1. House No more chopping lumber, and free house expansions! I was so happy to discover this bit of the game. While the expansions can be very expensive in this game, be assured that at the end of the first three chapters, you'll get a free new room added to your house. At the end of the first year, you get a kitchen with two bathroom attachments that you can enter and use with accompanying sound effects (even though the camera doesn't follow you in there). At the end of year two, your son gets his own room while you and your wife still have to sleep in the living room next to the television set. You and your wife eventually will get your own room at the end of Chapter 3. There are several additions you can buy for your home. For example, Van will sell a few records. You can also buy new rugs for your home. More about that in the Van section of the guide. More information about the records you can obtain from various townsfolk: -- According to reader Sam Halsall, you can also get a record from Carter: "In Chapter 4, while Van was in town, I met Carter on the beach staring at a log. He gave me the Summer Memories album. Van will buy it for 405(486)G." -- According to reader Benjamin Bezanilla, you can get a record from Sebastian, who is the butler at the Villa. You must be his friend, and when you go to his room to speak to him, he will lend you a record called "Town Mysteries." Thanks to Benjamin in Chile for the info! -- Per Wijanarko Harun, you can get a record from the yeti-like creature that hangs around around the Spring in wintertime. You can give him three flowers and three fish per day in order to raise his heart level with you. When you are his friend he will give you a record called "Lullaby of the Fall." Also, you can get this record from him over and over again by talking to him every day, and sell the extras to Van for 405G. --Also per Wijanarko Harun, you can receive a record from Chris (Hugh's mother) after you befriend her. That one is called "The Bride." Like most of the women in this game, she loves flowers. I also had good luck giving her milk as a gift. Lynn also emailed me about the Bride record, so thanks to both of you! --Per Hood, you can get the "Memories 64" record if you have 10 wins against Kassey in the terrority game. --Also per Hood, can get the "Marine Jazz" record by befriending Griffin. He likes fish. Enter his room around 2-3 PM to receive the record. 2. Dog House In this version of Harvest Moon, you are not supposed to take your dog inside your house with you. I learned this the hard way, when I brought him inside every night and he ended up being angry with me whenever I tried training him. Some GC game guides note that you are physically unable to bring your dog inside the house, but with this PS2 version I was able to. If I tried bringing him into the barn or one of the other buildings, he'd bounce out of my arms as I went through the door, but he did get into the house with me. However, apparently you are supposed to let him use his dog house when the weather gets bad. Like I said, I was bringing him inside at night and when it rained, and for more than a season after that, I got the angry "storm cloud" thought bubble above his head every time I tried to train him. Once I started leaving him outside all of the time and feeding him once a day, he was fine and his heart levels started going up again. His dog dish is next to his little house, and he generally will eat every day around 9 AM or so. You'll see a little heart appear over his head every day when he eats. You can feed him any of the foods that you are foraging for, such as Royal Fern or mushrooms. I never wasted any crops on him because they are so necessary for cooking, hybridization, and making seeds. 3. Chicken Coop The white building with blue trim that stands on the other side of the first field is your hen house. You can have up to eight chickens inside. You'll need to fill the feed box every other day once you have a large number of birds. Feed is $150 each. You can also have Takakura build you a little fenced in area for the birds, but it costs $10,000 and it didn't seem cost effective to me, since the birds are plenty happy staying inside at all times as long as you cuddle them and pick them up every day. My chickens started giving golden eggs nearly every day as soon as they got to ten hearts. You can make money for feed by selling any of the extra male chickens you hatch from fertilized eggs. Wait until the new male chick is an adult and then sell him for $450. They have to make it really sad just to make you feel bad, and show a cutscene where Takakura takes the bird and walks off. But there really is no point to keeping more than one male bird. He doesn't do anything but fertilize eggs and eat. 4. The Fields You start the game with two fields. The GC guides talk about a third, more fertile field beyond the locked shed and I don't know if that is available right at the beginning of the GC version of the game. But in the PS2 version, you don't have the option of using that third field until the second year. At the beginning of the game it's covered in trees and brush and you can't even walk up there. The small field next to your house is the least fertile. Plant trees there. They grow just fine as long as you keep watering them. You can also fertilize them to help them out. The middle field is on the other side of your chicken coop. Use this one to plant crops until you have access to the third field. I've tried planting in a checkerboard fashion, and also planting in rows with one empty row of soil in between each row of crops. It doesn't seem to matter how you plant them as long as they are properly watered. Make sure you water once in the morning, and then when your crops are dried out in the afternoon, water them a second time. This greatly improves the time it takes for your crops to grow. They take almost twice as long when you water them only once a day. At some point in the second year, probably after you've added a few expansions to your farm, Takakura will mention that he can now clear that third field for you. This happened in the Fall of year two for me. The third field costs $20,000! That seems a little extravagent to just clear some brush. But the third field is the most fertile, so it's worth it. And by that point you should be making cheese and butter, so you'll be able to raise the money okay. 5. The Barn/Pasture Your barn is the largest building you have. You have a fenced in pasture behind it, and a silo of fodder attached to it. The most awesome aspect of this game, and the first time this feature appears in a PS2 version of Harvest Moon, is the automatic bell. While you're standing outside the barn (in the pasture), you can push the red button on the wall to ring a bell that calls all the animals outside to the pasture. No more pushing their stubborn behinds out the door! While you are inside the barn, push the red button on the wall to call all the animals inside. I love this feature so much. Your cows have two boxes of fodder each, and the horse has one box. Feed the animals twice a day (though the horse tends to only eat once), or they will get angry. If the weather is nice and you can leave them outside in the pasture for most of the day, they will just eat once while they are inside the barn. Just keep the fodder bins full whenever you see they are empty. That's your best bet. Fodder is a definite issue during your first year. The grass in the pasture doesn't grow until you fertilize it square by square. Fertilizer can be purchased at Vesta's farm (just push the "right" directional button while you are in the shop menu and you'll find fertilizer listed on the last page). It costs $40 each. Money is tight during the first year because you start out with just one cow and you have to build up her heart level to get the more lucrative milk. You can easily run out of fodder during that first year when trying to feed your cow and horse. I suggest not buying another cow until you get at least half that pasture fertilized. You can't cut the grass for fodder until it gets tall and turns a very dark green. Also, when you put the animals out to pasture, they need the tall grass to eat. If you haven't fertilized at all or if the fertilized grass hasn't had enough time to grow yet, there is nothing out there for your animals to eat. If you put your animals out to graze without fully grown grass in the pasture, they are not eating outside. They will still expect to be fed twice in the barn. If you send your animals outside and your cow immediately moos angrily (with a storm cloud above her head), this can mean one of two things. Either you've put them out too early and they were asleep at the time, or your grass is not tall enough and there is nothing to eat. Always leave a few patches of grass growing after you start fertilizing and are able to cut some fodder. Good fodder costs $250 and is very expensive. You can use it sparingly to help boost your cow's health/heart level and get your milk to "S" level, but don't expect to buy it to feed your animals on a daily basis. 6. Tool Shed The tool shed is attached to your barn and can be entered from outside or through the barn itself. All of your tools can be stored here, though I tend to carry everything with me. You start out with Takakura's heavy tools and a small watering can. The heavy tools will tire you out quickly, so when you get a chance buy the light hoe and the light sickle. They are worth the investment and aren't too expensive as tools go. Also make sure to buy the fishing pole right away, because it will turn into a great money-making feature in the future. The watering can holds 35 waters and is perfectly serviceable. You don't need to upgrade that one right away. When you are able to spare the $750 for the large watering can, you'll have 140 waters available. Stand in front of the low shelves on the left side of the room to access your tools. On the far right side of the room, past the door, there is a tall shelf where your seeds are stored. You can also store anything else that isn't perishable (no crops or food). When you order good fodder or bird food from Takakura, he will deposit it here on the following day so you have to come in here to grab it if you want to use it. When you buy seeds from Vesta, those will go directly into your rucksack. Also, when you get the seed maker it will be located here. 7. Food Storage Room Across from the tool shed you'll find the food storage room. Against the back wall there is a deep freezer to store your extra perishable foods--although if you do that you can get them stolen by Murray, the homeless guy. If your dog is at a high heart level he will protect your items and stop him, but it's just easier to never leave anything in there. Besides, when your dog catches him you hurt Murray's feelings when you try to take your stuff back because he doesn't understand that it actually belongs to you. He thinks it's a magical box of free stuff. Dairy items and crops do not go bad, no matter how long you keep them in your rucksack. And your rucksack is huge in this game. It will be difficult to actually fill it up even when you carry all of your tools, seeds, crops, archeological items, foraged foods, etc. You can also deposit your dairy and crop items here to be sold. Dairy items go in the small refrigerator in the middle, crops and seeds go in the wicker basket on the right. When you're in the wicker basket menu, across the middle there are two icons where you can toggle between the "crop" page and the "seed" page. Selling the seeds, especially fruit tree seeds, will gain much more money than selling the crops themselves. Every morning at around 5:30 AM, Takakura comes over there, takes everything to be sold, and walks off to the city. He normally comes back with your money around noon. When he does, he puts the money in the can on the left. This is also where you can order items such as tools, bird seed, and building expansions. 8. Takakura's House Your father's friend still lives on the property. His house is the last building as you leave the farm area, across from the barn. Though he wanders around the farm all day after coming back from the city, I'm not sure that he actually does anything to help you out. He goes into the pasture, the chicken coop, and walks through the barn every evening. But he just stands around and looks at stuff. He likes taste testing items from your farm, especially things you've cooked. By "taste-test" I mean he eats them, so you don't get anything back once he's tried it. Though he will let you know what he thought of your food the next time you talk to him. Average quality dairy/crops are "okay," and recipes that you've cooked generally get a rave review. During the second year, he brings a plant home with him named Tartan. This two headed plant reminds me of the plant from "Little Shop of Horrors." But instead of people, this one eats crops and seeds. This is how you start combining two crops to make new ones. Enter Takakura's house in the evening (between 7 and 8 PM) during the second year and you'll be introduced to Tartan. This worked for me during the summer. Takakura wasn't even my friend yet. Tartan is very frustrating, because when you talk to him, he doesn't just ask whether you want to hybridize right away. You generally have to keep talking to him several times before you get the option. If he asks whether you have anything to eat, he's just going to analyze it and tell you the quality, when to plant it, etc. This isn't all that useful because you get the same information when you "check" the seeds yourself when you're holding them, so skip over that and keep choosing to "talk." Eventually he'll ask if you want to hybridize. More about that in the hybridization section of this FAQ. 9. Seed Maker This is an expansion that must be purchased through the order form in the food storage room. It costs $6000 and is one of the cheapest additions besides the pond. You can get a free one if you befriend Daryl, but I could never catch Daryl enough to get to that point so I just bought one. This item goes into the tool shed. When you get it, you can put a crop in here and in two days or so you'll get two seeds per crop. This is especially useful with the tree fruits, as their seeds will sell for far more than the fruits themselves, and also with the new crops that you've hybridized, since you can't buy these special seeds from Vesta. A definite must-buy item (or free item if you befriend Daryl). 10. Pond You need the pond if you want ducks. Ducks will appear during the second year and lay eggs as long as you have the pond and some chickens, but I didn't feel the need to have them so I didn't bother with it. At $2,500, it's not as expensive as the other expansions. So it's up to you if you want one. If you don't have a pond, you don't get ducks. You don't need the pond to grow fish, like you could in previous games. The pond will appear in front of the tree in your pasture, so be sure you don't waste money fertilizing the grass immediately around that tree if you're going to get a pond. Update: Even though the GC game guides all claim that you have to have the pond by Year Two in order to get ducks to show up, I managed to get ducks in Year Four after getting the pond that year. Just go to bed really late during the summer so you wake up after your wife and you'll get a scene where she tells you that there are ducks outside. You'll get to choose to keep them or not. If you keep them, you get to name the male and female duck and they will be added to your chicken coop. I named mine Donald and Daisy. Just don't have a full chicken coop so there is room for them to be added. 11. Food Processing Room A major financial setback. This baby costs $30,000! But you need this building to make butter and cheese, which is instrumental in a lot of recipes as well as far more lucrative than mere milk. You will make this money back with no problem. If you have a normal cow giving "S" milk, you can make "good" butter and cheese, both of which sells for $300 each. Once I got this room, I never sold milk again. I just made anything I didn't want to keep for recipes into cheese and butter, and sold it that way. I was able to make the $20K I needed for the third field in one season following this expansion. If you have a Star cow giving "A" or "S" quality milk, don't make cheese or butter unless you need it for a recipe. Star cow milk sells for much more than the good butter and good cheese. 12. Chicken Yard The chicken yard can be built for $10,000 and will take the place of the locked shed. Readers have told me that you can leave your chickens in there at all times without them getting sick, but it just makes me nervous so I haven't tried this out. Bird food can be expensive but I usually have enough money to feed them inside the coop. 13. Miscellaneous You can also build a fertilizer maker, milking room, and a few various other items, but the expansions listed above are the most important. The milking room costs $60,000 and mostly just saves you the time of milking. I don't think it's worth the money. Once you fertilize your pasture you never have to do it again; the grass keeps growing every time you cut it (even during Winter), so I just bought all my fertilizer from Vesta rather than buy the maker. Finally, there is a water well near the chicken coop where you fill your water can. The locked shed cannot be used; it's just a locked shed that ended up not being used by the programmers. I wish they'd just taken the stupid thing out, but there you go.
Buildings and Expansions