Hidden Requirement for Rival Events and Returns

In my own game, I had no trouble whatsoever triggering the Rival Events at the earliest opportunity with respect to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Rival Heart Events. The
4th Rival Heart Event for Pierre and Natalie triggered at the start of the 4th Year and on the same day, I was able to trigger the 4th Rival Event for Elliot and Julia.
The Event I could not trigger as easily was Denny's 4th Rival Heart Event.

I've written about this in another post. It was when I made an effort to fish again and caught a certain number of items that the Event finally triggered.

Vaughn's Rival Heart Events could not trigger as I married him myself, incidentally...

I thought it was only the 4th Rival Heart Events that had this requirement until other players informed me that they could not trigger the 3rd Rival Heart Events.
It appears that every Rival Heart Event shares the same hidden requirement. For Denny and Lanna, it is fish. For Elliot and Julia, it is Crops. For Pierre and Natalie, it is Cooked Dishes and for Vaughn and Sabrina, it is Ores.

Now I am in the situation where the Rivals have gone off to Mineral Town with their spouses to have their babies. Pierre returned the very next day but neither Denny nor Elliot returned as quickly.

The Rivals went to Mineral Town in Winter. I believe that the reason why Elliot could not return perhaps may be a requirement to ship the crops for the current season. I shipped many Crops during Winter but they were out-of-season Greenhouse Crops. I expect his return will be announced when I have been able to ship a specific number of Spring Crops in Spring.

Denny's return was announced as soon as I shipped a specific number of items in Spring.

The requirement ordinarily is a total of 30 and I expect that is the total in these circumstances as well.

In fact, it really does not matter if the 'husbands' return early or not. One full season after their departure for Mineral Town, each Rival Couple will return with their child. An early return of the husband can be managed by meeting specific requirements but even if you do nothing to facilitate the return, the entire family will return a season after their departure.

The date actually should coincide with the anniversary of their Wedding a year previously.

If you cannot experience one of Elliot and Julia's Rival Heart Events, ship 30 of the current season's Crops.

If you cannot experience one of Lanna and Denny's Rival Heart Events, ship 30 Fish.

If you cannot experience one of Sabrina and Vaughn's Rival Heart Events, ship 30 Ore.

If you cannot experience one of Natalie and Pierre's Rival Heart Events, ship 30 Cooked Dishes or at least cook them.

That is the one variable I have not confirmed: do the items actually need to be shipped?

Note that I had not ignored the husbands: they were at 10 Hearts and they left only when their wives went to Mineral Town to have their babies. I expect that the requirement for their return IS the same, however, as when you have neglected them, forcing them to leave. As previously stated, however, it is merely an odd little quirk of IoH, as the entire family ultimately returns a full season after the departure of the Rival Couple, accompanied by their child.

100% Completion in Harvest Moon

This is a subject that I need to address for myself as well as other devoted players of Harvest Moon games. Most games are based on a couple of goals: 'winning' the game, unlocking all options and finally, realising 100% completion of items and so on.

In Harvest Moon, 100% completion is optional. Yes, you have a Shipping or Items List and you can try to complete it, but the official description of any Harvest Moon game is that 'Harvest Moon is NOT a linear game'. What this means is that the game is not one where the player must go from A to B to C, down a line to Z.

Think about it. If it is a game where your character can marry, you usually can choose between individuals other girls/bachelors may desire to wed as well. If you marry the girl/bachelor, your Rival cannot. That means that, in any game where you choose a partner for whom there is a Rival, you will not be able to experience the Rival Marriage and any subsequent events involving that Rival. In a game like Tree of Tranquility, where the Rival Marriages actually produce children, you will not be able to meet the child if you marry the individual in question.

Is this bad? No. It's Life as it exists in the Real World. The path we choose changes the future. In Harvest Moon, the same holds true.

I cheat the game a little by raising all the bachelors or girls to red heart level, experiencing their events, marrying them and then reloading the game to a point where every one is single again. I therefore can 'have my cake and eat it too'. I usually try to marry a girl/guy without a Rival so I can experience all the Rival Marriages and subsequent events for those couples. I do that partly for the sake of the guides I write.

A player, though, should have absolute freedom to follow his/her heart. Why should he/she base life-altering decisions on factors like 100% completion? Harvest Moon is a virtual reality where you have a chance to lead another life. Follow your Heart!

On the other hand, delaying your marriage definitely can be to your advantage in most Harvest Moon games. In many Harvest Moon games, Rival Heart events usually cannot occur until a specific number of years have passed. The 1st Rival Heart Event can occur immediately, but the 2nd will not trigger before the 2nd year, the
3rd before the 3rd year and the most important Rival Heart Event, the 4th and final Event that leads to a Rival Marriage, will not trigger before the 4th year.

You can experience ALL Rival Heart Events EXCEPT the 4th and still marry the eligible girl/bachelor yourself. Once the 4th Rival Heart Event triggers, the Rival Marriage inevitably will follow, usually within a week.

Here are some other examples of paths that will not be open to you if you marry too quickly.

In HM DS and Cute DS, you cannot unlock the 4th Mine if you marry before you experience Keira's 1st Heart Event. Making 'friends' with Keira after marriage will not satisfy the requirement, evidently. You need to go to the 255th Floor of the
3rd Mine BEFORE you marry in order to be able to experience the Event with Carter at the Excavation Site that will unlock the 4th Mine.

Being unable to visit the 4th Mine will not diminish the quality of your life if you married in haste, but it will prevent 100% completion. If you become obsessed with 100% completion, you probably will jettison all your hard work in creating a decent and happy life for yourself with the partner of your choice to start a new game. Is this really a good decision? I don't think so. Continue to play your game, even though you won't see the inside of the 4th Mine... By all means, start a new game where you CAN unlock the 4th Mine but don't devalue the game on which you have lavished your heart and soul and so many hours of REAL TIME.

In my very first game of HM Cute, I made an 'error' that upset me immensely and almost caused me to wipe the game. Like many players after me, I fell head over heels in love with Skye and was determined to win his heart at any cost. I made the mistake, then, of triggering Part 1 of his 3rd Heart Event on a Sunday, little realising that it would cost me Part 2 of the Event. Part 2 of Skye's 3rd Heart Event may be the most romantic of all Skye's Heart Events, but failing to experience it will NOT prevent you from marrying him. Experiencing Part 1 of any of his Heart Events is all that matters in terms of fulfilling the requirements for marriage.

I actually began a new game in the other slot and began to play it, ignoring the game on which I had spent so much time and energy before I realised how foolish I was being, especially as I was working on the guides for Cute at that time. It was important for me to discover if I could experience Skye's 4th Heart Event even though I had not been able to trigger Part II of the 3rd Heart Event.

In fact, I proved that a player COULD go on to experience the rest of the Heart Events and marry Skye. This was far more important in the general scheme of things than experiencing Part 2 of the 3rd Heart Event at that point in time, long before the game was released.

Anyway, that is an example from my own life of a game where I had to resign myself to the loss of an event in favour of building a future without it.

Remember that, unlike THIS life on earth, you always can start a new game later. Few mistakes in Harvest Moon will devastate your game to the point where you cannot continue. A typhoon may occur, collapsing a Shed or a Greenhouse, but you can go on to rebuild a new one. Animals may die, but you can raise more Animals. People may die as well... but you can go on afterwards.

An example of the death of a character is Nina's death in HM DS and Cute DS. That event will occur after the birth of your child. Players who failed to obtain a Starry Night Stocking BEFORE Nina's death need not despair, however. Even if you neglected Nina during her lifetime, she did not neglect you. In a wonderful example of Harvest Moon friendship and selflessness, Nina knitted the Starry Night Stocking for you and left it with Galen before she died. If you raise your Friendship Level (FP) with Galen, you will experience an Event with him wherein he will give you the Stocking that Nina knitted for you.

Harvest Moon teaches us the value of perseverance in the face of loss. It teaches us that there are many different paths in life, that where the choices of our heart are concerned, we are free to create our own destiny.

100% completion gives a player a sense of great achievement, but it is far less valuable than the other goals in life, such as that of creating a home, finding a partner and raising a family.

Rival Heart Events in Harvest Moon Boy and Girl

After much tedious experimentation, I am convinced that, in the Boy version of the game at least, the Third Rival Heart Event cannot be experienced before the second year. This actually makes sense and is true to general principles of Harvest Moon. The game ALWAYS gives you an advantage over your rivals and HM Boy & Girl is no exception.

The 3rd Rival Heart Event in the Boy version is a two-part event in each case, rather like Skye's Events in Cute. Part I and Part II may occur in the same location but usually occur in different locations. In some cases, you can trigger Part II on the same day as Part I. I initially intended to name the event the 3rd and 4th Rival Heart Events but I soon realised that they really were connected and formed a single event.

For example, in Elli's 3rd Rival Heart Event, Part I occurs at the Beach, where the Doctor tells her that he feels he is ill-equipped to run the Clinic as most of the 'business' is related to childbirth. He speaks of leaving Mineral Town to study elsewhere. In Part II of this Event, you will find him in Confession at the Church. He will continue much in the same vein, while Carter will speak of his own insecurities but ultimately declare that he has to look within himself and stay in Mineral Town only if it serves his own needs to do so.

Another reason not to label these events as the 3rd and 4th Rival heart Events is because the marriage of the rival does NOT follow after triggering Part II of the Event. There is another Rival heart Event that must be experienced before the rival will marry the girl. I am beginning to suspect that the 4th and final Rival heart Event cannot be triggered before the 3rd Year, but I could be wrong. If any one has been able to induce a rival to marry in the 2nd year, please let me know! Ultimately, I will return to my Boy game and trigger all the rest of the events myself but in the meantime...

I must return to my very difficult life as a girl.

The Popuri Dilemma for a farmer in Mineral Town

Whether you are playing Harvest Moon Boy & Girl or Friends of Mineral Town, you will have a dilemma in your first year where Popuri is concerned. My own strategy always is to raise the heart levels of ALL eligible girls and bachelors as quickly as possible. There certainly are tangible rewards for doing this in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl, as the Blue Heart Events for a couple of the girls can increase your income rather substantially in your first Summer.

On the other hand, I like to experience as many of the Rival Heart Events as possible as well, especially for the girls I do not intend to marry. Where the other girls are concerned, this is not a problem. Both Heart and Rival Heart Events have a natural progression. Where Popuri is concerned, however, a player can run into difficulties in the first year.

If you raise Popuri's heart level daily with the gift of a Toyflower in the Spring, you should experience her Blue Heart Event at the beginning of your first Summer. In the course of this event, she will give you an Egg and ask you to hatch it.

Actually, I stopped giving her gifts in the middle of Spring, suspecting that her heart level would become far too high to experience the rival heart events in Summer if I continued to raise her heart level... even so, the damage was done, as you will see.

In HMBG, you can experience the 3rd Heart Event when the girl still is at purple heart level. She needs only to be close to the Blue Heart Level to trigger the event. Unfortunately, the 2nd Rival Heart Event no longer can be experienced if you have reached THAT level...

On 2 Summer, Popuri came to my house at 6.00 a.m. to deliver her egg to me, asking that I hatch it. She almost was at Blue heart level at that point. This is Part I of her 3rd or Blue Heart Event in HMBG.

3 Summer is Popuri's Birthday. In my first game, I gave her Toyflower on her Birthday for a boost in her heart level. When the chick hatched, I named it Popuri. When she returned to my farm at 6.00 a.m. on 6 Summer, her heart advanced to full Blue Heart level when she realised I had named the chick after her.

This was all well and good for my romance with Popuri but as the days progressed, I found myself unable to experience Popuri's 2nd Rival heart Event with Kai. I had experienced the 1st Rival heart event outside the Poultry Farm at the start of Summer, but although I suspected the 2nd Rival Heart Event would occur at the Beach, I could not trigger it at any time of the day or any day of the week, including Sunday!

I then concluded that HMBG was like FOMT in this respect: if the girl's heart level is TOO HIGH, you no longer will be able to trigger a rival heart event.

I backtracked to 3 Summer with a heavy heart and gave Popuri a Stone instead of a Pinkcat flower on her birthday. 'Yuck!' she exclaimed, 'I don't want this.' Well, obviously not, but I wanted to force it upon her for the sake of her romance with Kai. (The horrid acts we are forced to perform for the sake of a happy ending!!!)
Even when I named my chick Glitz instead of Popuri, avoiding the extra boost to her heart level in Part II of her Blue Heart Event, I had to force Stones upon her daily until finally, on 10 Summer, I was able to trigger her 2nd Rival Heart Event at the Beach at 11.10 a.m.

This was NOT an ideal progression. What I should have done was to have NOT raised her heart level so high in the Spring. (If only one had a Love Bangle in this game!)
Unfortunately, you cannot trigger the 2nd Rival Heart Event on 2 Spring, as you have to experience them in order and the 1st Rival Heart Event cannot be triggered early enough in the day to allow it... (The 2nd Heart Event cannot be triggered after 1.00 p.m.)

Even so, I could have saved many Toyflowers, and simply raised her heart to the minimum Purple level before her birthday on 3 Summer. It would have been better to have experienced the 2nd Rival heart event BEFORE I triggered the Blue Heart Event.

In monetary terms, however, it is better to obtain Popuri's egg as early as possible, so perhaps my strategy is the best, for all the heartache of having to give her items she hated repeatedly. On 10 Summer, I have experienced three of Popuri's Heart Events and two of her Rival Heart Events... and the egg she gave me should be an adult chicken tomorrow, I believe.

On 10 Summer, I have experienced three of the Heart Events and the first two Rival Heart Event for all the other eligible girls as well, with the exception of Karen's Blue Heart Event. Karen's 3rd Heart Event can be experienced only in Spring, I believe, and it is impossible to raise her heart level high enough in the first Spring. I will experience it at the start of my second year, I expect.

Ann's 3rd or Blue Heart Event is another profitable one for the player. Provided that you have her at high Purple level, as soon as you have three adult chickens who lay eggs, she will come to your farm to request that you bring her 3 eggs daily before 5.00 p.m., beginning on the next day.

Holidays do not deprive you of the opportunity to experience Part II of the event. In my game, the following day was the day of the Chicken Festival, when the Inn is locked. I therefore made my first delivery on 8 Summer and was rewarded accordingly. In fact, on 10 Summer, I have been paid for my third delivery of eggs to the Inn. Ann pays a far higher price than the shipping value of the eggs, which would be only 150G. Ann is willing to pay 450G for the same three eggs.

Ordinarily, I pop the eggs into the Hot Spring to transform them into Spa Eggs before I ship them as that increases their value by 30G. (A Spa Egg ships for 80G.)
It is more fun to deliver them to Ann, as one experiences a little event each time one makes the delivery.

I personally believe that the friendship and courtship aspects of the game should be advanced as quickly as the farming aspects. You have three years to make the farm successful in HMBG. How you choose to spend your time, money and resources is your choice, of course. Instead of giving Ann spa eggs each day in Spring, I could have shipped them and have made more money for myself. Instead of spending time visiting girls each day, I could have concentrated on crops, mining and chopping more wood.

To me, however, Harvest Moon really is more about people than financial success. I could have made more money faster perhaps if I had ignored the people for the most part, but I would not have experienced as many events as quickly. It is the events that motivate me in Harvest Moon, especially during the difficult first season.

Rival Heart Events after Red Heart Level in Harvest Moon

There are many misconceptions among players as to the Rival heart events in Harvest Moon games. First among these is the confusion between Heart Events and Rival Heart Events.

Heart Events are events that occur between your character and a prospective spouse when you have reached a specific minimum affection level with that individual. In other words, the Purple Heart Event or 2nd Heart Event can be experienced when the individual reaches Purple Heart level OR higher. At deepest red heart, you still could experience all heart events from Black to Yellow. The prospective spouse's heart level NEVER CAN BE TOO HIGH to trigger one of the heart events.

You cannot miss heart events and they must be experienced in order. If you give the 'correct' response to a question or proposed action in the course of the heart event, the affection level of the proposed spouse will be boosted. In HM DS and HM Cute DS, AP is boosted by 3000 points when you give the desired response...

Giving the 'wrong' response will not prevent you from marrying the proposed spouse nor will it prevent you from triggering the next Heart Event when the required affection level is met. What it will do is decrease the affection level, setting you back a little in the progress of the courtship. In HM Cute DS, there is one bachelor whose heart events are divided into two parts. This is Skye. You need experience only the first part of each of his heart events in order to be able to experience the next one... again, though, missing the second part of any heart event will reduce his affection level a little. Provided there are no season requirements that prevent one from experiencing any heart event in the first year, ALL four heart events usually can be experienced in the first year, allowing your character to marry before the end of the first year of gameplay, again provided all general requirements for marriage are met as well.

Rival Heart Events are the events that allow your rival's courtship of an eligible bachelor or girl to advance. In order to experience Rival Heart Events, the affection level of the proposed spouse must be at a specific level OR LOWER. In other words, unlike the Heart Events that can be experienced even at a level that is HIGHER than that required, a rival heart event will not trigger if the heart level is too high.

Once you reach deepest red heart level with a proposed spouse, rival heart events no longer will trigger. HOWEVER... to respond to a comment by some one, this is NOT a permanent state of affairs. One can LOWER the heart level of the eligible girl or bachelor in order to trigger the rival heart events if one decides one would prefer the individual to marry the rival... I have done this again and again in Harvest Moon games. I like to experience all possible events in any Harvest Moon game. In many of them, including FoMT/MFoMT and HM DS/HM Cute DS, each event is worth a specific number of points towards your Farming Degree. By experiencing ALL four heart events and all four Rival Heart Events as well, you gain maximum points towards your Farming Degree.

I will explain the method I use to do this, but first give a few more details about the Rival Heart Events. Like Heart Events, there are four rival heart events for each eligible bachelor or girl. These are Black, Blue, Green and Orange. Unlike the Heart Events, all of which can be experienced in the first year, only the first or Black Rival Heart Event can be triggered in the first year. The second Rival Heart Event or Blue Rival Heart event cannot be triggered before the Second Year. The third or Green Rival Heart Event cannot be triggered before the third year of gameplay and the fourth and final Rival Heart Event, otherwise known as the Orange Heart Event cannot be triggered before the fourth year of gameplay.

The reason for this is to load the marriage deck, as it were, in your favour. You have four years to win the bachelor or girl of your choice before there is ANY chance of your rival taking her away from you.

In my own games, I raise ALL eligible girls or bachelors to full red heart level in my first year if possible, experiencing all four of their heart events. One really does not need to raise their hearts to red heart level but only to yellow in order to experience all four of the Heart Events. I raise them to red only in order to be able to experience the Marriage Proposal Event and subsequent wedding for my guides. I do not SAVE the results or I would be married. There is no going back once the proposal is accepted!

At the start of the second year or after the Spring Festival, I then begin the painful process of LOWERING the heart levels of the bachelors or girls I do not intend to marry in order to be able to trigger the Second Rival Heart Event. If the bachelor or girl is at any level that is HIGHER than blue, the second Rival Heart event will not trigger. I therefore have to lower the heart level from Red to Blue.

There is an easy way to do this in HM DS and HM Cute DS. Each eligible girl or bachelor has one item that he/she utterly detests and which will lower AP by a full 5000 AP point and 20 FP points! I call it the 'Secret Weapon of Hate' and this information is included in my Courtship and Marriage Guide. It is unfortunate that it lowers FP as well as AP as FP does not affect heart events. For Marlin, for example, the Secret Weapon of Hate is Butter. Give him a gift of Butter and his AP will drop by 5000 points, half a full level. Give him butter for two days and you can reduce his AP from Red to Orange. Two more days will reduce it to Yellow and two more will bring it down to Green. Two final gifts of Butter will reduce it to the required Blue level in order to be able to trigger the Second Rival Heart Event.

This effectively means that, even if I have the bachelors or girls at red heart at the start of the second Spring, I can reduce their heart level sufficiently to be able to trigger the Second Rival Heart Event for each before the end of Spring in the first year. If you look at my 2nd Year Events Guide for HM DS, you will see that I did this in fact in the original 'boy version' of Harvest Moon for DS. I am doing the same in Cute and compiling my 2nd Year Events Guide now.

At the same time that I reduce heart levels using the 'Secret Weapon of Hate', I restore FP by giving them subsequent gifts each day until I have raised FP 20 points again. Remember that a second or subsequent gift does not affect AP but will affect FP. It can be a rather expensive strategy, but it works. I don't like to have any one at less than maximum FP.

By the second year, I have every one at 255 FP and have experienced all the events that depended on specific levels of FP in the first year... those events all are included usually in the First Year Events Guide. Maximum FP therefore no longer is strictly necessary, but I am very emotional where Harvest Moon is concerned and like to know that my character is universally loved! You can't do this in the real world quite as easily, alas...

All that is required, then, after experienced the Second Rival Heart event in the second year is that you raise the bachelor or girl's heart level to Green before the start of the third year in order to experience the Third Rival Heart event at the earliest possible opportunity. Raise the heart level to Yellow or Orange in the fourth year to experience the Fourth and final Rival Heart Event.

There is something that one needs to know with respect to the 4th Rival Heart Event. If you trigger it, YOUR RIVAL WILL MARRY THE GIRL OR BACHELOR ONE WEEK LATER. There is no way to prevent this from occurring, so if YOU wish to marry the individual yourself, you must not experience the fourth rival heart event. In my own games, I am long married to the individual of my choice before the fourth year, which is the earliest opportunity to trigger the fourth Rival Heart Event. Remember: experiencing the 4th Rival Heart Event guarantees the marriage of the individual to your rival!

In FoMT/MFoMT and HM DS/HM Cute DS, an invitation to the wedding of your rival depends on your friendship level with your rival. If you are at maximum friendship level with your rival, you will receive an invitation to the wedding.

There is a real advantage when you allow other couples to marry. There are a number of events that only occur in the game if other couples have married. Remember that all events are worth points in terms of your Farming Degree. Even if they had no 'point' value, however, I always would make certain that every one else in my village had the happiest possible life. One of the reasons I like the idea of marrying Skye or one of the Mineral Town bachelors in Cute is because it does not deprive any of my 'rivals' of the chance to marry. In the original HM DS, I preferred marriage to one of the Magical Girls for the same reason.

Some players are apt to confuse Rival Heart Events with true Heart Events. Remember that the only Rival Heart event that can be experienced in the first year is the 1st Rival Heart Event or Rival Black Heart Event. I actually include the full text of every Heart Event and every Rival Heart Event in my guides. If a player is not certain which event he/she has experienced, it is possible to go to my Courtship and Marriage Guide to find the event and read the text to make certain...

Finally, like the certainty of 'taxes and death', there are only two events from which there is no return in FoMT/MFoMT and HM DS/HM Cute DS as far as marriage is concerned. The first is the Blue Feather Marriage Proposal Event. If your proposal of marriage is accepted, you WILL marry the bachelor or girl a week later. If a holiday intervenes, the wedding will occur the day after the Festival, but it will occur nonetheless. The other irrevocable event is the 4th Rival Heart Event for any couple. If you experience this event, the couple WILL marry a week later. No ifs, ands or buts...

What you can do, if you have reached your fourth year without marrying the girl or bachelor of your dreams, is this:

1. Make certain that you have the bachelor or girl that you wish to marry at deepest red heart level. You then CANNOT trigger the 4th Rival Heart Event;
or
2. Make certain that you avoid the location of the 4th Rival Heart Event until you have the girl or bachelor of your dreams at full red heart level. You can find detailed information about ALL Heart and Rival Heart Events in my Courtship and Marriage Guide. If you do trigger the event by accident, DON'T SAVE! Simply reload and avoid the event...