Weird Challenge Upgrading Question:

[Snowy Sprout]

Pretend that Clint has one rule: you cannot upgrade your tools after you've used them.
Meaning that you can use them any time you want, but once you do, you can never buy another upgrade from Clint again.

How far would you upgrade your tools before using them for the first time?
What strategy would you use to compensate either for the late start or for the substandard tools you'd be stuck with?

[Maya-Neko]

First of all i would propably start with the beach farm, given that i won't really plant crops for a really long time anyway. With that farm you might get lucky with some supply crates dropping cherry bombs as well as quality retaining soil, both of which definitely come in handy when planting crops for the community center, also the cherry bombs make sure, that i doesn't get boxed in by wood/rocks (at least until i can bomb my way through the farm).

I then would rely mostly on fishing and gathering, so that i get the money needed to unlock the bus as fast as possible as well as getting my hand on the Crystalarium from the money-bundles, which i would mainly use to copy me as many Quartz as possible (on top of exploring the first floors of the mines on a regular basis to check for Quartz and to see if i'm lucky to get a few ladders without the need to use the pickaxe^^). Since the money-bundle also unlocks the desert, i can buy myself tons of bombs with the quartz. That way i can play through the mines without a pickaxe to ultimately unlock the skull cavern.

From there on its the same thing: Get bombs and get your way through the skull caverns, until i have enough iridium to upgrade the Pickaxe. And from there on it is obviously just a matter of time to get enough Iridium to upgrade the rest as well^^

Though, if you would add the fishing pole to that not-upgradable pool as well, then i would obviously not use them and just rely on the other stuff, until i can get my hand on the 5 things of the crab pot bundle, which can be gathered on the beach or droped by monsters, as harvesting crab pots also grants fishing experience, i can get to level 6 eventually and by the iridium rod, from where on it obviously serves as an important source of income.

And if the scythe is part of it as well, it might get a littlebit tricky to get the bombs before being overgrown by weeds. With the first few bombs i would just hope, that i get enough stone and wood to secure some pathes in front of my house.

And yeah, it's obviously pretty much a no-tool challenge at that point, but if i would ever do such a challenge, i would rather go the extra-mile to take it to the extremes^^

[FilthyGorilla]

regular watering can and hoe as they are probably the best version of the tool anyway in my eyes.

Iridium everything else with the obvious gold scythe. Just rolling crop cash into a crystalalrium from cc which I'll use for quartz and therefore bombs, it'll take time but I would do the challenge as a goal oriented one instead of time oriented.

[Snowy Sprout]

I think I could live without upgrading my watering can and hoe. Sprinklers pretty much replace any real need for the watering can, and the hoe is no big deal really. You don't have to hoe big plots every day, that's for sure.

The axe has to get to steel to remove logs. And once it's that far it certainly would be nice to get it to gold at least, because chopping logs is a forever chore. I would buy ore from Clint to upgrade that as fast as I could afford it.

The pick also has to get to steel to remove farm boulders. Those are very annoying to work around forever. But then I think I could just switch to bombs or explosive ammo for most mining needs. The worst part would be letting the little rocks on the farm reproduce until I could upgrade it that much.

I guess I'd focus mostly on fishing to raise money for the upgrades, since there wouldn't be much clear space on any farm to raise crops if you couldn't remove little sticks and rocks. You could scythe away grass if you had any large grassy patch, but it would be very disappointing to have rocks and sticks spread onto your crop spaces and destroy your investment and still have no way to remove them.

The trickiest part would be how to get cherry bombs to begin raising mining skill enough to get the recipe for cherry bombs! The only thing I can think of is to take beach farm and hope some wash up in a loot crate. But that's very unreliable.

You can also get cherry bombs from duggies, but again that's unreliable and you have to already have gotten down enough levels to encounter them. I guess you could buy stones from robin to make ladders... but even the ladder recipe doesn't come until after mining level 1. Idk, it sounds like you'd have to settle for having a stupid starter axe for the whole game, learn to live with stupid farm boulders forever, and just rely on bombs for most of your mining from the start.

Gosh, that really only leaves the axe that I'm thinking I would even upgrade. I'd buy my way to a gold axe, then settle for that as the best I could get.

So the only real question is whether to give up and figure I'll work around farm boulders forever, or whether I'll upgrade the pick to steel and give up the joy of farming entirely until then. I wonder how that would go.

[Dimensional Traveler]

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

So the only real question is whether to give up and figure I'll work around farm boulders forever, or whether I'll upgrade the pick to steel and give up the joy of farming entirely until then. I wonder how that would go.

Given your record we will be expecting your report on this soon.

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

The trickiest part would be how to get cherry bombs to begin raising mining skill enough to get the recipe for cherry bombs! The only thing I can think of is to take beach farm and hope some wash up in a loot crate. But that's very unreliable.

Even without cherry bombs you can still unlock the bus station and the crystallarium and get your hand on normal bombs that way, on top of being able to upgrade all your stuff to gold, as long as you get the money needed for it.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

The trickiest part would be how to get cherry bombs to begin raising mining skill enough to get the recipe for cherry bombs! The only thing I can think of is to take beach farm and hope some wash up in a loot crate. But that's very unreliable.

Even without cherry bombs you can still unlock the bus station and the crystallarium and get your hand on normal bombs that way, on top of being able to upgrade all your stuff to gold, as long as you get the money needed for it.

Good point. I keep thinking in terms of a normal playthrough and it makes much more sense to think in terms of delaying farming altogether. I've done that before. IDK why it still feels like a naturally high pressure to start farming in the first spring still.

I forgot all about the crystallarium and opening the bus station, and the ladders/bombs available from the desert trader! You'd think I would remember that, given I did that in this very playthrough I'm currently in. It's wierd how basic stuff can slip your mind. Or MY mind, at least.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Dimensional Traveler:

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

Given your record we will be expecting your report on this soon.

That does maybe sound like fun!
Possibly after I finish this Hilltop Quarry year I will proceed to the Cranky Clint playthrough.

[Maya-Neko]

It's definitely possible to start farming early, given that the Hoe and Watering Can usually aren't as important as axe and especially the pickaxe. And with the Scythe not needing any upgrades it's not that hard to make enough room for crops early on. So pretty much depends on how deep you want to dive into that challenge^^

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

It's definitely possible to start farming early, given that the Hoe and Watering Can usually aren't as important as axe and especially the pickaxe. And with the Scythe not needing any upgrades it's not that hard to make enough room for crops early on. So pretty much depends on how deep you want to dive into that challenge^^

The thing that bothers me though is finding a place with enough space clear of debris. Yes you can clear weeds and grass, but most farm layouts are scattered with lots of debris all over, even in the middle of grassy patches. I wouldn't enjoy farming in between the pieces.

[Maya-Neko]

well, that's the challenge after all^^ If you don't like that, then it's propably better to not do it for a while, even when that means, that you need to wait for longer to unlock the more important community center things. Or you could alternatively propably even going for the Joja route at that point

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

well, that's the challenge after all^^ If you don't like that, then it's propably better to not do it for a while, even when that means, that you need to wait for longer to unlock the more important community center things. Or you could alternatively propably even going for the Joja route at that point

Yes, I do usually enjoy Joja more than the CC. I know newer players usually prefer the CC, but I've done it so many times that the simplicity of Joja feels better to me, so I can focus on other parts of the game I enjoy more.

I really like chopping wood and mining rocks and making friends, but dislike fetching the various wishlists for the Junimos.