Day 10 I know I made a big deal about how today was going to be a mining day, but I've changed my mind. Today is actually kind of a busy day. I need to: -Buy potatoes and tulip seeds from Pierre -Till 30 new plots for said seeds -Give Vincent something for his birthday -Fetch my pick from Clint and drop off my axe -I should probably check the southern island for onions because this Salad thing is killing me On the other hand, tomorrow is a perfectly blank day. I'll just do my mining then. I till the fields and prewater everything then head directly to town. I notice a request from Elliot for a leek. I'm already carrying a leek that I had intended to give to George, but this is better. Elliot tends to shut himself in his cabin a lot, and there are even days when he literally never comes out. This leads to all sorts of irritating broken quests, so I like ot reach the 2 heart threshold on him ASAP, and the 150 point bonus from doing a quest will cover about 30% of that in one move. But first, I need to get my seeds from Pierre... ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!? All Pierre ever does is complain about his business and how he never gets enough profit. I'm here to buy, like, a houses' worth of stuff from him. He'll get more money from me in five minutes than he probably normally makes in a week. And I HAVE to do the deal TODAY, or I'll lose a whole harvest. It's not like he needs to man the store all day or anything, he just needs to meet me at the door for five freaking minutes. What's worse, is that he's ACTUALLY INSIDE THE STORE RIGHT NOW. I can see him on my minimap. He's probably watching from that second story window with a shit goblin grin on his face. This is not the only time Pierre has been unreasonable. In fact, his favorite game is to leave the Open sign up, but then abruptly declare closing right as you reach the counter. I wonder how many people have gone hungry because they reached the counter at 5:01:00 instead of 5:00:59? Or because they forgot to plan around Wednesday being National Fucking No Food Day? Or because they, you know, HAVE JOBS that last from 8-5. Joja Corp isn't the villain in this story. They're the heroes. They're here to rescue us from Pierre and his weird co-dependent bullshit. The townsfolk probably BEGGED Morris to set up his store here. So anyways, I go to Joja and pay the 12.5% markup. Whatever. I got trolled for a second time when I see a hotspot in the river. It promptly gives me four pieces of trash in a row and then disappears. I gotta admit, that was a pretty good burn. I give Vincent a Daffodil, making sure it is one the of gold-starred ones. That's 450 points right there. 90 of those points are from the gold star bonus. You should always squirrel away a few high quality items for birthdays. I meet Clint and swap tools with him. I hav emy pick back, new and improved, and I give him my axe. I'm on my way to the forest when I see another hotspot in the river, right by Jodi's. It's in the gold star area that I normally like to fish in during the rain. I'm not going to pass this up! It lasts for three hours. The fish aren't all that great (although the gold star quality is nice). The lake is better, but the river is here and the lake is far away. Besides, I needed a sunfish for my collection and now I have one. I get trolled for the third time today when I visit the island and find no spring onions I get home and plant my seeds. It's quick and easy, because I did all the work before I left. I earn $2067, which is not bad for three hours of fishing from a suboptimal spot. Fishing skill clears level 7.
Day 11 Mine day! I've got everything taken care of! I've got 5 Salads stacked up, another 10 Green Algae, just in case, a shiny new copper pick, a minor artifact sword, and absolutely no chores, other than some basic watering. What could possibly go wrong? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU................................................ Ladder drops are tied to daily luck. With low luck scores, you get lots of floors where you don't find the ladder until the very last stone. I almost skip the mines and go fishing, but I really need the resources. I'm out of coal, I need copper for tools and taps, and I want to start stockpiling iron. 8:10 I finish my chores and dash for the mines. I make a brief stop by Robin's and order the construction of a well. I won't need it until Summer, but it's nice to get while I'm here, and having it on the map will make planning a little easier. I go into the mines, expecting trouble... and instead I stomp so much face you'd think I was a metal press at a coin factory. It turns out that "bad" luck also increases the number of monster spawns, which is actually a big advantage. Monsters drop loot (and their loot tables aren't altered, so you're getting the same stuff and at the same chances) and they also drop ladders. I get lots of ladders this way. And while there are a few less ladders and ores spawned, and it's not terrible. I still get lots of lucky floors with ladders right by the entrance. I only get a few really bad floors, but that's why I have bombs and staircases. I end up clearing 20 floors, getting all the way to floor 50. The dark caverns (30-40) were a breeze, thanks to my piddly little glow ring. Any source of innate light, even a weak one, makes them easy. I thought I'd be in trouble in the ice caves (40-50) because the rocks there take two whacks from my pickaxe, but the swarms of monsters gave me lots of free ladders. Loot wasn't so bad, considering the bad daily luck: -19 coal -50 copper -51 iron -a few very minor gems I'm basically done with copper now, and between this iron and my existing stock, I can manage at least three steel tools. I'll make sure that one of those is a pickaxe. Unfortunately, 2:00 hits right as I am on my front porch. I pass out and get dinged $223. I also ate 4 Salads and 10 Green Algae. This is a total expenditure of $1253, not counting the opportunity cost of doing something money-related instead of progress-related with the day. Was it worth it? Yeah, probably. In a few more days, Salmonberry season starts, and stamina will stop being so expensive. I'll also have a few steel tools. In fact, things are going so well that I consider full steel to be a foregone conclusion for the Spring. The question is whether or not I want to start getting into gold tools, or if that money should go to things like the stables and the backpack upgrade.
Day 12 A messy day. Storage overflow is becoming a problem, but I don't have an axe to get more wood for a chest. My parsnips have come in, but I don't have the seeds on me. I just got the Robin's Axe quest in the mail. It's Friday, but tomorrow is the Egg Festival, meaning that this is effectively my last possible day for most gift giving and forage finding. Also, I need to have some serious cash for tomorrow so I can buy the Egg Festival exclusives. After watering everything (including the now empty parsnip plots) I had south. Spring Onion Island pulls double duty today, since it also is where the axe is hidden. Or rather, it would be pulling double duty, if any onions spawned :/ I catch as many villagers as I can. I'm behind on hearts, which is normal for the first few weeks, but I'd like to catch up. I find out that Demetrius wants an Earth Crystal,s o I go back and fetch one. This is exactly why I keep an extra copy of everything. I have to give the crystal to him today, since you can't interact with people normally on festivals. I buy my seeds from Pierre, and fetch my axe from Clint. I seriously consider upgrading my hoe, not because I need it, but because upgrades are fun, but then I realize that I won't be able to till ground tomorrow for my incoming strawberries. It's probably just as well to skip the upgrade today. There will be $3500 worth of stuff at the festival that I want to buy, and I don't need to be complicating my cash flow right now. I fish for a bit at the mountain lake. I was going to leave at 7:00, but there's a hotspot that lasts until 8:50, so I stay until it plays out. Getting home, I just barely remember to fertilize the ground before planting the parsnips. I should get enough gold stars for the Quality Crops Bundle after maybe two harvests. I maybe spent a little too much time fishing. I pass out right inside my door. Passing out in your home isn't as bad. You don't end up paying money, but there is still a risk of waking up with reduced stamina.
A whole lot of this. Feels like everything pops on a Wednesday when you forget to plan ahead or need to sell in order to buy. Pierre is a dick and I rate him Demetrius/10.
Day 13 The Egg Festival. The Day of Infamy. The first shot fired in the private war between myself and Robin. But that story happened in the old thread. This thread is more about optimization. I might pick up that story again in Summer. We'll see. I know people liked it. I clear 15 tiles for the planned strawberry purchases, and fertilize and water it right away. I spend the rest of my stamina getting enough wood for another chest, and I do some much needed organizing. I have two chests near the mailbox that I use as my "working inventory," and those are getting stuffed. I set up a new chest in my house. This one is called "Deep Storage." It's where I put things that I'm saving for some distant purpose, like recipes or quests. The idea is to put these rarely needed objects somewhere where they won't bother me. I make another chest by the shipping box that I can "Outgoing." This is where I dump things that I eventually intend to carry out with me for some specific purpose. Stuff for bundles and museums got stuffed in here, along with geodes, and any object that I'm reserving for gifts. I find this simple layer of organization helps a lot. The Festival itself is a humiliation goes fine. In a display of wretched excess, I buy the Plush Bunny and 15 strawberries. Yes, I just dropped $2000 on the plush bunny. In Spring. But I said I was trying to complete as much content as possible, and this is the only time you can get the bunny. When the festival ends, there's actually just enough time to dash to the tidal pool and back. Along the way, you sometimes encounter some glitched villagers who got stuck outside during all the weird map changing antics the game pulls during festivals. I carry a full spectrum of gifts with me and manage to squeeze in several last minute presents. A nice side effect is that you can check the bulletin board. It turns out that Linus wants a Bream. That would have been a pain in the ass if I discovered it tomorrow, but finding out about it now makes it easy. I also get $380 from the tidal pool (I had looted it yesterday, which is why the number is so low. In fact, $380 is pretty excellent, considering that it only had one day to spawn stuff in).
Day 14 Important events: -Wild Seeds mature -Haley's Birthday (very important if you want a dance partner) -I'd like to upgrade my hoe -The first cauliflowers mature today. Between that one seed I bought one day 1 and the mixed seeds, I get eight of them. I am so glad that the Wild Seeds are done. That's 30 plots that I don't need to maintain anymore. The xp from the harvest puts Forage over 4, which is the important threshold. The only things I actually sell are the Dandelions (one goes into deep storage for quests). Leeks are loved by George and are too valuable to sell. Wild Horseradishes are loved by Krobus and are the only realistic way of getting him to 10 hearts by year 1. Daffodils aren't loved by anyone, but they are accepted by Haley, Jas, and Vincent, and go a long way towards stretching out my flower supply. I pluck the eight cauliflower. More are on the way, it's just that these are the ones that finished today. Since these were overflow, they will also not be replaced. It's nice having these old crops go away right as my "real" crops start coming in. It's almost like I had a plan or something. One cauliflower goes into outgoing storage (for the bundle). Three more go into deep storage (Jodi has a special quest for one, there is a recipe, and one more as insurance against random quests). The other four get dropped into the shipping box, giving me $700 and 4 points towards polyculture. I plan on swatting all of these miscellanous chores, and then use the balance of the day fishing. I take a trip past the island and score a badly needed 15 onions. Haley gets a gold daffodil, for a stunning 450 points. The new rules for quality effects on gifts has made dancing with Haley so much easier. I drop off an armful of artifacts for Gunther, I give Clint your mom my hoe, and then I go fishing at the lake at 5:40. I end up catching $3000 in fish and gems, which is not bad considering the late start. The big find of the day is an Iridium Ring. I'm no longer making apologies for this sort of thing. Yeah, this is supposed to kind of sort of be a guide, and you can't count on any of these specific lucky drops, but if you are doing lots of fishing, you will get lots of lucky finds, even if not these specific ones. It's part of the benefit of fishing. Fishing hits 8, and Forage clears 4
Day 15 Demetrius shows up today. I choose the Mushroom Cave, although I sometimes think that the fruit bats are better. I just like the mushrooms. I need to remember that from now on, every even numbered day is mushroom day. Salmonberry season! Salmonberry season starts today (Monday) and lasts until Thursday night. Each berry sells for $5 and recovers 25 energy. DO NOT SELL SALMONBERRIES. That's not what they are for. The real action is from the fact that each one restores 25 energy, and that you can get a GIANT stack of them. They become your one-slot stamina solution for a very long time, probably for most of the Summer. Each berry offsets $50 worth of Salad purchases, and at Forage 4, each bush drops 2 berries, so that's $100 per bush. People underestimate how good this is because the benefits are amortized over a long period of time instead of handed to you in a lump sum. But the benefits are very, very good. That being said, I don't recommend going whole hog on Salmonberry collecting. I find that it's best to skip Monday and Wednesday, so that the berries have time to build up and recover. Absolutely pick up any berries that you happen to come across during the off days, though. Any unpicked berries vanish on Thursday night, so scour the whole map on Thursday. It's painful if Thursday is a rain day, but I think the berries are more valuable than the catfish. My tulips and potatoes come in tomorrow, and I want to be prepared. I'd also like to get my Kale plot started, for the polyculture. I can use one of the empty plots that the Wild Seeds used to occupy. On top of all of that, I'd like to have $5000 in the bank tomorrow, so that I can buy a steel tool from Clint when I see him to pick up your mom my hoe. That's kind of a tall order, but I think that if I start fishing in the lake early enough, I can pull it off. I start with $3842. Buying the seeds knocks me down to about $1000 (I also bought 3 blue jazz for completion purposes). Clint has a quest for Cauliflower. See? This is why I keep extras in deep storage. I'm going to see him tomorrow, so I make a note to bring a cauliflower with me. I run completely out of parsnips and quartz while giving gifts. It's hard keeping up with demand. Fishing starts at 12:40. I get $2986 in fish and algae. The two lucky finds today were another Neptune's Glaive and an Elvish Ring. Each of those items also came with a diamond. The ring can be sold for $2000, but I'd rather give it to Gunther, since it's one of the hardest artifacts to find. Fishing is 50% of the way to level 9. I gained 40% today. One or two more days will do it. I'd like to be at level 9 before the next rain day to guarantee a shot at the Legend Fish. When I gt home, I realize that I have some excess iron, so I make a crab pot, mostly so that I can finish the related bundle (and get more crab pots). I plant the kale and two of the blue jazz (the third seed is kept for the Tub O Flowers recipe). Farming hits level 3
Day 16 Potatoes, tulips and parsnips mature. Wow. Replanting is a snap because I prebought the seeds. I do a complete scout of the map, checking for berries. It takes forever, and the harvest is disappointing, only 44. I have a pet theory that the spawn rate is weak during the first two days, and this supports that guess. This was two days' worth of build up, and I only found 22 bushes. I was expecting much more. Clint gets a cauliflower. Such a good quest, I get $545 for that. I pick up my tool and hand over the pickaxe. It costs $5000, but this is my ticket to continued and efficient progress in the mines. BTW, I was keeping my eye on the weather forecast. If the forecast had been for rain, I would have upgraded my watering can instead. AS it stands, I still really want a steel can, it's just that I can't afford to miss even a single day of watering. I'm going to be keeping my eye out and hoping for some lucky timing. I fish from 8: 30 to 10: 30. I leave earlier because I'm tired of getting punished for going to bed late. Also, I want to chop some trees on the way home. I've cleared out all of the trees near my house, and it's getting hard to find wood to chop, so getting some off-farm lumber is a good idea. I get $830 in fish and another $500 from the cave. The potatoes bring in another $1440. What's this? Actual profit from farming? Madness! Farming hits level 4. I'm a little surprised, since I cleared 3 yesterday, but then again, I did just harvest 60 crops.
I actually rarely ever bother with the iron watering can. My farm plots are always laid out with quality sprinklers in mind, so they're all 3 x 3's, so watering 5 in a row is a waste. By the time I could afford the gold watering can, which would fit perfectly... I've got all my sprinklers and have no need for any watering can anymore (except maybe day one of the seasons and once-over in the greenhouse). I'm surprised you didn't get more strawberries, I generally try for 20-40 of them. Your first harvest of Strawberries goes to buy a crop of Potatoes that are harvested right on th 27th, your second is your profit margin for going into summer with a full wallet. Less important now that blueberries are almost not worth bothering with anymore, but they still give cash in hand, which I suppose is useful. Pretty lackluster, though. I try to get four or so quality sprinklers down in time for Summer 1, and surround them with hops. That way, when I get to brewing, I've got tons to support myself through the doldrums of fall.
I'm not using sprinklers. I mentioned it briefly in the first post, but I don't like them very much. It's like you said, you shouldn't even bother with your watering can, because sprinklers are so much better. And that's the problem. Sprinklers obsolete so much of the game, from the watering can upgrades to the weather to wells the retaining soil (okay those would be bad no matter what), to the stamina management game. You have all of these central game mechanics based on the assumption of limited, labor-intensive watering, but then you have this outlier object that just turns all of that off. I have a few ideas about how they could be more robustly integrated into the game, but as it stands, I mostly just ignore them. I might get a few iron sprinklers to handle some oddball crops, like say, a flower that feeding into a beehouse, but that's about it. I could definitely get another plot of strawberries, but 15 is where my "Okay, that's enough!" reflex kicks in. 15 plots is 30 berries, which is enough for polyculture, various and sundry quests and birthdays, a little bit of profit, and enough leftovers to guarantee a good harvest from your seedmaker. My current farm is about as big as I want it to be. I'm sure a bigger one would be more profitable, but this is my personal limit. And given how good fishing is, I'm not sure how much better it would be. An hour of fishing at the lake can bring in $200-$500 fairly consistently. I have to weigh being able to start my non-farm tasks at 8 or 9 o'clock versus 11 or 12 o' clock. Summer farming will be bigger, but maybe not as big as you're used to, if you make heavy use of sprinklers. I'm aiming for 180 plots, plus overflow. But I'm also going to have a very time efficient set up for that.
To each their own. I respect the challenge involved. Ahh, I use them as a filler cash crop for the back half of spring to make sure I've got the cash I need in case RNG is not kind to me. A very valid point. Particularly in the early game, this is a major decision factor. And, since you are not planning on using sprinklers, it'll actually go in to the rest of the season as well. Actually, I typically only have around 160 plots going at any given time. 20 3 x 3 plots with a sprinkler in the middle, arranged around a lone scarecrow.
Day 17 This ends up being more of a mop up day than anything else. It's getting late enough in the week that I want to make one solid gift giving pass. My Fishing skill is 50% of the way to 9th, and I'd like to get withing striking distance of finishing that off. Plus, while I'm making the rounds, I can grab an incidental Salmonberries. So it turns out that last night was a VERY good night for Salmonberries. I end up with 218 of the things, meaning I found about 160 or so. Keep in mind that I just looted the entire map yesterday, and only found 44, and the berry population had been given two days to reach that level. And I didn't even do a complete sweep today. While stopping by the Saloon, I go ahead and beat Prairie King. Gotta do it eventually, may as well do it now. I see a note on the board from the Wizard, requesting an amethyst. That's excellent. Tomorrow is last Salmonberry day, so I'll be sweeping past his area anyway. I really need the hearts with him, and the triple pay off from that ammy will help a lot. I do some very light fishing at the lake, more of a space-filling action than anything else. It nets me $981. Not much, but the cash flow helps.
Day 18 Another messy day: -It rains tomorrow. If I want a guaranteed shot at the Lgend Fish, my Fishing level has to be 9 and I have to have some Trout Soup ready to go for tomorrow. -Because it rains tomorrow, I also HAVE to upgrade my watering can now. I might not get another chance. -I have the metal, but I only have $4437 right now. I also want to buy at least 2 Trout Soup, so I need a total of $5500, now. -Pam's birthday -Last Salmonberry day. A huge time sink on a day when I have to do everything -Amethyst quest for the Wizard. Kind of a boon, actually, since that's $300 right there. -Mushroom day. Not a big deal, but I don't want to forget. The Mushroom Cave gets me 2 Morels and a Purple Mushroom, which is excellent. The problem is that I can't cash in on them today. There is just no way for me to visit both Clint and Willy if I have to stop by Pierre's first, not if I also want to stroll through the woods for the berries and the Wizard. Instead, I fish some Jade and Aquamarines out of deep storage, along with a Catfish. Gunther can wait a while for the gems, and the catfish is going to get replaced tomorrow. I just barely remember to grab a gold-star parsnip for Pam, and enough iron bars for Clint. I visit the Wizard and complete his quest. I also get piles of Salmonberries along the way. I stop by Willy's. There was some beach forage on the way, so I grab it and sell it to him, along with the Catfish. That eases the cash situation a bit. I buy two Troup Soup from him. I just don't have the money for a third. I hope it will be enough. I reach Clint about a half hour before he closes. I sell the jade and aquamarine, get my steel pick, and hand over my watering can. I'm making better time than expected. I run into Pam as I leave Clint's. The gold star parsnip gives me an instant 800 points with her. That's 32% of the grand total needed to reach 10 hearts, right there! I reach the lake at 5:40, and there's an ideally located hotspot, right in the gold region. It only lasts two hours, but I'm able to finish off my fishing skill before 11:00. I snag a few last berries on the way home and go to bed. I only get $1400 in profit today, but I now possess a stack of about 340 Salmonberries, and have a clean shot at the Legend Fish tomorrow, with no distractions.
Day 9 It's Legend Fish day! I can't count on there being another rain day, so I need to make this one count. I obviously want to snag Mr. Legend, but I also need to grit my teeth and do some ocean fishing so that I can catch some eels. You need a minimum of three for completion (bundle, 2 recipes) and I'd like a fourth as a hedge against random quests. It sucks that they compete with Catfish, but it has to be done. And obviously, I want to get as many catfish as possible. Also Jodi wants a Cauliflower. It's her scripted quest, not a bulletin board thing. I've been holding a Cauliflower back for this very event. Her house is right next to my favorite fishing spot, so it will be easy to do. I run, run, run to the lake right away, stopping only to maintain my crab pot. I wolf down some soup and start fishing. Things go well: It was an epic battle, lasting over three minutes of real time. There were two moments where he got me down to less than 5%, but I was able to hold on and recover. I got him all the way to 90% once, and then he QUINTUPLE JUKED ME and put me all the way back down to 15% before I could stabilize. But I got him. Nice and early, too! I've mentioned this before, but I'll repeat it. I know that you can catch multiple Legend Fish. I just don't like it. It trivializes the game. But yeah, a hardcore optimal player should just stay here with a stack of Trout Soup and score just short of $10,000 a pop.You can make more money on one day than you will the entire season. Your entire success ends up hinging entirely on how many late-season rain days you get. I dash south and start trying to get some catfish. At noon I take a break and give Jodi her Cauliflower. I also pop into Haley's house (due to my advanced stalker knowledge, I know that she comes out of her room at noon on rain days). I get the cut scene where she's arguing with Emily about chores. You can get a +30 bonus by being reasonable. Between that and the usual +20 for talking, I just barely clear the four heart threshold. My dance partner is now lined up, and that's one less thing to worry about. At 7:00, I tearfully abandon my fishing spot and head to the ocean. It takes me about three hours, but I catch four eels. I run back to my river spot and try to squeeze in a few more catches. Here's the haul: The big thing is obviously the Legend Fish, but the 4 Eels are nice as well. I got 9 catfish, which is disappointing for a level 9 Fisher spending all day fishing, but I had to deal with a lot of distractions. The gems are nice, but will most likely go into deep storage. If I need emergency cash, I can always pull them back out. But the thing I'm most happy about is actually that stack of gold ore. If I smelt that tonight, I will have the last really hard item for the Boiler Room. Mine carts are now quite possible. I sell $6000 in fish. The Bream go into deep storage (they're needed for recipes, and I was forced to sell my old collection earlier), along with the Eels, Legend Fish, and gems. I could have gotten an additional 11 or 12k if I wanted to.
Day 20 This is the most logistically complicated day yet. -I need to water my crops. But my can is with Clint -I want to complete the Boiler Room bundles today, but I'm still missing Quartz, Bat Wings, and a Solar Essence -Parsnips mature today, and I don't have replacement seeds on me -It's Saturday, and I haven't touched the tidal pool yet, so I have to do that -It's Shane's birthday The spirits are angry today, which is actually good. More monsters means more drops means quicker acquistion of the bundle items. Since I'm going to the CC anyway, I want to carry as much stuff as possible. Inventory management becomes something of a puzzle. Here I am, mulling over what to take and what to leave: I end up not taking the Fish Tank related stuff, and I even have to leave the museum pieces behind. There's just too much other non-negotiable stuff I need, and I also need empty slots for any forage and tidal loot that I find. The spring crops are vital. The Boiler Room isn't even unlocked yet. Completing one more bundle (any bundle) will do it, and the Spring Crops bundle is the only one open that I can finish right now. It's also vital that I not forget even a single one of the Boiler Room items. I also want to bring my axe and enough iron to upgrade it while I'm going to Clint's. I jog south, sweep by the tidal pool, and then turn north to trade tools with Clint. I check my map and see that Shane is still at Marnie's house. He doesn't work on weekends. I'll have to catch him at night, assuming that I still have the time. I hit Pierre's and buy 30 parsnip seeds complicated an already difficult inventory situation. I hit the Community Center and drop off what I have. I don't like doing this, since I'm going to have to come right back after I get the rest of the loot, and puttering around the CC takes a surprising amount time. But I have to, because my inventory is just too cluttered. I reach the mines at 2:00. I don't need to do another heroic dive, I just need to find a few odds and ends and then get out. I encounter a ghost on the very first floor, which gives me the Solar Essence that I need. The second floor isn't so great. It's a giant arena floor with the monsters super spread out. It takes 2 hours to clear just this one floor I already have 4 Bat Wings, but I need ten in total. I don't get the tenth wing until floor 55. I stop there. I'm not here to advance the elevator today. I go back to the upper floors and start looking for quartz. I finally find on floor 36. 8: 50 I run south to the CC and drop off my loot. The Boiler Room is finished. 10:00 I get to the Saloon while Shane is still there. I buy a Beer from Gus and hand it to Shane for a solid 640 points. That set me back $400, but giving him a Salmonberry instead would have been only 360 points. Worth it. 11:00 I get back to the farm and quickly start watering. The steel can is a real pleasure to use on this 3x5 layout. I got a second furnace from one of the bundles, so I go ahead and set that up. It will be useful when I need to start mass smelting gold. Combat hits 3, mining hits 4 Also, this happens
Day 21 I want today to be an epic mine day. I've got the steel pickaxe, the new mine carts, and I even have an "unlucky" spirits are displeased day. Strawberries mature. I get two gold stars, which I keep in anticipation of Maru and Demetrius' birthdays, and the rest go into the shipping box. I then water everything and head to the mines. I, uh, don't use the cart. Yeah, yeah, I know, but thing is that I want to stop by Robin's and commission a Silo, and the long route is about as fast as the cart if also need to visit her home. The cart will still be useful for getting back home. The silo isn't critical or anything, but it's something I will want eventually. Robin's time is a very slightly limited resource, and by stringing out minor projects like this, you can avoid getting into a frustrating log jam scenario later. Demetrius gets really weird and assumptive with me: Uh, dude, I just came here to place a construction order... Oh, ha ha, yeah, uh, that was a good joke! Pretty funny stuff there, Mr. Crazy Laugh. Maru comes in and asks if anything is wrong. Man, I am not about to say anything that might upset Mr. Murder Eyes here. I just tell her that everything is chill and then I make an excuse and leave. 9: 20 I reach the mines. I obviously want to cover as much ground as possible, but I'm also looking out for rare monster drops. I haven't found any Dwarf Scrolls yet. I'm expecting to get Scroll III just by going through the ice section (lots of things drop it in that region). Most ice monsters also have a 1% of dropping a Coffee Bean which is actually pretty high. If I don't get either of those items, I will force the issue by quickly looping through the elevator and searching for monster clumps. And ther should be a lot of monster clumps, given the daily luck. I get Dwarf Scroll III on the very first floor. Not bad! At floor 64, I find a Coffee Bean. A lucky drop? Kind of. Like I said, a 1% drop hit is actually pretty high. This is why I haven't put any effort into stopping by the merchant's cart yet. The real prize there is the Coffee Bean, but she wants $2500 for it, and I knew that I could get it for free with a little patience. 8:50 I've hit floor 70, for a total gain of 15 floors. Normally I would head back now, but I have those mine carts, so I can risk making one more dive. It pays off, and I hit floor 75 at 11:00. That was a 20 floor dive! I can still squeeze more out of this. I do the elevator trick to quickly bounce between floors 15 and 25, looking for large monster clumps. You sometimes can get giant swarms of ten or more flies and maggots. I'm mostly fishing for a Dwarf Scroll I, which drops at a 0.5% rate from low level monsters. I don't get one, but I do get the even rarer Dwarf Scroll IV. Hey, you make your own luck in this game. 1: 40 I barely have time to plant my coffee bean, and I very nearly forget to fertilize it, which would have been silly. A good day. Combat is now level 4 EDIT: Check out the loot:
Day 22 Potatoes, Tulips and Kale finish today. I store 2 Kale away for recipes and sell the other 15. I will not be replacing it. I'm starting to run into some serious inventory pressure. The problem isn't so much storage as it is carriage. There is ton of stuff int he outgoing chest that needs to be transported to town, but I can never carry enough. A lot of this is medium-term storage for things that I am slowing trickling out as gifts. The Daffodils are an example of this. But there are also a lot of things in there that need to go to bundles and the museum. The problem is even worse than in this picture, because I just harvested my tulips and I have about 5 or 6 more slots of stuff to store. Running these kinds of errands takes a surprisingly long time. The CC in particular takes forever to putter about in, and I hate visiting it more than strictly necessary. The season is ending, and I still have a lot of goals, so I need to be efficient. One of the best ways to deal with this problem is to start establishing chests in town, filled with gifts particular to the villagers near that location. Doing this effectively and permanently removes these items from your inventory, and decreases your daily load. You can't do this with broad spectrum gifts like Parsnips, which are better to just carry with you, but Tulips, Leeks, and Solar Essences are loved by three relatively static characters and are good candidates for this sort of thing. The problem is that I don't have any wood, and my axe is still in the shop. I can pick it up today, and I will, but it doesn't make much sense to grab the axe, leave town to chop, and then come back to town to start storing stuff. It's also kind of a busy day already. I need to upgrade my hoe, which means I have to both metal and the hoe, and I need seeds from Pierre. There just isn't going to be inventory space to play ferry today. Yes, my inventory problems are so bad that they are creating inventory problems. At this point, the best I can do is drop off stuff with Gunther and process those geodes, and maybe get rid of some one-off gifts like that Joja cola. I go to town, trying to be as efficient with gifts as possible while still attending my business. I buy a full round of seeds from Pierre; not just the Potatoes and Tulips that I need right now, but a round of Parsnips for the future. This should be the last time I have to buy seeds from him this Spring. I dump of TON of stuff off with Gunther, and rewards me with more crap that I have to carry :/ While busting geodes with Clint, this happens It's always nice to have that out of the way. The steel hoe sets me way back, and there's no defending this purchase. I just like having upgraded tools. The hoe could really wait, but it is such a pleasure to have a steel hoe for the first of Summer. At 3:40, I'm done. I use the cart to quickly go to the mines. It's in the middle of the day, so I'm not expecting anything amazing. I still do well, covering 15 floors, taking me from 75 to 90. The last ten floors were the part of the magma cave. It's slower going because the steel pick can't one-shot the rocks anymore, and I'm happy to have made the progress that I did. I get a disappointing 7 gold ore, but monster drops gave me two pre-smelted gold bars, so it works out. I have exactly enough gold metal to upgrade one tool. It's either going to be the pick or the watering can. 11:00 There's no way that I can dive for another checkpoint floor, but it's still too early to go back. I do some quick elevator hopping among the upper floors, looking for monster clumps and another shot at getting the Dwarf Scroll I. It doesn't happen. 1:40 I go to bed, having just barely had time to plant my seeds. I make $4500, most of which came from the potatoes and kale. Farming hits level 5. I choose Tiller, of course.
Day 23 I would really like to solve my inventory problems today, but tomorrow is the Flower Festival. It makes so much more sense to do support tasks tomorrow than today. And I need to start making more money. Here the deal. I have 8 days left until Summer, one of which is a festival day. These are the goals I am looking at: -14k for set up costs on Summer 1 -3.5k for purchasing the unique items at the Festival (doesn't help the game state, but hey, it's a completion run, bro!) -10k for one golden tool -10k for an Apple and Pomegranate tree, so that I can get a full season of fruit in the Fall -10k for a Deluxe Backpack (optional) -10k for the stables (very optional) Today I'm mostly going to fish. I'm going to do a bit of inventory cleaning at the mines (the mine station chest is a mess also, I have to keep leaving stuff behind and it's starting to get bad). I have a few miscellaneous adventurer type things in the chests at the farm, so I take those with me so that I can liquidate all of my gear at once. I fish until 7:00. I then dash to the mining station and pick up all of the sundry rings, weapons, and boots that have been collecting there and complicating my life. I sell them all to the Adventurer's Guild for a cool $1200. Pretty good! I decide to go to the Saloon, since I'm falling behind on hearts. I'm not sure that was the best plan. I clear $4933 tonight, not counting the direct sales I made to the Guild. Not bad, but not great, either.
Day 24 Festival day! The Festival begins when you exit the map from the south. You have until 1:50 to do this, and then the rest of your day gets tanked, so I am going to push things to the limit. I have $10800 in hand. I need to have $10,000 tomorrow to buy the pick upgrade from Clint, but I am also going to be spending $3500 in idiot vanity purchases at the festival, so I need to plan ahead. Today is mushroom day, so that helps, but it's not enough. I pull my gems out of deep storage (Again. My gems are basically fated to go in and out of this chest forever). My parsnips finish, and I sell 15 of them. I don't really want to sell more, because these are what will be carrying my heart income during the first week of Summer. Plus, I want to have a long term cache of them for Pam. And they make for cheap pickles for Harvey. No matter how I look at it, I'm going to be about $1000 short for tomorrow. My strawberries come in tomorrow, so I can just sell some to Pierre, but that is more slots being used up at a time when I want to be carrying as many things away from my farm as possible. Also, my Crab Pot catches a Periwinkle. That was the last thing I needed for the Crab Pot bundle. I'll take care of that tomorrow. I spend my time and energy clearing the farm in anticipation of Summer. This also generates some badly needed wood and stone. The wood was something I was hurting for in particular. The steel axe helps a lot here. There is a ton of grass that needs to be cut as well, and I am glad that I built the Silo when I did. I get a ton of hay for doing something I was going to do anyway. As time gets closer to 1:50, I move my operation progressively to the south. I spend the last few minutes just whacking random stones in the huge rock yard that dominates the bottom border of the map, and then I dash for the exit, catching the Festival right on time. I buy The Tub O Flowers recipe and the Rarecrow. Ugh. 35k right there. At least I redeem myself as a man in front of the village You get a few hours after the festival to use. I use my newly acquired wood to make a Preserve Jar and a Recycling Machine. The Jar will start processing cheap pickles for Harvey. The Recylcer is mostly for Refined Quartz, which I will want in abundance for Lightning Rods.
I don't usually buy a stable until year 3, since I don't see much in the way of usefulness from the horse. Very Optional indeed. More like Luxury.
