The Anti-Grind Game, AKA Forcing Yourself to Chill Out

SV obviously appeals to many types of playstyles both in terms of what people like to use their time/land for and what their goals are for making bank. I can't say I'm min-maxer as far as numbers, profit margins, and using every available space for production. However, I very easily get into this mental state of "must grind forever, must never hold still, must not see my bed before 1am."

I decided to start a sort of anti-grind game (with regard to my own subjective experience of the grind) because I spent too much time powering through my first save, resulting in missing out on a lot of the character development and a relaxing experience. I'm still playing my original save at a less breakneck pace, but I've mostly run out of things to do, which I feel sad about. I wanted to set up some rules to force myself to spread the content out over a longer period this time and focus on different production from what my first two farms were about (mostly booze). I will consider my efforts a failure if I manage to get all four candles at year 3.

So, is anyone else trying out an anti-grind or other rules-based farm like this? What's are your plans? I'm always curious what people do to mix it up when starting over.

Details of my rules and progress so far under spoilers to avoid a wall of text:

The Farm:
*Map: Hilltop - Pig & Schist Farm (can we pun-swear on this forum? I'll delete that bit if not)
*Theme: Truffles, minerals, mushrooms (earthy-cavey stuff)
*Goal: End up with a full-on truffle kingdom plus some honey, a slime hutch, and a small outdoor plot that all don't require much maintenance - something like this: https://stardew.info/planner/chatty-chipmunk-30/ (Edit: the slime hutch keeps disappearing, but it would go in the rectangle next to the obelisks)
*Route: Community Centre (meaning that I'll have to demolish the CC-related stuff after it's done)
*Spouse: Abigail, because minerals

The Rules:
-Build up villager relationships through talking and fetch quests
-No gift-giving except a liked gift on birthdays if I remember to
-Abigail can get any gift once per week (because I married super late the first time, like almost year 5 late)
-No more than one house upgrade per year
-Semi-self-sufficiency: a maximum of 10 of each type of seed can be bought from Pierre on the first of each season
-Start with two pigs and leave pregnancy on to spread them
-Mine days limited to once per week in year 1; no Skull Cavern until year 2 even if I unlock it
-I can visit the cart, but I'll probably forget to do this, because I never do it in my other saves

Progress over the first two weeks:
-Day 1 was meeting people (*futilely bangs fists on Sebastian's door*), foraging for fishing energy, planting the starter parsnips, and building a chest for fishing by Willy's.
-By the end of day 2, fishing was at 3 and I had the first backpack upgrade. (I did do the grind for this because having only one row of backpack space is just intolerable to me.)
-Within the next couple of days, I was able to fix the bridge at the beach just from wood cleared out on the farm. I like to do that early because it's good money for little effort.
-Hit floor 15 of the mines on day 7 and another 10 floors the next week.
-Just upgraded my pickaxe near the end of week 2. Within the next week, I'll buy a silo so I can chunk all the grass out of the way and not waste it.

I've managed to not make any other specific plans at this point except upgrading my axe to clear the big stumps for a barn and getting a pig into said barn.

Maybe it sounds like a lot of grinding so far, but it really wasn't after day 2. My plot is only about 12x3, so watering is no big deal. I also use Timespeed (10 seconds per 10 minutes outside). It's been hard not to go into the mines often, but on the other hand, it's a load off to be able to tell myself "nope, you just can't."

We'll see how feasible this all is. I might add/abandon rules as I go along if it's really unenjoyable, but I want to stretch out the experience, especially the slow buildup of relationships with villagers.

 

I'm doing this right now actually and having a great time. I decided I wasn't going to try to get grandpas evaluation perfect by the end of year 2 knowing full well I could put a daimond on the shrine any time I want. If I want a lot of money fast I simply harvest crops and then go to sleep, not worrying how many years go by. Went the JoJa route to(although I almost always do) so I don't have to worry about completing quests. Not worring about talking to every villager in town every day. Picking 3 or 4 at a time and maxing them out. Doing projects one at a time instead of doing everything at once. Just completed one of my goals which was to build six sheds and 432 kegs and a field of 432 spots. It was fun working on that and not having to worry about anything else because I don't worry about how many years I'm taking.

 

I really wanted to do this on my current (3rd) go through, but am having a really hard time fighting the 'OMG I need to get this done!! I only have 300 gold! It's already half way through Spring! No one loves me yet!!!"
It's really really hard to force myself to just let go and run around for the fun of it... and hey, go to bed at 3pm if there's no farming to do and I don't feel like chopping wood! Heck, I'm 2/3rd through Spring and the Spa hasn't opened up yet and no meteor yet. I had both of those by now on my last two play-throughs. I found the Spa (on my 2nd round) an incredibly invaluable resource as I'd use all my energy farming, then I'd hit the spa and spend the rest of the day fishing. Made a LOT of money early on doing that!

 

This is pretty much always my playstyle, but it kinda goes hand-in-hand with using Timespeed. I refuse to be rushed and the game's default time is stressful to the point of me not being able to enjoy playing. So I stretched my days out, made them nice and long, and I just spend them doing whatever I want. I don't ever worry about profits or getting things done by a certain time, I just take everything at my own pace. I decorate my farm and house, work on relationships slowly, and focus on farming the way I like, rather than filling up my land with whatever's the most profitable. Sometimes I'll spend a couple hours game time just watching my Junimo pick crops because it's cute.
I do have a fairly loose timeline for when I want certain goals or events to happen by, but I can usually always meet my deadlines without too much stressing.

 

I didn't use Timespeed until about 210 hours into real-life playtime and I totally feel you on that last part. Even just adding a few seconds to each tick makes such a difference. The pace of the vanilla clock really feels at odds with the game's relaxed style.

 

My ticks are set at 30 seconds so my day is really long. lol I do often go to bed quite early though if everything is finished and I don't feel like fishing or mining.
I forgot to mention up there that I do set some rules as far as when certain things are done, or else I'd finish everything before the middle of the second year. I don't start dating or upgrade my house til year two, and I wait to do the final house upgrade and get married til year 3. I don't purchase any livestock or the horse til year 2. I pace myself in the mines, only 10 levels per week otherwise I end up at the bottom still using copper tools. It just helps pace things and leave me something to look forward to later in the game.

 

I sometimes force myself to walk. It's so easy to just set the auto-run and rush around like a crazy person on caffeinated sugar. But when the sun sets and there are fireflies drifting around in the margins of the screen, or on an autumn day when the wind is kicking the virtual leaves around, I turn off the auto-run and just... chill. Take a slow stroll through the Cindersap, maybe hunt for mushrooms or blackberries. Just enjoy the ambiance at a sane pace.

 

I don't think I've ever walked! Maybe I'll try it as well--follow a spouse around on one of their days out or play leapfrog from NPC to NPC as they stroll around. Be the weird nosy neighbour instead of the hermit for once.

 

There's 3 "rules" games I'm thinking I might like to try.

Totally Terrific Trees. Just like it sounds, nothing goes into the box unless it came from a tree. You can do farming if you want to raise up your skill enough to get the machines to process fruit from trees, but you can't sell anything you harvest. Stuff everything into chests, I suppose. This might be the one case where taking the foraging perk that increases the price of wood might make sense.

Bloomers. Where you make all your coin from flowers. Can farm to the point to make beehives, but must chest harvests rather than sell.

The fairly Standard No Farming Farm. Fish, mine, forage, and fight your way to riches.

Maybe a mashing of Trees and Bloomers.

 

I like the first two, I could see doing those myself.

 

I don't know, the appeal of this game to me has been the chill aspect. I guess you can say I grind Spring year 1 as I really am lazy and hate watering plants. I blitz the mine to get down to level 81 as fast as I can. My goal is to have 27 advance sprinklers by Summer 1. It sets the stage for a very relaxed game.

 

That sounds like a real challenge! Best of luck if you try it. Themed farms are a cool idea. I'm imagining those massive rainbow-striped tulip fields in the Netherlands.

I also hate watering when I've bitten off more than I can chew with planting, and in my previous saves have done similar (basically get quality sprinklers ASAP and live in the mine until it's done).

The game is definitely chill by design, but it's hard for me to fight that internal "today I want to do this and this and this and oh noooo, I forgot to do that yesterday."

 

I always do themed farms. My forest farm, for example, has strict rules on crops and livestock - only fruit (both trees and crops) and pigs/ducks. It's inspired by an actual real life farm that used to exist near my birthplace and actually was in a wooded area. The farmer, who passed away a couple of years ago, mostly had fruit trees and some strawberries on a small plot, and ducks are nigh-ubiquitous where I live.

 

I recently started over with a brand new farm and decided to focus a lot less on mining and a lot more on farming. I've also vowed to get to know some of the people I didn't have high relations with better. (So far, hunting down Leah has been a pain and Penny gets Dandelions like mad)

 

The only time I ever run into Leah is at the saloon, but at least she's there pretty consistently in the evenings, if that helps.

 

I'm slowly figuring out where she hides in the forest. But I basically keep a spring onion on me at all times and book it when I see her.

 

I definitely intend to do a chill playthrough next time around. I am currently still neck deep in my "optimized" playthrough working towards 1400 planted ancient fruit and 700 kegs to accompany them by spring year 3.

I'm thinking I would go the "Linus" route- have the monster farm, and have the following rules:
- No fishing, no farming. Too high of income from those. Obviously that means going the Joja route which is fine since I haven't done that yet.
- No income from mining. Mined goods can be used, donated or gifted but cannot be sold.
- No bought foodstuffs or gifts (aka no saloon for you!), all health / energy recovery and presents must be self found or crafted. Buying recipe ingredients like flour and sugar is also a no go.
- in case it was not clear from the above, no barns, coops, syrups, beehouses, crystalariums, or lightning rods either. No machines of any type other than the stove and the slime stuff.

My income will consist entirely of any foraged goods I can spare, monster parts, wood and stone I choose to sell, stuff I manage to find in the trash or get in the mail, and the slime hutch(es?) once I can afford it.

Should make for a *radically* different play experience than my current one and one that is way more chill.

(As an aside, I actually consider Leah to be one of the two easiest people to gift as I always have a stack of salads for health recovery and she just loves that week / month old salad that's been chilling in my backpack the whole time. Jokes aside she and Shane hang out in a place where goods they love are sold most evenings, can't ask for much more than that.)

 

That definitely sounds like a challenge! If you're going to have slimes, will you consider outdoor slime farming? They would be right at home on the wilderness map.

 

I haven't done this, but I might consider it. My first 2 saves being vanilla files were my "grind grind grind" files.

My other 3 saves and every save after that has been modded. For example. Maybe I want to push myself in the skull cavern. I freeze time at 6am. I warp to the desert. I have a skull cavern elevator. No real reason to do it, but just to bomb my way down as deep as I can into the mine.

If I want crops, I spawn it in as well as sprinkler. Instead of grinding for gold and materials to craft it all.

I also started making videos. Not for views or subscribers. I feel it's motivation to do something that's not constantly try to make money. For example, I did a video of how many stardrops can I consume? I stop at roughly 41 stardrops I think and my energy bar was almost off of the screen. I delete the file right after completing it.

It just a nice change of pace for me. I am getting some amazing ideas though in this post.

 

There are some really funny "how can we nearly break the game?" videos out there. The one with 500 pigs cracked me up and was sort of the inspiration for the truffle ranch I'm working on (but building my ranch up the regular way). A massive energy bar sounds pretty funny, too.