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• Your Rucksack

Your Rucksack The Rucksack is vital in any Harvest Moon game and Island of Happiness is no exception. Your first Small Rucksack consists of 12 slots. Your initial Rucksack has 12 slots, five of which are filled at the start of the game with basic tools. These are a Hammer, Hoe, Axe, Sickle and Watering Can. In your rucksack are two bags of Turnip seeds. Your initial income is 500G. There is no Fishing Rod at this point in the game. Even on the first day of business, Chen will offer a Rucksack that consists of twice as many slots, offering you 24 slots to store tools, items and any accessories you may acquire later in the game. Rucksack Prices: Small Rucksack: Available from start of game You will have the Small Rucksack when you begin the game. It consists of 12 slots, displayed on a single 'page'. Medium Rucksack: 300G The Medium Rucksack will be available at Chen's Shop when he first opens his business on the Island. It consists of 24 slots displayed in a two-page format. Large Rucksack: 500G The Large Rucksack will be available at Chen's Shop after you have purchased the Medium Rucksack from him. It consists of 36 slots displayed on three 'pages'. Rucksack Menu: Your Rucksack Menu will vary a little according to the size of the Rucksack that you own but the basic configuration is the same in every case. The Rucksack is displayed on the bottom screen and the stylus is used to work with the menu. At the top of the page, you will see a box displaying the slots in your Rucksack. If you own the Small Rucksack, all 12 slots will be displayed. If you own the Medium Rucksack or the Large Rucksack, only the first page will be displayed. Tap the arrow on the left or right to cycle through other pages of the Rucksack. Every slot can be used for any Tool, Item or Accessory, unlike some games where the Rucksack has separate compartments for Tools and Items. Below the box that displays the slots in the Rucksack, you will see a diamond configuration of four slots. To the left of that are two small boxes in the lower left corner of the screen. The top box displays the Icon of a Knife and Fork. You can use this icon as a shortcut if you wish to eat an item in your Rucksack. The bow below it displays the icon of a Rubbish Bin. You can toss items into this if you need to free slots in your Rucksack and are not close enough to a Shipping Bin or Rubbish Bin on the Map to use them. The four-slot diamond configuration is an important aspect of this game. They are your Equipment slots and are controlled by the Direction Pad on the left side of the DS. No longer can you use the Direction Pad to move your character. You must use your stylus for that. The Direction Pad is allocated to the four equipment slots instead. These Equipment slots, like the Rucksack slots do not distinguish between Tools, Items and Accessories. You can equip any of these in any of the four slots. Even when you have filled all four slots, however, there is another step that must be taken in order to actively equip one of the slots. Tap on it with your stylus to choose one of the four equipment slots as your current active slot, then tap on it again to 'use' it. If it is a Tool, you will use the Tool, so make certain that you are facing the right direction before you tap on the slot the second time! Where tool use is concerned, the square on which the tool would be used will be highlighted in purple. Move your character if necessary to highlight the square you wish to affect with the tool. Basic tools affect a single square. Tools in which Wonderfuls have been set can affect more than one square. The exception to this is any bag of seeds. Seeds always are considered to be tools rather than items in Harvest Moon but they will affect a 3 x 3 plot rather than a single square if they are crop seeds. Fruit tree seeds are sown on a single square, but you need to place them in the centre of a 3 x 3 plot. When you equip a bag of seeds as your active tool, the 3 x 3 area in which the seeds will be planted will be highlighted. Seeds can be planted only on tilled soil. If they fall on untilled ground, they will be lost. Seeds can be planted in bad weather such as rain or snow without fear that they will be washed away. One note of caution with respect to the four equipment slots: If all are filled, you will not be able to pick up a chicken or dog. If you attempt to do so, you will receive no prompt but you will be obliged to free one of the four slots before you will be able to pick up any living item. Inert items are a different matter. You can fill all four equipment slots and, provided that you have at least one free slot in your rucksack, you will be able to collect items from the ground or elsewhere. They will go by default into the first empty slot in your Rucksack. Rucksack and Storage Strategies Space is a consideration in this game. You can upgrade your Rucksack to Level 3 and it is advisable to do so as soon as possible, especially in a game like this, where items have different Quality, Size and Rank. “ Items of the same variety will occupy different slots if they are not identical in terms of Rank, Quality and Size. “ You can organize items of the same variety and place them all in a single slot, stacking them despite initial differences in Rank, Quality and/or Size, but they then will become a single Rank, Quality and Size that is based on the average of all these elements. In any situation, it is best not to mix Ranks, Order of inferiority: Rank S > Rank A > Rank B > Rank C > … One problem that will arise frequently even if you have a Rucksack of the largest size is that it quickly fills if you gather items in the wilds, fish or mine, because of the way items are distinguished by Rank, Quality and Size. You need to be aware of the problem constantly, to reorganize items, stacking them as often as possible if you can do so without significant loss of value. Otherwise, you will find yourself in a situation where you catch a fish or obtain a Gem or Ore, only to be told that your Rucksack is full and you therefore cannot keep the item. Even when items are used as ingredients in Cooked Dishes, they retain their original Rank, Quality and Size and these will influence the ultimate Rank, Quality and Size of the Cooked Dish. It will not affect the amount of SR or FL, however, affection only shipping value. Whether you wish to ship an item, consume it or use it in cooking, it is best to organize items according to their original Rank and if possible, according to Quality and Size. If the Rank of two items is identical and the Quality and Size differ only by one or two levels, it is practical to stack the items in order to free slots for more items. When shipping items, you will find that it takes forever to do so if you have not stacked a few items, giving up the small difference in value in the interest of saving time.