• /
• General/
• IOH/
• Energy Levels

Energy Levels: Energy levels are a critical element in any Harvest Moon game. All game strategies must weigh energy expense as well as the factors of time and money. Instead of the Stamina and Fatigue levels found in many other Harvest Moon games, Island of Happiness has: Stamina Fullness Use of tools depletes Stamina. The passage of time, even if you do nothing at all, will deplete your Fullness gauge. After all, 'Fullness' is determined by hunger and farmers require daily sustenance in order to be able to function properly. Your character automatically will eat a random item when he/she awakens in the morning, but this will not restore 'Fullness' to any significant degree. One of the greatest challenges at the start of the game is maintaining a high Fullness level. Stamina, even if very low when you go to bed at night, should be restored fully when you awaken in the morning. It is 'Fullness' that will not be restored by sleep, as your body requires food in order to fill your stomach. There is little choice in terms of edible items at the start of the game. You can collect coloured wild grasses from the wilds. These heart-shaped items randomly are scattered each day at specific 'drop locations' throughout the map. Fullness is as important as Stamina and once lost, it becomes difficult to recover early in the game. It is best to eat frequently during the day even if you cannot eat anything of high energy value. When you speak to Chen outside his shop, he will tell you: Working on a farm is tough. Be careful, okay? Keep your hunger minimal out there. You have two Energy Bars, one for Stamina and one for Fullness. When the Stamina Bar is completely empty, you will pass out. Passing out has no positive value in Island of Happiness. You lose time and you do not regain much energy. Try not to pass out. --- Tip: If you save your game before you go to bed at night, you will find that the type and location of wild item that you will find on any given day will change each time you load the game. In the first week of the game, it is a good idea to explore the map BEFORE you save your game. There is a significant difference between a configuration that includes NO wild grasses and one that includes three or four. The other items that can be vital in the first week are Flowers. Flowers have the highest shipping value of all the wild items you can find in the first fortnight of the first Spring. Gather Seaweed from the large Boulder at the Beach. You can gather one portion of Seaweed each day during the Spring season. Use that for Recovery as well. Try to keep all the colored grasses and seaweed as a recovery item for the beginning of the game. Don’t try to sell it, as recovering stamina is really hard before you have a Café/ Dinner opened in your island. --- If you do not have a good supply of Wild Grass to use as food, you may wish to buy some Chocolate from Chen's Market. If you look at his Shop Menu, you will see that he offers nothing in the way of substantial fare for a hungry farmer. At the start of the game, you have a choice between Oil, Curry Powder and Chocolate. Of the three, Chocolate offers the most value in terms of 'Fullness'. Keep a few bars of Chocolate in your Rucksack for use in emergencies. Your 'Fullness' metre is critical in the first week. Do not be seduced into shipping wild grasses instead of eating them. The shipping value is negligible. You may feel that their value in terms of filling the void of your stomach is negligible as well but it is the best that is to be had at this point. Whatever you do, be vigilant and do not allow your Fullness metre to fall below the halfway point. If you do this, you will find it almost impossible to regain enough Fullness to fill the metre even if you eat every piece of wild grass that you find as well as five or six bars of chocolate. Remember: If your Stamina is almost completely depleted before you go to bed at night, you will be able to regain it through sleep and awaken at 6.00 a.m. ONLY if your Fullness metre is almost full. It is a low Fullness metre rather than low Stamina that will cause you to oversleep in the morning. If you go below the halfway mark and do not remedy the hunger crisis, you will awaken later and later each morning, rising at noon instead of 6.00 a.m. If your character passes out, only Stamina will be restored. It therefore is not helpful to pass out in this game. The hour at which you go to bed will have an effect on the amount of Stamina that is recovered. If you go to bed near dawn, you will recover very little. Later in the game, you will be able to build a Bathroom. Taking a bath will restore Stamina late at night, provided always that you are able to go to bed, even for 10 minutes before 6.00 a.m. Baths consume time but they can be a mean by which you can work late at night, using most of your Stamina in the process and then recover most of it before you go to bed. Effects of Wild Grasses: When you eat a piece of coloured Wild Grass, it will restore more Stamina than Fullness, allowing you to continue to work with your tools. It does have an effect on Fullness as well, though, and can make a gradual difference if you eat Wild Grass regularly throughout the day. Each type of Wild Coloured Grass has a slightly different value in terms of Stamina Recovery and Fullness. The values of every edible item are given in another section of this Guide. As in most Harvest Moon games, you will lose more Stamina working in the rain or snow than you would if the weather were fine. Be careful when working in the rain. Rain is a boon in one sense in terms of your crops, as you will not need to water crops on a rainy day, but working in the rain at any task will deplete your energy levels faster. Furthermore, crops only grow at maximum speed on a sunny day. On a rainy or even a cloudy day, they will mature more slowly. If you wish to be able to harvest your crops at the earliest possible opportunity, therefore, you need to pray for sunshine and slave away in the fields with your Watering Can. When you unlock East Town, a Café and Diner will open there, giving you the opportunity to buy cooked dishes and to learn recipes to use in your own kitchen. Until then, you will be restricted to the items you can gather in the wilds, buy at Chen's Market and the fish that you catch. The fishing rod will not be given to you at the start of the game, however. Taro will give it to you.