How to Easily Beat Hard Mode

As I am now starting my 4th hard mode run in less then a week (I have a problem) I figured I'd write a guide on how to easily clear hard mode. This guide is going to assume you have installed the patch from the publisher website and you're on New Game+ because it'd be stupidly grindy and require a lot of save scumming near the start to make up for not having new game+ bonuses.

The game is absolutely full of random events so while your first couple months are going to be fairly structured but things will open up more as times goes on. If you mess some things up along the way don't worry too much about it, there is actually quite a bit of wiggle room this guide.

Starting the Game

This is the only place some amount of save scumming is highly recommended if you are going in with new game + bonuses, though the chances of even needing to is honestly very low. You'll want to start with at least 60 energy. The reason for this is that a lot of skill unlocks and friend scenes are tied to being able to do something between finishing work at the guild and going home and you need at least 20 energy for these to be able to happen. So that's 40 energy for your guild activities and 20 left over for random events to trigger.

The choices you make during character creation do have effects as the titles do have effects but for the most part it doesn't really matter what you end up with as long as you have 60 energy which you'll be able to see right when the new game + bonus selection appears. The only notable title I've found is getting unfortunate in the second slot which makes you start the game with hole in one. Which you might personally find fortunate.

For the new game plus choices you'll want to pick the following:

• Unyielding Flesh
  
• Money (3 times)
  
• Intelligence (3 times)
  
• Use any remaining points as you'd like. I'd recommend putting two of these into money to give you more wiggle room. Friend levels is also a nice to have bonus. More intelligence will let you start unlocking naughty skills sooner. 1 or 2 points into strength can help you win those early game fights, but these are optional to win.

If you have less then 8 starting points take the missing points off intelligence. You'll need to grind skill points for longer but you can live without it.

TL:DR rules of thumb

General tips:

• Always pick up battle skills asap.
  
• Have your sister cook until you get a feather bed (and its past the guild merger) then you should always cook for her.
  
• Adventure books are the best form of training in the game.
  
• You're gonna need to wait a bit before doing naughty things in hard mode.
  
• (Almost) Always wake up with at least 60 energy to allow random events to trigger

Hunt tips:

• Rest at max energy -25.
  
• If you have any rests left before the final node use them.

Adventure tips:

• Rest when you have at least 25 less then max energy AND your little sisters health is at 4. If thirst is inflicted rest as soon as your sister is at 7 HP or lower and you are at max energy -15.
  
• Do not allow your little sister to go below 3 health if you can avoid it. If you hit a thirst node she will instantly lose a health point which can immediately end the adventure.
  
• Don't finish the adventure if you want to get the happy family ending.

Combat:

• Crazy strat is the strongest move in the game. You should be using this pretty much any time you can so you can use your Ex Onii-Chan attack (the 3x damage one) often and early.

Tip for those looking to save scum: Change your steam screenshot hotkey. F12 will send you back to the main menu.

The First Week

This is going to be the busiest weeks as far as unique actions each day goes. Random events may disrupt your ability to follow this week exactly so just get as close as you can.

Day 1:
Blow on > read adventure book > muscle training > take a bath. Choose what a nice bath. (If you go alone would recommend choosing do nothing until you have a skill that helps you not get caught as without skills its not worth the risk of making your sister mad. Especially because she'll probably already be unhappy from blow on being used)

Day 2:
Guild activities: These will be random. Your first guild activity you'll want to choose one of the training options. Training priority today goes Attack Training > Defense Training > Special Training > Basic Training > Study Group. You'll get a guaranteed event with Yui today. You should also get a random event. Unless it's one that risks lowering your motivation just pick whatever you want.

Home: Have your little sister's home-cooked meal > Immediately unlock Chef + Farmer + Explorer> Do muscle training twice.

Day 3:
Guild activities: Same thing as day 2. Look for training. The only thing to note is that if you got attack training day 2 you'd want to prioritize defense training over it today.

Home: Little sisters meal > 2x muscle training > bath

Day 4:
Guild activities: It's time for your first community service and battle. Your almost certainly losing it, but don't worry about it if you do.

Home: If you are somehow not injured still pick little sisters meal > Make green tea > give your sister a snack (idk if this is RNG to start with a snack. If it is just pamper her) > 2x scary talk > what a nice bath.

Day 5:
Guild activities: Look for training again. Continue trying to alternate attack and defense training as your top priority each time you get one of them.

Home: Little sister meal > muscle training > green tea > what a nice bath > 2x scary talk > go to bed.

Friday night talk pick dream talk.
Family meeting priority order: Lunchbox Life >>>> Part-Time Life >> The usual > Frugal Life. I don't think its possible for anything else to show up the first week. If you don't see these just avoid frugal life as this will worsen your sisters mood. Lunchbox life is easily the best as it provides an extra 10 energy every day after guild activities.

Day 6:
Head out > go to town:
-At the bookstore buy 10x adventure books. Optionally buy the thin book if you plan to have a naughty little sister. It'll be awhile before you can use it but you can start saving them for later.
-At the restaurant district buy 6x green tea
-Select eat and walk to gain trust and improve your sisters mood.
-Do not buy anything from the commodity district or clothing store at this point. Your sister can gift you the dumbbell and iron sandals and now that you have access to adventure books it'll be awhile before you even bother with muscle training or practice swings anyways.

Once you are back home do independent training/go for a run > Little sisters home cooked meal > Take a bath > If your sister is sick nurse her > Green Tea > Go to bed.

Day 7:
Part-Time job > Independent training/Go for a run > Little sister meal > Read adventure books.

The Early Game Game-plan (Day 8 to 33)

Things are still fairly structured at this point but your weeks are going to be quicker to get through. At the guild you'll still want to be be prioritizing training. The Priority order is

Before day 15:
Attack Training > Defense Training > Special Training > Basic Training > Study Group.

After day 15:
Hunt > Attack Training > Defense Training > Special Training > Community Service > Basic Training (if energy is still below 100) > Study group.

Alternate Attack Training and Defense training as the top priority as you manage to take them. You'll want to try to keep your attack and defense equal. After day 15 your stats should be high enough to take Community service and hunts. After you have more then 100 energy you should never consider taking Basic Training again. Skip helping with the tavern for now.

At home you'll want to continue to have your little sisters home-cooked meals for the time being. Your top priority at home is getting through all of your adventure books. If your mood ever drops below amazing go ahead and use blow on to get it back up to reduce the risk of a book being wasted. You should be able to get through all 10 adventure books every week. Just make sure that you go to bed with at least 30 energy left over (or 20 if you have lunchbox life) to ensure random events are able to occur. Use your green tea as needed. If you hit Friday night and still have a lot of adventure books don't worry about going too low on energy and just finish reading them.

Once you run out of adventure books just use scary talk in place of it to build up skill points

I would still recommend avoiding any naughty activities for the time being, its best to keep your sisters mood maxed out so she will give you gifts. The 5x adventure books, Dumbbell, and Iron Sandals all help a lot to get for free. Peeping after Alchemy also costs energy on top of risking making your sister mad.

During your Friday night talk you'll want to be selecting dream talk to get the most skill points. For your family meeting you'll want to prioritize Lunchbox Life >>>> Sister week > Part-time Life > Book Week > everything else > Frugal life. Once again Lunchbox Life giving an extra 10 energy is just way too good this early on. Sister week pretty much guarantees you'll get a gift from her that week. Taking Part-time Life will help with money long term but its not that much extra so its also barely worth it. Book week is nice in that it gives you two naughty books and you can stay up late every night but you also won't really be able to take advantage of staying up late this early in the game that often.

If your lust is getting too high Friday night and Saturday night are a great time to lower it since you can stay up way later without penalty. Just be very careful not to wake your sister. Protip: You can right click to stop in the middle of fapping. Make sure to use tissues.

For weekends:
-On Saturday you'll want to do your Part-Time job > Independent Training/Go for a run > Make sure you finish any remaining Adventure books if you somehow have any left over. Feel free to go lower then you normally would on energy as it's important to get through all 10 in a week.
-On Sunday go to town and buy 10 adventure books. If you plan to have a naughty sister make sure to continue to pick up a thin book every week. You'll still need to just save these for now though. You'll want to make sure to keep at least 6 green tea around as well. If your sisters mood is below I Love You then you can also eat and walk to raise it. After you are done at town if you have the energy available and are still under 100 total energy go for a run otherwise just choose take it easy. You can also choose to do housework if your lust is too high.

When your little sister is sick. If you want a naughty sister choose to wash her back before nursing her otherwise nurse her and then take a bath alone.

Anytime you get injured don't bother with reading your adventure books that night, just try to get your sisters mood to max or if it is already max do scary talk.

Early Game Notable Dates

Day 11:
you'll have your first exhibition match. You're losing this one. It might be possible if you got some crazy titles at the start but I'm not even sure if that'd make this happen. Your attack/defense will likely still be too low to really do anything here.

Day 15:
You'll have your first hunt. After proceeding once make sure yo use up your rests to regain any missing energy. This will also be the first fight you can finally win! Hooray! Just have Kana attack until you can use your EX-Onii-chan attack (3x damage attack)

Day 18 Regional Qualifiers:
This fight might be a bit close but should be easy unless you've somehow got trash stats. You've been reading your adventure books right? Don't worry about the fight with Akatsuki after, you're not supposed to be able to win this one. If you do manage to win it adds a couple more fights/hunts you'll see in the future that will be difficult but if you managed the fight with Akatsuki you should be able to manage these.

Day 20:
The strange store will open. You shouldn't buy anything from here yet though.

Day 27/28:
The Feather Mattress become available for purchase. Get it. This is a Saturday so it would require swapping your Saturday/Sunday schedule but if you miss it and still go to town Sunday it's fine. The one day of not having it having won't break anything. You will now regenerate 50 energy a night which gives a lot more freedom.

Day 33 The guild merger:
As long as you have Chef and have been eating your sisters cooking every day you'll get past this without fuss. Though there have been a lot of reports of this being bugged and forcing a bad ending if you don't have the patch from the publisher website.

Playing Pretend Game-plan (Day 34 to 42)

You should now find that you have enough energy to spare to cook for your sister instead of always having her cook. On nights you don't get home desperately low on energy you'll want to cook for her. This will increase her trust and mood as well as give you some skill points. The trade off is that it restores 15 energy instead of 20 which at this point really won't matter most nights. Excluding random events you can restore up to 85 energy a night cooking for her VS 90 having her cook. Remember to always wake up with at least 60 energy to ensure you can get random events after guild activities.

For guild activities your priority guide is:

Hunt > Attack/Defense training > Special Training > Community Service > Basic Training (until you reach 100 energy max) > Help with the Tavern > Study group > Basic Training (If you have over 100 energy)

Attack and Defense training will trade places on second highest priority. Whichever is lower you should take if you see both show up the same day. Note it'll still be possible to lose hunts for a week or two yet. Looking at you regenerating Wasteland Mystery. Don't sweat it too much if you do. Or save scum if your into that kind of thing.

At home you'll want to continue to prioritize reading all of your adventure books every week. If your sister gets sick make sure to nurse her back to health though. After you finish your adventure books continue to pick scary talk. The days of having a naughty sister are not too much further off don't worry.

Friday Night talk pick dream talk or naughty talk. You'll lose most the interest gains from naughty talk still at this point but you can start building it up very slowly if you want to have your sister be naughty slightly sooner at the cost of getting slightly less skill points.

Family meeting Priority
Lunchbox Life > Sister week > Part-time Life > Book Week > everything else > Frugal life.

When going to town You'll want to try to keep your money above 10k. You can go as low as 7k to buy adventure books though. If you go below 5k you start having crappy meals which lower your sisters mood. The reason you want the extra buffer is to have breathing rooms for random events and/or if the guild loses money.

Playing Pretend notable dates

Day 39(?):
Kasumi event. Might be random, I haven't checked the date of this event in the past. Should always happen around this date though as its required. She'll join your party a few days later.

Day 41:
your sister will bring up a comic merchant. Go to town for this. In the bookstore buy all of the skill books in addition to the 10 adventure books. If you have any money left over the Commodity District will now be selling the soft pillow which will be essential for the pervy Onii-Chan's out there. The restaurant district will now also sell sleep tea which is also very important to pervy Onii-chans. But for now only buy these if you have the money. You can start skipping eat and walk since you'll be cooking for your sister all the time now. You can also keep less Green Tea on hand now.

Once again you'll want to try to keep your money above 10k when buying other stuff. You can go as low as 7k to buy adventure books though. If you go below 5k you start having crappy meals which lower your sisters mood. The reason you want the extra buffer is to have breathing rooms for random events and/or if the guild loses money.

When you get home go for a run unless you already have 100 max energy. Then its free time. Make sure to learn all the skills you just picked up.

Day 42:
Part-time job > If below 100 energy max independent training/Go for a run otherwise this is free time. Usual plan for night time.

The Mid Game Game-plan (Day 43 to 66)

Guild activities priority:

Hunt > Attack/Defense training > Special Training > Community Service > Basic Training (until you reach 100 energy max) > Help with the Tavern > Study group > Basic Training (If you have over 100 energy)

Once you reach 300 in attack, defense, or determination you can shift those to being below community service but still above basic training. If you somehow drop below 5000 gold (which you shouldn't because your managing your gold correctly, right?) You may need to do some work in the tavern. Hunts should still be taken first as this is an awful way to earn gold.

Make sure to pick up the battle master skill after Kasumi joins. This is the most import skill in the game.
At home you'll want to continue to cook meals for your sister to raise her trust/mood and gain the skill points. You'll need to get through your adventure books but after that you'll finally have some free time to spend however you would like to with your sister. Just make sure you'll wake up with at least 60 energy the next day. Though you'll probably want to continue to choose scary talk so you can start saving skill points to unlock naughty skills.

If you decide you want a naughty little sister and are not saving for naughty skills this free time is a good point to start reading any thin books and naughty books you've acquired. Just make sure to watch your sisters mood. If her interest is too low these will upset her and you'll need to balance it with pampering her.

You should also get your trust high enough to start taking a bath with your sister if that's your jam.

For your Friday night talk you'll want to select either Dream Talk or Naughty Talk.

Family meetings now matter a lot less. If you are strapped for cash Part-Time Life can still be good to take for the extra gold and Sister Week can be good to guarantee a gift. Time of Abstinence can be worth taking once or twice as well if you think you can make it through the week. Its good to do this at least once as this also gives you a week to raise your skill with practices swings since you'll likely need to fit a few nights of that in somewhere. Beyond that you really just want to avoid Frugal life unless you're really really hurting for cash.

Saturday: Part-Time job > If max energy is below 100 go for run otherwise this is free time.
Sunday: Go to town (unless you can't afford at least 4 adventure books. If you can't do your part time job again. Also note its worth picking up the Dumbbell and Iron Sandals if you still don't have them and have the extra gold after getting adventure books. > Independent training/practice swings.

Mid Game Notable Dates

Day 46 Eights exhibition match:
This should be an easy fight for you at this point. but if you want a guide on how to win basic Onii-chan attack > crazy strat > EX Onii-chan Attack > if they are somehow still alive do another crazy strat into EX Onii-chan attack

Day 53 Qualifying match:
Its a rematch against the Gourmet Club. It might look scary but they really shouldn't have a chance against you unless you get some insanely bad RNG on your self heal and guard.

Day 57 through 61 Training Camp:
If you have attack or defense below 250 train those otherwise spend the entire time in special training to get all those sweet sweet skill points. When you talk to your sister at the end of each day pick either talk about the future or naughty talk.

Day 64 to 66:
Special hunt. This must be completed to finish the game. Its long but you have 3 days. Make sure to rest early and often so you don't have your rests stolen. Rest at max energy -25. Don't worry about keeping energy for random events. Just go until you can't anymore. If you're lucky you can clear this in just two days.
On day 64/65 When you get home have your sister cook, have green tea, take a bath, and unless you need to nurse your sister go directly to bed.

The Late Game Game-plan (Day 67 to 78)

Guild activities:

Hunt > Community Service > Attack/Defense training > Special Training > Basic Training (until you reach 100 energy max) > Help with the Tavern > Study group > Basic Training (If you have over 100 energy)

At home: Cook for your littler sister and read adventure books when you have them. If you are out of adventure books its mostly free time. Spend some time raising your skill with practice swings from time to time though. If you get a week of abstinence that is a great time to raise your skill.

You want at least 300 in all your stats (Ideally you can get attack/defense all the way up to 350) by the time the eights starts. Skill may lag a bit behind but that will be fine.

Friday talk pick either naughty talk or dream talk

Family meeting you can pretty much pick whatever you want now just don't pick frugal life.

Saturday: Part-Time job > Independent training. You want to get attack to 300 and skill to 275 at minimum before the eights starts, ideally though those will be higher. If you are over then just continue putting time into attack/skill for now in this time slot. Free time at night

Sunday: Go to town and continue to stock up on adventure books. You should have gotten a bunch of gold from the guild so if you still don't have the Dumbbell or Iron Sandals pick them up now. > more independent training > free time at night (just make sure you get all those adventure books read over the week)

Late game notable dates

Day 73:
Last day before the Eights championship starts. Make sure you unlock any battle skills you got from random friend events and save the game.

Day 74 The Scout Union fight:
This fight is the hardest fight remaining in the main game. Your health bar will be hidden and The Scout Union double attacks while hitting pretty hard. If you go basic onii-chan attack > crazy strat > Ex Onii-chan attack > crazy strat > Ex Onii-Chan attack you should be able to out race them.

Day 78 The Eights semi-finals:
This fight is a joke. These guys shouldn't have a real chance to do that much damage past your self healing.

The Endgame Game-plan (Day 79 to 100)

Guild activities priorities:

Hunt > Defense/Determination training (until 400) > Community service > Attack training (until 400) > Basic Training (until max energy 120) > everything else

At home: Continue reading/acquiring adventure books until Attack/Defense/Determination are all 400. After that this is all free time.

Friday night talk/family meeting is free choice now

Saturday/Sunday: Continue to use one day to go to town and get adventure books until your stats cap out. Work part-time as needed and do independent training to raise your Attack/Skill as needed. After your stats are capped work on getting your energy to the 120 cap. You can also start working on the Adventure with your sister, which will raise all stats, just make sure you don't finish the adventure if you want to get the happy family ending.

You'll notice attack training is now lower priority. That's because you can train Attack and Skill at home at night after you stop getting the ability to pick what to do at the guild so its more important to try to get Defense/Determination to 400 through guild activities at this point.

You'll sometimes be prompted to do extra training. Take Defense/Determination on these since those can't be raised at home.

Endgame notable dates

Day 83:
The Eights finals is tomorrow so make sure you visit town today and check for any additional battle skills you can unlock from random events. Also saving can't hurt.

Day 84 The Eights finals:
Don't worry about trying to win the finals. Just heal on turn 4 as the match gets interrupted at the start of turn 5 and you switch to your real fight for the day and you start at whatever HP you were at when your match was interrupted. As long as you healed this should be quite easy at this point.

Day 85 the final hunt opens and the gate battle:
This hunt is just 40 steps. Finishing it quickly will give you a couple more time slots to maybe get additional hunts before the guild stops offering you choices but your stats should be creeping on 400 at this point anyway so take this as fast as you feel like you need to. If you still have a ways to go until 400 go ahead and focus raising your stats for a few days, you have until day 100 to finish the hunt.
The gate fight itself is actually fairly easy due to the game giving you massively increased skill proc rate. Just pay attention to your HP and use first aid as needed. If it looks like you'll need to use it next turn remember Kana's basic attack has 0 cost. You'll also get a huge heal for free on turn 10.

Post-game content

After finishing the battle with the gate you will enter the Post-game. If you would like to get the happy family ending simply wait for your sister to get pregnant. If you'd like to continue onto the other post game content you will need to finish the adventure. This will render the both of you infertile.

Grand adventure: 200 step adventure with some special dialog at the end if your sister is still a virgin.

Shady Business: A new skill that appears in the skill tree that you can unlock infinitely for 2,000G each time.

Hot springs: After you win your rematch against the taun guild this will start. Should be easy enough if all your stats are capped at 400. Clearing it raises the stat cap to 500 and unlocks a new hang out locations and some special hunts.

Hot springs part 2: Shows up as a hunt. somewhat difficult fight but you have a very long time to clear it so you can grind stats up as much as you need.

DLC

Since this is getting asked a lot around the steam forums, to start the new DLC story section
1: Beat the main game story
2: Finish the adventure you can go on during the weekends
3: Wait for the taun guild to challenge you to a rematch and win
4: Finish the hot spring story and hunt.
5: Work at the hot springs during the week to pay off the guilds debt (this is the DLC)

Also no, you do not need to start a new game. Just make sure to get the new DLC patch from the publisher website.

The DLC adds extra additional portions to various H scenes throughout the game but to access the new story and scenes relating to that you will need to complete the second Hot Springs hunt. It took me getting 475 in all stats (except INT which I left at 400) to be able to clear this comfortably on hard. You can probably do it with less but with how hard the monkey king hits it'll take dealing with some RNG.

After defeating the monkey king and the guild going into debt you'll unlock the option to work at the resort during the week. This is how you will advance the DLC story. Going to the hot spring on the weekend will not advance the story. If you beat the Monkey King you shouldn't have any trouble with the couple other fights you'll run into in the DLC.

At least one new party scenes seems to be locked behind first having a naughty dream about them Yuiso make sure to go to bed with 120% lust from time to time.

Notable random events

• Finding stew in the guild: Its worth trying to take this if you don't have stealth action already. Most the time you'll fail and lose 10 energy but if you succeed you'll get the stealth action skill for free.
  
• A traveling merchant visits your house: He has good prices and gives you an energy drink if you purchase something so make sure to buy something from him.
  
• legendary Chef Ajiboy shows up at your house: Lose some time for 10 skill points. Worth taking.
  
• Doctor DJ shows up at your house: Send him away he'll just injure you.
  
• Showing Akatuski what you're made of: Make sure you have at least 30 energy before starting this or you'll lose the race and just have burnt energy and your mood on nothing. If you don't just ignore him. If you have the energy make sure you race him. It unlocks a skill and gives a bunch of stat points.
  
• When you reach the end-game you'll be prompted to do extra training. Taking defense or determination will be best on this since you can't raise those at home.

[Kiyosumi Azusa]

Why when I start a new game I don't have bonus points like last time (before I only had 1 point)?

[joet]

@shitanproud1
I still haven't finished the DLC yet as I haven't had much motivation to play but it does seem like some characters got a lot more attention then others

@WeThepeople
New game plus unlocks once you've gotten far enough in the game. Various things in the game award points you can use in the new game plus shop. Most of these are for reaching various story events without getting a game over and maxing out the friend levels as well as a couple other things.

[WeThePeople]

What is new game + and how to do that?
Whenever I start new game it goes straight to the first question.

[shitandproud1]

can you do anything to kana or yukari on the hot springs or anywhere else? feels weird that you get to do stuff to kasumi and yui, but not the other two

[papayaz]

ありがとう

[T.Phong]

i lost to Taun guild so my DLC's story is fk up?

[0817junp]

thanks for helping me!

[Leiyuu]

@0817junp you need to finish the grand adventure first, after that you will triggered the hotspring arc (defeating monkeys) and ended up with 10 mil gold debt first. after that you continue further with guild activites with "help hot spring resort" and choose that every guild activity

[joet]

There is not a set day for the rematch. It will happen a few days after you finish the adventure which you can go on during the weekends.

[Leiyuu]

What does blow on did tho?