is Volcano Goddess without upgrades possible?

[Chicken Noodles]

I have been trying for a while but I always miss one or two Knowledges to get above 500
my normal Strategy is as follows:
get all stats above 1000
focus raising charm
work every day at the acting theater
get a lot of fame and money
use the fame to finish classes in the church
use money to buy fertilizer and spam farm wheat to get a lot of bread and to buy extra classes
use extra energy from bread to increase stats to 2000
after reaching 90 charm focus stamina
after getting 80+ stamina start progressing through expeditions and selling all the loot
Talk to EVERYONE everyday to at least reach Friends
make sure to open the letters

is there any advice to improve this further?

[Battler]

To be honest, I don't think any special strategy is needed. I personally spent time between catching horses (you need 4 horses of low or medium level that will give at least 2 milk per turn and 1 high for racing), baths & banquets (for the lord's task), expeditions and theater (gold and fame). As a result, I had 150 stamina and mind, 180 charisma and 3000+ in all characteristics.
All the Knowledges were 600+, but I bought only 12 master classes out of 18. In theory, you can rise all to 700+.

[Sethalas]

As far as I know the one thing that can screw you over is the RNG in the book rewards from the letters. You can end up not getting enough books for a certain category, and would have to reload some saves to get different books to make sure you obtain the ones you actually need.

Edit: I guess there is also the infinite money exploit

[Azure.Margaran]

Originally posted by The Deprived:

I have been trying for a while but I always miss one or two Knowledges to get above 500
my normal Strategy is as follows:
get all stats above 1000
focus raising charm
work every day at the acting theater
get a lot of fame and money
use the fame to finish classes in the church
use money to buy fertilizer and spam farm wheat to get a lot of bread and to buy extra classes
use extra energy from bread to increase stats to 2000
after reaching 90 charm focus stamina
after getting 80+ stamina start progressing through expeditions and selling all the loot
Talk to EVERYONE everyday to at least reach Friends
make sure to open the letters

is there any advice to improve this further?

if I am not mistaken, learning class by manually doing it give more total class score than buying them with fame in church.

buying them only give you the finishing class score bonus but you lost the class score that give you by each day each class.

[Battler]

Originally posted by Azure.Margaran:

if I am not mistaken, learning class by manually doing it give more total class score than buying them with fame in church.

buying them only give you the finishing class score bonus but you lost the class score that give you by each day each class.

Buying for fame points also gives 10 points in knowledges for each purchase, so there is no difference. And considering that there are up to 24 master classes in the game, which cannot be bought with fame, you simply will not have time for regular lessons

[Poldora]

I found that when using the church, doing one course > consult > open the menu and do another > repeat was the way to do it after being short 30 points on attempt 1 and 10 points on attempt 2 (which resulted in me loading an earlier save point).

The main things I noticed between attempts was that the relationship with the educators of the four sectors give you more courses and when using the church if you bulk a bunch at once, you only get 1 x +5 hearts with each educator involved. Versus if you do one and consult you get 1 x+5 hearts and then if you repeat as an independent action, you get another 1 x +5 hearts.

These hearts then add up giving the educator of the category more 'friendship' (loosely termed as you don't interact with them outside of course choices), which opens up more courses, which in turn gives you more options and potential points.

I've found the gifted books via letters give you +10 as it's 1 x learning 'tick'.
The non-master class courses are 10 x how many ticks they take you. So if it's a 20% progress, you'll get +50, if it's 25% progress, you'll get +40 - I haven't tested this in full yet.
The master class courses give +150 I believe, though I need to check to see if the % progress makes any difference or if it's a flat +150 whether it's 4 or 5 or more 'ticks'

I don't believe you can do master classes at the church iirc. I also opt to take more master classes in the Fall and Winter years to get those extra points. I think it's 800g after the free set yearly, and 1500g for another set on top.

(ticks referring to the education slots or single unit of cost of learning at the church - approx 100 fame unless you've completed the master class that reduces)

Please let me know if the above is unclear!

--
Some other tips

In terms of stamina, when you've exhausted your days worth (13), eaten food, taken 2 x naps (additional 11), speak to everyone even if you've spoken to them before, normally one of them will give you a food dish if you're at 0/13 and done all the above.

Duelling and debating is also a good method of receiving food.

Both of the above reduces the need to buy as much fertiliser in the case that you don't want to marry the blacksmith's son :D

I didn't realise that if you meet the requirements that you can actually do all three plays at the theatre! So just in case anyone else didn't know, once you've completed, if you reroll/skip whatever the term is, you can take part in the next one and the third too. If you have to skip, it's like buying ingredients at the bar, you can't go back but you can do all three in theory.

The horse riding mentioned above was something I also delved into, though I used a 3 x milk producing mare and just brought about 20-25 grooming kits to raise stats. It gives monthly fame + milk + if you actively compete you get money + extra fame.

--
Side note: I did achieve Volcano Goddess with bonuses from earlier runs applied so it was likely easier, however, I think the info is applicable in general as they are just bits and bobs I've picked up as I've enjoyed the game! But wanted to give full disclosure :)

[Chicken Noodles]

Originally posted by Azure.Margaran:

Originally posted by The Deprived:

I have been trying for a while but I always miss one or two Knowledges to get above 500
my normal Strategy is as follows:
get all stats above 1000
focus raising charm
work every day at the acting theater
get a lot of fame and money
use the fame to finish classes in the church
use money to buy fertilizer and spam farm wheat to get a lot of bread and to buy extra classes
use extra energy from bread to increase stats to 2000
after reaching 90 charm focus stamina
after getting 80+ stamina start progressing through expeditions and selling all the loot
Talk to EVERYONE everyday to at least reach Friends
make sure to open the letters

is there any advice to improve this further?

if I am not mistaken, learning class by manually doing it give more total class score than buying them with fame in church.

buying them only give you the finishing class score bonus but you lost the class score that give you by each day each class.

From my testing I have concluded that if you have never finished a class normally for one of the four teachers and you go to the church to learn their knowledge, will not receive any relationship points with them.
learning normally also give events which can increase relationship with them.
however the class score earned in either way is the same.
the only difference comes from the fact that there are some classes hidden behind relationship level

[Chicken Noodles]

Originally posted by Poldora:

I found that when using the church, doing one course > consult > open the menu and do another > repeat was the way to do it after being short 30 points on attempt 1 and 10 points on attempt 2 (which resulted in me loading an earlier save point).

The main things I noticed between attempts was that the relationship with the educators of the four sectors give you more courses and when using the church if you bulk a bunch at once, you only get 1 x +5 hearts with each educator involved. Versus if you do one and consult you get 1 x+5 hearts and then if you repeat as an independent action, you get another 1 x +5 hearts.

These hearts then add up giving the educator of the category more 'friendship' (loosely termed as you don't interact with them outside of course choices), which opens up more courses, which in turn gives you more options and potential points.

I've found the gifted books via letters give you +10 as it's 1 x learning 'tick'.
The non-master class courses are 10 x how many ticks they take you. So if it's a 20% progress, you'll get +50, if it's 25% progress, you'll get +40 - I haven't tested this in full yet.
The master class courses give +150 I believe, though I need to check to see if the % progress makes any difference or if it's a flat +150 whether it's 4 or 5 or more 'ticks'

I don't believe you can do master classes at the church iirc. I also opt to take more master classes in the Fall and Winter years to get those extra points. I think it's 800g after the free set yearly, and 1500g for another set on top.

(ticks referring to the education slots or single unit of cost of learning at the church - approx 100 fame unless you've completed the master class that reduces)

Please let me know if the above is unclear!

--
Some other tips

In terms of stamina, when you've exhausted your days worth (13), eaten food, taken 2 x naps (additional 11), speak to everyone even if you've spoken to them before, normally one of them will give you a food dish if you're at 0/13 and done all the above.

Duelling and debating is also a good method of receiving food.

Both of the above reduces the need to buy as much fertiliser in the case that you don't want to marry the blacksmith's son :D

I didn't realise that if you meet the requirements that you can actually do all three plays at the theatre! So just in case anyone else didn't know, once you've completed, if you reroll/skip whatever the term is, you can take part in the next one and the third too. If you have to skip, it's like buying ingredients at the bar, you can't go back but you can do all three in theory.

The horse riding mentioned above was something I also delved into, though I used a 3 x milk producing mare and just brought about 20-25 grooming kits to raise stats. It gives monthly fame + milk + if you actively compete you get money + extra fame.

--
Side note: I did achieve Volcano Goddess with bonuses from earlier runs applied so it was likely easier, however, I think the info is applicable in general as they are just bits and bobs I've picked up as I've enjoyed the game! But wanted to give full disclosure :)

The problem is
without any upgrades, I found that you need almost every class (even the ones Locked behind relationships) to get the 70+ in Stamina/Mind/Charm.
and by the time you raise your stats to 2000, there wouldn't be enough time to complete classed normally. So I am forced to use the church

however another problem comes up
after level 3 or 4 in the Theater you will no longer be able to do any Performances because of your low stats so raising fame will be coming form Explorations and horse races until you raise stats to 2000+

I found that there is very little time to raise both fame and stats to complete classes in time