I agree the stables at spring 14 is crazy fast and maybe not worth it. I like the 24 backpack before the mines, I may have done that this time. Though I might not have as I was so pleased to be able to not sell fish after the rod buy until after I hit fishing 5. I'll take 5,000 instead of 4,000 g. I do want the stables for myself fairly quickly though as I am very very prone to wanting to travel across the map and I won't want it to take forever. I like gift giving runs where I feel like santa going here there and everywhere gifting villagers as I run across them. Not unlike that pleasing run day one in the guide where everyone gets met. That is such a great feeling for me, I don't know why. Aside from the friday and sat night saloon visits where I pretty much have who is there and what they love memorized, I try for tuesday workout drops getting townsfolk too. Plus a long foraging loop that gets the wizard and the secret woods hardwood and carpenter family. I always have to turn back for something I forgot. I'm trying to get a couple runs worked out where I can get everyone 2 gifts a week as efficiently as possible while still getting other things done, like hardwood. And I only leave the pick in the mine if I need it on the farm or for an upgrade the next day. It's a rule like leaving the fishing pole by the lake when I need it at the river or ocean. Carrying them at all other times is mandatory. Plus, playing as Hans on the Olo Farm I have to get Falcon running as quickly as possible or chewie my dog gets howling. I've played a lot of springs myself. But this was the first really hard try at the guide. I try to at least make it most of the way through year 2 before I quit to restart. Though summer 6 and I'm thinking "oh yeah back on the summer 1 I could have .... and that would be better .... Maybe I just need to save scum copy my save game files every season start at least so I don't have to completely restart.. LOL
I was looking at that. My problem before (and still now) is I do not think I care for the two level 10 professions that follow mining. Blacksmith to sell bars for more money will never ever help me if I never sell bars which I won't. -Especially as I'll have even less bars now than before. And once I don't need the bars I won't go to the mines and get more ore. I'll be too busy brewing wine and pale ale to go dog up ores to process for bars to sell. Prospector: A chance at my coal haul doubled? I've never been short of coal (after level 5 mining) and now I expect to have less ore. I have however had loads of gems from trips to the mines searching for ore and expect to have lots more when searching more for the ore I need. Getting a boost to sell those would make me loads more money. (Which is why I like geologist and gemologist, or even geologist and excavator. Maybe that would have to be the way to go though. Miner + Prospector... guess I'll need to run some numbers.
I don't go for the stables in the first month - but I do go for an iridium rod so that I can catch the Legend in the first month. When selling to get money for the next day, I also use a calculator sometimes - but usually I just do a very rough estimate, and if I'm a bit short then I take money from quest rewards. (I never claim quest rewards unless it's for this reason). You don't have to be exactly on zero gold. If you pass out, you lose 10% of your gold. So if you have, say, 80g too much then you'll only lose 8g anyway - which is insignificant. Even if you have 800g too much you'll only lose 80g, which is rough 1 fish. So it isn't really a big deal. ... Choosing to walk home instead of passing out is far more costly. You can always make more than 100g in the time it would take you to walk home (unless you're already on the farm)! That said, role-playing / personal rules are more important than efficiency.
I tried this once recently, when I got a rainy day on about spring 23, just to see how it panned out, but I don't think it's financially worth it. Afterwards I regretted ruining what had been a great v1.3 run. By the time you waste a few hours on a run to the beach and wait around until Willy opens at 9am, time wasted on a trip that otherwise wouldn't be made at all, you might just get to the lake by 10am. Assuming you only catch gold Legend, with the 50% bonus, that's 11,250g per fish, while the iridium rod costs 7,500g, and trap bobbers are 500g each unless you have spare copper bars to craft them, you'll probably want three, so that's 9k which means that most of your first Legend goes to paying that off. You only get 9 hours before they disappear at 7pm, and you might catch three if you are lucky; I only got two, but maybe you might run better, and I'm pretty sure I've never caught more than three in one day even on a mature farm when I could get there instantly using the obelisk and spend the whole day there. So anyway, that's just under 34k from three Legend, plus, say, another 5k from other fish, treasure etc, call it 39k to be generous, that's a 30k profit on the day, a bit more if you could craft the bobbers. On the other hand, instead of fishing, you could have gone mining for the gold ore you need for quality sprinklers, so let's use that whole profit to buy gold ore from Clint, considering we lost the opportunity to find it for free. At 400g each, you can only buy about 75 gold ore at best, which is still the amount you'd expect to get from actually mining it, except by fishing instead you miss out on gems, coal, quartz, geodes, monster drops, Mining XP and the chance to get deeper down the mines. Catching fewer than three Legend makes it an even bigger mistake. After I reviewed my decision, I personally don't think it stacks up as an good option. Perhaps if, on a day that is already rainy, you check the TV to find the next day is also rainy, meaning you can benefit twice from the rod purchase, I think it might just be worth it, but that's going to be a pretty rare occurrence. Hmmmmm, every time I do this, I think that the whole point of this for me is that the role play has efficiency at the very core, and wasting an hour and a half each day getting home, I can't help seeing that as over 40 hours by the end of the month, which would be two whole days wasted just walking home. Not using every last minute of the day is, for me, actually betraying that role play. The only day I run home is day 2, to sell for the fiberglass rod and bait purchase on the morning of day 3
And that is your role take. Personally I draw the line when moving to a new place and new job at sleeping in my own bed at night. (And not paying to have some-one deliver me there passed out too boot.)
I certainly don't go for the legend for the money. There's no way it's worth it financially. In fact, I don't even sell it anyway. I get it for the challenge and because I like to collect stuff.
Oh, it is absolutely worth it financially. It is worth over 9k with the Fisher perk, and over 11k with Angler, each time you catch it, and one of the few monetary methods that can rival a full greenhouse of ancient fruit and pomegranate/peach trees and enough kegs to support them all being turned into wine. At least for the Spring season. You can very easily clear 50k per DAY, which only requires 5-6 Legends being caught, which is entirely reasonable, and well worth the investment of the Rain Totem, especially if you already have a fully grown pig and enough pine trees on tap to craft them yourself. Legend is the one Legendary Fish which can be caught multiple times, which is the source of this exploit.
Yeah ok. In any case, I personally go through the whole process of leveling up fishing, buying equipment, and giving up a rainy day at the end of the first month just to catch one and put it in a chest before returning to the mines to get more iron/gold for the summer sprinklers. I generally don't have as many sprinklers as I'd like at the start of summer, so I think of the legend stuff as a sacrifice. A necessary sacrifice - because money is only worthwhile if it lets you do the things you want to do; and catching the legend in year1 is one of the things I want to do!
If you spend your time fishing up Legend over and over, you can bloody well purchase all the gold you need from Clint with the profits, and make back all the money invested in fishing up the Legend in the first place. Save one, of course, as your trophy.
Very nice guide. I’ve been working on getting through the first spring using this guide. To echo some of the previous comments it’s been pretty difficult. I can get to the stable barely but then I’m broke for the other upgrades and the seeds. I can meet the fishing goals through to lvl 6 but I can’t seem to catch enough fish to fund the 12-18k shipping day. I also get hung up on day 7 and 8 for the mining goals. It seems that one of them falls on a “very displeased” day per the fortune teller and I’m fighting the monsters on infested lvl 17 or 18. Fighting the monsters takes several game hours with the rusty sword. I often repeat the days over and over to meet the lvl 25 and lvl 40 goals. Then the wildcard day 9 is spent mining the 75 iron ore because I just barely made it to lvl 40 before passing out on day 8. But then that’s a lost day for fishing funds. My ocd nature is wanting do whatever it takes to complete the guide straight through. But I’ve probably restarted at least 40 times. In my current playthrough, I’m on day 4 after trying to reach lvl 5 of fishing on day 3. I was hoping that getting the three levels on day 3 I could get to fishing lvl 10 sooner. It’s been aggravating. Someone tell me it’s because of a game update, that these goals are so challenging to meet.
Bad luck does not impact which floors are infested. They are on a strict and predictable cycle with an origin that is based on your save's seed. In other words, if you go down to level 17, and it is infested, then quit without saving the day, when you come back, it will still be on floor 17. Indeed, you are just about guaranteed to hit an infested level on some level or another unless it just happens to hit a level divisible by ten on the day you pass it, using the strategy in this guide, because of how hard you dive for gold. That's not bad luck, that's just how infested levels generate. Every day, they move up one level, up to a certain level, then reset down again, and don't spawn when the level they should be on is a multiple of ten. Getting fishing 5 on day 3 is indeed very challenging. Basically, you should spend the whole day on Spring2 doing nothing but fishing. However, doing so makes catching catfish much easier, and while you are at it you can also pick up shad, eel, and Bream for the bundles. But it is the catfish which is your money-maker. Save back one for your bundle (unless you plan on unlocking the secret forest before Summer or don't mind waiting until fall for bundle completion).
Early stable is overrated imo, I prefer to leave it until later. The stable is a luxury, whereas the seeds and upgrades are essentials. Saves me 10k gold, and also saves me 25 iron ore, which is harder to get than it used to be. It is tough to get that much money, and I fell down there more times than I can remember. I needed a lot of practice at fishing to get more perfect catches, which earns Fishing XP a lot more quickly to get access to the more valuable gold fish earlier. It can be done though. I did eventually get a save where I could have afforded >200 strawberries, so it's not impossible. Yeah, the mines are the new bottleneck imo. The levels in the mine don't regenerate immediately now, which makes getting the ore much harder in 1.3 than in 1.2. You can't just re-visit levels 21, 41/61 and 81 to farm ore like you used to be able to do. After countless trials and revisions I've nearly completed my own reinterpretation of this guide, to try and create the extra time now required in the mines to accomplish the overall spring target. I think the hardest bit of the season is actually near the end, getting all the ore required for quality sprinklers, and with enough time left to smelt it all, because for the same reasons, getting lots of extra copper for several furnaces isn't as easy as it used to be either. I've had to reduce, modify, reschedule or in some cases totally eliminate some activities that are less crucial, to smooth the critical path for those which are most important to the overall goal. It is because of the game update that this strategy is now harder overall, but not because of the fishing. Any slight variation in when you hit a certain level during early fishing won't significantly affect when you get to level 10 though, because it's not a linear scale. The first few levels are all very close together, and it's a much bigger jump in XP to go from Fishing 8 to 10 than it is to go from 0 to 8. @ShneekeyTheLost I think going for day 3 catfish as a money-maker is actually burning money unless you are absolutely ninja at fishing (or using one of the cheat fishing mods), because too many of them will escape, which is a waste of time and energy. And XP too; getting two perfect bullhead in the lake is much better XP than a single non-perfect catfish, certainly much easier to achieve, and almost as good money. Any river fish that isn't a catfish is far worse than an average lake fish, making every escaped catfish an even bigger error. And it already sounds like @f8hope isn't ninja enough, because they are already struggling to hit the fishing goals. Secret woods is easily achievable in spring anyway, so they'll already be open in summer if you are doing bundles and want a catfish. I'd just leave the river alone and stick to the lake, no fish there should ever escape, every cast is a catch. If it rains again once you're level 10 then fine, go for the catfish, but not early imo
Agreed. And filling that slot in the CC during the spring shouldn't be a concern. The river fish bundle is only worth 30 bait and if you don't find a Tiger Trout on the cart it's got to wait till fall anyhow.
If you already have Fishing level 5 (as per the previous person's comment), then it's a much safer bet. With a bit of skill, you can reliably and consistently land the Catfish. And since you'll want the Bream and Shad anyway, might as well make it a day trip while you have the guaranteed rain.
He didn't 'have' level 5. He was 'getting' level 5 on day three, but that will never happen with wasted time losing catfish, or walking to the beach to chase eels. Getting level 5 by day 3 requires a full day of fish you can catch perfect. At least that's been my experience.
You aren't starting day 3 with Fishing 5 unless you are cheating. You're starting at Fishing 3, possibly only Fishing 2 if you were unlucky on day 2, and then most people are not landing all the catfish that bite, probably not even getting half, possibly missing almost all. I know I'm certainly not getting half, so I don't even bother now. It's wasted time, wasted energy, lost income and lost XP compared to being at the lake, where every single fish is always caught, and many more will be perfect. And lost fish means you won't even make Fishing 5 by the end of the day either, which penalises you financially for any fish you want to sell on day 4, because you can't get the 25% perk. There is absolutely no spare time if you want to get it by the end of the rainy day. I've run through first spring about twenty times now, and my best ever result for reaching Fishing 5 is 11.50pm at the end of day 3. That would have been without losing a single bite - literally nothing ever escapes me at the lake in spring now (except some Legend, obviously, but they aren't relevant this early). Fishing 4 was at 3.20pm, and Fishing 3 at 11pm the night before. That's including fishing almost all day on day 2, except the run to the beach for the bamboo pole (via spring onions), then the run to the lake and finally then the run home at 1am, followed by being back at the fish shop before 9am on day 3 so that I can get the fiberglass rod and bait at the earliest possible time. Yes, those times are completely accurate, yes, I've kept notes that detailed, and yes, I'm afraid I really am that sad to keep said notes. I think it might be possible for me to squeeze it out another hour or so earlier, with a couple more perfect bass or some extra rungood with getting chests on bass, but there's really not much extra to be saved, and nobody is getting everything perfect (without mods). I usually get to Fishing 5 between midnight and 2am, it's pretty consistent now, but there really is no time to waste on risking several missed fish. Seriously, if you're doing bundles, nab an eel on a convenient rainy day in weeks 2, 3 or 4 instead, when time isn't quite so tight and there are a few spare hours, and leave the catfish and shad until summer; there's no excuse not to have the secret woods open by then anyway. If it doesn't rain again, you'll just have to wait on the eel. The bream can be caught every day of the year, so definitely don't need any special plan for this any time soon. If you're doing the Development Form, definitely stick to the lake all the time, and print money, with the added bonus of easier inventory management because fewer different fish.
I don't keep good notes at all, so I played a run through. Day two I was about the same, level 3 shortly before midnight. Day three I didn't go after spring onions. I went straight to the dock and fished till Willy opened. Then just ate chub to keep my energy. Same result as you, level 4 early afternoon and level 5 right at midnight. I did lose two fish screwing around trying to get hold of chests. I'm no real talent at fishing and I'm sure others could cut that time down with more perfects but there really is very little wiggle room.
I usually don't have time to fish at the dock on day 3, because that's the day I plant my parsnips, something that you didn't need to do in your little test, and I bet most people already planted them anyway so they don't need to worry either. But as the rain wets the ground immediately after I hoe it, I'm saving time on a tool change and also not needing to return to my chest to dump the can, while still getting the farming benefit of the rainy day. Yes, I know it means no fishing at the dock on day 3, but I reckoned the trade off for what I get done on day 1 is worth it. Also, I do go for spring onions (my records tell me I picked twelve on day 2 and six more on day 3 in my above mentioned run-through) because I also don't want to eat any fish at all if I can avoid it, they're too valuable. Then I forage the beach so I can sell straight to Willy for more bait; I deliberately don't forage the beach on days 1 or 2, because I'll still be able to sell it direct today anyway, and time and inventory are so limited. Anyway, all that uses up all the time until the fish shop opens, so probably two hours less fishing time for me, which will account for most of the difference if you lost two fish but still got Fishing 5 at midnight. Perfect L. bass and perfect chub are particularly hard in the first few levels, so there really isn't much room for improvement for me, unless I sacrifice the parsnips that day too, and plant them day 4, but then I'd probably have to manually water them four times instead of just three, unless it rains on any days from 5 to 7. Hmm, I might try that next time anyway, day 4 planting, and suck up the extra watering to get those couple of hours extra fishing in the morning, to see if it makes a difference, because I have actually missed fishing 5 on a couple of occasions. It might even pay off in another way too, because a bit of extra bait can be afforded as well, with the fish caught and sold at the dock, taking a bit of the pressure off day 2. Not sure why I didn't consider this before, when I originally took planting off my day 1 schedule
My normal opening week I don't even fish on day three. I spend that day mainly cutting wood and repairing the bridge at the beach. The reason I did the short playthrough was to ensure that level 5 was doable for me in two days. I've never worked through the schedule the OP laid out. To my way of thinking it's way too min/maxy to be fun. Generally, I plant 2 cauli, 2 beans, 2 potato, 21 parsnips, and talk to everybody but Willy and Wizard on day one. I think it was @squigglyruth that turned me on to planting cauli on day one. It's ripe and lets me fill the Spring Crops bundle on the day of the egg festival. That way I get the 20 Speed Gro for Strawberries, but I digress... I did fish longer than you on day three and came to approximately the same result. I chalk it up to the solid possibility that you're a better fisherman. I could be the poster boy for the 'Anyone Can Learn to Fish' movement. If I can do it I'm confident that anyone can.
