Hey all! I am beginning a new challenge run that I don't think I've seen before. It's really simple. I can't sell anything. Nothing goes into the shipping bin and nothing is sold to NPCs. Basically I have to complete the community center using these rules. I can obviously still spend money but my only source of income will be from quests, festivals, and other random events. I considered doing a "Let's Play" type of thing for this, but I worry that it may be boring at times. I also won't do a day by day blog of it either, for similar reasons. I will simply update everyone of my overall progress and impressions as I go. Wish me luck! I started off on the forest farm. I believe it gives the best all around advantages. The first three days went by normally. I only bought two green beans on day one and then got as many mixed seeds as I could. There were a bunch of things that I began to realize that are going to make this difficult. I was banking on using the fruit bats for any fruit requirements in the bundles. However, I won't be able to get them until I make $25,000. Luckily the money I get from quests still counts towards that, but it's going to be slow for sure. I will need that kind of cash for the vault bundle anyways, but I was hoping to get the bats sooner. There are now luxuries that I simply can't afford. For example, opening geodes may not be an option. I am also pondering which bag upgrade to get, if any. I think the largest bag is out of the question for $10,000 but I don't think I can deal without the smaller one. We will see. The same goes for leveling up tools. This run will be interesting for sure. Raising the heart levels of villagers must be a high priority. The gifts from them will prove useful. Fishing is still important, despite not being able to sell them. The treasure is going to be extremely valuable. I am hoping the days to come will provide more opportunities for job board questing.
One thing that I thinking about... I think twice, if your a female character, Dad sends 500g in the mail but I think it's based on how much money you've already made... so it might be slow in coming. If you're a male character Mom sends cookies and pink cake. In this scenario the gold would certainly be better.
Well dang...I had no idea. I have never made a female character (I don't think, anyways) and even if I had I am not sure I would have even noticed 500g in the mail haha... Oh well, in this format money doesn't really grow exponentially so while that cash would have been nice, it's really only worth a few extra quests in the long run. Thanks for the information, though! I certainly would have used it had I not already started!
Interesting to consider what to do with money, and when, because it'll take forever to afford anything. This sort of project will take many years if you're aiming to do the bundles. Obviously in a normal run the first bag upgrade is an absolute top priority to get in the first few days, but I don't think you need it here, at least not for a really long time. You'll have plenty of spare time every single day, so you can chop lots of wood and make chests everywhere. You'll never be far from a chest, so if you do fill up your bag you'll have time to dump stuff in the nearest one, to collect when convenient. Best thing is probably to save up money and hit the cart a lot to buy all the animal stuff, and avoid coop/barn expenses completely.
That is definitely going to be my plan. And not having a bag upgrade isn't a huge deal because the main reason for not wanting to leave things in chests around the map is so I can sell everything. That is no longer an issue. Update #2: I am just beginning Spring 8. I have knocked out a few of the early game quests as well as three billboard jobs. I am sitting with 1160 in cash. I have basically just been fishing, mining, and foraging. I knocked out the spring foraging bundle and planted those wild seeds. I am hoping for mostly daffodils to give as gifts. I couldn't afford anything in the Spring 5 cart and there was nothing of value in the Spring 7 cart. Hopefully I have more cash by the next Friday. I also got the nine cauliflower seeds from the museum.
Please avoid doubleposts after such a short time. If you want to make additions to your previous post please edit your post instead.
Hey all! Big update for the run! I restarted!!! ... So, in short, I discovered three things that made me rethink the whole run. I changed my gender to female. As I learned in this thread, I will receive a total of 1000g just from changing genders. I spent entirely too much time mining in the previous run. I believe I can substitute fishing for it with exponentially more success. I accidentally sold two swords in the Adventurers Guild without thinking. I know I could but something with that money and trash it, but I already wanted a fresh start. So, to new beginnings...
Why would you not want to mine every day that there isn't a fishing quest from Willy? Get down deep ASAP, find some gems and have them ready for bulletin board requests. 2,250g for fulfilling a diamond request is your best shot at a big cash injection, but ruby and emerald are pretty decent at 750g each too. Plus, getting down to floor 80 means your monster slaying quests will be worth more too. OTOH, you can't sell fish, and barring a few rare exceptions, they range from mediocre to awful when it comes to gifting. Their only real utility is as food for mining or chopping, but it won't take long to catch more than you can eat, either before the mine is available or while doing a fishing quest.
Believe it or not, fishing is quite fruitful because of treasure alone. I just started day four, and from fishing I have one Diamond, four Jades, two frozen tears, and six iron ore. I have done this a few times where I begin the game by fishing alone and I have received everything I needed for the blacksmith bundle. I won't ignore mining entirely, but if I wait until later in Spring to start I will have all of the food I need for energy, which is vital because upgrading my pickaxe may not viable. Also, I was extremely lucky and got an Eel delivery quest on Spring 2 and a Catfish quest on Spring 3, for 255g and 600g respectively. I was able to complete both yesterday. That puts me at 1555g currently at the beginning of Spring 4. I will update again around Spring 7 after I see what the traveling cart had for me.
Catching treasure from fishing is useless if you can't monetise it. You simply won't get the top level gem requests until you get down the mines deep enough to where you'd find them. For ruby and emerald that means you have to get down to level 80+, for diamonds it will be 50+ (I think?) and jade and aquamarine aren't found until 40+. Before then you'll only get the cheap ones requested, topaz and amethyst. There's no need to rely on fishing for gems when you'd find them as you mine anyway. Apart from specific fish quests, mining surely has to be prioritised over fishing, I can't think of any reason not to. And it's definitely possible to get all the way to the bottom of the mines with just a basic pickaxe, as long as you take plenty of food with you, and crafting bombs will help too. You'll get the weapons and boots you need for free. For energy, you can always supplement your diet with fish. Once you have caught the fish for the bundles, or for quests, stick to the lake in cindersap; the only fish you catch in spring is smallmouth bass, which is great for your inventory when you do hit the mines and is also close to the spring onions. Once you add field snacks into the mix, having enough food should not be an issue, but topping up food is the only reason to fish a few hours right now. But I don't see how you can justify mass fishing because of maybe getting the blacksmith bundle done, when all you get for a reward is another furnace, something you could easily craft. Even in a normal game, it's not a good reason to fish. There are good reasons for lots of fishing in a normal game, but that bundle isn't one of them there either. Definitely interested in how long this will take though, and how you progress financially by the end of a year.
That all does make a lot of sense. I didn't really factor in the availability of job board quests in relation to progress in the mine. Luckily by the time I read your post I just hit Spring 5 so no harm no foul. I will definitely hyper focus on mining, but only on neutral days or better. On bad luck days mining doesn't seem to be that advantageous and I'd rather focus on relationships and foraging. Thanks for the input and I will update soon!
