How do you make money when you're just starting out?

[wubbelflup]

In a way that can be repeated over the seasons?

[Wai]

IMO:

Plant those parsnips which you get the first morning then buy potatos and plant them. Extra potatoes can be obtained by picking up any forage on your way to the shop which you can sell before buying potatos.

Once planted, cut down enough trees to (50 logs) to craft a storage chest. Store anything but essential tools and then use your scythe on weed spots on your land, or outside, you should get some free seeds. Plant them.

When your energy is low, forage for as long as possible then put the flowers and fruit in the collection box before going to bed. You will be paid overnight and can use the money for more potatoes.

The idea is to make as much money as possible to spend on Strawberry seeds at the Egg Festival on the 13th.

I prepare the land with fertiliser and water before going to the fair. That way you can plant them between 10 and midnight. The strawberries will give you a good money start to take you into summer.

[@ndy]

lets see... start game- build chest drop everything you don need there (basicly keep only scyte and hoe
- go right forage busstop -
go town, immidietaly go down and left to the forest
keep killing weed on the way (mixed seeds) but never really stop
properly forage Spring onion field with everything there and go left this way you will also forage botom an around lake
-go tru your farm while you keep killing weeds- if you have full inventory throw mixed seed to chest to open up space
-leave farm by path that leads up forage..... go to right to the lake keep foraging....
-go bottom back to carpenter house sell rocks/plantfibre
-go town forge upper area
- if you timed it right or didnt waste too much time with weeds you shold just so so making be4 5pm (piere- leaves shop at that time and you cant buy anymore so make sure you tume it right)
with this you should be able to have at least start pack + 10or more mixed seeds and 20 or more potato seeds
- go plant water
-MAKE SURE you keepsome forage that give good energy in case you did not found any spring onion

2 day
-go check spring onions, go moutains to fish
-catch a lot of bigmounth brasses
-when your bag is full go to farm sell fishes to bin
- if your time is good go back up to mountain lake (this means if its 3pm or less)
-once you hit 7pm go fsh down in the river (dont forget to unload your back)
cacth until you need to go sleep

-3day (always rains)
if you are capable at fishing and reached at least 4th fishing lvl go fish river (catfishes ) do mind they are hard to catch so must be good enough at fishing minigame
go sell all fish to willy to beach
go to joja mart to buy more potatoes.....
if you dont have enough spring onions then keep 440 g to buy salas in saloon (2 salads the might be better energy/gold offer on the bottom

-4day voala you wake up and look at that horror of having to water 150+ potatoes!
to help this either plant retaining soil on them or upgrade watering can on first

-lets skip few things-
and speed it down in mines so you can build a *hitload of Quality srpinkles...
voala tons of money on summer and fully automatized watering.....

[Sue]

Good advice in each of the above posts.

I'd also suggest fishing as it may take you a little while to get the hang of it but, once you have, fishing is very cash efficient at the start of the game. First fish at the mountain lake (Carp are easy to catch) then try the sea. Bream can be easily caught fishing level 2 upwards from the river at night. Skill level soon increases.

What you do when you start out with respect to crops just gets bigger as the seasons pass, until you reach a level of farming you're happy with. There are skill choices, some relate to how you earn money, as the game progresses.

Enjoy!

[RasaNova]

Another excellent source of cash in the 1st few days is repairing the bridge leading to the east beach area, that opens up great foraging opportunities that can net you a quick thousand every couple days.

[Sue]

Good point RasaNova :)

[Dave1029]

Just started a new game and managed 144 strawberry seeds by egg festival. Watering is a pain. Hopefully it'll be enough income for some tool upgrades.

[Radiosity]

If you can stand the fishing minigame for extended periods, you can easily get thousands just by fishing all day every day.

[Wai]

One bit of a warning, fishing is not a viable option for some players. If you are using a mouse fishing may be anything from near impossible to good. I have tried three different mice. My first was impossible, my second, near impossible, the third a little better, but, no way is fishing a viable money maker in the early stages for me, and, I am not prepared to buy another expensive gaming mouse. So, just bare that in mind, give fishing a go and see how it works for you.

Also, remember, you cannot fish until the second day.

[Radiosity]

I use a pad + mouse for inventory management, because screw doing that on a gamepad. This game really needs to have a proper control scheme for both input methods. Right now it's neither one thing or the other, and has the drawbacks of both.

[Wai]

I should have added, though, at level six fishing you can get an iradium rod and trap bobber which makes fishing a whole lot easier. To get to level six if you are having fishing problems, just set baited crab pots.

[EuReze]

Fishing is the best way to earn money for early game, fishing for atleast 1 week and priority on rainy day outside of Sam/Jodi house.

[Dekar_Serverbot]

actually, i bypass fishing at first (requires patience, which person outside the screen does not have, also it gives you tons of junk and you have to wait) so for me is the next:
1.- get a 3x5 planting zone, plant the partsnips
2.- water them
3.- craft your first chest, store everything except your axe and the remaining wood, ship the sap and tree seeds
3.- get 300 wood as fast as possible, forage anything you see, if you get low on energy just eat your horseradish and wild radishes
4.- take everything in the second beach, ship it too

2nd day
1.- extend your 3x5 zone to 3x7, water it
2.- store your tools again, now store everything
3.- get 6 beans, they may take longer but they keep yielding stuff
4.- avoid going to the beach until 5:20 pm, forrage anything you see again
5.- ship everything in your inventory
6.- plant the beans
7.- go south and get wild onions, then go to beach and get stuff there too, ship everything again

3rd day
1a.- you may want to store anything and get the fishing rod, do it only if you plan on fishing all the day, else avoid it again and use this day to clean your farm a bit more and get more wood, also those stupid catfishes are the worst so fish in the ocean or lake instead.
1b.- once again avoid the beach until 5 pm. greet everyone in town and claim your reward, i suggest gifting a random forraged item to the bachelor(ette) you want to marry, if you have nothing usefull, then gift trash to vincent, claim the reward
2.- forrage everything in the beach again, ship it

4th day
1.-parsnips are ready now, harvest them (i suggest saving golden ones for the bundle, keep the rest)
2.- sell your parsnips to Abigail's dad
3.- buy 9 cauliflower seed and the rest use it on either potatoes or parsnips

repeat after 5 day, if it rains go for 3rd. Also i suggest you to get 2 orange trees in spring, but do not get them before day 22, they become completely useless by that time

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by red255:

parsnips are crap money and XP

do potatoes. only reason to do parsnips is to do the bundles and befriend pam.

anyways for repeatable money get your farming skill up to 6 and craft quality sprinklers. only takes two harvest of 92 strawberries. could get there with 4 harvests of 60 potatoes. which is more work. leaving less time/stamina for mining.

eventually you unlock crop processing machines, kegs generally are the easiest to mass. so I'd recommend making kegs and turning whatever you produce into artisan goods.

potato seeds cost 50 sell for 80 +10% at level 5 farming with a 20% chance of a second potato.

but if you turn the potatoe into juice in a keg, it'd sell for 180 or 252 with artisan at farming 10 which is much better margins, not that you'd bother with potatoes. just using it as an example.

Disagree. Preserve jars are generally better than Kegs for low price produce like potatoes, parsnips, etc. Kegs are only better for crops like melons. The reason being is the formula. Kegs are fruit/veggie x3, where jars are (fruit/veggie x2) +50. They can be mass produced with ease and require no tree products.

Edit: There are only a few crops in the game where Kegs are undeniably positively better.
Cauliflower, Melons, Starfruit, Pumpkins, Ancient Fruit. Any other crop I would recommend jars every time.

[titanopteryx]

Originally posted by Dave1029:

Originally posted by red255:

parsnips are crap money and XP

do potatoes. only reason to do parsnips is to do the bundles and befriend pam.

anyways for repeatable money get your farming skill up to 6 and craft quality sprinklers. only takes two harvest of 92 strawberries. could get there with 4 harvests of 60 potatoes. which is more work. leaving less time/stamina for mining.

eventually you unlock crop processing machines, kegs generally are the easiest to mass. so I'd recommend making kegs and turning whatever you produce into artisan goods.

potato seeds cost 50 sell for 80 +10% at level 5 farming with a 20% chance of a second potato.

but if you turn the potatoe into juice in a keg, it'd sell for 180 or 252 with artisan at farming 10 which is much better margins, not that you'd bother with potatoes. just using it as an example.

Disagree. Preserve jars are generally better than Kegs for low price produce like potatoes, parsnips, etc. Kegs are only better for crops like melons. The reason being is the formula. Kegs are fruit/veggie x3, where jars are (fruit/veggie x2) +50. They can be mass produced with ease and require no tree products.

Edit: There are only a few crops in the game where Kegs are undeniably positively better.
Cauliflower, Melons, Starfruit, Pumpkins, Ancient Fruit. Any other crop I would recommend jars every time.

I'm pretty sure with kegs it's fruit x3 and veggies x2.25.

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by red255:

kegs are x3 for fruit x2.25 for veggies except hops and wheat which do their own thing.

Preserve jars are x2+50.

but preserve jars cost MUCH MUCH more to actually make. you plan ahead you get 30 tapped oak trees, 100 kegs a month cost 3000 wood, 500 iron ore, 500 copper ore 200 coal 100 oak resin.

not that big a deal. whereas 100 preserve jars cost 5000 wood 4000 stone and 800 coal

I generally buy the wood and coal and pull the ore out of the mines. just 4 days in the mines generally maybe as much as 8 days. God knows how long it would take you to get that much stone.

It's 10k per 4 preserve jars. Come on that's not bad at all. Once you get some big automated fields going, you can fill a shed in a couple of harvests and then it just cascades from there.