Tips for Long-Term 1st Generation Players in RF2

A player who intends to stay in the 1st Generation game long enough to be able to experience the Rival Wedding events and have opportunities to 'steal the bride' wondered what this would do to experience levels...

What I have done in my own 1st Generation game is to attempt to increase ALL my experience levels. When I had increased my Weapons Skill to the point where it was almost embarrassingly high for any combat with the Monsters to whom I have access, I began to use other methods of fighting in the Cave/Dungeon areas. I began with Magic, buying the Rod and using it exclusively. Even though you have few options in terms of Spells at this stage of the game, the levels you attain in Magic will be useful for ALL Magic later in the game. I therefore stashed conventional weapons and began to fight with Fireball.

Once I had increased that Skill to a very respectable level, I began to focus on farm tools that received little use otherwise and used THEM as weapons in combat in the Cave/Dungeon areas. I used the Axe, which is the least used Tool in my game, as there are few branches or stumps as I tend to use all squares for farming. Although there are rocks to smash daily in the Caves, I used the Hammer to pulverise Monster Generators as well... And so on...

If you focus exclusively on traditional weapons in the 1st Generation, your Weapons Skill will be at maximum, but you will not have good levels in any other areas apart from Farming and possibly Fishing. (You can't use the Fishing Rod as a weapon, by the way!) By using all your tools in unconventional ways, you can raise your Skills in every department, something that will serve you well in the next generation.

Incidentally, it is the transition to the 2nd Generation that will make it impossible for you to experience the Rival Weddings firsthand, not your marriage per se. If you wish to delay the transition to the 2nd Generation in order to experience all the Rival Weddings, simply do not build the school until the last of the Rival Weddings occurs in the 4th year. Once married yourself, you obviously will not have the option to 'steal the bride' but you can attend the wedding. Personally I do not see the point of this unless you intend to marry a girl who has a Rival. If you intend to marry Mist, Yue or Alicia, but wish to experience the Rival Weddings, it is better to remain single until the last one has occurred, giving your character the option to save his game BEFORE each Wedding, steal the Bridge to experience THAT result and then reloading to the point where the Wedding is about to occur. He then can allow the Rival Marriage to proceed unhindered... and repeat this performance for each Rival Wedding until the last one has been 'done and dusted'... At that point, he can choose the partner of his dreams, marry her, have the child and move forward almost instantly to the 2nd Generation. Each player can play the game differently, however and that is the beauty of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.