Best and Fastest Way to Farm Time Shards?

[D.A.R.K.]

I'm a completionist player, I want to do 100% Achievements and 100% of everything that I could do, which includes buying all toys. After purchasing my last upgrade I could gather more than 6,000 Time Shards and unfortunately, the wrench cost all your Time Shards in hand and I now need to gather more Time Shards to buy all toys.

Because I was gathering Time Shards during the gameplay the last thing I had to do is to find the last piece of music note, as you can see I have almost nothing more to do in the game, except to beat it by doing that last thing, entering the Music Box.

I would like to know the best and fastest way to gather Time Shards just to buy the toys, which is around 10,500. Any idea?

[Soleil]

There's a Big Time Shard below the final checkpoint of Bamboo Creek, which is easy to farm by abusing the save point.
There are also 2 Big Time Shards above the final checkpoint at the end of Cloud Ruins.
Optimally, Cloud Ruins is the best place to farm Time Shards for an extended period of time.

Bamboo Creek
- 5 min. = 1,000 Time Shards
- 1 hour = 12,000 Time Shards

Cloud Ruins
- 5 min. = 1,500 Time Shards
- 1 hour = 18,000 Time Shards

However, it also takes 10 minutes to reach Cloud Ruins, and 3 minutes to reach Bamboo Creek, assuming you have all world portals unlocked and you start from Tower of Time HQ.
y = Time Shards
x = minutes traveling to the Big Time Shard and farming

Bamboo Creek Formula
y = 200x - 600

Cloud Ruins Formula
y = 300x - 3000

This means that if you use your overall time to farm for a period of time less than 24 minutes, you should go to Bamboo Creek's Big Time Shard. However, a period of time longer than 24 minutes, Cloud Ruins would be more beneficial. But in this case we're just worried about reaching 10,500 Time Shards.

Bamboo Creek
10,500 = 200x - 600
x = 55.5 minutes

Cloud Ruins
10,500 = 300x - 3000
x = 45 minutes

So Cloud Ruins is the best place to farm for all the toys.

[D.A.R.K.]

Originally posted by Soleil:

There's a Big Time Shard below the final checkpoint of Bamboo Creek, which is easy to farm by abusing the save point.
There are also 2 Big Time Shards above the final checkpoint at the end of Cloud Ruins.
Optimally, Cloud Ruins is the best place to farm Time Shards for an extended period of time.

Bamboo Creek
- 5 min. = 1,000 Time Shards
- 1 hour = 12,000 Time Shards

Cloud Ruins
- 5 min. = 1,500 Time Shards
- 1 hour = 18,000 Time Shards

However, it also takes 10 minutes to reach Cloud Ruins, and 3 minutes to reach Bamboo Creek, assuming you have all world portals unlocked and you start from Tower of Time HQ.
y = Time Shards
x = minutes traveling to the Big Time Shard and farming

Bamboo Creek Formula
y = 200x - 600

Cloud Ruins Formula
y = 300x - 3000

This means that if you use your overall time to farm for a period of time less than 24 minutes, you should go to Bamboo Creek's Big Time Shard. However, a period of time longer than 24 minutes, Cloud Ruins would be more beneficial. But in this case we're just worried about reaching 10,500 Time Shards.

Bamboo Creek
10,500 = 200x - 600
x = 55.5 minutes

Cloud Ruins
10,500 = 300x - 3000
x = 45 minutes

So Cloud Ruins is the best place to farm for all the toys.

Thanks, great answer.

[DeezHares]

I think it doesn't work anymore.

[Soleil]

Originally posted by DeezHares:

I think it doesn't work anymore.

Farming Time Shards has been part of the game since Version 1.0, and the game hasn't been patched since January. What issue are you having exactly?

Make sure to farm the big crystal, touch a save point, return to title screen, and repeat.

[D.A.R.K.]

29 Jan

[Soleil]

Right, what I mean is that there have been 0 patches since January (the most recent update should be the Picnic Panic update of July 2019), and this thread was made in January 2020, so it should still work and has worked since the base game.

[DeezHares]

I was doing it the wrong way .

[Deebs]

Farming bamboo Creek still works. This guide was posted to trueachievements on July 4th 2020 for anyone having issues.

"...a good place to farm time shards is at the final Shop entrance (save point) before the boss fight in Bamboo Creek, you get around 65 time shards every 15 seconds..."

Instructions:
1.Once at the mentioned point drop below to a secret area.
2.Break the big time shard crystal.
3.Climb up to the shop and wait for the "saving..." at the top of the screen.
4.Press the menu button and press A at Title Screen.
5.Load the save file and repeat 1 to 5

[00-Evan]

Just want to add that the picnic panic DLC seems to have added a new best spot to farm shards.

Right near the lowest voodoo mask piece on fire mountain there are two time shards and a lantern very close to a checkpoint. The two shards are right next to each other which means they can be broken very quickly, especially with the help of the power seal item. With a bit of practice I can do 3 runs in just under a minute, for a total of just under 400 shards. So simplifying a bit, and comparing with the stats Soleil gave, we have:

Bamboo Creek: 200/min, 12k/hr
Cloud Ruins: 300/min, 18k/hr
Fire Mountain: 400/min, 24k/hr

What's more, this area can be reached in about 3 minutes from the shop. So the total time to get 10.5k shards should be roughly:

Bamboo Creek: 55.5 mins
Cloud Ruins: 45 mins
Fire Mountain: 29.25 mins

Only caveat is that this is only accessible very late in the game, though it should be faster than Cloud Ruins even without the power seal item.

I went and added this info to the Wiki.

[Soleil]

You can use the Windmill Shuriken to break both Time Shards in Cloud Ruins too, so this data might not be entirely accurate as the time I calculated was based on breaking each Big Time Shard individually rather than the same time. There shouldn't be such a huge difference in time between Cloud Ruins and Fire Mountain as they are both double Big Time Shards directly next to a checkpoint.

[narutobarrage17]

Funny how this thread popped back up right after I made mine talking about what I thought was the fastest way. I didn't know the big time shards come back after saving and quitting. I thought it was only upon leaving an area and coming back.

My method doesn't need to save and quit. Right at the start of Forlorn Temple near the Phobekins there is a wall in mid-air you can climb to get to a big time shard. Just jump left, leave, then go right to get back in and repeat. I think it's a better method simply because it's easier to run something else in the background on your phone and just let your mind tune out as opposed to constantly needing to go back to the main menu and reload your file.