers master as Doctors completely by accident, giving them 4 mastered skills!

This is very long so I'm going to post a second message as to how I train parents, especially the women, so they can still become EEs after a lifetime of parenting.