A player emailed me today as follows:
Hi Freyashawk,
First I just wanted to say thank you for all your guides, I have used many of them over the years as I am an avid Harvest Moon (and Rune Factory) fan! I've recently been playing Hero of Leaf Valley and just had a question that I'm wondering if you know anything about. For some reason, I can't get my dog's affection to go up! And actually, I've lost the heart I had when I first was able to adopt him. I feed and pick him up once a day, and have started feeding milk or fish but still haven't gotten my heart back (on Summer day 2). Could this be because I don't have a dog house for him yet? I got him just before rainy season so unfortunately he was outside all day in the rain for quite a few days in a row.
END OF EMAIL
Actually, the answer as well as all details required for care of your Dog and other Animals is included in my HoLV Walkthrough/General Guide now, but for those players who have not read recent versions of the guide, a post on the topic may be helpful.
The player who wrote to me is correct in surmising that the loss of the heart is due to her failure to protect her dog from the elements. You do not need to purchase the Dog House in order to keep your Dog healthy, however. You can carry him into the house when the weather is inclement.
Bear in mind the fact that you can lose affection with him if you do not carry him outside again when the weather improves!
The point values of every action that can be undertaken towards your Dog are as follows:
Animal Friendship Levels
As with the Characters you meet in Leaf Valley, Animals have Friendship Levels of their own, and raising these Levels can be critical to your success in life.
The system that awards Friendship Points to Animals is a little different from that which applies to other Characters. In fact, you can lose Hearts with Animals as well as gain them.
Animal Friendship Levels are as follows:
0-29 FP = 0 Hearts
30-79 FP = 1 Heart
80-129 FP = 2 Hearts
130-179 FP = 3 Hearts
180 - 219 FP = 4 Hearts
220 - 255 FP = 5 Hearts
These values apply to all Animals, whether they are Pets, Poultry or Livestock. The difference between each Animal type in terms of Friendship is that you interact with each differently and earn FP through different actions.
Friendship with your Dog
Even when you do not own a Dog, your actions with respect to the two stray dogs in the Valley will determine your future ability to adopt one.
You will find a food dish next to your Farmhouse even at the start of the game. Although you do not own a pet Dog, you should leave food in the dish daily in order to be able to court the stray dogs of the Valley. When your Friendship Level with the Dogs reaches 31 FP, you will have the option to pick up either Dog. The first time you pick up either one of the two Dogs, you will be given the option to adopt.
At that point, you will be able to choose which of the two dogs you wish to adopt, irrespective of the Dog with whom you currently are interacting. To adopt the Dog you are NOT holding, choose 'No' when you are asked if you wish to adopt it.*
After adoption, your duties and responsibilities with respect to the Dog you have chosen will increase.
If you wish to delay the adoption of a Dog by ignoring the invitation to pick him up when his FP reaches the required level, you can do so and his FP will not decrease. You will be able to continue to raise his Friendship Level slowly by filling the Food Dish daily but until you have adopted him, you will be unable to gain any FP from other actions.
Various actions will raise his Friendship on a daily basis, but other actions will cause his FP to decrease.
To increase FP each day:
+2 FP: Pick up your Dog
+2 FP: Whistle for your Dog (use the L Button, then Choose the 'Dog')
+2 FP: Play the Ocarina to train the Dog
+1 FP: Place any food item other than Milk or Fish in the Food Dish
+2 FP: Place any ordinary Milk or Fish in the Food Dish
+6 FP: Place Gold Milk in the Food Dish
To decrease FP:
-20 FP: Forget to feed your Dog
-20 FP: Hit the Dog with a sharp Farm Tool
-20 FP: If your Dog is Sick for an entire Day without Treatment
-5 FP: Awaken your Dog when it is sleeping
Other actions result in an FP decrease by the hour:
-2 FP per hour: Taking or keeping the Dog outside in bad Weather if you do not have a Dog House
-1 FP: Leaving your Dog in any area other than the Homestead
-1 FP: Keeping your Dog inside the House when the Weather is good
As you can see, the act of adopting a Dog in Hero of Leaf Valley forces you to assume a fairly serious amount of responsibility each day. The rewards, however, can be very great. It is your Dog who will find the Power Berries that are hidden in the Valley and these can increase your total Energy capacity.
The Dog can find other useful items as well.
The items your Dog can find, with the probability of finding them is as follows:
80% chance of finding a Power Berry until he has found all four of them.
There is a 5% chance of finding Pontata Root, Black Truffle, White Truffle, Star Truffle or Baby Truffle while the Power Berries remain undiscovered.
Until your Dog has found all 4 Power Berries for you, the chance of finding any other item remains at 5%. Once you have obtained all the Power Berries, the chances of finding the other items changes to:
50% chance of finding Pontata Root.
20% chance of finding a Star Truffle.
10% chance of finding Black Truffle, White Truffle or Baby Truffle.
Note that you will not be able to direct your Dog to search for items until you have gained 2 Hearts with him. The 'Search' Command is one of seven commands you can teach him by playing your Ocarina.
Ocarina Commands
To play the Ocarina, you first must equip it. Even when you own one, you will not be able to play it until you have adopted one of the two stray dogs in the Valley.
Playing a Melody on the Ocarina is effected by the use of the Square Button in conjunction with the Directional Buttons.
The commands with the FP Levels and melodies that are linked to each are:
Sit Command: Requires +31 FP
Press Up, Left, Down
Stay Command: Requires +31 FP
Press Up, Down, Down
Come Command: Requires +51 FP
Press Left, Right, Right
Search Command: Requires +71 FP
Press Down, Left, Up
Pursue Command: Requires +71 FP
Press Right, Left, Right
Jump Command: Requires +96 FP
Press Left, Up, Right
Beg Command: Requires +126 FP
Press Down, Up, Up
Note that you must hold down the Square Button while you input the Directional Commands, rather like 'charging' a tool in other Harvest Moon games. If you fail to do this, your Character simply will take the Ocarina from his Rucksack and return it quickly to his Rucksack. Once in awhile, you may persuade him to play a single note, but that will be the extent of it. If, however, you press the Square button firmly and hold it down, you will be able to play all the melodies that constitute valid commands.
Whether or not your Dog chooses to obey is another matter entirely, but simply playing a Command for him will increase his FP by +2 Points.
A Dog's Special Abilities
Unlike the Poultry and Livestock you can own in HoLV, your Dog has special abilities that will increase when you perform specific actions on a daily basis. These special abilities or traits are Intelligence, Speed, Perseverance and Wildness. Your Horse has his own Special Abilities, but these will be discussed in another section.
To increase these abilities, perform the following actions:
When you call your Dog by whistling to him, it will increase his Intelligence. His Intelligence Level will determine his success in obeying your Commands.
When you train your Dog using the Ocarina, his Speed will increase.
When you Feed your Dog each day, it increases his Perseverance, the trait that will strengthen his immunity to Sickness.
Barking is the sign of Wildness and picking up your Dog on a daily basis will decrease his tendency to bark.
*It appears from a player's comment that if you do not wish to adopt the Dog who first gives you the option, you either need to hunt down the one you like better or wait until he appears, then pick HIM up and choose the option to adopt...
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12 comments:
If you select "No" for adopting a dog, you still have the opportunity to adopt either dog. You have an option until you select "Yes" for one of the two dogs.
I knew you still could adopt one of them, but I was unsure as to when the option appeared. From your comment, it seems that you have to WAIT until you see the dog you like better and then pick THAT one up and choose to adopt it. Correct?
And thanks for your confirmation here.
Exactly right. Pick up the dog you like and select to adopt it. If you pick up the other one, you can say "No" to adopting it, but you still need to pick up the one you want and select "Yes" before the ordeal is done with.
Hi, Freya,
I am playing HOLV, I'm going to restart the game because I had problems with my dog. Namely it's affection did not increase even though I gave it food everyday and picked it up, I whistled for it, played the ocarina. I already had two scenes where Gwen came in the morning to the homestead to help me take care of the dog because it was too weak. She even punched me in the second event! Can it be because I gave the dog either green herb, very berry or red herb? I was trying to save some of the food items like milk and eggs for selling.
I'm not sure if I had the dog already when I had a week of rainy days...and if I've kept it inside the house at that time.^_^ I'm thinking that the green herbs might have caused the dog to be sick.
The scene when Gwen punched was hilarious though. After the scene I went to her to see her affection, it remained light blue, so I guess it was okay, but I'm still going to restart the game because I wanted to take advantage of the new tips that you've given in your blog.
Thanks for giving us great guides for my favorite games.
I wish Natsume would have heroine of leaf valley on PSP of course since I don't have DS. hahaha.
Deej, there is NOTHING wrong with giving the dog Green Herb. In fact, I advised it in my initial Walkthrough before I realised how useful Green Herb is in restoring Fatigue Levels. Anything that goes into the Bowl will become decent food, although Milk and Fish are worth more than other items to the Dog. You actually CANNOT lose Affection with Characters in HoLV, but you can lose Hearts with Animals. You SHOULD keep the Dog inside the house if the weather is bad and you don't have a Dog House, but 5 days in the house evidently can make an Animal sick if the Animal is in a Bad Mood... it's a chance, not a certainty.
Are you serious about Gwen punching you??? I wish you had the text of that one. I'll have to try to do that someday on a file to see if I can capture the Event in film...
By the way, as you can save on the PSP on at least 7-9 different slots, why not keep the old file and simply start a new file?
Yes, I wish we could play a girl as well in this game...
I'm still in year 1 summer. So I guess its okay to restart. My strategy is to save file 1 for spring 3 y1 always. 2 for the season before. Then 3 to 8 for each day as I progress. Haha. Weird but I'm a control freak. Hahaha. And I think you gave the advise about keeping a file for a week before, a day before and a season before...just in case, something undesirable happens.
Yup. Pretty sure about the punch. Hahaha. I'll check if I still have it on my saved games and try to get the text of the event. Fingers crossed.
Got it. My hero got punched. 2nd event with Gwen about my dog.
Gwen: jilly (my dog)...got sick again? Are you paying any attention to your animals?
You have to feed them and talk to them every day! It's not that hard. Sure, sometimes animals will get sick for no reason. But it really seems like Jilly's been neglected.
My hero crosses his arms
Gwen: hmph. Nathan (hero)...Don't move.
Then the punch.
Gwen: that's nothing compared to the amount that Jilly suffered!! This is the last time I'll nurse Jilly back to health. You've got to learn to take care of your own animals! If you let your animals die from neglect...
...well, I don't think you'll be very popular in town. So start treating your animals right!
the end
that was an ouch for me. The thing was, it happened on the 2nd week of summer...no rain for 2 weeks! Some cloudy but no rain. Btw, Gwen was purple heart then it became light blue after it happened. There was rain by the last week of spring. I think I got my dog the third week of spring. There was rain, the last week...agh! I can't remember if I've kept my dog inside. All I can remember is that I've fed my dog nothing but green herbs when summer began. But since you send that was not the cause, then I might have left my dog out when it was raining. Bummer. Oh well, at least I got to see two rare events from Gwen. Hahaha.
Btw, will my fp increase with my dog if i play my ocarina even if he has low fp? I know he won't sit even if i give the commands but will its affection increase? (for effort).
Well done! Much obliged to you. I will add this to my Characters Guide for HoLV. How would you like to be credited?
As for 'neglect', well, it's far more complicated in HoLV than in other games. You have to pick up your dog daily, whistle for him daily and feed him daily or risk a 'bad mood'. Sickness can develop from a 'bad mood' as well as from catching a cold in bad weather or not being fed. I think that playing the Ocarina to train him gives you +2 FP even when he doesn't obey.
As far as awakening animals after they have fallen asleep, officially it is supposed to be 7.00 p.m. but often the animals continue to move about quite late at night. To be on the safe side, it's best not to touch them after 7.00 p.m. but certainly not after 10.00 p.m.
YOu actually can wait until 6.00 a.m. on a rainy/snowy day to use the bell to put the Animals back into their houses... no ill effects. It is if you wait until 7.00 a.m. or afterwards that you will begin to lose FP.
You know, if you wish to research this further for me, I would love to know what would happen if you neglected the Dog once more! Don't save the results, but do copy the dialogue and let me know what happens if possible.
Just credit it to Deej mD (djo_md@hotmail.com). I'd know. Thanks so much. I'll try it out. I'll go to sleep immediately after I wake up without picking up the dog or giving it food. My other animals might suffer...all for research's sake. LOL.
But I have to admit, though it's just a game, I really don't like being told that I've been neglectful of my animals, especially if I've been doing the best that I could. Nor do I want to see them die. I think I remember in one of your blogs, that you prefer selling them when it's time for them to die due to old age. I feel the same way completely.
I'll send it when I can play the PSP again. I'm at work right now. I'll try to send it as soon as I can. If there is any... ^_^
Yes, I share your empathy towards your animals, even though they exist only in the virtual world of Harvest Moon and you have a good memory. I never allow an Animal to die if I have an option to sell it when it exceeds its normal life expectancy. I will allow the event to occur once in the game on a temporary basis in order to document it, but then always reload and even though it 'never happened' in the real game, the memory of those graveyard scenes with the doleful tolling of the bell haunt me a little.
I have credited you in the HoLV Characters Guide, by the way. Thank you again.
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