Becoming an Uplander

The easiest way to become an uplander is to spend the minimum amount of money and buy UPX (5 USD). Once you complete the following steps you will become an uplander.

• Join upland (4,500 UPX)
• Buy $5 worth of UPX (5,000 UPX*)
• Mint one property
• Complete Newbie collection (800 UPX) - read here to understand when is the best time to be filling the standard collections.

* There are certain referral codes, like ours that provide you with an additional 50% bonus on your first UPX purchase (up to $100). In the case you did use a referral bonus, you would receive 7,500 UPX.

Before deciding to spend the $5, the Upland Guide offers other promotions when using our referral code. It is worth checking those out before signing up. It's nice to get a 50% bonus on $5, but if you are willing to spend more you are still eligible to receive that same 50% bonus (up to a $100 purchase of UPX!) The Upland Guide also offers additional benefits when using our referral code.

If you aren't going to spend money, this is the best way to reach uplander, however it isn't always possible. There are a number of conditions that must be met to make it possible:

1. You must participate in a new city release,
2. The lower the city tier, the higher the likelihood that it is possible.  A new FSA neighborhood (neighborhood specifically geared towards new players, where the prices are the cheapest, and the high majority of the properties are FSA) is likely the best place to attempt this strategy.
3. You will need to participate and mint properties that cost less than 1600 UPX (or 1500 UPX if the city release is vanilla mode). It helps to have collected as much of the daily bonuses as possible prior to the city release. Take into account you may have to spend UPX to travel to this new city (varies depending on where you are). Use the Upland Guide Travel Bot in our Discord server to plan your travels.
4. If you minted a property before travelling to the new city, you will likely have difficulty completing the last step.

Its also worth reading about the optimal time to be completing these base collections.  The method below requires optimal game conditions for you to succeed, which do not always happen.

These are the steps to follow:

1. Join upland (4,500 UPX)
2. Log in every day for up to 3 weeks to receive a total of 775 UPX bonus for each week. It is recommended to have collected this bonus before the city release.
3. Mint your first property
4. Receive 100 UPX bonus for minting your first property
5. Mint 2 more properties on the same street
6. Complete the Newbie and King of the Street collections and receive 800 UPX and 950 UPX respectively.
7. Complete the city specific collection and receive the bonus (appx 650 UPX depending on the city). Since collections are not known for cities released in vanilla mode, this step is only possible after the collections are announced, typically more than one week after the release.
8. There is an FSA restriction where players can only mint 3 FSA properties each day. Wait 24 hours.  (Hopefully there will be more cheap properties available the next day.  You may have to resort to a hybrid model where you also ask for help from the community to receive visits - see the strategy below.)
9. Mint 2 more properties.
10. Complete the City Pro collection.  After 7 consecutive days of holding those properties in the collection, you will receive the 1200 UPX collection bonus.

If you managed to get to uplander status during a new city release, make sure to level up and start listing your properties for sale. Try to make 2 quick sales, because soon all the cheapest properties will be bought up. Keep in mind that there is a 2 sale per week FSA restriction, so you likely won't be able to buy too many more properties. This is why if all things are equal you should always mint a non-FSA property.

Chances are since you will be looking for properties in one of the cheaper neighborhoods, these 5 properties you own may not have much resale value. People likely focus on minting properties and not buying on the secondary market (especially in low value areas) during new releases, your properties might be difficult to sell at first for large markups.

For this reason we recommend paying to reach Uplander status. Having the flexibility to mint several properties, or one or two strategic ones during a city release is the best way to grow in Upland. If that is your strategy when joining Upland, handicapping yourself by not being an Uplander may not be a smart idea.

As a new player you may get your daily bonus during the first 21 days. This period is divided into 3 streaks of 7 days each. If you login to the game every 24 hours without breaking this interval (meaning not earlier) you will receive your daily bonus, which increases every day. If you break the 7 day login streak, your daily bonus will not increase daily and it's amount will be decreased to the one you received your very first day. The days limit remains the same - 21 days.

If you become an Uplander and break the rule mentioned above, you will be able to finish the current streak, but won't be able to start a new one. This means the 21 day period may be shortened for some users.

If you aren't able to reach uplander status by minting cheap properties as described above, you can also ask people for visits. The maximum visit fee varies depending on the city. The highest fee is 125 UPX. Head over to the official Upland discord server to ask for visits in the #visits channel. Start engaging in the community and hopefully people will give you some visits. This process could take quite a number of days depending on how much time you invest in this. This, in combination with logging in every day for 21 straight days should be able to get you to Uplander status.

We do not suggest this method of reaching upland for 3 main reasons.

1. We value your time. The following may not be true for everyone and this is a generalization for the masses. We believe that the time you will need to spend asking for visits is worth more than $5.
2. Always collect your daily bonus, but when this is your primary growth strategy you are missing out on other opportunities. A lot can happen in three weeks in Upland. You may not want to watch from the sidelines as the game continues to run forward as you slowly pick up daily bonuses.
3. Once you reach uplander status, your growth will also likely be very slow. If the properties you bought were the cheapest ones, but not in a desired neighborhood, you may be stuck with them without the ability to sell. This would bring you back to square one - properties that nobody want and no UPX. This will likely lead you to do the following - invest money to buy more properties, or get frustrated and abandon the game.
4. Buying UPX and using the referral code gives you a great bonus (additional 50%) on your initial $5 or any amount you decide to invest. The best way to achieve accelerated growth is by starting off by buying your way to uplander status - even if it is only $5.

Treasure hunting can be rewarding but it is also risky, especially as a new player. This involves sending yourself to properties around the city looking for a treasure. Treasure hunting has a learning curve, and it is possible to lose UPX on it as you learn and improve at it. Sending yourself to other properties involves using up a send a paying the visitor fee, and for this reason treasure hunting is best when you own a large network of properties scattered across a city because you do not have to pay a visitors fee or use a visit when sending yourself to your own property. Read more about sends and travelling here.
You can treasure hunt for free once per 24 hour period. If you find a treasure, you will win UPX. There is even a small chance you might win spark. If you do win spark, you will not receive it immediately. As a visitor, you will have until the upcoming Tuesday to level up to Uplander, otherwise you forfeit the spark reward. Some treasures have more UPX in them than others, so it is possible that even if you find a treasure you could be at a net loss due to your send costs.

If you are able to master treasure hunting quickly it is possible to win your way to uplander status. Before you start, we recommend reading our top 5 things to understand before treasure hunting before getting started.

If you are able to master treasure hunting quickly it is possible to win your way to uplander status. Before you start, we recommend reading our top 5 things to understand before treasure hunting before getting started.