The Walkthrough


Table of Contents

0. Prelude


Okay, now that I have most of the major sections of the main guide in place, I want to get started on the complete walkthrough of the game.  I know that I have been advertising this section for a long time and now it is time to get started on it. The intended purpose of this section is to provide a complete start to end walkthrough for the game Harvest Moon DS.  I have seen a good number of guides on the web for previous games in the harvest moon series.  Several of them have a getting started or a walkthrough for the first few days to the first few weeks of the game.  However, after that they just leave the gamer hanging with a good base of information and an unpaved path.  The problem being that harvest moon is an open ended game with an almost unlimited number of paths you can take through out the game.

This can be difficult to navigate and plan for the long term player.  Many players don't reach the latter game years of the game because they either get bored with the game or don't have a good direction to follow for the remainder of the game. That is what I want to examine in this walk through. The biggest question in harvest moon is how to start out and get past the early goals in the game.  The guide already does that well, but I am going to go into them even farther in depth here.  However, the main purpose of this section is to look at the highest achievement level the game provides and the necessary steps to reach it.  It is difficult to deal with, but I have experience in playing harvest moon games for many game years beyond the game's intended threshold.  I tried this with mineral town and had some success, I think Darkranger's Guide to Retirement is still up on Gamefaqs, but this time I want to go all the way.

With mineral town, there were already plenty of faqs and guides already written for the game.  So, I assumed that if you had a specific question about how to get something mentioned in the guide you could find out about it elsewhere.  Unfortunately, this time there weren't any preexisting guides for the game.  So, before I could write a walkthrough I needed to write an in-depth guide that indexed all the aspects of the game.  This is my first long guide of it's kind and I think it turned out pretty well.  I wrote the above sections to cover most of the major sections of the game and I still have a little to add.  They should be sufficient to cover all the information needed here. I will be referencing them, so be prepared to look something up if you haven't read it already.

For a final note before I get started, this is a complete walkthrough and spoiler of the game.  Therefore if use it at your own discression.  I am not suggesting that this is the only way you can play harvest moon DS or accomplish the goals in the game.  I am taking a look at the quickest way that I can plan out how to make it through the mainstay of what the game has to offer.  You don't have to follow this to a complete agenda.  For example, you could take two or three game years to get to where I suggest to be at the end of the first game year.  This is just the most efficient path from point a to point b in the game.  The path here is about as fast as it can be done. I am about two weeks behind it myself in the game. It took me a while to figure things out, but I can still outline it here for you. Here we go.

By the way, a special thanks goes out to Waldark for helping me revise the first week of the game below.  I am not using his words exactly, but I am incorporating a lot of his ideas with my own here.  This information is used with permission.  Thanks again. 

Walkthrough Contents

  1. Prelude
  2. Before you start
  3. The first week
  4. Week 2
  5. Week 3

1. Before You Start


This section is really a guide all on its own, which is why it has its own contents and section numbers.  I could put it buy itself, but it makes reference to the main guide above. So, I decided to put it all together in one file for viewing convienence.  I know if you just bought this game or you are starting a new file on it, it can be tempting to put it into the DS and just start playing the game.  You are welcome to do that if you want to, but if you are going to follow this guide exactly you need to do a few things first.  Keeping on track with the walkthrough requires you to do a little preparation and planning before you start the game.  That way you will be up to speed while your playing and won't have to look back to the walkthrough or the guide so often. 

First, if this is you first harvest moon game or the first time you played through the game, then read the directions that came with it first.  The instruction manual to this game is very well organized and will teach you most of the basics you need to play the game.  It really helps to be familiar with the controls and the techniques required to accomplish tasks in this game.  The second thing you need to do is start reading this guide a little before you start playing the game.  Go back to the general guide and skim over each of the major sections before you begin playing.  Make sure you have a chance to read through the quick start miniguide, the mining, and the harvest sprite and casino sections before you start looking at the walkthrough.  Knowledge from these sections is critical to get through out the first spring.  So, familiarizing yourself ahead of time will get you ready to proceed. 

The next order of business is to get some references in place for while your playing the game.  The first part of the guide is full of useful tables that you will likely want quick access to while your playing the game.  For example, you will want a list of the harvest sprites and the heart events for the girl you want to marry available to you for quick reference.  It can be a pain to boot up the computer and sift through this long file every time you want to find something.  I would suggest that you print out some of the key pages you want to use.  You can print a selection of text by highlighting it and choosing the print option from the file menu.  Now that your ready to get started, you need to make a few decisions before you approach this game with the walkthrough.

The other major decision you need to make before you start is who you are going to marry in the game.  The walkthrough plans for you to be courting your new bride on the second or third day of spring.  So, you need to know who you are going to marry ahead of time.  Open the instruction manual and look up the girls from the valley and pick one out to marry.  Note, that this guide assumes you are going to marry one of the five valley girls or the mermaid.  Marrying the mineral town girls ends your game and the harvest goddess and with princess each take five years to court.  Keria lives at the bottom of the second mine and is a pain to reach especially because you need ultimate curry to start the relationship and her favorite gift is gold lumber.  If you want to marry one of the harder girls, just ignore the marriage subjections in the sections below and follow their events listed in the marriage part of the guide.  This will just push back your marriage and family for a couple of years. 

The final thing you need to do is learn to read ahead of where you are in this guide.  While the path you are following through the game can be predicted, there are a few small things that are easy to forget along the way.  You should read ahead a few weeks to a game season of where you are and come back to review the guide.  Believe me when I tell you that it is easy to forget something.   The little details of the game can set your long term goals back quite a bit if your not careful.  So check where you are often in the guide.  Now that the preliminary stuff is done let's get down to the game itself.

2. The first week


The first week of the game or so is already outlined in the quick start magnitude very well. You should focus on following that and you will be right on target to starting off on the right foot.  Here is a list of goals for the first few weeks as well as the rest of the first spring.


Well, as you can see that is quite a lot to get done in the first game season, but if you stick to a well planned schedule you will be able to get through it with flying colors. Getting established early in the season will give you more options to advance through the rest of the game. 

Spring 1

This is the first day of spring in the game.  You cannot actually get the farm started until the second.  Enter your name and birthday as well as the name of your farm and pets.  Then sit back and watch the opening sequence to get a feel for the story line of the game.  The go to bed and get ready to get started the next day.

Spring 2

Get up and greet the first day that you can work on your farm and get established.  Your plans for the day should be pretty straight forward.  Head over to the dig site. Use the saving trick to learn where things are buried in the floor.  You goal for the day is to collect jewelry that you can ship.  The bracelets and broaches sell for 2000g each and you need to find about 30 to 50 of them. Then you want to double back and go back to the dig site and trigger the event with carter to open the first mine. You can use the colored grasses and bamboo shoots to restore stamina and fatigue if you run low.  Use the resource management guide to learn how to keep track of your fatigue and stamina.
Go home and go to bed.

Spring 3


Head back over to the dig site and start going through the first mine down to the bottom.  The descending process is outlined in the mining section.  Kill the monster on the bottom floor and return to the surface.  Use up the rest of your stamina and fatigue to gather more jewelry from the dig site.  When your running low on both, head over to the inner in and wait for 10:00 am to roll around.  Head upstairs and talk to Van.  Sell him the jewelry that you got from the dig site.  Van will offer you more money than just shipping the items would yield.  Haggle with him a few times until you make around 3000g for each of the items you are selling him.  Then buy 10 to 12 turbojolt XL and spend every remaining penny you have on bodygizer XL.  You may also want to examine the crate while your here to unlock Jet. During one of each and head back over to the mine and wait for 9:00 pm to roll around.  When it does enter the dig site and trigger the event with carter again to open the second mine.  Note, you need to have the hammer equipped to do it.  Then head into the mine as the miniguide outlines and fill your ruck sack with pink diamonds and amethyst.  Each of them is worth 10000g or up to 15000g to Van.  After your run you will likely be out of supplies or low on them.  So head back to the farm and go to bed.

I should comment on one other event that you will likely encounter on that day.  It is the process involved in getting the legendary sword from Keria on the 255th floor of the second mine.  If you don't get it the first time, you can repeat theses steps on any run of the mine to retrieve the sword from her.  When you reach floor 255 you will notice that there is a large boulder blocking a path into an upper room.   You need to kill all of the enemies on the floor including the bugs with one of your tools.  Then the screen will flash white for a second and reload the room with the boulder removed. Next, you need to walk into the room at the top before you leave the mine.  Inside you will meet Keria and she will be holding a sword.  She asks you if you want it and you need to respond with a yes reply.  She will then give you the sword and you will be transported back to the surface.  

Spring 4.


Unfortunately, Van has left town and won't return until the 8th.  He comes in on every day ending in a 3 or an 8.  You will have to wait for his return to resume making mining profits.  Once you get up, head out the door of your house and over to the shipping box.  Ship two of the pink diamonds from the mine.  I know Van will pay more for them, but you will need the 20000g for the next few days just to survive.  With that done, head out into town and start gathering the harvest sprites that work in the casino and the sprite shop.  Unlock any of the sprites that require you to examine something in town to unlock them.  You can do this over the next few days if you want, but they need to all be here by the 8th.  Find the girl you want to marry and give her a diamond from the mine unless it's Nami in which case you will have to use flowers instead.

If you still have time left, you should go ahead and forage for anything that you can carry are from around the map.  This includes all the wild grasses and the weeds.  Pick them up with the a button and place them into your backpack with the Y button.  Then, when you get back at the end of the day ship all of them out through the shipping box and head to bed.  This will increase total number of items that you have shipped.  You need to ship 1000 items to get the horse and this will help you to unlock several of the harvest sprites.

Spring 5 and 6


You will need to spend these two days just like you did on the 4th of spring.  You need to give the girl you're going to marry a gift each day, additionally, you should start giving a gift to Flora each day until you trigger her blue heart event.  It is the first step towards unlocking both of the hot springs.   Note, it is assumed from here on out that you will be giving both girls a gift every day until Flora's blue heart event is triggered and the other girl is ready for marriage.  I won't be including these instructions again. Go about your business until 10 am and then head back to your farm.  Head over to the phone and call Karen's general store.  She will have a number of items for sale, but the one you want is at the bottom of the list.  It's a larger ruck sack that will double your carry capacity. 

In addition to the ruck sack, you also need to buy another item of your choice from the store.  It really, doesn't matter what, either seeds or any food item will do for this requirement.  You need to continue purchasing an items from the store everyday for the next 10 days that the store is open. This is the key to unlocking the second harvest sprite channel and being able to buy the items sold on the home shopping network. Spend the rest of your days foraging for more items to ship and if you still have stamina you can go start to gather building materials now that you have space to store them in your ruck sack.  Breaking stones and cutting lumber are the keys to unlocking several of the harvest sprites. 

Spring 7


Today is a little different from the last two game days that you have had.  There are three tasks that you need to complete on this game day other than the girls and the super market.  First thing in the morning, you need to head out of your house and leave your farm. Then you need to head over to the river and head upwards towards the harvest sprites tree.  Just follow the river to the north until you come to the water fall.  You will notice two large rock formation that you cannot break with the hammer.  You need to equip the legendary sword and walk up next to them.  Then while facing them push the A button and you will trigger a short cut scene where you character will destroy them with the sword.  This will yield two benefits.  First, it will open a more northern route between the dig site and the harvest sprite tree.  Second and more importantly, this will open the cave that leads to the second field behind the waterfall.  Crops planted here will grow two days faster than on your farm.  This is important because it allows you to level up crops the fastest.

Once this event is complete, head over to the dig site and enter the first mine again.  Work your way down to the 10th floor conserving stamina by looking for the holes that will drop you one floor at a time.  Once you arrive, kill the one dark chick that is there and start looking for mystrile in the rocks with the hammer.  You will need to find at least six pieces of it here.  So, save your game and break all the rocks on the floor to find out where the mystrile is hidden.  Then you can reload your game and dig up only the pieces that you need to reach the six that you require.  Then exit the mine and head south towards the small shack where Galen and Nina live.  When you arrive, head up towards the door and wait for time to pass.

The event you are trying to trigger occurs some time between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm.  Just keep walking in and out of the house at 10 minutes intervals until it triggers.  When you enter the house, you will trigger a short cut scene with Galen where his is doing a little spring cleaning.  He finds an old fishing pole and gives it to you.  This is how you get the fishing pole in the game.  If you miss this event for some reason, you can trigger it later on any Saturday in the spring between 11 and 2 to get the fishing pole.  You need to have it by the end of the spring for sure.  Otherwise you will be a year behind this guide. 

Once you have the fishing pole, head over to the harvest goddess spring and the watering hole on your farm in any order.  Cast the rod out into both of them and reel it back in.  This will unlock two of the fishing harvest sprites.  Once you have them, if you still have time, go forage for items to ship and then go to bed. 

Spring 8


This will probably be the longest game day you have during the whole game unless you try to run the 4th mine.  However, it is the most important and the best way to get going.  Early in the morning, you need to head out and cross the bridge towards Vesta's farm.  This will trigger a short event where you meet the harvest sprite Roller.  He will introduce himself to you and teleport you back to the harvest sprite tree.  Here, you will get a short lesson on how the medal system for hiring the sprites works in the game and an explanation about the casino.  The entire system is outlined and explained in section 6 of the above guide.  You will then be put outside of the tree and you need to wait there until the tree opens for business around 9 in the morning.  Once it opens, head inside and go into the back room through the door on the right side of the screen. Walk over to the counter on the far left and talk to roller. 

You need to speak with him and buy some medals from him. You will want to buy about 100 to 200 medals from him for 10g each.  Now that you have enough medals to get started, you need to generate quite a few of them.  You can do this by gambling until you get luck with the double up.  See section 6 for details on this process.  You will need to generate about 20000 medals to stabilize your position in the game.  Once you have reached the required number of medals, you need to buy a couple of things from Roller.  Talk to him and select the trade medals for items option.  You need to purchase the teleport stone first.  It allows you to transport yourself anywhere in the valley for 2 fatigue points which saves on travel time.  Secondly, you need to buy the truth ring, this will allow you to see your stamina and fatigue.  It is very helpful when mining because it allows you to know when to drink bodygizer and turbojolt.  The third item I recommend buying is the friendship ring.  It allows you to see the friendship and affection values of the townspeople when you equip it.  It is helpful for monitoring your love relationships.  Also, buy a bag of cabbage seeds. 

Okay, now that you have your items purchased here, back into the first room and talk to Guts.  Go ahead and hire the fishing team for a week. This will allow you to gain fish towards unlocking the later members of the team.  It takes a while so, you might as well get started now.  After you finish with your affairs here, head outside and fire up the teleport stone.  You want to teleport to inner inn and head upstairs to meet Van.  Sell him the pink diamonds and Alexandrite from your inventory.  This should yield about 500,000g to 800,000g if you haggle over the selling price several times.  You need to take all the money you just made and buy BodigizerXL and TurblojoltXL with it until your broke.  You want about 100 turbojolt XL's and the rest should go to bodigizers.  With this finished, grab the teleport stone and head back outside the inn.  Next, teleport back up to the dig site and get ready to run the second mine.  You are going to excavate it for pink diamonds and alexandrite again top to bottom just like you did on the third day.  This time, get as many floors as you can along the way. Stop and every multiple of 3 for a pink diamond and every multiple of 10 for 1 or more alexandrite between floors 100 and 255. 

When you finish your first run of the mine, dig it up a second time thoroughly.  After the second run is complete, go ahead and do a third.  I know this is very time consuming.  It takes about 2 to 2 1/2 hours real time to run the mine once.  But, this will likely be the last time you need to run it for a while.  Equip the truth ring and keep an eye on your stamina and drink bodigizers as needed.  After you finish your third run of the mine, you will notice that time passes very slowly in the mine.  It will likely be between noon and 1:00 p.m. when you finish in the game.  So, far so good, but you still have a little to go.  The next order of business is to head over to the secret cave behind the waterfall and plant the bag of cabbage seeds and water it.   You need to ship a cabbage to unlock one of the shipping harvest sprites, so you might as well get started on it.  Next, you need to teleport back to the inn to sell your latest hall of stones to Van.  This time, if you are patient on the price, you will get around 2 to 3 million g for them. That sum will sustain you for quite a while. 

Next, teleport back to your farm and get on the phone.  Look up all the businesses you can call and buy any of the tools that you can for under 10000g a tool.  The list includes the brush, milker, sheers, touch panel gloves, and anything else you see that you want.  Now, you need to put in a call to Gotz and order an animal shed.  You will obviously need to purchase the material, wood is a good compromise at 35,000g.  It is sturdy and won't drastically drain your account.  Keep in mind that you will have to knock several of the animal sheds down later in the game to make way for chicken sheds to unlock several of the sprites.  So, think carefully before you commit to an expensive stone building.  The final order of business for the day is to teleport back to inn one last time.  Head up to the second floor and talk to van again.  You need to restock your BodigizerXL and TurblojoltXL.  You need about 500 BodigizerXL.  Then teleport back to your farm. 

Once your back to the farm it's time to start working on the tools.  You want to get all of the expertise for your tools up to the point that they are ready to upgrade to mystrile.  To do this, simply use the tool continuously in the house because time won't pass here.  Keep the truth ring equipped and keep an eye on your stamina.  Refill it every time it runs out with a BodigizerXL and repeat the process until all your tools are ready for the mystrile level.  You can keep track of their progress on the status menu by touching the picture of your character's head with the stylis.  You will need to fill the watering can repeatedly to upgrade it.  Once most of your tools reach the final level, or 3:30 whichever comes first, call Gary the blacksmith on the phone.  Select tool upgrade from him and upgrade your hammer to mystrile level.  You will lose your hammer for about 5 days.  I know you need it to mine, but with 1.5 to 2 million g in your pocket you should have enough money to get by for now if you don't buy anything you don't need. 

3. Week 2 Intro


Well, you made it through your first week of the game without much difficulty and look how far you have already come.  However, you have a long way to go in the game.  I need to point a few things out at this point that I am going to take for granted and assume that you will do on your own.  These are things you need to get done as soon as you possibly can and remember to update daily.  First, each day you need to give your girlfriend a gift to increase their heart rating.  You should also start working on Flora even if you aren't going to marry her.  Her blue heart event is needed to unlock the hot springs.  Next, you also need to continue upgrading your tools all to the mystrile level.  The process is simple, when one tool is finished, call Gary and have him start on the next one until all six are done.  Make sure to do them in an order that won't interfere with your farm work.  For example, wait until you have shipped a cabbage to get the watering can upgraded.  You also need to make sure to buy something from Karen's store everyday that it is open until the second harvest sprite channel unlocks. 

Also, you need to keep hiring either the fishing team or the healing team since you need to use them several times to unlock their later members.  You should also start throwing you dog and cat and petting them with the touch panel gloves once a day.  The goal of all of this is to start unlocking the harvest sprites.  You can find the requirements to unlock all of them in section 5 of the guide.  Try to get as many as you can especially the harvesting team. They will be the main stay of you profit later in the game.  You also need to unlock 60 of them to get married.  The family life unlocks quite a bit in the game so getting married by the end for the first year is a worth goal. You also need to water you cabbage everyday until you can ship one to unlock the shipping sprite. 

Finally, this guide now assumes you know how to make money when you need it.  If you try to do everything suggested in the walkthrough here on your sleeping stamina allotment, you will find that you cannot.  I am assuming that you will be going thru 2-6 BodigizerXL a day just getting the farm work done.  As such, you will need money to stock up on them when Van comes to town the days ending in 3 and 8.  Also, there are quite a few things you need to buy to get through the game.  You will find that the 2 million g g you now have will last quite a while, but it will eventually run out, especially if you buy the expensive accessories.  The mine is your primary source of income at this point in the game.  I will not advise you to make another run again in this walkthrough.  I will assume that you will make them as your finances require you to do so.  After the second year completes, you won't ever need to do it again with any luck. 

spring 9


Wake up and have Gotz build your new barn.  It will take two days to complete.  Put it someplace easy to reach from the house.  Take care of your girl and forage for the rest of the day or gather materials to unlock the orange sprites and defer your building costs. You should also go to the harvest sprite casino and purchase a bag of cabbage seeds.  Then you need to plant and water a them for the day.  Shipping a cabbage will unlock one of the shipping sprites who is key to making money later in the game.  

spring 10


Not much new here, you should spend the day gathering materials and foraging.  If the map is running low now, you can pass the time fishing. You should also call yodel ranch if they're open and buy 99 pieces of fodder from them. 

spring 11


Gotz will finish with your first animal shed today.  You can spend the day pretty much as you have been doing, but you need to do one additional thing today.  Call yodel ranch, if they're open and order 4 cows.  Rick will deliver them to the front of your farm and you will need to push them into the barn. Call Gotz again and have him build the silo this time. preferably out of stone it's not that expensive.  Then you need to head out to the barn and talk to each of the cows.  Then you need to pet them by equipping the touch panel gloves and pushing the A button next to them.  You also need to wash them by equipping the brush and the touch panel gloves at the same time and using the brush.  Finally, you need to feed all of them.  It will be a week or so before you can start milking them. You can also wash and pet your horse. The actions you are taking here will eventually unlock about 12 of the harvest sprites over the next few seasons. 

spring 12


Nothing much new here.  Gotz will arrive and start work on the new silo. Bury it in some remote corner of the farm.  Make sure you water the cabbage and give the girls a gift each.  Take care of the animals by petting, washing, talking, and feeding all of them.  (From here on this will be referred to as taking care of the animals.)  When you finish, forage or gather material for the rest of the day. 

spring 13


You day should start with Gary returning your hammer to you.  Walk in and out of your house a second time and Gotz should be done with the silo.  Take care of the animals and work until 11:00 rolls around.  Fire up the phone and call Gotz.  Have him start construction on another wooden animal shed for you.  You should then call Gary and have him start working on upgrading your next tool. The hoe is a good choice to have it done and out of the way Finally, you should call  Rick and have him fill up your new silo. 

Spring 14


Today is the spring thanksgiving festival and the first event you can be part of in the game.  Really, the game day is nothing special accept if you give a girl a gift it will count for extra and the shops will be closed.  Take care of your animals and forage for the rest of the day.  It would also be a good canidate for another mine run if you are running low on money.

4. Week 3


Well, Spring is well under way and you have gotten yourself off to a pretty good start.  As you can see, the entries are getting a little shorter with each day.  There are some bigger days in the next few seasons, but the days are starting to get a little repetitive.  After the Spring, I will probably be shifting to weeks rather than individual days.  The rest of spring will be coming with the next update to the guide. 

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