Never, never again - Critical mistake

[arenaynieve]

Hi guys, I just wanted to share with y´all this little uh... rambling perhaps? Minor salt probably so other players dont make this silly mistake.

My goal was to complete Pelican Town in the 1st year (challenging but not impossible I thought) Everything was ok, I was missing only 2 items: red cabbage and the truffle.

So I began to spend money in the barn (during winter) and its upgrades to unlock pigs. During all those days I was getting kinda frustrated you know, cause I knew it would be a big investment of money then... my money decreased to 14k gold after the upgrades, I visited Marnie and I was shocked when I saw pig´s price was a whopping 16k gold Omg...

That is when my "Not worth it" moment triggered. What I was even thinking lol? A part of me didnt want to pay that price and I got salty. A lesson well learned I guess: if you guys want the truffle, wait for luck to kick in and get it from travelling merchant because otherwise is a big no no!

Besides I didnt have the red cabbage by 25th so my moves were completely uncalled for after all. I am such a N00B >_<

[Kitsune Dzelda]

Truffle oil pays you back in spades. Its like brewing. The setup cost is murder, but once you are, get ready to roll in dough.

[Gekkeke]

That feels bad... Hope you got it soon

[BCD]

That sucks. I actually managed to complete the Community Center in year 1 before. I know from experience that, if you shoot for it and have a good enough idea of how the game works, you can get that pig in time, though probably late in the year. I got mine in fall. It was a terrible investment for reasons I'll get into shortly, but it did give me that precious truffle. The red cabbage is the real limiting factor. I wouldn't even think about getting a pig in year 1 unless I already bought red cabbage off the travelling merchant. You'll manage to get your truffles in spring. The red cabbage will hold you back till summer.
None of that really matters here though. I guess you don't know this, but pigs don't actually produce in winter. Animals don't go out in that season, and pigs need to go out to find truffles. When winter rolled in and you still didn't have that truffle, you were unknowingly locked out of getting one until spring comes or RNG decides to help.

Originally posted by Seftak:

Pigs will net you a ton of money if you have taken scavenging for your 10th level of foraging. The only mistake here was to NOT invest in pigs earlier...

It's year 1 though. Don't forget that you need some 40k gold and hundreds of wood and stone to even have the option to buy them. I doubt you could conceivably get pigs much earlier without minmaxing, and I wouldn't assume that the OP has lvl 10 foraging at that point in the game. Not to mention buying pigs in fall is just a moneysink. I guess it would be fine if you had 16k lying around at the start of the season and just couldn't plant any more crops for whatever reason, but winter is looming and all your pigs will do then is eat your hay. The later in the year you get them the worse they become, even more so during fall. I like to get my first pigs in mid winter, just early enough that they'll be productive adults when spring starts.

[Nakos]

Pigs are pretty profitable all things considered. So, yeah ... they're worth the investment, but yes, it is a big up-front cost.

In my current playthrough, I managed to actually get a Truffle from the Traveling Vendor.

I missed some other things though, so ... no year one completion this time.

C'est la vie.

[wilky]

Lol, if it makes you feel any better... you waited too long anyway. Because pigs don't dig up truffles in winter, so you would've needed to purchase the pig in like mid-fall in order for it to have dug up a truffle before the end of fall.

[hallaloth]

That's rough. I missed completing Community center year 1 by a single fish once. I somehow managed to get pigs by early fall with truffles just before winter set in. I can't remember which fish it was, but I'm pretty sure it was a fall one that I missed thinking I already had it.

It /is/ doable, but it is something that has to be planned out from pretty much the start.

[Schmoopspoops86]

Sorry but I have to strongly disagree. How would you know for sure if it isn't worth it unless you actually purchased pigs? Yes they are expensive, but no, they aren't a waste of time and money. Definitely worth it, you will earn back what you spent on them in no time.

[BCD]

I assume he means "not worth buying the pigs in winter to complete the community center within the first year of the game". And he's absolutely right about that, cause it's literally impossible past mid fall.
Pigs are good profit though. I'd advise getting them roughly around this time so you start getting truffles early in spring. Just to put it on the record, doesn't truffle oil sell for 2250 (assuming artisan perk)?