Starting Out

[harvestmods]

GETTING STARTED

1. Write and submit an application.
You already know how to do this. Once you've been approved, see the next step.

2. Choose your character's role in town.
A. Farmer - Farmers begin with a tiny house, almost akin to a shack. But it's got room for a bed, your clothes, and a few personal effects. You also begin with one field, where you can grow any crop you choose (so long as it's the right season). The longer your character runs this farm and the harder they work, the bigger their farm becomes, and you can choose to specialize or do a little bit of everything.
B. Shopkeeper - Someone needs to sell seeds, food, tools, animals, and everything else under the sun. If you've got a service or a good to peddle, then shopkeeping might be just the thing for you! After apprenticing for one game year (four RL months), your character can take over their own store and choose their own selection of goods. By working together with farmers, you can unlock new seeds, animals, and other items. Or you can freelance it, if none of the premade shops appeal to you and your character.
C. Townfolk - Or you can just live your life peacefully in town, visiting other characters, and living off of whatever money/family you happen to have. Examples of townfolk include hermits, researchers, doctors, and stylists. The only role you cannot be is the mayor.

3. Create a game profile.
Choose from the farmer template or the townsfolk template; you can even create your own, depending on your preferences. Put this profile in your character's journal, and provide a link when responding to the Taken Characters page.

4. Begin Play!
Once you're ready to start, and you've been granted approval to join the Rendezvous communities, you can introduce your character at your leisure. If you would like an NPC to interact with at any time (typically the mayor, Sarith, will greet new characters and Garien will offer a tutorial week to new and aspiring farmers), please PM the mod, and an NPC will be happily provided.

The game plays in real time on a day-by-day basis, although the seasons are much shorter. One month of real time equals one season. As a result, years pass four times as swiftly. The season's weather and events will be posted near the beginning of each month.

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ESSENTIAL TERMS AND ITEMS

Below is a quick list of terms and items any farmer should be aware of.

Animals
You can take care of several kinds of animals, allowing you access to milk, eggs, wool, and other goods. Chickens and rabbits are kept in a coop, and livestock are kept in a barn. Coops and barns can house a maximum of eight animals each, and each plot of land you own can hold a maximum of one coop and one barn. Taking animals to graze in the pasture helps them to increase the quality of products they make. It means you won't get that animal's product for the day(s) they would normally produce an item, but if you do this long enough (about one game year/four RL months), the animal will produce Golden/Premium versions of the item. Once they do, they won't produce the regular versions any longer, so be sure you either have all you want of the regular item, or buy two animals and have one dedicated to making regular items and the other dedicated to making premium items. Golden/Premium products can also be obtained if the animal wins three total festivals.

Beehives
Beehives need a blueprint before you can build them, which can be won at a festival or gifted from someone else who already has the blueprint. Each hive will give you four pots of honey in a season, save for winter. Of course, you'll have to build the hive yourself, and then there's the matter of actually capturing the bees. It can be quite an adventure!

Blueprints
Most blueprints of them can only be won at festivals. You can make copies of blueprints if you like, and share them with other farmers, or offer trades. Or you can keep it all to yourself if you're particularly competitive. The other way to get certain blueprints are through NPC requests and events. Make sure to keep an eye on the Town Bulletin Board, as there are some items that can be obtained very easily this way that may be difficult for others.

Crops and Seasons
The majority of crops and flowers are seasonal; they will only grow during their appropriate season. If they are planted during any other time, the seeds will not grow. If a plant is left growing and isn't harvested or cut down before the first day of the next season, it will wilt and become worthless. For example, it wouldn't be a good idea to plant potato seeds on Spring 28th, because they won't have enough time to mature before Summer 1st. Trees never wilt, but they only produce fruit during their favored season. Mushrooms, herbs, paddy crops, grains, flax, cotton, and grass can be grown during any season. Check the crops list if you need to find out what season a crop can be grown.

Festivals
Festivals can be social in nature, or competitive. For a social festival or if you only plan to be a spectator, all you need to do is show up during the festival's specified time in order to obtain a better friendship with other attendees. If you want to compete, sign-ups will be available near the end of the previous season. You must sign up to be considered for a chance to win. You can still technically compete if you didn't sign up, but winners will only be determined from the sign up list. You have until the day before the festival to sign up; any later will not be considered. Festivals are the best way to obtain unusual animals, blueprints, seeds, and recipes. Winners are determined randomly, with one entry per farm (NOT per farmer), but submitting a gold crop for a festival or entering an animal that produces premium products will count as a double entry to increase chances of being selected as a winner.

Fields
You start off with one field, which allows you to grow one type of herbs, crops, or six trees of varying types. Additional fields are granted by the mayor to reward farmers who are diligent and hardworking, usually at the end of each season or as a prize option for winning a festival. This is the only way you can get a paddy for growing rice, wasabi, and lotus roots. Super Fields are premium plots of land that can be won, bought, or sold from your rivals. See the Trading Post page for more details on Super Fields.

Gardening Space
Necessary to participate in the Gardening Show. Only one can be obtained and no more, and each can hold handmade decorations, flowerpots, and decorative objects. Of course, if you plan on getting a gardening space, you should probably have at least one field dedicated to growing flowers. You can buy the blueprint at The Trading Post, but you have to make it yourself.

Gold/Premium Crops and Goods
The gold/premium version of an item typically sells for triple the price of the original. Gold crops, and animals who produce premium items, are more likely to win at festivals due to the extra work involved, and counts as a double entry. If you use a golden crop in your recipe, you can make twice as many of that recipe. This isn't stackable; if you use two different golden crops, you'll still only get twice as many. Recipes using golden/premium ingredients have a better chance of winning in the Cooking Festival, and gold/premium items ARE stackable for this particular event.

Greenhouse
Greenhouses are useful because you can set the season to any of the four you like, as long as you have the appropriate Sun Stone. In this manner, you can grow turnips (typically a spring crop) in the fall. The greenhouse you build comes pre-equipped with a Spring Sun, so if you want one of the others, you'll need to buy it from the Komugi Hut vendor. A greenhouse can grow up to four different fields' worth of crops, but they all have to be of the same season. Different trees can be planted and will grow fine in any season, but only the ones related to the current Sun Stone season will bear fruit. Greenhouses can't grow paddy crops, however, or mushrooms. They also can't hold beehives or any other farm items/decorations. Greenhouses are available in the second year of the game.

Fishing Shed
A blueprint is required to get one of these, but fish food can be bought at the general store. Pearl Oysters are sold by the Komugi Hut vendor. If there's a particular fish you've caught that you want to make more of, you'll need to build a Fishing Hatchery (one per farm). You'll need Fish Feed, which can be applied once per day. Each hatchery can hold either one Pearl Oyster to create a random color pearl once per season, or up to ten total fish in a tank, so be sure to collect and store your fish in the fridge if the hatchery becomes full. Fish increase at the following rate:
Small Fish, Shrimp, Clams, Oysters - 2 additional fish per day of feed
Medium Fish (under 100 cm) - 1 additional fish per day of feed
Large Fish (between 100-200 cm), Squid, Octopus - 1 additional fish per 5 days of feed
Giant Fish (fish caught with the Master Rod) - 1 additional fish per 14 days of feed

Fridge, Materials Bin, Storage Box, Toolbox
You start out with the latter three items, but will need to buy the blueprint and materials for the fridge. Food typically goes bad after it's harvested or cooked (one month for grown/fished/foraged items, two weeks for cooked dishes). A fridge allows you to store crops, cooked food, and other food items FOREVER without the risk of spoiling. In this way, you can make more complicated dishes that have ingredients that can only be obtained from different seasons.

Kitchen
When starting from scratch, your little house doesn't come pre-equipped with a kitchen. You'll need to buy the blueprint and materials to build your own, and upgrade your house to a Medium-sized house. A kitchen is necessary to make any recipe, even the ones that don't seem like they'd need a kitchen.

Mushroom Logs
After winning/receiving the blueprint and constructing the Logs, sprinkle them with the mushroom seeds. Mushrooms can be fertilized to increase their quality. However, you can't grow a different type of mushroom once a seed is spread; you'll have to throw out the old Log and build a new one. The Mushroom Logs in the Super Field can be scrubbed free of spores easily, however, and do not need to be newly constructed.

Pets
Cats and dogs can help out on the farm. Dogs will help you herd animals (if the weather is sunny or snowy) and drive off predators, and cats will occasionally fetch a random item for you on any sunny day. Having a horse will allow you to travel faster and further, so long as you make sure to take care of it along with your other animals. The cat and dog will live in the pet house (maximum of three pets per pet house, maximum one pet house per plot of land), and the horse will live in the barn. The horse doesn't count toward your eight-animal barn limit.

Production Sheds
There are six kinds you can build: A Cheese Factory (refines eggs and dairy), a Seed Maker (makes perfumes, fertilizer, and seeds), a Textile Studio (changes wool, fur, flax, and cotton into fabrics), a Pottery Barn (make dishes and other household items out of clay), a Winery (ferments fruits into wine), and a Spice Factory (grinds grains, makes miso and soy sauce, produces jams and spices). Products that are refined are almost always worth more than the raw item, and there are many recipes and blueprints that require refined products. Seed makers are also necessary for making seeds out of wild herbs and mushrooms, as the seeds aren't always sold in stores.

Recipes
Building a kitchen automatically gives you access to a number of beginner recipes. Most recipes can be obtained by placing in a festival, eating frequently at the local eateries, fulfilling requests on the bulletin board, or giving the owners of the local restaurants a certain ingredient. Not sure what to give them? Just ask the owner (or the mod, if the owner is an NPC). You can share recipes with others if you're feeling generous.

Vendors
As the game progresses, traders from foreign lands may appear to sell unique and exotic goods. This can be difficult at first, as only Silke Road will be available in the beginning. Keep an eye on the requirements needed to unlock the others, to gain access to new items, animals, and more.

Wrapping Table
Having one of these allows you to create your own bouquets of flowers and wrap gifts. One bolt of colored linen cloth will make ten ribbons. Why would you bother wrapping a gift? Traditionally, a wrapped gift increases the FP earned from receiving characters, so long as the gift is something a character likes. This is especially true for a character's birthday.

Don't see something listed here? Questions about a particular blueprint or item? Comment below or ask the mod!