Mining is a BLAST in Hero of Leaf Valley

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My Character had his first opportunity to apply for part-time work with Rudolph in the Mine. In 'Hero of Leaf Island', the opportunity for part-time work gives you an added source of much-needed income early in the game. It is a rather clever mechanism for affording the player a tutorial about a specific aspect of life in Leaf Valley while paying him to learn about it. Detailed tutorials about every activity exist in every Harvest Moon game, but half the time, players are too impatient to take advantage of them. Either dismissed as tedious or unnecessary, many players prefer to flounder in unfathomed waters rather than READ a manual or go through every step of a farming tutorial.

In 'Hero of Leaf Valley', you can sign up for a tutorial about Mining under Rudolph's tutelage and go home at the end with 450G and a rucksack filled with Ores.

Mining consists of a mini-game puzzle where rocks of different colours have different properties and each has its own direction of explosion when hit with your Hammer. Yellow Rocks cannot be smashed with a Hammer, but can be moved to a position where the direction of an explosion when you hit another rock will cause the Yellow Rock to fly into bits. It is very entertaining.