A deep and detailed look into Farming strategies for your first day

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by ShneekeyTheLost, Feb 8, 2020.

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  1. Elenna101

    Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    But... you can just look at the seed after it's planted and then decide not to water it if you don't want to? Which literally costs you nothing but the 2 energy spent to hoe it. Or, as @Shepherd_0 suggested, you can plant a few mixed seeds and then sell any parsnip seeds you don't need. So you're still planting close to the same number of seeds as you would have otherwise, which means you only lose hoeing energy on any extra potatoes/cauli that you decide not to water, but you gain 10g for any parsnip seeds you get from mixed seeds, because each mixed seed parsnip allows you to sell another free parsnip seed. If the chance of a potato/cauli is as low as you suggest, then this should be a good bargain.

    (Side note: why bother to axe/pickaxe the unwanted seeds? Just don't water them. This saves you 2 energy, and you can decide to water them later in the season if you want to.)

    I'm really confused about what you're using 100 fiber for. For a non-fishing-heavy strategy I can't imagine you're planting more than one scarecrow's worth of crops, and everything else is locked behind either foraging levels or heart events. I'm going to guess one scarecrow plus 16ish tree fertilizer? But unless you're barely doing any mining, I doubt you get to Foraging 7 before getting to mines level 21. Admittedly I haven't tried 21 much, but just by entering and exiting floor 81 I can get 150+ fiber in a day, and that's after spending a few hours on my farm in the morning. Don't forget that in 1.4 you can now go to floor 0 and everything in the mines will immediately reset.

    Not completely related, but I'm curious how much fiber you normally got from this strategy? @One More Day and I discussed a bit on the Ocean Fishing thread about whether the Introductions quest is actually worth it. I was able to meet everyone and get about 100 fiber less than he was doing without talking to people, but that just makes the money amount approximately equal, and cutting fiber instead of talking a) is easier and b) leaves more room for acorns to drop. OTOH my route included about an hour of me standing awkwardly in town trying to figure out what I could do while still getting back in time to talk to Sam, so obviously it could use some improvement.
     
    • UnexpectedParole

      UnexpectedParole Phantasmal Quasar

      Great topic. I had started one after the tulips thread it was going to be entitled "How many ways to 100" in reference to what folks did with thier farming to get specifically to level 1. And then if it bled into it , level 2 and level 3. Basically what target dates people liked and what crops they were planting when and how to get there.

      I think you left out the 14 tulip 1 parsnip start.

      The parsnip needs added so that you trigger the 100g from the quest and get the prompt to build a scarecrow before you build the scarecrow.

      But level 1 farming is achieved with the harvest on day 7, making the earliest possible day for the next level of farming achieved the 11th if one uses parsnips and plants on the 7th.

      The rest of the starting parsnips seeds can be sold or planted later.

      Harvesting the tulips on day 7 allows you to upgrade the watering can on the 6th. And pushes your second crop planting date back from the 5/6th to the 7/8th so a farmer has more time to accumulate the money for the crops, sap for the fertilizer, and do whatever other things one wanted to do.

      The obovious play in this route would be to eat the tulips or gift them, though I think a vegetable like a parsnip is a universal like similar to a tulip, so if one wanted to gift the ay 1 crop free parsnips seems like a no-brainer.
      So eating them it is. They pack a lot of energy in one meal, at a cost of more inventory slots than parsnips or more traditional food options. But with trees to chop on the farm, a chest there is no big deal. And a chest in the mines is also pretty easy to have, so filling up before going down works too. (Or grabbing new stacks if you are always returning every 5 floors anyway.)

      I was looking at trying to push level 2 early for sprinklers, but haven't gotten far enough on those ideas to be able to post anything more than what is already out there. Maybe another time.
      Anyway. Planting on the 7th or 8th still gives you time to get a crop in to have level 3 farming on the 12th for speed gro if you want it. (It takes an additional 664 to get from this start to level 3 farming.) That is 84 parsnips. Which is easily done if a farmer wanted to, especially with the copper watering can.

      Alternatively, planting 6 day growing crops (Kale or potatoes for money or xp your choice) on the 7th has them harvest on the 13th, which doesn't get you money for the strawberries or xp for speed gro for the strawberries. But you'd know that going into it, and the fields would all still be tilled and ready to go if one wanted to put strawberries in them on the 13th 14th or even the 15th and 16th. Or you can skip strawberries and make the next set of crops like cauliflower or wild seeds or what-ever.

      There is something to be said for planting mixed seeds on the 16th and just seeing what grows from it. it's either cauli harvested in time to replace with parsnip, or a potatoe to be replaced with a potatoe or kale, or the parsnip which allows you to plant another cauliflower all for a spring 28th harvest. But that is getting off the 'starting day farming discussion'.
       
      • Drewy91

        Drewy91 Yeah, You!

        This is a pretty hardcore but it’s how 6 days of pain can give farming 10 and set you up to do whatever you want with the back half of the month.


        Day 1 – clear farm of weeds, forage map, plant mixed seeds and enough parsnip seeds to get farming 1, sell everything, chop wood till out of energy

        Day 2 – fish ocean until fishing 2, fish left off pier outside willys (can catch silver and gold fish), fish until fishing level 2 buy rod and bait continue fishing either ocean or mountain lake

        Day 3- fish forest river usually end up with 10-15 catfish sometimes more

        Day 4- fish mountain lake

        Day 5- mining! Water crops and chop wood for another chest, open community centre and mine, aim to hit at least level 20 and preferably 25, will need at least 90 copper by tomorrow, sell everything you can, need around 15k tomorrow (save chubs)

        Day 6- head to mine, craft 2 furnaces and smelt copper, aim for another 5 floors and farm copper, smelt 5 bars and off to clints to upgrade pickaxe, sell any gems, head to pieres and buy enough kale seeds to hit farming 6, usually around 185-190 depending on mixed seeds and rice shoots, hoe, plant and water all crops and depending on time left go see wizard or fish

        Day 7- water, fish mountain lake

        Day 8- chop 40-80 wood for crab pots, (. If I manage to get fire quartz and gold ore from fishing and 3 crab pot bundle items from beach I will make 2 and fix minecart tomorrow) water, collect pick and upgrade axe, mine, farm iron ore, smelt at least 3 bars and make crabpot, put outside mine in lake- keep mining going down as far as you can or farm iron- aim for level 45-50

        Day 9- water crops and mine, check and reset crabpot, mine aim for 65-70

        Day 10- water crops, mine aim for 80, farm gold and iron ore, if minecart fixed collect axe otherwise ignore it unless you need wood, craft recycle machine, usually end up with around 10 refined quartz worth of trash

        Day 11- last day of watering!! mine farming gold, iron and quartz, need enough for 40 sprinklers

        Day 12 – harvest kale, check how much cash you can make selling crops and anything else, need 32.5k tomorrow so may need to fish, otherwise farm ore

        Day 13- hoe 2 20 sprinkler fields around scarecrow, buy 325 strawberry seeds and plant

        Day 14- farm remaining ore craft sprinklers


        The 325 strawberries will give 2 harvests to get you to level 10 farming. From here I usually aim to upgrade axe again and get foraging 4 before 18th and farm secret woods daily to get level 6 foraging before summer for lightning rods. On the 18th harvest 120-150 salmonberries to give me energy for the rest of the season, I don’t upgrade pickaxe until I want to clear big rocks on farm
         
        • ThorfinnS

          ThorfinnS Orbital Explorer

          I'm not getting this. What is an "unwanted seed"? Sure, if you planted on the 18th and got a cauliflower, maybe it would have been better to wait until 1 Summer, but it was free. You are out just 2e. Maybe not even that if you just planted where you harvested. Think of it as if it were a free wheat seed in late Summer.

          But anything you plant in the first few days, hey, free stuff. They are usually around 2/3 parsnips, but if they came out as all cauliflower, I'd be ecstatic. Even though I usually don't buy cauliflower until day 4. So I got some freebie cauli a few days earlier. Woo hoo.

          "You might lose 3 or 4 of the 20 to crows."
          "Unlikely, but even if I do, that's 16 or 17 freebies I did not lose to crows."

          Also, the more "unwanted" crops you have, the more likely a crow is to snag one of the ones you don't care about anyway. Once you break 15, and are convinced the crows are going to wreck things, I see no point in not planting all your mixed seeds and hoping for 100% "unwanted", whatever "unwanted" means for your strategy. Or stop at 31, 47 or 63 as appropriate to avoid the next crow possibility.

          The only thing I'm coming up with is if you are sufficiently OCD that you cannot countenance a potato growing next to a parsnip, but then why not do as Elenna suggests and just not water it? Once you harvest the nearby parsnips, plant potatoes next to the free one.
           
          • One More Day

            One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

            I seem to recall you mentioning favouring the forest farm, so 100 sounds about right there, because it's a much smaller map, but the bigger maps can get much more. But even so, unless you want a campfire, which only needs 10 fiber, you have absolutely no other use for the fiber for anything at all on day 1, so investing even 100g worth in something, whatever it is, has to be better than putting it away in a chest to gather dust.

            As for replacing the fiber when you need it, I can't remember exactly how deep into the mines the underground weeds start to spawn, but it's really not very far; fiber is certainly available on floor 21. If you're not a beginner, that's not really much mining. It have a feeling it is available even closer than floor 21, but I can't remember right now. And if the luck in the mines is awful, and you don't quite get there on day 5, you can still quickly and easily get 20 fiber for your scarecrow on day 6, from Cindersap. You won't be crafting any for totems or tree fertilizer for ages, because they're locked away behind Foraging 6, 7 and 8, so you won't need more than 20 fiber for ages.

            I used to know the Introductions route by heart; I seem to recall that Sam is met near the message board, on his way to Joja just after 12 noon, shortly before Marnie comes out of Pierre's

            Fun fact about crows - they won't eat seeds that have only been planted, but haven't been watered so that they are no longer just seeds. Maybe CA had the foresight to stop people simply spamming mixed seeds as a form of cheap insurance
             
            • ThorfinnS

              ThorfinnS Orbital Explorer

              Alternatively, if you do the stalker thing and are waiting right outside Jas' bedroom when she's home alone (11:00AM, Monday), then ignore Leah, run straight into town, say "Hi" to Haley, you can catch Sam just after he rounds the SE corner of his house. Or take half-credit for talking to him at work. An introduction is an introduction. Leah is headed to Pierre's anyway, and so are you, sooner or later. Seb and maybe Alex (a perfect run you catch him before he gets to his room, a few misclicks and you have to do it another time) are the only odd-balls if you are willing to go back to the saloon Monday evening.

              But I agree with your previous statements. It's not really worth the effort to be able to get 100g for a gift on Tuesday, when the goal for this strategy is money for seeds on Monday.

              It's still cheap insurance. You only have to water them the day you plant them, right? (I don't think I ever tested that, except maybe accidentally missing something while watering.) Once it's seedling or greater it's fair game?
               
              • WilliamZ

                WilliamZ Phantasmal Quasar

                When I saw people selling filber I knew that It would trigger @ShneekeyTheLost lol. I don't think that it's wrong to put heavy RNG (not the case here) strategies for new players, because each player have their approach and their way of play, if we present more options they will be able to choose what best fit their playstyle, as long that those strategies are solid and been tested of course, because I think that's wrong to theorize on guides and submit for the others to try your weird stuff.

                Myself use the 13-1-1 strategy even before people started to discuss, then I fish until day5 and hit the mines, but I never gather enough materials to build all those sprinklers that you guys claim to do, my usual luck in the mines are 15 levels/day and when I reach lv50 it's impossible to me to continue if I don't have a iron pickaxe, because all those swings to break a common rock pains me to the death.
                 
                • UnexpectedParole

                  UnexpectedParole Phantasmal Quasar

                  Sam is also found between 4 & 5 leaving work and heading home at about the same time Pam comes out and heads to the bar. He walks the same path back as he took in I believe. I quite often catch them both there after hitting up Gunther and Clint before Clint closes.

                  I used to 13-1-1 as well. But then I realized I felt weird about doing something something as specific as planting a single cauliflower and a single bean for the specific purpose of manipulating a game. I know it isn't far at all from restricting day 1 planting to only 15 crops <how would I know about crows> or mashing the fishing hard-core for the purpose of fiberglass pole in the morning of spring 3. But we all have to draw our own line some-where.

                  Plus, the day 5 planting and day 6 scarecrow requirement was stretching my first few days too tight with trying to get crops in for leveling farming and raising money for strawberries. Un-needed stress. I'm enjoying the tulips quite a bit so far and doing without the backpack for longer. Things are much less hectic at the start of spring, which is why we left the office in the first place yeah?
                   
                    Last edited: Feb 10, 2020
                  • Elenna101

                    Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                    Yeah, that's basically where I was catching him, but I already talked to everyone else in town by 4 and he doesn't pass through the town square until close to 5. I could have walked over to Jojamart and found him, I guess, but it didn't really seem like a great use of time. IDK, I might play with it some more but I'm basically coming over to the opinion that it's not worth it.
                     
                    • squigglyruth

                      squigglyruth Pangalactic Porcupine

                      I don't normally bother with all the introductions any more, since I am aiming now for fibreglass rod day 2. Even with an optimal introductions route, it is more profitable to cut fibre on the farm. But I certainly used to do all the introductions when I was doing the start I detailed above. It's still possible to get a fair amount of fibre, especially if you cut the two flowerbeds in town on your way past.
                      EDIT: I just did a test. Greeting all people, I was able to cut 180 fibre as well as planting 13 parsnips, 1 green bean and a cauliflower. Not sure how this compares?
                       
                        Last edited: Feb 18, 2020

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