Starting from Scratch on Summer 10 Year 1

[Boo1972]

Inspired partly by Magically Clueless’ earlier post about playing old save files but mostly by the death of my son’s gaming pc (RIP motherboard), I went back to SDV on iOS. I opened an old file that my youngest used just to run around in. It’s summer 10 year 1 and nothing was accomplished. There was a small garden I must have planted for him, but no other infrastructure. Level 5 in the mines somehow, no hearts with the villagers, level 1 farming and level 2 fishing but that’s it. Oh, and nothing has been turned into the community center. It’s kinda impressive in a weird way.

Edit:I have 460g on hand.

Anyway, I was curious. How would you get a farm like this up and running reasonably well by fall?

 

[Anhaga]

Oof. That's a bit of a challenge. How much money does he have? My inclination would be to get quick-grow plants like peppers going ASAP and to make a bunch of money by fishing.

 

[Lew Zealand]

The biggest issue I see is fewer free energy items than you are given in Spring (no Spring Onions, no Salmonberry season). So Fishing will be your best, quickest way not to run out of Energy. Next up is planting stuff you can afford and get a decent return on g. You can plant Melons on Summer 15 and harvest on the 28th if you can afford the seeds. But I think Anhaga has it with the Hot Peppers as the are quick to first harvest and you'll get 4 or 5 harvests out of them.

The rest would be to follow the quests as they're handed out as if you were starting on Spring 1 in a new save, talking to everyone, opening the CC, building a coop, Robin' Axe. All those things that get you g.

 

[One More Day]

I'd start by clearing space and hoeing and watering a dozen plots then plow the starting cash into buying and planting 12 radishes at 40g a pop, to get farming 1 for the scarecrow. Also chop enough wood for two chests, one of which goes at the farm to leave your tools in.

Then get the rod from Willy and fish the rest of the day at the mountain lake, taking the remaining 50 wood for another chest and putting it next to the fishing spot to store what you catch as you can't afford the backpack upgrade yet.

Skip Luau on the 11th and fish the lake all day. Keep the chubs for food, save the rest for cash when needed.

Day 12, I'd chop trees (cut off treetops only, leave the stumps for now) to get 300 wood to repair the bridge, and then get all the special beach forage too, that's more good cash. I'd also sell some fish to Willy and splurge on the 24 slot backpack.

Day 13, guaranteed stormy day, get that beach forage again, and forage the rest of the map because it's Saturday.

Day 14, I'd grab the last day of extra beach forage, and if luck is good I'd chop 50 more wood for a chest in the mines entrance and progress down some levels, but if luck is bad, just keep fishing, cos you can't have too many chubs to fuel yourself

Day 15, I'd be really just want to get some way down the mines even if luck isn't great

Day 16, radish harvest day. Get them up, clear lots more space and hoe water and plant as many melons as you can afford after selling the fish. You want to plant 125+ to allow for losses. Plant them today, even though you might lose a couple overnight to crows, because that's a price worth paying to harvest them on the last day of summer, and you can craft scarecrows in the morning.

Day 17 onwards, after crafting your scarecrows and watering your melons, just get descending in the mines, because you need to hit level 80 to get gold ore. Fish all day on a bad luck day, and you should earn enough to buy enough salads for fuel for the rest of the month.

Day 18 to 27, keep everything watered and keep descending until you get to 80. Farm ore and smelt for quality sprinklers. If you run out of food, spend another day fishing and sell for salads

Day 28, harvest melons, but don't sell them. Pick Tiller overnight

Fall 1, you should have hit Farming 6, so make Quality Sprinklers and lay them out. You don't need to water today. Sell the melons direct to Pierre and buy and plant pumpkins, and you can harvest and replant on Fall 15. You should have plenty of cash left over for whatever use you have for it

 

[hexnessie]

I love starting things from scratch! The first few months when every penny matters are the most fun I ever have.

I'd start by clearing weeds and planting any mystery seeds you find, then getting some hops and some red cabbage, unlocking more mine levels to make at least 5 preserver jars (picked cabbage sells for a lot), before you get enough copper and iron to make kegs for the hops...

Sounds exciting!

 

[Anhaga]

The biggest issue I see is fewer free energy than you are given in Spring (no Spring Onions, no Salmonberry season).

Don't forget that the bathhouse will be open since it's summer! So you can sit and fish by the mountain lake, running back to the bathhouse to soak briefly to get your energy back up.

 

[imnvs]

The biggest issue I would have with this is getting certain CC bundles done. I mean, let's be honest, it's not going to be easy to get quality crops when you've already lost 1/3rd of the Summer with no progress and virtually no farming skill to speak of right now...

...unless you relaxed and just tried to fix the things you can fix as you can fix them and progress as you can. I suppose you don't NEED to get the greenhouse before Winter.

 

[Boo1972]

Thanks everyone! I did have a few blueberry bushes, peppers, melons and tomatoes- I guess I was hoping he might turn items into the CC. I opted for a delayed gratification strategy. I realized the greenhouse was an impossibility, mainly because of the gold quality crops bundle. And I was right, I only got 2 gold quality melons. So to keep myself busy during winter, I spent all my money on hops, wheat and melon seed later when I had more cash on hand. I figured pickled hops would be a good money maker until pumpkins pickles in the fall and I could brew pale ale and beer once I unlocked kegs.

In some ways this was a successful strategy. I reached farming level 6 by fall, plenty of hops to give me a steady revenue stream, and wheat to use as needed. I had to sink a lot of resources in to preserve jars. I actually chose more jars over a coop at the end of summer. I wish I had planted radishes as suggested by @One More Day; they are surprisingly good sources of energy. I only got few from mixed seeds and was always excited to see them pop up!

Energy was a problem. I didn’t catch enough chub for my needs, but I ended up with 10 tomato plants thanks partly to mixed seeds. I’ve eaten so many tomatoes. Thank goodness for the spa!

I am slow in the mines so only reached level 70. Still, I am only a fire quartz away from unlocking the mine carts. I managed to unlock the dwarf, so soon I’ll be swimming in bombs. Maybe. My biggest oops moment happened in the mines. I keep a chest and several furnaces by the elevator. I like to smelt bars when I run up to drop off goodies from my backpack. I had headed to the mines and was pulling cherry bombs out of the chest when I realized I had left my pick axe at home. Somehow, I placed a cherry bomb down when I went to leave, destroying 3 furnaces. So much copper lost. Maybe I should stay away from bombs for a while. The loss of copper was a huge blow because I had just realized I forgot to make tappers. Can’t make beer without oak resin. Sigh.

I feel pretty good heading into fall. It’s my favorite season, but I’m going to be concentrating on getting animals and up grading tools to steel