So poor...dirt farmer

[Ancient Toaster]

Played the game for three straight hours, it's very fun but I'm poor! Spent my first two thousand on the bag upgrade, then I've been basically trying to build up enough money for something, I'm thinking better tools, but those are all 2 thousand a piece!

Any tips? Fishing seems slow, crops take days.

[Mackenzie]

Keep channeling your money into seeds and planting them, particularly potatoes during your first spring and blueberries during your first summer. Aside from that, fishing may be good immediate cash but if you want more overall money within the first two seasons, go mining with your extra energy and time instead of fishing.

[AvatarMan]

Money isn't meant to be raked in fast, depending on your season plant crops that pay well, if you can plant continuous crops they are fantastic as they don't require you to re-purchase seeds. Sleep to pass the days and manage your farm, maybe do some spelunking.

I wouldn't upgrade your tools early, as you said it's very expensive. Build up your farm first to give yourself a steady income before you dump your money in an investment like tools.

[robruckus65]

at first youw ant to focus on farming foraging and fishing... buying upgrades can come after you get enough money to have a good seasons worth of farming...the abag is a good first upgrade but personally I feel its best to buy after you have over 5k so you can plant a bunch of crops...

[Hammertone]

Originally posted by AncientToaster:

Played the game for three straight hours, it's very fun but I'm poor! Spent my first two thousand on the bag upgrade, then I've been basically trying to build up enough money for something, I'm thinking better tools, but those are all 2 thousand a piece!

Any tips? Fishing seems slow, crops take days.

I didn't get a bag upgrade till my first blueberry matured, didn't have a deluxe bag till both coop and barn are deluxe class. I'm extremely frugal at start, well try farming. Start with potatoes in the spring. And for the tools upgrade, didn't have one till my first fall.
Basically it boils down to this, you have money, brought seeds, harvest, more money, brought more seeds, and the cycle continue. How long does it take before you brought your first tool and bag upgrade? It's up to yourself to decide

[Nirvash]

What I've found is, cut down as many trees as you can. Save all the seeds and wood. Then, using either wood or stone, make a grid pattern of pathways with empty spaces every other square in each direction. Then, plant trees in those gaps, making sure to keep them organized by tree type. Once you've got that set up to the scale you want, just go mine.

While the trees are growing, with zero threat or maintanence required, explore the mines. Collect all the geodes you can so you can build up your donation collection, and just build up a surplus of resources.

As for the trees, once they've grown, you'll want to distinguish the species of tree for what you'll do. Trees made by acorns and pinecones, cut them down and replant them as much as possible. They grow back after about a week. Trees made with Maple seeds, keep them alive and attach tappers to them. Once attached, every 3 or 4 days, you'll get sap worth 200 each. This is zero risk and zero maintanence, which gives plenty of time to mine.

To me, crops are a little too much prep work to focus on early game. Trees are great because wood is 2 gold each, or 3 if you pick up that foraging skill at level 5. That, combined with a whole farm of tappers, you'll be slowly building an indestructible money machine that also works towards building your house for you.

[NotThatHarkness]

Originally posted by AncientToaster:

Fishing seems slow, crops take days.

Yes. In the beginning especially it's all amount investment and payoff. As for tools, I upgraded to copper along the way, but didn't upgrade to iron until winter year 1. Too busy with crops.

[KaosReigns]

This is completely debatable and depends on your play style to be honest. There are a few methods that can be done at the start for some easy cash.

1) Open the bridge to the Coral asap.
2) Sell anything and everything for the first 5 days.
3) Fish all day on Day 3 (it will be raining)
- You can also fish day 2 and get your skill up high enough to catch the catfish on day 3.

By day 5, you should have enough to buy the bag, as well as have enough for the first tool upgrade plus a couple extra seeds.

[Ancient Toaster]

Thanks for all the tips people, really appreciate it.

[Larrynautik]

It's a long-term game, it's not easy to start, but after two seasons it will be easier because it just goes better and better with time going on.
Just be patient, and don't forget to fertilize your soil before planting things !

[MakoNeko]

Like others have said it depends on your play style. I took the mining route and as soon as I could I accessed the mines. I threw down basic plants so I could have some passive cashflow (geodes cost you money to bust open) and then went to town diving into the mine. I picked up any 'kill x amount of slimes' quests on my way in and went for amassing as many geodes and resources as I could. I donated the first of each type of gem I found to the library and sold off the rest.

My fiancee likes to use trees and animals as his income and just fish the rest of the time.

My friend likes to plant a new crop every day so that there is always a harvest every morning.

When you're fishing, the coast is a great spot because you can fish off the dock outside the fishing store and run in and sell fish as your inventory fills up.

Be aware though which route you choose to take when you're deciding between the community center and Joja Mart. If you choose the community center you'll have to keep an eye on the things you're collecting each season. I would recommend either way that you keep at least one of everything you grow, forage, or catch.

[Ancient Toaster]

Potato farming in the spring has been good, I was able to afford the coop and a copper upgrade.

Summer is almost here.

[missjennyrain]

It's one of those games where you start out with nothing but if you plant the best crops, invest in kegs and preservers, and fish and mine a lot you will be stinking rich by winter. Continuously check on the shellfish, coral, and urchins that wash up on the "secret" beach, they re-spawn very quickly. When you can, build yourself as many kegs as you can put together, even store them in a barn if you like to make it feel like a legit brewery. Those kegs are a gold mine.