Year 1 Spring Guide: How to Make Money and Underwhelm People (TL;DR: Fish and then Plant)

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Shoukry, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. Shoukry

    Shoukry Big Damn Hero

    You would have saved up to 6,500g by chopping, but you still would have been short ~6,000g if you filled all of the plots with Melons or Blueberries. Silos are cheap too: 200g. The cows are 6,000g and the chickens are 3,200g. I guess I'm slightly confused now how you made less than 110,000g if you bought all of that now. Do you have an upload.farm link, by chance?

    Regardless, yes, I had the Greenhouse in Spring, and it coupled with the Joja membership is 40,000g; but I had some extra rainy days and some good RNG with getting a lot of Catfish bites on said rainy days, which made for some really nice profits. I didn't sell any Catfish before I had Angler, which means, if all the Catfish were basic, the least I would made off of Catfish is ~17,000g. Most were gold, however. So the number is closer to 25,000g. It's a decent chunk of change from one fish. The faster Fisher and Angler (especially Angler) are reached, the more money you will passively earn by refraining from immediately selling fish with the heavy dosage of fishing in the first two weeks. I would hazard to guess that, because I've done this start several times before and I've had practice with it, I might do a bit better than someone doing it for the first time.

    It is great you are trying to do more with animals in your game: I very much want to do a foraging/ranching playthrough (finally) next, and try to make Leah like me. Maybe I will even rebuild the Community Center again so Emily alone will wander inside once a month, or however infrequently it is. More often than not, I would rebuild it if the villagers used it or if it meant more in the game; but since it stays unoccupied for the most part, why bother?
     
    • Reuter

      Reuter Space Spelunker

      No. I don't use that site ever. I'm pretty sure it was under 110k. I restarted a lot of days to lol. Trying to follow your guide I forgot a lot of things. Usually I forgot selling things in the morning for the upgrades and i'd remember in the middle of the day and restart or that I needed to upgrade a tool and I didn't make any bars for it yet.

      What do you do during summer? How do you guys get so many kegs by the winter like in your screenshots? I feel kinda lost now because I've never had this much stuff and i feel like I've been wasting the days until my blueberries harvest cuz I have to much time without watering things. I'm on the 9th and I have a couple days before the blueberries harvest and I can't catch the stupid sturgen for the fish bundle. I want to get the 10million achievement before the 2nd year ends.
       
      • kners

        kners Subatomic Cosmonaut

        Make as many quality sprinklers as you can (and iridium if you have) until you have no more space.
        Also many many tappers for oak and then many many kegs for all this crops u will get.
        For sturgeon just buy Iridium rod and trap bobber.
         
        • Shoukry

          Shoukry Big Damn Hero

          I'll try to keep this as short as possible... I can extrapolate more if you need.
          A bit like @kners stated, I would recommend to expand your farm a wee bit more and get the Iridium Rod with either the Trap Bobber or Cork Bobber. (I prefer the Trap Bobber, but I know some like the bigger fishing bar.) Typically, I end up with about 100 Quality Sprinklers outside, which is 800 crops. This many crops is more than enough to get you to the 10 million gold if they are processed. Since I have no idea what your money situation is or anything else other than what you had on Summer 1, I will simply assume you have done nothing else to expand.

          Summer Recommendations
          • Mining for more Quality Sprinkler mats on Summer 9-11 to reach 100 Quality Sprinklers
          • Plant Melon Seeds in any available sprinkler plots on Summer 12 -- do not water unless you are hellbent on using the watering can
          • Harvest Melons on Summer 25; plant Wheat Seeds to replace
          • Decide if you want Pumpkins or Cranberries in Fall -- I recommend Pumpkins with Deluxe Speed-Gro for 3 reasons: (1) the initial cost is less than Cranberries (144,000g vs. 192,000g); (2) three Pumpkin harvests is more profitable than 5 Cranberries harvests (540,800g vs. 464,000g); (3) 2,400 Pumpkins takes much less effort to process than 8,000 Cranberries
          • Wheat will be reaped on Fall 1 (save it for Kegs); dead Blueberries can be cleared on Fall 1: all fields will be hoed, watered, and ready to plant
          • If you want Pumpkins, save 64,000g for 800 Deluxe Speed-Gro from Sandy on Summer 25
          • Chop trees, fraternize with the villagers, and mine until 5 PM any other day. Do what you want, really. Be at the Ocean by 6 PM and fish your nights away. Super Cucumbers come out at 6 PM and Halibut come out at 7 PM and everything else disappears. So you are either catching Super Cucumbers, Halibut, or Seaweed for the rest of the night. Super Cucumbers will be 562g and Halibut will be 180g. 8-10 Super Cucumber catches are plausible from 6-2. Good money for a third of a day of fishing.
          • If you want Kegs, (I like Kegs; less upkeep: I’m lazy) plant as many acorns as you have and mine copper and iron in the mornings
          Fall Recommendations
          • All plots should be hoed and watered on Fall 1 already so plant your crops
          • Spend your day how you want and continue to fish in the Ocean at night if you need money
          • If you want Preserves Jars, (higher upkeep; better gold per day if constantly filled) I would just buy them: 50 Wood, 40 Stone, and 8 Coal is 2,500g apiece. Save 400g if you want to buy Wood and turn it into Coal yourself in the Charcoal Kiln. (I’m lazy and don’t want to tend the Kilns every 30 minutes.) Two Sheds, 1.5 Barns, or 1 Deluxe Barn full of Preserves Jars (~130) will process all of your Pumpkins by your first Spring harvest. Selling 60% of your first Pumpkin harvest, as is, will buy an entire Shed of Preserves Jars if you don’t want to fish or mine to craft them. Three batches of Pickled Pumpkins will be done by the next harvest, (197,000g) which can buy you the next Shed and 68 Preserves Jars if you want to be lazy again
          Winter Recommendations
          • Buy ~100 Deluxe Speed-Gro from Sandy on Fall 25
          • Forage the first three days and make as many foragable Wild Seeds (Wi) as possible; turn any extra Winter Roots into Wild Seeds (Wi) in the Seed Maker
          • Plant all Wild Seeds (Wi) with Deluxe Speed-Gro on Winter 3; you will probably have at least 60 with the 30 from the Community Center bundle
          • Buy a few hundred more Deluxe Speed-Gro on Winter 4 (Replenish Deluxe Speed-Gro on untilled spaces for 5-day harvests every time); continue buying more Deluxe Speed-Gro on Thursdays from Sandy -- buy enough Deluxe Speed-Gro for Spring on Winter 18 because she is closed on Winter 25
          • Craft Wild Seeds (Wi) from the harvested foragables every five days (you should max at 800 plots by the fourth planting); make more packs with any foragables you find off of the farm; replant Wild Seeds (Wi) on Winter 28 for hoed and watered plots on Spring 1; make enough packs for next Winter; sell extra Winter Roots, Crocuses, and Snow Yams; and process the Crystal Fruit
          • Keep building Kegs
          In Year 2, three Starfruit harvests of 800 that are kegged, and three Pumpkin harvests of 800 each that are pickled is almost 10 million excluding everything else. ~220 Kegs and ~130 Preserves Jars should do it.
           
            Last edited: Mar 18, 2017
          • ihateyu

            ihateyu Tentacle Wrangler

            Wanted to nick this thread from its final throes before it is forever buried because very few, unique posters have commented. I want to say I'm not a min/maxer, nor am I a fan of this type of playstyle. Although I detest min/maxing, I find I take bits and pieces from various guides and meld them into my playstyle because I'm a fan of guides, and the meticulous detail you've put into this is tops. I especially enjoy the notes as it's simple to hear your voice in them compared to the rote, line-by-line instructions. I wanted to implore you to continue to write guides, as you mentioned this is your first, and it is a good, albeit lengthy, guide. I've no idea what kinds of guides, owing to the nature of the game, but...something. Cheers.
             
            • Immaterial

              Immaterial Void-Bound Voyager

              I just wanted to say thanks for this - I keep meaning to do a Joja run, but the whole self-insert thing stops me. Well, I named my new farmer Gaston and decided he would be all about the profits.

              Didn't do as well as you, got to most benchmarks a day or two behind. The salmonberries were less awesome than yours - I hit foraging 6 on the second day of berry picking (so level 5 for the 15th), and ended up with 228 salmonberries in total for the 4 days, despite checking everywhere (except the secret forest - I had picked the Forest farm so that a copper axe allowed me to get 8 hardwood stumps per day, meaning I didn't feel pressure to hit the iron axe on time, which was just as well since I didn't get to iron as fast as you did). Still, I'm a week into Summer now and still have ~100 berries left, so it's worked out pretty well.

              On Summer 1 I had:

              -All iron tools except the watering can (I had the money to upgrade, but felt I wasn't likely to use it so I kept the money)
              -28 quality sprinklers (I had 40 by the end of Summer 2, and enough for all my berries & hops by the end of Summer 3)
              -About 36k gold? Enough to buy 64 hops starters and just under 400 blueberries
              -The greenhouse (unlocked it on Spring 27)
              -A horse
              -level 110 reached in the mines
              -Level 6 in Farming, Mining and Foraging. Level 10 fishing (I think I got there around spring 16 or 17), but only level 3 combat
              -First backpack upgrade + fibreglass rod (bought on the 3rd - I only caught 4 catfish that day, but one of those was the one that pushed me from level 2 to 3 and made the other 3 much easier to get lol)
              -Total earnings just over 125k
              -Edit: One heart with 3 people - Linus (for the reasons you did); Robin (mostly for the axe), and Leah (who kept walking past my fishing spot just as I caught something on rainy days)

              I also have not succeeded in finishing the Initiation quest for the adventurer's guild yet. The text says green slimes, and I know I've killed my 10 of those, but the thing at the bottom says I have only killed 3 of the 10 required rock crabs. I must have killed one of those as the first combat I didn't run away from on my second day in the mines? Unsure how this bug works. I guess I should go back down to the shallow levels and kill another 7 rock crabs...

              I've now got 4 fruit trees (2 peach and 2 pomegranate) growing in the greenhouse, and I'm adding to them each time I get enough gold. I expect my first blueberry harvest will speed that up - I'll put hops down once the trees are grown. I have one ancient fruit growing outside - it should fruit soon (it went down around the 8th of Spring, but I can't remember if I watered it on the 28th of Spring, and I know I didn't water it when the can was being upgraded to copper), and then I can start using ancient fruit in between the trees and the hops. Next thing: oak trees :)

              tl;dr: My run was not as awesome as yours, but I still call it a success :)
               
              • Shoukry

                Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                @Immaterial Glad it helped. If I may ask, when did you start to fall behind on the benchmark days and which benchmarks seemed most difficult to reach? Only 228 Salmonberries makes me very, very sad for you. In my experience, the Secret Forest seems to be good for ~5 bushes a day, so that would still put you quite a few below 300. Bad deal. But I wouldn't have rushed for the Steel Axe either on the foraging map since it gives more daily hardwood -- and so much more convenient! -- than the Secret Forest.

                I agree with not upgrading your watering can again: it's very rare I use it after Spring; I think I like the idea of upgrading all of the tools to the same level so that was my goal with writing it into the guide. Just a few quick questions for you: you have 400 Blueberries and 64 Hops, does that mean you ended with ~60 Quality Sprinklers by Summer 3? Did you end up going with Strawberries or Potatoes as your main experience crop? And how much did you need to fish in the last week?

                The Adventurer's Guild bug is nothing I've ever encountered: that is bizarre. No, I would definitely say your Spring sounds like a success: Greenhouse, Stable, 35,000g, 4 fruit trees, and almost 500 crops. That's great! It makes me sad you weren't able to have all the sprinklers ready, but the Blueberries don't need to be watered until Summer 3 to get all 4 harvests, anyway; and I'm really sad about your lack of Salmonberries. Good luck with your kegging operation though! I'm too lazy to harvest Hops every day and refill my kegs so often because I'm the type who refills them every Saturday, but I usually forget to refill them on Saturday and remember to refill them a few days later on Tuesday or Wednesday...
                 
                • Immaterial

                  Immaterial Void-Bound Voyager

                  I'm not planning to fully min/max - once I have enough money for the 12 trees inside the dirt section, I'll stop fishing - and I'm only planning to process the stuff in the greenhouse (so my fields are going to be sold as-is).

                  I have three fields with scarecrows, but two of them are missing a row on the right side due to the shape of the forest farm - so that makes 54 sprinklers. So my "just under 400" must actually be 369 (I had one blueberry left over after planting all my fields).

                  As best as I can recall re: benchmarks:
                  I fished the river on Spring 3 - I'm not good enough to catch every catfish starting at fishing 2. I ended the day on fishing 4, with 4 silver catfish for my trouble.
                  Spring 5 I only got 35 copper ore - so I decided I was going to be a day behind on upgrading the copper axe, since I didn't need the iron one immediately (due to hardwood stumps), and getting the extra 10, coming back, smelting it, then getting to the blacksmith before 4 would eat into the day too much. I did get to level 15, though.
                  Spring 6 I didn't have 300 wood, so I made a couple of extra chests and put off the 300 wood until the following week (when I had a copper axe and chopping was easier anyway). I think it was also another rain day, so I didn't want to waste too much time foraging when there were catfish to hunt. I got 6 catfish the second rainy day. Finished on fishing 6.
                  Spring 7 - axe went in for copper upgrade. This was the last day I looked for spring onions - in the 7 days of looking I got a total of 2 onions (I got 11 the day I went for Robins axe, but that was during salmonberry season anyway, so I just rolled my eyes at the RNG). I was eating chub and smallmouth bass in the mines for most of the first two weeks.
                  Spring 8 I passed out on level 39 of the mines. I was a little annoyed about that, because I hit level 38 at about 10pm, and level 39 around 11-11:30, but the level was large, full of monsters, and I still had about 3 stones unturned when 2am came about. C'est la vie - getting to 40 should have been doable, but 75 ore probably wasn't if I began at a realistic midnight or so.
                  RNG loved me about rainy days - I got 6 of them during the season (if you wanted to know how I got 125k gold when I was eating all my chubs and smallmouth bass for the first two weeks). I can't remember the other days that rained - but all of them were days Leah went to the pub.
                  Spring 11 - watering can upgrade
                  Spring 13 was egg hunt. I bought 102 strawberries (I just sold all my fish the night before, and it came to 10,246g). I didn't plant any potatoes on the 16th, but I did on the 21st (60 of them). I was already slightly behind on mine benchmarks and I didn't want to be wasting extra time each morning if I could help it.
                  Spring 14 was hoe; spring 17 and 19 were pickaxe (2 of the 4 days I was without it rained - I remember thinking it was really good timing). There was a day in between there because of lack of funds, and because I hadn't hit fishing 10 (quite), and didn't want to sell more fish than I needed to before getting the 50% price buff. Spring 17 was also the horse - 3 days behind yours
                  Axe went in on spring 21 and hoe again on spring 24. I could have done the watering can on spring 27, but I didn't (the extra day for 13th and 23rd were because upgrading on odd days is futile with festival days). I got the money to join Joja on the 23rd, but it turns out they're closed for festivals too (I was actually surprised by this, and just went mining again - and was careful to get home by 1:30am due to large amounts of cash burning a hole in my pocket. Why on earth would *Joja* take the day off for the flower dance? I had actually thought it was fitting to betray the town while they were all out enjoying a dance that I couldn't be bothered with! Ah well, so much for roleplaying lol)
                  I paid for the greenhouse on the 26th (sold a whole bunch of gems to pay for that - turns out getting diamonds in fishing chests on the regular Really Helps), had it built on the 27th.
                  I was one day behind your schedule getting to level 80, which I suppose makes sense since I was a day behind getting the iron pickaxe.
                  I had amazing luck with coal - my very first day on level 0 I got 3 chests with 10 coal each in them; this was not a normal day, but I got coal from chests on the regular and did not end up needing a charcoal kiln. I ended up using all my quartz except 3 on sprinklers and lightning rods. I made 6 the first rainy day in Spring, because I had only killed enough bats to get 30 wings - the next day was rainy too, so I went back down the mines and hunted for bats. By the third day in a row of rain I not only had sprinklers everywhere but I has 12 lightning rods - though I had lost 4 crops to lightning strikes before that.
                  I hand watered my un-sprinkler'd crops on Summer 2 and 3. I knew I'd have the sprinklers soon enough so it wasn't a bother. Good to know I had an extra day up my sleeve, though.
                  I think I fished on rainy days in the last week, but mined the rest - I got down to level 90 two days after hitting 81, and the obsidian edge just made everything better. I know I was worried about how much cash I would have for blueberries if I didn't fish - I had worked out that selling 200(ish) strawberries would get me the funds to buy 330 blueberries, but I sold my first harvest of strawberries to buy the greenhouse. Trees didn't go into the greenhouse until a few days into Summer - blueberries came first, then fishing money has been going to fruit trees.

                  When I first saw your guide, I incorporated some of it into my existing new game - mostly the tips about mining ore on levels 21, 41 and 81, but also the idea of having a small enough gold balance to not be concerned about passing out. But that one is a normal community centre run, and I was focusing on getting someone to dance with me at the first festival (Shane did! And I only had 3 people not on at least 2 hearts at the end of the Spring! Success!), so a lot of it was inapplicable. Starting a run just to do Joja and see how good a power start I could get has been fun :) I think I'll relax a bit, now - I don't need to hit 10 million by the end of year 2, though I would like to hit 2 million cash on hand to buy the return sceptre at some point in year 2 (much more relaxed a goal than getting three fields of sprinklers set up for the start of the first Summer!)

                  Thanks once again for so well-written a guide - and also for one that can be attempted as-is with a reasonable success - I'm an adequate fisher but no expert, and I'm really poor at time management. I think my awesome luck and terrible luck were probably over all a wash - most people will get more moderate on both halves. But I'd also like to thank you for writing the type of guide that it *is* possible to take parts of and ignore others if you have other goals. So thanks again :)

                  [P.S. I might well end up scrapping the hops in favour of ancient fruit, since the trees only need harvesting every 3rd day, so something you can look in on occasionally might end up being better. But a min-maxed greenhouse with a slight laissez-faire outer farm suits my current mood... We'll see :-D ]
                   
                  • Shoukry

                    Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                    I miss quite a few Catfish on Spring 3 as well; I probably catch a little more than half of the Catfish bites that first rainy day, which seems to be 5-10 in my backpack.

                    The Saturday foraging is more of a habit for me. I really enjoy looking for the foragables, but it certainly isn't a mandatory thing to reach Foraging 4 in time as you showed.

                    This is excellent information for me. You, Filmstudy, and Reuter have all mentioned reaching my fishing milestones much later than I have, so I went back and edited those earlier today. If I focus entirely on fishing on Spring 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12 (and if I reach mining milestones before the day is over, I go back out and fish with however much time I have left), then I can always hit Fishing 10 before I pass out on Spring 12. Maybe a little less than half of the time I can reach Fishing 10 by Spring 11 depending on if I'm doing better than normal with perfect catches. This would be a significant difference between my earnings and what others have responded with so I need to temper expectations in regards to this. Unfortunately, if Fishing 10 is reached on Spring 12, the 50% Angler bonus doesn't seem to work correctly for fish sold that night. If I go into the details of what I sell, it shows the fish as selling for 50% more instead of 25% more, but the amount on the main screen, and the next day, reflect the 25% bonus instead of the 50% bonus. This may be a bug or working as intended, I haven't inquired about into it so it's only especially useful if Fishing 10 is reached by Spring 11.

                    Right?! This threw me for a loop the first time I sided with Joja too.

                    Indeed, this is the antithesis of my guide. One of its main tenets is for the town to think the new farmer is slightly unhinged, sprinting everywhere with a fishing pole and axe in hand, and talking only to the "wild man" before disappearing into the mines. That is an impressive feat you did, though. Perhaps trying to make the villagers like me as quickly as possible might make for a fun playthrough goal.

                    Thank you for responding again. Your feedback is very helpful for me and I'm glad there seems to be some leeway with being a touch late with some benchmarks but still being able to reach them slightly later and that this doesn't throw the whole thing off.
                     
                    • theladyshalott

                      theladyshalott Void-Bound Voyager

                      Thanks a lot for this guide, I tried this over the last couple days for my second playthrough and though I didn't manage to be as successful as you were I'm quite satisfied. I started Summer 1st with just short of 100k total earnings and about 40k current funds, had 40 Quality Sprinklers, a horse and all the tools like I wanted them to be (Copper Watering Can, Golden Hoe, Steel Axe and Pickaxe). I ended Spring on Level 85 in the Mine, but made it to 100 on Summer 2nd. Skills were Farming and Foraging 6, Mining 7, Combat 3 and Fishing 9 (I really needed this last week to get more ore for the sprinklers, RNG wasn't on my side). I couldn't make all of your Mining benchmarks early on and then started to fall behind on the Fishing ones - I'm just too anxious with the Health Bar to ignore everything that wants to kill me :badpokerface: that made me miss a few rainy days in which I could have gotten more Catfish. Besides, after my first 100 pieces of bait I actually forgot to buy new ones............... so my gold from fish was a bit limited. I also couldn't forage as many salmonberries as you, I think I got about 250-270? Though I had access to the secret forest at that time. But I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed the early horse immensely and I'm already thinking about adapting a lot of your guide for a future third playthrough - but right now I'm having a blast to plan Summer and Fall :D
                       
                      • Shoukry

                        Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                        Hey, glad it could help you out!

                        It definitely takes some time to want to avoid the monsters. When I finally realized how long it took just to kill one Cave Fly, or a Green Slime even, with the Rusty Sword I started trying to avoid them. The Flies don't take too long with the Steel Smallsword, after level 20 but getting to level 20 can take a little while sometimes. If I were ever fortunate enough to get Neptune's Glaive in the first few days of fishing then I'd actively look for monsters to kill since they can spawn ladders and swinging the sword doesn't cost any energy. The Forest Sword is good enough for that too and it is obtainable in the first parts of the mine. But, yeah, it takes a little practice and a little patience to just get far enough behind a rock to break a few so the slimes can't power-up and bounce to you.

                        Oh, that's no good, I'm sorry! The bugs in the mine are a pretty good source to replenish bait supplies through Bug Meat, so when I go back to level 21 to mine Copper Ore I can usually kill a decent amount of the Bugs, Larvae, and Cave Flies to constantly keep my stocks up.

                        Just like Immaterial. This makes me very sad. Maybe I have just had fantastic luck with Salmonberries, but even when I didn't have Foraging 4 in other playthroughs, I remember getting close to 200 pretty much every Spring. They should still last you for a pretty good amount of time, I would think. I'm not sure how busy you keep yourself in Summer.

                        Good luck with your farm! Thanks for giving this a try and for letting me know about it.
                         
                        • Reuter

                          Reuter Space Spelunker

                          Dude thanks! Deluxe speed gro is awesome. I got 10mil in early fall in the 2nd year. Made a ton of gold from crystal fruit jam and just doing rhubarb and starfruit made it easy to keep up with everything. Finally caught the sturgen in the 2nd summer to so I was pretty stoked about that. Can't catch any legendary fish though. Those things are crazy lol. Thanks again man.
                           
                            Shoukry likes this.
                          • Shoukry

                            Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                            Glad it worked out for you. Thank you again for the feedback.
                             
                            • blind3rdeye

                              blind3rdeye Big Damn Hero

                              I generally don't like to use guides or walk-throughs, but I found this thread interesting because I'm interested in just how much progress can me made during the first year. And as it turns out, almost everything can be achieved in just the first month!

                              I recently started a new game (my third game), and I've tried to optimise my strategies to maximise various things rather than just mess around. The milestones and comments in this thread have been interesting and helpful. So thanks.

                              I've just got a couple of comments.

                              1) Until you mentioned how many catfish you expect to catch on a rainy day, I didn't realise that different fishing spots within each zone made a difference! My fishing spots have not been good so far, and I noticed an immediate improvement after moving to a new spot. (In the past I fished so infrequently that I just didn't have the data to noticed a different in fishing spots.)
                              2) I aimed to get farming level 6 for the sprinklers, and I'm pretty sure I had enough crops to get it... but unfortunately I've ended up with fewer experience than I expected and it's going to seriously mess up my strategy going forward. :( I'm pretty sure that the thing that messed me up was a giant cabbage! ie. I don't think I got the farming experience from harvesting my cabbages; because they turned into a giant cabbage. (Giant cabbages must be hacked apart rather than pulled out of the ground; so I don't think they count towards experience - like wheat doesn't count.)

                              I've got a pretty decent start anyway though; and I'm expecting to catch The Legend before the end of the first month, so I can get a complete set of fish before the end of the year. (I'm aiming for a complete set of fish, and shipped goods, and various other things. Shipped goods is impossible to complete without good luck from the travelling cart; but I'll try anyway!)

                              [edit]
                              20170426204856_1.jpg
                              I did manage to catch the Legend, at the last possible moment! I unwisely I only started fishing up there at around 10pm, because there was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to do first... and I underestimated how long it would take.

                              Anyway, it looks like I got lucky. What was especially cool was that it had a chest too. I got the chest in the mini-game, but unfortunately I didn't get to see what was in it because my character passed out just as the chest was opening. :(
                               
                                Last edited: Apr 26, 2017
                              • Shoukry

                                Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                                You know, I don't know if different locations have better bite rates other than if a hotspot bubbles up. Is that to which you were referring? Quality definitely is affected but I'm uncertain about faster bite rates other than with hotspots, Bait, Wild Bait, and Dressed Spinners. It never occurred to me to try timing that. A higher fishing level helps reduce the bite time, but that's all I know of on that subject.

                                A giant Cauliflower in Spring can ruin the best-laid farming xp plans. I'm sorry. I think I mentioned that in the updated guide, but I don't think I reflected that note here.

                                Good work on catching Legend in the first Spring! Makes for a good trophy in the house.

                                I have trouble with any goals that are at the mercy of RNG: it would annoy me to no end to set your goals and finish the year with everything accomplished except for the Red Cabbage/Garlic/Artichoke so I commend you for that. Mainly because it could be always be done if it weren't luck-dependent. I do remember hearing Garlic or Artichokes have a decent chance of growing by planting Mixed Seeds in the Greenhouse. No idea if that's pure hearsay or if it is indeed accurate. However I rarely plant Mixed Seeds. My loss?
                                 
                                • blind3rdeye

                                  blind3rdeye Big Damn Hero

                                  Yeah, depending on luck does suck.. but on the other hand, it's no big deal if it doesn't work out for me.

                                  Right now I'm in late Autumn. I still don't have red cabbage; so it isn't looking good on that front. I also don't have artichoke. But I do have pretty much everything else; including rabbits feet (one for the community centre and one for the shipping collection); truffles; legendary fish; prismatic shard. I even have a void chicken and a dinosaur. :) I've switched from economic focus to collection and relationships. I'm spending a lot of time running around giving people their favourite gifts... and then being annoyed that I forgot to save a gift for their birthday. :p


                                  Thanks for the tip about the mixed seeds. I might as well try planting them. I don't really need the extra money from profit crops.... If only I could just get some of Pierre's goods from his grange display.

                                  20170501212958_1.jpg
                                   
                                  • Tamsin

                                    Tamsin Void-Bound Voyager

                                    Long-time lurker here. I registered for this forum just to tell you how much I like this guide! I'm neither pro- nor anti-min/maxing; one of the things I love about SDV is that it supports so many approaches. Sometimes I want to relax and just build an aesthetically pleasing farm. Other times I want to push my farming and gold-making very aggressively. I am currently in a min/max mood, so thanks to your guide, my little farmer is running around like a madwoman in berry-stained coveralls, waving her axe or fishing pole at the villagers she's pretty much going to ignore until Year Two.

                                    For this game I chose the river/fishing map, which so far fits really nicely with all of the fishing you recommend. On this map, even if I am almost out of time for the night I can always take at least a few more minutes to fish the river that runs through my farm.

                                    I'm just not as good at mining as you are; I'm a little behind on upgrading my tools as of Spring 20, but I am catching up fast. I also found that I need to flex your recommendations a bit to fit my own playstyle. For example, when I mine, It takes me more time to maneuver around to avoid mobs than it does to just burn through and kill the things! So one change I made is that I spam the early levels of the mine (especially 15-20, where there are more of those damned flies and their larvae) until I get my 125 insect kills and can get the insect head sword. Getting that weapon is a game-changer, because it lets me get to level 80 efficiently given my apparent inability to ignore monsters.

                                    The other advantage to spamming early mine levels for a bit is that I am absolutely convinced that levels 5-20 of the mines have the highest chance of ancient seed drops (nothing scientific here; just subjective opinion based on multiple Spring playthroughs). In this most recent game I have gotten FIVE ancient seeds as of Spring 17 - one from fishing, and the other four from floors 10-20 of the mines. That's atypical, but in a normal first-year Spring run, I can pretty much count on 1-2 ancient seeds from the early mine levels.

                                    Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks - your guide is so unique in its approach that it's given me a new way to play, and I am really enjoying it. I'll see how things shake out as this game progresses.
                                     
                                      blind3rdeye likes this.
                                    • Shoukry

                                      Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                                      I think as long as the axe is upgraded to steel before Salmonberry Season is the only real deadline with the tool upgrades. I should probably look into what needs to be done to reach Foraging 4 without the Steel Axe--how many large stumps on the farm can be chopped, how many regular trees need to be chopped, etc.--otherwise, there is a decent amount of wiggle room to upgrade all of the tools in Spring, so I wouldn't worry about it.

                                      For sure, bending the guide to your playstyle is the way to go. @Filmstudy mentioned doing the Insect Head quest and I can't say I've personally tried it, but I imagine you also won't be wanting for copper ore later on if you plan on doing kegs. How many days did/does it take you to get the 125 insect kills with the Steel Shortsword--or whatever weapon you were using? If I'm in a completionist mood, I'll go back after I get the Obsidian Edge or Galaxy Sword but they make the process go by much faster, I think. And I'm not sure what weapons are available from Marlon at that point, but I would assume they aren't terribly expensive if the weapon is the major inhibiting factor for you to descend.

                                      However, this is definitely a reason to farm those levels early in the game. Five Ancient Seeds is pretty incredible. I think I've gotten 3 in one Spring and 2 of them were from fishing. It's rare that I notice I've looted an Ancient Seed until I get to an elevator level to dump things in my chest so I'm never entirely sure what level they dropped on.

                                      Five. Wow. That's...amazing.

                                      Thanks for responding, I'm glad it seems to be working out for you.
                                       
                                      • blind3rdeye

                                        blind3rdeye Big Damn Hero

                                        Regarding tool upgrades; on my play-through I decided to leave the watering can at copper; because I figured the time between getting it to steel and getting sprinklers was too short for it to be worthwhile.

                                        As for the axe... upgrading that was a high priority, because we need so much wood, and forage experience is important. However, I was a bit more relaxed about getting to steal compared to the guide recommendations, because I'm playing on the forest farm. So I have access to stumps with just a copper axe.

                                        Tamsin says that the river map is well suited to this early fishing rush style of gameplay, and I think there's some truth in that; but I reckon forest map has some strong advantages. The early stumps and wild seeds help a lot to get early forage experience; and it's a shorter walk to the farm stumps than the secret forest stumps - so it saves a bit of time. The downside is that the tillable land isn't as plentiful or convenient; but I don't think that's a big deal. There's still plenty of it!

                                        By the way, thanks for the tip about mixed seeds in the greenhouse. I planted 20 of them and got 4 artichokes. Not all of them have finished growing, so I'm yet to see if I have any purple cabbage or garlic from the mixed seeds; but the artichoke was helpful for my collection. I already had garlic from the travelling cart, so now the only things I'm missing for 100% shipped collection are fruit-tree fruits and cabbage. I'll have the fruit pretty soon, because I've got a full set of trees in the greenhouse; but I'm still waiting on that cabbage. I'm at the start of winter now, so I'm starting to lose hope. (Soon it will be too late to buy a cabbage, turn it into seeds, and grow a pair of them for the collection and the community centre.) My fish collection is strong too; but again I can't complete that without the cabbage! :(
                                         
                                        • Shoukry

                                          Shoukry Big Damn Hero

                                          Agreed, I think I mentioned somewhere earlier that I upgrade the Watering Can to steel for continuity mainly. It's rare that I use the Watering Can after Spring except for in Winter when I need to rewater Winter Seeds plots that become untilled and an upgraded Watering Can isn't necessary for that. It's 5,000g that is easily and better spent elsewhere.

                                          Also agreed on not needing to upgrade the Axe to steel on the Forest Farm. It's difficult to say exactly how many Salmonberry bushes you miss from not having access to the Secret Woods but it certainly isn't a major disadvantage.

                                          Finally decided to check the wiki after you mentioned this again, and it looks like Red Cabbage is a no-go with Mixed Seeds, as is Garlic, but since you got that from the Traveling Cart it's no loss on your end.

                                          Mixed Seeds

                                          I guess the good news for you is you have until Winter 21 for the Traveling Cart to have a Red Cabbage that hopefully turns into 2 Red Cabbage Seeds with Deluxe Speed-Gro so you can get the bundle and the Collection Bin sale...seriously, you're a much better person than I--this would drive me nuts.

                                          It's giving me a wee bit of anxiety just thinking about it.
                                           

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