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!

Life without the Fishing Bonus in Cute

Players of early editions of the original Harvest Moon DS were blessed with an exploitation that occurred in the game in Winter whenever one hired the Fishing Team. Quite randomly, but regularly, the Fishing Team would deposit a billion in gold into total earnings at the end of the working day. One need not have rescued more than two of the Team members in order to experience this largesse.

With the Fishing Bonus, one would have more than enough money to purchase the Island when the New Year rolled round. Thomas would come to the door, offering to sell your character an Island. This all would occur before the second day of Spring in your second year of the game, provided you had hired the Fishing Team in Winter.

In fact, you could get the billion gold bonus again and again...

Well, the Fishing Team Bonus was eliminated from later editions of the original Harvest Moon DS game and it apparently has been eliminated from Cute as well. Having hired the Fishing Team from the 1st day of Winter, I am nearing the end of the season and have not experienced ANY large deposits of gold in my total earnings.

I had expected nothing different, to be honest. The Fishing Bonus made the game far too easy. So how does one make enough money to be able to trigger the Island event on the 1st day of Spring???

There are a number of ways to do it, but all involve intensive labour. Harvest Moon, after all, is a game that extols the philosophy of diligent, hard work.

The best way to make the money, in my opinion, is by finding Mythic Stones in the Third Mine. In order to do this, you have to invest a fair amount of money in the game to transform a full set of Cursed Tools into Blessed Tools. Removing the curse from a Blessed Tool costs 100,000G. That effectively means that you need to spend 600,000G in order to obtain a full set of Blessed Tools.

The Blessed Tools are worth the price, however, even without the added bonus of the appearance of Mythic Stone in the Third Mine. With the Blessed Tools, one can accomplish anything. The Mythic Tools are even better, but one can do anything with the Blessed Tools that one can do with Mythic Tools, although it will take a little longer.

For example, there are some clusters of boulders outside the Excavation Site. With a Mythic Hammer, one can smash ALL of them in a single stroke, netting 15 pieces of Material Stone daily. With a Blessed Hammer, one must deliver two strokes, one for the left and one for the right, netting 9 pieces from the right side and 6 from the left.

In fact, it is a good idea to collect ALL the Material Stone one can once one has either the Blessed or Mythic Hammer. One needs 999 pieces to build a Basement, after all...

The other two large deposits are in the middle of the field south of the Excavation Site and next to the first Hot Spring tot he right of the Circus grounds. Smash all of these daily for a total of 43 pieces of Material Stone.

Harvest Moon is a collection game, after all. If you make the rounds of the Valley stone deposits daily, you will have enough Material Stone for a Basement in 23 days without ever smashing a small stone... There is a considerable difference in the price of any construction project if you are able to provide the Material Stone yourself... Gotz charges 200G for each piece of Material Stone.

In Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon Cute DS, construction of many buildings offers a choice of materials, including Fodder! You can order Bird Barns, Animal Barns, Maker Barns, Mushroom Sheds and Basements made of Fodder, Wood Lumber, Material Stone or Gold Lumber. A Pond and any House Expansion require Material Stone, however, without any option to use cheaper materials.

The danger of building from Fodder or Wood is similar to that in the old tale of the Three Little Pigs. Any storm can blow the house down, killing all occupants. If you are building the structures as a temporary measure in order to rescue Harvest Sprites, go ahead and use Fodder, as long as you make certain to control the weather until you finally decide to sell the animal occupants and demolish the buildings.
You will need a total of 5 Bird Barns to rescue Woohoo and a total of 3 Animal Barns filled with adult livestock in order to rescue Red Ribbon. Once the Sprites are rescued, you can sell the animals and order demolition of the extra buildings if you wish. Remember, though, that many Sprites are rescued through Animal Care and the shipment of ranch products. You can rescue them faster if you have many animals. Sprites are rescued when you ship 300, 500 and 1000 eggs, wool or bottles of milk. Sprites are rescued when you shear sheep 100, 300 and 700 times with the Touchglove. In like fashion, Sprites are rescued when you milk cows using the Touchglove 100, 300 and 700 times. Sprites are rescued when you pet, brush or speak to your animals 50, 350 and 900 times. Sprites are rescued when you use the Touchglove to pet your animals 50, 100, 300 and 500 times. Sprites are rescued when you wash your animals with brush and Touchglove 50, 100, 300 and 500 times... Well, you get the idea.

Use of the Touchglove in ANY of these activities can be very hard on your DS, by the way. I ruined one DS solely through use of the Touchglove in HM DS, and it had to be sent to Nintendo for repair! I now use a screen protector and a pen stylus always. Furthermore, once I have rescued all possible Sprites, I use the Touchglove very sparingly, only raising the heart level of a single Animal in each category in order to be able to win the Festivals, produce the best product and breed to the next level. It is not worth the wear and tear on the DS to do more than this.

To be honest, I was rather sorry that the Touchglove requirements had been retained for Cute. It is my least favourite aspect of Harvest Moon for the DS. One can hire the Sprite Team to perform Animal Care and Animal Ranch product collection, however, and their efforts will raise animal heart levels for you.

Returning to the original subject of this post, however, it is far more difficult to raise enough gold in Cute to be able to afford the Island on the 1st day of the second year than it was in the original Harvest Moon DS. If I were playing a game that I would be able to KEEP, I would do it, but as this cartridge must be returned to Natsume ultimately, I am not certain it would be worth the effort... As it is, I collect and ship at least one piece of Mythic Stone through the Can Food Maker each day for 30,000G as well as shipping whatever jewelry I find in the Excavation Site on my way out of the mines. With ordinary expenses for building projects and the blessing of various Cursed items, I am not saving as much money as I otherwise could if I were obsessed with the Island purchase. Certainly, I will have sufficient savings when the third year rolls round without making superhuman efforts.

As the first Winter draws to a close, I still am trying to talk myself OUT of the effort of making sufficient gold to trigger the Island purchase scene at the start of the second year. I originally told myself I wouldn't bother to collect a full set of Blessed Tools in a game that ultimately would be erased... and yet, I did.
I originally told myself I wouldn't bother to rescue any Sprites above the total of 60 required to rescue the Harvest Goddess, and yet I continue to rescue Sprites...
I originally told myself... well, a leopard cannot change its spots, and I am an obsessive, thorough player by nature. I play the best game I can irrespective of its ultimate fate.

In fact, there is one more 'exploitation' that has been eliminated from Cute, making it more difficult to become rich early in the game. Van no longer will buy Blessed Accessories or the Accessories you purchase at the Casino. In the original Harvest Moon DS, you could sell Accessories to Van for a very nice profit. In Cute, Accessories cannot be sold.

When one reviews the essential nature of Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon Cute DS, however, one realises that it makes more sense NOT to allow a player to accomplish everything in the first year. After all, the game lasts 255 years!!!