or from Rick at Yodel's Farm in the case of Cows and Sheep. After that, you
can incubate eggs if you would like to have more Chickens and Ducks and use
Miracle Potion if you wish to increase your Cow or Sheep population.
You will not be able to buy or raise any animals if you do not have room for
them. This applies to eggs that you place in the incubator as well. You will
not be able to incubate an egg if you do not have a space for the future chick
or duckling in your Bird Barn (s). The maximum number of chickens that you are
allowed to keep in a Bird Barn is 4.
There is a distinct advantage in raising your own animals apart from any
financial benefit. An animal born on your farm will be born with 2 hearts.
Animals purchased from Popuri or Rick will have a heart level of zero when they
first arrive at your farm. It is best, therefore to replace animals purchased
elsewhere with animals born on your own farm as soon as it is practical to do so.
As you can see in the Harvest Moon card deck, there are three different
varieties of Cow. The 'Normal' Cow is white with black spots. The 'Marble'
Cow is white with brown and black spots. The 'Brown' Cow is entirely brown.
Actually, the variety of cow you obtain when you purchase any cow from Rick at
Yodel's Farm is random. If you want to have all three varieties on your farm,
save your game before you make the purchase, then keep reloading if necessary
until the type of cow you need appears in front of Takakura's house.
N.B. Any animal you purchase either from Popuri at the Poultry Farm or Rick at
Yodel's Farm will be delivered to the door of Takakura's house. This makes the
situation a little more complicated than it is in other Harvest Moon games,
where the animal you have purchased is placed IN the Animal or Bird Barn. In
the case of a chicken or duck, it is very simple to pick up the bird and carry
it into the Bird Barn. In the case of a Cow or Sheep, however, it can prove
more difficult and annoying.
An animal with no affection for you is less inclined to respond to the bell.
You may find that you are obliged to push the animal towards the door of the
Animal Barn. Remember that poultry and livestock become unhappy if they are
left outside in the rain. It is a mistake, therefore, to buy any animal on a
rainy or snowy day. Wait until the weather is fair if you need to purchase an
animal.
As in FoMT and MFoMT, your animals will die when they reach their life
expectancy. Death is random and can be avoided by reloading, but once the game
has begun to 'kill off' your animals, it is best to sell them and raise new
ones. Life expectancy for a chicken or duck is four years; for a cow or sheep
it is five. You can stretch the life of a favourite animal by reloading back
to the previous night if the death scene occurs, but the death scenes only will
become more frequent as the days pass.
Animal affection can reach 10 hearts. The requirements for winning an Animal
Festival are very stringent. An animal at 8 hearts will win third place. An
animal at 9 hearts will win second place. Only an animal at the maximum 10
hearts will win the Contest and be able to give you the next level of Animal or
Poultry.
Benefits of using the Touch Glove:
There are two ways to interact with your animals. One is by speaking to the
animal, and then brushing or milking/shearing the animal manually. The other
is by using the Touch Glove. When the Touch Glove is equipped, you can do the
following:
By picking up your chicken, you can pet it.
By pressing A in front of a cow, sheep, horse, cat or dog, you can pet it.
By equipping the Brush with the Touch Glove, you can wash your cow, sheep or
horse. This is the source of the Ranching Bonus, so please refer to the
section on the Ranching Bonus for details on this Exploitation device.
By equipping the Milker with the Touch Glove, you can milk your cow and obtain
a larger size of Milk than you can by milking the animal manually.
By equipping the Shears with the Touch Glove, you can shear your sheep and
obtain a larger size of Wool than you can manually. Moreover, you can perform
'partial' shearing and shear one sheep a total of 6 times if you are clever,
obtaining 6 small wools instead of 1.
By using the Touch Glove to pet your animals and wash your animals a specific
number of times, you can rescue Harvest Sprites.
The Touch Glove actually opens a number of little mini-games. By using it, you
can increase the heart levels of your animals more quickly. Apart from that,
there is a great bonus:
Ranching Bonus:
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. Hit the back button, then quickly switch to
the milker or shears. A bonus upgraded product 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 product. As you progress, the Level of product that you obtain
in this fashion 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
your cows, sheep and your horse.
As described elsewhere, if you hit the 'Back' button before you even wash the
animal, you can perform this trick an infinite number of times on the same
animal. It will use energy, however, and it will NOT increase the Affection of
your animal so when you have obtained as many upgraded products as you need, go
ahead and actually WASH the animal in order to obtain affection points.
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.
To make an even higher profit, save the Yarn and sell it to Van when his stall
is open on the second floor of the Inner Inn. Van will pay up to 39,239G for
one ball of Level 9 yarn! That is far more profit than can be made from most
items when sold to Van! If you have only 10 animals (including your horse),
you can collect ten balls of yarn each day. This is a tremendous animal
exploitation bonus!
If, however, you have increased the level of your Milker to Level 99, you can
obtain 100 bottles of upgraded milk EACH time you perform this bonus ranching
trick! To increase the level of your Milker quickly, simply stand inside any
building and use it again and again until you see the gauge fill from 0 to 1.
After it reaches Level 1, simply use it 100 times more to raise its level to
the maximum level of 99. When the Milker is at Level 99, you will receive 100
bottles of milk each time you milk a cow! If you use the Milker instead of the
Clippers in the Bonus Ranching Trick, you will obtain another 99 bottles of
milk from EACH animal every day by washing the animal, then switching brush and
Milker in the tool slot.
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, if you do not have a sheep who can be sheared, you will not be
able to obtain wool using the Bonus trick. A pregnant sheep cannot be sheared;
thus, if the only sheep you have is pregnant, you will not be able to obtain
wool through the Bonus trick using the clippers. The same holds true with
respect to milk. If you have no cow, or the only cow you own is pregnant, you
will not be able to obtain milk using the milker. However, you will be able to
use the trick even with the first cow you purchase, before she is old enough to
give milk.
You can obtain the Ranching Bonus even from pregnant or baby animals. As
previously stated, the only requirement is that you have at least one cow or
sheep that is not pregnant.
The Bonus Trick can be used an infinite number of times each day for each
animal actually if you tap 'Back' immediately after the washing screen appears.
If you are interested in rescuing Sprites quickly and unlocking the last
Harvest Moon Sprite Station, you will do so sooner if you use the Ranching
Trick to obtain 100 bottles of milk rather than wool, provided your Milker is
at Level 99.
Natsume has given conflicting reports with respect to this Bonus. It is
possible that it was not programmed deliberately into the game but is a
'glitch'. Some players, including myself, have experienced a situation wherein
a save file froze when loading and the data became corrupted. The game
therefore was lost. No one knows why this occurs, but use of any exploitation
'cheats' in Harvest Moon games can cause problems.
Increasing Ranch Product Levels:
Ranch Product levels increase when the Bonus Trick is used on a regular basis.
The ordinary method of increasing levels, however, is one that will take years
rather than days. When any animal wins a Competition, the next generation will
produce an upgraded product. In other words, when you impregnate a Cow or
Sheep who has won the Competition, the resulting offspring will produce the
next level of product when fully grown. An egg from a chicken or duck that is
incubated will hatch into a Chicken or Duck who can produce the next level of
egg. In this fashion, through the years, you can complete your Level List for
every product.
The only way to win an Animal Contest is by having an animal at the maximum of
10 hearts. 9 hearts will gain second place. 8 hearts will gain third place.
Winning is much more difficult in this game than it was in FoMT or MFoMT.
Raising Animal Heart Levels:
You can raise the heart levels of your animals by performing specific actions.
Perform the following daily or as often as possible for maximum results:
Talk to your Animals:
This simple action is worth: +1 FP.
Walk up to your animal and press the A button. If you are speaking to a
chicken and duck, this will cause you to pick up the animal, and you will see a
big red heart, indicating +1 point. In the case of a Cow or Sheep, you will
see a prompt that gives the condition of the animal, whether well, unhappy or
sick and in the case of a pregnant animal, its progress. There are three
different stages of pregnancy and each has a corresponding message:
Pet your Animals:
This Touch Glove action is worth: +1 FP to +3 FP
Equip the Touch Glove in your Accessory slot and press A when standing next to
an animal. If you do not have the Milker, Clippers or Brush equipped in the
tool slot, this will activate the Petting game. The point score you receive for
petting the animal with your stylus will determine how many FP points you will
gain. The score will appear in the lower left corner of the touch screen.
Whenever a heart appears, you will receive a bonus of 500 points, but whenever
a skull appears, you will lose 300 points. You will notice that hearts appear
when you move the stylus across specific locations on the animal's body and
that skulls appear when you pet the animal in a spot that makes her
uncomfortable. In particular, poultry do not like to have their beaks petted!
Livestock and horses do not care to have their hindquarters touched! (It is
best to 'pet' ducks diagonally from top to bottom as their bodies are not as
wide as those of chickens and this appears to produce the highest scores with
fewest skulls.)
Wash your Animals:
This form of Animal Care is worth: +1 to +3 FP
Equip the Touch Glove in your Accessory slot and the Brush in your Tool slot.
Your horse and all livestock can be washed by pressing the Y Button. Larger
bubbles give higher scores. The score will be shown in the lower left of the
screen. It will fluctuate as you use the brush so when it is high, press A or
the 'End' button to finalise the score. Although every type of animal is
different in terms of the score that will earn higher points, a score of 7000
or higher should be worth +3 FP. 3000 or above should be worth +2 FP and any
score below that is worth +1 FP. See the section below for actual score values.
Incidentally, when you use the brush to wash an animal, you will see a bubble
with 'Up' inside it at a certain point. This indicates that bubbles are at
their largest and during this brief interval, you can obtain the highest score.
The brush can be used manually without the Touch Glove. When used manually, it
will not wash the animal and you will receive only +1 AP. The only real
advantage of using the Brush manually is that you can equip a different
accessory in your Accessory Slot. If you equip the Harvest Goddess Hat while
using the Brush, you will not use as much energy as you would otherwise.
N.B. You cannot perform the Ranch Bonus trick with the Brush and
Clippers/Milker unless you have equipped the TouchGlove. Furthermore, this
'glitch' was eliminated in later versions of the game and does not exist in the
European version either.
Fresh Air Bonus:
Taking your animals outside is worth: +1 FP
If you take your Livestock outside, you should build a pen for them using Stone
or Wood Lumber directly outside the Barn door. This will make it easier for
you to push them back into the barn at night. If you have the Red Cloak,
however, you will be able to move them even if you are inside a building which
means that no time will pass. Using the Red Cloak will use energy, but not time.
To build a pen, it is best to build a complete square using pieces of Stone or
Wood Lumber. An entire barnful of chickens/ducks can be accommodated in a 25
space square (5 x 5) outside a Bird Barn. For Cows and Sheep, build a
rectangular pen that is at least 40 squares (8 x 5). You actually can make it
any size you like, but a 5 x 5 square allows a 3 x 3 plot of grass to be grown
inside it and a 8 x 5 square allows two plots of grass to be grown inside it.
This is aesthetically pleasing, although technically, the grass that livestock
needs can be situated anywhere on your land.
Cows and Sheep when outside must have ripe grass to eat or they will become
unhappy. They need not be at the location of the ripe grass, which can be
grown on public land as well as your own field, but ripe grass must exist
somewhere on the part of the map where the animals are situated. You need one
square of ripened grass for each animal left outside to roam free, and one
square of ripe grass on your own land for each animal placed in a pen.
Chickens and ducks, on the other hand, do not need grass. They can find food
anywhere, even in Winter. If you grow grass inside their pen, it is for
decorative purposes, although any Cows or Sheep who are outside will be able to
eat it, even though they do not have physical access to it!
There is danger in leaving livestock and poultry outside after 8.00 p.m. As in
FoMT and MFoMT, there is a wild dog who can terrorise and hurt your animals if
they are outside at night. If you train your dog by playing ball with him, he
will chase away the wild dog, but if he is not trained, you must do it
yourself. As with the Dark Creatures inside the Mines, a sharp tool is more
effective than a blunt tool in fighting the wild dog. The Legendary Sword is
the best weapon, although it uses 5 SR instead of 2 SR each time you wield it.
All animals should be brought into their barns when the weather is inclement.
When rain or snow is forecast for the following day, bring all livestock and
poultry into their barns. Hurricanes, wind storms and snowstorms actually can
kill your animals, even if they are inside shelters unless the barns are made
of stone or golden lumber. A barn made of fodder or wood can collapse easily
in a hurricane, wind storm or blizzard. It is important, therefore, to upgrade
all your buildings to stone as soon as possible.
N.B. You can control the weather by saving your game before you go to bed,
then watching the Weather Channel as soon as you awaken. If a hurricane, wind
storm or blizzard is forecast, simply reload without saving and try again. The
chance of a severe storm occurring is about 5%. Reload until the weather
forecast is acceptable.
Touch Glove Scores and Heart Levels:
Here is a list of animals with the scores required to boost their heart levels:
Poultry:
When caring for Chicks, a score of 1000 is worth 1 FP, 3000 is worth 2 FP and
5500 is worth 3 FP. Adult Chickens require more attention. A score of 1000
still is worth 1 FP,but you need a score of 5000 to gain 2 FP and 9000 to gain
3 FP.
To earn 3 FP with a Duckling, you need a score of 6000. For adult Ducks, a
score of 1000 will earn 1 FP, 3000 will earn 2 FP and 6000 will earn 3 FP.
Livestock:
With respect to a baby Cow, a score of 1000 will earn 1 FP, 4000 will earn 2
FP and 11000 will earn FP. For a medium Cow, a score of 1000 will earn 1 FP,
4000 will earn 2 FP and 12000 3 FP. The cows purchased from Yodel's Farm
always are Medium Cows. For a large Cow, a score of 1000 will earn 1 FP, 5000
will earn 2 AP and 14000 will earn 3 FP. For pregnant Cows, you need a score
of 1000 to earn 1 FP but you will need a score of 14500 or above to earn 3 FP.
A Medium Sheep requires a score of 10,000 to earn 3 FP. For Adult Sheep, you
need a score of at least 1000 to earn 1 FP, a score of 5000 to earn 2 FP and
a score of 14000 to earn 3 FP.
With respect to your other animals, a score of 1000 will earn 1 FP with your
horse, a score of 4000 will earn 2 FP and you need a score of 10500 or higher
to gain 3 FP. With your Cat, you need a score of 2000 to earn 1 AP, 4000 to
earn 2 FP and 8000 to earn 3 FP. Your Dog requires a higher score to earn
even 1 FP. You need a score of 1500 to earn 1 FP, a score of 4000 to earn 2 FP
and a score of 8000 to earn 3 FP.
Your Horse
Unlike FoMT/MFoMT, where you obtain a horse within the first week of gameplay,
in this game you only will be given your horse when you have shipped 1000
items. Weeds, sticks and stones count as items and can be shipped here, so
ship everything possible until Takakura brings your horse to you!
You can obtain your Horse almost immediately if you are willing to invest a
little gold in the process. Buy Bird Feed from Popuri and ship it until you
have shipped 1000 items. Takakura will appear then with the horse! This can
be done in the first week of gameplay. In fact, the horse is MOST useful in
the first week of gameplay before you have the opportunity to purchase the
Teleport Stone.
Takakura will come to your house after you have shipped 1000 items and will
give you a horse. Although he will ask you if you want to keep it, you really
have no choice in the matter as, if you refuse, he will continue to ask you to
keep it until you accept the offer. A horse can be very useful as you do not
need to feed it, can ride it throughout the village and can ship items in its
saddlebags. Your horse is not as vital in terms of transportation in this game
as in some other Harvest Moon games as you can purchase a Teleport Stone from
the Casino Window even at the start of the game.
To raise your horse's affection level, ride it daily, brush it daily and use
the Touch Glove to pet and wash it. Details about the heart levels of all
animals are given in the preceding sections.
In early versions of this game, the Horse, Dog and Cat did not gain hearts
easily. In later versions, they did.
Poultry
You cannot buy a chicken from Popuri until Gotz builds a Bird Barn for you.
Once you have the Bird Barn, you can buy chickens from Popuri. If you would
like to raise ducks as well, you need to order the Duck Pond. When you have
the Duck Pond, you will be able to buy Ducks from Popuri as well.
(Incidentally, if you have any desire to court Leia, the Duck Pond is a
pre-requisite of marriage to her, as it will serve as her 'home' after marriage.)
There is a Duck Festival as well as a Chicken Festival in this game.
Both Chickens and Ducks will lay eggs for you. Some recipes do not
discriminate between the type of egg used, but others will require a specific
variety of egg. Unlike adult Chickens, Ducks will not lay eggs on a daily
basis. A duck lays an egg every 3 days.
You can raise the heart levels of your chickens and ducks by picking them up
once each day and using the TouchGlove to pet them. You can incubate both Duck
and Chicken eggs in your Bird Barn if you wish to increase your Poultry
population. Birds born on your farm will have a heart level of 2 when born
unlike birds that you purchase from Popuri's Poultry Farm who come to you with
no affection at all.
A Chicken or Duck will lay small eggs for you until her heart level reaches 4.
At 4 hearts, she will lay Medium Eggs. At 8 hearts, she will lay Large Eggs.
Cows and Sheep
Your first Cow and Sheep must be purchased by telephone from Rick at Yodel's
Farm, but after that, you can use Miracle Potion to impregnate your livestock.
There is one Miracle Potion for Sheep and another for Cows and Rick sells
both. You will not be able to use any Miracle Potion if you do not have space
for the future animal in your Animal Barn (s).
A Sheep when purchased is an adult and gives Wool immediately. You need to
purchase the Shears or Clippers from Saibara's Smithy in order to be able to
shear your sheep. A Cow when purchased is not fully grown. She will become an
adult in a week and you will be able to milk her then, provided she is happy
and not ill. The Milker is purchased from Saibara's Smithy. The only
implement that Yodel's Shop sells for use with your Livestock is a Bell.
The Bell can be used to bring Animals back to the Barn when they are outside,
but it works best when your Animals are at high heart level. To avoid wasting
valuable time, build a pen for your livestock outside your Animal Barn so that
they cannot stray far from the door. You can grow grass inside the pen for
them as well. Make certain that you build a pen with four sides, however,
rather than using a building as part of one wall. There are gaps that will
exist if you try to use a building as a wall and your livestock and chickens
may escape. By building a pen with four walls made of Stone lumber pieces
directly outside an Animal Barn or Bird Barn, you can use a single Stone Lumber
piece as a 'gate' or door and simply place it in your rucksack while directing
animals into the pen with your bell. When all livestock have entered the pen,
'shut' the gate by restoring the Stone to its position.
Any grass grown when harvested with a sickle becomes fodder for your livestock.
You can raise the heart levels of your Sheep and Cows by speaking to them each
day, by brushing them manually or using the TouchGlove and brush to wash them
and by using the TouchGlove to pet them. When speaking to your animals, make
certain that you are in front of them rather than talking to their
hindquarters. They will display a large red heart only if you are facing them
politely!
If you wish to increase the number of livestock, you can purchase Cow Miracle
Potion and Sheep Miracle Potion from Rick at Yodel's Farm. An animal born on
your farm will have 2 hearts when born unlike animals purchased from Yodel's
Farm who will come to you with a heart level of zero. When 15 Animals have
been born on your farm, a Sprite will be rescued.