A Powergamer's Build Order for your first Spring

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by ShneekeyTheLost, Jan 15, 2017.

  1. One More Day

    One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

    @ShneekeyTheLost

    In your guide, has Forester replaced Gatherer as the default choice at Foraging 5?

    With mushroom farming dead in the new patch, there seems limited benefit to getting an occasional extra forage, unless you're crafting the seeds to grow on the farm. And beyond the first couple of weeks, the income from foraging is pretty small, so an extra 20% isn't going to make much difference. On the other hand, Tree Fertilizer is dirt cheap to craft, with Fiber and Stone both readily available in the mines, and when it is combined with Forester getting 25% more wood from every tree you fell, and when those trees can be planted, grown and harvested every five days, you're saving a small fortune compared to buying from Robin.
     
    • ShneekeyTheLost

      ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

      Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other, to be honest. The 25% more lumber is much nicer than the kick in the head it used to be, but it still suffers from a rounding error, and you'd have to plant a truly huge number of them to be able to make any appreciable difference.

      Forage generally goes Gatherer so that later it can go Botanist for the guaranteed Iridium drops, mostly for the convenience factor of everything stacking in storage, unless you're artifact hunting in which case Tracker can be of some use.
       
      • Elenna101

        Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

        @ShneekeyTheLost

        Not sure if this thread is really a good place to put this, but I was watching one of Haboo's vods and you mentioned doing a year 1 missing bundle. I just checked and it turns out you can get the missing bundle cutscene in winter if you use a rain totem, which should make that significantly easier :)

        (You can also get a mermaid's pendant in winter, in case anyone cares)
         
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        • Arqane

          Arqane Scruffy Nerf-Herder

          The Year 1 finishes are always at least somewhat based on luck. The red cabbage is the main thing that prevents it, followed by a few things you normally get in winter. But that's only 4 items that you need to get lucky with out of 24 chances at the traveling cart (and one of them can also come in the mail) to finish before winter in Year 1. The rest you can guarantee (or virtually guarantee) to rush, including the missing bundle. The fastest I finished was a Joja run in early Summer, and I've finished Community Center runs in Fall quite a few times. Even finished in Summer once, but that was pretty lucky with the cart, and both of the Summer finishes tended to use the old bug where you could catch multiple Legends.
           
          • Elenna101

            Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

            I'm not clear on whether you noticed that I'm talking about the new bundle that was added in 1.4? The one that only unlocks on a rainy day after the CC is completed, which gives you the movie theater.
             
            • ShneekeyTheLost

              ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

              I... think you misunderstand.

              A Year One Bundle is dependent upon the Red Cabbage RNG, sure. The things you can normally get in winter can be reliably obtained elsewhere, notably once the Greenhouse is unlocked you can run Winter Root (fairly common drop from blue slimes in the level 41-79) through a Seed Maker to get Winter Seeds. Plant in greenhouse (which is always the correct season for whatever you are planting) to obtain the rest of the Winter Forage bundle. So yes, completing the Community Center bundles by Fall is easily doable, assuming you get a Red Cabbage in time.

              But we were discussing the new 1.4 'Missing Bundle', which is found in the Joja Mart after it shuts down when you complete the Community Center. For Joja Mart to be shut down, you need a Community Center completion, you can't take the Joja Route.

              But to unlock it requires a rainy day after Joja has shut down, because there's a cutscene that only plays during rain where a bolt of lightning strikes the JojaMart's barred door which unlocks the bundle for completion. And of course, it normally doesn't rain in the Winter. She was pointing out that it is possible to use a Rain Totem to cause it to explicitly Rain (not just snow) in the winter to trigger the cutscene if one isn't able to get the Community Center done in the Fall after all. Which is a very useful backup strategy in the event Dimitrius doesn't send a shell in the mail.
               
              • squigglyruth

                squigglyruth Pangalactic Porcupine

                This sounds really solid as a beginners' guide. Looking forward to seeing the final version!

                This is interesting. It took me a really long time to work up to this rate of progress in the mines. I'm not sure what I'm doing now that I didn't used to do, other than knowing the mine floors much better. I'll be fascinated to read your strategy.
                 
                • kners

                  kners Subatomic Cosmonaut

                  It's not a problem at all.
                  You start a game and check the mail and if it is not a shell then just re-load same save file and another try to open a mail.
                  3-4 times and you finally get your shell and play rest of the day as always.
                   
                  • Arqane

                    Arqane Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                    I understood, and you had a very nice point. I was just pointing out that although it's usually much easier to finish the bundles in winter, you don't have to worry about the rain trick in fall. It was good pointing that out for winter, and it's also a way to get certain fish if you need them then.

                    Yes, I know that trick. That's partially why I separated it, since it's relatively easier to get than something that often relies on the cart. It's also an advantage to get Demetrius' friendship up as fast as possible to increase your chance for mail from him, since that's not guaranteed before winter, either. But at least it gives you 2 different ways to obtain it.
                     
                      Last edited by a moderator: Dec 21, 2019
                    • caimar11

                      caimar11 Poptop Tamer

                      Hi I am interested to try this. I'm curious when the potato is obtained for the spring bundle? Is it still the 4 crops? Thanks

                      Also what are your thoughts on planting the mixed seeds to help increase foraging ?
                       
                        Last edited by a moderator: Jan 11, 2020
                      • ShneekeyTheLost

                        ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

                        Potato is obtained after your first harvest of parsnips. Unlike the previous strategy, instead of spamming a ton of parsnips, you're only going to be planting 13 of them, plus a cauliflower and a bean sprout. When the 13 parsnips come up, you'll be getting your potato to plant, which should come up just prior to the Egg Festival.

                        To quote Admiral Akbar: IT'S A TRAP!

                        Harvesting foraged from mixed seeds only gives you 3 foraging xp each, as opposed to 7 xp for regular foraged or 10 xp for chopping trees or 25 xp. for the big hardwood stumps. In exchange for having such a low cost, you require stamina drain to keep them watered.

                        Conversely, they can be sold for just over a thousand, which can really help buying things in your first spring.
                         
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                        • One More Day

                          One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

                          Mixed seeds only grow into a subset of the regular crops, and will increase your farming XP. They have no effect on your foraging level

                          The wild seeds crafted with one of each seasonal forageable are the ones that increase your foraging level, but they only give 3 Foraging XP once harvested, after 7 days of watering, so they aren't really worth the amount of effort they take to grow them. They also don't make very much money either, nowhere near as much as crops, so best bet is to just sell them.

                          The summer seeds, especially if watered by sprinklers, are a much better bet and are actually financially competitive compared with some of the raw crops, if you chose the Gatherer profession for a double forage chance
                           
                          • caimar11

                            caimar11 Poptop Tamer

                            Thanks for the replies. I erroneously thought mixed seeds you get from scything bushy weeds leveled foraging even though they produce spring crops.

                            I was playing around with a run through. I tried to get fishing level 2 using the training pole. And I planned to restart the second day until I both got fishing level 2 and enough gold from fish to buy the rod before Willy closes. However on one of my attempts that I wasn't catching enough fish I got the neptunes glaive. Thinking about how much easier mining on day 5 would be I decided to just go with it even though i was 300 shy of the pole by closing time.
                             
                            • tqomins

                              tqomins Poptop Tamer

                              Any update on the new guide? I'm getting an itch to start a new save and trying to gauge whether I should wait for the guide (since I'll start a new farm to test that anyway) or just go ahead and launch a new one now
                               
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                              • caimar11

                                caimar11 Poptop Tamer

                                Ditto!

                                I did start a new save using the tips. I'm on day 27 of summer. It was a strong start though I did deviate a bit. I didn't push through the mines fast enough so I only have 5 quality sprinklers in a chest for fall. I'll farm the gold and make several more. I didn't plan my plot to accommodate sprinklers and my whole plot is continual growing plants so I decided to hold off til fall. Watering takes several in game hrs.

                                I have the stable, minecarts, a coop with two chickens. Building a barn now. All steel tools. 20k in the wallet 10k coming tomorrow. Artisan bundle finished easily due to bats. My first time choosing bats! Had lvl 5 foraging on day two of salmonberry season. Currently lvl 8 in fishing, farming and foraging. Lvl 7 mining. I usually don't play a save this long but I enjoy this one.

                                Oh also the 30 oak trees with tappers going, several kegs.

                                I keep adding things... I was lucky and had a coffee bean early spring and a dino egg. I'm sitting on the egg until I can hatch it in the incubator. The one coffee bean is now more plants than I can handle and over 200 beans in the chest after selling the higher quality ones. I'm running around with coffees and mayo in my bag to make people love me.

                                I wanted to add that I didn't see it mentioned but on days you level up a skill you don't receive an energy penalty for the next day.
                                 
                                  Last edited: Jan 21, 2020
                                • ShneekeyTheLost

                                  ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

                                  In an attempt to making the guide more user-friendly, I may be backing off on the extreme strats a bit. Also, I may be putting out a mining guide before the spring guide, simply because it's so involved that it really deserves its own thing to reference.

                                  Life kinda... happened. Several unpleasant things kinda converged on me in the last three weeks or so. So I AM still working on it, but I haven't gotten a lot of progress done since last update. Hopefully it should be out before V-day.
                                   
                                  • One More Day

                                    One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

                                    Because what better way is there to express your unconditional love for the most special person in your life than telling them that, on the most romantic night of the year, you're going to try out a new strat for stardew valley



                                    Seriously though, hope whatever it was gets better
                                     
                                    • Elenna101

                                      Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                      But what if the only relationship I'm in is with my Stardew Valley waifu? Then is it okay? :p
                                       
                                      • tqomins

                                        tqomins Poptop Tamer

                                        Sorry to hear. Hope things clear up for you!
                                         
                                        • ShneekeyTheLost

                                          ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

                                          Okay... this new guide just isn't forming up.

                                          I've got a half dozen different proto-guides, half written, and none of them are really any good. They either require player skills like the fishing minigame competency or they require something else that I can't guarantee. So as far as a 'build order', I'm afraid I'm just not... doing it justice. And I hate to do a job half-arsed. So I dunno where the project sits at the moment.

                                          First week, sure, but after that it gets more muddled. And it's less a 'build order' and more like... guidelines. I don't even know anymore. There's just too many things that can happen to take advantage of that changes the routing too substantially. Like... how much cash you have going into day 6 is going to enormously change what you do at that point. And that's going to vary enormously based on how good you are at fishing, what might be available at the Cart Vendor on Friday, and other RNG-based factors. How deep one can dive on Day 5 will be based primarily on how much food one has. You at least need to enter, so you can get the quest on the following day to unlock the Adventurer's Guild, but you could easily get 5-10 levels, depending on the various factors.

                                          I just... I dunno. I know I promised a new guide, but this just isn't coming together like I would want it to. And with new strategies being put forth daily around here, I don't want to publish something only to have it obsolete the next day. This project started before the discussion on Tulips or on Basic Sprinklers, as an example. If I had just kicked it out the door, it would've been quickly criticized for not taking into account things discovered after its creation.

                                          So I think instead of doing one all-in-one spring build order guide, I'll be breaking it up into smaller guides focusing on specific aspects or mechanics. I might later weave them all back in, but for now, that's where my goal has shifted to.
                                           

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