RUNE FACTORY 2 FARMING GUIDE Version 1.10 Table of Contents 1. Introduction and version history......................{INT} 2. Tools.................................................{TLS} 2.1 Charging the watering can, hoe and sickle............{CHR} 2.2 Magnifying glass.....................................{MGL} 3. Using Monsters as Helpers.............................{UMH} 4. The Crops.............................................{CPS} 4.1 Making money with crops..............................{MMC} 4.2 Spring...............................................{SPR} 4.3 Summer...............................................{SUM} 4.4 Fall.................................................{FAL} 4.5 Winter...............................................{WIN} 4.6 Repeat harvest crops.................................{REP} 4.7 Formulas.............................................{FRM} 4.8 Fertilizer...........................................{FRT} 5. The Transition to the Second Generation...............{TSG} 5.1 Things to consider before transitioning..............{TTC} 6. Upgrading the Tools in the 2nd Generation.............{UTG} 6.1 Where you upgrade the tools - the forge..............{UTF} 6.2 How you upgrade the tools - the lessons..............{UTL} 6.21 Hammers.............................................{UHA} 6.22 Axes................................................{UAX} 6.23 Sickles.............................................{USI} 6.24 Waterpots...........................................{UWA} 6.25 Hoes................................................{UHO} 6.26 Fishing poles.......................................{UFP} 6.3 How to upgrade the tools - using the forge...........{UUF} 6.4 Raising your skill level.............................{URS} 7. Contact Information...................................{CIN} 8. Copyright.............................................{CPR} 9. Credit................................................{CRT} --------------- 1. Introduction......................................................{INT} --------------- This guide is intended to cover farming and how to efficiently make money through farming. I have not been able to readily find information and specifics on the crops and matters related to farming, so I thought I would share some of the things I have learned through trial and error. This is my first guide. I collected this information for myself, then realized that other people might like to know some of this and thought I'd share. Version 1.10 - Added Part 6 on upgrading the tools in the second generation. Added section on finances to Part 5.1. Version 1.00 - Parts 1-5 on tools, monster helpers, the crops and the transition to the second generation. -------- 2. Tools.............................................................{TLS} -------- Tools aren't hard to come by. Right away Mana offers to sell you a watering can and a hoe for 100g. The sickle is the reward for the "Come Here for a Sec" request. When Kyle gets his tools he is already able to charge them up somewhat. There is no need to pay someone to upgrade them, or mine for minerals, or add anything to them. (Yay!) Holding down the button is enough to charge them for stronger usage. 2.1 Charging the watering can, hoe and sickle.........................{CHR} --------------------------------------------- The level 0 charge is what happens when you press the tool button one brief time. This takes care of a 1x1 area, or one square. The level 1 charge is what happens when you hold the tool button down longer, until you see a blue glow. This takes care of a 1x3 area, or one row of 3 squares, right in front of you. The level 2 charge is what happens when you hold the tool button down longer still, until you see a purple glow. This takes care of a 3x3 area, or 3 rows of 3 squares. This level 2 charge is extremely useful and saves you a lot of time. Kyle will use it many times each day when watering crops. Unfortunately, you have not truly managed to avoid the annoying need to take care of things without chargeable tools. Once you move into the second generation your tools have grown rusty and are unchargeable for a time. More on the implications for this in the section on transitioning to the second generation. Later in the second generation you will be able to charge up the tools to levels 3 and 4. The level 3 charge takes care of a 5x5 area. The level 4 charge takes care of a 9x9 area. 2.2 The magnifying glass..............................................{MGL} ------------------------ You might wonder what the point of the magnifying glass is. It actually does have a few uses. It is good for checking to see what sort of fertilizer you have used on a given square of crop (if you've forgotten). It also can tell you a plant's quality level. More on fertilizer in the fertilizer section. ---------------------------- 3. Using Monsters as Helpers..........................................{UMH} ---------------------------- As far as the crops in the field beside your house are concerned, the monsters you tame can be very helpful. Goblins can harvest and goblin pirates can water. You'll need two of each to cover the whole field. They will water each tilled square and harvest each ripe crop. The harvester goblins don't cut grass. Goblins can be found in Messhina Valley. During the first generation they show up day and night at Riverbank and Path to Mountain. Goblin pirates can be found on Blessia Island. During the first generation they show up during the day at South Beach, Altar/Old Ship and Old Ship Deck. The pair works as a team. One comes out around 4 and starts work at 4:30 PM in the upper left corner of the field, moving from left to right along the rows. The first one gets as far as he can in the first half of the field, based on his friendship level with you, then quits by 7:30 PM. Then the second one comes out and starts, where the first one left off, about 8:30 PM and works until 11:30 PM. They work whether you stay up and watch them or if you go to bed early. The speed the monster works at depends on his friendship level. If both are at level 10, they can finish watering or harvesting the field most of the time. Sometimes, for unclear reasons, the very last row of crops will not be completely cared for. To get around this issue, I tend to grow grass in the lowermost row of crop plots. Depending on your friendship level, particularly with the goblin pirate waterers, you may wish to grow most of your crops in the upper rows of crop plots. Filling each crop plot in the top rows is the most efficient use of the monster helpers. ------------ 4. The Crops..........................................................{CPS} ------------ You can buy all of the crops from Douglas in the Pumpkin General Store all year round, excepting holidays, when the store is closed. Unlike other Harvest Moon games, you are able to walk through and over your crops in Rune Factory 2. This means you don't have to worry about leaving a margin around your crops so that you can access each plot. Being able to walk through your crops does have a downside: fighting monsters while standing among your crops can result in the accidental removal of some of your plants. If you swing your weapon while you stand too close to a mature or almost mature plant, your swing can chop down the plant. If this happens, the plant is gone. Be careful to consider growing time when you decide which crops to plant where. Even if a crop is meant to grow in a specific season, that doesn't mean you should plant it beside your house. Many crops take *more than 30 days* to grow. Planting crops that take more than 30 days to grow (e.g. clover) in the field beside your house is wasting money and effort. Those need to be planted in the dungeons. Another thing to watch out for is the season each crop is intended for. Fairly early in the game Yue will give you a bag of daikon radish seeds as a reward for taking care of a request for her. If you plant that bag of seeds in your field during the Spring, you will be greeted the next morning with dead plants. As far as those daikon radish seeds go, if you're not feeling ready to venture into the Winter dungeon on a daily basis to care for them, stick the bag of seeds in your refrigerator and save them until you are ready for them. 4.1 Making money with crops...........................................{MMC} --------------------------- I have grouped the crops by those that take less than 30 days to grow and those that take more than 30 days to grow. The ones marked with an * are repeaters - you can get more than one harvest out of them. Consider growing the repeating crops in the dungeons to maximize profit. More on repeaters later. Each crop seed costs a certain amount to buy from Douglas. Some are fairly cheap (potato), others (emery flower) are extremely expensive. I have listed the price for the sale of 1 of the given crop and the sale price for a plot of 9. Next is the profit you make off of one plot of 9. I calculated this by subtracting the seed cost from the sell price (9). In the case of repeating crops, you do not see a profit on the first harvest. You actually LOSE money if you can only get a single harvest of a repeater crop. Bear this fact in mind when you choose how early or late in a season to plant repeaters in the field beside your house. Next is the number of days a crop takes to grow from seed to ripe for harvesting. Repeaters have two numbers listed. The first number is the number of days it takes to grow from seed to ripe. The number in parenthesis is the number of days it takes for the crop to become ripe again. Example: Strawberries: 8(2) - strawberries take 8 days for the first ripening, then 2 days to repeat. The final number is the profit per day. I calculated this by dividing the profit gained from a plot of 9 by the number of days it takes to grow (rounded up to the nearest whole number). The point of this number is to determine which crop is the most profitable to grow. Looking at the profit/day is like taking the amount of gold you earn at the selling of the harvest and spreading it out over each day the crop was growing. Example: Pink melons earn a profit of 14,100g and take 20 days to grow. That means that if you were able to earn money for each day the crop plot was in use (instead of all at once at the end of the growing period), you would be making 705g (14,100/20) each day. While at first glance it might seem more profitable to grow tons of pink turnips than pink melons, since pink turnips only take 4 days to grow while pink melons take 20 days, this isn't the case. If you consider the profit per day, pink turnips aren't so great after all. Looked at another way, for the length of time it takes to grow 1 plot of pink melons (20 days) you can grow 5 different sets of pink turnips (4 days x 5), one after another, in the same crop plot. One plot of pink melons earns you 14,100g. Five sets of pink turnips at 910g each earns you 4550g (910g x 5). One set of pink melons (14,100g) earns more than three times what 5 sequential sets of pink turnips (4550g) does. Therefore, if you can afford the seeds, pink melons are definitely the better way to use a crop plot in Spring. Profit/day for repeating crops varies, depending on how many harvests you get. Crops marked with + are special crops you can get in the second generation. 4.2 Spring crops....................................................{SPR} ---------------- =Grows in < 30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pink turnip 980 210 1,890 910 4 228 Onion 690 220 1,980 1,290 7 184 Cabbage 780 390 3,510 2,730 11 248 Pink melon 8,400 2,500 22,500 14,100 20 705 Moondrop 520 180 1,620 1,100 6 183 Toyherb 1,450 510 5,490 3,140 12 262 Strawberry* 5,400 180 1,620 -3,780 8(2) varies Gold cabbage+ 316 1,580 14,220 13,904 14 993 =Grows in >30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cherry grass 9800 3400 30,600 20,800 60 347 Lamp grass 24,000 8700 78,300 54,300 90 603 Blue crystal 32,400 10,900 98,100 65,700 100 657 Emery flower 54,000 15,400 138,600 84,600 120 705 4.3 Summer Crops.....................................................{SUM} ---------------- -Grows in < 30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pink cat 550 180 1,620 1,070 6 178 Pumpkin 1,680 620 5,580 3,900 12 325 Eggplant* 2,900 190 1,710 -1,190 9(3) varies Tomato* 1,980 210 1,890 -90 10(4) varies Cucumber* 2,200 220 1,980 -220 10(6) varies Corn* 1,800 170 1,530 -270 14(3) varies Pineapple* 7,400 750 6,750 -650 20(5) varies Gold pumpkin+ 324 1,620 14,580 14,256 15 950 =Grows in >30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ironleaf 17,000 3,200 28,800 11,800 40 295 Clover 12,800 2,400 21,600 8,800 60 147 Fireflower 9,800 4,300 38,700 28,900 90 321 Green crystal 29,700 9,800 88,200 58,500 100 585 4.4 Fall Crops........................................................{FAL} -------------- =Grows in < 30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spinach 790 300 2,700 1,910 5 382 Potato 440 240 2,160 1,720 7 246 Carrot 990 420 3,780 2,790 9 310 Charm blue 2,200 760 6,840 4,640 12 387 Yam* 1,480 140 1,260 -220 6(3) varies Green pepper* 3,450 140 1,260 -2,190 10(2) varies Gold Potato+ 278 1,390 12,510 12,232 11 1,112 =Grows in >30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Autumn grass 13,500 3,900 35,100 21,600 60 360 Pom pom grass 7,000 5,500 49,500 42,500 90 472 Red crystal 34,800 11,250 101,250 66,450 100 665 4.5 Winter Crops......................................................{WIN} ---------------- =Grows in < 30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turnips 510 190 1,710 1,200 4 300 Leeks 1,600 520 4,680 3,000 6 500 White cabbage 2,400 960 8,640 6,240 11 567 Daikon radish 3,300 1,100 9,900 6,600 14 471 Hot hot flower 9,700 2,900 26,100 16,400 20 820 Gold turnip+ 196 980 8,820 8,624 8 1,074 =Grows in >30 days= Crop Seed cost Sell price (1) Sell price (9) Profit Days Profit/Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noel grass 17,000 3,970 35,730 18,730 40 468 4.6 Repeat Harvest Crops..............................................{REP} ------------------------ Repeat harvest crops are can become very nice money makers if you plant them in dungeons where they can continue to produce for you over a long period of time. All repeating crops are money losers if you can only get 1 harvest from them. The numbers next to the crop names are the length of time the crop takes to grow and the number of days for the next harvest. For this table, #H means the number of harvests. The first column is the number of harvests you have to get before you start making money instead of losing money. The second column is the number of harvests you can get in the first 30 days the crop grows. That is, if you plant the crop in your field next to your house on the 1st day of the season and let it grow until the 30th day of the season, "#H in 1st 30d" is how many times you can harvest that crop. The number in parenthesis is how many days it takes to get that number of harvests. Example: Corn planted in the field by your house on the 1st of Summer can be harvested 6 times. Those 6 harvests take 29 days. Keeping in mind that corn takes 14 days to grow and repeats every 3 days, the schedule for corn would be as follows: 1st harvest - 14th 2nd harvest - 17th 3rd harvest - 20th 4th harvest - 23rd 5th harvest - 26th 6th harvest - 29th The third column is the profit/day at the end of that first 30 days. This column also tells you your margin of breathing room, if you will, for planting crops in your field. Corn can be planted in your field on the 1st or 2nd day of Summer and you will still get 6 harvests out of it. Plant corn in your field on the 3rd of Summer and the 6th harvest will not ripen before the shift to Fall kills the corn plants. So corn gives you an extra day to focus on planting the other Summer crops that don't give you a margin, like eggplant, tomato and pineapple. Pineapple especially is important to plant in your field on the 1st day of Summer if you want to get as many harvests out of it as you can. Example: Corn planted in the field on the 1st of summer can be harvested 6 times. The profit earned per day of that 6th harvest is 255g. The fourth column is how many harvests you can get in the 1st 60 days. To get 60 (or more) days worth of growth out of a crop, it must be planted in a dungeon. The fifth column is the profit for that last crop in the 1st 60 days. Obviously, the longer you can leave a crop to grow, the more money it will make you, and amount of money it will be earning you per day will also grow. Example: Corn planted at any time in a plot on Blessia Island can be harvested 6 times in 29 days. That 6th harvest will earn 255g profit/day. Left to grow, that plot of corn will continue to produce. By the end of 59 days (almost 2 seasons) you will have harvested the corn 16 times. That 16th harvest will earn 384g per day. Allowed to grow for an entire 120 day year, that single plot of corn can be harvested 36 times. The 36th harvest will earn 448g/day. Crop #H make $ #H in 1st 30d P/d 1st 30d #H in 1st 60d P/d 1st 60d ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strawberry 8/2 2 12 (30 days) 468 27 (60 days) 639 Eggplant 9/3 2 8 (30 days) 359 18 (60 days) 465 Tomato 10/4 2 6 (30 days) 312 13 (58 days) 390 Cucumber 10/6 2 4 (28 days) 204 9 (58 days) 269 Corn 14/3 2 6 (29 days) 255 16 (59 days) 384 Pineapple 20/5 2 3 (30 days) 428 9 (60 days) 889 Yam 6/3 2 9 (30 days) 329 19 (60 days) 374 Green pepper 10/2 3 11 (30 days) 347 26 (60 days) 489 Crop #H in 1st 90d P/d 1st 90d #H in 1st 120d P/d 1st 120d ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strawberry 8/2 42 (90 days) 696 57 (120 days) 725 Eggplant 9/3 28 (90 days) 500 38 (120 days) 517 Tomato 10/4 21 (90 days) 419 20 (118 days) 425 Cucumber 10/6 14 (88 days) 290 19 (118 days) 300 Corn 14/3 26 (89 days) 427 36 (119 days) 448 Pineapple 20/5 15 (90 days) 1,043 21 (120 days) 1,120 Yam 6/3 9 (30 days) 404 19 (120 days) 411 Green pepper 10/2 11 (30 days) 536 26 (120 days) 559 It is worth noting that while yams take less time to grow to their initial harvest, you can actually get more harvests of green peppers in a season than you can yams. 4.7 Formulas..........................................................{FOR} ------------ If you are the sort to care, here are my formulas for calculating the above figures. profit = sell cost (9) - seed cost profit per day of repeating crops ={ [profit + (sell price (9) x (# of harvests - 1)]/days growing } strawberries: [-3780 + 1620(h-1)]/d eggplant: [-1190 + 1710(h-1)]/d tomato: [-90 + 1890(h-1)]/d cucumber: [-220 + 1980(h-1)]/d corn: [-279 + 1530(h-1)]/d pineapple: [-650 + 6750(h-1)]/d yam: [-220 + 1260(h-1)]/d green pepper: [-2190 + 1260(h-1)]/d 4.8 Fertilizer........................................................{FER} -------------- You can buy and win fertilizers for using on your crops. These can improve the quality of your crop, or the speed with which they grow. In the first generation Natalie in the infirmary sells Formula A fertilizer for 2000g. In the second generation it is Ray who sells Formula A fertilizer. Fertilizers only work on 1 square. One bottle will NOT take care of a whole 9x9 plot. Don't try to use fertilizer once a crop is past the seed stage. You will just be wasting the fertilizer and your money. Don't try to stack Formulas. It doesn't work. Whatever you use first (A, B or C) is the only one that will have any effect. You CAN use a Formula and a Greenifier on the same plant. Trying to hurry along a crop because you're running out of time in the season will only work if you need to speed it along by one day (in the case of the readily available Formula A), AND, more importantly, if you know you'll need to hurry it while it is still a seed. -Formula A - Speeds the growth of crops by 1 day. How to get it: buy in Alvarna Clinic for 2000g, win Eating Festival contest, make it in the workshop (2nd gen) -Formula B - Speeds the growth of crops by 2 days. How to get it: win the Monster Festival, make it in the workshop (2nd gen) -Formula C - Speeds the growth of crops by 3 days. How to get it: win the Fishing contest, make it in the workshop (2nd gen) -Greenifier - Raises the quality of crops 1 level. How to get it: win the Adventure contest, "I'd Like Some Wool, But..." request, make it in the workshop (2nd gen) You can learn to make your own fertilizers in the second generation from Mana's Thursday lessons. Formula A ingredients: earth crytal, strong vine, root Formula B ingredients: earth crystal, strong vine, fairy dust Formula C ingredients: earth crystal, strong vine, devil blood Greenifier ingredients: earth crystal, strong vine, fairy dust, fish fossil, water crystal ------------------------------------------ 5. The Transition to the Second Generation............................{TSG} ------------------------------------------ To move to the second generation you must a) get married b) wait 9 days for your wife to get pregnant c) wait 6 more days for the baby to be born d) talk to Byron about building the school e) pay the required 100,000g and 1000 wood for the school to be built f) wait 10 more days for the school to be built g) walk in front of the school's door to trigger the scene where your wife and Byron show up to discuss the completion of the school Then the game tells you that time passes, and one stormy night you get all your memories back and realize you have to leave to take care of something important. Your child talks to you and you say you're leaving. The next morning you (the human playing the game) are now playing as the child. So, what happens to your crops when you move from the first generation to the second? Firstly, the season changes back to Spring. Whatever season you were in when you completed step g) and walked in front of the school ends abruptly and the next day you are able to play will be in Spring. If you finish step g) in Winter, this isn't a problem because you didn't have anything growing in your field anyway. If you were in Summer or Fall, this switch to Spring will mess up your crops in the field next to your house. Secondly, the storm will mess up some of what you've got growing in the dungeons. I have read that there is a way around the storm by waiting to complete step g) until after midnight, but despite multiple tries I have not been able to get that trick to work, so I can't speak to its effectiveness. If you have something important growing in the dungeons, check on it before you save in the second generation and see if the damage is something you can live with. If not, restart the game and play through another day and try step g) again. 5.1 Things to Consider Before Transitioning to the Second Generation..{TTC} -------------------------------------------------------------------- =Storm damage= If you are unable to get the storm dodging trick to work for you, consider waiting to transition until after expensive and/or time consuming crops are finished growing. =Dungeon difficulty= The dungeon monsters become significantly more difficult, making it harder for you to reach the crops deeper in the dungeons. Be aware that you may not be able to reach the deeper crop plots to water your crops on a daily basis. Consider finishing off whatever you have growing in the deeper crop plots before you transition so you don't need to go there every day. Strongly consider finishing off everything in the Winter dungeon as tending those crops becomes very difficult in the early days of the second generation. =Water pot can no longer be charged up= Until you can repair the watering can, you have to water each square individually. This costs rune points and takes up lots of clock time. Where you may have been able, as Kyle, to easily finish caring for crops in every single dungeon plot before the 3:00 PM pickup time, that will no longer be the case. You will likely not have enough rune points or clock time to tend to everything in a single day in the early part of the second generation. Consider finishing off much of your crops before transitioning so that you have less to water until you can get the watering can improved again. Alternately, consider ignoring some of your crops for a short while. Except for the charm blue flower (Fall), the crops can handle a bit of neglect. =Your finances and materials= Do you have enough money? You need 100,000g and 1000 wood to build the school, but you will quickly need more money once you are in the second generation. Building the workshop expansion to the school costs 10,000g and 100 wood. After that, you'll need to buy the forge from Yue, which costs another 7,000g. At the very least, you should have 117,000g and 1100 wood before you transition. Because you can make money and mine ore relatively easy as Kyle, I recommend making a comfortable amount of money before you transition. Perhaps 250,000g or so, so that you have the money to buy seeds and other upgrades from Yue and Byron without having to save up. Also I suggest storing some ore before you switch to your child. In order to upgrade your tools in the second generation, you require a minimum of 4 silver, 13 iron and 11 bronze. Since 9 of an item takes up just as much room as 1, you may as well have full stacks: 9 silver, 18 iron and 18 bronze. Know also that buying seeds in the second generation will require more advance planning. In the second generation, in addition to selling seeds, Douglas comes to your farm to pick up stuff from your shipping box. This means that Douglas is at your farm from 3:00 PM to about 5:30 PM. Due to the time it takes to return to the store, don't count on being able to buy anything from him before the store closes at 6:00 PM. This means that if you want to buy seeds you need to make sure you are at the store before Douglas leaves for your farm. farm, around 2:30 PM. -------------------------------------------- 6. Upgrading the Tools in the 2nd Generation.........................{UTG} -------------------------------------------- Once you reach the second generation you find that your tools have rusted and gotten annoyingly time-consuming to use since you can no longer charge them up. This is thankfully not a permanent thing. You can get the equipment and the skills to return your tools to decent working order. 6.1 Where you upgrade the tools - the forge..........................{UTF} ------------------------------------------- The first thing you have to do is talk to Byron and get the school expanded. You can pay and have built a library, a dojo and a workshop. The library and dojo are good things to build, but if your first priority is getting your tools working again, what you want is the workshop (10,000g and 100 wood). The workshop will be built the day after you pay for it, so that can be done quickly. The most significant delayer of getting started on forging your tools is Yue. Byron can get the building built for you, but you can't do anything in there until you buy the forge from Yue. For some aggravating reason Yue sells the forge ONLY on Mondays. If for some reason you miss her and don't buy it, you'll have to wait another week and try again. Yue hangs out in Alvarna - North Square on her selling days and now has four options when you speak to her. The third option is "I want a bargain." That's where she sells the forge/workshop. Yue's Monday Bargains --------------------- Small Kitchen 1,000g Large Kitchen 5,000g Pharmacy 3,000g Forge/Workshop 7,000g Yue's Wednesday Bargains ------------------------ Refrigerator 10,000g Shelves 10,000g Record Player 20,000g Full set of tools 30,000g (Mayonaise, cheese, yogurt, seed and thread makers) Yue's Friday Bargains (can't buy until after small/large kitchen) --------------------- Small Kitchenware Kitchen knife 1,000g Frying pan 2,000g Pot 2,000g Large Kitchenware Oven 5,000g Mixer 5,000g Steamer 2,000g Yue's Monday and Wednesday bargains are not dependant on each other, but her Friday bargains can't be bought until after you buy the correspondingly sized kitchen on a Monday. A potential snag is the weather. Depending on who you marry, Yue's schedule changes. If you marry Dorothy, Rosalind, Julia or Cecilia, then Yue marries the guy your wife would have married. If Yue is married, then she spends Tuesdays, Thursdays and rainy days in her husband's house - and she won't sell you anything. If it rains on the Monday you planned to buy the forge/workshop from Yue, you won't be able to buy it because Yue will be in her husband's house and won't be selling stuff. (As a side note, this reduction in selling days also complicates buying birthday gifts from Yue. You have to plan further ahead to make sure you'll be able to find her on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday to buy birthday gifts for the townspeople present in the first generation if you can't/don't want to make them yourself. You have no choice but to make yourself the birthday gifts for the children of the other couples; Yue doesn't sell them.) The refrigerator and shelves are very useful for their proximity to your workshop and hold more than the refrigerator and shelves in your house. Even so, you will quickly find you run short on storage space. The full set of tools - mayonnaise, cheese, yogurt, seed and thread makers - are all nice to have, but they are not crucial to upgrading your watering can, axe, hammer, etc. The record player plays music from your farm. That's all. 6.2 How you upgrade the tools - the lessons..........................{UTL} ------------------------------------------- Mana and Barrett teach lessons in the school Mondays through Fridays. Mana is available for lessons from a little before 9:00 AM until about 11:20 AM, then she walks out of the school and goes back to the store. Barrett is available for lessons from 12:00 PM until around 5:30 PM. Mana teaches lessons on cooking, crafting and using the pharmacy to make fertilizers. Barrett teaches lessons mostly on forging weapons and shields, with some crafting lessons and one pharmaceutical lesson on powerful medicines. For upgrading your tools, the lessons you want are taught by Barrett on Mondays (hammers, axes and sickles) and Wednesdays (waterpots, hoes and poles). Mondays and Wednesdays are very important days for getting your tools back in good shape. Mana and Barrett will only teach you two lessons each per day (for a total of four). However, it is not necessary to actually take the lessons to make the items. You can find the recipe elsewhere (like online) and make the item. The only difference is that if you get the recipe somewhere else, the game will not calculate for you your odds of success. Lessons do not have to be taken in any kind of order. Watch out and keep track of which lessons you have taken, because the first and most basic lesson of a day's lesson options stays on the list even after you've taken it. If you're not paying attention it's easy to retake a lesson you've already had, which is a waste of a lesson Barrett's Monday lessons on tools: Hammers, axes and sickles - iron hammer, chopping axe, iron sickle Hammers, axes and sickles 2 - silver hammer, lumber axe, quality sickle Hammers, axes and sickles 3 - golden hammer, mountain axe, super sickle Hammers, axes and sickles 4 - platinum hammer, miracle axe, legend sickle Barrett's Wednesday lessons on tools: Waterpots, hoes and poles - tin waterpot, sturdy hoe, beginner's pole Waterpots, hoes and poles 2 - lion waterpot, seasoned hoe, intermediate pole Waterpots, hoes and poles 3 - rainbow waterpot, shiny hoe, famous pole Waterpots, hoes and poles 4 - joy waterpot, blessed hoe, sacred pole 6.21 =Hammers=.......................................................{UHA} Iron hammer Skill level: 5 Materials: old hammer, iron, bronze x 2 Charge: 1 Silver hammer Skill level: 9 Materials: iron hammer, silver, bronze, iron x 2 Charge: 2 Golden hammer Skill level: 13 Materials: silver hammer, silver x 2, gold x 3 Charge: 3 Platinum hammer Skill level: 17 Materials: golden hammer, platinum x 3, gold, sparkle string Charge: 4 6.22 =Axes=..........................................................{UAX} Chopping axe Skill level: 5 Materials: rusty axe, bronze, iron x 2 Charge: 1 Lumber axe Skill level: 9 Materials: chopping axe, silver, bronze, iron x 2 Charge: 2 Mountain axe Skill level: 13 Materials: lumber axe, silver x 2, gold x 3 Charge: 3 Miracle axe Skill level: 17 Materials: mountain axe, platinum x 3, gold, wooly furball Charge: 4 6.23 =Sickles=.......................................................{USI} Iron sickle Skill level: 5 Materials: rusty sickle, iron x 3 Charge: 1 Quality sickle Skill level: 9 Materials: iron sickle, bronze, iron x 2, silver Charge: 2 Super sickle Skill level: 13 Materials: quality sickle, silver x 2, gold x 3 Charge: 3 Legend sickle Skill level: 17 Materials: super sickle, platinum x 3, gold, arrowhead Charge: 4 6.24 =Waterpots=.....................................................{UWA} Tin waterpot Skill level: 5 Materials: old waterpot, bronze x 3 Charge: 1 Lion waterpot Skill level: 9 Materials: tin waterpot, silver, bronze, iron x 2 Charge: 2 Rainbow waterpot Skill level: 13 Materials: lion waterpot, silver x 2, gold x 3 Charge: 3 Joy waterpot Skill level: 17 Materials: rainbow waterpot, gold, platinum x 2, ruby, speckled skin Charge: 4 6.25 =Hoes=..........................................................{UHO} Sturdy hoe Skill level: 5 Materials: rusty hoe, bronze, iron x 2 Charge: 1 Seasoned hoe Skill level: 9 Materials: sturdy hoe, silver, bronze, iron x 2 Charge: 2 Shiny hoe Skill level: 13 Materials: seasoned hoe, silver x 2, gold x 3 Charge: 3 Blessed hoe Skill level: 17 Materials: shiny hoe, platinum x 3, gold, plant stem Charge: 4 6.26 =Fishing poles=.................................................{UFP} Beginner's pole Skill level: 5 Materials: old pole, wood, bronze x 2 Charge: 1 Intermediate pole Skill level: 9 Materials: beginner's pole, wood, silver, iron x 2 Charge: 2 Famous pole Skill level: 13 Materials: intermediate pole, wood, silver x 2, gold x 2 Charge: 3 Sacred pole Skill level: 17 Materials: famous pole, wood, gold, platinum x 2, strong string Charge: 4 6.3 How to upgrade the tools - using the forge.......................{UUF} ---------------------------------------------- The first and second upgrades to your tools are not that difficult to complete, once you have all the necessary equipment. The second upgrade will return your tools to the charging ability they had in the first generation. The materials for the first and second upgrades are not hard to come by. The fourth upgrades' materials are also not that hard to get since you can buy platinum from Yue. Gathering enough gold is the real limiter in your upgrading until you grow strong enough to frequently mine in Padova Mountains again. You can find gold on Blessia Island every now and then, but the Padova Mountains has it more frequently. It is not necessary to wait until your skill level matches the skill level stated in the recipe. That skill level is the level you must reach in order to have 100% chance of creating the item. It's quite possible, and even recommended (if you have a good source of rune points) to keep trying to create an item even when you are well below 100% chance of success, because the farther above your skill level the item you create is, the more experience you gain for successfully making it. As long as you have some chance of success, even if it's only 20%, it may be worth your while to try to make the item. **Earlier in this guide I suggested that growing pink melons is a better choice than pink turnips. This is true, if your goal is making money. However, at the start of the second generation, when you are seriously short on rune points and need more of them in order to keep trying to forge upgraded tools, consider planting about half a dozen plots of pink turnips (takes 4 days) with the intention of leaving them in the ground (make sure you take any harvesting monsters off harvesting duty or they'll mess up your plans). This will give you a supply of rune points to recharge your rune point meter throughout each day so you are not so limited in your activities until you get other crops (like grass) grown.** How to use the forge: Go into the school building and take the hallway to the right until you enter the next screen. Enter the doorway and head to the right and upward until you are standing in front of the anvil. This is the forge. Press A. This pulls up a screen showing, on the left, what you have in your backpack, and on the right there are 6 blank boxes for the materials you wish to use to make something. At the top left are two tabs. One has a picture of a hammer on it. This shows your backpack and the materials you have selected. The second tab is the recipe list. Click A with the cursor hand on each tab to switch back and forth. You can select items to put in the forging material boxes with A and the D pad. Looking at the recipe list, you can scroll through them in the order they are listed, which is arranged by type, or you can use the two tabs on the upper right to change the order. Click once on the AUTO tab to invert the default listing. The other tab, the one with a little symbol on it, sorts the recipes by skill level. Clicking on it once sorts the recipes from lowest to highest skill level. Clicking on it again sorts the recipes from highest to lowest skill level. You can use the X and Y buttons to page up and down through the list. It can be a little confusing to select a recipe. Pressing A does nothing. Choose the recipe you want and press B. This takes the cursor hand up to the little x in the upper right corner. Now use the D pad to move the cursor hand over to the hammer tab and press A. Now you can see the list of materials needed for that recipe on the top screen, and the success rate for making that item at your current skill level below the 6 material boxes. Next you scroll through the items in your backpack and put them one by one in the 6 boxes. Items do not stack. If a recipe calls for 3 bronze, you'll have to put a single bronze chunk in 3 different boxes. Double check that you've gotten all the correct materials in the correct quantities in place before you click on the OK in the lower right. If you have the wrong materials, you'll fail. A failure uses up 10 rune points. Fortunately that's all a failure uses up; when you fail at forging, crafting and at the pharmacy, the materials will go back into your backpack. This is not the case when cooking - you get a failed dish. This means that all you risk at the forge is rune points. If you have a good source of rune points you may think it's worth your time to repeatedly try to create an object despite having only a 10% chance of success. If you can keep recharging your rune points from mature crops, you may feel you can afford to make ten or more attempts at forging an item. When you finally succeed at making something with such a low chance of success, your experience meter will move a lot, increasing by half the length of the meter or more. When you've chosen the materials and clicked on the OK, you get an animation and have to wait for the meter to reach 100%. Then you will find out if you succeeded or failed in creating the item. If you failed, you can just try again. No need to go through and locate the recipe again if you don't want to. Just put the materials in the boxes and try again. As long as your skill level is the same the chance of success is also the same. The game isn't really interested in what you think you're making. It'll make, or fail to make, the one item the materials you've selected can create. You can't access the shelves from the anvil, so it can be a bit cumbersome and irritating to go back and forth between them to get the items you want. 6.4 Raising your skill level.........................................{URS} ---------------------------- There are some simple ways to raise your forging skill level. Upgrading items like the broadsword and the claymore are good ways to build your early skill levels because they require no additional materials. The list below is not exhaustive. These items can either be made by you, or purchased from Tanya, or both. The windsword is also the reward for completing Jake's first 2nd generation request. Broadsword upgrade Skill: 4 Materials: broadsword Claymore upgrade Skill: 6 Materials: claymore Small shield upgrade Skill: 9 Materials: small shield Steel sword upgrade Skill: 14 Materials: steel sword, iron Wooden staff upgrade: Skill 18 Materials: wooden staff, bronze Bronze shield upgrade Skill: 20 Materials: bronze shield, bronze x 2 Pole axe upgrade Skill: 24 Materials: pole axe, bronze, iron Windsword upgrade Skill: 25 Materials: windsword, iron ---------------------- 7. Contact Information...............................................{CIN} ---------------------- If you find any errors, please let me know. I want to be as accurate as possible. Send email to wheekers99 AT yahoo DOT com. Please mention the guide in the subject line as I tend to assume that emails from names I don't recognize are spam. ------------ 8. Copyright.........................................................{CPR} ------------ Copyright 2009 EvilTim. If you want to reproduce this guide somewhere else, email me about it. --------- 9. Credit............................................................{CRT} --------- Lerion and Winchu's guide on GameFAQS - Information on gold turnips, gold potatoes, gold cabbages and gold pumpkins, as well as giving me a way to double check the information I gathered on my own. Thank you to Nick Emerick for pointing out the typo in the pink melon profit column.