So, I'm just wondering.. This game seems like a super-refined, amazing Harvest Moon. Without all of the hand-holding, and fully customizable (I can have coops wherever I want, as many as I want etc) So, I'm just wondering. As, right now, I'm completely overwhelmed by the size of my Farm and as such, I have questions. 1. Should I immediately begin clearing all of the trees/stones/logs/whatever on my Farm? Like, all of it or as much as I can? 2. How early should I go into the Mines? 3. Energy seems to drain extremely fast, should I go to bed right away as soon as I've hit near 20-ish Energy? Or just stand around until 9pm considering I won't really be able to do anything.
You can't clear everything right away; you need to upgrade tools first. Don't worry about clearing more than you need to right away either. It's a waste of precious energy. And don't clear any grass unless you need to, at least until you have a silo. Go to the mines as early as you like. You'll need that copper ore for tools and equipment. After you run out of energy, go to town and talk to people, or go to the mines and explore. Swinging a sword doesn't take energy. Just have some food with you, because mining does use energy. Once you start getting tree seeds (by leveling Foraging, I believe), shake trees before cutting them, or any you pass by. You might get extra seeds. Use your crafting menu (Press E, click the hammer) to create snacks out of one of each seed (Maple, Acorn, Pine Cone) to keep yourself going.
Clear enough space to plant the seeds you received plus any you might want to buy. There's nothing else worth buying at the moment and 500g of seeds can turn into a profit which will get you closer to buying things you will need like the Backpack upgrades. Once you've got your mini-farm going, use whatever stamina you have left over to start chopping trees and smashing rocks. You can craft chests with 50 wood, and with the limited amount of inventory space you have at the start you'll want those chests. The mines don't open until the 5th day, and it will probably be worthwhile to go there around then anyway just to get the adventurers stuff queued up. Depending on how your crops are going you'll only be limited by your stamina, so if you have nothing else you want to do (foraging, talking to NPCs, fishing) then you can hit the mines the day they open if you really wanted to. You won't be getting much out of it to begin with, maybe some copper ore and a few basic minerals for the museum but it's definitely not a profit gain margin that early on. You should never sleep if you've got energy left and things to use it on, once you've run out of energy (around 20 is fine, you can take it lower if you want) think about what you can do that doesn't require energy like foraging or socialising or even sorting out your chests.
Time is the real "resource" in this game. So using the clock wisely will lead to the most efficient gameplay. Priority for me goes like this: Time-based fishing > Social Activity > Mining > Foraging > Farming duties. Basically the logic is, fishing has the most time-dependency on certain fish, so you prioritize them when you can, social activities likewise are constrained by the villager schedules, mining is constrained by the distance you need to go to have a productive venture, and your farm last because the things you need to do (animals, watering crops, clearing debris) can all be done at any point during the day. ^^ Sorry if this seems a bit too...stagnant? But it's the way I like to play most games
Until you get some serious automation up and running at your farm, you will be severely limited by time and energy with how big your actual farm will be. But don't worry about it too much. You will have plenty to do and need to upgrade your tools anyway to completely clear the farm. As for mining, I usually reserved rainy days for that particular adventure and tried to aim for 5 floors. 10 if I was really cruising but no more. That is plenty for 1 day, especially in the beginning. If you save the materials from clearing your farm you should have plenty of mats for crafting things later.
Of course you're managing Stamina on top of your time. Especially in the early game (day 1 for example) so blowing all your stamina on fishing and mining before doing your farm duties, without having the necessary foods to restore it, isn't the best of ideas. Forgot to mention this in my original response too, and it hasn't been mentioned yet (although I'm sure its obvious), your energy problems will get better over a gradual time. You'll start upgrading tools and gaining proficiency in your skills which will both reduce the amount of stamina a given action costs. Then when you start finding Stardrops, which will increase you maximum energy, you'll be fitting more and more into your days as you'll have the energy to be able to do more things later into the day.
Also, you'll be able to find, grow, and make better foods, which means that, if you do run low on energy, it'll be easier to replenish it.
In spring, there are usually 3-8 spring onions every day growing in the southeastern end of the forest south of your farm (near the sewer entrance). They don't sell for much, but they're decent for giving you a little bit of extra energy.
If you still need the help, Clear about as far as you can see from your porch. You won't need much more till the start of summer. The mines open up quite early, and offer decent rewards. Try to collect at least 200 copper nuggets before you reach winter. You can smelt these, and then use the bars to make your tools more efficient. The mines won't give you any new materials till you reach level 60, which is when you start getting iron ore. However, the area between 40 and 60 is an area that is both lacking in rewards and deadly. My advice is to wait till winter, when nothing grows, and then try to dig through those layers. Winter is the perfect time to mine, because you most likely don't have crops! Good luck ^_^
