Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition for the PlayStation 2 Making Friends Guide v1.10 by Erin ----- I decided to write this FAQ as a sort of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" guide for the first year. There are a lot of Harvest Moon guides out there that detail the basic controls, how to milk cows, etc., but I could never find a lot of information for how to make the most of your first year and (especially) how to start ingratiating yourself with the townsfolk and with the bride of your choice. Hence, this guide. I'll be skipping over the bulk of the "how to" stuff on the grounds that you probably already know how to do most of this via the instruction book or one of the other online guides. ----- Section 1: First Year Goals Your first year is easily the most important year and it's important to accomplish several things. It's important to note that at the end of the first year, you will be forced to marry (or else the game will end) and the game will skip ahead several years forward. You want to take advantage of several unique first year conditions while you can. Therefore, your first year goals are going to look something like this: 1. Decide which town girl you want to marry and start courting her. 2. Make friends with Galen. 3. Make friends with as many people in town as possible. 4. Obtain your horse as early as possible. 5. Obtain a pond (if you want ducks). 6. Make as much money as you can in preparation for the skip. ----- Section 2: Making Friends Making friends in Harvest Moon is a huge part of the flavor of the game. You want the town people to like you, right? More than that, almost everyone in the game will give you something (a tool, a recipe, a pet, etc.) once you're sufficiently friendly. And, of course, you want to make friends with your chosen bride or else she isn't going to be willing to marry you. So let's go over some basics. A) Unique Likes and Dislikes: People will only accept certain items as gifts. The girls, for instance, generally like flowers but generally do not like herbs and fish. The men in town, on the other hand, tend to just love herbs and fish, but usually aren't too keen on flowers. Generally, if a person isn't taking (or asking) for the item you're offering, it means they aren't that interested in it. (There are some exceptions to this rule, but more below.) B) Gift Giving Daily Limitations: People will (usually) only accept one item *per item category* per day. I say "item category" because I originally thought that I could only give one gift a day to a person, however, I later learned that it is possible to give people multiple presents per day, *if* the present types are different. So, for example, I will often give Celia three presents a day - one flower, one farm vegetable, and one cooked dish. Three presents in one day is a huge advantage for courting. Each person has a "daily limit" of items, however, usually at about two (example, Nami) or three (example, Celia). Note that Lumina (the extra bride in the Special Edition) is an apparent exception to this "item category" rule as she will take two flowers per day. C) Gift Giving Annoyances: People can only accept items when they are in a standard standing/walking position. If they are not standing/walking, they will not take the present *and* you will have wasted that gift giving chance for the day. In other words, if you try to give a flower to Romana while she is sitting in her chair, she won't be able to take the flower *and* you won't be able to give her a flower again later, when she stands up. This is very frustrating, especially if you are courting Lumina, who spends a great deal of time practicing at the piano. The best way to *ensure* that the town person will take the gift is to wait until they start walking (like when Daryl starts pacing in his home) and then show them the item. Another annoyance: The gifting dialogues default the "Yes/No" response differently for different people. This is very annoying and means that you will sometimes accidentally say "No, you can't have this" to people. When this happens, you will lose the ability to offer that item type to that person for that day, so try to be careful, but know that this will happen from time to time and it's not the end of the world. Also note that some people just won't take gifts at certain times. Ruby and Tim are particularly bad about this, it's very difficult for me to give gifts to Tim at all - I have to befriend him via Sales. D) Sales and Discounts: Under the tree between the Inn and the Bar, you are given a "Sales" option up in the button prompt menu in the upper right hand corner. When you open a shop, you stand there and wait for people to pass by on their daily routine. If you speak to those people, they will ask to buy *anything* they like in your inventory (including your tools, which is inconvenient), but you can game the system by holding and showing them an item that they regularly like. If they usually like that item, they will offer to buy it when you show it to them, instead of digging through your inventory. When they make the offer, you have the option of giving them a 10% "discount" and this will raise their affection for you tremendously. Take advantage of sales, particularly with cheap items like flowers where the 10% discount doesn't hurt you at all (i.e. the Toyflower regular price is 10; discount price is 9). You can usually sell two or three items to a person per day, and Sales items do not count against gift items. Therefore, if you catch Nami at the right time, you can sell her two discounted items *and* give her two gifts. That's a big boost to affection right there. E) Gift Giving Daily Run: A good plan of action is to have a daily path that you run, all day, every day. You will carry all your items with you (you have near-unlimited space in your backpack) and will throw out gifts to people as you pass them. If you run by the Sales spot at the same time that someone else is walking by, you can stop to set up your Sales, sell them their daily limit (usually three items) and then pick up and keep going on your usual run. Your daily run will depend on who you are wooing the most. I highly recommend structuring your daily run around Galen and your bride. For example, when I'm wooing Celia, my day looks like this: Wake early, grab farm daily herbs depending on season. Milk cows, run to Romana's house to gather herbs, give gifts to Sebastion, Lumina (if you're early and get there before she starts practicing) and/or Romana (if you're late and she is standing by the piano instructing Lumina). Give gifts to Galen and Nina and Wally and Chris and anyone else on the road, depending on day and season. Run to Vesta's house to gather herbs and flowers and give gifts to Celia. Run to the mine to give gifts to Carter and Fiona, either mine for more gifts or fish for gifts and money. Run back to town to hit the late afternoon sales - Galen, Nina, Muffy, Chris. Run back to the farm, milk the cows, gather eggs, go to bed. Repeat the next day. Note that this particular daily run will befriend Sebastion, Lumina, Romana, Celia, Vesta, Martin, Galen, Nina, Muffy, Chris, Wally, Carter, and Fiona (with some occasional gifts to Tim, Ruby, Nami, Daryl, and a few others) but it won't get you the Doctor, Gustafa, Rock, or several others with any urgency. So you will need to tailor your approach to suit your needs. F) Essential Friends: In the first year, you want to absolutely make friends with three people: your bride, Galen, and Daryl. You want to make friends with your bride because it is the only way she will consider marrying you. You want to make friends with Galen because after the first year it becomes much more difficult to befriend him. And you want to make friends with Daryl because he gives you the Seed Maker for free if you do (I've not yet got the Seed Maker from him in Year 1, though, but I think it's entirely possible to do so). G) Gift Giving Preferences: Each person likes and dislikes certain items. Here I have tried to list every person with their cheapest, most readily available gifts that they should get on your daily runs. Every person likes multiple things, but for non-brides, I have only listed the cheapest things (like flowers). It is much cheaper and easier to give everyone a flower or an egg than to give them expensive items like milk, fish, etc. ---The Goddess Pool--- Murray (the smelly one): Anything edible. Mukumuku (the white winter monster): All flowers, up to three a day. He gives you a record when you are friends. ---The Inn, Bar, and Main Street--- Chris (the professional): Flowers. Wally (the athlete): Eggs. Hugh (the little boy): Coins. Griffin: Trick Blue Flowers (Fall flower). **Muffy**: Flowers, Mine ore, Fish. Tim (the innkeeper): Flowers. Ruby (the innkeeper): Flowers. **Nami**: Skull bones, Clay statues, farm vegetables (kind of), Trick Blue Flowers (Fall flower). Daryl (the scientist): Skull bones, Coins, cooked meals, Fish. ---The Manor--- Galen (the old man): Herbs. Nina (the old lady): Flowers. Romana: Flowers. Sebastion: Eggs. **Lumina**: Flowers, Eggs. ---The Greenhouse--- Vesta: Flowers. Marlin: Farm vegetables, Milk. Marlin doesn't seem worth the effort, but I usually give him a vegetable anyway. **Celia**: Flowers, farm vegetables, cooked meals. ---The Dig Site--- Carter (the archaeologist): Cooked meals, Fish. Flora (the archaeologist): Cooked meals, Milk. ---The Others--- (These people wander excessively and are tricky to find.) Van (the salesman): Seems to like fish and milk; variable. You can sell to Van, in the evenings after he closes shop. He will sometimes try to "haggle" with you, but it seems to be just a joke - you can't reduce your price further. Dr. Hardy: Skull bones, Milk. Cody (the muscular artist): Flowers. Gustafa (the musician): Flowers. Patrick and Kassey (the twin brothers): Flowers. Rock (the blonde boy): Flowers. ----- Section 3: The First Spring Alright, now that you know the basics of gift giving, it's time to start the first year. You start on the first of the month, with a decent amount of money in your pocket, two packets of tomato seeds in your shed, and a cow in your barn. Let's have at it. A) Cows: Your cow will be your best friend this first year. Every morning, you want to talk to her, snuggle her face, brush her (buy the brush from Van for 500 as soon as possible), and milk her. Every evening, you will do this all over again - yes, a second time. Loving on your cow twice a day will result in S-level milk within a month or so. Your cow will dry up in Winter, so you will need enough money to buy a Miracle Potion by then. B) Spring Planting: Although Harvest Moon is a farming game, you won't be making a lot of money from your vegetables this first year because your ground is still so poor. That's okay. The first thing you want to do is go down to Vesta's and buy 4 Apple Trees, and two of every other kind of tree (Banana, Grape, Orange, Peach). You will plant these trees like so, in the poor-quality field closest to your house: A x A x A x A x x x x x x x B x O x P x G x x x x x x x B x O x P x G Or, at least, that's how *I* plant them. You may want to plant them differently, but note that each tree has to have a "buffer" of empty land surrounding it or they die from lack of nutrients. Note that you will not receive any fruit this year - you are planting them to harvest later, in the Second Year Summer and Fall, as an investment. In the mean time, buy a few bags of fertilizer from Vesta (about 5-10) to get your field started and your cow something to graze on and - if you want - buy something cheap and quick growing for Spring, I suggest Strawberries. Note that you aren't going to get money from these babies - you'll basically be growing them to give them as gifts to the foodies (Marlin and Murray) and the brides So factor that into your mental equation. One way or another, you'll exhaust all your funds in this first visit to Vesta, but that's okay. Spread the fertilizer in your cow field and plant the seeds (tomatoes from the shed and anything else you have) in the field by the house. Note that you do not need to water the cow field or the trees. You do need to water the seeds by the house, and the game will usually want you to water them twice daily, which is a pain. You *must* have everything harvested before Summer because you want the field empty and prepped by then. The last two days of Spring usually rain, just about the time you've harvested it all. Sigh. C) Daily Grind: Ok, you've taken care of your cow for the morning, and you've got your purchases from Vesta bought and planted. Now what? For days 1 and 2, you need to begin your daily runs. You will need to learn where the daily herbs are (farm, manor, south-of-the-manor near the artist's metal house, Vesta's farm) and where the every-other-day flowers grow (Vesta's farm and south-of-Vesta's-farm on the hill). Harvest the herbs daily and the flowers on odd numbered days - it may seem insignificant, but these plants will make you friends quickly and will save you from having to waste expensive items (milk, fish) on gifts. After you collect the wild plants and give out gifts to your chosen friends, head to the Dig Site and start digging for more gifts. (You will also dig up, eventually, a special tablet for Carter. You need to find one of these once per game year. As long as you dig several times a week, you should be good.) Once you are tired, head back to the farm, pet and milk the cow again, and head off to bed. You will need to eat some of your daily herbs to keep up strength - that's what they are there for, so don't worry. D) Sales: On the 3rd and 8th of each season, Van comes to town and you can sell to him. You'll notice that you haven't been putting stuff (like milk) in the "sales" box for Takakura to sell - that's because Van gives you better prices if you haggle with him. For anything that is worth over 100 (A-level milk, for example), show it to him, tell him you want to sell, and when he gives you the total price, tell him "No". Eventually (and sometimes this takes *forever*) he will up the price significantly and say, basically, "well, how about this then?" and then you sell. You will be selling *everything* to Van directly in the first year. Sell your milk to him thus far and buy a fishing rod and a brush. You will probably be broke again... but not for long. E) Fishing: Fishing is where you will make most of your money, and you will be making a LOT. Turn off the ambient music to make it easier to hear the sound effects (by removing the record from the record player in your bedroom) and head to the waterfall. It seems like it's better to fish from the Dig Site side of the waterfall, but in the early mornings if the cows aren't awake yet, you can fish from the Goddess Pool side of the waterfall to save time. Equip the fishing rod and press X to throw out the line. Now wait. Perhaps a long time - frankly, you might want a book to read. Eventually you'll start hearing little "tick" "click" noises and that means that a fish is looking at your line. When you hear a "BLOOP!" and see a splash, wait about a second (not long - you'll get the feel for it soon) and press X to reel in the fish. Once you have pressed X, you're done - you'll see your farmer struggling with the fish and you will either get it or you won't, so there's no point in mashing buttons or hurting your fingers. You will probably get the fish, and (if you're fishing by the waterfall) it will probably be worth about 100-250. Some fishes are worth a 1000 or more, but those are fairly rare. Two things to note: You will *always* get a fish if you wait long enough - there's no reason to get impatient and reel in to try again. Second thing to note: If your tummy growls, the fishing will be interrupted, which is VERY annoying. So always eat an herb before you start fishing, trust me. F) Finishing out Spring: For the rest of Spring, here are your goals, - Milk and brush cow twice a day. - Gather daily wild plants (herbs every day, flowers on odd days). - Fish at least once a day for three or four hours (minimum). - Dig at least once a day for one or two hours (no more). - Give gifts to bride and others on daily gift giving path (try to make this path as efficient as possible). - Empty out the field by your chicken coop, harvest whatever you've planted on or by the 10th of Spring. Plow the entire field (35 squares). - Buy Turnip seeds from Vesta (they cost 20 and you will want 35 to begin with) in preparation for Summer. - Buy and spread more fertilizer; you should be up to 20 squares by now. - Do NOT sell anything via the farm ledger; do NOT give milk or fish to anyone as a gift. On the 8th day, Van will return. Sell him your milk (remember to haggle), and sell him any fish that is worth 150 or more (again, remember to haggle). Your goal is to get at least 1050 right now; ideally you can pull down 1950, but that's not likely. Soon it will be time to start poultry farming. On the 10th of Spring, go to your ledger in the evening and order a single bag of Chicken Feed. ----- Section 4: The First Summer You've got an empty field, you will soon get some Chicken Feed, a Rooster, and a Chicken, and you've got some turnip seeds burning a hole in your pocket. Summer is the busiest and most important month for you, so let's get started. A) Summer Planting: Fill the planting field with turnips as soon as possible. You're growing these for money... but not in the way you might expect. You're going to have to water these regularly, twice a day, which is painful, but keep eating those herbs. When they are finally ready for harvest, yank them out and take them directly to your kitchen. Examine the stove to start cooking - select "Salad" and click on a single Turnip, then hit the Start button. You should make a nice little dish called "light pickles". Repeat this until you are out of Turnips. There are two reasons to do this. First, pickles make great gifts. Give one to Takakura every day. Give one to your bride as a "free" gift type - it's not a flower or an herb, is it? Give one to Daryl, one to Carter, one to Marlin. Basically, all those really picky people who won't accept flowers. It's an easy way to make friends. The *real* reason to do this, though, is that after about 20+ pickles are cooked, the cooking menu will expand to include "Entree". Remember all those fishes that were worth less than 150 to Van? Start cooking, select "Entree", select a single fish, and hit Start. The fish will turn into a dish called "Sashimi" which is worth 150 to Van when you sell it. More, when you haggle. You've now guaranteed that *any* fish you catch is worth at least 150, if not more. If you only catch two fish a day, you're still pulling down 300 for that day. Nice. Since Turnips make such good gifts, it is not a bad idea to plant more - they are in season until next Spring. But that's up to you. B) Poultry: On the 10th of Spring, you put in an order for Chicken Feed and you received it on the 1st of Summer (along with - hopefully - your horse). Once you have the money, buy a Chicken and a Rooster (takes two days) and start collecting those eggs. A single bag of Chicken Feed will last for a few days, but you'll want to keep a watch on that and order more soon. Eggs make cheap gifts and - eventually - when you get a fertilized egg, you can toss it into the incubator and hope for the best. If you get a Chicken, keep it; if you get a Rooster, wait for it to grow and then sell for 450. Not bad. C) Daily Grind: Remember to keep up on your cow every day. Keep up on your daily plant gathering, fishing, and (if possible) digging. Give your gifts and don't let up. Summer is a tough season, so remember to eat your herbs whenever you need and stick with it - relief is on the way. When you get your horse, your burdens will be much lighter. D) Horse: The horse is brought to your farm by Takakura in a "random" event during the Summer. I say "random" because it really isn't - Takakura will bring the horse back from town with him after he goes to buy/sell something for you. If you aren't buying/selling things to town, Takakura won't come back with the horse - a cute little fact I didn't realize until well into the Fall season. However, once you know this, it's easy to game the system - remember that bag of Chicken Feed you had delivered on Summer 1st? It's likely Takakura brought your horse then. If he didn't, keep buying (poultry, poultry feed) every day, or selling (eggs, B-level milk) every day until he does. Once you have the horse, you can call him to you with the L button. He is a HUGE time saver in the daily runs to the manor and dig site and fishing sites. F) Finishing out Summer: For the rest of Summer, here are your goals, - Milk and brush cow twice a day. (Likely giving S-level milk at this point.) - Gather daily wild plants (herbs every day, flowers on odd days). - Fish at least once a day for three hours (minimum). - Dig at least once a day for one hour (no more - unless waiting for an animal to arrive - see Tricks below). - Give gifts to bride and others on daily gift giving path. - Buy and spread more fertilizer; you should be up to 50 squares by now. On the 8th day, Van will return. Sell him your milk, your expensive fish, and your Sashimi (haggle for all, of course). You're saving up money now - your goal is to be able to buy 1 Bull and 2 Cows before the skip. That's going to mean a lot of dough. ----- Section 5: The First Fall Fall is kind of a slower time, depending on how you play it. You *can* keep planting Turnips for gifts, and maybe should to take advantage of the Fall rains, but you don't *have* to. Your biggest goals here are: - Continue to care for your cow(s) daily. - Continue to harvest flowers and mushrooms daily (and Fall has a LOT of mushrooms, each with its own growing schedule). - Continue to give gifts, especially to the 'crucial' people. - Continue to fish as much as possible. - Continue to dig for gifts (and the Special Tablet if you haven't gotten it by now) as necessary. - Continue to raise and sell poultry. - Fertilize that field. You should be up to 70-100 squares, and you should be harvesting the grass as it comes available. If you want ducks in the Second Year, now is a good time to buy the Pond (2500). Ducks aren't a necessity, but 2500 isn't too much money, so you might as well if you'd like. I usually do. You should have seen at least one or two "cutscenes" with your bride by now, you should have the Blue Feather in your inventory, and you should have Galen (and others) turning their head to gaze at you when you pass. That means they like you. A) Cows: Your goal is to buy 1 Bull and 2 more Cows before the year skip. I usually try to go for 1 Star Bull, 1 Star Cow, and 1 Marble Cow, but you can tailor this approach to your own ranching style and monetary flow. Livestock has to grow up before they can mate / give milk, but at least the time means that you can take time to pet them and get their affection up. And Fall / Winter are good, slow times to get used to your larger ranch. ----- Section 6: The First Winter... and Skipping Ahead Winter and things are going to pick up. You need to start finishing up the first year (it will end on Winter 10th) and there is a lot to do between then and now. A) Cows: Here is what you've been saving your money up for. Your cow has likely gone dry by now (or will soon) and you're going to want to buy a farm Bull and more Cows, as well as a Miracle Potion to impregnate your old cow. Whatever you do, remember to also leave a little bit of carrying cash for next Spring. And make sure your field is fertilized and your grainery is stocked. B) Bride: You may or may not have gotten a "Now I'm your exclusive girlfriend" cutscene from your chosen bride by now. Either way, it's time to go propose to her - I recommend giving her the Blue Feather around Winter 8th. If you've been giving gifts regularly, she likely won't refuse you, but if she does, you're going to have to scramble to fix it. Gifts, gifts, gifts - and Sales - and hope for the best. At the end of Winter, the girl who likes you most will show up and propose to you (or so I'm told), but I don't like to leave things to chance. When you marry, she will ask what to call you (I usually just use my game name), and she will change clothes in the Second Year: Celia: Changes to a red kerchief and red skirt, with a yellow shirt and white apron. (I preferred her in green. Oh well.) Lumina: Unknown. Nami: Unknown. Muffy: Changes to a blue dress (with a more 'modest' cut) and blue headband. You also get to name your baby. A note on the baby. If you visit the Harvest Sprites in their house and examine the pot in the upper right hand corner 100 times, you get a "wish" and you can wish for a daughter. (You learn this in a Winter conversation from Nina, if she's friendly with you.) However, the game doesn't generally specify the gender of your little bundle of joy at all, relying mostly on gender neutral references with the exception of a few apparently accidental gender references (example, Wally who says he will train "the child" when "he" gets older). So, regardless of your wish, I recommend naming the baby something gender-neutral. C) Finishing out Winter: - Get Galen as friendly as you can. - Brush your cow(s), even when they aren't giving milk. - Befriend the Winter Monster by the Goddess Pool by giving him three flowers a day until he gives you a record. - Gather daily wild plants (yes, Winter has herbs and flowers, surprisingly). - Dig up that Special Tablet, if you haven't gotten it yet. - Keep fishing for money, although now you can give a fish or two as gifts. - Buy any Spring seeds you want from Vesta. - Enjoy yourself. ----- Section 7: Tricks -- When Takakura brings a new animal or when a new animal is born, your farmer gets dragged back to the farm to witness the event (usually around 11 am to 1 pm). This can be very annoying if you like to dig in the mornings and then fish in the evenings because you have to run all the way back to the waterfall after the delivery. However, if you are in the dig site digging *when* the event occurs, the game teleports you back to the dig site after the delivery so that you can leave via the usual "Carter looks at all your dig finds" method. Very convenient way to stay put and not get dragged back to the farm. -- Nami is a notoriously late riser and most dating guides tell you to stay up until midnight or later to gift her. However, if you're an early riser like me (bed at 5 pm, waking at 1 am), you can still woo her - just go to the inn as soon as you rise and make your way up to Nami's room. You can give her gifts *and* read her diary *and* still milk your cows when they wake up at 6 am, instead of having to sleep late from being up until midnight. -- The 3rd and 8th days of the month are "holiday" days. Van comes to town, Carter and Fiona don't dig (and neither can you), and everyone has a different walking schedule, which can wreak havoc on your daily gifting routine. View this as an opportunity to gift the folks you don't usually see - Romana goes walking on Main Street in the morning, and Cody, Rock, and Gustafa are reliably found on the path to the Goddess Spring in the late afternoon and early evening (as are Vesta and Muffy). -- Tim will usually wander by the Sales area around 11 am, for what it is worth. I mention this because it is so difficult to gift him in any manner other than Sales discounts (if someone knows a time and location where Tim will accept gifts directly, I'd be grateful to know). -- When you think of it, enter and exit your farm house at random times during the day, if you happen to be in the vicinity. Most bride cutscenes trigger when you exit your house. I can think of at least two Muffy evening cutscenes, a Celia morning cutscene, and a few afternoon cutscenes for Nami and Celia. There is supposed to be a cutscene in the bar for Nami that I haven't gotten (late at night) and there is a cutscene for Muffy when you try to enter the bar in the late afternoon. These cutscenes are triggered by emotion levels, so just keep gifting and they should come in time. ----- Author's e-mail: kirk_and_erin@yahoo.com Please write to the above e-mail address if you would like to notify me of mistakes in this FAQ or to provide information that has been excluded. Copyright 2009 Erin. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.