Paranoic
Sodbuster
Hey, since I consider myself almost good at minmaxing, I've decided to post my first guide here ^^. It's more or less some of the random stuff I've picked up while doing my minmax runs, so the guide is focused on making the most money in as few in-game days as possible. Feel free to take away as little or as much as you want, there is no "right way" to play the game after all, however following this guide should give you a good head start in your SDV playthroughs.
General tips:
Days 1-5 (from my general minmax routine) in detail (spoiler'd them to spara you the wall of text):
That's about it for the very early game. The overall goal depends on you - you can try just chilling after the first couple days, get a lot of strawberries, or rush Skull Caverns for maximum gains. Whatever you do, I hope this guide has helped you on the head start in your new game. Good luck ^^
General tips:
- Passing out at 2 AM is almost always good. The way passing out works is: you lose 10% of your gold, up to 1000, and your energy restoration is cut in half. Both drawbacks can be negated. If you're careful with your spending and stay close to 0 gold through your early days, you won't lose ANY money upon passing out. And when you level up a skill, you wake up with full energy. Using these two facts you can maximize your productivity at no cost, as long as you stay close to 0 gold and level up skills often - which is easy to achieve early.
- Fishing is amazing in the very early game. Since spring crops are infamously bad when compared to everything else, and your starting budget is low, it's worth considering ditching farming entirely, and instead investing all your time and resources into fishing. Not only do you get instant money, but also you'll level up your fishing skill - meaning even more income in the future. I recommend spending as much time as you can fishing - ideally from 6 AM to 2 AM, as stated above
- Similarly, mining should be a priority as soon as you can enter the mines. Metal bars are important in making progress with upgrades and crafting. As long as you don't need extra money from fishing, all your effort should be put into progressing the mines from day 5 onward - except when you're upgrading your pickaxe. Again, if you plan to go mining, go all out - from 6 AM until you pass out, and focus on hitting as many elevator floors as possible (I might do a separate guide on proper mining someday later if people would want to see it)
- Speaking of upgrades: get them ASAP, there's no point in waiting, and it's the best investement you can do. If you're good at fishing, you can get a fiberglass fishing rod on day 2 and a better backpack on day 4 consistently. After that, pickaxe should be your priority. Then, it depends on your own preference - I like hoe > axe > watering can, as I go into sprinklers as soon as I can
Days 1-5 (from my general minmax routine) in detail (spoiler'd them to spara you the wall of text):
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"Make the most money you can for day 2"
The plan for day 1 is simple: gather all and any money you can get. Start the day by picking up the starter parsnips, then cut trees until you hit foraging level 1. Make a chest, deposit unnecessary stuff, and go into the world with a hoe, axe, pickaxe and a scythe (the axe and the pickaxe will allow you to enter the two "fiber spots" in the town). Forage all the forageables, scavenge the trash cans, and cut down all the fiber you can - it's all free money. If you see any artifact spots, dig them up - your first artifact donation is worth an extra 250 gold. At the end of the day chop some more trees (eat spring onions, dandelions and leeks for energy if needed) until about 1 AM. After that sell EVERYTHING through the shipping bin (yes, the parsnip seeds too - it's free 150 gold) except for about 100-150 wood for chests. Try to enter your house before 2 AM, so you don't lose 50 gold for passing out outside - this is the only day you should sleep in your bed instead of passing out.
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" Level up your fishing"
The plan for day 2 is to hit fishing level as high as you can. My own benchmark is level 4, but as long as you do your best you're good to go. If you've followed my day 1 plan, you should have somewhere around 1300 gold on you, and no crops to care for. That means you can drop all your tools into day 1 chest, pick up 50 wood for a new chest, READ THE LETTER FROM WILLY (you have no idea how many resets I've had thanks to not doing that) and head to the beach ASAP. Get your starter fishing rod, and first of: place your chest somewhere safe. From now on, look for easily accessible "bubbles" - they're the best way to gather experience. If there are no "bubbles" nearby, just fish in front of Willy's shop - do MINIMAL casts, as you're not going to catch any good quality fish either way. Always try to perfect the fish, too - it's really hard early on, but possible, and it's a huge boost in fishing exp. At 9 AM enter Willy's shop and purchase the training rod - for only 25 gold you'll have almost guaranteed perfect catches, which, again, is a huge boost in fishing exp. Keep fishing as described until you get level 2 fishing - if Willy's still open, sell all your fish, and buy a fiberglass rod (trash the other ones), about 60-100 bait, and some (at least 1) trout soups. From now on, try to do MAXIMAL casts - now you can catch gold, or even iridium quality fish, which is worth the extra time. If you need energy, eat seaweed and high quality fish before anything else. Before Willy's closes (5 PM) re-stock in trout soups and bait, so you have 0 (or close to 0) gold on you. From now on keep fishing at east side of the pier until you pass out at 2 AM. Level 4 fishing should be consistently possible if you follow these guidelines and catch many perfects. Level 5 depends on luck, however, since you need "bubbles" for it. That said, you should end up this day with a decent fishing level, some trout soups, bait, and fiberglass rod - ready for day 3.
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"Catfishing"
Day 3 is a guaranteed rainy day - this means catfishes will show up in the river. They're the best income source available, but very hard to catch this early - so if you're not good at fishing, you might want to fish in Mountain Lake instead. Whichever location you choose is up to you, the general idea is to set up the chest in a forest safe spot or mountain safe spot, and fish until you pass out (I assume you know which spots are best to catch quality fish). Use up all the trout soups you have once you hit lvl 5 fishing - it'll guarantee your perfect catches are iridium quality. By the end of the day you should have level 5-7 fishing, and a good supply of high quality fish, be it catfishes or largemouth basses. Overnight pick the "fisher" perk for extra money from fishing.
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"Mountain fishing"
This day you should be able to buy a backpack upgrade. Go to Willy's with about 2000 gold worth of fish, and fish until he opens. Sell everything you have on you, empty and pick up the chest from day 2 (you can do this without any tools, but you can also bring one with you to make it easier). With any excess money restock on bait and trout soups - again, about 100 bait should last you a good while. If you haven't found any copper ore yet, buy one from Clint - ideally you'll need a furnace on day 5, and you need the ore to unlock the recipe. But a backpack at Pierre's, and head towards the Mountain Lake. From now on it's repeat of the other days - just fish until you pass out. Save iridium and gold quality chubs as food for day 5 - they're one of the best money/energy foods you can get early on.
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"Mining day"
There are two ways to go about this day - you can try to start upgrading your pickaxe now, or you can just try and progress the mines as much as possible. Since patch 1.4.1 which nerfed explosive ammo I prefer upgrading the pickaxe on day 5, so I'll describe this way in more detail, since it's also more difficult. As always, rush into the mines as soon as you wake up. Take a pickaxe with you, alongside any leftover chests and a fishing rod with some bait. If you plan to upgrade pickaxe on day 5, you'll need to throw all fish you don't sell to Willy to shipping bin on day 4, so you have less carrying now. Rush level 11 in the mines, and re-take the elevator to level 10 until you find a good vein of copper nearby the entrance. Rinse and repeat until you have a furnace smelting 5 copper bars. You should be able to make it to Clint by 4 PM and upgrade your pickaxe, if not, reset the day until you can. After you've successfully upgraded your pickaxe, all there's left is to catch more fish while it's upgrading, as described above. Alternatively, if you don't want to upgrade your pickaxe on day 5, you can just mine from 6 AM to 2 AM and try to get as deep as you can, and get the upgrade on day 6.
That's about it for the very early game. The overall goal depends on you - you can try just chilling after the first couple days, get a lot of strawberries, or rush Skull Caverns for maximum gains. Whatever you do, I hope this guide has helped you on the head start in your new game. Good luck ^^
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