Ginger Island run: Spring 1 report.

[Pixel Peeper]

Trying to explore and live on Ginger Island when you have a main farm on the mainland can be very tedious, so I've been wanting to try a playthrough where I ignore the starting farm and attempt to unlock Ginger Island to make it my main base of operations.

The first Spring just ended and I thought I'd summarize how the first season went for reference.

Starting with skills... I got level 10 Fishing for money and a head start on Artifacts, but I'm not sure if it was worth it since I stopped fishing shortly after getting level 10. Still, I got many Artifacts (including the Rare Disc), Neptune's Glaive which made progressing in the mine easier, and I caught the Legend. Buying the rods and bait cost me over 10,000g total, which ate into my profits somewhat.

I got level 5 Foraging which is one level less than I wanted (level 6 for Lightning Rods, since I need 5 Batteries for Ginger Island), but I figure I can get the last level fairly quickly, just gotta raze every tree on my farm.

I got level 8 Mining just by finishing the 120 levels of the Mine and doing a little extra mining for gold. Because Fishing is not strictly needed on this type of run, it seems like going all in on Mining could be a great alternative way to do it, takes a while before it starts paying off but then you can sell lots of gold and gems.

For tools, I upgraded my pick and axe to Gold and my can to Copper, which means I spent 36,000g on tool upgrades alone, not to mention the materials (15 Copper Bars, 10 Iron Bars and 10 Gold bars).

For town restoration I only bought a membership and restored the Minecarts, so that's another 20k spent there.

I also bought a single backpack upgrade for 2k, I'll be buying the 24-slot pack for 10k soon.

Also bought 5,000g's worth of Spaghetti for Robin because I want her Flute Block schematics for an event on Ginger Island.

All in all I must have spent roughly 75,000g during the first Spring. I only have 5,500g left at the moment, though I have about 20,000g's worth of mining stuff to sell, plus the Legend which is worth over 9,000g.

I figure I'll unlock the Desert in a few days, then the money will really start flowing in and I'll have the boat to Ginger Island repaired before the end of Autumn.

One thing Fishing has done for me is I have 55 Museum donations already. I'm just 5 away from unlocking the Sewers which will allow me to start getting extra Iridium Sprinklers without having to worry about farming more Battery Packs.

So far it looks like it's doing OK. Could be better but I didn't exactly try very hard and that's OK, I'm on schedule.

[Tristin]

Nice! So is this run for Ginger Island rush? Sound pretty challenging. Lets see how fast you clear the Ginger Island!

[Pixel Peeper]

Not quite a "rush" as I'm mostly doing it for fun, but I hope to discover and demonstrate what kind of challenges and pacing one could expect in the "setting up" stages of such a playthrough.

Unlocking Ginger Island should be a relatively streamlined process (restore town, get iridium and batteries), and unlocking different parts of it should also be fairly straightforward. But once that's done it's all up to the player.

I'm going to be casually growing stuff on it and doing random side-content whenever I feel like it. Maybe finish catching all fish since I already have 10 fishing, it would be easy to selectively catch the missing ones. I'd like to at least do a year. Spring and Summer to set up and unlock the island, more setup to unlock the island and start growing fruit trees (they take a whole month to grow) and then another month completing island stuff.

[Pixel Peeper]

Summer 1, Day 10 update:

Collected 6 Battery Packs so I'll have everything I need to repair the boat.

Donated 60+ items to the Museum so I now have access to the Sewers.

Bought the 24-slot Backpack.

Upgraded some more tools.

Only have 25,000g, but I have over 60 Gold Bars in reserve. I'm well into level 9 Mining, so I'll soon (one or two days) have the +50% Bar value profession. As soon as I get it, I can sell the bars for 24,000g instead of 16,000g, plus whatever I'll have gotten in the meantime. I'll have more than enough to unlock the Calico Desert.

I already have two Iridium Bars and a couple Ore, so I shouldn't need to do too much spelunking to get the 5 I need to unlock Ginger Island.

Basically, things are going pretty smoothly. You can get to Ginger Island well before the end of the first Summer if you do things reasonably efficiently.

[Pixel Peeper]

Summer 1, Day 24 update:

Ginger Island unlocked.

Finished restoring the town on the 22nd, got the cutscene on the 23rd, got the letter and put in the materials to repair the boat on the 24th. It was repaired during the night.

As I thought, you can comfortably unlock the island in less than two months. I even took the time to upgrade my pick to Iridium, buy an Iridium Sprinkler, catch another Legendary fish, clear my farm of trees, etc.

[Agarillobob]

nice job wonder if theres different approaches to do this even earlier

[BCD]

This is pretty interesting. I never tried getting income from mining.

[Pixel Peeper]

Messaggio originale di Agarillobob:

nice job wonder if theres different approaches to do this even earlier

Thanks. Most definitely, you can do this much earlier. There are players out there making millions in the first Spring, they'd have to fit in some Foraging in there to get the Battery Packs but they could probably open up the island right after the first Summer thunderstorm.

This is more of a fun run, what a player should expect if they're efficient without trying too hard. I didn't optimize the process of unlocking the island and I'm not going to optimize unlocking each of the island's parts either.

[Pixel Peeper]

Messaggio originale di BCD:

This is pretty interesting. I never tried getting income from mining.

Compared to Fishing, it ramps up very very slowly. You have to hit level 10 Mining and farm Gold for the money to start coming in reasonably quickly. Even then it's only comparable to Fishing; a decent enough mining run yields maybe 80 Gold Ore (6,000g) plus a couple thousand in gems.

It's when you get into Skull Caverns that you start making lots of money. Get just 40 Iridium Ore and that's 8 Bars selling for 12,000g total, not counting gems.

Players who optimize their runs can get hundreds of Iridium Ore and make insane amounts of money per day.

[Sebine]

I was thinking about starting a new save but having to beat the community center is a real pain in the ass...

[Pixel Peeper]

Messaggio originale di Sebine:

I was thinking about starting a new save but having to beat the community center is a real pain in the ass...

I did the Community Centre twice already, I can't be bothered with it anymore. All my saves are with Joja now, it's just so much better. You can do whatever you want and have the entire town restored in less than a month.

[I Kinda Fail]

I'm curious how Ginger Island affects possible future challenge/Joja runs. Like, in the past, I've done "no Farming / Fishing runs". My entire farm was fruit trees, forage grown via iridium sprinklers, tapped trees, crystalariums, lightning rods, and LOTS of slime ranching.

If I were to do this run again, for example, would any of the new unlocks require Farming? I know you have to grow, but not harvest, certain crops to get golden walnuts, so that would be doable without ever gaining Farming XP.

But solar panels, for example, would be GREAT for a non-Farming farm. 10 days to produce 500g, laid out in massive fields? A use for all that refined quartz? And to get it, you would just need to harvest ginger with the hoe, which to my knowledge doesn't give Farming XP.

I don't think banana or mango trees really have any impact on anything, challenge-wise...

The faster tree tappers might be good for a challenge run, I guess, but you just get them so late in the game... Idk.

[BCD]

I wonder how late in the game the heavy tappers really must come... All you need is to find 100 golden walnuts to be able to purchase the recipe. Maybe that comes quick if you're minmaxing, or just know what you're doing. Radioactive ore is pretty rare regardless of that though, hmm...

[Pixel Peeper]

No farming/fishing... AFAIK you'd only miss out on 10 Golden Walnuts. You could still unlock everything on the island.

Solar Panels are a bit problematic due to not being available for a very long time. You have to wait until Autumn just to get the Special Orders board, and then who knows if the relevant request will ever show up. But I guess it's mostly effortless money.

[Pixel Peeper]

Messaggio originale di BCD:

I wonder how late in the game the heavy tappers really must come... All you need is to find 100 golden walnuts to be able to purchase the recipe. Maybe that comes quick if you're minmaxing, or just know what you're doing. Radioactive ore is pretty rare regardless of that though, hmm...

If you know where the Golden Walnuts are, it shouldn't be too long.

Admittedly the mats are pretty horrible considering all the Heavy Tapper does is basically double a single tree's production rate. It would take a huge number of them to make a difference. Doesn't seem worth the trouble.

[Sebine]

Messaggio originale di Tripoteur Ventripotent:

Messaggio originale di Sebine:

I was thinking about starting a new save but having to beat the community center is a real pain in the ass...

I did the Community Centre twice already, I can't be bothered with it anymore. All my saves are with Joja now, it's just so much better. You can do whatever you want and have the entire town restored in less than a month.

I mean, I need the achievement...
but ... christ siding with Walmart/Kroger/Target/Publix/♥♥♥♥♥♥ Corporation is just...
leaves a bad taste in my mouth