'Stress' in Animals in Sunshine Islands

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Dealing with Stress

‘Stress’ is a condition that effects Ranch Animals in specific circumstances. When it occurs, you will find it displayed on the Animal Pages of your Farm Menu in the gauge beneath the Animal’s Heart Level on the lower screen. Stress Levels fill the gauge with blue. An empty gauge in this situation is the optimum situation with respect to any Ranch Animal. It is only Ranch Animals who have a Stress Gauge. When the Stress Gauge fills, the Animal will become ‘sick’ and die if not treated with Animal Medicine.

Most of the circumstances under which an Animal is afflicted with Stress can be controlled by your Character and when so afflicted, your Character can take action to reduce Stress. Although feeding your Animal will not REDUCE Stress, neglecting to feed your Animal will reduce Friendship Levels by 5 Points and cause 20 Points of Stress. 100 Stress Points will fill the gauge. If you do not hold/pet or speak to an Animal for two days, you will lose 2 Friendship Points per day and accrue 2 Stress Points per day. If you strike an Animal with a Farm Tool, you will lose 10 Friendship Points and accrue 10 Stress Points. If you leave an Animal outside in drizzle, rain or snow, you will lose 2 Friendship Points after the first 4 hours and 1 Friendship Point for each additional hour and gain 1 Stress Point per hour. Leaving an Animal outside in a Typhoon or Blizzard will cause you to lose 10 Friendship Points and gain 30 Stress Points.

If the Wild Dog appears on your Field when an Animal is outside, his mere presence can cause Stress in the amount of 10 Stress Points. It will cause you to lose 2 Friendship Points with your Animal as well. If you or your own Dog chase away the Wild Dog quickly or you return your Animals to the Chicken Coop or Barn before too much time elapses, there will be no ill effects from the unwanted visitation.

The greatest amount of Stress is inflicted when you have entered an Animal in an Animal Contest in any Festival and then fail to attend the Festival. This form of ‘neglect’ will cause 50 Stress Points, half-filling the Stress gauge. Stress is a condition that can be caused by emotional damage as well as physical neglect.
Positive Actions on your part may or may not act both on Friendship and Stress Levels. For example, as previously indicated, you will not reduce existing Stress Levels by feeding an Animal but you will gain 1 Friendship Point. Using a Milker or Clipper on an Animal will not reduce existing Stress Levels either but is worth 1 Friendship Point. Entering an Animal in an animal Contest will increase Friendship by 30 Points but have no effect on Stress. (Actually, if anything, it probably should increase Stress, as Animals in ‘real life’ generally do not respond well to crowds... but in Harvest Moon, there are no ill effects unless you fail to arrive at the contest to support your Animal!)

The only Ranch Tool that has an effect on Stress is the Brush. Whenever you brush your Livestock with an ordinary Brush, you will gain 3 Friendship Points and reduce any Stress by 5 Points. It is by setting Wonderfuls into the Brush that you can increase its Effect on Friendship and/or Stress.

Setting one Orange Wonderful in the Brush will add three Points to the effect that the Brush has in reducing Stress. A Brush without any Orange Wonderfuls will reduce Stress by 5 Points. A Brush set with a single Wonderful will reduce Stress by 8 Points. Each additional Orange Wonderful set into a Brush will reduce Stress by a further 3 Points. In other words, 2 Orange Wonderfuls set into the Brush will increase its effect to -11 Stress. 3 Orange Wonderfuls will cause it to reduce Stress by 14 Points. 4 Orange Wonderfuls will increase its effect on Stress to 17 Points.... and so on.

Note that setting Yellow Wonderfuls in any Ranch Tool will increase its effect on Friendship Levels by 1 Point. A Brush without any Wonderfuls will increase Friendship by 3 Points. With one Yellow Wonderful set into it, it will increase Friendship by 4 Points and so on.

There are other methods by which existing Stress levels can be reduced. Taking an Animal outside in good weather can reduce Stress as well as increasing Friendship Levels. The effects on Stress are far more significant, however, than any Friendship gain. Taking an Animal outside on a Sunny or Hot day will reduce Stress by 2 Points per hour and raise Friendship by 0.2 Points per hour. On a Cloudy Day, you will reduce Stress by 1 Point per hour and increase Friendship by 0.1 Point.
The most significant reduction of Stress can occur when you have the option of playiing the Touchscreen Petting Game. The highest score can reduce Stress by 20 Points.

Finally, you can hire the Orange Sprite Team to reduce existing Stress either in your Chicken Coop or Barn. The amount by which Stress is reduced will depend on the size of the Enchantment.

The single cause of Stress that is most difficult to avert is that caused by a Typhoon or Blizzard. As the Weather is set 6 days in advance, it is very difficult to ‘control’ and you may find that Typhoons and Blizzards will occur. What you CAN do is to make certain that you obtain the weather prediction daily from Taro. If you place all your Chickens outside in a Pen on the day prior to a Typhoon or Blizzard and fill all the Feeders in your chicken Coop, they will feed themselves outside and the Chicken Feed in the Feeders will be used only on the day of the bad storm. Provided always that the Typhoon or Blizzard last no more than a single day and that you remember to bring them all back into the Chicken Coop before the storm hits, you can guarantee that your Poultry will remain stress-free.

You can do the same with respect to your Livestock only if you have enough ripe Grass growing in your Field to provide Fodder for each Animal. Each Animal requires 1 Square of fully-ripened Grass per day. It is a great nuisance to push Animals in and out of the Barn but it may be worth the effort on the day preceding any Typhoon or Blizzard in order to avoid Stress. A different strategy would be to set ALL your Orange Wonderfuls into the Brush the day AFTER the Storm to reduce Stress as much as possible when it is used.

Another strategy described elsewhere in this Guide is that of building extra feeders for the Chickens and Livestock for emergency use during Storms. If you have two feeders for every Animal and fill both, you can weather a Storm that lasts a single day without fear that your animals will incur any Stress.

Philosophical Issues in Harvest Moon/Rune Factory

A comment made by a veteran Harvest Moon player on one of my posts resonated in my own soul and I therefore publish it here. It deals with a fundamental philosophical issue in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.

Here is the comment:

Dear Freya,

I believe that the creators wish to tell us, with the increased difficulty in 'forging' a wonderful during winter, that something in life is meant to be out of our control, and therefore, we better be patient and NOT try so hard to obtain it.
I mean, an orange wonderful set into a tool surely increase the yield of milk, wool, ores/gems and black grass/coins, but even without that wonderful you will still obtain those number of items! The only difference is that you will take longer to achieve those numbers, but is that really a bad thing?

How many players really 'lives' more than 5-6 years game time in any HM game?

I remember that in HM FoMT, in order to obtain the mountain cabin one would have to had been married for 42 years!

Remember that in FoMT, once every 5 years, if you walk up the mountain on Fall 11, after 23:00, you will encounter a shooting star event, and your profits will double the next day?

But in recent games I find myself giving up after reaching the 4th year, because the money was already infinite, and all heart events were seen, and everybody was at 10 FP, and the list is 100% complete, and the ONLY thing I have to hope for is to see my son/daughter grow old... and they surely take a long time to do so!!! So I stop playing...

Without the wonderfuls, one might actually need 10 or 20 years (game-time) to accomplish everything, but with those...

Hope I am making sense, in some way.'
END OF COMMENT

Of course, the writer makes perfect sense and is absolutely correct. Although I myself love to reach the point when I have attained every goal and can 'rest on my laurels' in any Harvest Moon/Rune Factory game, I have to confess that I tend to play THAT game less often afterwards. In fact, telling myself that it is for the sake of my guides that I must start a NEW game to see if I can accomplish all those goals even faster, I usually would begin a second game in another slot...

(Too little time nowadays in my REAL life in any case to enjoy a very well-earned 'retirement life' in any Harvest Moon/Rune Factory game... There always are new games to explore.)

In fact, the creators are very conscious of the virtues of patience and determination and although little rewards like the Wonderfuls in IoH and SI are included to give a player a bit of excitement and a sense of being chosen by Fortune as a Favourite, they are not intended to take the place of the initial hard work that is required in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game.

I can illustrate this with an experience from ToT. When I was working on the Official Strategy Guide for Tree of Tranquility, I discovered a fabulous exploitation device in the game. Decent Cocoons, sold at the Brownie Farm, could be converted to Yarn, dyed with a Blue Herb or Blue Flower and then shipped for an incredible profit. This would allow the player to afford all upgrades to his/her farm very quickly.

Filled with the very natural excitement any player (and guide writer) experiences when he/she discovers an exploitation, I included the information in my Guide. What happened then is known to any player who read my Guide AND played ToT when it was released.

Although the sections of the Guide that dealt with this exploitation device were not removed from the strategy Guide, the actual exploitation WAS removed from the game before the retail version was released. Why should Natsume allow the very fabric of the game's natural timing to be destroyed by the ability to become a millionaire almost instantly?

There IS a natural timing to every Harvest Moon and Rune Factory game. Despite the fact that players are allowed to do things as they wish, in their own time and to create their own priorities, players who neglect NO activity in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game and are content to move slowly but certainly forward in every aspect find that they do not experience problems for the most part. It usually is the player with 'tunnel vision' who focuses on one aspect of the game to the exclusion of the rest who finds everything grinding to a standstill at some point because he/she ignored shipping requirements or Friendship requirements or some other integral part of the universe of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory.

You cannot focus on making money exclusively, ignoring your neighbours, and expect that you will unlock every new option. Nor can you focus on courtship exclusively, while letting your farm go to ruin (or remain in its original neglected state) and expect to unlock new options. Everything is connected.

Players who use 'codes' or cheat devices to boost their progress artificially find that this destroys other aspects of the game, as many variables are intended to work together to create results. That is why I advise strongly against codes and cheat devices where Harvest Moon and Rune Factory are concerned.

In fact, it is when a player does something the WRONG way often and writes to me for advice that I discover potential problems in any game. A good Guide MUST include all potential problems. When I go through my initial game, triggering events effortlessly, I often fail to discover those potential problems or the 'hidden' triggers that need to be included in any Guide.

I do try to find any and all exploitation devices that exist in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game but, as this player has stated, the creators do NOT intend that you should be able to move too quickly through your life in Harvest Moon or Rune Factory. 'Everything in its season' to paraphrase the wise King Solomon.

Once upon a time, we could save our games before our character went to bed, then reload to change the weather if the heavens did not conform to our personal wishes. Island of Happiness and now Sunshine Islands made this virtually impossible by setting the weather almost a week in advance. Those of us (yes, I include myself!) who had become accustomed to the ability to dictate the Weather to the game were faced with an almost insurmountable task. I was frustrated and upset initially when typhoons and blizzards smashed through my field... but then I realised I was relaxing a little more while I played the game. I did not have to PLAN so much and I therefore LIVED more. Typhoons certainly are a natural threat in Island life and they have positive results as well as negative in some Harvest Moon games. In Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade, there are rare fish that can be caught ONLY on the day of a severe storm.

I discovered, as well, that the day of a Blizzard in Sunshine Islands is one of the few days when it is relatively easy to conjure a Wonderful at Chen's Market. This, I respectfully submit to Natsume, is NOT an exploitation that needs to be removed. After all, the player pays a potentially hefty price in the destruction caused by the storm.

The destructive aspects of any Typhoon or Blizzard are balanced a little by the amounts of stone and wood they deposit on the Map in games where upgrades require vast quantities of Materials.

As far as the ability to make Wonderfuls in Sunshine Islands is concerned, I think that the creators of the game engineered this properly, according to 'Harvest Moon' philosophy. It is very thrilling to find that Recipes for the Wonderfuls exist, knowing the powers of these Wonderfuls. At the same time, the ingredients and the complex process required to create them allows them to remain valuable and precious RARE commodities. Creating the 'Orange Book' that is one of the ingredients in the Recipe for an Orange Wonderful is not a breeze... to take another step and make an Orange Wonderful is a fairly burdensome undertaking. If you have the Will to do so, you can, but I suspect that most players will wait for an Orange Wonderful either to appear at Chen's shop NATURALLY in Winter, to be given as 1st Prize in a Contest or as a gift from a grateful and loving spouse.

Magic is an integral part of the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory universes but it is not something that can be used indiscrimately and usually, a player must prove himself first, by demonstrating the ability to scratch a living from a neglected field. He/she must be willing to endure privations, to balance the need to eat with the need to earn money through shipping, must meet and greet neighbours even without being able to give their 'Most Favourite' gifts to them, and EARN their respect and liking. If you have money, you can fill a barn with Livestock, but you still need to EARN their affection by caring for them on a daily basis. Otherwise, the products that they produce will be of low quality and little value.

In many cases, the most Magical Accessories are not available at the start of the game. Again, you must EARN the right to have them, either by mining for the materials needed to create them or by unlocking them through your efforts in other areas of life. The Teleport Stone in Sunshine Islands is a real godsend, but it will not appear at Chen's Market until you have 100,000G in your Earnings total. When you do, you must be willing to invest all of it in the Teleport Stone if you want it that badly!

In fact, in any Harvest Moon and Rune Factory game, almost every decision requires that you make choices. Do I expand my house or build/expand a Barn? Do I use this item to restore energy or do I ship it? Do I give this valuable item to some one who will prize it or do I ship it to make money? Do I allow a Bachelor/Eligible Girl to marry my Rival in order to be able to meet their Child or do I marry the individual myself? Decisions like these can be careless or they can be based on intelligent consideration. The beauty of any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game is that you can be whatever you wish. You can be wise or foolish, careful or careless... It's YOUR life! At the same time, as in our real lives, the individual who is careful and weighs the virtues of any choice probably will be far more successful than the one who barges forward heedlessly.

N.B. With respect to the word 'forging' in the original comment that sparked this post, I am not certain precisely what was meant here, unless it was used in a strictly poetic sense. There is no forge in Sunshine Islands but Wonderfuls CAN be made in your Kitchen in ANY season if you have the necessary Recipes and the required ingredients. In Winter, Wonderfuls may appear at the maximum rate of one every three days ONLY WHEN the last two digits of two Farming Degree totals match.

Perhaps it would be useful to include the Recipe for making an Orange Wonderful for players who have not completed their Cookbooks yet in Sunshine Islands:


Orange Book

Orange Book: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Wonderful Piece, Orange Herb, Orange Curry, Black Book
Obtain with 5th Black Book from Haila at Cafe
Energy Value: None
Optional Ingredients: None

This may look deceptively simple, but players who have obtained the Recipe for the Black Book will be very much aware of the labour involved in 'cooking' even one Black Book, let alone FIVE!


Black Book

Black Book: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Elli Leaves, Yggdra Soup, Chazuke, Poseidon Bowl, Sweet and Sunny
Obtain with 7th Failed Dish from Haila at Cafe
Energy Value: None
Optional Ingredients: None

It is easy enough to cook Failed Dishes. Each of the Failed Dishes that you create, when given to Haila and used successfully by her, will elicit a Recipe for one of the Dishes that constitute the ingredients in the Black Book. Obtaining the Recipe for the Black Book is a fairly simple matter as well. It will be given when Haila uses the seventh Failed Dish you offer successfully. It is the creation of a Black Book in your own Kitchen that will prove labour-intensive.

Here are the Recipes for each of the items needed to create one Black Book.


Elli Leaves

Elli Leaves: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Herb Salad, Salad, Pickle, Pickled Turnip, Boiled Spinach
Obtained with Failed Dish from Haila at Cafe
Energy Value: +4 SR +2 FL
Optional Ingredients: None


Yggdra Soup

Yggdra Soup: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Sangria, Relax Tea, Soy Milk, Herb Soup, Fruit Smoothie
Obtain with 1st Failed Dish from Cafe
Energy Value: +4 SR +1 FL
Optional Ingredients: None

Chazuke

Chazuke: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Dried Bean Curd, Steamed Egg Custard, Mochi Mix Natto/Red Flower Mix Natto, Spring Roll, Buckwheat Chips
Obtain with 2nd Failed Dish from Nick at Diner
Energy Value: +4 SR +1 FL
Optional Ingredients: None
Official Description: A dish from the East


Poseidon Bowl

Poseidon Bowl: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Fried Rice Noodles, Egg Over Rice, Porridge, Ultimate or Finest Curry
Obtain with 3rd Failed Dish from Haila at Cafe
Energy Value: +4 SR +1 FL
Optional Ingredients: None


Sweet and Sunny

Sweet and Sunny: 2G
Ingredients: Failed Dish, Chestnut Gelatin, Fruit Dumpling, Trifle, Apple Pie, Chocolate Fondue
Obtain with 4th Failed Dish from Haila at Cafe
Optional Ingredients: None
Official Description: A heavenly blend of sunny delights! Mmm!

It is not impossible to make any of the Dishes that are required to make a Black Book, but as you can see, each includes a fair number of ingredients in its own right. Furthermore, it is unlikely that you will have the necessary ingredients in your first year to make most of the items required to create the ingredients for even one Black Book. Many of the items require Fruits harvested from Trees. To grow your own Trees, you need to raise Link Island, build a Bridge to it, then raise Fruit Island and build THAT bridge... and finally, plant the seeds for the trees and nurture them, with a combination of good farming knowledge AND proper weather conditions. It is only when you offer your FIFTH Black Book to Haila that you will have a chance of obtaining the Recipe for the Orange Book. In other words, obtaining the RECIPE for the Orange Book or for any of the Books required to create Wonderfuls in your own kitchen is an advanced project!

Orange Wonderfuls in Sunshine Islands

However much one would like to be able to dash off perfect game walkthroughs quickly, in the case of any Rune Factory or Harvest Moon game, I have found that six months is required to create a decent Walkthrough or General Guide.

If it were not for the fact that players need the guides sooner, I would wait until I had perfected and polished a Guide before I ever allowed it to be published. Unfortunately, that is not practical and I therefore hope players will understand that most of my guides tend to be 'works in progress' and that they are updated and modified.

Sunshine Islands and Animal Parade were released almost at the same time. I was working on my guides for Sunshine Islands when Animal Parade was released. I opted to begin work on Animal Parade immediately, with the intention of returning to Sunshine Islands once I completed preliminary Guides for Animal Parade.

At this point in time, my Guides for Animal Parade remain 'works in progress' but all important details have been included. Having received many emails from players begging me to update my Sunshine Islands Guides, I now have begun to do so. In fact, I was rather distressed to discover how much information needed to be modified based on further gameplay.

In any case, an updated version of the Sunshine Islands Walkthrough and General Guide
will be sent to IGN this afternoon. I have added more Events to the Characters Guide and more information to the Courtship and Marriage Guide as well.

Wonderfuls are an important asset both in Island of Happiness and in Sunshine Islands. Although they are more difficult to 'engineer' than they were in IoH, it is possible for a very determined player to obtain the colour of Wonderful he/she needs.

Here are some details about the use of Wonderfuls in the Mine as well as the method by which to obtain them:


Using Wonderfuls in the Mine

Some of the Wonderfuls will have no power in the Mine but Green, Orange and Purple Wonderfuls in your Hoe and Hammer can prove very helpful. Knowing Charlie’s schedule can allow you to trade Wonderfuls from tool to tool, setting Orange, Green and Purple in the Hamer and Hoe for the duration of any Mining expedition, then taking them back to Charlie for dispersal and use in different Tools.

The definition of the Orange Wonderful is:
Effect when equipped on tool: material multiplier, misc.

When set in a Hammer and used in the Mine, they increase the number of items that you can obtain when you use them. When set in a Ranch Tool such as Milker or Shears, they will double the yield as well. In other words, inside the Mine, an Orange Wonderful set into your Hammer will allow you to find more Gems and Ores in the Rocks you smash and, when set in your Hoe, will allow you to find more Black Herbs and Coins in the ground. The number of potential Stone Tablets found on any allocated floor will not change. In fact, as the Watering Can is used to find Gelatin in Lava, setting an Orange Wonderful in it will increase the amount of Gelatin you can find.

Note, however, that you need to CHARGE the Tool into which the Orange Wonderful is set if you wish to obtain the benefit in terms of increasing the yield. A Hammer into which an Orange Wonderful has been set will continue to find only single Gems and Ores if it is not charged.

By the way, the Orange Wonderful can continue to have an effect in your Barn even when you play the Touchscreen Milking or Shearing game. Simply make certain to CHARGE the Milker or Shears before you initiate the Touchscreen Milking/Shearing activity.

The Orange Wonderfuls, however magical, are less vital than a Green Wonderful in this context. Green Wonderfuls decrease the amount of Stamina required for each use of the Tool into which they are set. Stamina always is a valuable commodity inside the Mine. When you are farming, the best place for your Green Wonderfuls to be set probably is your Watering Can but whenever you plan an expedition to the Mine, you may wish to load your Hammer and Hoe with them as well.

The Purple Wonderfuls are the least important as they simply add 2G to the value of items that are obtained using the Tool in which they are set. This is of minor significance compared to the other Wonderfuls.

Unfortunately, obtaining Wonderfuls of a specific colour is a little more complicated in Sunshine Islands than it was in Island of Happiness.

In terms of the colour of the Wonderful that will be given for winning any Contest at a Festival, the rules are as follows:


Rules dictating Wonderfuls


If the Festival occurs on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, the following weather conditions two days after the Festival will yield:

Sunny: Yellow Wonderful
Clear: Red Wonderful
Cloudy: Blue Wonderful
Drizzle: Green Wonderful
Rainy: Orange Wonderful
Snowy: Purple Wonderful
Severe Storm: Indigo

If the Festival occurs on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the following weather conditions two days after the Festival will yield:

Sunny: Blue Wonderful
Clear: Yellow Wonderful
Cloudy: Orange Wonderful
Drizzle: Red Wonderful
Rainy: Purple Wonderful
Snowy: Indigo Wonderful
Severe Storm: Green Wonderful

Remember that you can buy 1 Blue, 1 Red and 1 Yellow Wonderful from Chen from the very start of the first Spring. Once those are purchased, however, Wonderfuls will appear in his Shop only during the Winter Season and ONLY if specific conditions are met.

The conditions that govern the appearance of Wonderfuls at Chen's Market in Winter are as follows:

The appearance of a Wonderful is limited to 1 every 3 days;
A Wonderful will appear only if the last two digits in two Categories of your Farming Degree totals are the same. The Colour of the Wonderful is determined then by the two totals that match.

You therefore can save your game on the previous day and attempt to engineer the totals in one Category to match another. Use of any Tool will add to a Total as will Cooking a Dish in your Kitchen. The process of arriving at two totals that match can be tedious but a player without any Orange Wonderfuls when Winter arrives, for example, may perceive the goal of obtaining one worth the bother.

There are other methods of obtaining Wnderfuls in Sunshine Islands. You can make them in your own Kitchen. The Recipe for Orange Wonderfuls requires a number of 'Orange' ingredients: Orange Book, Orange Herb, Orange Curry, Wonderful Piece

You will obtain the Recipe from Haila when you give her an Orange Book.

Wonderfuls can be gifts from various individuals on special occasions as well. The Harvest Goddess will give you a Wonderful when you reach the lowest floor of the Mine. Your spouse will give you a Wonderful as a Gift for your Wedding Anniversary if you have not alienated him/her.

END OF GUIDE EXCERPTS

I am going to add some wild speculation to this post which is NOT included in my actual game guides. Time and time again, I have noticed the same results on any given floor of the Mine at Volcano Island. The result is as follows; the number of GOOD Ores or Gems on any floor appears to be pre-determined to a certain extent, varying within one or two Gems/Ores. In other words, on Floor 25, if no Orange Wonderfuls are set in the Hammer, one can find from 5 to 7 Orichalcum. One can reload again and again and yet never obtain more than 5 or 7 on that floor. The other Rocks that one smashes invariably contain either Junk Ore or nothing at all. The actual Rocks that contain Junk Ore may differ each type you reload on that floor, but in the end, you obtain the same basic results, although you may obtain more or less Junk each time.

On floors where a variety of Ores can be found, I have discovered that again, the number of GOOD Ores appears to be set, so that if you smash a Rock and obtain Copper, you may have lessened your chance of obtaining Orichalcum in another Rock on that same floor. If I am determined to obtain Orichalcum or Gold, therefore, I reload and try again until I do rather than accepting the Copper. It could be nothing more than coincidence, but I expect that the number of Good Ores on any floor ARE programmed into the game and that, after that, the specific Ore may be a matter of probabilities... although I seldom have been able to obtain more than one Orichalcum on any floor that can yield all the ordinary types of Ore. I would be interested in the experience of other players in the Mine in Sunshine Islands.

Finally, a specific philosophical attitude is required when mining in any Harvest Moon game. One cannot be impatient. Farming requires some determination, of course, and Ranching requires the ability to perform the same actions again and again without finding those actions tedious, but mining above all requires a certain phlegmatic patience and ability to endure. For a start, mining occurs underground where there is very little variety in terms of landscape, although the mine in Sunshine Islands has added lava deposits and flowing rivers of lava to the floors.

My first experience with mining in Harvest Moon was in Friends of Mineral Town. In those days, I rather relished the endless labour and toil, bringing home baskets filled with ores and gems... Now, a few years later, I sometimes find myself becoming impatient with it, but all that is required in those situations is a revision in attitude. One must surrender to the Mine, forget about everything else and simply endure until one reaches the goal, whatever that may be.

Perhaps one day I will write a post about the most frustrating Mining experiences I ever had in Harvest Moon. Certainly one of those would be the quest for the King Fish at the bottom of the Winter Mine in Magical Melody. The worst part of that would be actually arriving at the bottom floor, equipping the fishing rod and beginning to fish only to be sent home at dawn without having sufficient time to catch the Fish! Luck always plays a part in success in the Mines, in any Harvest Moon game. You can begin your day at the Mine and still not be able to reach your goal in the time allotted to you. Yet, these exercises build character I suppose. They force the player to accept temporary defeat and yet try again.

As in Magical Melody, a player will be sent home at dawn in Sunshine Islands, irrespective of his/her location on the map. In games where this occurs, a player has to know when to 'cut his/her losses' rather than forging ahead...

In this context, the dialogues of characters in Animal Parade as Friendship levels increase are extremely interesting.

Jin at 4 Hearts: When those who aren’t used to falling down do fall down, they get back up slowly. I think those who can get right back up after making a mistake progress faster.

Barbara at 4 Hearts: Don’t let a failure get your spirits down! If you have the time to mope then you have the time to get up and try it again!

Colleen at 4 Hearts: Failure is part of both cooking and life... But failure can give you hints on how to succeed!

Simon at 4 Hearts: People make mistakes. Although we shouldn’t fear failure, it’s easy to dwell on it.

I do not think it is coincidence that all the dialogues that deal with 'failure' occur when you reach 4 Hearts with these individual, a point in your relationship where the Friends Page in your Farm Menu defines your relationship as: 'I’m good friends with X!'

A good Friend can be forgiven for speaking of the possibility of failure in any enterprise, yet giving the individual motivation to try again. Life in the 'real world' guarantees that an individual will fail at least once, but as in Harvest Moon, one needs to have the faith to try again.

Mining teaches perseverance. It is slow work, but labour that ultimately yields great rewards and invariably rewards that cannot be obtained by any other method.

Note that in Animal Parade, you can stay in the Mines after dawn breaks, but you will suffer fatigue if you do so. There are medicines to combat this, however.

There are general rules that are followed by any Harvest Moon game where every aspect of life is concerned, but there always are unique differences that distinguish each new game. A veteran player is strengthened by his/her knowledge of those fundamental rules, yet always capable of being surprised by a different 'twist' in every new game. I would like to think that my joy in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory will endure as long as I live... and that new Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games will continue to be produced for decades to come. Obviously, technology will change radically and perhaps our interactions with the worlds of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory will become infinitely more sophisticated and complex... Who knows what the future holds? Whatever the case, I expect that patience and determination will continue to be factors in the Mines!

Later:
It is worth noting that an Orange Wonderful can make a tremendous difference when set into an Axe, as it will double the Lumber yield as well.

I need to do more research where Winter Wonderfuls are concerned, but whenever I have found an Orange Wonderful at Chen's Market, it was when I did a lot of Cooking to try to make two categories in Farming Degree totals match. It is my understanding that the specific matches yield specific colours of Wonderfuls, unlike IoH, where the colours of the Wonderfuls that could appear at Chen's Market in Winter were date-based.

If this is the case, then it may be the Cooking Degree Total that, when coupled with another Total, as yet unidentified, yields Orange.

I now have been able to pinpoint the LAST opportunity to change a Total yet, by the way. It is at 5.50 a.m. that you have your last chance to change Totals where the possible appearance of a Wonderful at Chen's Market at 6.00 a.m. is concerned.

Mind you, in this situation, where the two last digits must match, it means that there are an incredible number of possible totals. (The two digits to be matched could be anything from 01 to 99, I would imagine.)

I have been obtaining Orange Wonderfuls consistently so far by doing this. Invariably, one of the Totals I change ALWAYS has been the Cooking total, by cooking one more dish... The last time I did this, however, I tested 16 different totals before I finally decided to try to change a different total instead. I threw two Fish into the Shipping container and cast my Fishing Rod in my house twice, vowing that I would not waste any more time on this endless pursuit... to my delight and amazement, an Orange Wonderful appeared at Chen's Market at 6.00 a.m. that morning (which was only 10 minutes later, although I slept to restore my energy and my character apparently recovered amazingly well from that paltry amount of slumber!)

Ii will continue to log my own results, but one must be wary in Harvest Moon or Rune Factory where two identical results are concerned. Very often, it is nothing more than a case of coincidence.

N.B. I would like to thank Gillian for prompting me to work again on the Mining section of my Guide and helping with the research.

Maximum Energy Levels in Island of Happiness

This information is included in my General Guide, but so many players have emailed me about their difficulty in sustaining their energy levels in the Mine that I thought it might merit a post.

The way to boost your Maximum Stamina and Fullness in IoH is by equipping Accessories made by Charlie. The best combination, in my own opinion is the Large Harvest Goddess Pendant and the Large Kappa Pendant.

I did not find the Earrings at any size to be particularly helpful. Yes, they will restore a tiny fraction of Stamina or Fullness or, in the case of the Witch Princess Earrings, both Stamina and Fullness, as time passes, but the amounts are not very significant. Of the three types of Earrings, the Large Witch Princess earrings probably are the most useful, but really not to the point of taking an equipment slot in place of a more desirable accessory such as the Turbo Shoes.

(With four equipment slots, equipping both Large Harvest Goddess Pendant and Large Kappa Pendant ALL THE TIME will give you only two free slots at any given time. I use the top slot for active equipment or Teleport Stone and keep the Turbo Shoes in the bottom slot, with the Large Harvest Goddess Pendant and Large Kappa Pendant to the left and right.)

In fact, initially I had hoped that the Large Witch Princess Pendant would be the equal of the combination of Large Harvest Goddess Pendant + Large Kappa Pendant, but this is far from the case. You do need to purchase it in order to unlock the Godhand but once purchased, I never used it. When equipped in the place either of the Large Harvest Goddess Pendant or the Large Kappa Pendant, it actually REDUCED total Stamina or Fullness. When equipped in place of BOTH, my total Stamina and Fullness both were reduced.

The Large Kappa Pendant and Large Harvest Goddess Pendant give you the maximum Stamina and Fullness capacity. Remember that, when equipped, they only increase the size of the Energy bars. They do not fill them with energy!

It is very important not to unequip either of these accidentally even for a moment as, when you do, your actual energy levels will disappear with the disappearance of the extra capacity. Re-equipping the accessory afterwards will increase capacity again but will not fill the bar!

In my General Guide, I explain how a player can equip both the Small and Medium Harvest Goddess Pendant to increase Stamina capacity until he/she is able to purchase the Large Harvest Goddess Pendant. The amounts of increased Stamina capacity given by each are added together to give you the largest capacity available until you are able to purchase the Large Harvest Goddess Pendant.

I find that increased Stamina capacity is far more vital than increased Fullness capacity in IoH. Fullness diminishes slowly as time passes. Stamina can diminish very quickly through use of tools or falling through pitfalls in the Mine.

Once you set 3 Green Wonderfuls in your Hammer and in your Hoe, mining itself no longer will use ANY Stamina, but falling through a pitfall still will decrease Stamina according to the number of floors through which you fall.

If you are not pressed for time (in real life), you can avoid pitfalls once your Hoe and Hammer can be used without decreasing your Stamina and go through the Mine solely through the stairs, but that really is time-consuming.

There is two situations when it may be to your advantage to go through the mine floor by floor, using only the stairs:

1. When you have reached Floor 50, and you still need Orichalc for Accessories. Once you have mined all the Orichalc on Floor 50, you may wish to use only the stairs to descend until you reach Floor 75. Between Floors 51-74, you should be able to find at least 1 Orichalc on each Floor.

If you have set Orange Wonderfuls in your Hammer and Hoe, the number of items you obtain each time you find a gem/ore, Black Grass/Lithograph is multiplied according to the number of Orange Wonderfuls in the Tool. The maximum appears to be 9, giving you 10 gems/ores each time you split a rock. Charlie will not allow me to set more than 9 in my Hammer, even though I have empty available slots.

As you usually are guaranteed at least 5 Orichalc on Floor 50 alone, and sometimes as many as 8, you can obtain 50 to 80 Orichalc in a single visit to Floor 50 with 9 Orange Wonderfuls in your Hammer. It is not as useful to set that many Orange Wonderfuls in your Hoe, but if you are at a point in the game where you have more Wonderfuls than you really need, by all means do so, making every strike for Black Grass one that nets you 10 Black Grass instead of 1.

Note that the same strategy can be used with respect to Adamantite. Find as many as possible on Floor 25. From Floors 51-74, Adamantite as well as Orichalc can be found on each of those floors, so if you use the stairs to mine on each floor, you should be able to find quite a few Adamantite for Makers, even if you have no Orange Wonderfuls in your Hammer.

2. When you have reached Floor 250. From that point onward, you can find EVERY special item in the rocks on each floor until you reach 255. To maximise the number of Mythic Stones, Orichalc, Pink Diamonds, Alexandrite and so on that you can take home from a single trip, you may wish to mine each of those floors.

Mining for Mythic Stone on Floor 100 should give you at least 5 and sometimes as many as 8. With 9 Orange Wonderfuls in your Hammer, you would obtain 50-80 from that Floor alone. From Floors 251-254, you should be able to find another 5 at least without any Orange Wonderfuls in the Hammer. That would give you another 50 with 9 Orange Wonderfuls in your Hammer.

This strategy makes it possible for you to obtain all Accessories as well as a Mythic Refrigerator as early as possible in the game.

It is useful with respect to obtaining the Adamantite needed for all Makers, although you may wish to have the Makers built BEFORE you have the opportunity to obtain more than one Orange Wonderful!