Creator Response Questions after playing three times co op

[Dracola]

Hey guys been having a blast with the board game with my wife. Three things are confusing us however.

1. Can I move from one spot of the board to the other or can I not go that far with the second action(We assumed we could till we found a warp totem). Also the Hoe tool is confusing.

2. Can I stack any vegetable over others when the Hoe is upgraded? Such as stacking a strawberry on a parsnip or does it need to be the same vegetable. And finally...

3. When doing the mines does the map change after every turn or does it stay the same? Thanks in advance everyone!!!! Loving this game!

 

[Lavakatana]

#1: You can only move to an adjacent "area" aka, down 1 of the white line segments from your first action. Therefore, no warping (unless cards, etc).

#2: I would say you could stack a parsnip onto a strawberry (you shouldn't be able to place a strawberry onto a parsnip as strawberries start at field 4 and parsnips at 2).

#3: The mine map only changes for two reasons: you descend a level deeper into the mine, or a card/ability/gift that says explicitly to change the map (or, indirectly, to descend a level).

Hoe tool expanded/rambling: Default is that you can only have 1 crop in each slot. The hoe makes the equation 1+X where X is the "tool level" in the top left corner.

 

[Valimure]

#2: I would say you could stack a parsnip onto a strawberry (you shouldn't be able to place a strawberry onto a parsnip as strawberries start at field 4 and parsnips at 2).

Hoe tool expanded/rambling: Default is that you can only have 1 crop in each slot. The hoe makes the equation 1+X where X is the "tool level" in the top left corner.

I feel like this has to be the case, as an Iridium Hoe is currently useless. The text actually says "Can stack x number of crops onto an occupied space" which implies you can have a maximum of 5 crops on a single tile with an Iridium Hoe.

 

[Lavakatana]

I feel like this has to be the case, as an Iridium Hoe is currently useless. The text actually says "Can stack x number of crops onto an occupied space" which implies you can have a maximum of 5 crops on a single tile with an Iridium Hoe.

Right, Iridium lets you go from 4 in a spot to 5.

 

[Valimure]

Right, Iridium lets you go from 4 in a spot to 5.

Yep. There's only four of each crop in the supply though, so there's the confusion lol

 

[Valimure]

Right, Iridium lets you go from 4 in a spot to 5.

After scrolling through the BGG forums a bit it looks like Cole actually answered this one:

Hoe | Stardew Valley: The Board Game

I am absolutely LOVING this game so far, but I feel the hoe needs to have its own rule post because I am just not feeling like I understand how it works. Please, can someone tell me which of the below numbered points is the one correct interpretation of how

boardgamegeek.com

Essentially, it's not 1/2/3/4 *per spot*, it's 1/2/3/4 extra scattered throughout the entire field. So with the Iridium Hoe and an empty field, you could plant a grand total of 8 crops at a time.

 

[Lavakatana]

After scrolling through the BGG forums a bit it looks like Cole actually answered this one:

Hoe | Stardew Valley: The Board Game

I am absolutely LOVING this game so far, but I feel the hoe needs to have its own rule post because I am just not feeling like I understand how it works. Please, can someone tell me which of the below numbered points is the one correct interpretation of how

boardgamegeek.com

Essentially, it's not 1/2/3/4 *per spot*, it's 1/2/3/4 extra scattered throughout the entire field. So with the Iridium Hoe and an empty field, you could plant a grand total of 8 crops at a time.

That would not have ever been my interpretation of it. It says clearly "stack 4 crops onto occupied fields" and the rules explicitly defines each "spot" as a field.

It should be (imo) changed to read "stack 4 crops throughout occupied fields" or something in that wheelhouse.

 

[Odin]

2. Can I stack any vegetable over others when the Hoe is upgraded? Such as stacking a strawberry on a parsnip or does it need to be the same vegetable. And finally...

The way I understood the game, you can't plant crops anywhere except the numbered spot where they go. So a parsnip would never be in the spot a strawberry could be planted. But if you had planted a strawberry and watered it until it was in the "2" spot, a parsnip could then be planted there.

 

[Colito]

The Hoe needs some clarity/rewording. The idea is that, when you are able to plant (from the Planet Action or some events) you, as the owner of the upgraded Hoe, are allowed to place some of the crops you're planting into fields that are occupied. Generally, without any special abilities, this is not allowed. So at Copper Level, I could place one of the crops I'm planting into a field that already has crops in it, but it still must go into the slot that matches its watering cost.

So for example, with the Gold Hoe and empty fields, I could place 4 Parsnips into field 2 (the first one would make the field occupied, but Gold Hoe allows me to stack 3 more tiles) I still have to pay for all these however, as normal.

 

[Giahadra]

Sorry to keep hitting this one, based on this, does that mean if you have enough gold you can stack multiple crops in various spots up to a limit of 3 extra per spot with the gold hoe with a single action? Or can you only stack on top of one spot during a single planting action? (following watering cost rules ofcourse)

 

[Colito]

It more has to do with how many crop tiles you are allowed to place into occupied fields per planting action. Each time you visit Pierre's as your action, you may sell resources and/or buy seeds (plant crops). So if you had the Copper Hoe, 1 of the seeds you plant may go into an occupied field per action. If you had the Iron Hoe, 2 of the seeds you buy could be placed into occupied fields per action (and so on, with the other upgrade levels). These can go into the same field or different fields. You still have to pay for each crop you plant. In essence you can think of it sort of like the Hoe is giving you a number of extra field slots in which to plant in.

 

[Giahadra]

Thank you! I got it now.

 

[Gewitsch]

I hope my understanding is correct:

1) Standard case. If you have the gold coins you can buy for the designed slot the crop if this slot is empty.
2) Copper Hoe Upgrade. If you have the gold coins you can buy for the designed slot if it is empty or only has one crop on it. The maximum example would be paying eight gold and putting eight crops on the field as two crops stacked on the four numbered fields.
3) Iron Hoe Upgrade. Similiar to two, but now you can buy for empty, already one crop or already two crops. Maximum example would be paying twelve coins and putting twelve crops on the field as three crops on the four numbered fields.

Thank you for a clear answer on that.

 

[DJModulo]

I hope my understanding is correct:

1) Standard case. If you have the gold coins you can buy for the designed slot the crop if this slot is empty.
2) Copper Hoe Upgrade. If you have the gold coins you can buy for the designed slot if it is empty or only has one crop on it. The maximum example would be paying eight gold and putting eight crops on the field as two crops stacked on the four numbered fields.
3) Iron Hoe Upgrade. Similiar to two, but now you can buy for empty, already one crop or already two crops. Maximum example would be paying twelve coins and putting twelve crops on the field as three crops on the four numbered fields.

Thank you for a clear answer on that.

From what I've gathered, this is not correct. Instead, this is how it works (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong):

1) Standard case.
You can buy crops for the designed crop slots 2-5 if they are empty.

2) Copper Hoe upgrade.
You can buy crops for the designed crop slots 2-5 if they are empty. Then you may plant up to one additional crop (total) by stacking it onto an occupied field if no crops are stacked onto any field.

3) Iron Hoe upgrade.
You can buy crops for the designed crop slots 2-5 if they are empty. Then you may plant additional crops by stacking them onto occupied fields until a total of two crops are stacked on the board. If two or more crops are stacked already, you may not plant crops in non-empty slots.

and so on.

Example:
It's Fall, you have the Silver Hoe upgrade and the following crops are on the board:
1 Eggplant in slot 1
2 Cranberries in slot 2
1 Pumpkin in slot 3

If you decide to plant crops, you may put one Cranberry in slot 4 and one Pumpkin in slot 5 (since they're empty). Then you may plant one more additional crop (since you have one already) by stacking either a Bok Choy in slot 2, an Eggplant in slot 3, another Cranberry in slot 4 or another Pumpkin in slot 5.


As an exception to the rule, you may always plant crops gained by gifts(Abigail)/events even if this breaks the hoe-given limit.

 

[DLHDesign]

> It more has to do with how many crop tiles you are allowed to place into occupied fields per planting action.
(emphasis mine)

Here's how I read that, as an example;

Turn 1: Assume all fields are empty. Player A (who has the regular hoe) pays 4 gold and plants 4 crops: parsnip (slot 2), potato (3), strawberry (4), and cauliflower (5). The player then waters the crops (shifting everything down one but not collecting anything) and returns home to upgrade to a Copper Hoe (stack 1 crop).
Field state:

Slot 5	Slot 4	Slot 3	Slot 2	Slot 1
Empty	Cauliflower	Strawberry	Potato	Parsnip

Turn 2: Player A pays 2 gold to plant 2 crops: cauliflower (5), and a parsnip (on slot 2, even though there is a potato there) using the Copper hoe. Player A then does something else and returns home, not upgrading the hoe.
Field state:

Slot 5	Slot 4	Slot 3	Slot 2	Slot 1
Cauliflower	Cauliflower	Strawberry	Parsnip Potato	Parsnip

Turn 3: Player A pays 1 gold to plant 1 crop, electing to place another Parsnip in slot 2. The player then waters the crops (collecting the single parsnip and shifting everything down one). Upon returning home, the player upgrades their tool to an Iron Hoe.
Field state:

Slot 5	Slot 4	Slot 3	Slot 2	Slot 1
Empty	Cauliflower	Cauliflower	Strawberry	Parsnip Parsnip Potato

Turn 4: Player A pays 3 gold to plant 3 crops, electing to place two cauliflower in slot 5 - the first because it's empty, the other one thanks to the upgraded hoe. The player would like to be able to place a 3rd cauliflower into slot 5 as the hoe allows them to do, but all four cauliflower tiles are already in play. The player places a strawberry (4) instead.
Field state:

Slot 5	Slot 4	Slot 3	Slot 2	Slot 1
Cauliflower Cauliflower	Strawberry Cauliflower	Cauliflower	Strawberry	Parsnip Parsnip Potato

And so on. With the current field state, only the player with the upgraded hoe could plant anything at all. With the Iron Hoe, that means that Player A would be able (if no watering is done) to plant 2 fields each planting action. They would be able to do this until each crop reached the 4 tile limit.

The hoe upgrade is more about the efficiency of the planting action (making the most of a single action) than it is about field capacity (limiting available resources). This is true of all the other tools as well - the watering can allows more efficient watering, the fishing rod allows more success at (e.g.; efficient) fishing, and the pickaxe allows more success at mining.