Bizarre (Imaginary) Harvest Moon Contest

There was a time when I posted 'Harvest Moon Trivia' contests on the IGN message board. It was fun to think up the questions and fun to see how quickly other fans would answer them.

This morning I thought of a truly bizarre (imaginary) Harvest Moon contest: a contest to make Dorothy's Chocolate Cookies according to Cammy's recipe. Would any one have the courage not only to attempt the recipe but to try the dish that resulted? Can you imagine???

Here are the ingredients again as given in the Event:

Me: They don’t taste much like chocolate… in fact… just what did you put in them to create a flavor like this…?
Dorothy: Ah… well… it’s a secret recipe, but…
Dorothy: Lamp Grass, Scorpion Pinch, Tuna, Carrots, Onions, Pineapple…
Me (with tear): Okay… you’re upsetting my stomach. Please, that’s enough…
Me (with many tears): Why did you put all of that stuff in it?
Dorothy: But… I just followed the recipe as shown in this book…
Me: I see… that sounds like an odd recipe. Can I take a look?

Unfortunately, it's an impossible task in our world as I doubt any one can find 'Lamp Grass' or 'Scorpion Pinch'.

There always have been odd recipes in Harvest Moon games. Remember how one could make the Suns in FoMT and MFoMT? In those days, we wondered about their uses... Now, of course, we know that they are extremely useful and can be placed in a convenient Basement or Greenhouse to grow crops out of season. Even the 'Winter Sun' has its use, to allow Fruit Trees to progress through their natural growing process to bear fruit when planted in a Greenhouse.

If only we could make 'Elli Leaves' in the real world. How wonderful to be able to take 'Failed' or 'Burnt' Food and transform it into an exotic leaf that restores energy!

The Last Item in the Mine in Island of Happiness

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Every game is different in Harvest Moon and a player can do as he/she pleases in terms of obtaining special items and completing the Shipping List.

It is most probable, however, that in terms both of the Ores List and the Shipped Ores List, the last item to be completed will be the one at the very end of each List.

That item, as many veteran Harvest Moon players would have suspected from their experienced with other Harvest Moon games, is a Lithograph.

The Lithograph is an interesting item in every Harvest Moon game in which it appears. Like the 'Bottle' that can be caught when fishing at the ocean, it is a mystery item. In some Harvest Moon games, these items will trigger special events. In others, they have no specific function in the game apart from being necessary to complete the Items List.

In Island of Happiness, the Lithograph can be found on specific floors of the Mine when using your Hoe. One of these is Floor 255, the very lowest Floor of the Mine. On 255, there are no Rocks to smash. When you arrive, you will be greeted by the Harvest Goddess who will congratulate you for your efforts and decide that your labours merit a special gift. She then will give you either a Wonderful or a special Recipe. The colour of the Wonderful is based on Farming Degree total in the same way that the colour of the Wonderful given as a prize is determined by your total when you win any Festival Contest.

There are players who have tried to obtain more than one gift from the Harvest Goddess in a single day and have failed. (I suspect many of them used cheat codes of some kind to do it, as the journey to the bottom of the Mine is a long one, even if you have sufficient energy to make it and use Pitfalls rather than stairs. I do not recommend cheat devices for any Harvest Moon game, as they tend to corrupt the data. There are too many variables that contribute to any Event. It is important to make progress in every aspect of gameplay. A code usually artificially forces the game to allow an option that would not be obtained at that point in a natural way. It acts, however, only on a single point, rather than acting on all the variables that otherwise would be effected by your character's action. This puts everything out of balance. I prefer to find 'exploitations' in the game itself. I include those in my Guides but never include codes.)

In any case, however you make the journey to Floor 255 of the Mine, the Harvest Goddess will give only one gift per day in the same way that Manfred gives only one item per day.

If you have sufficient energy when you reach Floor 255, you can use your Hoe to search for a Lithograph. As with any special item found in the Mine, the location will be random and it is possible that you will not find one at all, but Island of Happiness usually is programmed to place an average number of special items on each of the Floors where they can be found. In other words, on Floor 100, where you can find Mythic Stones, you usually can find 5 - 7, I believe (speaking from memory alone here), although the actual Rocks in which they are found will change each time you reload once you have reached that Floor. In fact, the actual number of Mythic Stones to be found will change with each reload as well, although the total will remain within the 'average' allotted to that Floor.

Floor 255 is not the only Floor where you can find a Lithograph. Based on my own experience and those of other players who posted comments as to their results, the General Guide now includes all the locations where a Lithograph can be found as follows:

In the section that lists all the floors and each item found there:

Lithograph: Floor 25, 50, 100,
125, 150, 200, 225, 250, Floor 255


It was thought that keeping a Lithograph and/or Bottle in your Rucksack would earn you points towards your Farming Degree, based on previous Harvest Moon games, but careful counting of my own points did not confirm this at all.

Incidentally, your Shipped Ores List and Ores List are almost identical in Island of Happiness. The only difference is that the four Suns are included in the 'Shipped Ores' List but are not included in the Ores List, as you cannot find them in the Mine either by splitting a Rock or by digging in the ground in Island of Happiness. They can be purchased at Chen's Market in all seasons once your Greenhouse is built.

Perishables in Island of Happiness include Wonderfuls

This is a brief mention of a characteristic of items in general in Island of Happiness. Any 'perishable' item has a Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness quotient. As time passes, the Freshness diminishes first, but it gradually will affect the Quality and Rank as well. Unless you have built a Refrigerator and Cabinet from Mythic Stone or have a 'Quality Improver' Maker to 'refresh' your items, they gradually will diminish in Freshness, Rank and Quality.

This is the case not only with respect to Crops and Fish but with respect to Wonderfuls and Suns. They actually are perishable items. The Suns purchased from Chen's Market will be of random Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness. The Wonderfuls purchased from Chen's Market or obtained on the 255th Floor of the Mine likewise will be of random Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness. It is only when you obtain a Wonderful as a prize for winning a Contest that it will be of S Rank, maximum Quality, Maximum Size and Maximum Freshness.

The reason I mention this is because any Wonderful or Sun that is 'used' by placing it in a Tool or Greenhouse respectively will diminish gradually. Furthermore, Wonderfuls 'stack' differently from all other items when set in a Tool. Ordinarily, items of the same variety will not stack automatically unless every characteristic is identical. In other words, they go into the same slot automatically only if Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness are identical.

When Charlie sets any Wonderful in a Tool, however, he will stack all Wonderfuls of the same colour. That means that an S Rank Yellow Wonderful, for example, will be stacked with a C Rank Yellow Wonderful, bringing its Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness DOWN immediately. Of course, using the 'half full/half empty' perception, you could say that an S Rank Wonderful would 'refresh' the C Rank Wonderful, boosting its Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness to some extent.

In any case, you can boost the Quality of any item by throwing it into a Quality Improver Maker, but that is the most expensive Maker in the game and you will be unable to afford one until you have made significant progress.

Remember though that the actual potency of any Sun placed in your Greenhouse will determine the amount of 'Sunlight' that your Crops receive daily. Try to use the best Suns in your Greenhouse, replacing those that have lost their potency. Toss any used Sun in the shipping container to complete your shipping list.