More Energy Tips for HM DS and HM Cute

It is interesting to note the very different effects of different cooked dishes made using the same ingredients. For example, using a simple tomato, you can make all sorts of different dishes in Harvest Moon DS or Harvest Moon Cute.

There are players who completely ignore the various effects of 'Recipes' in Harvest Moon games and who make the dish only once in order to complete their Shipping List. There are other players, like myself, who delight in every permutation of Harvest Moon games and who explore every possible avenue from mining to cooking in order to maximise their enjoyment of the world encapsulated in Harvest Moon.

One does forget some details, however, especially when one has played other games and written guides for them in the interim. By writing my new guides for HM Cute, I am able to revisit my original guides for HM DS and improve them.

In both games, it takes almost two seasons to complete the Kitchen with all implements. The Shopping Network offers one item each week and no more, apart from the items offered exclusively to the Harvest Sprites. As your character cannot acquire korobos, the Harvest Sprite items are out of reach. If you pay close attention to the descriptions of those items, you will understand that they are extremely impractical in any case.

Returning to the kitchen, however and to Harvest Moon in general, players should understand that there is a reason why one should collect items and store them even before you are able to buy a Refrigerator or Shelf. Your first opportunity to acquire a Refrigerator and Shelf will occur in the first Summer, but there are many Spring crops and wild items that are needed to complete Recipes. If you keep a few of these in your Rucksack until you are able to buy the Refrigerator and Shelf, you will be pleased that you did.

The kitchen becomes available in the first Summer as well, provided always that you expanded your house once and bought the other items offered by the Shopping Network. As previously stated, cooking implements then are offered each week, beginning with the Mixer. At the start of the second week of Autumn, you should have a Mixer, a Frying Pan and a Steamer, giving you far more choices in Recipes than you had with only a Kitchen.

A Tomato is a Summer crop but it is recommended that you collect quite a few tomatoes and ears of corn and store them in your Fridge before the season ends. You ultimately will be able to order up to three Basements from Gotz and grow crops in any season in them but in your first Autumn, you probably will not have a Basement. In any case, it is rather pointless to expand your house twice and spend your gold on a Basement before the first Winter. Your energy and gold are better spent on a Kitchen, Kitchen implements, tool upgrades and Makers from Grey.

By the second week in Autumn, I usually have three Animal Barns, three Bird Barns, a Mushroom Shed, a Maker Shed, all Makers and a full set of Blessed Tools. I upgrade my house only ONCE in order to be able to buy the Fridge, Shelf, Kitchen and all Kitchen implements as early as possible. If you upgrade your house a second time, the Big Bed will be offered immediately. There is absolutely NO POINT in buying the Big Bed BEFORE you have rescued 60 Sprites and the Harvest Goddess. Even if you have a bachelor at red heart level and have experienced all four of his Heart Events, he will not accept your marriage proposal until the Harvest Goddess has been rescued.

The reason I have 3 Animal Barns and 3 Bird Barns so early in the game is to rescue Sprites, by the way. At this point in the game, I have rescued 59 Sprites. I will be able to rescue the Harvest Goddess within a few days. All I need to do is ship 1 Bell Pepper to rescue the 60th Sprite...

The subject of this post ostensibly was Energy Tips, however, not gameplay tips in general.

Taking 1 Tomato harvested in Summer, one can make the following in the second week of Autumn in the first year.

First, one could eat the Tomato raw. That would give you: +3 SR -1 FR, restoring your Stamina by 3 points and reducing your Fatigue by 1 point. This is NOT the best use for your Tomato, however, as you might have guessed.

Without using any Utensils, you can use the Tomato to make a Salad. 1 Tomato by itself will make a Salad and that will give you +20 SR -5 FR, restoring 20 points of Stamina and reducing your Fatigue by 5 points.

If you have the Mixer, however, you can make Tomato juice with 1 Tomato. That will give you +20 SR -20 FR, restoring both your Stamina by 20 points AND reducing your Fatigue by 20 points!

Thus, if you need both Stamina and Fatigue recovery, use your Mixer and 1 tomato to make a glass of Tomato Juice. It is far more potent than a Salad made with the same tomato.

Furthermore, it is far less expensive to consume two glasses of Tomato Juice made in your own kitchen than to buy a Turbojolt XL from Van for 2000 Gold.

Here again are the values of 1 Tomato in different forms:

1 Tomato raw: +3 SR -1 FR
Salad: +20 SR -5 FR
Tomato Juice: +20 SR -20 FR

As you can see, it pays to use your Kitchen and raw ingredients wisely in Harvest Moon.