The Guide

This guide is written by chito10

The Crop Guide:
Spring (First Year) -
 This year is the hardest part of the game (for now). You start off with very little money (500G) and need to accomplish a lot before the season is over. The game starts off on the second day of Spring, giving you about 28 days to water (the last day is meant for harvesting). You will also need to earn a good amount of money to start off in the summer. Here is the rundown of all the crops that can be grown the first year.

[NOTE: During the first Spring, you can only water a field efficiently by using the Fat-C method. X represents the soil that has been tilled while O represents untilled soil.

XXX XXX XOX XXX
XXO OXX XXX XXX
XXX XXX XXX XOX

While you can create a field that has a 3x3 tilled field, the center crop will
be unreachable until you harvest the rest of the outside plants. You gain more
money by doing this and then replanting the non-renewable fields.]

* All Revenue earned during the first Spring is based using the Fat-C (8 crops).

Turnips:
 Cost per bag: 120G
Selling price per crop: 60G
Days to grow: 4 days

Maximum harvest per season: 7 harvests
Revenue per bag: 8 x 60G = 480G
Profit per bag: 480G - 120G = 360G

Profit per bag per day: 360G ÷ 4 days = 90G
Maximum profit per season: 360G x 7 harvests = 2520G

[Let me explain what I did here. It costs 120G to buy one bag of turnips at the
Supermarket. For every turnip I put in the bin (to sell), Zack (the buyer) pays
me 60G. It takes 4 days of watering for turnips to ripen. (In other words, if
I plant turnips on the 2nd day, they will ripen by the 6th.)

There are 30 days in a season. Any crops that are not harvested by Spring 30
will wither away on Summer 1 and that is true for crops that grow any season.
That means you technically only have 29 to water crops (leaving day 30 for just
harvesting). Given that, if you start planting turnips on Day 2 (the day you
start) and watering them everyday, you can plant turnips 7 times on the same
piece of land during the season after you harvest them. Now, you have 8 crops
growing. That means you will earn 8 times 60G for each bag of turnips you
plant. That is where the revenue comes in. Now, take away the cost of the bag
and you can determine profit.

Of course, profit can be deceiving. It is best to compare crops by determining
how much they will "effectively" make a day or during the entire season. Profit
per day is determined by dividing the total profit per bag by the number of days
it takes for the crop to grow. Another way of comparing crops is to determine
how much profit they will make in a season, which is determined by taking the
profit per bag and multiplying it by the total number of harvest that can be
acquired in a season. You'll understand where this leads to in a minute.]

---

Potatoes:
Cost per bag: 150G
Selling price per crop: 80G
Days to grow: 7 days

Maximum harvest per season: 4 harvests
Revenue per bag: 8 x 80G = 640G
Profit per bag: 640G - 150G = 490G

Profit per bag per day: 490G ÷ 7 days = 70G
Maximum profit per season: 490G x 4 harvests = 1960G

---

Cucumbers:
Cost per bag: 200G
Selling price per crop: 60G
Days to grow: 9 days, then 6 days to regenerate

Maximum harvest per season: 4 harvests

Maximum profit per season: (8 crops x 4 harvests x 60G) - 200G = 1720G

[NOTE: Cucumbers are renewable crops. That means that one bag will continually
grow more crops until the season ends. In this case, it takes cucumbers 9 days
for it to fully grow, then 6 days for it to "regenerate" the crop.

Since you only by one bag at the end of the season, it would be "difficult" to
determine figures based on buying bags of seeds (like profit per bag). Instead
of doing this, I just determined the maximum profit of the crop in one full
season of growth. I will do this for all renewable crops.]

--

Cabbages:
Cost per bag: 500G
Selling price per crop: 250G
Days to grow: 14 days

Maximum harvest per season: 2 harvests
Revenue per bag: 8 x 250G = 2000G
Profit per bag: 2000G - 500G = 1500G

Profit per bag per day: 1500G ÷ 14 days = ~107G
Maximum profit per season: 1500G x 2 harvests = 3000G

[NOTE: ~ means "approximately". I don't want to get into showing decimals.]

My Recommendations -

Summary:

MAXIMUM PROFIT PER SEASON
Turnips: 2520G
Potatoes: 1960G
Cucumbers: 1720G
Cabbages: 3000G

As you can see, cabbages have the largest profit per season making them the
"best" crop. However, this doesn't always show the BIG picture. Remember that
it takes 14 days for these cabbages to grow. That means you will earn a lot of
money, but will have to wait quite some time to earn it. During your first
Spring, you want to earn money fast to use it to buy other crops and earn more
cash. I suggest getting turnips first to earn money quickly, then plant a bag
of cabbage (or two) on the 16th day (remember to water them daily) to get the
money for them on the 30th to use for Summer.

There is also another thing to note. In the game, there are "special" crops
they you can grow but only by accomplishing a certain task. In order to be able
to plant the "special" crop for Spring, which are Strawberries. you need to sell
(not just grow) 100 of each Spring crop (100 Turnips, Potatoes, Cucumbers, and
Cabbages). That may not be so important your first year. My suggestion is to
plant 4 Fat-C fields. One is for cucumbers (yes, I know they don't make enough
profit but you will need three cucumbers for a special event) and the other
three can be whatever you want.

Notes for the first Spring -

There are hidden items called Power Berries that help increase your stamina
permanently. You can get three (out of ten) of them before the Spring ends.
Here is how to get them:

1 - On the very first day of the game (you can do this at any time), take your
axe. Exit through the lower exit of the ranch (the one next to the chicken
coop). Follow the straight path (ignore the stairs). Keep following the path
and cross the bridge. After crossing the bridge, you will encounter a field
with a lot of flowers growing (they are mostly yellow Moon Drop flowers with two
white Toy Flowers). In that field, you will find a lone cedar tree. Attempt to
cut it down with your axe (you may have to hit the tree at different points, a
couple of times to activate this scene). The tree will begin to talk and will
give you the option of cutting him down. Choose the option to NOT cut it down
and you will get a Power Berry for your kindness.

2 - Behind the waterfall (next to the hot springs) is a cave. If you dig, using
the hoe, you may find a hole with some stairs that will lead you deeper into the
cave. You can dig up a Power Berry, but your chances of encountering it
increases as you get deeper into the cave.

3 - Buy a chicken. If you feed it once a day, she will start to lay eggs after
2 days. You can put these eggs in the incubator, sell them directly, or boil
them in the hot springs and sell them for more money. However, to get a Power
Berry, take one egg (or any crop that can be grown on your farm, but eggs tend
to be a lot cheaper) a day for five days and throw it into the pond (directly
behind the waterfall). If done correctly, the goddess will come out and thank
you. On the fifth consecutive day of doing this, she will reward you with a
Power Berry. NOTE: She will not come out during rainy days or festival days.
In that case just skip that day and continue.

Special Power Berry - This berry doesn't increase stamina but it will allow you
to work in the rain with a smaller chance of getting sick. To get this berry,
go to the large lake in Mother's Hill (in the same area where you cross the
bridge to get to the field of flowers) between 11 AM and 6 PM (I am not certain
about the times though) with three cucumbers (I am not certain of the times but
it's around these times). Go to the left portion of the lake (right next to two
large trees) and toss in a cucumber. The location of where you throw the
cucumbers into the lake and the time are important, otherwise Kappa (the water
imp) will not appear. After tossing all three cucumbers in, he will present you
with the special power berry. It looks just like a regular power berry but it's
not.

The mayor will come by on the 15th (about a week before the Cooking Festival,
which is the 22nd of Spring) and will ask you to grow and deliver 3 turnips to
him by the 21st. You don't have to agree to it. He does tend to be friendlier
if you do agree to do it. Just remember to deliver the turnips if you say yes.
[NOTE: This event may only occur if you agree to take the tour on the first day
and attend all the festivals but I am not certain of this yet.]

I also have another suggestion to make life easier. Upgrade your watering can
to the gold status when Spring ends. You can do this without missing a day of
watering. On the 29th of Spring, start your day by watering your crops. Get a
gold ore from the cave and take it and 3000G to Sairaba (the blacksmith). He
will take three days to upgrade the watering can. That means you won't get it
until the 2nd of Summer. However, since the Swimming Fesitval takes place on
the 1st of Summer, you won't be able to buy any bags of seeds until the 2nd of
Summer (everything is closed on festival days). The golden watering can makes
life much easier.

Summer (First Year) -
Hopefully with your last harvest of cabbages you will have enough money to start off Summer. If you have acquired the Golden watering can, you will make more money this time around. You can now grow a full 3x3 crop and be able to water the middle crop (Just remember to hold the square button down until your character turns red then release. This will allow you to water them all in one shot.) For the renewable crops, you may need to cut down one of the middle corner plants (leaving a crop field looking like the Fat-C) when a plant ripens to reach the center crop. This will give you an extra boost in money (but not much).

MORE TO COME

This FAQ is written by chito10.

These are the only places where this guide should appear:
http://www.gamefaqs.com (This is where I will post the most up to date FAQ)
http://www.psxcodez.com
http://www.hmfaq.zzn.com

People I want to thank for contributing:
Andrew Ongkojoyo <[email protected]> for info on Kappa