Flower Dance

Batdog97

Greenhorn
Am I just an idiot, or is it impossible to get someone to dance with you on your fist Flower Dance? I’ve tried in all my saves so far, Leah said no, and so did Emily even though I’ve been giving gifts and talking with them.
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
imnvs or Blade have more extensive information about this but I think the consensus is that Haley or Shane are your best bets as you need 4 Hearts with someone before they'll dance with you, and that's tough in Year 1. Haley is possible thanks to her Birthday earlier in the month but it's difficult to get her Loved gifts that early. You can give her Liked gifts like the easily Forageable Daffodil but I don't think that's enough see below. Shane is the same with an early Birthday but you can buy him his Loved Beer at the Saloon so I assume that's a straightforward strategy.

OK, let's see:

4 :heart: = 1000 Friendship points
Flower Dance is on Spring 24

24 talks = 24 x 20 points = 480 points
8 Liked gifts = 8 x 45 points = 360 points
1 Liked Birthday Present = 360 points

Total = 1200 points so doable with Liked gifts, but for Haley that's 9 Daffodils. Better get foraging! You'll likely miss chatting on a few days and maybe only get 6 Daffodils so it's still doable as long as you make sure to save one for her birthday.
 
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Lew Zealand

Helper
Heh, I don't think it's a coincidence that the 2 least initially likable characters are the ones you need to ply the hardest at the beginning of the game to dance with at the Flower Dance.

FWIW I'm married to Haley in my current save specifically because she doesn't get a lot of love from many players and (spoiler): she has a big change of heart and is a nutty nut of a spouse.
 

Ereo

Helper
I'm pretty sure the others work too.

Let's look at Leah:

Talk: 24 * 20 = 480
Gifts: she loves salad, so you could get her loved gifts all the time. And she likes driftwood, daffodil and dandelion.

Loved gift: 80 points
Liked gift: 45 points
Liked gift with gold quality: 56 points
You get an additional 10 points each week were you give two gifts.

you still need 520 points after talking.
80*8 + 30 = 670.

So you wouldn't even need all loved gifts.

It's a lot of work, but if you want to, you can get anyone to dance with you.
 

Boo1972

Farmer
I'm pretty sure the others work too.

Let's look at Leah:

Talk: 24 * 20 = 480
Gifts: she loves salad, so you could get her loved gifts all the time. And she likes driftwood, daffodil and dandelion.

It's a lot of work, but if you want to, you can get anyone to dance with you.
I have 5 farms with 4 spouses and had no idea you could dance with anyone if you worked hard enough. Haley is the only one I’ve managed to dance with at the first flower dance, thanks to a coconut purchased from the traveling cart. A loved birthday gift makes all the difference.
 

imnvs

Local Legend
I do believe it is theoretically possible to dance with anyone... though I haven't done the math for every candidate. For most, though, you really will have to work for it. The ones requiring the least work are Haley and Shane, of course, because of their birthdays coming in before the dance making a big difference. It's a little late in the day for me to do a good research project, but I could take a look some time within the week, though, surely.
 

Elenna101

Farmer
Yeah, you can definitely get all the spouses to dance with you at the first dance. I don't have time to do the math now, but this thread on the old forum and this reddit post have a detailed breakdown of how to do it. (Not sure what it says about my priorities that I remembered a forum thread about this from 2019. Why can't I apply this sort of memory to stuff like where I left my keys? :P )

Basically, you can get mostly gold-quality liked gifts for all of the candidates, even if you can't get loved gifts, because vegetables are a universal like so you can just plant a bunch of parsnips. Gold quality parsnips plus a couple silver parsnips from week 1 plus talking every day isn't quite enough, but you can usually get a couple extra either from a dialogue option in a heart event or by switching one out for a loved gift that's available in Spring. (Also you can talk to them at the egg festival now, which helps.)

For the three who hate all vegetables (Abigail, Haley, and Sam):
- Haley likes daffodils. It might be harder to get her gold-quality daffodils consistently, but giving her one on her birthday makes things pretty simple.
- Quartz, salad, or flowers are all liked gifts for Abigail, but unless you plant a lot of flowers (unfortunately more expensive than parsnips) you probably can't consistently get gold quality. But she does love amethysts which you can get in the early levels of the mines, so you can make up friendship points by getting a few of those.
- For Sam, you can go with any other liked gift (e.g. Joja Cola, which is reasonably cheap) and make up the deficit from not having it be gold quality by buying him a pizza or two, which he loves.

Also, if you happen to get a "Help Wanted" quest from the bachelor(ette) you want, that gives a whole 150 points which obviously adds a lot of leeway. You can only get Help Wanted quests from people you've met (although unfortunately you can get mining and fishing quests even if you haven't met Clint or Willy). So it might help if you avoid meeting other people until after the dance. On the other hand, the vegetable strategy from the Reddit post assumes you get the 100 points from meeting everyone. YMMV.
Also @BlaDe has a strategy for manipulating RNG to force billboard quests to appear - apparently you can manipulate it by changing the number of recipes you know?

EDIT: One other note, on the morning of the flower dance, you can enter the forest if you get to it before 6:10 am. Not sure if that's possible from the main house (probably not), but you can get Robin to build a cabin close to the south exit of the farm and sleep there the night before. This lets you speak with Shane and/or Leah on the morning of the flower dance for a few extra points. You probably won't need those points, though, since Shane is super easy and Leah has a buyable loved gift, so it's likely not worth the hassle.
 
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BlaDe

Farmer
Also @BlaDe has a strategy for manipulating RNG to force billboard quests to appear - apparently you can manipulate it by changing the number of recipes you know?
The type of billboard quest you get is fully based on the day and game seed.
Who you get is based on the day, game seed, and the order of people you have met.
The item that is requested is based on the day and game seed. It can be adjusted slightly by learning the furnace recipe, unlocking the desert, and going deeper in the mines. It can be majorly manipulated by the amount of cooking recipes you know.

My predictor (linked in my signature) has a billboard mode that can demonstrate how the RNG is affected.
 

Johndeere756

Planter
I have done it with Haley and Emily on two different files. With Emily I spent a lot of time in the mines and got a bunch of topaz, a loved gift. Because of her birthday Haley is easier to dance with the first year. No idea about the guys though.
 

Boo1972

Farmer
No one has answered the real question- yes you CAN get someone to dance with you, but do you really want to? Sure, it embarrassing to get rejected by every available villager but dancing is down right humiliating. Maybe you can brush off your extreme lack of coordination the first time- hey, you’ve never done this dance before- but the 2nd? 3rd? 4th? At some point, the villagers will refuse to look you in the eye. When your spouse mentions the flower dance and suggests now that you’re married you don’t have to go, they are trying to tell you something. You are a terrible dancer. Take the hint. Spend the day fishing instead.
 

Elenna101

Farmer
No one has answered the real question- yes you CAN get someone to dance with you, but do you really want to? Sure, it embarrassing to get rejected by every available villager but dancing is down right humiliating. Maybe you can brush off your extreme lack of coordination the first time- hey, you’ve never done this dance before- but the 2nd? 3rd? 4th? At some point, the villagers will refuse to look you in the eye. When your spouse mentions the flower dance and suggests now that you’re married you don’t have to go, they are trying to tell you something. You are a terrible dancer. Take the hint. Spend the day fishing instead.
Seriously, you'd think after 8 years in the valley someone would have taught my farmer that dance! Or at least offered one of those dresses the other girls are all wearing...
 

Worblehat

Planter
I never really paid attention to the dance part before, but I just did the dance for probably the last time (definitely the last on this save), and it didn't seem too bad. If you wear dinosaur pants, it's really entertaining to watch your tail swishing back and forth with the dancing! 🦖

One could argue that this raises additional questions, but being married to Maru I just assume it's a clever application of robotics.
 
I never really paid attention to the dance part before, but I just did the dance for probably the last time (definitely the last on this save), and it didn't seem too bad. If you wear dinosaur pants, it's really entertaining to watch your tail swishing back and forth with the dancing! 🦖

One could argue that this raises additional questions, but being married to Maru I just assume it's a clever application of robotics.
That sounds like it was highly entertaining!
I just danced with someone for the first time in the first year on a save file! It's odd how I never thought to do so before that point.
 
That sounds like it was highly entertaining!
I just danced with someone for the first time in the first year on a save file! It's odd how I never thought to do so before that point.
Yep, I agree. This sounds cute and funny as heck. I have to admit, when I paid attention to the dancing it did seem almost unbearably dorky if I imagined myself doing exactly as the characters did (amongst my peers)... 😂 I have to agree with Boo1972 on that one.
 
I don't think you could catch me doing that out in public. I might be that dorky for my kids, but around everyone else, not happening!
I made a transparency file of the image where you hand is raised up and you mouth is wide open. Every time I see it I just laugh!
 

Worblehat

Planter
I wonder if some of the flower dance issues in this thread depend on the gender of your farmer.
where you hand is raised up and you mouth is wide open.
This does not sound familiar at all; the male farmer's face isn't visible, since we're watching the male dancers from behind.
 
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Lew Zealand

Helper
Being married to Haley means that, while she's ready to cede the title of Flower Queen to one of the Valley Ladies In Waiting, it is not allowable by all the powers vested in her for me to gain said title. In any household of the many Valleys of Star- and other Astronomical-Dews, there shall be one and only one Flower Queen. Never shall there be more than one, two is one too many, and three is right out!

Unbeknownst to her but beknownst to me, I've been sending away for Flower Queen correspondence courses behind her back from Hollywood Upstairs Flower Queen And Related Ethnographic Dances School.

Yes, yes! That HUFQAREDS, the one you've all been reading about. And I'm on it, they even give you a really nice lace and chiffon dress pattern and once I let Emily in on the secret? Well, even she wasn't above a bit of sisterly sabotage and lent me her sewing skills for the dressmaking.

This year's gonna be great!
 
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Ereo

Helper
I wonder if some of the flower dance issues in this thread depend on the gender of your farmer.

This does not sound familiar at all; the male farmer's face isn't visible, since we're watching the male dancers from behind.
It depends who you're dancing with. If a male partner is selected, a male farmer will dance on the girls side.
 
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