A Powergamer's Build Order for your first Spring

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by ShneekeyTheLost, Jan 15, 2017.

  1. One More Day

    One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

    IIRC, when this thread was originally written there was no gradual increase in crop quality as you increased your Farming skills. There was only Fertilizer.

    Powergaming strategies have definitely evolved since as well. Some players are hitting floor 80 by day 6 or 7 and getting well over 150 sprinklers for the start of summer
     
    • ShneekeyTheLost

      ShneekeyTheLost Master Astronaut

      And of course in my test of my new build order, Spring 6th was a rainy day, which delayed the Community Center cutscene, and thus the introduction to the Wizard, by a day... >.>

      Upside, it is raining on the day I'm planting oodles (that's a scientific unit of measurement, you see...) of crops, saving me significantly on endurance. So... I guess I'll take it?
       
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      • One More Day

        One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

        Are you not going to hang on for 1.4?
         
        • GeekWoman

          GeekWoman Subatomic Cosmonaut

          I can't seem to find much about 1.4. It was mentioned in the blog last December but I haven't seen much since. Granted, I'm not on all social media so I might have missed where he's talking about it.
           
          • Elenna101

            Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

            On Twitter, he said it would be released after XBox and PS4 were updated to 1.3, but (as of Aug 5) that update had apparently been delayed due to technical issues. That was the last we heard as far as I know.
             
            • FickleRhubarb

              FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

              My distillation [deleted my question]:

              I like this build order because it encourages crops restraint, which encourages developing the other skills. The essence of the thesis of Sheenekey's First Spring build order is this: To unlock recipes and CC rewards by leveling up all skills, keep crops down to a dull roar by stepping up in two methodical plantings, not to Cauliflower, but to Strawberry. Is that a fair distillation/simplification?
               
                Last edited: Aug 18, 2019
              • FickleRhubarb

                FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

                Well this is frustrating. In doing a test run of the Shneekey's build order, I got a more-severe-than-I-knew-possible occurrence of the "crops mature a day late" bug. My Spring 1 Parsnips matured on Spring 6, and my Spring 2 Parsnips matured on Spring 7. No Scarecrow and no Fertilizer for my Potatoes. I wonder what triggers the bug. I think this is the third time I have observed it, but the first time with anything but Spring 1 plantings.

                Despite low food and my being a very bad player, I made Fish 1, Foraging 1, Mining 2 (yay!), and was able to descend to Floor 15 on Spring 5 with some Cherry Bombs and Staircases.
                 
                  Last edited: Aug 18, 2019
                • Elenna101

                  Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                  Odd. I've heard of (and experienced) a bug where one or two crops among a group mature a day late despite being watered every day, but I've never heard of a bug where all the crops mature a day late. For the record, I watched probably close to a hundred day 1's recently, from people doing speedruns, and they never experienced or mentioned such a bug. What system are you on? (And probably a dumb question: you watered them every day, including the day you planted them, right?)
                   
                  • FickleRhubarb

                    FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

                    I'm on Windows 10 Steam. I saw mention of your bug in my research, but my bug always delays the entire field. I am not beyond wondering myself if I left all the watering undone one day, though that seems very hard to imagine, given what a big event rain is in first Spring. Since this is the third occurrence for me, what I plan to do is
                    • install a mod that saves a nightly backup for post-analysis
                    • Always have a Parsnip indicator, even in later months with sprinklers
                    • Check daily Parsnip stages, which is really easy
                    I'll catch this bug and reproduce it!
                     
                      Last edited: Aug 19, 2019
                    • UnexpectedParole

                      UnexpectedParole Phantasmal Quasar

                      Please do. I'm running windows 10 and steam and never had the bug cost more than an odd plant or two.
                      I'm running un-modded. What mods do you run?

                      Also, you are watering the day they go down right?
                       
                      • FickleRhubarb

                        FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

                        No mods so far.

                        Yep. Watering often before seeds. This bug has only happened three times. Most beginnings are as expected, with harvest on Spring 5. I even once did a research run where I planted a Parsnip morning and night for several days. They all matured with 4 nights of growth.
                         
                        • FickleRhubarb

                          FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

                          Well, judging by Shneekey's insistence you plant Potatoes on Spring 5 to harvest on Spring 12, I'd say they have been experiencing the bug with their Potatoes. :p
                           
                            Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
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                          • One More Day

                            One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

                            Assuming that your parsnips grow as planned, and are harvested on day 5, I think that it's much better, in a build order with this level of ambition, to wait a day before planting potatoes on day 6, with fertilizer. Here's the reasons why


                            You get 27 growing days in spring, but apart from the virtually useless blue jazz, there are no crops that grow for an odd number of days, so you're going to lose a growing day somewhere, and it might as well be day 5. So, after starting with a 4 day crop, and waiting 1 day for fertilizer and a scarecrow, you've got 22 days left. With all the potential crops taking even numbers of days, we can make use of every single one of those 22 days, and if you fertilise on day 6 then everything you plant will be able to enjoy the benefits of that single application of fertilizer

                            By day 6 it really should be possible to afford the crops to plant 80 plots around a scarecrow, rather than just 40. The best bet is to lay them out as if you already had ten sprinklers, so that when you reach Farming 6 you can pop them in straight away. 80 plots means that your daily watering chores will only consume exactly two full basic cans, or just less than one full copper can. With lots of wood needed for chests and whatnot, it should also have been possible to have chopped off the tops of 32 trees, to acquire the 160 sap needed to craft 80 fertilizer.


                            This is the order in which I would plant crops in those 80 fertilised plots, and why
                            1. Day 6 - Potatoes (cost 4,000g) - it's still early and money might still be a bit tight, so potatoes are the best compromise for getting a decent amount of both profit and XP per day from your crop without breaking the bank. 4,000g is less than a full day's fishing at the lake, and if you're a ninja at day 3 fishing, it's as little as only 11 gold catfish with the Fisher perk.
                            2. Day 12 - Parsnips (cost 1,600g) - it's the day before the egg festival, so you want to spend as little as possible to continue taking advantage of that precious fertilizer, and after the potatoes get you within touching distance of Farming 4, the fertilizer will boost quality enough that you will get at least a dozen gold parsnips; if you're repairing the community center, that's more than enough for the quality crops bundle
                            3. Day 16 - Strawberries (cost 8,000g) - you've been gearing up for the big cash crop of the season, and planting on day 16 is just enough time to still get two harvests. As long as the potatoes were afforded on day 6, the earnings from those will be enough to cover the cost of the strawberry seeds. By the time you finish the first strawberry harvest on Spring 24, you'll have just about reached Farming 6 for those all important quality sprinklers to be put in place the next day, and by the end of the season you'll have turned that 4,000g investment in potatoes into well over 25,000g worth of strawberries to fund your summer purchases, alongside a stack of parsnips.


                            Notes
                            1. Replacing potatoes with more potatoes on day 12 seems unnecessary to me, when you are going to have to overlap them with strawberries, which are significantly better than potatoes for both g/day and XP/day. If you're going to water a potato, you might as well water a strawberry instead. Furthermore, if you have 2,000g of spare cash lying about on day 12, you're better off upgrading a tool to copper, instead of wasting it on 40 potato seeds; if any of the hoe, axe or pickaxe haven't already been done, get one of them in to Clint today, so that you can either make a start on the large stumps soon, or accelerate your progress down the mines, or get your hoe ready for planting a larger area in summer. If you're going to the egg festival then you won't have much need for the pickaxe on day 13 anyway, so let Clint have it. And you won't be needing the hoe any time soon either, because you're reusing plots, so any time from now is a great time to get it done, although it's third priority behind the other two. In fact, the only tool that can't be upgraded over the festival is the watering can.
                            2. Hand watering forage seeds in spring is a waste of effort for the reward. They're actually a decent bet for summer, even hand watered, but in spring, just sell them and take the money
                            3. If you're doing the CC and being sociable, you can make a slight adjustment to the quantity of strawberries down to 77, to squeeze in a cauli and a bean for the bundle, and a cauli for Jodi. Although, if you do that and still want sprinklers for the last couple of days of spring, you will also have to get three extra kale planted by Spring 18 and also watered for six days, to replace the missing XP by Spring 24.
                             
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                            • Elenna101

                              Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                              If you get the CC cutscene on the earliest possible day (spring 5) and talk to the wizard the next day, you can turn in spring foraging that day and get an extra 1050g, in case you didn't get enough cash for the potatoes, I guess. Although I wouldn't count on that, since it requires spring 5 to be sunny.
                              Anyways, yeah, regardless of when you do it I'd take the 1050g over the extra 30 spring forage. You'd be better off selling it and buying 10 extra strawberry seeds, for more money and only 1/3 the amount of extra watering. Or use the cash to upgrade tools or something.

                              Depending how good you are at mining, you may want to do this earlier, in order to turn in a second bundle and open the boiler room faster for early minecarts.
                              Also, why reduce the number of strawberries? Just add an 11th sprinkler spot (and maybe a 12th or more, if you're like me and want to have a bit more variety in crops.) Adding a few more spots to the original 80 won't increase the energy/water costs too much.

                              On a separate note,
                              Salmonberries don't give foraging XP (https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Salmonberry). Still a great source of cheap energy though.
                               
                                Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
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                              • One More Day

                                One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

                                Personally, for early minecarts, I use the construction bundle; it's easily the fastest way unless you get perfect crab pot bundle RNG.

                                The construction bundle is consistently going to get me minecarts access on day 10, which is way faster than spring crops, even if you plant cauli and bean on day one. It's also partly why I mentioned the copper axe upgrade, so that you can do construction bundle consistently, without having to rely on the RNG to get hardwood from boxes in the mines.

                                Also, I only threw in the cauli and bean for CC fixers, but I tend to get the greenhouse from Joja nowadays


                                Was just to trying as hard as possible to keep it at two full basic cans if there's no chance to upgrade. Using this schedule, Farming 6 isn't reached until Spring 24, sprinklers therefore aren't placed until the next day and don't actually water for you until Spring 26. Also, it's trying as much as possible to keep the money flowing evenly, because if you keep it constant at 80 plots, then as long as you can afford the potatoes, you will be able to afford the strawberries. Adding more strawberries increases the cost above the income from the potato harvest. Almost none of this is what I actually do any more, but I was just trying to explain the thinking behind what I think is a good basic crop schedule that anyone who already has a bit of SDV experience should be able to follow to improve their strategy for Spring and their opportunities for Summer.
                                 
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                                • Elenna101

                                  Elenna101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                  Well, three days faster. But yeah, that's also a good option.
                                  (Regardless, the average person with "a bit of SDV experience" is probably not getting to mines level 80 by the 10th or the 13th of spring.)

                                  Fair point. I usually put my farming plot next to a water source anyways, so I wasn't considering the number of refills.

                                  Well... technically, if all the potatoes and parsnips were basic quality with no doubles, then selling all of them would only get to 7,600g on the 12th, but that's not going to happen. :p
                                   
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                                  • FickleRhubarb

                                    FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

                                    I can see the value in this vs. putting Strawberries in the ground on the awkward date of Spring 13.

                                    1. Is this to avoid any fertilizer loss the night of Spring 12 as well as take full advantage of the 14 days remaining for Parsnips + Strawberries?

                                    2. So, is this it?
                                    1: 40+ Parsnips (including Daffodil and Wild Horseradish proceeds)
                                    2: More Parsnips from Fiber, Clay, Daffodil, and Wild Horseradish (or Fishing for those expert Fishers) proceeds.
                                    6: 80 Potatoes
                                    12: 80 Parsnips
                                    16: 80 Strawberries sell for over 25,000 gold on Spring 28

                                    3. What about Mixed Seeds from Weeds?
                                    a) Will Pierre buy them?
                                    b) Worth planting on 1 and 2 when still below 80 spaces?
                                    c) Too messy?
                                     
                                    • One More Day

                                      One More Day Cosmic Narwhal

                                      That's partly why there's no real advantage to buying and planting bean and cauli on the first day, because the second bundle to unlock the boiler room, which is usually spring crops for many people, isn't really that urgent. Best balance is probably doing one of each of them on day 6, under the absolute safety of the scarecrow, and then 78 potatoes, parsnips and strawberry. They'll be ready to fill the bundle on day 18, which is, for more people, a far more achievable timescale to reach floor 80. Just fling some mixed seeds in the ground somewhere convenient near the pond, for the few extra XP you need to have earned by Spring 24 to reach Farming 6, because it really is that tight with only 78 strawberries compared to 80 of them.

                                      While we're on the subject, I'll take this opportunity to combat another argument sometimes used to support planting beans and cauli on day 1 - I don't think there's much value in shooting for the reward of 20 speed gro by day 13 either. Assuming you buy 3 of each of beans and cauli on day 1, for the best possible insurance against those crows, that's 420g of your startup cash on day 1, when all you get for that investment is 2,000g worth of extra strawberry value on the very last day of the season.

                                      I think you are much better off putting all the startup money towards buying the fiberglass rod and some bait first thing on day 3, which will significantly boost your income from fishing on days 3 and 4, to easily afford the potatoes on day 6 and still leave some money for other things, such as the backpack and an early tool upgrade. Running out of bait sucks, and that's 84 bait lost to buying unnecessary seeds.

                                      That isn't going to happen. The odds are absolutely infinitesimally small, probably a quintillion to one or something. You will have enough plots to easily get a fair representation of bonus potatoes, and gold and silver crops, and you will be able to afford the strawberry seeds.
                                      16 days, not 14, but yes, partly. It preserves the tilling and fertilizer. It also gets the gold crops for the bundle. It provides you with a stack of cheap energy; parsnips are excellent value to eat if you want to skip getting hundreds of salmonberries to focus on mining. It also gets a crucial 640 XP in that short window of opportunity, making it possible to reach Farming 6 with the first harvest of an equivalent number of strawberries. The parsnips serve many purposes, they're even a really cheap and easy liked gift for most NPCs.

                                      For the same reasons I'd advocate not spending money on beans or cauli on day 1, I'd also say don't buy any extra parsnips, just stick to your 15 freebies. Not only does it deplete your finances, you'll unnecessarily burn through 100E just hoeing and watering the extra 25 crops for virtually no benefit. The 15 parsnips are simply a vehicle to launch you to Farming 1 on day 5 for access to the fertilizer and scarecrow. If you turn up a few mixed seeds on day 1, you might as well plant those, it's free money, but don't buy any seeds yet.

                                      I wouldn't add any crops at all on day 2 either. Just water the ones you have, check the mail and then hit the beach to get started on your fishing as early as possible.

                                      Yes. Quality boost from the fertiliser will push you over the 25k mark for strawberries

                                      Mixed seeds sell for 0g, so you might as well hang on to them. I'd only plant a few on day 1; don't commit yourself to too much watering. Certainly don't be watering 80 crops in the first few days, that'll destroy your energy bar before the day has started and you'll have no way to replenish it. Just stick to the freebies until you buy potatoes on day 6.
                                       
                                        Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
                                      • FickleRhubarb

                                        FickleRhubarb Subatomic Cosmonaut

                                        Yes. 16 days. And eating and gifting Parsnips are good. Good points.

                                        I completely agree for you and all fishers. For those who lack the skills to fish early first Spring, it's Parsnips.

                                        So it's

                                        1: 15 Parsnips for fishers. 40 Parsnips (no more) for non-fishers. No more planting until 6th. Save all money for Potatoes.
                                        6: 80 Potatoes
                                        12: 80 Parsnips
                                        16: 80 Strawberries sell for over 25,000 gold on Spring 28
                                         
                                          Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
                                        • UnexpectedParole

                                          UnexpectedParole Phantasmal Quasar

                                          I have zero problems with crows when buying just 1 cauli, 1 bean and 1 potato for day 1 to get the speed gro from day 13 cc bundle. As long as I don't exceed 20 plots or so. 20 plots allows for two passes with the watering can without re-loding which is day 1 and day 2. Day 3 is wet anyway.

                                          Lately I have been dabbling in buying a tulip to remind me when birthdays are so I get the tulip day 1 for for Lewis' on Sunday. That is 80+60+50+20=210 which leaves me 290 for a trout soup on day 1. I just seem to have much better luck with fishing by starting with level 1 fishing. I almost always have level 2 fishing by then end of day 2 and enough fish that day to buy the fiberglass rod on the morning of day 3. The larger bar from the beginning allows me an easier shot at perfect catch's nearly every time.
                                          To wait for 9am opening time of Willy, I just chop trees to make sure I have 100 energy spent before I go to the beach and that not only increases my foraging skill it means none of the energy gained by the trout soup boost is wasted. I'm not modded and can't catch catfish on day 3 even with level 3 plus a trout soup bonus
                                           

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