Does anyone else avoid gifting a lot the first year?

[Orphea]

I used to not do it often before. But now that I usually speedrun the first year as much as I can without confusing my game or my save file, I gift the villagers almost every day. This way, I can just relax by next year. And that was a few playthroughs ago, because now, I use the item spawner to give them a different give every time I do so that I can see all possible gifts that they love, like, are neutral about, dislike, and hate. I base them off of the wiki and the game’s files. I know this is immersion-breaking, but hey, after playing the game countless times, it’s gotta be excused for cutting time, right?

 

[Gamer1234556]

I hardly gift villagers the first year, because talking to them regularly (in order to see as much dialogue as I can at different levels) gains enough points on its own. I'm already at 6 hearts+ with everyone by Spring of the following year without gifting much. Also, the slower progression seems to make the heart-events flow more naturally. (Though you should try to see Sam's 3-heart event before it's missed year 1 summer, and see Alex's 2-heart event year 1 summer.)

Birthday gifts give too many points, so I don't even bother with birthdays until the second year. This feels more natural anyway, because you "know" the villagers better by then. I feel like giving villagers a bunch of loved gifts all the time makes them seem shallow, as if they are all easily won over by gifts from a stranger, or as if they all prioritize gift-giving as their love language.

I've done this on both my playthroughs, and it works pretty well. Maybe give a gift or two to some key villagers that you want to get something from early. My first gift is a Leek for George to fulfill one of the first tasks, and it's also revealed to you early by Evelyn that he loves them. Then I think I gave a Horseradish to Caroline and Spring Onion to Linus (It's spring after all, and these are cheap :p), and a Joja Cola to Sam (one that I found fishing :p), so I don't miss his summer year 1 heart event, stuff like that.

However I do start gifting Clint a few loved stones (Amethyst, Topaz, Ruby, etc.) early on in order to not miss his 6-heart event later. Funny enough I am good friends with him before anyone else despite his unpopularity. (He still makes me cringe when he says "Congratulations" during Emily's 8-heart event).

It's not really the issue that I avoid gifting anyone during Year 1, it's more that the gifts you get in Spring are kind of terrible. Most of the villager's love list tend to feature items that you can only get much later on, like around Year 2 Spring or maybe a bit earlier. The best thing you get are Daffodils, and even then here are a plenty handful of characters that are neutral to them or just outright hate them.

Funnily enough, birthday gifts are actually the primary reason to start early, because you would be surprised just how early you can max out some friendships in Year 1. Pam, Shane and Emily tend to be the earliest ones since I am in the Saloon all the time, and that their favorite gifts are pretty effortless to obtain. Then later on you get Diamonds which I tend to give plenty of since they are a loved gift for most. It's really around Fall where I start going to the Skull Cavern more where I start to forget gifting people since the routing to certain characters tends to be a question of losing time for more look at the Skull Cavern.