Sundew Farm returns for v1.1

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by SunTide, Oct 12, 2016.

  1. SunTide

    SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    About a year ago, I did a detailed walkthrough of the first season of the game. It was mostly about leveraging game mechanics to maximum advantage, but it also contained some narrative elements and unexpectedly morphed into a psychological horror story. Lots of people liked it, and I'm excited about SDV again, so I thought I'd have another round at it.

    The last thread ended abruptly because I run out of time and energy. No excuses, but also no apologies. I said that I would do the first season, and that's what I delivered. I would like this one to cover the entire first year, but I'm making no promises.

    The narrative elements won't be as strong this time around, at least not until summer. The Spring section is going to be more of a detailed walkthrough for people looking for a more structured guide. If you're an advanced scrub, you'll probably like this. Once I hit summer, and assuming I still have the energy for the project, I'll pick up the story from the old thread again, such as it is.

    Like last time, the goals are very high here. I want to do everything in the first year that can be done. Ten hearts for everyone, all achievements that can be achieved, etc. For my first Spring season, I'm aiming to earn somewhere between 90 to 100 thousand coins, almost double what I got last time. I also intend to fully finish the mines, and hit a bunch of other benchmarks as well. Also, as a personal restriction, I won't be using sprinklers. I just don't like them.

    But before I start, I'm going to make a few posts about game mechanics. Some of this isn't in the wiki, and it affects strategy quite a bit.
     
      Last edited: Oct 12, 2016
      randomAnon123 likes this.
    • SunTide

      SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

      The Saturday Night Reset: Most people know that the villager's gift counter resets on Saturday night when you go to sleep. But a lot of people don't know that that is when the foragable goods reset as well. The game tries to add 2-5 new spawns each day to each area (i.e. continuous regions bounded by screen transitions). For each potential spawn, it picks a tile at random. If that tile is legal (empty grass for most veggies, empty dirt for artifacts), the items get spawned. If it fails, the game tries again, for a total of 11 attempts per potential spawn. If the 11th one fails, you just get one less spawn that day. There is a hard cap of 6 spawns allowed in any area at a time. The beach/tidal pool seems to be a partial exception. The tidal pool is definitely counted as a separate area from the beach, and it commonly exceeds the normal six item limit.

      Special items like spring onions don't count against this limit and are reset every day.

      What this means is that there is very little pressure to collect forage until Saturday. If you see a leek on the ground on Monday, it will still be there Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Picking it up helps keep the counter under the 6 item limit and might lead to more spawns happening overall, but that leek isn't going to be lost if you don't grab it right away. It's best to just grab things as you see them, and only do determined searches on Saturday. In particular, you want to scour the tidal pool every Saturday if at all possible.


      Experience: The wiki has a much better page on this topic than it did when I played last, but it still has lots of errors and omissions.

      Proficiency means that the stamina cost of using the associated tool decreases by 0.1 points per level of proficiency. The pick, axe, and normal watering can use 2 stamina. The Fishing rod uses 8. Powering up the watering can increases its cost by 2 stamina per level, for a maximum cost of 10 stamina when doing a fully charged iridium operation.

      Proficiency also increases the size of the bar used in the fishing mini game. Also, every even level of fishing improves your maximum casting distance by one.

      Farming xp is only earned by harvesting crops, and even then, only crops that you harvest by hand. Wheat, kale, and other scythe crops give zero xp. The plants from wilds seeds count as forage instead of farm and give no farm xp. Using your watering can does no give you xp (although the watering can is improved by farming proficiency). The wiki has an excellent list of what crops give how much xp.

      Mining xp is earned by breaking certain kinds of rocks. The wiki give no data on this. Here's what I've collected:

      The gray rocks that you find in the overworld: 1
      The gray boulders that you find in the overworld: 0 (yes, zero)
      The generic rocks that you find in the caves: 0 (yes, zero again)
      The gray rocks in caves that always drop stone: 4
      Topaz node: 8
      Amethyst node: 10
      Aquamarine node: 18
      Jade node: 20
      Emerald node: 50
      Ruby node: 80
      Diamond node: 100
      Generic gem node: 0 (yes zero)

      You also get a bonus when busting generic rocks if the rock drops something other than basic stone. Coal gives you a +5 bonus, and random gems probably award points as well. It's hard to measure these bonuses since they can't be gathered in a predictable manner.

      You are awarded points when the rocks are destroyed. It doesn't matter if this is done by your pick, a bomb, or by the action of a monster.

      The big takeaway is that clearing generic rocks in the mines gets you NOTHING. Also, bombs don't steal xp, so blast away!

      Foraging is covered pretty well. Note that the 12 xp bounty for felling a tree is awarded when the tree falls, and not before. Clearing the stump gives you no xp. Twigs also give no xp. Hardwood objects (stumps +logs) give a stunning 25 xp. The majority of your xp will come from foraging. Spring onions give 3, everything else gives 7. I haven't found any exceptions to this yet. Beach items count as forage, mineral items in the caves do not (this is a change from 1.0, where quartz, frozen tears, and similar objects trained forage). Artifact sites do not award xp of any kind when harvested. Wild seeds give normal forage xp when harvested, in spite of them being farmed instead of found.

      Forage xp is only earned by items that use the harvest action. Collecting seeds from trees or berries from bushes do not give xp, even though they seem like they should.

      At forage 4, you get an extra berry from wild berry bushes. Hitting forage 4 before Spring 15 (salmon berry day) is an important part of my strategy.

      Fishing is mostly covered well by the wiki, but there are some errors. The base xp of a fish is the fish's difficultly rating divided by 3, and a 3 point bonus is added for every level of quality (normal is +3, silver is +6, gold is +9). The wiki has that part right. Getting a perfect catch multiplies this score by 2.4 (the wiki says 1.4). Getting a treasure chest multiplies the score by 2.2 (the wiki says 1.2). These two effects stack multiplicatively, meaning that you get an astounding 5.28 multiplier if you get both a perfect catch and a treasure chest. You get zero xp if you don't catch the fish, even if you opened a treasure chest before it escaped.

      Quality matters more than you might think, since the base xp of most fish is low. The smallmouth bass gives you 12 xp for normal, 15 for silver, and 18 for gold. That's a +50% bonus for gold versus normal, and it gets multiplied by your chest and perfect bonuses.

      The most important factor in fish quality is location. I think daily luck is factored in too, but location is so much stronger that it doesn't matter. In general, darker water gives better quality. The water directly south of Jodi's house gives me 100% gold stars, even on days when the spirits are angry. The area near the log in the mountain lake (where you catch the Legend Fish) is also gold star territory. Fishing off of the pier with a very high level cast lands you in gold territory as well. Not all dark spots are equal. The dark water in the river near Leah's house gives a mix of silver and gold, mostly skewing towards silver.

      Hotspots do not affect quality. They're usually still worth taking, even if they spawn in a low quality location.

      Some people have suggested that the quality bonus depends on the length of your cast, and not the tile that you land on. This is false. You can stand far away from the shore and do a max level cast that just barely gets into the water, and you will still get mostly normal fish, because the tiles near the shore are almost always low quality. It's pretty easy to verify this with a little bit of testing.

      I'm reasonably confident that high level fishing reduces the maximum possible time between bites, bu tI haven't collected data on this.

      I'm pretty sure bait works by reducing the maximum possible time between bites by 50%. The spinners work by subtracting a flat amount of time (3.75 seconds for normal, 7.5 for dressed), and I think this happens after the reduction from bait, meaning that a high level fisher using bait and a dressed spinner will catch fish almost instantly.


      Relationships: Each heart is worth 250 "friendship" points. You earn points by:
      Talking: +20 (only works once a day)
      Talking while busy: +10 (happens when the person is in a special animation, like exercising or using a camera. This replaces the normal talking bonus).
      Liked Gift: +45 (but see notes about quality)
      Loved Gift: +80 (but see notes about quality)
      Birthday Gift: (gift bonus)x8 (but see notes about quality)
      Delivery Quest: +150
      Gathering Quest: +0 (yes, zero)
      Not talking for a day: -2

      Silver star gifts give a 10% bonus, and gold star give a 25% bonus. This happens before the birthday multiplier, so a loved gold star gift given on a birthday is worth 800 points.

      People make a big deal about the decay that you get from not talking, but it's tiny. You can 100% ignore someone for an entire year and it doesn't even cost you half a heart. It's not something to worry about.

      At two hearts, you gain the ability to enter a villager's room. This is important for characters that like to sequester themselves, like Sebastian, Elliot, and Sam.

      Community Center Trigger The CC can be triggered starting on day 5. You need to enter the village from the western road between 8:50 AM and 11:50 AM (inclusive) to get the cutscene. It must not be a rainy day. Most guides say that the CC quest is triggered randomly, and they are wrong. You can control it.
       
        Last edited: Oct 14, 2016
        RendHeaven, MarianT and likwid like this.
      • SunTide

        SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

        No. Artifact sites count as one of the six items, so leaving vegetables on the ground means that you are more likely to hit the cap early, which means no more spawns, artifact or otherwise. Also, vegetable spawn on grass, whereas artifacts spawn on dirt, so they don't even compete for space.

        Optimal foraging is still gotten by searching the map everyday, it's just that you can get about 75% or so of the benefit for about 1/7 of the effort by only doing one hard search a week. You also very slightly increase the spawn rate by clearing maps of junk. You can only really do this in the forest, which has all sorts of weeds and logs and stuff blocking potential spawn sites. The benefit isn't that large, but it costs almost nothing to clear the weeds, so you should do this when convenient.
         
        • likwid

          likwid Subatomic Cosmonaut

          Ah. Deleted my comment after I re-read and felt like it had been sufficiently answered the first go around. ;)
           
          • ShneekeyTheLost

            ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

            I've done some number crunching on profitability of various crops, now that the prices have been... adjusted. In general, you can use the same strategies you used to use, but if you're wanting 1 mil in 1 year, Hops for your Summer crop is going to have to be a significant thing, because blueberries and cranberries just aren't going to get you there anymore. In fact, Blueberries are almost not worth bothering with anymore, and Fall is now your least profitable season of the three planting seasons, regardless of what you do. Starfruit also got hit by the nerf-bat, so they are less profitable than they used to be, but still a solid cash crop. Also, Trees and Hops are superior to Ancient Fruit in your Greenhouse now, with Peach or Pomegranate Trees far and away the clear winner for per-day-per-square profitability. However, you have to plant your trees first (you can fit 30 of them in by my count) and wait for them to mature before filling in the gaps around them, or they won't grow. It does require just over 350 kegs to keep up with the setup I outlined in my thread.

            Grinding out barrels got easier, because it doesn't need Clay anymore. Which, since he removed the 'dig up for more clay' glitch, is a good thing. Now it's just a matter of Copper, Iron, Oak Resin (which is going to be your real limiting factor, I suspect), and Wood.

            Ironically enough, the Forest farm has surprisingly few trees, due to the larger bodies of water centrally located to the map and the left quarter of the map being utilized for other purposes, which means kegs can get expensive if you don't plan ahead with your lumber needs. Tappers are going to have to go down as soon as you hit Foraging 3. Forest map does help, not only because you get forages on the grassy areas, AND artifact dig spots on bare dirt (and I've actually brought up a chicken statue and a rusty spur from them on my latest playthrough), you've got eight stumps that refresh daily, so as soon as you get a copper axe, you can farm them for 200 foraging xp per day when you aren't doing anything else with your endurance. This will help you get to Foraging 6 by Summer (spring seeds and summer seeds helps, so does salmonberries and daily hunts for onions when not mining) so you can get your lightning rods which a) actually DO help prevent other things on your farm from being struck by lightning now, and b) get you the battery packs for your iridium sprinklers for when you unlock your greenhouse.

            In your second year, you can still clear over 1m per season in the Greenhouse, but ancient fruit will cap out there. To get up to around 1.5,/season, you'll need to use trees and hops, using Ancient Fruit as your filler where you walk. However, because you're only planting around 30 ancient fruit, you can pretty much age them all if you get 120 aging casks in your cellar. It's a little bit extra profit that doesn't really cost you anything but a bit of hardwood and wood.
             
            • SunTide

              SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

              Day 0
              This is where I lay out some broad strategic goals, and share a few techniques.

              Farming is terrible during the first 10 days or so. After trying several different approaches, I'm convinced that focusing heavily on farming in the beginning is a mistake. You are working with the lowest yield crops, using the lowest efficiency tools, and possess the lowest proficiency level. A large farm takes forever to water, burns almost all of your stamina, and gives weak returns. Farming becomes good when 1) you are getting the seeds for free and/or 2) you are working with higher tier tools. If neither circumstance is present, your time and stamina is better spent on fishing or mining.

              There are four major sources of free seeds that you can get within the first six days:
              1) You start with 15 parsnip seeds
              2) You can typically collect 10 or more mixed seeds on the very first day if you make a major project out of clearing your farm of weeds. This is probably the single best investment of your time that you will ever make
              3) Gunther gives you 9 cauliflower seeds when he receives his 5th artifact. You can only reliably collect that many items by going to the mines, which open on the 5th, meaning that you will most likely be able to collect the seeds on the 6th.
              4) You get a gobsmacking 30 wild seeds for completing the Spring Forage bundle, which becomes available on the 6th.

              That's actually a pretty big farm, just right there. It's not sustainable, but by the time you need to start replanting, you'll have had a chance to upgrade to the copper watering can, which greatly improves the efficiency of your farm.

              So when should you start buying and planting seeds? Well, the only spring crops that I really care about are parsnips (for gifts), tulips (also for gifts) and potatoes (best cash crop before strawberries become available). Parsnips take 4 days to grow, and potatoes and tulips take 6. That means that to get the maximum number of harvests possible, you need to start planting your crops on the 4th. I've tried this, I don't think it's worth it. I didn't have enough stamina to keep up with all the crops I was planting, I had to use up all of my spring onions to keep going, and then I had to start buying Salad from Gus. This cut into my profits so deeply that I would have been better off just not buying the new seeds at all and sticking with the freebies.

              My new idea is to skip exactly one harvest, meaning that parsnip production starts on the 8th, and potatoes start on the 12th. That gives me a little space to upgrade my watering can and have it ready. Upgrading your can is a pain because it forces you to skip a watering day. You can try to time it with the rain, but that's not reliable. But if I'm already skipping a harvest, I have a few days where I can skip watering and not reduce my total seasonal harvests at all. So I think that this is a winning approach.


              Fishing starts strong and upgrades quickly. It's no secret that fishing is king during the first season, but I want to break this down a bit. The fiberglass rod effectively doubles your fishing income, and can be easily purchased on day 3 with no special materials required. You can also hit level 5 in Fishing at the end of day 3 without too much effort. This is important, because that's when you get your perk. If you take Fisher (my personal favorite), that's another 25% income increase right there. Even better, the effects of Fisher are added before calculating the price of any fish you loaded into the shipping box that day. So if you clear level 5, dump $1000 worth of fish into the box, and then select Fisher when you go to bed, the bonus kicks in immediately and you actually collect $1250 from your fish. So you should really try to hit level 5 right away.

              If it's a clear day, the best fishing spot is at the mountain lake, near the log:
              [​IMG]
              Best time is before 7:00 PM, because that's when the valuable Largemouth Bass is active, but even after 7, it's still better than the river or ocean. The fish available are
              Carp $45
              Chub $75
              Bullhead $112
              Largemouth Bass $150

              Prices assume gold star quality, because that is the only quality of fish you will be catching once you get past the very short training phase. Notice that of the ten catches I made in that image, 9 of them are actual fish, and all of them are gold starred. And this was on a spirits are neutral day.

              If it's raining, you want to fish in the river. Rain makes the crappy Sunfish go away, and attracts both the above-average Shad and the extremely valuable Catfish. Rainy days should almost always be devoted to fishing on your first Spring.
              [​IMG]
              [​IMG]
              [​IMG]
              Sunfish $45 (only before 7:00 PM, and never when raining. It's a bad fish, it's good that it goes away during the rain)
              Bream $67 (only past 6 PM, and only when raining)
              Smallmouth Bass $75
              Shad $90 (only when raining)
              Catfish $300

              The Catfish is amazing if you are skilled enough in the minigame to catch it consistently. You will make between 6k-9k fishing during rain days.

              BTW, this image was taken during a "spirits are angry" day, and I still got all gold stars!

              The ocean is terrible during the Spring and should only be visited to fill out your fish collection. The gold star territory starts some distance out from Willy's pier. No picture because you don't really need one.

              Anchovy $45
              Herring $45
              Sardine $60 (only before 7:00 PM. Needed for the ocean bundle)
              Halibut $120 (a weird fish that goes away between 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM)
              Eel $127 (only after 7:00 PM, only when raining. Needed for the night fish bundle and for one of the kitchen recipes)

              Mining is an investment in the future Mining eats up stamina like nothing else, and you will spend piles of consumables to maintain your pace. The income is poor at first. You are mostly spending resources to unlock content. You need to make your trips count to minimize the investment phase. Aim for no less than 10 floors of progress per visit. Once you hit floor 120, it's not so bad. The last ten floors or so have enough gems, gold, and monster drops to be competitive with fishing. But mostly, you're mining to get resources for your tools.

              Some tricks to speed up progress:
              Always clear the immediate entry area of rocks. Sometimes you get lucky and find a ladder right away. It doesn't always happen, but if you don't try, it never happens at all.

              If you don't find a ladder right away, don't go around busting every rock. That uses up time and stamina. Explore first. Sometimes the ladder is in the open, or is guarded by a monster, or is under an ore deposit. If none of those things happen, then start searching, but give the easy options a chance first. Once your skill hits 2, you can start making staircases to skip floors that are giving you trouble.

              There are a few basic layouts that you need to recognize. One of them is the straight eastward stretching tunnel. This layout always has an exposed ladder at the end. You should just run down the tunnel, and only bust rocks that are in your way. The spiral is the other important layout. This one is terrible. It's a basically a very long hallway, and there's no guarantee that the ladder will be in at the end. The linear path means that you have to bust every single rock or risk a massive backtrack. If you see this layout, check the immediate rocks for a lucky exit, and then build a staircase if you don't get one. The first spiral happens on floor 19, which you will probably reach before you can build stairs. You'll have to tough that one out.

              Once you have the resources, use bombs to bust large clusters of rocks and quickly search for the exit. I find that the middle-tier bomb (the iron ore one) has the best trade off between utility and cost.

              Build chests early and often I used to have terrible trouble with inventory overflow. And then I discovered the joy of chests. Put one by your favorite fishing spots. Put one at the entrance to the mines, and remember to pop out of the mines every five floors and dump your loot into it before going back in. Put one next to Clint's so that you don't get overwhelmed by minerals when you bust 20 geodes at a time. Put one next to the secret woods and store a spare sword there so that you don't have to always carry one with you. In fact, put your other sword in the mines chest so that you never have to carry a sword at all. Put your bombs and torches in there too. Set up "gift boxes" near villagers that don't move around much. Plant a box of Solar Essences in the Wizard's tower, and put a box full of Tulips and Leeks near George and Evelynn's house. Consider putting chests near the transition points so that you have an emergency dump box if you find an unexpected amount of forage.

              Get Foraging skill to 4 before the 15th
              Salmonberries offer your first serious solution to your stamina problems, and getting Forage up to 4 doubles the number that you collect from each bush. The only realistic way to hit Forage 4 is to get the Wild Seeds from the spring forage bundle as soon as possible and harvest them for a tidy 210 xp. You will still need to do lots of "natural" foraging, but this gets you within striking distance. I've tried using chopping to power level my foraging, and it is hilariously not worth it. You go through unreal amounts of spring onions/salad to get just a little bit of xp. Chop wood as you need it and consider the xp to be a nice bonus. The real way to get forage xp is to consistently clear the map of forage every week and to make regular stops at the spring onion island.

              Build the Tidal Pool Bridge before the first reset You can typically get $1000 in loot from the pool per week, and if you don't build that bridge by the first Saturday, that's a whole week of tidal loot that is just gone. This will seriously complicate your stamina budget, but it's worth it.

              Give Gunther 5 Artifacts ASAP
              As mentioned in the farming section, he gives you 9 cauliflower seeds, which is probably the single best thing he ever gives you. You can realistically get this by the 6th.

              Figure out the cheapest/most available gifts for everyone Most people accept parsnips, so I will mass farm them for gift giving alone. But even at 30 plots (which the maximum I'm willing to maintain), demand is greater than supply. You can cut your needs by mixing in other easy items:
              Leah/Linus/Harvey: Spring onions (give them starred ones for extra hearts)
              Jodi/Demetrius/Shane/Robin: Salmonberries
              Abigail/Emily/Marnie/Maru/Sebastian: Quartz (Abbie doesn't accept parsnips at all, so this is an important substitution for her)
              George: Leeks (he loves them, so hoard your leeks for him)
              Wizard: Solar Essence (loved gift, realistically available by the 3rd week or so)
              Penny/Pierre/Lewis/Alex/Willy/Elliot/Pam: no realistic alternatives, so they always get parsnips. Pam actually loves them, so hoard a few for when Spring is over

              The following villagers either don't take parsnips, or have a loved gift that is easy to obtain
              George: Leeks (loved gift, easy to get)
              Evelynn: Tulip (loved gift, easy to farm)
              Abigail: Quartz (doesn't accept parnsips, this is the easiest substitution)
              Haley/Jas/Vincent: Daffodils or Tulips (they don't take parsnips. Tulips are cheaper, but I don't like having to grow too many of them, so I cut my supply with Daffodils when I can. Starred daffodils are hoarded as birthday gifts)
              Sam: Joja Cola or Tulip (a really hard case. Doesn't take parsnips or daffodils. Tulips are the only farmable that he likes, but you get a fair number of Joja Colas from fishing, and giving him these cuts back on the amount tulip farming you need to do).

              The Legend Fish It's only available in Spring, so you have to get it on your first season if you want to clear as much content on year 1 as possible. He only appears if your Fishing level is 10, but buffs count. The best way to do this is to reach level 9 and then use Trout Soup. The tricky part is that he only appears on rainy days, and you don't know when those are going to be. You want' to get your Fishing skill at 9 pretty early, because you never know if the rainy day coming tomorrow will be the last one of the season.

              The Legend Fish can be caught multiple times, and doing this trivializes the opening game. You will get more money in one day of fishing for Legends than you did in the entire season combined. I really don't like this kind of reductive gameplay, so I'm only going to catch one Legend. Inf act, I'm not even going to sell him, I'm keeping him as a trophy. Consider it anther self-imposed challenge.
               
                Last edited: Oct 12, 2016
                MarianT likes this.
              • ShneekeyTheLost

                ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

                I will agree that farming is pretty terrible in the first couple of weeks, however there's one reason you should at least plant your starter parsnips, plus additional parsnips purchased on day 1: Farming skill for your scarecrow so you don't lose important crops later on. If you want to hold off from there, fine.

                Personally, I switch from Parsnips to Potatoes (other than a fertilized crop space for the 5x gold star parsnips for the bundle)around the 6th or 7th. You need to do that so you get your crop of Potatoes down in time to get them harvested in time for the egg festival for the strawberries (which you plant immediately, of course).

                I will also agree that at least one mining dive will be needed in your second week, right after it becomes available. Geodes are solid, because they frequently have minerals you can donate, and of course whatever gems you can obtain (quartz, earth crystal, probably Amethyst), and if you are good at the fishing game, then absolutely every day that it rains, you need to have your fishing rod and casting into the water.
                 
                • SunTide

                  SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                  @ShneekeyTheLost
                  Thanks for the feedback. I definitely want a few kegs running by Summer, but I probably won't do the ultrahardcore stuff where people have more kegs than crops. I'm not so much trying to maximize profit as I am content completion, and the enjoyment for comes from trying to balance multiple opposing goals at the same time.

                  I seriously considered the forest map. I like it, but the field south of the house is just a little too narrow to fit my favorite crop formation in. Too bad, because it's otherwise great. One little point though: artifact spots appear on the farm for all five maps, not just the forest one.

                  I definitely will plant the starter parsnips. After all, I said that one of the conditions that makes zilch-tech farming worthwhile is if the seeds are gotten free of cost. And there is a shocking amount of free seeds out there, if you know what you are doing.
                   
                    Last edited: Oct 13, 2016
                  • ShneekeyTheLost

                    ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

                    There's a place just below your greenhouse on the forest map. From what I gather, you use the same type of farming plot I do, 20 plots of 3 x 3 around your scarecrow. It's not immediately below your farmhouse, but it's not too hard to clear out immediately below your greenhouse, particularly if you are delaying your significant crops a while.
                     
                    • SunTide

                      SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                      Mods:
                      I'm using NPCMapLocations, ExperienceBars, LookupAnything, and Stardew Valley Enhanced. The first three mods mostly just save me from having to constantly refer to the wiki. SVE is less "innocent" in that adds a few extra paths and straightens out a lot of circuitous routes. But I've reached the point where I can't play without it anymore, so I'm keeping it. SVE also has a more blatant "cheat" in that there is a path that connects the tidal pool to the area just south of the museum, and there isn't anything blocking it. I'm just going to pretend that there is a hardwood log there, and won't use that path until I have a steel axe.


                      Day 1

                      Let's talk about crop layouts. After some experimenting, I've settled on the 3x5 plot as my favorite opening configuration. It's a shape that can be easily tended by both the copper and steel watering cans, which will be your main tools during the Spring.

                      Once my farm gets underway, I plan on maintaining 30 parsnips (mostly for gifts, but also for the bundles and the polyculture), 15 tulips (gifts), and 15 potatoes (money, but also polyculture). I will also grow exactly 15 kale for the polyculture acheivment, and replace that space with strawberries when the Humiliation Fetish Egg Festival comes around. On top of that, I will also have several "overflow" plots that I make on an as-needed basis to hold the various free seeds that I will be getting. Unlike the main plots, the overflow plots are temporary and won't be replaced, so it is okay if they miss a few days of watering.

                      Here's a preview of what it will look like in a week:
                      [​IMG]
                      (potatoes and tulips are scheduled to be added that very day)

                      On my first day, I clear the area south of my house and plant my 15 parsnips. I also till and water another 3x5 section in anticipation of getting more seeds. And yes you can pre-water empty soil, and yes, it does work. I also take pains to clear out a few rocks and trees that are blocking access to the northern and southern exits. It's always a nasty surprise to forget about this and then get ambushed by it at 1:00 AM when you can't actually reach your house and you're not carrying your tools with you.

                      Clearing the space also gets me just enough wood to build a chest. I dump my junk in it. I rarely carry my tools with me when going out, but on this first day, I actually need the axe, pick and sickle to clear any obstacles.

                      10:40

                      I leave the farm, headed south. I want to check out the spring onion island. Success:
                      [​IMG]

                      17 spring onions. A very good find!

                      I wend my way through town, chatting up every villager that I can. If at all possible, I want to get them all, so that I can easily collect on the Introductions quest tomorrow and snag a much needed $100.

                      3: 30 After lawnmowering most of my introductions, I stop by the store. I used to spend all of my money here, and even cash in some forage so that I could buy even more stuff, but not this time. I'm going to have more important things to spend my stamina on than maintaining 10 billion crops, and I want to save my money so that I can afford the fiberglass rod on day 3. No joke, that rod will pay its own cost on the very day that I buy it. It's a much better investment than a few more seeds, especially since those seeds would probably force me to buy several salads to maintain.

                      That's not to say that I buy nothing. I pick up three green bean starters, because that's how many you need to get the polyculture. I also buy a single cauliflower and a potato, so that the spring crop bundle can be completed at the soonest opportunity.

                      4:00 I am loaded down, so I make a quick trip home to drop some stuff off. I also loot a ton of forage from the road on my way back to town.

                      As I work my way through town, I take care to use my sickle on any clumps of weeds. I especially focus on the overgrown garden next to the Community Center. Gotta get those Mixed Seeds!

                      6: 30 I swing by the lake just in time to meet Sebastian and his family. I say hi to Linus in his tent. I have met everyone except for Clint (Willy doesn't count, since he's not even in town on the first day). That's acceptable.

                      8:00 I'm home. I aggressively scour the farm for weeds. I probably clear about 90% of them. I collected 18 Mixed Seeds. It turns out that the 3x5 overflow plot that I made wasn't enough! I'm just barely able to till and water the extra space in time. I go to bed at 1:50 AM.

                      I used up 7 of the 17 onions that I found. I also have one of each type of forageable item in my chest, so the spring forage bundle is good to go.

                      Here's a preview of what the farm looks like the next morning:
                      [​IMG]
                      Not bad, considering that I only paid for five of those seeds.
                       
                        Last edited: Oct 13, 2016
                      • SunTide

                        SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                        Day 2

                        Today is the day that you meet Willy and get your fishing rod. Just as important, the next day is hardcoded to be the first rain day. That means that I need to get ready for my first catfishing expedition. This includes both getting Fishing ot level 2 so that the Fiberglass Rod becomes available, and collecting as much money as I can so that I can afford the rod. I only have $190 in the bank right now, so I have my work cut out for me.

                        7:00 Watering my crops uses up 76 stamina. That's tolerable. It's not like I paid for most of these seeds, anyway.

                        Stamina is going to be a big deal for a while. Spring onions help, but those run out, and can't be reliably replaced. The most economical way of buying stamina is with Salad, which gives you roughly one point per two coins spent. That gets very expensive, very fast. The problem is that I'm going to be spending an unreal amount of stamina this week. The biggest expensive by far is gathering wood. I need 300 by Saturday to get access to the tidal pool. But I also need several chests and a scarecrow. Each stroke of the axe costs 2 stamina, which ends up costing me $4 in Salad. I mean, sure, I get 220 stamina for free every morning, but that is no where near enough to do all the things that I need to do.

                        This is why I am ambivalent about an early farming focus. If each watering action is costing me $4, the profits are extremely low. A potato plant gives an average gross profit of $96, but there's a $50 investment in the seeds. If the 6 watering actions are costing me another $24 in recovery costs, that's only a $22 net profit over six whole days. That's terrible. That's not even considering the cash flow problems that arise from having your money tied up like that. It is better to spend the stamina on needed resources (wood, ores) and efficient income (fish), and keep enough cash floating so that you can upgrade your tools at the soonest opportunity.

                        8:00 I chop three trees and build another chest. My plan is to meet Willy today and get my fishing rod. I'm going to carry the chest with me and use it as a sort of poor man's backpack. I also plant some tree seeds in the green area near the shipping box. I like having a few trees there to put taps on. May as well get that started now.

                        I head south and check out the islands again. No spring onions this time :( It happens. You can't rely on onions, but they're nice when you find them.

                        10:40 I meet Willy at the pier and collect my fishing rod. I plop down my chest, dump any non-essentials, and start fishing. Ocean fish are pretty bad, but there are a few that you need for the bundles, and hey, I'm here already.

                        4:00 I go ahead and sell most of my fish to Willy directly to streamline my inventory. I keep a sardine, a halibut, a herring, and an anchovy for bundles and potential quests. I'm just barely able to empty and pick up my chest, so I do that. There's a hotspot near the beach, so I decide to do a little more ocean fishing. At this point, it's about the xp as much as it is the money.

                        6:20 The hotspot has expired. I fish a until 7: 30, because I have a plan. I know Clint arrives at the Saloon at 8:00, and he's the one villager I'm missing for the Introductions quest. I need to go to the Saloon anyway to buy some Salad, so I may as well work the timing so I can kill two birds with one stone.

                        8:00 On the way to the Saloon, I check the board. Willy has a gathering quest for 2 smallmouth bass. That's very handy, since I intend to both be catching smallmouth bass tomorrow and to be talking to Willy. I hit the Saloon. I say hi to Clint. The only thing left to do to finish the Introductions quest is to give a gift to someone. I want to head north to the lake anyway, so I can give Linus a spring onion while I'm there. I need stamina badly, both for today and for tomorrow. I pay $600 for three Salads, emptying my account. I know I said that I need to save up for the fiberglass rod tomorrow, but I also need to stockpile stamina. It will pay for itself.

                        10:00 I reach the lake. There is a hotspot. I have to eat one of my Salads to keep up with it, and even then it's not enough. I also eat all but one of my remaining spring onions. The last one I keep for Linus.

                        12:00 The hotspot is still active, but it's time to go. I have to leave the chest here, but that's okay. This will be one of my regular fishing spots, so I want a permanent chest here anyway. I carry the most expensive stuff and leave a few cheap items for later retrieval. I give Linus his spring onion and collect a quick $100.

                        1:00 I get home. I ended up getting 2 Mixed Seeds from a treasure chest, so I quickly plant and water them. I toss most of my fish into the shipping chest. The day ends with me having $1035 in the bank and being at Fishing level 2. I will easily be able to afford the Fiberglass rod by selling a few fish directly to Willy.
                         
                          Last edited: Oct 18, 2016
                        • SunTide

                          SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                          Day 3
                          This is it, the first rain day. I need to make it count.

                          As much as I hate doing it, I have to stop and chop a few trees before leaving. I need another chest, or I will never be able to store all of the loot I'm about to get. As soon as the task is done, I leave along the southern road. I stop by the spring onion island again and find 7 onions. Each onion offsets $30 worth of Salad purchases, so I think it was worth the time to do this.

                          9:00 I reach the fishing spot near Jodi's. I plop down my chest and get to work.
                          I have terrible luck. I had forgotten how bad fishing can be when you'r low level and still have the basic rod. The first two bites take an hour apiece, and neither one of them was anything good. I need about $800 worth of fish before I can go to Willy's and buy the upgraded rod, and this slow start isn't helping.

                          I finally get my first catfish bite at 12:00 I concentrate very hard, because I do not want to screw this up. Catfish are hard when your fishing level is still low, but not impossible. The secret is to not over-pursue. Don't go charging after the fish when it jukes, drift after it instead. Odds are that it's just going to juke again, and you don't want to be fighting your own momentum when that happens.

                          1:40 I finally have enough fish to afford the rod. I dart over to Willy's. I collect $100 from his smallmouth bass quest, and then I dump another ~$700 worth of fish into his lap and buy the Fiberglass Rod. I already have 30 bait from treasure chests, so I don't buy any of that.

                          2:50 Finally start fishing in earnest. My level is still too low to reach the gold star section, but I'm getting lots of silvers. I end up catching 8 catfish, not counting the two that I sold to Willy already. The really big find is a chest with Neptune's Gliave and a diamond. It's lucky, but you always get a few hulking finds like this when doing a heavy fishing focus. It's part of the benefit. Still, it is pretty nice to get this sword before the mines even open.

                          11:50 I stay on doggedly until I have enough experience for level 5. I really want that +25% income. I call it quits at 12:40. It's a pretty good haul, considering the circumstances:
                          [​IMG]

                          The chest saves me a fortune in retained loot here. Even if I had sprung for a backpack instead of the rod (a mistake), I would have had to have left a lot of loot behind.

                          These are all fish that I caught after buying the rod (everything I caught before was sold to Willy). We can safely attribute half of these catches to the rod, since it halves the average waiting time between bites. Those fish are also going to benefit from the Fisher perk, so this is worth even more than it might seem at first. These gold catfish, for example, are worth $375 each.

                          I count $5066 in fish right there. Crediting half of that to the rod means that the rod has already turned a $733 profit.

                          It may seem like my cash flow problems are over, but they're really not. Climbing the tool tree is expensive.
                           
                          • SunTide

                            SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                            Day 4
                            It's Thursday, and I still have almost no wood stocked up. This is becoming a problem.

                            There's actually a lot I want to do today:
                            -chop at least 250 wood
                            -scour the forest for more Mixed Seeds
                            -bust this stack of geodes that I got from fishing
                            -buy a backpack
                            -restock on Salad
                            -collect the remaining loot from my two fishing station chests
                            -maybe squeeze in a little bit of fishing to maintain cash flow

                            7:00 I water my crops and then go ham on the local trees. I use up my last Salad, and I still haven't hit my target of 250 wood.

                            10:40 I head to town. The bulletin board has a quest from Alex for a parsnip. That's handy, since my first parsnip crop matures tomorrow. I stop by Pierre's and get the backpack. I notice that the Deluxe Backpack only costs $10,000. I remember it being $20,000. Is this is a change?

                            12:00 I buy 4 Salad from Gus. I really one need one for today, but tomorrow is when the mines open, and I will need all the stamina I can get. I loot the chest that I left by Jodi's, then head north to hit the fishing station by the lake.

                            2:00 I fish at the lake until 7:00. That's when the largemouth bass stop appearing. I head home, eat some more Salad, and chop enough wood to hit 260. I spend the rest of the night searching the forest for weeds. I'm only able to scare up 2 Mixed Seeds, but at least I cleared all space out. That wills lightly improve the rate at which forage spawns. I also stop by the island and get a paltry 2 spring onions.

                            I caught 3 largemouth bass and $846 of other fish. I keep all three bass, because they are needed for a bundle, a specific quest, and for a recipe. But that's another $561 of stored value there, if I need to tap into it. The other fish more or less pay for the Salads I bought. That lumber was expensive. I had to burn two Salads to collect it. That's $440 for 260 wood. It has to be done, but ouch. This is why I said at the beginning that chopping trees for foraging experience isn't worth it. If you don't have a legitimate need for the lumber, then the opportunity cost of chopping is staggering.
                             
                            • SunTide

                              SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                              Day 5

                              Lots of important events today. This is the first day that it becomes possible to explore the Community Center. It is also the day that the mines open. On top of all of that, it is the day of my first parnsnip harvest.

                              6:00 Marnie shows up and gives me a dog. Welcome to the team, Doggerdog!

                              I ended up having 20 parsnips, one of which is silver. I keep the silver one for Lewis' upcoming birthday. The rest go on my hotbar for gift giving. It's already Thurdays and I've given out hardly any gifts, so I need to get on that.

                              I water my crops and head south. I still need more wood, but today is not the day to burn stamina on chopping. In fact, I actually spend 50 wood to make yet another chest, so that I can establish a nice base camp in the mines.

                              I would like to just head straight to the mines, but I need to trigger the CC cutscene, and that only becomes available at 8:50. To run the clock down, I go south and check out the island again. I find 5 onions, which is alright.

                              8:50 I leave town by the western road and immediately re-enter, triggering the cutscene. I distribute parsnips to whomever I can catch, making especially sure to give one to Alex, since he had a specific quest for one.

                              10:40 I explore the Community Center and discover the golden tablet. I'll be hearing from the Wizard tomorrow.

                              12:20 I reach the mines reasonably early. I set up my chest right next to the elevator and then get to work. ideally, I'd like to clear all the way to 15 (more is better, but even reaching 15 will be hard). I also want lots of copper. You need 20 ore for the furnace, and another 25 for your first tool. I already have 10 copper from fishing, so I consider 35 ore to be my minimum target. The "stretch goal" would be 60 ore, since that would be enough copper for a furnace and two tools.

                              I push hard, making shrewd decisions about when to break rocks and when to explore. I'm able to reach floor 15 before I have to call it quits. Not only is it late, but I ate both of my Salads and all of my remaining onions. I came away with a stunning 64 copper ore. I also got 19 bug meat, which will provide fishing bait for several days. And I got an Ancient Seed as a monster drop. That's good, but not totally unexpected. You usually get at least one by clearing the mines. Nice to get it early, though.

                              I'm going to start running into cash flow issues soon. I am literally eating my profits, and I am still feeling lots of resource pressure for lumber. And now, I need to start spending money on my tools.
                               
                                Last edited: Oct 18, 2016
                              • SunTide

                                SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                Day 6
                                Saturday. Last chance for forage and gifts.

                                6:00 As expected, Clint shows up and gives me the forge blueprint. I get that up and running right away. While the furnace is running, I chop wood. I'm at 210, and I need 350. 300 is for the bridge, and 50 is for the scarecrow that I'm finally high enough level to build. Doing this uses up all of my stamina, all of my onions, and all of the green algae that I got from fishing. I also water my plants. I then dig up 30 new plots and prewater them, in anticipation of all of the free seeds I expect to get today.

                                I leave, headed south, making sure to carry one of each of the forage items, as well as many bundle-related fish as I can carry.

                                11:00 I go see the Wizard. He's got some next level stuff in that tower of his. We get high as hell together.

                                12:00 swing by the island and find 10 onions. I really need these!

                                I gift bomb every villager I can find. I actually run out of parsnips before I run out of villagers. I stop by Clint and place an order for a copper watering can. I also stop by Gunther's and donate the Ancient Seed. That's artifact number five, so I get both the ancient fruit seeds and the 9 cauliflower seeds.

                                I hit the beach, and build that bridge already. I made it to the tidal pool on the last possible day. Was it worth it?

                                [​IMG]

                                That ends up being exactly $1000 in goods. It cost 300 wood to get here. I estimate that I spent 270 axe strokes to get that (most wood is 1-for-1, but felling trees is 10-for-12, and I got some random free wood from boxes in the mines). I went through an unholy amount Salad this week, and I can roughly attribute $1080 worth of Salad to this project. Maybe a little less, since my forage level slightly decreases the cost of each axe swing. So I'd say I about exactly broke even. I could have done this cheaper by amortizing the cost over a greater period of time, but then I wouldn't have gotten this loot. When you factor in the extra 70 forage xp that I get, I call this a win. Barely.

                                I stop by the Saloon and buy two more Salad. I hate doing this, but until Salmonberry season starts, it's just the cost of doing business. It's better to buy extra stamina at a premium and work all day than to not buy it and stop working at noon.

                                I hit the CC and finish the spring forage bundle. I suddenly have 30 Wild Seeds. I also take this opportunity to drop off a ton of fish at the Fish Tank. I don't unlock anything, but that's one less trip I'll have to make in the future.

                                I notice that Abbie wants a smallmouth bass. This is exactly why I hoard an extra copy of everything that I find. I am easily able to go home, grab a fish, and then hand it over to her. That's a quick $100 and 150 friendship.

                                It's late when i get back. I am barely able to plant all of the new seeds. The 30 Wild Seeds go in the new plots, and the 9 cauliflower fit neatly into the open slots that the parsnips left in the existing overflow plots.
                                 
                                • SunTide

                                  SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                  Day 7

                                  I wake up with 50 stamina missing. This happens sometimes when you go to bed late. I haven't figured out if it's random or if there's a pattern. That's like half a Salad's worth of energy gone :(

                                  The potatoes that I got from my day 1 Mixed Seeds are ready. I just pop them into the shipping box. I have about $1200 right now, and I want at least $2000 by the end of the day so that I can keep hiring Clint to improve my tools.

                                  I don't have a watering can, so I don't spend much time on the farm. It's Lewis' birthday, so I want to give him that silver parsnip I've been hoarding, but other than that, I really just want to make more progress in the mines and get enough copper for my tools and tree taps.

                                  In spite of the rush, I take the time to head south to check the island. I find 15 onions, which is the best cache I've gotten since day 1. Definitely worth it. That's almost exactly as much stamina as a Salad, so it's like I found $220 just laying in the woods.

                                  I give the parsnip to Lewis, gaining a solid 245 points for remembering his birthday. Then I dash for the mines, arriving at 11:00

                                  I clear 15 more floors, including the feared spiral layout at level 19. Along the way, I find 45 more copper ore, and I get a lesser glow ring from one of the boxes. The glow ring is a nice find. The darkness levels are coming up, and it makes things so much easier. I don't have to have it; I've been collecting torches as I go, but it really does help. Once again, I use up all of my Salad and Spring Onions.

                                  I end the night with the mines cleared to level 30, my Forage at 3, my Mining at 2 and my Combat at 2. The big items here are that Staircases and Tree Taps are now unlocked. I have $2189 in the bank, which is enough to buy another upgrade from Clint when I visit him to retrieve my watering can.
                                   
                                    Last edited: Oct 13, 2016
                                  • ShneekeyTheLost

                                    ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

                                    Plant that ancient seed now, you'll get 7 harvests from it, three from summer and four from fall. This gives you seven ancient fruit to turn into seeds to kick your greenhouse into high gear the moment it unlocks...
                                     
                                    • SunTide

                                      SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                      Ha ha! Whoops! Forgot to do that! That's kind of important!. I'll find a home for it on day 8.
                                       
                                      • SunTide

                                        SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                        Day 8

                                        I was so glad to have the bridge project behind me, but I STILL need more wood. You see, today is the day I have to plant my first Parsnip crop if I don't want to miss (another) harvest. I've worked it out, and my single scarecrow won't be able to cover the new plot. I also want to start making some tree taps. So I once again burn an unholy amount of stamina at a time when my axe is weak and stamina is still expensive to replace. I place a tap on an oak tree and a maple tree. The oak is for a long term investment in kegs, the maple is so that I will have the option of playing around with bees, if I so choose.

                                        The problem is even more complicated. I want to upgrade my pick today as well. That's great and all, but I only want to do that if I have enough copper bars in reserve for the next tool, since I won't be able to acquire any more copper while the pick is in the shop. I've got PLENTY of copper ore for that, the problem is that my coal is running low. Going to the mines today is completely out of the question, so what I do instead is bust rocks on my farm, hoping for a few rare drops of coal. It's not so bad, since I'm having to run around my farm to chop trees anyway, and a lot of those rocks were legit in the way. I'm able to scare up 5 coal, which won't last for long, but is enough to resolve the immediate problem.

                                        12:10 I am completely out of stamina. And I mean COMPLETELY. I have no salad, no onions, not even any green algae.

                                        Money is an issue right now. I need $2600 in cash to buy the Parsnip seeds and the pick upgrade. I'm short on funds, so I fish out some of the reserve items that I had been hoarding against potential quests. Between the 3 largemouth bass and a piece of jade that I had sequestered, I should have enough. That means I'll have to run a crazy complicated route to meet all the people that actually buy those things, but I can deal.

                                        There's no time to check the island right now, so I exit east and go directly to town. I get lucky. The bulletin board has a request from Pam for a Quartz. I always carry Quartz when going to town, since so many people accept it as a gift, and my route will take me right past Pam. The fee is weak, but I will take 150 heart points any day. I buy my 30 Parsnips seeds from Pierre.

                                        I meet Clint and retrieve my watering can. I also bust a stack of geodes, netting a surprising amount of iron ore. I have enough for a steel upgrade. I can't even come close to affording that right now, but it's nice to be ahead on the resource game. I then hand over my pick to Clint and order it to be upgraded to copper. The copper upgrade only helps a little, but it's a stepping stone to steel, which makes the ice caves much, much easier.

                                        On my way out, I stop by Gus' and buy 3 Salads. I am now dead broke. This constant need to buy stamina is awful, but it's still better than being limited to 270 points a day. What you really want are a bunch of spring onions, but I haven't been finding anywhere near enough to keep up.

                                        5:00 I stop by the lake to do a little fishing. I have to be careful, since I still haven't watered my crops (the can was in the shop, remember), but I really do need some positive cash flow today. I stop fishing at 7:00, since that's when the largemouth bass stop appearing.

                                        1:20 AM I go to bed after watering my crops and planting the new parsnip crops. Between fishing and foraging, I made $1061. Not much, but at least it offsets my costs somewhat.
                                         
                                          Last edited: Oct 14, 2016
                                        • SunTide

                                          SunTide Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                          Day 9

                                          I wake up with 81 stamina missing, a penalty for going to bed so late last night. That's almost a whole Salad's worth of value gone :(

                                          Today is going to be busy. I need to have $3050 ready to go for tomorrow. That's because I going to start my potato and tulip crops tomorrow, and also because I want to squeeze in another tool upgrade from Clint (the axe). I have $1091 right now, but I can already tell you that most of that is going to get invested in Salads.It's not so much that I need that much extra energy today, but rather that I'll need it to tomorrow, when I have my new pick and will be eager to go to the mines. Gus' opens at noon, and I'm not going to want to wait that long to go to the mines. Hence, I have to buy the Salad now. That commits me to turning a $3k profit today.

                                          That's only going to happen if hard commit to fishing. I need to go to the lake while the largemouth bass are still there, and I need to stay there as long as I can. I water my crops (remembering to tend my furnace as I do, so that I'll have enough smelted copper for tomorrow) and then dash north. I'm not even going to check the spring onion island today. I could use the stamina, but I need the time even more. Besides, you never know when you're going to get trolled by a zero-onion bounty.

                                          10:10 I reach the lake. There's a hotspot. It's in the silver region of the lake, but I'll take it. Holy cow, it lasts forever! By 4:00 I have eaten all 3 of my Salads and also any Green Algae that I've pulled out of the water, and the spot is still there. If I could have purchased a 4th Salad yesterday, it would have been worth it. As it is, I have no choice but to abandon to spot and head over to Gus' for a stamina refill. I buy FOUR SALADS O__O knocking me back $880at a time when short-term profits are CRUCIAL, but it has to be done. I caught a TON of fish already, and the day is young enough that I can get more. I am confident that I can make this work.

                                          6:00 I'm back at the lake, having blown 2 hours on my errand. As expected, the hotspot is gone, but there's yet another one, also in a silver region!

                                          Sebastian comes out for his smoke break, and it turns out that I am standing EXACTLY in the spot that he wants to be in. Moreover, that spot is the only tile that I can reach the hotspot from. Seb starts making lots of angry emotes at me, but I don't dare move. If I let him occupy this square, I'll be cut off from the hotspot.

                                          [​IMG]

                                          Ha ha, suck it Seb!

                                          Having had enough, he then just phases right through and shares the square with me. Even plays his smoking animation, like nothing is even going on:

                                          [​IMG]
                                          Hey man, uh, you're wearing me out

                                          The hotspot goes away at 8:50. I switch over to the gold region of the lake and squeeze in a few more catches. The haul is pretty good:


                                          [​IMG]

                                          The silver fish are all from the hotspots, and the gold ones are mostly from the last few hours of fishing. The four artifacts and the diamond are really nice, but the frozen tears and the fire quartz are more potentially game changing. With those minerals in hand, an early mine cart is starting to become feasible. I'd still have to find 5 gold ore, but that's not impossible. Getting the cart running before I even hit the magma levels would be pretty great.

                                          I end up making $4669. I actually have closer to $5000 worth of goods here, but I kept three of those largemouth bass to replace the ones I took out of storage yesterday (you need a pile of them for quests and recipes).

                                          Fishing cleared level 6. I'm hoping to hit level 9 in time for the Legend Fish.
                                           

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