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[grimshire] A couple people have expressed both interest in this game and concern about its stress levels, so I am going to share some helpful information
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this will be a mix of mechanical spoilers so you have a better idea of what to expect, and gameplay tips
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I will do my best to avoid story spoilers.
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the main mechanical spoiler, that I think will do the most to moderate anxiety
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is that only certain characters can die
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specifically, the bachelors/bachelorettes
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there are only two possible causes of death: failing to complete a town project, and failing to keep the root cellar stocked
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unfortunately I'm a little unclear on when exactly the deadlines are for the town projects, or how quickly a lack of food will cause someone to die, but as long as you're scraping by on those two things, even by the thinnest of margins, nobody will die
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next mechanical spoiler: there is a particularly harsh deadline in winter that you may find very difficult to meet. but the game is playing a trick on you, and you will have longer than you think.
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now, gameplay tips
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when it comes to filling the root cellar, there are two main concerns: how long the food will last, and how much the food is worth
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fresh food spoils within a range of 3-9 days; milk and eggs spoil on the faster end, beans and roots on the slower end, and everything else somewhere in between
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so you do want to start preserving as quickly as you possibly can
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but not all preservation is created equal
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drying is one of the first ways you have access to, and you can dry almost anything except milk and eggs, but it will pause during rain
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smoking will keep going as long as you have fuel, but you can only smoke meat/fish, cheese, and nuts
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both of these methods will extend the shelf life of a food item to 20 days
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this is good!
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however.
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once you unlock fermentation barrels
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you can make preserves that never spoil, at all.
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the way you get access to fermentation barrels is by progressing Adeline's research quest - she'll give you one barrel, and the recipe to make more, when you have donated 75 specimens for research.
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so you will probably want to do as much mining and fishing as you can fit in around your farming, to get a variety of mineral and fish specimens to donate.
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upgrading your pickaxe and fishing rod to at least copper as soon as you can is also important - the upgraded pickaxe will let you access the mine in the marsh, which has different minerals, and the upgraded rod will make it possible to catch more kinds of fish
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(I don't know whether it's strictly impossible or just insanely difficult to catch higher-rarity fish with the basic rod, but the point is, upgraded is better)
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you need half as much material to upgrade the rod as you do to upgrade your tools, so you may want to do the rod first
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especially because, until you can afford to build a barn and a coop, fishing is going to be the way you keep up your carnivore food supplies
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speaking of which, let's go back to the root cellar for a sec.
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remember how I said there are two concerns with stockpiled food?
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now that we've discussed shelf life, it's time to talk about value.
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the value of a food item is the base amount of stamina it restores.
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and the thing about fresh and even preserved foods is that they restore relatively small amounts of stamina.
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if you want food to count for a LOT, you need to do cooking.
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it takes one hour to create one cooked item, and you can only make one at a time at each station
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but cooked meals restore much, much more stamina than the basic ingredients do.
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it's not a bad idea to set up multiple cooking stations so you can have several dishes on the go. you get one cooking station (and the crafting recipe) for free when you introduce yourself to Prudence, and she also stocks one more per week in her shop if you're strapped for the resources to make more.
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the downside to cooked dishes is that they spoil very quickly; they're only good for two days
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so they're best for when you really really need to fill the cellar up in a fucking hurry
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it's also a good way to make use of offal, once you get to ranching and it comes time to butcher an animal
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ranching is pretty essential - unless you just really love fishing and are pulling up tons of fish all the time, it's going to be the main way you keep your carnivores fed
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there are a couple town project options that will contribute carnivore food to the cellar every day, but you don't want to rely entirely on those
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let's see, what else...
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OH okay so, you'll need to upgrade your axe to chop down different kinds of trees. but every kind of tree produces nuts or fruit during some part of the year, and you'll want to collect those as much as possible
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nuts never spoil under any circumstances, and fruits can be turned into juice once you get the press (100 specimens donated to Adeline) and that juice can then be turned into vinegar or wine
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so be strategic about what trees you cut down when.
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cherries and plums bear their fruit in spring, so either of those are safe to cut down from the end of spring onward
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maple produces nuts from late spring to early summer - you can cut it down at the very beginning of spring but I wouldn't recommend cutting it any more until after the first week of summer
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apples and pears both fruit from mid-late summer, and birch produces nuts from early summer
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oak, pine, walnut, and hawthorn all produce in fall
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juniper is the only tree that produces in winter
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all trees take 20 days to regrow from seed
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the only trees you can cut down at the start are oak and maple - go nuts cutting down the oak trees, they're fine to cut all through spring and the first half of summer
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the first upgrade to the axe will let you cut hawthorn, juniper, and birch
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you have a ton of hawthorn trees on your farm to start with and they mostly don't grow anywhere else, do with those as you like but keep in mind they're a valuable fall fruit
L'fuckingChaim
how long is each season?
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what I'd REALLY recommend is, as soon as you can get the copper axe, cut down every juniper tree you can find and plant any seeds they drop on your farm; the extra fruit will be really good to have in winter
L'fuckingChaim
(peeking in from harvestella, where each season is 30 days or so)
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L'fuckingChaim
: 28 days
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also: probably don't bother upgrading the watering can, hoe, or scythe
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it is much, much more important that you can mine, log, and fish effectively
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I've done an easy run and a normal run, and I have yet to feel any particular need to expand my farming beyond the tilled space you start with
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but you will need so many planks all the time and you need mats from the marsh mine before you can even START ranching
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-- okay, actually, I was slightly lying about not feeling the need to expand farming
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the starter space you get is fine for CROPS
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but you will want to till a really big area to plant hay in
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"how big is really big" i mean, follow your heart, you mainly just want to have hay Available by fall
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because it's a crafting ingredient in scarecrows, which You Will Need
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and a big hay field also feeds your livestock
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and fortunately hay doesn't need water, it's very fire-and-forget
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just get it in the ground and you're gucci
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as a final note, this game has not one but two easy modes
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easy and "easy peasy"
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as well as a challenge mode for those who want even more stress
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so your grimshire experience is very customizable.
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okay CORRECTION TO A PREVIOUS STATEMENT: you do NOT need access to the marsh mine to start ranching. you need it to ENLARGE your coop/barn, but not to build the starter one