Wife just started playing this. Should she try playing vanilla to start? Or are there any mods she should make sure to get for a first time play through?
If I ever pick this back up (already have about 1200 hours between Steam and Switch) it'll be on PC and using at the very least a mod that pauses time inside buildings but likely a mod that just slows down the clock universally.
But the game is very playable vanilla. I'd probably have her start in vanilla and then look for a mod if she finds the clock really frustrating.
The game does a pretty great job of ramping things up over time though so personally I only started to find it frustrating once I knew enough about the game and was working on a second or third farm.
So Fishing... This is very similar to cult of the lamb, but here I can't do anything? I've tried light clicking, I've tried holding the button, but no matter what the bar isn't nearly as responsive as the clicks. Worst for short throws, the fish stays near the bottom but the bar bounces when it hit the bottom.
Is this something I'm missing? Not sure how to level up fishing if I can't ever catch anything.
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
So Fishing... This is very similar to cult of the lamb, but here I can't do anything? I've tried light clicking, I've tried holding the button, but no matter what the bar isn't nearly as responsive as the clicks. Worst for short throws, the fish stays near the bottom but the bar bounces when it hit the bottom.
Is this something I'm missing? Not sure how to level up fishing if I can't ever catch anything.
Click and hold off the preferred method. If youre heading down you have to hold to slow down the bar so it doesn’t bounce. As you level up and also get better gear the bar will get bigger and you’ll be able to add lures to make it perform better depending on what your going after. Like the lead weight keeps it from bouncing.
"Feathering" is the best I can explain the fishing mechanic.
You don't want to lightly tap because that's not going to do enough and you don't want to hold it down too much because that's gonna be too much so you have to kinda feather your button presses.
Think taking a semi-tight corner in a racing game if that makes sense.
It takes a bit to get used to but like mentioned above it gets easier with skill increases and better fishing rods.
@Trajan45, also just to add a couple items, with the big one being that you get experience even if you don't catch anything, so you're still gaining experience while getting used to how it functions.
Also, each fish is different in the amount of skill it expects you to have, and their "jerkiness" on the meter is dramatically effected by what your fishing is, to the point where it's probably impossible to catch the harder fish at the low levels, and then the easiest fish rarely move much before you've caught them when you're at max skill.
And finally, in case it helps click, you can think of the controls like you're firing a booster rocket on the bottom of the fishing bar. So you want to click for different lengths depending on how you want to move. And just like a rocket, you need to slow down to land safely.
I was looking at that. I wonder why they didn't start folks off with the Training Rod, to ease them into fishing? As is, my wife and I both just try fishing at the pier, which was a terrible idea with 0 fishing skill. Now that I'm at level 2, the game is much more manageable assuming I stay in the yellow to early green.
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
The first time I started fishing I was doing it at the pond on the farm and thought 'well, it's an easy minigame but fish much be super rare'.
I was looking at that. I wonder why they didn't start folks off with the Training Rod, to ease them into fishing? As is, my wife and I both just try fishing at the pier, which was a terrible idea with 0 fishing skill. Now that I'm at level 2, the game is much more manageable assuming I stay in the yellow to early green.
The training rod is a relatively new addition, that's why you don't start with it.
Beginner question, does fencing serve a purpose for crops or is it mostly for looks? I know animals should have it. Wasn’t sure if wild animals come and ransack or is it just crows?
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
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DaimarA Million Feet Tall of AwesomeRegistered Userregular
Fences will stop grass and weeds from growing into your fields, but its not a huge issue. Also, annoyingly, fences will wear out over time, even the stone/iron ones. Hardwood fences are the longest lasting, oddly enough.
Beginner question, does fencing serve a purpose for crops or is it mostly for looks? I know animals should have it. Wasn’t sure if wild animals come and ransack or is it just crows?
There is a trick where if you plant a grass starter on a tile and then put a fence post on top of it, the grass can spread out so animals can eat it but they'll never be able to eat the grass under the post itself so can use fencing to create infinite grass feeders.
It's not strictly necessary by any means and isn't exactly intended design but it can be helpful.
Thanks! Next question, watering. I've hit summer and now I have enough crops that watering them takes most of my energy. I was looking at sprinklers, but boy they seem weak to start? They only water 4 plants. Makes it tough to do the 3x3 grid for stuff.
Thanks! Next question, watering. I've hit summer and now I have enough crops that watering them takes most of my energy. I was looking at sprinklers, but boy they seem weak to start? They only water 4 plants. Makes it tough to do the 3x3 grid for stuff.
Those sprinklers aren't worth much, you want quality and eventually iridium sprinklers. Keep upgrading your watering can until then.
Also don't forget that you can always eat some of your own crops to restore energy; for my last playthrough I would always keep a stash of blueberries on me for emergency energy. It doesn't hurt that they're also a good gift for most people, and Lewis in particular loves them.
Also don't forget that you can always eat some of your own crops to restore energy; for my last playthrough I would always keep a stash of blueberries on me for emergency energy. It doesn't hurt that they're also a good gift for most people, and Lewis in particular loves them.
Cheap forage is good for this too. Salmonberries are all over and have decent stamina recovery.
Thanks! Next question, watering. I've hit summer and now I have enough crops that watering them takes most of my energy. I was looking at sprinklers, but boy they seem weak to start? They only water 4 plants. Makes it tough to do the 3x3 grid for stuff.
I found the lowest level of sprinkler only really worth it for specific things I'd plant once and never really touch again the rest of the season. This meant either something that keeps growing produce all season after being planted once or flowers I wanted near a bee station. Otherwise, they're awkward to use the hoe around.
Put all your sprinklers on a single tile of pavement (any kind), they won't get taken down when you hoe over them.
I was referring more to my habit of accidentally charging up a hoe to make a 3x3 square around a base tier sprinkler and end up with an extra 4 spaces I didn't want. Not the worst thing in the world, but I've sometimes then accidentally put seeds into them and forgotten that those spaces need to be manually watered.
Beginner question, does fencing serve a purpose for crops or is it mostly for looks? I know animals should have it. Wasn’t sure if wild animals come and ransack or is it just crows?
There is a trick where if you plant a grass starter on a tile and then put a fence post on top of it, the grass can spread out so animals can eat it but they'll never be able to eat the grass under the post itself so can use fencing to create infinite grass feeders.
It's not strictly necessary by any means and isn't exactly intended design but it can be helpful.
We always used lightning rods for that because they don't degrade like fences do. Takes longer to be able to make a bunch of those though I suppose.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
As a PC player, modding makes stuff like the fence decay so much better, as in I turn it off. I also turn off time passing in buildings, and having a faster run. Nothing crazy, but just some nice quality of life changes, especially after playing for a while.
The only 2 mods I'm using right now are time speed and object timers. The object timers are really nice QoL, while the time speed might be a bit game breaking. You can pause time, which for mines and things like fishing can kind of break game flow.
I'd love a faster movement one, but can't find something that isn't 'all cheats', requires a bunch more mod framework, or is old and has bugs.
Horsey is one of the most underrated investments IMO, and should be an early buy for anyone. I guess it totally depends on your play goals, but personally, if I have access to hardwood (either from the mines as random drops, or early access to the hidden forest from upgraded Axe), I'll get the stable before even bothering with barns or coops.
While it becomes way more useful once you can get the whistle, which isn't until super late game, it is still just a massive increase in what you can fit into any given day, maybe second to the mine carts. Or, I guess depending, 3rd after aiming for coffee asap.
Particularly when you're in that period where you're trying to improve relationships, or other things like going fishing, logging the southern forest, etc, it is just so useful for speeding your movement around.
Coffee, in a new game, if you play it right, can be a major factor too. You have two primary methods of getting coffee asap. One is to have at least 2500g and check the travelling trader every time it shows up, IIRC it's guaranteed to have a coffee bean in the first month sometime, and while the price can vary, I believe 2500 is the most expensive? The other, probably better, but more random, is to get down to the ice levels of the mine asap and farm the sprites until they drop one or three. If you can get the coffee beans started in the spring and replant every harvest, you can get a good amount of plants going to have enough beans by the end of summer to last you the year. Certainly don't try to plant your whole farm, as with low level watering and no sprinklers, trying to keep too large of a farm watered early game is not a good idea. For QOL you can get the espresso recipe from the tavern, but it works out to the exact same amount of buff time between using espresso or 3 coffees, it's just less tedious to use the espresso every 5 minutes or so. However, having said all of that, don't ruin your opportunity to get strawberries going that first Spring if possible. If you're not playing on PC where you can do a file checker to see when beans will be sold (or don't want to farm sprites, which honestly is a better route anyway IMO since you will be farming for ore often anyway), and you're relying on the trader, consider just restarting if the bean doesn't show up the first week? It's not necessary, ultimately, I played tons of the game without doing that, but if you're looking to mods to maximize stuff, it seems like it might be an option.
And bonus is that coffee works on horseback. So if you're caffeinated and on your horse, you'll go even faster.
I don't play with mods. I don't have any issues with them, but for whatever reason in mod heavy games like Bethesda games or this, if it's anything beyond just graphical refinements (not really into overhauls), it just kills my interest. I don't know why. Regardless, I'm just saying there's options in game for movement speed improvements, that at least to me, feel sufficent to not have ever felt like it needed a mod.
Though I will cop to having regularly abused the journal bug with fishing prior to that being fixed, for speeding up early game money making, to just go nuts with strawberries.
Man this game has that 1 more turn thing going hard haha. I’m really enjoying it so far. Finally started year 2, got the horse.
One question, i’m pretty high friendship with folks. Is there any advantage to marrying someone? Like will Maru make machines for the farm? Or will Penny help with stuff? Or is it more like just some extra stuff?
EDIT: Also the controls can be a bit funky. Sometimes if the mouse pointer is above the character and an action is taken, I turn towards it. But other times I have to manually point my character no matter where the mouse pointer is.
Marriage doesn't have per character game benefits no. Any spouse will randomly do some chores for you, even if they are impossible (they'll say they watered the plants if you have a full sprinkler setup)
Marriage doesn't have per character game benefits no. Any spouse will randomly do some chores for you, even if they are impossible (they'll say they watered the plants if you have a full sprinkler setup)
This is not strictly true.
Emily can give you access to a unique outfit.
Penny can give you a choice of one of three sets of unique decorations that aren't available any other way.
EDIT: I wanna say Sam has something unique? But maybe I'm misremembering. I mean, they all have their own unique "area" on the farm, but that's not what I mean.
The "chores" that a spouse/kids can do are almost always meaningless because for most players by the time they even get that far they likely have large swaths of their farm automated anyway. Cool, you fed the animals in the level 3 buildings that automatically feed them. Fantastic.
That aside, you can "date" every person, and if you're looking to do as much as possible, I'd recommend it. No one cares if you're dating everyone else at once until you either get married or get 10 hearts with everyone of either gender, and have completed their 10 heart events.
If you do go that route, when you're close to completing those events, always always keep a rabbits foot in your inventory, because there's two cutscenes you have to go through where if you don't have that, you're gonna get your friendship dorked up for everyone. Once you do the scenes though, you never have to worry about it again.
I guess your spouse can get jealous or something if you give a gift to another potential partner? I don't have any idea, I never get married until I've 10hearted everyone, and there's no reason to give gifts after that.
Which leads me to a tip: once you reach max hearts, friendship for that person no longer degrades. Normally every NPC will lose a set amount of friendship (it's usually relatively small, but it adds up) if you don't speak to them any given day, and maxing their hearts stops that permanently. Because of the system, I almost never bother trying to give anyone gifts before I'm ready to start just going all in on gifting everyone every week and maxing out friendships. The only exceptions are to get important recipes (like getting the tea tree from Caroline at 2 hearts) for things, or doing quests (mayors shorts). I may go weeks without going into town, no reason to just be losing friendship; also I usually try to align working on friendships with completing the bulletin board in the center, and a major friendship giving holiday like the Luau. EDIT: Linus is an exception. Without fail, I always max out Linus first, because I always give him something when I'm going to the mines. Linus is the best.
Yes, actually, it's outside. If I remember right, the dog usually starts near it when you go outside in the morning. And you can put water in it with your watering can.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Yes, actually, it's outside. If I remember right, the dog usually starts near it when you go outside in the morning. And you can put water in it with your watering can.
And if I remember correctly, watering the dog increases its invisible friendship meter, which Grandpa does judge you on.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
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For your first farm I’d steer clear of mods that add content, there’s just so much to see and do already.
If I ever pick this back up (already have about 1200 hours between Steam and Switch) it'll be on PC and using at the very least a mod that pauses time inside buildings but likely a mod that just slows down the clock universally.
But the game is very playable vanilla. I'd probably have her start in vanilla and then look for a mod if she finds the clock really frustrating.
The game does a pretty great job of ramping things up over time though so personally I only started to find it frustrating once I knew enough about the game and was working on a second or third farm.
Is this something I'm missing? Not sure how to level up fishing if I can't ever catch anything.
Click and hold off the preferred method. If youre heading down you have to hold to slow down the bar so it doesn’t bounce. As you level up and also get better gear the bar will get bigger and you’ll be able to add lures to make it perform better depending on what your going after. Like the lead weight keeps it from bouncing.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
You don't want to lightly tap because that's not going to do enough and you don't want to hold it down too much because that's gonna be too much so you have to kinda feather your button presses.
Think taking a semi-tight corner in a racing game if that makes sense.
It takes a bit to get used to but like mentioned above it gets easier with skill increases and better fishing rods.
Also, each fish is different in the amount of skill it expects you to have, and their "jerkiness" on the meter is dramatically effected by what your fishing is, to the point where it's probably impossible to catch the harder fish at the low levels, and then the easiest fish rarely move much before you've caught them when you're at max skill.
And finally, in case it helps click, you can think of the controls like you're firing a booster rocket on the bottom of the fishing bar. So you want to click for different lengths depending on how you want to move. And just like a rocket, you need to slow down to land safely.
3DS: 0963-0539-4405
The training rod is a relatively new addition, that's why you don't start with it.
There is a trick where if you plant a grass starter on a tile and then put a fence post on top of it, the grass can spread out so animals can eat it but they'll never be able to eat the grass under the post itself so can use fencing to create infinite grass feeders.
It's not strictly necessary by any means and isn't exactly intended design but it can be helpful.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Those sprinklers aren't worth much, you want quality and eventually iridium sprinklers. Keep upgrading your watering can until then.
Edit: how in the world did I not see those stairs by the lab.
Cheap forage is good for this too. Salmonberries are all over and have decent stamina recovery.
The bath house, and the train station, are unlocked after the earthquake that happens in....summer 1? Before that you can't get there.
Ah! That makes sense now. It's a lot nicer not to have to head to bed at 11am if I use up my stamina right away haha.
I found the lowest level of sprinkler only really worth it for specific things I'd plant once and never really touch again the rest of the season. This meant either something that keeps growing produce all season after being planted once or flowers I wanted near a bee station. Otherwise, they're awkward to use the hoe around.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I was referring more to my habit of accidentally charging up a hoe to make a 3x3 square around a base tier sprinkler and end up with an extra 4 spaces I didn't want. Not the worst thing in the world, but I've sometimes then accidentally put seeds into them and forgotten that those spaces need to be manually watered.
But yes, the sprinkler on tile thing is a must.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
We always used lightning rods for that because they don't degrade like fences do. Takes longer to be able to make a bunch of those though I suppose.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I'd love a faster movement one, but can't find something that isn't 'all cheats', requires a bunch more mod framework, or is old and has bugs.
While it becomes way more useful once you can get the whistle, which isn't until super late game, it is still just a massive increase in what you can fit into any given day, maybe second to the mine carts. Or, I guess depending, 3rd after aiming for coffee asap.
Particularly when you're in that period where you're trying to improve relationships, or other things like going fishing, logging the southern forest, etc, it is just so useful for speeding your movement around.
Coffee, in a new game, if you play it right, can be a major factor too. You have two primary methods of getting coffee asap. One is to have at least 2500g and check the travelling trader every time it shows up, IIRC it's guaranteed to have a coffee bean in the first month sometime, and while the price can vary, I believe 2500 is the most expensive? The other, probably better, but more random, is to get down to the ice levels of the mine asap and farm the sprites until they drop one or three. If you can get the coffee beans started in the spring and replant every harvest, you can get a good amount of plants going to have enough beans by the end of summer to last you the year. Certainly don't try to plant your whole farm, as with low level watering and no sprinklers, trying to keep too large of a farm watered early game is not a good idea. For QOL you can get the espresso recipe from the tavern, but it works out to the exact same amount of buff time between using espresso or 3 coffees, it's just less tedious to use the espresso every 5 minutes or so. However, having said all of that, don't ruin your opportunity to get strawberries going that first Spring if possible. If you're not playing on PC where you can do a file checker to see when beans will be sold (or don't want to farm sprites, which honestly is a better route anyway IMO since you will be farming for ore often anyway), and you're relying on the trader, consider just restarting if the bean doesn't show up the first week? It's not necessary, ultimately, I played tons of the game without doing that, but if you're looking to mods to maximize stuff, it seems like it might be an option.
And bonus is that coffee works on horseback. So if you're caffeinated and on your horse, you'll go even faster.
I don't play with mods. I don't have any issues with them, but for whatever reason in mod heavy games like Bethesda games or this, if it's anything beyond just graphical refinements (not really into overhauls), it just kills my interest. I don't know why. Regardless, I'm just saying there's options in game for movement speed improvements, that at least to me, feel sufficent to not have ever felt like it needed a mod.
Though I will cop to having regularly abused the journal bug with fishing prior to that being fixed, for speeding up early game money making, to just go nuts with strawberries.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
in a coop game we had so much coffee we'd store it and devote days to just brewing
One question, i’m pretty high friendship with folks. Is there any advantage to marrying someone? Like will Maru make machines for the farm? Or will Penny help with stuff? Or is it more like just some extra stuff?
EDIT: Also the controls can be a bit funky. Sometimes if the mouse pointer is above the character and an action is taken, I turn towards it. But other times I have to manually point my character no matter where the mouse pointer is.
"We... we don't have any animals. What did you feed? What did you feed??"
The crops with a full network of iridium sprinklers and don’t need any watering?
This is not strictly true.
Emily can give you access to a unique outfit.
Penny can give you a choice of one of three sets of unique decorations that aren't available any other way.
EDIT: I wanna say Sam has something unique? But maybe I'm misremembering. I mean, they all have their own unique "area" on the farm, but that's not what I mean.
The "chores" that a spouse/kids can do are almost always meaningless because for most players by the time they even get that far they likely have large swaths of their farm automated anyway. Cool, you fed the animals in the level 3 buildings that automatically feed them. Fantastic.
That aside, you can "date" every person, and if you're looking to do as much as possible, I'd recommend it. No one cares if you're dating everyone else at once until you either get married or get 10 hearts with everyone of either gender, and have completed their 10 heart events.
If you do go that route, when you're close to completing those events, always always keep a rabbits foot in your inventory, because there's two cutscenes you have to go through where if you don't have that, you're gonna get your friendship dorked up for everyone. Once you do the scenes though, you never have to worry about it again.
I guess your spouse can get jealous or something if you give a gift to another potential partner? I don't have any idea, I never get married until I've 10hearted everyone, and there's no reason to give gifts after that.
Which leads me to a tip: once you reach max hearts, friendship for that person no longer degrades. Normally every NPC will lose a set amount of friendship (it's usually relatively small, but it adds up) if you don't speak to them any given day, and maxing their hearts stops that permanently. Because of the system, I almost never bother trying to give anyone gifts before I'm ready to start just going all in on gifting everyone every week and maxing out friendships. The only exceptions are to get important recipes (like getting the tea tree from Caroline at 2 hearts) for things, or doing quests (mayors shorts). I may go weeks without going into town, no reason to just be losing friendship; also I usually try to align working on friendships with completing the bulletin board in the center, and a major friendship giving holiday like the Luau. EDIT: Linus is an exception. Without fail, I always max out Linus first, because I always give him something when I'm going to the mines. Linus is the best.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
She actually has a character development arc.
Oh shit, the dog's got a water bowl‽
Yes, actually, it's outside. If I remember right, the dog usually starts near it when you go outside in the morning. And you can put water in it with your watering can.
And if I remember correctly, watering the dog increases its invisible friendship meter, which Grandpa does judge you on.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt