This is a general warning and actually it pertains to every game created for
the DS. SAVE YOUR GAME frequently! The DS has a tendency to freeze when
'multi-tasking'. For example, if Harvest Sprites are working next to you and
you decide to harvest a crop, the game may freeze, because two different
actions are occurring at once. This is simply an example of the sort of
situation that will cause the game to freeze. The actual combination of events
can be different in every case. I have seen this sort of game freeze occur in
game after game on the DS. It always is best to save frequently in Havest Moon
games in any case, but when playing on the DS, it is even more important to do
so.

N.B. Natsume is not to blame for this!!! I have experienced this kind of
'freeze' in almost every DS game I have played.

There appears to be more of a chance that your game will freeze in the Winter
season when you enter or exit the Super Field or the screen that contains the
Excavation Site and Tent. I have experienced this more than once. Save,
therefore, before you enter the Super Field or enter the screen in the
Northeast corner of the Valley.


Game Glitch at Start of Game!

There is a glitch in Harvest Moon DS that can occur at the very start of the
game. It evidently is set in motion by the first event with the Witch Princess
as, when the event is concluded, you will begin your game in an empty village.
All the doors will be locked and there will be no one to meet on the streets.
There is a simple fix for this, however. You were given a ball for your dog
at the start of the game. Throw that ball immediately in your watering hole.
This will force Thomas to return to give you another ball. All inhabitants
will return as well and your game can proceed normally.
As I have not experienced this glitch myself, I would be grateful for
confirmation from players who have been able to fix the situation using the dog
ball. I then will pass the information on to Natsume.

No Saved Data Glitch

There have been situations where a player has saved a game in one slot and
continued to play for some time, then saved again before turning off the DS.
The cartridge was removed from the DS and another game played. After this, HM
DS was placed in the cartridge again but when the player tried to access the
file, the game declared that there was no saved data. Using the same
cartridge, the player was able to save the game, then reload the game from the
saved file when the DS was not turned off and when the cartridge had not been
removed. Any one who has experienced this is welcome to contact me.

Lumber/Animal Shed 'Freeze' or glitch



This occurs when players order a Lumber or Animal Shed from Gotz. The next
morning, when the character awakens, instead of the usual morning ritual, there
is nothing but a blank black screen. You will find, however, that your
character still is able to move or walk in the 'great blackness'. Walk until
you find the door. You then will be outside the farmhouse and your screens
will be as they should be once again. Players who experience this glitch
often are the same players who experience the glitch at the beginning of the
game wherein no inhabitants of the village can be found. Moreover, players
who have another save file with an earlier save of the same game have found
that when they go to the earlier file and play through, they experience the
same glitch/freeze when a Lumber Shed is ordered from Gotz in THAT file. It
is good to know that BOTH glitches can be fixed through simple action by your
character.


Special Event Glitch


I have experienced this one myself, unlike the two previous glitches I have
reported. It can occur when any special visitor comes to the farmhouse and
initiates an Event. Often it will occur when Thomas comes to you on 2 Winter
with his request. It can occur on New Year's Eve as well when you finally go
to bed. No doubt it can occur on other occasions. You will find afterwards
that your lower screen is black, allowing you no option to save your game or
perform any other acts that require use of the lower screen.

There is a simple fix for this glitch, however. Simply go to your refrigerator
or shelf and press the 'A' button in front of it to open it. When the
fridge/shelf door opens, the contents will appear on the lower screen,
restoring that screen from its black void.


File Freeze


As stated previously, the DS has a tendency to freeze in general but a game
like Harvest Moon freezes often, especially when more than one action is
occurring at a single moment. A player therefore is advised to SAVE the game
frequently.

Unfortunately, there is a freeze that is far more dangerous. It occurs when
you try to load your game. The game will not load and the top screen will
remain black. The background music will stutter if it is playing and no matter
what you do, you will be unable to load the file again. Turning the DS on and
off will not change this situation. Actually removing the cartridge will not
change matters either. The file is unretrievable!

For this reason, I would advise EVERY player to use BOTH files in playing a
single game. Harvest Moon requires too much time and energy to risk losing it
all when a file will not load. I try always to keep one file on the previous
day in case something untoward occurs in the other file.

I myself have experienced this 'file freeze'. I finally simply loaded the
other file and overwrote the one that would not load properly. Unfortunately,
in many cases, later BOTH files will freeze when you attempt to save or reload
one file. When this occurs, that is the end of your game.

N.B. It appears that this file freeze is more likely to occur when you are
playing the game and attempt to reload the file, rather than occurring when you
first turn on the DS. Be careful, therefore, whenever you think about
reloading the file after making an error such as littering, especially if you
are not using both files to save your game. You may be able to avoid this file
freeze by not reloading in the middle of gameplay. This is NOT verified, however.

One theory postulates memory problems. There is an incredible amount of data
in Harvest Moon DS. Players who have experienced the 'freeze glitch' have, for
the most part, been those who have experienced all possible events and have
had all or many building upgrades. In particular, they have three Basements
and the Mushroom House. They have upgraded their crops, their mushrooms and
their trees. It is possible that the additional data required to deal with
upgraded trees and upgraded mushrooms creates an 'overload' where the memory is
concerned. The Bonus Ranch Product also produces an incredible amount of
data, in that the game automatically will upgrade the product by another level
every few days. If one accepts this theory, one would try NOT to overload the
memory with too much additional data. Again, this is nothing more than a
theory but the 'freeze glitch' ultimately ends a player's game, so it is
important to try to discover the cause as quickly as possible.

I had hoped originally that players who had not had the Mushroom House or a
Basement and never had upgraded any crops or trees would not be in danger of
experiencing the 'freeze file glitch'. Unfortunately, players who had not
progressed very far in the game HAVE experienced the freeze file glitch as well
on occasion. It appears to have many different triggers in fact...



WARNING ABOUT TOUCHSCREEN


This particular game is very hard on the Touch Screen, particularly when you
use the TouchGlove to pet or wash your animals. Although you need to use the
TouchGlove a specific number of times in order to rescue some of the Sprites,
it is possible to damage your DS system if you use the TouchGlove too much. In
fact, in time you may find that your stylus no longer operates properly and
that it is almost impossible to use any tools with the Necklace equipped. It
is suggested therefore that you avoid using the TouchGlove on a constant basis
once you have rescued all Sprites.

Furthermore, it may be possible to protect your Touch Screen to some extent by
using Screen Protectors and the larger 'pen stylus' that is sold with the
Protectors. I certainly would advise players to use them.


Cooking Festival Glitch


Many players have experienced a glitch with respect to the Cooking Festival.
It appears that this has been experienced both by players who have won the
Contest in a previous year and those who did not win. It does not occur in the
first or second year, but usually a year or two later. When the glitch occurs,
the game ignores the actual dish you are trying to enter in the festival and
substitutes a dish of its own. In one case, the game entered 'Pickled Turnips'
as the dish. In another, the game entered 'Vegetable Latte'.

I now have experienced this glitch myself in one of my games. What happens is
that you are able to go to the Festival as usual in the morning to hear the
announcement of the required category. When you return after noon with your
cooked dish, however, you will find that the trestle table is completely empty.
If you attempt to give your dish as an entry, Thomas will say: 'We can't start
the contest if you keep carrying that stuff. Put it away.'

If you say that you are not ready, Thomas will say: Do whatever you need to
do, and let me know when you are ready to start the judging.

Once you surrrender to the situation and let Thomas begin, the game will enter
automatically your entry from the previous year, which will disqualify you!
Nothing will be on the table from any one until you agree to allow him to start
the judging part of the Contest. At that point, entries cooked with the
required implement will appear and your dish from the previous year will appear
with them.

Once it occurs, it may occur every year thereafter, thus preventing you ever
from winning the contest again. If any player has experienced this glitch and
especially if any player has continued to play the game through the years and
finally has managed to enter a dish again in the Festival, please email me with
as much information as possible.

At this point, there is no 'fix' for this and no one has been able to pinpoint
the trigger for the glitch.


U.K. Version of Harvest Moon DS


I have received a number of emails from players who have the new U.K. version
of Harvest Moon DS. In the U.K. version, they are unable to access the
bookcase in the farmhouse and no books are offered for sale at the Casino Shop.
It appears that this aspect of the game is not included in the U.K. version in
the same way as letters (in your postbox) were included in the original
Japanese version of the game, but not in the U.S. edition.

Moreover, in the U.K. version of the game, all three of the tables at the
Casino offer the same game, which is the 'Memory Game'.

The U.K. version of the game was NOT produced by Natsume, and it appears that
it does not include as many features as the versions produced by Natsume. In
fact, there is no ability to unlock the Mineral Town characters in the U.K. or
European version.

Players in the U.K. or Europe who would like to experience the full potential
of HM DS are advised to purchase the U.S. version produced by Natsume.

Players have been writing to me about various other anomalies in Harvest Moon
for DS. Some of them occur in the Casino when playing poker.


Poker Errors:


Error in counting Poker hand: Sometimes when you ought to have four of a kind
by virtue of having three of a kind plus a Joker (Witch Princess card), the
game will count it only as three of a kind.

From time to time, when you are trying to increase the number of medals you
wish to bet, you will find that the Results Screen (listing the values of each
hand) moves instead. This is a result of hitting the wrong directional button,
actually and is not a glitch. It is best not to do anything too quickly when
playing Poker at the Casino as it can cause problems.



Recipe Glitch for 'Best' Recipes


Whenever you make a new dish, you will receive a prompt: Write down the
recipe! In many cases, there is a basic recipe and a 'better' or 'best'
recipe that includes optional ingredients. The best recipe will give the
highest SR and FR.

It appears that the best result only is 'remembered' by the game for a day. If
you make the recipe again on a different day, by using the 'best' rather than
the basic recipe, the game will give you a prompt to the effect that SR and/or
FR values have been improved, even if it is the same recipe you used previously!

Remember that a higher level of ingredient may increase the value of it in
terms of SR and/or FR slightly.


Milk Bonus:


This is a nice bonus but it was eliminated from later versions of the game.
After slowly progressing from Level 0 to Level 1 with respect to your Milker,
you may find that your Milker experience level increases by 1 each time you use
it. After using the milker 99 times (after reaching Level 1), you will obtain
100 bottles of milk each time you use the milker.

Tip: Use your milker again and again inside any building, restoring your
Energy as necessary with Medicines or food until you reach Level 1, then use it
99 more times in quick succession in order to be able to obtain 99 bottles of
milk each time you milk your cow. Not only will this increase your income
enormously, but shipping the milk will rescue a number of Sprites! The fact
that the Ranching Bonus will acknowledge your upgraded Milker to give you 100
upgraded Milks each time you perform the trick should provide even more of an
incentive to increase your Milker experience to Level 100.

N.B. The Experience Level of the Clipper CANNOT BE INCREASED in this version
of the game.


Twice Sheared Sheep:


You can shear your sheep twice if you use the Touch Glove and only shear half
the sheep at a time. If you shear the back half only, you should be able to
obtain Medium Wool. Activate the shears with the Touch Glove again and obtain
another Medium Wool. Two Medium Wools ship for more than one Large Wool.
Another reason for doing this is if you need Medium Wool to complete your
Shipping List. If you wish to obtain 4 small Wools instead, shear the sheep a
quarter at a time! Actually, I have been able to shear a sheep 6 times for 6
small wools but that is the maximum one can obtain from a single sheep in one
day. The more times you shear a sheep in a single day, the more affection you
will obtain from that sheep, provided you see the little musical note after
each use of the shears.


Ranching Bonus:



This 'Bonus' is a glitch that was eliminated from later cartridges and does not
exist in the U.K. or European version of the game either.

Equip your Brush in your tool slot and equip the Touch Glove, and place your
milker or shears in the slot next to the tool slot in your Rucksack. Make
certain that your Rucksack is displayed on the screen before you begin to wash
your Animal and save your game before you begin.
Wash your animal using the stylus. then hit the back button and quickly switch
to the milker or shears. A Level 8 product or higher will fall out of the
milker or clippers into your hands. You then can proceed to milk your cow or
shear your sheep as if nothing had occurred to obtain the product you usually
obtain. It is only BEFORE you actually use the milker or clippers that you
will obtain the upgraded Level 8 product. (As you progress, the product level
will increase.)
If you are not quick enough, you will not obtain the bonus product. If you
saved your game before you began to wash the animal, you will be able to reload
and try again. You can do this every day with each of your animals, including
all cows and sheep and your horse.
Incidentally, the product you receive does NOT depend on the animal but on the
implement. In other words, if you have the brush equipped and then switch to
the clippers, you will receive an upgraded form of wool even if the animal is a
cow or your horse. Remember that this is a BONUS product. You still will be
able to shear your sheep once each week in the normal fashion and milk each cow
daily!
As wool is more valuable than milk, you may wish to use the clippers in every
case. If you obtain a Level 9 small wool from every animal, it will be worth
900G. Turn that into yarn, worth 2700G. Ship that through the Cannery for
4000G. Remember that you can obtain this bonus wool from every animal, cows
and horse included and that you still can milk your cows as usual afterwards.
Incidentally, Van will pay over 39,239G for one ball of Level 9 yarn. If you
have 10 animals (including your horse), you can create 10 balls of Level 9 yarn
each day and save them to sell to Van. That represents a tremendous profit!
Note that if you increase the level of your Milker to Level 100, it becomes
more profitable to switch the Brush with the Milker instead of the clippers as
you will obtain 100 bottles of upgraded milk each time you wash an animal and
perform the trick! Please see the section on 'How to Become a Millionaire' for
more details.
As you continue to perform this trick, the levels of product will increase
every couple of days. The level of product evidently is based on the number of
times you have used the Touch Glove as you can obtain the same product even
from a new animal with no affection whatsoever for you.
Incidentally, as described earlier in this guide, you can use the Bonus
Ranching Trick to obtain infinite quantities of milk from one animal in a
single day. You will be limited only by time, energy and patience as to how
many bottles you collect. If you equip the Brush and place the Milker in the
slot next to the brush, then equip the TouchGlove in your Accessory Slot, as
soon as you activate the Brush (by standing in front of the animal and pressing
A), press the 'Back' button. DO NOT EVEN BEGIN TO WASH THE ANIMAL. You can do
this again and again to obtain product each time. The only reason milk is
superior to wool is because, if you have raised the level of your Milker to 99,
you can obtain 99 or 100 bottles of milk each time you perform the trick.
Caution: Your energy will be depleted quickly, so make certain that you
restore it if you intend to use the trick again and again on a single animal in
one day. Though this means, you will be able to ship enormous quantities of
milk even if you own only a single cow. (Remember only that you actually will
need to WASH the cow after exploiting this bonus if you wish to obtain any
affection points for the animal.)

The reason that milk is recommended above wool ultimately is because you can
obtain 99 or 100 bottles of milk each time you use the trick if your milker is
raised to Level 99. Shipping this milk will result in the rescue of a number
of Sprites faster than shipping wool as you never can obtain more than a single
ball of wool each time you activate the bonus trick.

N.B. Remember that this is a 'glitch' and that the official method by which to
obtain upgraded ranch products is by winning Contests, then impregnating those
animals and continuing to win the contests from generation to generation. This
is a very slow process. The Ranch Bonus Trick gives you the same result in a
couple of days!

If you do not wish to use the Ranch Bonus Trick, you still can make more than
enough money for all expansions and upgrades by using the Touchglove and a
Milker at Level 99 to obtain Milk, then using the Cheese Maker to convert it to
Cheese before selling it to Van. Size of Milk, unlike the size of Eggs, does
not depend on the heart level of the Animal and you can obtain any size of Milk
using the Touchglove. The size you obtain depends only on the score you
receive by using the stylus.

Level 1 Prices for Ranch Products:

Van will pay about 656G for 1 Medium Cheese

Van will pay about 64944 for 99 Medium Cheese
Van will pay about 813G for 1 Large Cheese

Van will pay up to 81675G for 99 Large Cheese


Ranching Bonus Prices:
These are the prices Van will pay in each case:
Level 6 Wool: 5621G
Level 9 Yarn: 40078G
Level 10 Yarn: 49189G
Level 11 Yarn: 59260G
Level 12 Yarn: 68501G
Level 13 Yarn: 82831G
Level 14 Yarn: 96456G
Level 15 Yarn: 108545G
Level 16 Yarn: 116821G
Level 17 Yarn: 143009G
Level 18 Yarn: 156684G
Level 19 Yarn: 177632G
Level 20 Yarn: 194992G
Level 21 Yarn: 216925G
Level 22 Yarn: 236654G
Level 23 Yarn: 259999G
Level 24 Yarn: 282389G
Level 25 Yarn:304825G
Level 27 Yarn: 351788G
Level 28 Yarn: 387220G
Level 29 Yarn: 415589G
Level 31 Yarn:461444G
Level 33 Yarn: 538476G
Level 35 Yarn: 601026G
Level 36 Yarn: 640438G
Level 37 Yarn: 677002G


N.B. These prices are simply examples. Van may pay a little more in each case
if you are persistent. As you can see, however, the increase in value for each
level of yarn is approximately 20,000G. You should be able to estimate the
value of any Level based on that.

Level 22 Milk: 3579G
Level 22 Milk x 100: 357900G

Level 23 Milk: 3734G
Level 23 Milk x 100: 373400G

Level 24 Milk: 3933G

Level 25 Milk: 4099G

Level 31 Milk: 5099

Level 33 Milk: 5424G

Level 23 Cheese: 11095G
99 Level 23 Cheese: 1098405G

Level 24 Cheese: 11774G

Level 25 Cheese: 12151G

Level 29 Cheese: 14204G

Level 31 Cheese: 15076G

The price increase for each level of milk should be about 200G. The price
increase for each level of cheese can be as much as 1700G.

N.B. As you can see, if your Bonus Product is at Level 23, 1 Level 23 wool
made into yarn is far more valuable than 1 Level 23 Milk, but if your Milker is
at Level 100, 100 Level 23 Milks are more valuable than a single ball of yarn.
Make the milk into cheese and you can make over 1,000,000G from one Animal in
one day simply from the Bonus Product!

HOWEVER, if you have more money than you need and wish to try to obtain the
last Sprite Channel, you need to be able to ship 100,000 items of a single
type. These items cannot be processed. You therefore may wish to ship your
milk, especially when you obtain 100 bottles each time you use your milker or
the bonus ranch trick. Cheese will not qualify for this purpose.


Selling to Van:


There are certain 'rare' items that Van will pay far more than the shipping
price to obtain. Among these are the Accessories from the Casino and Third
Mine, the Jewelry from the Excavation Site, Pirate Treasure and Fish Fossils.
Apart from these, however, he will purchase any seeds that you wish to sell to
him. Seeds cannot be shipped and if you have upgraded your crops beyond the
level of the seed, you can get rid of them by selling them to Van.

For Lv 2 Yam Seed for example, Van will pay 970G per bag.
For Lv 3 Yam Seed, Van will pay 2146G per bag.
For Lv 4 Yam Seed, Van will pay 3818G per bag.
For Lv 5 Yam Seed, Van will pay 5951G per bag.
For Lv 6 Yam Seed, Van will pay 8652G per bag.
For Lv 7 Yam Seed, Van will pay 11164G per bag.
For Lv 8 Yam Seed, Van will pay 15525G
For Lv 18 Yam Seed, Van will pay 70686G
For Lv 21 Yam Seed, Van will pay 108898G
For Lv 22 Yam Seed, Van will pay 119763G
For Lv 23 Yam Seed, Van will pay 126625G
For Lv 25 Yam Seed, Van will pay 154118G
For Lv 26 Yam Seed, Van will pay 166368G

For the actual Yam:
For Lv 22 Yam: 72723G

As you can see, there is a huge profit to be made by using the Seed Maker to
transform your upgraded crops into seeds if you intend to sell to Van.

These prices are simply indicators. He certainly will offer far less and he
may even offer a little more. By bargaining with him over a period of time,
these are the best prices I obtained in each case.

For Fossil of Fish: 30108G


Natsume Anomalies:


A Mythic Necklace will not appear at the Sprite Company Tree shop when you have
upgraded all your tools to Mythic Level. It may or may not appear at a later
stage in the game. It certainly is one of the Harvest Moon Cards.

Although the level of the Milker can increase, giving a wonderful bonus, the
level of the Clippers NEVER WILL INCREASE! This is deliberate on the part of
Natsume and is not a glitch in the game.

The level of affection of all animals EXCEPT the horse will increase in this game.



List Anomalies:


There are a couple of problems in this version of Harvest Moon with respect to
the labels given to items. Tomatoes are correctly labelled by level until they
are made into seeds. At this point, they are labelled 'Tomatoes' without
reference to the specific level of the seed. This is a problem merely with the
label and not with the actual seed as you will not be able to combine Tomato
seeds of different levels in the same slot. When planted, an unlabelled
upgraded level of Tomato seed will produce an upgraded crop, but it is very
annoying because you won't know which bag of seeds is which until you harvest
the crop!

There is a problem with respect to the Harvest Goddess Flower Gift. When
shipped, it will register in your general Shipping List but will not register
at all in the specific list for the item. This is true no matter which method
you use to ship the flower.


Natsume Errata:


Always remembering that this game originally was written and produced in
Japanese, Natsume makes errors in every Harvest Moon game that can be rather
amusing. I am not going to list all errata, only those that are entertaining.

If you tap on a bottle of wine to obtain its description, the description will
state: Wine made from grapes picked at Mineral Town orchid.