Strategies

Alfyna

Sodbuster
Weirdly, the only thing that holds me back from completing it in a year (if I remember it too late) are the 5 gold-star parsnips required to complete the 'Quality Bundle'. Because you're tight on money during the first season of the game, plus parsnips are a spring crop and you usually don't have your farming stat high enough to produce consistently quality crops yet, it's easy to check off everything else in every other bundle along the way only to realize you have to wait until the next spring to produce enough gold-starred parsnips to finish it. Same thing goes to a lesser extent with the 5 gold-star pumpkins in the fall -- though it's easier to get quality crops three seasons in, the requirement is easy to forget because you're still generally focused on growing and selling those gold-star crops for cash.

My advice for completing the CC asap is to A) invest in quality fertilizer + parsnip seeds FIRST and worry about the other spring crops later, but also B) invest in farm animals as soon as the rest of your budget allows. Most of the trickiest things to fulfill in the bundles (duck feathers, rabbits foot, L. goat's milk) involve not only having animals but also having a high heart stat with them, which takes time.

My other piece of advice (besides the parsnips) is to upgrade your fishing rod as soon as your budget allows, because some of the fish required for the bundles are season-specific. Having a list by you with the season-specific fish at the beginning of each season really helps to make sure you don't miss any before the next season hits.

Provided I don't forget these steps and am smart with my budget, I usually finish the CC by first year winter or the second year spring. Though edit -- oof, randomized luck has a lot to do with that as I remember grabbing several items from the bundles off the traveling cart. I am lol in no way a savant here, just lucky.
 
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I try and make regular visits to the Traveling Cart in Sindersap Forest. Items are more expensive there but if there is something you are struggling to find you can sometimes get it there. There is also the chance for you to get red cabbage seeds before year 2.
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
In the interest of Full Factual Accuracy, my next farm will have the name:

4 Gold Parsnip Farm.

Every save, no matter how I try to game the system. That first Winter is long and slow, but luckily I do have one thing to keep me and Laura Ingalls company:

A complete lack of Red Cabbage.
 

Alfyna

Sodbuster
Every save, no matter how I try to game the system. That first Winter is long and slow, but luckily I do have one thing to keep me and Laura Ingalls company:

A complete lack of Red Cabbage.
I've gotten real lucky with red cabbage in my saves Re: that traveling merchant. It's getting that greenhouse unlocked in order to get those apples for Marnie's bundle + unlocking rabbits in time to get the foot that trips me up. Every spare hour has to either be spent fishing for cash or planting/cutting down trees to get enough wood for your barn and coop. It's almost not worth the effort of trying to rush the CC reopening because of the sheer slog.
 

Elenna101

Farmer
Weirdly, the only thing that holds me back from completing it in a year (if I remember it too late) are the 5 gold-star parsnips required to complete the 'Quality Bundle'. Because you're tight on money during the first season of the game, plus parsnips are a spring crop and you usually don't have your farming stat high enough to produce consistently quality crops yet, it's easy to check off everything else in every other bundle along the way only to realize you have to wait until the next spring to produce enough gold-starred parsnips to finish it.
Tip: You don't actually need the gold quality parsnips for the CC. The bundle only requires 3 of the 4 possible items (gold-star parsnips, melons, corn, and pumpkin) so if you're having trouble with the parsnips, you can just put in 5 gold star melons, corn, and pumpkin instead. Of course that means you have no leeway to forget any of those things.
 

Alfyna

Sodbuster
Tip: You don't actually need the gold quality parsnips for the CC. The bundle only requires 3 of the 4 possible items (gold-star parsnips, melons, corn, and pumpkin) so if you're having trouble with the parsnips, you can just put in 5 gold star melons, corn, and pumpkin instead. Of course that means you have no leeway to forget any of those things.
Ooof you're right! Thank you!!! <3 I think I fixate on parsnips because melon seeds are more expensive, and I'm so starved for cash that first year trying to get the coop/barn+animals asap. Ultimately I really should just chill but for some reason it's so satisfying to unlock the CC as close to the first year as possible. Having only one or two things outstanding drives me absolutely bonkers. XD
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
Tip: You don't actually need the gold quality parsnips for the CC. The bundle only requires 3 of the 4 possible items (gold-star parsnips, melons, corn, and pumpkin) so if you're having trouble with the parsnips, you can just put in 5 gold star melons, corn, and pumpkin instead. Of course that means you have no leeway to forget any of those things.
Actually this is the best advice and I did this on my new v1.5 save, but I'd totally forgotten. I didn't realize until pretty late in Fall that you only need 3 of the 4 Gold-tier Farming items to complete the bundle. Thanks for the reminder!

But that Traveling Cart Lady's got it in for me withholding the Red Cabbage seeds.


..........


Maybe I should stop making Pig faces at her behind her back.
 

imnvs

Local Legend
In my new Beach Farm save, currently Fall year 1, I will have all bundles complete... except the Dye bundle, because of those damn cabbages. As soon as winter hits I will get the last two forage items I need and the last fish I need. About half way through winter I'll start getting my apples from the tree in my greenhouse for the Fodder bundle. This is probably the fastest I've done all the fish bundles ever. I completed three of them in one day recently. I only needed six fish that could only be fished in the rain for three different bundles, having already got the non-rain fish for those bundles. In one rainy day I caught one of each of those six fish.

It's always that damn cabbage. I even checked the "guarantee one year completable" when I started this farm... and I probably missed the Travelling Cart the one day it had that stupid cabbage, because I'm bad at getting there, probably only making it half the days it is available. I think she's taunting me.
 
Okay thanks for all of the advice :smile:
I agree that the red cabbages are the hardest things to get for the community center without using remixed bundles for completing the community center in only the first year
It took me in till year three to get the community center fixed on my main save so I was wondering if there would be a faster
 

imnvs

Local Legend
A remixed bundle could be harder, too. The wife, in her new save, can't get her greenhouse until year 2 because the bundle she was required to do didn't need 3 stacks of 5 gold quality crops. She needed an ancient fruit and a sweet gem berry, and she couldn't get an ancient seed fast enough to get one planted and fruiting by winter.
 
My current game, I finished as soon as my red cabbage was ripe! I didn't use any formal strategies. I just made sure to plant each thing in each season, get all my animals as soon as I could, fish a few days rain & shine in all the waters each season. I chose the bats and they helped with the artisan bundle. I planted my apples and pomegranate by the last week of summer. I bought the pufferfish from the cart. After several playthroughs, I just kinda had a feel for it, and it came together nicely. I'm looking forward to the update and the randomized bundles because it will be really fun and interesting to not know what I'm doing again!
 
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It is now (as of 1.5 update) entirely possible to guarantee a Year 1 Community Center completion due to a flag you can set at character creation which guarantees the red cabbage and/or their seeds in the list for the cart vendor at some point in the first year. However, there are some tips and tricks:

* Quality Crops bundle needs 5x gold-starred crops, but there's only three out of four required. The earliest you can hit this up is Summer, with 5x quality Parsnips, Corn (grown in Summer), and Melons. However, if you don't want to grow many Parsnips to hit the 5x gold star requirement, you can instead use 5x gold-star pumpkins in the fall. Pumpkins will still be a major choke for the ultimate completion, even with Deluxe Speed-Gro, so it won't really take any longer. Personally, I go for the Parsnips, but if I miss it, or if the corn just doesn't give them to me, I use the pumpkins as a backup strategy.

* Artisan Bundle can appear intimidating. It's really not, here's an easy way. First off, realize that you only need six options, and a few are pretty much already decided for you. Since you already need Large Milk and Large Goat's Milk for the animal bundle, getting cheese and goat cheese essentially come with the package. One beehouse nets you the honey. Jelly should be about as free as it can get, as you are very likely to want to be making preserves for cash anyway. That's already 4 out of the 6 without going out of your way. One of the trickier bundles is the Fodder Bundle because you need 3x Apples. So, at some point before the final week in Summer, plant an Apple Tree. Not only do you get the apples for the fodder bundle, but you also get an apple for this one. So that's 5 out of 6. Fish up Soggy Newspaper and recycle until you get Cloth. Job's done. Alternately, if you pick Bat cave, the bats can randomly drop any fruit, including tree fruits that qualify for this bundle. The more of them you pick up, the fewer alternates you need, but I'd still suggest holding onto a Pomegranate if they give you one for the Enchanter's Bundle.

* Animal Products bundle isn't too hard. You have six options, but only need five. Skip the wool, and job's done. This requires a Big Barn and Big Shed for the duck (which you'll need for a feather anyway) and Goat. And as previously mentioned, you'll want the large goat's milk and large milk anyway, so might as well kill two birds with one stone. Make sure your first two chickens are opposite colors, job's done.

* The fishing bundles (all of them, really) are all about pacing. There's a couple of guides floating around about which fish are caught in which season. Make sure to catch the fish when the appropriate conditions show up, with a special priority on fish that require rain to catch. For example, on Day 3, if you spend Day 2 grinding your fishing and get high enough, you can theoretically catch both Catfish and Eel on Spring 3 while it is a guaranteed rain day. You can also catch Bream and Shad at the same time. Knowing what conditions are favorable for which fish and taking advantage of it is the key to all of these bundles. Except the crab pot bundle which, ironically, doesn't need ANY crab pots to finish. Four out of the five can be foraged on the beach, and crabs can be had from Rock Crab in the mine.

* The Boiler Room bundles are all about diving the mines as rapidly as possible. It is entirely possible to finish this bundle before your first Spring is out. The biggest hassle is going to be the Fire Quartz, since it only appears in the mines at level 81+. The gold can (theoretically) be obtained from the Ghosts in the cold levels, who also conveniently enough give the solar essences. Bat wings are nearly impossible to not collect, and that's your Adventurer's Bundle done already.

* The bulletin board bundles are a pain. You'll need a Truffle for the Baker's Bundle, which means rushing a Deluxe Barn before the beginning of Fall to give the pig enough time to fully grow up. Remember, pigs don't scrounge for truffles in the winter. Don't forget to plant the poppy in Summer, you can put bee houses near it for more profit. For the dye bundles, don't forget to plant a Sunflower in the summer, and keep an eye out in the cart vendor for a red cabbage. Since you need a duck egg anyway for the animal products bundle, the duck feather should come naturally. Nautilus Shell can be foraged in winter, but can also potentially be gifted with a high enough heart level with Demetrius and may also be found on the cart vendor if you are lucky. The damn wizard is a greedy so-and-so, the Rabbit's Foot is going to be a pain to get because like the truffle, you need a Deluxe Coop, unlike the truffle, rabbits are a lot more stingy with their feet than pigs are with truffles. If you don't have your Deluxe Coop down and a bunny in it before your third week of Summer, you've got good odds of not getting one, and your only option is to grind flying eels in the Skull Cavern. The upside is that the rabbit does produce during the winter, so you do have at least some leeway. You can give him any wine, so give the cheepskate salmonberry wine just to spite him if you like. Whatever you do, don't give him the good stuff like starfruit or ancient wine, sell that stuff for major profits instead.

There is another bundle, but I won't be getting into it here because spoilers.
 

imnvs

Local Legend
There is another bundle, but I won't be getting into it here because spoilers.
To be fair, there are 3 more. You skipped the Crafts Room and the Vault too. Those two are easy, though.

The Crafts Room is nearly all forage, with 4 of 6 bundles able to be completed by Winter 1 without much more than running around the valley. The next just requires wood, stone and a little hardwood, all easily gathered as you are gathering a stock of those for construction/crafting supplies anyway. The last is where it gets tricky, and by that I mean that it isn't really that tricky, just trickier than the others in this room. You only need 5 of 9 things for the Exotic Forage bundle, and presuming you went with the fruit bats, you're not getting any help from the cave here. I find that as soon as you can make tappers, tap 1 each of pine, maple and oak, just to get your syrup starting producing (as they're useful as crafting ingredients), and that takes care of 3 slots just like that. And then, since you're already diving the mine to get fire quartz, you should be able to find at least 1 mushroom level that has a few red and purple mushrooms, or at the very least a cave carrot.

The Vault? Well. Make money. You want to complete this one faster? Make more money. That's the strategy there.
 
To be fair, there are 3 more. You skipped the Crafts Room and the Vault too. Those two are easy, though.

The Crafts Room is nearly all forage, with 4 of 6 bundles able to be completed by Winter 1 without much more than running around the valley. The next just requires wood, stone and a little hardwood, all easily gathered as you are gathering a stock of those for construction/crafting supplies anyway. The last is where it gets tricky, and by that I mean that it isn't really that tricky, just trickier than the others in this room. You only need 5 of 9 things for the Exotic Forage bundle, and presuming you went with the fruit bats, you're not getting any help from the cave here. I find that as soon as you can make tappers, tap 1 each of pine, maple and oak, just to get your syrup starting producing (as they're useful as crafting ingredients), and that takes care of 3 slots just like that. And then, since you're already diving the mine to get fire quartz, you should be able to find at least 1 mushroom level that has a few red and purple mushrooms, or at the very least a cave carrot.

The Vault? Well. Make money. You want to complete this one faster? Make more money. That's the strategy there.
True, but as you pointed out, those two bundles are pretty intuitive. Gather the seasonal foragables and make money. Job's done. Almost not worth mentioning. You do have a point about the exotic forage bundle, I suppose I could have gone into more detail there.

* The Exotic Forage Bundle is kind of like the Artisan Bundle... it seems intimidating, but it really isn't. You're going to want to be tapping oak trees in bulk to make your kegs for money anyway, so one tapper on a pine tree and one on a maple tree, and you have all three saps for three out of the five bundle completion already. If you are on the Forest farm, you can get Morels easily, otherwise they can be a bit of a pain since they are in the secret forest. Obviously, diving for mines will net you cave carrots and both mushrooms. If you are on forest farm, morel + cave carrot and done. Otherwise, cave carrot and red mushroom and done (you want to save a purple for the dye bundle).
 

Elenna101

Farmer
* The Exotic Forage Bundle is kind of like the Artisan Bundle... it seems intimidating, but it really isn't. You're going to want to be tapping oak trees in bulk to make your kegs for money anyway, so one tapper on a pine tree and one on a maple tree, and you have all three saps for three out of the five bundle completion already. If you are on the Forest farm, you can get Morels easily, otherwise they can be a bit of a pain since they are in the secret forest. Obviously, diving for mines will net you cave carrots and both mushrooms. If you are on forest farm, morel + cave carrot and done. Otherwise, cave carrot and red mushroom and done (you want to save a purple for the dye bundle).
Plus you can always just finish the vault first and grab a coconut and/or cactus fruit from the desert.
 

niteowl

Tiller
Does anyone know any strategies to complete the community center fast?
* I always upgrade my axe to steel before any other tool upgrades to make sure I can chop my way into the Secret Forest before the end of summer to get the fiddle head fern.
* To me, the parsnips are easy because the first day I not only grow the 15 I've been given, but go down and buy 15 more, harvest and then replant with quality fertilizer made from sap. This allows me to pull off at least 5 gold-stars and sink the rest into strawberry seeds. Corn is easy too as you have two seasons to collect it. By summer, I'm growing melons for money anyway which leaves pumpkins in the fall just in case I somehow missed.
* I always try to befriend Emily as much as possible in the hopes she'll send me wool or cloth in the mail.
* I plant an apple tree by mid summer so I can have at least 4 apples for my bundles. A pomegranate would be good too as it's required for one bundle and is an option in another.

Actually though, I don't worry too much about getting the entire Community Center completed by the end of the year because it's actually better to wait for Kent to arrive. I mainly just want those minecarts done as fast as possible, my greenhouse before the start of winter, use of the bus to go to the desert and hopefully, the quarry opened up. I could care less about the glittering boulder getting removed because by that time, I'm swimming in gold from the mines. (I admit I haven't really tried gold panning though. Can you get iridium from gold panning?)
 

Boo1972

Farmer
A remixed bundle could be harder, too. The wife, in her new save, can't get her greenhouse until year 2 because the bundle she was required to do didn't need 3 stacks of 5 gold quality crops. She needed an ancient fruit and a sweet gem berry, and she couldn't get an ancient seed fast enough to get one planted and fruiting by winter.
Ugh that’s tough. I usually find my ancient fruit seeds in year 2 so I doubt I could finish that bundle in Y1 either. I remixed the CC bundles too and the boiler room was killer. I like unlocking that early and it did not happen. My greenhouse was unlocked first which I’ve never done before. It helped that I had some experience though; I think a new farmer would have found it difficult.

What killed me this year was accidentally selling all my tilapia and not noticing until winter. And that’s a standard in the ocean fish bundle.
 
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