Watching the Quick Look of this game made me realize something: There are a lot of details about a lot of the systems that aren't exactly obvious. So I thought it could be really helpful to have a place for people to post their "Oh THAT'S how that works? That makes things a LOT easier!" moments and general bits of advice. To start with...

• The bar in the fishing minigame goes up by holding down the button. I spent a long time thinking I needed to mash the button and therefore thinking the minigame was way harder than it actually was.
• There's an option for displaying a little red square that indicates where you're targeting. That's helpful, because sometimes the game isn't targeting the square directly in front of your character
• There's also an option to enable "always run". Make sure that's on.
• Until you upgrade your watering can, use the mouse to water crops. Standing in one spot and clicking on the squares around you is a lot faster/easier than walking from square to square.
• Contrary to what Dan says toward the end of the QL, swinging the sword does NOT use energy. The scythe doesn't use energy either. The only things that use energy (that I've found so far) are the watering can, axe, pickaxe, hoe, and fishing rod.

*edit: I guess Dan actually mentions the watering can thing later on in the QL

I know some people will want certain types of tips but will want to discover some other things on their own but here's one that tripped me up initially regarding clay:

If you walk around and see worms sticking out of the ground use your hoe on that spot and chances are good that you'll get 2 or 3 pieces of clay. These are handy for a few crafting recipes and I was struggling to find them some other way initially.

Check the trash cans in Pelican Town. There are about six or seven in total, and one or two always seem to have an item in them, like a field snack (or trash, duh). Just don't search the trash cans in front of people as they'll get suspicious of your actions.

I have about 20 hours in the game and am loving it so far. Here's a couple things that were helpful for me:

For keyboard and mouse players, holding down shift will also show the currently "selected" square (personally, I don't like having the option always on).

Also, considering animal buildings: build a silo before a coop, it helps! (There are little arrows beneath the buildings when you go to the carpenter to construct buildings for your farm

When harvesting crops keep your watering can, if anything, equipped so you don't accidentally destroy your harvest.

I don't know about the axe or pickaxe, but you can definitely hit crops* once or twice with the scythe without hurting them (I've accidentally done this a few times).

*unless it's a crop that requires a scythe to harvest (such as wheat), and even then the scythe will only work if the crop is ready to be harvested

Hey duders, can anyone tell me where I go to get my well made? I got a letter in the mail, maybe like day 7 or 8, and I have the stone and money to get it done, I just simply forgot WHO and WHERE to go to accomplish that...and it seems like I have met everyone at this point. I figured I would turn to my favorite community on the net to get the answer.

Thanks!

Robin (the carpenter) has it for you! Select Construct Farm Buildings and use the arrows beneath where it shows the building to navigate to the well.

I'm thinking about picking this up tonight and have a question for you guys. How big a part does time play in the game. Obviously, time is a big part of the day to day stuff, but I'm thinking on a more macro level. If I take too long doing certain things, will I miss out on events or something like that? In the QL, there was the luau, does that happen every year or is it just the one time?

I think events and stuff are all annual/seasonal, so you can always catch it the next year. And I thinkI read somewhere that even though the game hints at something happening in a few years (mentioned in the QL, something about the Grandpa happening at the start of the 3rd year), the game doesn't end at that time (meaning you can keep playing as many seasons as you want, if true).

@bbalpert: God I was getting so frustrated with the fishing game that I was just going to ignore it. Had no idea I was supposed to be holding down the button, thanks for the tip Duder.

@walkertr77: Glad I could help!

Some more tips/control details (some of these are basic, but I didn't realize them for a while):

• If you have a stack of items but just want to pick up ONE item, right click instead of left click (or if you're on a 360 controller, use X instead of A)
• If you hold shift while right clicking on a stack of items, you'll pick up HALF of the stack. I don't know what the equivalent of shift would be for a controller, though.
• If you hold shift while left clicking, you'll pick up (or buy or craft) FIVE of that item.

A question I have for you fine folks is whether you need to do anything special to equip armor/accessory items or if you just need to have the ring/boots in your inventory to get the benefit. Additionally, if it's just a matter of having the items in your inventory, are you limited to 1 ring/1 piece of armor or can you wear 4 pairs of boots at once?

@bbalpert: Attire has slots that you equip it to, they're beside your character on the item screen.

@walkertr77: Wait, really? Crap! I never noticed that!

Yeah check the bottom left! Looks like an equipment slot set up would in most old cRPGs. Hat, two ring slots, and a boot slot.

There are a lot of mechanical tips in here, but I am just going to say plant berries early in your season. A whole lot of them, and then reap the benefits as they continue to produce in bunches throughout your season. And then you can also turn them into jelly.

If you have the hots for Leah like I do, you can buy salads at the bar and give them to her and she loves those. She even hangs out there many nights so it's pretty easy. They cost 220 a pop but once you have solid money coming in that isn't much. That's less than half my Mayo based revenue a day!

Also think about when you upgrade certain tools. Like wait until the end of the month for the watering can because you can't water anything while it's being worked on.

To be clear this makes it better but to me I still struggle with it. Installed a mod to make fishing easier and now I fish, so I recommend that. I didn't enjoy the twitchiness and difficulty of that minigame, especially in this game which is so relaxing otherwise.

Complete the Blacksmith bundle early on. You may get stung by not realising that the bundle with monster loot (slime pieces, bat wings etc) only requires two of the 4 items listed, and since slime and bat wings are available way before the essences. It unlocks the mine carts and makes travel a lot quicker.

Despite having 3 characters I have managed to forget this every time, and waited until I had all 4. Don't make the mistake I did. You could practically have the mine carts done in spring!

Get to Winter.

Seriously get to Winter. That Winter jam that plays when you explore is just fantastic.

Hot tip: Don't accidentally left click your forge with the pick axe equipped. I've done this 3 times already when smelting copper bars. You'll lose the bars when the forge gets added to your inventory. So so so frustrating.

Also does anyone know if you can move your storage chests? I built my first one inside my house and can't seem to move it now. It looks dumb and it's inconvenient. It's driving me crazy.

@bigmess: You can move em but you have to empty everything out of it first, then hit it with an axe or pick and itll go in your inventory like any other item.

Empty out the chest then smack it with your axe. If you smack it when it's full it just shakes. If you smack it a bunch when it's full it might explode (it is a life sim).

One thisng I haven't seen anywhere here is to NOT FUCKING DIE. Seriously. This game has a really harsh penalty for death and will not only take 10 floors of progress, but also 11 random items and a bunch of cash. Also don't let it get to 2am. I took a bunch of energy bars down into the caves once and didn't notice the time since I had so much energy. You just fall asleep and lose a bunch of money, it's not great. I'm loving this game so much right now though! My artisan based economy is making some serious bank right now.

@takayamasama: Cool I should've tried that. Thanks!

Can anyone explain how letting animals out works? Do I just open the coop/barn door in the morning and close it at night? Also, do I need to feed my animals on days I let them out?

I'll just copy some of the information from the official wiki:

Opening the gates of a coop or barn will allow animals to come outside (when the weather is not rainy, snowy, or stormy) and eat grass. The animals will return to their buildings in the evening to sleep. Closing the gates again in the evening is recommended in the case of goats, as their mood becomes "sad" if the gates are left open overnight.

If they remain inside or do not find grass to eat, they will instead eat hay.

Once a silo has been constructed on the farm, using a scythe on grass will place hay inside the silo. Each silo holds 240 pieces of hay. Hay can then be gathered from hoppers inside barns and coops and placed in the feeding bins nearby. Building a silo before building animal buildings can make care much easier, though hay can be purchased from Marnie's Ranch even if the silo has not been built.

In the winter, snow covers the grass completely, making grazing impossible. As such, it may be advisable to use the scythe to cut some or all of the grass into hay before the end of the fall season to ensure enough reserve hay to feed your animals through the winter.

Also, I'll add to this that it's recommended to build a pen with fences just outside the barn/coop, with grass and enough space for them to move around.

@mythdark: Thanks for the advice duder. One question, if I let them out during the day, do I simply close the door at night? I heard that sometimes your farm can be attacked by coyotes or something that kill your animals. Also, where did you find this on the wiki? I checked around and couldn't find this particular entry.

Yikes, that's rough. Thanks for the heads up.

@darth_navster: Yeah, at around 5 pm the animals go back inside. You should close the doors before going to sleep. I dont know about coyotes, but it keeps the animals happier.

Also, there's 2 wikis i know of, with one being vastly superior. Dont have the links becausr thats a hassle on my phone, but a quick search should help you out there.

My tips:

Don't stress. You can try to optimize your days and cram as much as possible in them, but you can also not do that. It makes little difference in the end.

Get crops that keep growing after harvest, and plant them early in the season. It's by far the best way to make money. In general, berries are goldmines.

Dont bother with lvl 1 sprinklers, but save your resources for lvl 2s. Right niw I have 18 of the little babies set up, which means I have 140 berries growing. I'm gonna be loaded by the end of the season, while still having all the time in the world to do things other than tending to my crops.

Grass is too expensive and animals eat too much. You should keep animals because you want to, not to make money.

Dont die in the mines. As someone who lost 2 25k swords in one week, trust me when I say it's a good idea to not overextend yourself and to keep an eye on your healthbar.

Do things you want to do. Nothing in this game is particularly vital or important. You lose nothing by going to sleep early on a couple days to get closer to doing what you want to do.

@clush: Thanks for the tips. You're right about the not trying to optimize everything. I've enjoyed taking it easy.

Yes you can close the door at night when all the animals have re-entered the building. That usually happens around 5-6pm.

I'm using this wiki since it's the one the developer choose to link to on their site.

I wish I had known of this before my initial trip into the mines. Was on the last enemy (that I could see, at least) for the...6th or 7th floor, low energy and health, figured I would leave right after. I hit it to the side, kept swinging and didn't turn to it in time. 14 items gone, which was basically every thing I had found in there (I found a lot of stuff and was excited! and then I had nothing), as well as my sword. I think I came out of it with only my base tools, some base materials (rocks and wood) and a handful of copper ore.

...I went back to fishing (though I now have some sweet kicks and a wood sword so I'm ready to give it another shot).

Still, I'm really enjoying it. I had to get the fishing mod because I was terrible at it, though.

Happy my Persona experience trained me for knowing when to get the fuck out of the mines lol. Brutal.

One thing to mention about the fishing. There are harder fish mixed into the same environments as normal fish, so if you're having a lot of trouble with the actual fish behavior during the minigame, not just trouble with grasping the game's functionality, you may wanna hold off on modding it out and just upgrade your rod and tackle instead. Concerned Ape has said that the fishing difficulty is a purposeful design decision to balance how valuable fish are, so modding out the difficulty can throw off the balance of the game, making you super rich for little effort.

I have a question about the books. The first time I went in the museum, there was one spot flashing saying there was a book missing. Soon after, I dug up a spot with worms and found a lost book. But it didn't show up in my inventory or anything. And next time I went to the museum, there were two spots flashing saying there were books missing. Did I miss something, or is that how that's supposed to go down?

@e30bmw: The flashing icons are the books you found, they go straight to the library. Go read them, they usually have helpful tips.

I've been trying to hang on to one of every item, because they may come up for collections or be requested by townspeople - so having whatever they're looking for on hand can be lucrative.

If you notice that berries are growing on a particular day, make time and go pick as many as you can get. I got around twenty in one day. Don't bother selling them because they're much more valuable as a bankable source of energy that you can keep in a chest and use to top yourself up when you have more time than energy.

@walkertr77: During the berry seasons (Late spring for salmon berries, mid fall for blackberries, etc.) go around and just loot every bush with berries. A super cheap resource to take into the mines during the long winter days.

Also if you want to change your characters looks get 4 hearts with the wizard and look around his tower.

Yeah you have to activate the books where those icons are. Kind of tricky at first finding where you need to press to activate them. They basically give you tips for the game. Nothing goes into your inventory.

@maluvin: you actually get rare stuff from there, maybe depends on your forage level? I've got like 6 books that way

So you right click bait then click your rod to add bait to it. Does anyone know how to use a fishing tackle (I have the fibreglass rod)?

So I just got a second copy of Dwarf Scroll 1. What should I do with it? It looks like it only sells for 1g.

Don't buy modern tractors: they have software inside them which means hat when they break down, you can't fix them yourself without taking it to a professional dealership/repair-shop costing potentially thousands (especially since the breaking of technology now in-built can sometimes require a whole new tractor to be bought).

... That's my actual advice for farmers.

@walkertr77: I'm pretty sure only the iridium rod can use a tackle

@hark: Thanks, I have the irridium rod now and can confirm that the earlier rods can only use bait. Also tackles will eventually break, which was a surprise to me.

Anyone know how to milk cows? Do you need to wait a while for them to get older or is there some process/thing to build that lets you milk them? And what kind of a commitment am I getting into if I "allow pregnancy"?

@walkertr77: don't know about pregnancy but to milk them you need to buy a milk pail from Marnie's Ranch (same place you buy the cows) then use it on them

Use explosives to quickly mine resources in the mine if you are low on time and energy. I use it mainly on densely packed areas of ore to maximize yield per explosive.

@walkertr77: You need to get a milk bucket (Marnie sells for 1000g) then just go up to a female adult cow and use it (X if on gamepad, unsure of keyboard control). Don't know about allowing pregnancy, I think that comes with a large barn though. Can't do it with just the base one.

Try not to spend so much time fishing or in the mines before the winter. When winter finally hits you are suddenly going to have a lot more free time unless you've somehow gotten a ton of animals and not having much to do in the mines anymore will likely be a bit of a bummer.

Not really useful in any way, but if you click on the ConcernedApe logo's face when the game is starting up, he loses his sunglasses* and sometimes makes a funny noise.

*I think sometimes he's sleeping, but wakes up when you click on him.

I thought it was a cute detail.

Should I hold off on clearing my land of grass before building a silo? That way I get hay instead of fiber, right?

Also, is there a use for trash or should I just sell it/get rid of it?