Legendary Sword and Unlocking the 4th Mine in HM DS/Cute DS

I am writing this post simply because of the sheer volume of emails that I continue to receive with respect both to the Legendary Sword and the 4th Mine in HM DS and Cute DS.

Although the two games are very similar in most respects apart from the choice of potential spouses, there are a few small differences and one of these is the requirement for taking the Legendary Sword from the 255th floor of the 2nd Mine.

In the original HM DS (aka the 'boy version'), your character in theory needed to have the necessary experience to be able to upgrade ALL tools to mystrile level in order to be able to take the Legendary Sword from the mine, but experience was all that mattered. If only one tool actually had been upgraded to Mystrile, that was sufficient. (Some players have reported that even with other tools BELOW Mystrile level of experience, they were able to take the sword. This will vary from one version of the game to another. Remember that the European version of the game is quite different from the North American Natsume version.)

In HM Cute DS (aka the 'girl version'), your character actually must upgrade ALL tools to Mystrile in order to meet the requirement for being worthy to take the Legendary Sword from the 255th Floor of the 2nd Mine. Having the necessary experience is not sufficient.

In some circumstances, players in both games have gone to the 255th Floor of the Mine believing that all their tools had been upgraded to mystrile when in fact, this was not the case. The Fishing Rod IS one of the tools in both games and if the player fails to gain sufficient experience to upgrade it to Mystrile, the Legendary Sword will remain on the lowest floor of the mine.

Although all of this information is included in my General Guide for HM DS and HM Cute DS, I probably should include one final point about the Legendary Sword here.

Although the Legendary Sword can be used rather effectively as a weapon against the Dark Creatures in any Mine, that is not its primary use in either game. It is the ONLY item that can be used to destroy the two large boulders that bar access to the Super Field Cave behind the waterfall. It is not only access to the Super Field that is achieved when you destroy the two Boulders but a shortcut that is created as well. The shortcut can be quite useful on occasion.

Despite the instructions that are included in my Guides, players often attempt to bash away with the Legendary Sword, failing in every attempt to destroy the Boulders as they mistakenly assume that the Legendary Sword, used as a tool in the Mines in combat, should be used likewise as a tool against the Boulders.

This is where Harvest Moon has been a little tricky, making the use of the Legendary Sword in this particular situation one of the 'secrets' in these two games. You do NOT use the Legendary Sword as a tool to destroy the Boulders. Instead, its use is magical in nature and is initiated by standing in front of one of the two Boulders, then pressing the 'A' or action button. This will initiate an actual 'Magical' Event that will destroy the Boulder.

Note that each Boulder requires a separate Event. You therefore need to go to the other Boulder, then press the 'A' Button again.

Keira is a pivotal character both in HM DS and HM Cute DS. Where the 'Magical Girls' are concerned, the player in HM Cute DS can experience all of their 'heart events' even though they are not 'eligible' for marriage in Cute. In fact, where Keira and Leia are concerned, their 'heart events' are 'plot events' and should be experienced.

If you wish to be able to complete your Items/Shipping List, you must bring Leia to yellow heart level as you will not be able to catch a Bottled Message until you do. In fact, this is another reason to upgrade your Fishing Rod to mystrile as you will not be able to catch the Bottled Message with any lesser Fishing Rod.

There is a minor difference with respect to the two games in terms of the Fishing Rod and the Bottled Message. In the original HM DS, you only could use a fishing rod of a level HIGHER than Mystrile if you CHARGED IT ONLY TO MYSTRILE LEVEL. If you gave a Blessed or Mythic Rod the full charge, you could not catch the Bottled Message with it!

In HM Cute DS, you can use either a Mystrile Fishing Rod or any Fishing Rod of higher level to catch the Bottled Message without being required to reduce the charge of any higher Level Fishing Rod.

Take the Bottled Message to Daryl's house in order to experience her 4th and final Heart Event BOTH in the original HM DS and Cute DS. It is the 'Yellow Heart Event' that allows Leia to return to the sea and makes it possible for her to visit the beach once each week if you encourage her to do so at the end of the Event.

Incidentally, there is one small difference between the two games in terms of 'triggering' the 4th Heart Event. In the original HM DS, you had to equip the Bottled Message before you visited Daryl's house. In Cute, the Bottled Message simply needs to be in your Rucksack.

In the original HM DS, Leia is one of the eligible girls and you can continue to woo her after she returns to her mother by meeting her on the beach each week.

Keira is important to the plot in both games as well. If you do not meet Keira by experiencing her 1st Heart Event on the 255th floor of the 3rd Mine either in HM DS or in HM Cute DS, you will not be able to unlock the 4th Mine.


Remember that, once you have married, you no longer can experience ANY Heart Events in any Harvest Moon game. You therefore need to trigger Keira's 1st Heart Event by visiting the 255th Floor of the 3rd Mine AND defeating all the Dark Creatures on that floor (without cheating!!!) before you marry any one in either game.

When the barrier crumbles, enter the small chamber beyond to experience Keira's 1st Heart Event in both versions of the game. If you do not defeat all Dark Creatures on the 255th floor manually, the barrier will not crumble. In other words, turning your DS on and off to wipe the Dark Creatures off the floor will NOT work! If you fall through the floor and then reload your game to the 255th floor, that will not work either. I suggest that players save one file at the 254th floor as a back-up if they wish to make certain that they can visit Keira on the 255th floor.

One final point should be made here in view of the common error made by players with respect to the Mines in HM DS/Cute DS:

The 255th Floor is significant both with respect to the 2nd Mine and the 3rd Mine. In the 2nd Mine, the 255th Floor is the lowest floor of the Mine. You must defeat all Dark Creatures on that floor (again without cheating) in order to dissolve the barrier that leads to the chamber where the Legendary Sword awaits. Once you have 'cleared' the 2nd Mine by performing this action, you will be able to unlock the 3rd Mine by visiting the Excavation Site outside of 'working hours'. In other words, go to the Excavation Site either before 8.00 a.m. or after 8.00 p.m. to trigger the Event with Carter that will unlock the 3rd Mine. (A similar Event unlocks each of the Mines when all requirements are met. To unlock the 1st Mine, the only requirement is that you have your Hammer with you.)

The 255th Floor of the 2nd Mine may be the 'home' of the Legendary Sword but it is NOT Keira's home. She lives (or rather sleeps like the Sleeping Beauty of the fairy tale) on the 255th Floor of the 3rd Mine. Going to the 255th Floor of the 2nd Mine will not trigger any Heart Events! You need to go to the 255th Floor of the 3rd Mine in order to experience a proper introduction to Keira in her 1st Heart Event BOTH in the original HM DS and in HM Cute DS.

Experiencing Keira's 1st or Black Heart Event is only one of the requirements for unlocking the 4th and final Mine. As with each of the previous Mines, you need to visit the lowest floor of the 3rd Mine and 'clear' it of Dark Creatures before you can unlock the 4th Mine. There may be only one Dark Creature on the lowest floor of the 3rd Mine... as I am writing this post from memory alone, I cannot recall specifically if the Dark Sheep is the Creature you will meet on the lowest floor of the 3rd Mine but that detail is of no consequence. Simply do the job as before and, provided you have experienced Keira's Black Heart Event, you will be able to trigger the usual Event with Carter at the usual hours at the Excavation Site afterwards.

Finally, the 4th Mine is by far the deepest and largest Mine in the history of Harvest Moon. It does contain the Wonderfuls, however, and they appear on floors that end in 0. My Guide gives details as to the designated floors for each of the Wonderfuls.

Wonderfuls have little use in Harvest Moon games prior to Island of Happiness. In HM DS/Cute DS, you need to collect a full set if they are to be useful at all. When you have done so, the Harvest Goddess will appear to grant a wish.

In Island of Happiness, on the other hand, Wonderfuls are the items that will 'upgrade' your tools in every conceivable manner. They can be won at Festivals, obtained from the Harvest Goddess, purchased from Chen in Winter or obtained as prizes in wi-fi farming competitions.

One of the most wonderful aspects of Harvest Moon games is the way that items introduced in earlier games gradually make their uses known in later games. Players of FoMT and MFoMT will recall the four Suns that could be created in their own kitchen but which had no practical use.

It was only in HM DS/Cute DS that we discovered that the Suns could be used in our Basements as artificial sources of light for seasonal crops.

Likewise, the Wonderfuls that only served as a trigger for the grant of a single wish in HM DS/Cute DS are essential to tool use in Island of Happiness.

Exotic animals are not items but where, in former Harvest Moon games, they existed only to enrich the landscape and provide topics for conversation among characters, it is only in Tree of Tranquility that the player actually CAN tame them and have them as pets. All the false rumours about the animals in 'A Wonderful Life/Another Wonderful Life' became reality in ToT. Harvest Moon fans who yearned to domesticate the large Turtle who won a race against Nina finally can do so in ToT!

Marriage to a Mermaid... but not in Cute

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Even though it is fairly easy to bring Leia to full red heart level before the end of the first year, you will not be able to propose to her until Spring of the second year at the very earliest in the original HM DS. In HM Cute DS, you will be able to trigger the event, bring her to full red heart level and rendezvous with her on the beach on Tuesday nights, but she will not accept the Blue Feather, alas.

In Harvest Moon DS, I had traded my mystrile rod for a Mythic Rod before the second Spring and I was unable to catch the Bottled Message with it, until I thought of a way to make the game believe it WAS the mystrile rod still. I did this by charging the Mythic Rod ONLY to Mystrile level. Doing this, I was able finally to catch the Bottled Message and I immediately took it to Daryl's house to experience Leia's fourth and final heart event.

In Cute, you need not have the bottle in your hands when you enter Daryl's house in order to trigger the event. Simply having it in your rucksack is sufficient. Although I had upgraded all other tools to Mythic Level in Cute, I kept my Fishing Rod at mystile level until 2 Spring in order to be able to catch the bottled Message without any trouble...

It was the very second item I caught in fact. I took it to Daryl's house in my rucksack, intending to give Leia one more Big Fish before I triggered the event, but the event triggered with the Bottle in my rucksack, rather to my surprise.

Leia's Yellow Heart Event is as much an event that features Daryl as it does Leia. It is an event that is characteristic of Harvest Moon's quirky sense of humour and even though I experienced it before in the original HM DS a couple of times, I enjoyed it again in Cute. At the end of the event, Leia will return to the sea, but you will have the option of encouraging her to visit the Valley again or of telling he that it would be too dangerous for her to do so. If you encourage her to visit, she will display a big red heart for you in both the original boy version and in Cute.

Here is the full text of the event in HM Cute:

You do not even have to CARRY the bottle with you in Cute. Simply enter Daryl's house with it in your rucksack to experience the event.

I enter and absolutely race up to Daryl.
Daryl: What are you so worked up about?
Now I pull the bottle from my rucksack and set it on my head.
Daryl: Ahaa... A bottle... Can't get it open, can you? Leave that detail to me! Hehehe! I'm quite excited about this!
The upper screen goes dark.
Daryl: Hm... Wow... This... cork... is... really... strong... Oh no! My invention! My wonderful, patented Super Deluxe Corkscrew is broken! Now I'll have to test out my Hyper Deluxe Super Sonic Corkscrew (patent pending). C-C-CRUNK! CLANG! D'OH! It took me a precious year of R & D to produce that! My wonderful Hyper Deluxe Super Sonic Corkscrew is in pieces! I've never experienced such a tightly fastened cork in all of my days! It's got to be stronger than a diamond! But I own't give up! Time for the ultimate weapon! I'm taking off the kid gloves now and going with my Supra Light Ultra Aggression Corkscrew! SO STAND BACK!!!

Crick crick crick CRRRRUUUUNCH!!!

Daryl: NOOO!!! My wonders of modern science have been utterly destroyed! I've failed... My scientific achievement has been reduced to scrap by a single bottle. ..................
Try to use this to get that cork off as I am exhausted. There's no way you'll get it off, but give it a shot.

POP!

Daryl: !!!!!! It... it came off? Inconceivable! Ah! I've got it! My 3 other corkscrews loosened the cork just enough for you! There's no other possible explanation for Van's cheap tool to do what it did! Yes! That settles it! My explanation fits the phenomenon like a glove!

The upper screen now displays the two of us again, me still with the bottle on my head.

Daryl: (...) At any rate, enough about the blasted cork. What does the message say?
Me: (!)
The upper screen goes dark again.
... Oh my goodness!
We now stand before Leia who is in her bathtub. The bottle still is on my head.
Leia: (?) What is that?
Daryl: Read it and see.
Leia: Ah!
She takes the bottle from me.
Leia: (!) It's from Mom!
Daryl: I knew it.
Leia: She's been worried about me and sent out a message after the typhoon.
Daryl: Your wounds have healed, so you can go back to her. Your true home is under the sea.
Liea: (!) What? But I... I still don't feel like I've repaid you!
Daryl: D'OH! Repay me by going home! It's for the best; you can see your family again.
Daryl turns to face me now.
Daryl: As for me, I can get back to my research again. Freya, take Leia back to the sea.
I nod obligingly.
Both screens darken.
Next, Leia and I stand by the shore on the right side of the beach near the umbrella and beach blankets.
Leia: (...) I wonder if I fully paid back Daryl for all he's done.
I nod encouragingly.
Leia. I see. I sure hope so. This is a nice place, and every one's been so nice to me here. I've actually only met Daryl and you, Freya but still... Is it okay if I come back to visit now and then?

Your choices now:
Come back anytime.
No, you might be captured.

Of course, I will choose: 'Come back anytime.'

Leia displays a big red heart for me.

Leia: Really? I'm so glad, Freya! You've been a true friend. Well, I'll see you later then! So long!
She dives into the sea gracefully and swims away. The event ends with me alone at the beach.

Tuesday, 2 January of your Second Year is the first opportunity to experience this event, as Monday is a Festival Day. Unfortunately, the 'Best Friend' status that exists in the original Japanese version of Cute evidently HAS been eliminated from HM Cute DS in English as, when I attempted to give Leia the Blue Feather, she simply asked me which guy I intended to marry.

Of course, I could have confirmed this officially with Natsume as soon as I heard the rumours that the 'Best Friend' status had been eliminated from the upcoming English edition of the game, but I am a stubborn, independent player who always has to prove everything for herself. So I did everything that was required in order to propose successfully to Leia and then flourished my Blue Feather when I met her by the shore on Tuesday night... I now can state categorically that there is no official 'Best Friend' in lieu of marriage in Cute. (Having proven it myself, however, I then obtained official confirmation from Natsume...)

KalypsoCry mentioned the rumours to this effect in one of her comments. I, however, was determined to be optimistic, as if by doing so, I could MAKE the game behave the way I wished... It is clear now, however, that if you wish to keep house with a Magical Girl, you must marry one in the boy version of Harvest Moon DS or else play the original Japanese version of Cute.