Humorous Newbie Mistakes

[susb8383]

My husband and I moved to SDV about a year ago when we wanted something new to do during quarantine. We love it, but I have to laugh at some of our newbie mistakes:

My husband couldn't get out of bed for about 20 minutes real time. Somehow he missed the instructions on how to move. He just kept clicking around the cabin moving furniture around. I finally found the answer for him online.

For some reason, I thought you couldn't give the same gift to the same person more than once so I was trying to figure out multiple things they liked. I guess I was thinking of real life.

I thought you had to ship one of everything from the bin that appears in collections, not just produce, so I was running home to ship every fish, mineral, artifact, etc.

We got a dog around the same time the trees started dropping seeds, so the first time we went outside we assumed all those little black spots on the ground were dog poop. Especially the acorns. :)

 

[Salty1]

Here's a good one:

I originally thought the 8-tile radius mentioned in the scarecrow's info blurb meant just the eight tiles immediately adjacent to the scarecrow, ala quality sprinkler. So on my first farm by summer I had used up pretty much all my wood and fiber making a dozen or so scarecrows with crop haloes. I also thought fencing was totally necessary to stave off weeds so all my crops and scarecrows were contained within little fenced areas too.

When I learned the actual scarecrow radius, it completely changed the game for me. I kind of miss all the fences sometimes, though - that was kind of fun.

 

[susb8383]

I thought the animals would trample my crops so I put fences around anything growing.

 

[susb8383]

My husband says he thought the animals would wander off the farm so he built fences for everything.

 

[Ereo]

I had the same issue with the controls and getting out of bed. Just started hitting keys until I hit escape and opened the menu. The first thing I still do on every save is move the controls to arrow keys, because I play on a laptop without mouse.

Then I fainted and lost lots of money (or so it felt!) because I didn't know about the 2 am rule.

Then I placed a chest right in the farm house door and couldn't figure out how to move it, so I couldn't get back in. I restarted after that.

 

[Worblehat]

I had the same issue with the controls and getting out of bed. Just started hitting keys until I hit escape and opened the menu.

Then I placed a chest right in the farm house door and couldn't figure out how to move it, so I couldn't get back in. I restarted after that.

Are you me? Am I you? Strikingly similar first days! (I don't play on a laptop and was fine with WASD once I looked at the controls menu, though.) Speaking of controls, I didn't know about the scroll wheel cycling through inventory slots until earlier this week.

I wasn't sure about whether I'd need fences to protect my crops from my animals, so that was one of my first questions on the forum. Still haven't actually built any fencing, and probably never will.

I didn't think through my long term plans for fruit trees, and planted apricot, cherry, and apple trees outdoors before I realized that the ones I'd be planting in the greenhouse would all start producing in Spring Y2 so the outdoors trees were a complete waste. And compounding the error, I planted the apple tree one space further down than I intended, so my path has to dogleg around it.

First visit to the Quarry Mine was kind of funny - I had no idea what was in there, what the purpose of it was, what the layout looked like, even that it was a single-level mine (so I was expecting a staircase if I mined enough rocks). Then I got far enough to meet the first of the flying skulls, which were nasty for my gear and combat level at the time. I managed to get turned around in that loop section and couldn't find the exit, so I ended up exiting to title and doing a groundhog day to avoid dying (I know "dying" isn't really a thing in this game and the consequences for getting knocked out aren't too bad, but I'm strongly opposed to it anyway).

Sort of similar story (that I've mentioned elsewhere) about my first encounter with the Prismatic Slime. I finally found it, mined the stone between us so I could fight it, and got absolutely murdered. I figured "it's just a slime, how dangerous can it be?" Pretty dangerous, it turns out.

 

[Michael LeChite]

I know I've done this before and I watched a streamer do this yesterday, but I've spent what felt like hours hunting an item in the mines / fishing and finally get my prize! I go to sort my inventory and then I throw away recently obtained prize. It's funny in retrospect however at the time it happened it's quite infuriating

Often times I won't pay attention to where I'm walking and get "stuck" on the corner of something and wonder briefly why I'm not moving

 

[lilan castel]

I had no idea how the energy system worked on my early days so I accidentally used sap as food.

 

[susb8383]

First visit to the Quarry Mine was kind of funny - I had no idea what was in there, what the purpose of it was, what the layout looked like, even that it was a single-level mine (so I was expecting a staircase if I mined enough rocks).

That reminds me; I'd heard about Skull Cavern. So when I first went into the Quarry Mine and saw the sign with the skull on it, I thought that must be it and didn't go in for the longest time. Then when I did go in, I kept thinking it somehow connected to the real Skull Cavern down a passage.

 

[Johndeere756]

I don't know if it is a rookie mistake, but the first time I went in the skull cavern it was a disaster. I was buying star fruit and thought I would pop in to check it out with no prep. I didn't make it past the first floor, lol.

 

[Phate4569]

When I first unlocked the Quarry (pre-mine) there was a Mystic Stone that dropped a Prismatic Shard.

I donated it to the museum....

Thankfully this was when wallpaper glitch still worked on Switch.

 

[Elenna101]

Another controls issue: I spent most of my first day running around uselessly trying and failing to talk to people, because I had no idea that right-click did anything. (I also failed to get the free parsnips out of the box and assumed it must be a house decoration or something...)

Also, this is less "newbie" area, but I spent a good 5-6 in game years thinking that speed-gro gave an extra harvest of cranberries, the same way it does with blueberries. I even made a spreadsheet which listed (among other things) the number of harvests from each crop with and without speed-gro, and yet I still didn't realize that the two numbers for cranberries were the same.

 

[BringsTheSnow]

I posted this elsewhere but it was funny enough I am repeating it. It somehow took me a year IRL to realize I had never collected my quest rewards after I earned them. I just thought the money popped into my wallet overnight and the quest log stayed full to show how many quests you had already completed. My longest save (post CC, savings in the millions, etc.) had an absurd amount of money unclaimed! I found this all out by accidentally dropping my PS4 controller and retrieving a quest reward. Doh!

 

[susb8383]

I posted this elsewhere but it was funny enough I am repeating it. It somehow took me a year IRL to realize I had never collected my quest rewards after I earned them. I just thought the money popped into my wallet overnight and the quest log stayed full to show how many quests you had already completed. My longest save (post CC, savings in the millions, etc.) had an absurd amount of money unclaimed! I found this all out by accidentally dropping my PS4 controller and retrieving a quest reward. Doh!

I did the same thing! Not to that extent, but I think I had 3 or 4 quests that I didn't know I needed to collect for.

 

[junimobrat]

I thought you had to ship one of everything from the bin that appears in collections, not just produce, so I was running home to ship every fish, mineral, artifact, etc.

I still do this even though I could sell them to shops. Habits.

 

[Phate4569]

The only shopkeeper I sell to is Willy,because Pierre lies and takes full credit for your good produce, but not the bad ones.

 

[susb8383]

I sell the fish to Willy if I'm close to his shop so that I don't have to carry them around. I also sell the gems to Clint if I get them from a geode but don't need them for Gunther. Yeah, Pierre's a bit of a jerk.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I'm most annoyed IRL and ISDVL about the time it takes to get anywhere. Flying cars are sooooo 1960s, gimme my Transporter! So naturally I'd find out how to get around fast in SDV. Your first great option is the Horse. And Cooking buffs are the second.

Well, instead I spent my entire first magical 180Hr save trudging around on my own slow lame feet like a loser, until the Minecarts opened up. Ooo, magic, these are great! If you need to get to the Mines. ...or Clint's.

Uh, even the Quarry. Mmmm... this is great....

Beach? meh. Cindersap Forest? why?

Yeah, I had no idea that the Horse had a function and of course I didn't spend the time to find out, same for Cooking buffs and Coffee. You can just imagine the $#%@*&# I felt when I found out how the Horse worked in my second save. I'm gonna need to learn several foreign languages to find the proper word because English fails to tersely capture the mix of annoyance, pig-headedness, frustration, bonehead, impatience (?!), gaaahhhh!, and barely even thinking farther than the corner of the box, much less outside of it. I've heard there are several fantastic German and Yiddish words created by exceptional individuals who were forced by necessity into new avenues of expression. I'll have to search there first.

So it is any surprise that in the SDV Survey thread, that the Return Sceptre is my favorite item in SDV? There are many days that I'll just wave it about on multiple nonconsecutive occasions to return to the Farm in a flourish of ssccchhhhheeeeeeaaaaaaoowwnnnnnnnn......

Just. Because. I can.

 

[imnvs]

My first save I hadn't realized the awesomeness of the horse/stable until far too long in myself. In every save since, though, you best believe the first thing with a hardwood cost that I invest in is that stable. Then you drink some coffee and eat some speed food and you feel like the Flash as you zoom along on your horse.

But @Lew Zealand, my friend, that Return Sceptre... that is the first thing I spend 7 figures on in every save too. And similarly, the first thing I spend Qi Gems on is the Horse Whistle. I'll ride my horse to a part of my farm removed from the house, gather stuff, suddenly I'm home, walk in the door, put stuff away, walk outside and hop on my horse again!

 

[susb8383]

How about that horse flute, huh?