Harvest Moon: Back to Nature
Crop Guide v2.1
Written by chito10 (chito10@hotmail.com)
VERSION HISTORY
---------------
5/9/01 - v1.0
This is my first version posted.
5/13/01 - v1.0.1
I made some additions to the Spring Season of the First Year.
5/14/01 - v1.1
I added some info on Summer (First Year) and made other changes.
6/22/01 - v2.0
I am sorry for the long absence. I got busy with school and didn't have time to
make any changes. I revamped the FAQ and made more additions.
6/24/01 - v2.0.1
I added a Table of Contents and added info on Fall (First Year).
7/8/01 - v2.0.2
I added another site to the list of places where this FAQ can be found and made
some more changes to the Table of Contents.
7/16/01 - v2.1
I finished up the section on Fall (First Year) but I may add more later.
Harvest Moon has always been a favorite of mine ever since playing the original
on the SNES. I find that the PSX version has a lot of unique qualities that
make this game more that a "farming" game. However, many of the things you can
do require money. I have search the net looking for guides on HMBTN but I
haven't found any good info on growing crops. I created this guide to help
assist others in growing the "best" crops in the game. Now, I know that not
everyone will agree with my opinions but I find that these methods help you earn
a little more cash at the beginning of the game. So, I introduce to you, the
Harvest Moon: Back to Nature Crop Guide.
I just want to note that there may be some SPOILERS in this guide. I am warning
you in advance.
Spring (First Year) -
This year is the hardest part of the game (for now). You start off with very
little money (500G) and need to accomplish a lot before the season is over. The
game starts off on the second day of Spring, giving you about 28 days to water
(the last day is meant for harvesting). You will also need to earn a good
amount of money to start off in the summer. Here is the rundown of all the
crops that can be grown the first year.
[NOTE: During the first Spring, you can only water a field efficiently by using
the Fat-C method. X represents the soil that has been tilled while O represents
untilled soil.
XXX XXX XOX XXX
XXO OXX XXX XXX
XXX XXX XXX XOX
While you can create a field that has a 3x3 tilled field, the center crop will
be unreachable until you harvest the rest of the outside plants. You gain more
money by doing this and then replanting the non-renewable fields.]
* All Revenue earned during the first Spring is based using the Fat-C (8 crops).
Turnips
-------
Where to buy them? At the Supermarket
Are the renewable? No
Cost per bag: 120G
Selling price per crop: 60G
Days to grow: 4 days
Maximum harvest per season: 7 harvests
Revenue per bag: 8 x 60G = 480G
Profit per bag: 480G - 120G = 360G
Profit per bag per day: 360G / 4 days = 90G
Maximum profit per season: 360G x 7 harvests = 2520G
[Let me explain what I did here. It costs 120G to buy one bag of turnips at the
Supermarket. For every turnip I put in the bin (to sell), Zack (the buyer) pays
me 60G. It takes 4 days of watering for turnips to ripen. (In other words, if
I plant turnips on the 2nd day, they will ripen by the 6th.)
There are 30 days in a season. Any crops that are not harvested by Spring 30
will wither away on Summer 1 and that is true for crops that grow any season.
That means you technically only have 29 to water crops (leaving day 30 for just
harvesting). Given that, if you start planting turnips on Day 2 (the day you
start) and watering them everyday, you can plant turnips 7 times on the same
piece of land during the season after you harvest them. Now, you have 8 crops
growing. That means you will earn 8 times 60G for each bag of turnips you
plant. That is where the revenue comes in. Now, take away the cost of the bag
and you can determine profit.
Of course, profit can be deceiving. It is best to compare crops by determining
how much they will "effectively" make a day or during the entire season. Profit
per day is determined by dividing the total profit per bag by the number of days
it takes for the crop to grow. Another way of comparing crops is to determine
how much profit they will make in a season, which is determined by taking the
profit per bag and multiplying it by the total number of harvest that can be
acquired in a season. You'll understand where this leads to in a minute.]
Cucumbers
---------
Where to buy them? At the Supermarket
Are the renewable? Yes
Cost per bag: 200G
Selling price per crop: 60G
Days to grow: 9 days, then 6 days to regenerate
Maximum harvest per season: 4 harvests
Maximum profit per season: (8 crops x 4 harvests x 60G) - 200G = 1720G
[NOTE: Cucumbers are renewable crops. That means that one bag will continually
grow more crops until the season ends. In this case, it takes cucumbers 9 days
for it to fully grow, then 6 days for it to "regenerate" the crop.
Since you only by one bag at the end of the season, it would be "difficult" to
determine figures based on buying bags of seeds (like profit per bag). Instead
of doing this, I just determined the maximum profit of the crop in one full
season of growth. I will do this for all renewable crops.]
MAXIMUM PROFIT PER SEASON
Turnips: 2520G
Potatoes: 1960G
Cucumbers: 1720G
Cabbages: 3000G
As you can see, cabbages have the largest profit per season making them the
"best" crop. However, this doesn't always show the BIG picture. Remember that
it takes 14 days for these cabbages to grow. That means you will earn a lot of
money, but will have to wait quite some time to earn it. During your first
Spring, you want to earn money fast to use it to buy other crops and earn more
cash. I suggest getting turnips first to earn money quickly, then plant a bag
of cabbage (or two) on the 16th day (remember to water them daily) to get the
money for them on the 30th to use for Summer.
There is also another thing to note. In the game, there are "special" crops
they you can grow but only by accomplishing a certain task. In order to be able
to plant the "special" crop for Spring, which are Strawberries, you need to sell
(not just grow) 100 of each Spring crop (100 Turnips, Potatoes, Cucumbers, and
Cabbages). That may not be so important your first year. My suggestion is to
plant 4 Fat-C fields. One is for cucumbers (yes, I know they don't make enough
profit but you will need three cucumbers for a special event) and the other
three can be whatever you want.
There are hidden items called Power Berries that help increase your stamina
permanently. You can get up to three (out of ten) of them before the Spring
ends. Here is how to get them:
[1] On the very first day of the game (you can do this at any time), take your
axe. Exit through the lower exit of the ranch (the one next to the chicken
coop). Follow the straight path (ignore the stairs). Keep following the path
and cross the bridge. After crossing the bridge, you will encounter a field
with a lot of flowers growing (they are mostly yellow Moon Drop flowers with two
white Toy Flowers). In that field, you will find a lone cedar tree. Attempt to
cut it down with your axe (you may have to hit the tree at different points, a
couple of times to activate this scene). The tree will begin to talk and will
give you the option of cutting him down. Choose the option to NOT cut it down
and you will get a Power Berry for your kindness.
[2] Behind the waterfall (next to the hot springs) is a cave. If you dig, using
the hoe, you may find a hole with some stairs that will lead you deeper into the
cave. You can dig up a Power Berry, but your chances of encountering it
increases as you get deeper into the cave.
[3] Buy a chicken. If you feed it once a day, she will start to lay eggs after
2 days. You can put these eggs in the incubator, sell them directly, or boil
them in the hot springs and sell them for more money. However, to get a Power
Berry, take one egg (or any crop that can be grown on your farm, but eggs tend
to be a lot cheaper) a day for five days and throw it into the pond (directly
behind the waterfall). If done correctly, the goddess will come out and thank
you. On the fifth consecutive day of doing this, she will reward you with a
Power Berry. NOTE: She will not come out during rainy days or festival days.
In that case just skip that day and continue.
Special Power Berry - This berry doesn't increase stamina but it will allow you
to work in the rain with a smaller chance of getting sick. To get this berry,
go to the large lake in Mother's Hill (in the same area where you cross the
bridge to get to the field of flowers) between 11 AM and 6 PM (I am not certain
about the times though) with three cucumbers (I am not certain of the times but
it's around these times). Go to the left portion of the lake (right next to two
large trees) and toss in a cucumber. The location of where you throw the
cucumbers into the lake and the time are important, otherwise Kappa (the water
imp) will not appear. After tossing all three cucumbers in, he will present you
with the special power berry. It looks just like a regular power berry but it's
not.
The mayor will come by on the 15th (about a week before the Cooking Festival,
which is the 22nd of Spring) and will ask you to grow and deliver 3 turnips to
him by the 21st. You don't have to agree to it. He does tend to be friendlier
if you do agree to do it. Just remember to deliver the turnips if you say yes.
[NOTE: This event may only occur if you agree to take the tour on the first day
and attend all the festivals but I am not certain of this yet.]
I also have another suggestion to make life easier. Upgrade your watering can
to the gold status when Spring ends. You can do this without missing a day of
watering. On the 29th of Spring, start your day by watering your crops. Get a
gold ore from the cave and take it and 3000G to Sairaba (the blacksmith). He
will take three days to upgrade the watering can. That means you won't get it
until the 2nd of Summer. However, since the Swimming Fesitval takes place on
the 1st of Summer, you won't be able to buy any bags of seeds until the 2nd of
Summer (everything is closed on festival days). The golden watering can makes
life much easier.
Summer (First Year) -
Hopefully with your last harvest of cabbages you will have enough money to start
off Summer. If you have acquired the Golden watering can, you will make more
money this time around. You can now grow a full 3x3 crop and be able to water
the middle crop (Just remember to hold the square button down until your
character turns red then release. This will allow you to water them all in one
shot.) For the renewable crops, you may need to cut down one of the middle
corner plants (leaving a crop field looking like the Fat-C) when a plant ripens
to reach the center crop. This will give you an extra boost in money (but not
much).
NOTE: I will assume (from now on for the time being) that I will plant a 3x3
field with renewable crops, then cut one of the middle center plants after it
ripens to get some extra cash. Also, all non-renewable crops will be planted as
3x3, instead of by the Fat-C.
Onions
------
Where to buy them? At the Supermarket
Are the renewable? No
Cost per bag: 150G
Selling price per crop: 80G
Days to grow: 8 days
[NOTE: There is a typo in the manual. It takes 8 days, not 7, to grow]
Maximum harvest per season: 3 harvests
Revenue per bag: 9 x 80G = 720G
Profit per bag: 720G - 150G = 570G
[NOTE: We are now use 9 crops per bag instead of 8.]
Profit per bag per day: 570G / 8 days = ~71G
Maximum profit per season: 570G x 3 harvests = 1710G
Tomatoes
--------
Where to buy them? At the Supermarket
Are the renewable? Yes
Cost per bag: 200G
Selling price per crop: 60G
Days to grow: 9 days, then 4 days to regenerate
Maximum harvest per season: 5 harvests
[Usually we can get 6 harvests, but since the Supermarket is closed for the
Swimming festival, we lose one day (and one harvest) of Tomatoes.]
Maximum profit per season: (8 crops x 5 harvests x 60G) - 200G + 60G = 2260G
[I just want to clarify something here. Once 9 days of watering have passed, we
will have 9 tomatoes ready to harvest. However, in order to reach the middle
one, we must use the sickle to cut down one of the middle center plants, after
we harvest the outside tomatoes.
XCX
CXC
XCX [C represents where we can cut off the plant. Only cut down one, though.]
Since we will only be getting 8 renewable crops from now on, I set my equation
above to determine the revenue with 8 crops and 5 harvests at 60G a piece, then
subtracted the cost of one bag and added the extra money earned by selling that
extra tomato. There is a way to get the middle crop without cutting down a
plant, but that will mentioned in a future update.]
Corn
----
Where to buy them? At the Supermarket
Are the renewable? Yes
Cost per bag: 300G
Selling price per crop: 100G
Days to grow: 14 days, then 4 days to regenerate
Maximum harvest per season: 4 harvests
Maximum profit per season: (8 crops x 4 harvests x 100G) - 300G + 100G = 3000G
[NOTE: We can take this corn and throw it into the Feed Shed right next to the
Chicken Coop to make chicken feed for our chickens. Each corn will make 10 bags
of feed. We can also buy the corn for 10G/bag at the Poultry Farm. Either way,
you won't earn more feed or lose money by throwing corn to the Feed Seed.
1 corn is worth 100G = 10 bags of chicken feed * 10G/bag at the Poultry Farm.
Just remember that any corn that goes into the Feed Shed does not get counted
for your total corn sold. You need to sell 100 corn and 100 of the other Summer
Crops to get to sell Pumpkins. It is best to sell the corn and buy the chicken
feed until you reach 100.]
MAXIMUM PROFIT PER SEASON
Onions: 1710G
Tomatoes: 2260G
Corn: 3000G
Pineapples: 7500G
Just like cucumbers, pineapples are the "best" crop but the wait will take quite
some time. 20 days! Since you have the golden watering can (hopefully), you can
afford (in terms of both time and money) to make 8 3x3 fields with two fields
having each crop. Of course, you can dump the onions all together and make a
good amount of cash with the other crops. However, you won't get the pumpkins
until you sell 100 of each crop. If you want money, plant many pineapples and
be patient. (Don't forget to water!)
There are a lot of events and many things that can be accomplished during the
summer days, including some more Power Berries.
[4] You can win a Power Berry by winning the Swimming Festival on the first day
of Summer. There are so many methods that can be used. I still haven't
determined the best method for winning. Just remember to make sure you take
breaks between swimming so that you won't run out of breath by the end. Keep
your face meter at the 2nd phase (I believe that is the orange color with the
face having a straight mouth). When you are at the point where you are about
2/3 done with the race, you can win by continually swimming from that point on
without taking a break for breathing. Even though Kai may be ahead for most of
the race, he will usually take a pause before finishing. This will be your
chance to win. There are other methods, but this usually works for me.
Other things to look for:
If you plant some flowers in your field, some bees will come buy and start to
make honey on your apple tree. This honey is worth 50G. However, if you give
Louis a bottle of honey, he will notify Zack that these are very rare bees that
produce honey. From that point, the honey will be worth 60G. The honey can be
harvested all year round.
If you have been nice to Ann during the first Spring (Her heart meter needs to
be purple, somewhere between staying at purple and becoming blue. In other
words, once she is at purple, you still need to give her a couple of more
gifts.), she will send (on the 2nd of Summer) you an invitation to her birthday
party on the 17th. You need to make sure that you have room in your sack to
hold the invitation (and you will need to hold it for about 15 days). If you
have a cabinet (which requires you upgrading your house once, but to do that,
you need to build the chicken coop), you can place the invitation there. I
would suggest buying the large rucksack so you are not forced to run back and
forth to the bin when you harvest. Of course, you can wait to read the mail
entirely until the 17th to get it later. [I haven't tried that yet, but it
should work.] One thing to note. Once I didn't get the actual invitation
(just the message). I don't know if it was some sort of glitch, though.
You need to have the invitation with you to enter the inn. Once you are in, you
will leave the inn at 6PM, so do your harvesting before then.
Kai will come by your ranch when you harvest corn for the first time. If you
sell him one for 50G, his rating towards you will go up. "Rating", as I call
it, determines if the villagers will be friendly and most likely will lead to
learning their recipes. Just note that you will only start to learn recipes
once your house is upgraded once. Also, not all villagers have recipes. If you
sell the corn at 200G, he won't be too happy and his rating will drop. At 100G,
he will just thank you. I believe there is no rating change. It's your choice.
If you have been good to the Mayor, he will ask you to deliver a slice of apple
pie to Ellen on a Sunday. Go to the inn, talk to Doug behind the counter and he
will give you a slice of apple pie. Deliver it to Ellen and she will offer a
tip. If you accept, Elli will get upset. If you refuse, Elli will come in with
another piece of apple pie and will offer it to you. On the next day or the day
after, the mayor will come by. If you remembered to deliver the pie, he will
buy you a piece of cake and thank you. Your ratings also up with Elli, Ellen,
Doug, and the Mayor. If you forgot, the Mayor will be upset and explain
something. Your ratings with the four I mentioned, will go down.
Fall (First Year) -
Things are going to get quite busy this season. I suggest getting the largest
rucksack and the basket from the supermarket if you intend to get through this
season without too much stress. You should have enough money from the pineapple
harvests. The planting procedures will pretty much be the same as the Summer.
You should have also invested in some farm upgrades and have a cow or sheep (or
both). Just keep enough cash to get seeds for this season.
One thing I want to mention is the Harvest Sprites. They will be essential when
you are asked to help in the Orchard Harvest. In order for them to help water
or harvest crops, they need to be at three hearts, I think. They will start off
with two hearts, so just give them some flowers or flour (no spelling errors
here, either will work well) until they reach three hearts. Don't forget their
birthdays' either since they tend to increase a heart. They usually won't do a
good job at first (usually missing watering some spots or not harvesting all the
vegetables) but they improve (either with practice or by getting more hearts).
Don't forget to reward them (with eggs, flowers, anything cheap) so they won't
feel neglected. Set up a team of three for three days (or a week), then have
the other team of four do it for another three days. Have one (or two) water
and the others harvest (when the harvests are ready). Experiment and see what
works. Just remember to be patient with them.
This season will be one of the busiest seasons. There is a lot of plants that
can be foraged in the forest, which can total almost 1000G a day! Not only
that, your Apple Tree will start to produce apples (and honey if you planted
some flowers earlier). You will be able to harvest three apples a day. Don't
miss the opportunity to make some cash, because you will need the money to
upgrade your farm and raise some more livestock.
MAXIMUM PROFIT PER SEASON
Eggplant: 3800G
Carrots: 3120G
Sweet Potatoes: 8460G
Green Peppers: 2450G
Well, it's obvious that Sweet Potatoes are the best crop for Fall. Not only do
they take 5 days to grow (and 3 days to re-grow), they sell for 120G, which is
the same value for carrots. For this season, you can have 2 3x3 fields for each
crop but if you really want to earn a lot of money, I suggest having 3 3x3
fields. This will consume a lot of time, but the money will just roll in.
I mentioned before that this season will keep you quite busy. There are major
events in this season that may determine the outcome of some villagers (like
Cliff). If you haven't already done so, you should start giving gifts to the
Harvest Sprites to help you water your crops.
During the 14th of Fall, Duke (the owner of the Orchard) will come by to ask for
help on his orchard. He will ask you to come by his Orchard and pick grapes for
him. Each grape you pick and give to him will earn you 50G. There are a total
of 16 grapes to harvest, but you don't need to harvest all of them. The actual
harvest will last a week or so. You will lose some hours of your day to do this
event but if you have the Harvest Sprites help in watering, this shouldn't be a
big problem. One thing to note, Duke will ask you to find someone in the
village to help you in harvesting grapes. If you talk to Cliff (he is always at
the Church during the day and at the Inn at night), he will be willing to help.
If you don't ask for Cliff's help, he will leave the village during Winter.
However, if you do ask for Cliff's help, he will help part-time at the Orchard.
Also on the 14th of Fall, Rick will stop by and ask you to take care of five
chickens while he and Popuri tend to their sick mother. He will come only if
you have upgraded your Chicken Coop and have 5 empty slots in the coop. He will
also provide chicken feed for the 5 chickens, and as an incentive, any eggs they
produce can be sold. Not a bad deal.
Have any questions or comments? E-mail me at chito10@hotmail.com.
If you want to post this on your site, e-mail me. I will most likely say yes.
I am also working on an HTML version that will most likely be posted on my web
site. However, I am still not sure about that yet. I will keep you informed.
These are the only places where this guide should appear:
http://www.gamefaqs.com (This is where I will post the most up to date FAQ)
http://www.psxcodez.com
http://www.neoseeker.com
http://www.hmfaq.zzn.com
People I want to thank for contributing:
Andrew Ongkojoyo (laguna_loire84@hotmail.com) for info on Kappa
