Hello everyone! Been playing SDV for about a year now and I'm in year 15, close to end game and after some researching I read that it's not possible to get an iridium truffle from a pig since it's considered a "foraged" item, if you don't have the gatherer profession. Is this legit? If so...oh god...GOODBYE PENELOPE AND FRIENDS. I WILL MISS YOU. Basically makes all my pigs pointless because I've been trying for an iridium truffle for so long I have stacks of truffles and the truffle oil. *sigh*
Ah nevermind, I believe I just found some information that answers my question. Crap-o-la. I guess I'll never be able to get an iridium truffle. Oh well, maybe I'll age truffle oil to make up for it.
technically if you dont mind making a few edits to your save files, it should be possible to change your foraging perk to botanist
Perhaps the person, being a new player, didn't fully understand the implications of the choice, and thus, not having the 20/20 hindsight of having played a few years or multiple saves, made a choice that seemed reasonable to their current play-style, or one that just sounded good in theory. Then, after a while, found that it didn't lend to the play-style that evolved, and now is unable to go back and change that decision.
That's what happened to me. I picked Tracker on my first save, and it wasn't terrible because it helped me finish the museum collection, but I've always gone Botanist since. The biggest benefit to Botanist for me personally is inventory management. I also picked Agriculturist instead of Artisan. That one got a save edit after a few years.
I always pick Tracker. I like the arrows telling me where to go to find forage much more than the iridium quality stuff, especially since money becomes rather trivial after a certain point. It all depends on your priorities.
I picked Tracker for the first time on my current save. For 4 days I couldn't figure out how it worked. Then, by accident, I noticed the little arrows on the side on the screen... and then ran into it pointing to something beyond a fence... and up a cliff... and the weeping began!
Foraging in general becomes trivial far sooner than money does. Heck, once you get your basics done for your bundles, you never really need to forage again. And there's so many false positives for foraging (including some that are literally impossible to obtain as they are outside the player area) that it's exceedingly unreliable for artifact hunting, assuming anyone cares about artifacts after unlocking the sewer.
Yeah the out of reach forage is annoying for sure, I wish that'd get fixed. Still beats having to walk the entirety of the map to check for stuff though, for me. I also still like to forage and hunt for artifacts beyond the required items though, since time constraints aren't a problem for me. Just another opportunity to enjoy the scenery.
Well...I was never into foraging to be honest. Even to this day I only have about 100 of each foraged item (aside from the truffles.) I didn't believe it was a very good "end game" decision for me personally, and I'm still happy I stuck with it. I have 6 sheds I use as winery's for ancient fruit and a barn/coop filled fully with every animal in the game. (i.e one barn for cows, one for goats, one for ducks, etc.) That being said, I have chests filled with millions from ancient fruit wine and I happily collect iridium quality rancher products while also enjoying the benefits of loving animals quicker, and quicker incubation, etc. I also chose the lumberjack profession because of that end game option for a "chance to drop hardwood". This was huge for me because going to the secret forest for 12 hardwood's a day or getting lucky and finding them in the mine was just...blah. I generally get 1-3 hardwoods PER tree I cut down on average. Foraging is awesome for the reasons stated above, but in my "view" of what I'd like my end game to be...that's why I chose Rancher and Lumberjack professions in case anyone else is wondering. Technically, crops and fish don't come in iridium quality so it's really rancher vs gatherer with animal perks or forage perks. And yup, I figured out you can't age truffle oil. Awesome. *bangs head on keyboard* If I could restart and change to foraging just for that to adhere to my OCD...I totally wouldn't! Sold all my pigs rofl. Full barn of 5-star happy pigs @ 20k each. Not bad!
My two cents on the perks... For Farming, it's kind of a no-brainer for me: Farmer/Artisan. Farmer is pretty worthless, but Artisan is the real money-maker. 40% bonus to everything I am likely to sell? Yes, please! By way of contrast, going Rancher either nets you with the ability to grow SOME of your animals faster (either barn or coop animals, mutually exclusive), which has ZERO benefit once said animals reach full maturity, and either faster incubation (see previous comment about being entirely useless once the coop is full) or faster wool production. Oh, and a smaller boost to animal goods. Ultimately, 40% > 20%, so Artisan is much better than Rancher, because you're not selling anything that hasn't been processed in the mid to end game. And the second-tier stuff on the rancher side are entirely useless by the time you unlock them. For Foraging, I suppose a case could be made for Lumberjack in the hardwood department, but just how much hardwood do you expect to need? At best, it is marginal, and you can always just play on the Forest Farm map which has eight stumps per day you can chop down in your very own farm area. No secret forest required! Which means Botanist is really the only viable choice here. I don't sell wood, I purchase it, in lots of 5-10k at a time to make all the kegs I need. To contrast, if you want pigs, you want Botanist for the truffles. Plus it is useful for inventory management if everything you pick up is guaranteed to be the same quality. For mining, I always go Miner/Prospector. I need copper and iron in bulk to make my brewing kegs and coal in bulk for my preserves jars. You'll never catch me selling any metal, so Blacksmith is a dud. If anything, I purchase metal from Clint at ruinous prices so I can keep my kegs going. Geologist/Gemologist is too uncommon to be worth bothering with, unless you plan on simply doing away with being a farm and spamming diamond duplicators all over your farm. For fishing, I suppose Fisher/Pirate is really the only choice, considering the only reason you'd want to fish is for the artifacts. Trapper/Mariner is actively BAD because the 'trash' often turns into valuables, and so is generally more valuable than the fish itself! Luremaster is also a trap, as bait is so cheap as to be inconsequential, moreso if you build a couple of worm bins, and you still need to loot your pots, so you might as well re-bait them at the same time. For Combat, I suppose it comes down to Fighter/Brute or Fighter/Defender. If the bonus damage from Brute means fewer hits to kill things, then it is better. But I'm not entirely convinced this is the case. I'd have to do some experimentation. I tend to have an Iridium Hammer by the time this choice comes around, does it really save me a swing on the purple slimes or flying dragon-eel things? Either way, the entire Scout line is complete garbage, because crits are still too rare even with it.
This is why I get the mod that let's you have both. Honestly I know it's cheap but, the skills tend to compliment each other so well, it's almost a crime to have to pick between them.
I like the Trapper/Mariner line myself, I dislike getting trash in my crab pots. Most of my skill choices tend to side with convenience rather than profit. I still make more money than I'm ever able to spend.
I'm a 100% crusader for Foraging as a means for money and energy early in the game. It's so important that, to me, it almost overrides farming at the beginning because of it's importance day one. Fishing is fantastic too, but Foraging shines early on and continues even after you get further into the game.
I like trapper/mariner as well, and that's because I use crab pots mostly for cooking and less for profit. It's a good way to get fish fast and I can make a lot of maki rolls and sashimi. As for foraging, I'm always very stumped on what to choose. If I choose gatherer/botanist, I can save inventory space when farming with forage seeds, but with tracker I can find artifact spots much easier. Then again, forester/tapper would be good for a maple farm. It's all up to what you want to do with your farm. Foraging for mushrooms in the mines is so overpowered for my first spring (30-40k a day) that I don't allow myself to go past level 80 in the mines until summer. Otherwise, I'd be a millionaire in a month!
I can see where tracker would help in the sense of trying to complete the museum collection because I've heard that finishing that is a total pain, even in the very late game - when money would be irrelevant anyways. So in a way, you chose the right profession if you were thinking of going into year 15 anyways.
