Story of Seasons Beginner’s Guide to Farming, Livestock, Trading, and More

Story of Seasons is a new Harvest Moon game under a different name. Don’t let that fool you, it is still the same great farming series with plenty to do. So much so that they give you a week-long tutorial before you’re ready to do things on your own.

There is so much to do and not everything is covered in the tutorial. That’s where this guide comes in, to help explain the basics. I’ll tell you some things that were left out as well as give a reference guide for things to do in Story of Seasons.

This guide will go over the basics in Story of Seasons including:

• Starting Out – Basic controls and systems in the game.
• Blueprints – Unlocking the blueprints table and what it does.
• Townsfolk – Who they are and why they are important.
• Livestock and Pets – The different livestock and pets and what they do.
• Guild – What you can do at the Guild.
• Safari Park – What it is and what you can do there.

Starting Out

First, a quick refresher of the basic controls.

• Use the Hoe to till your field. You can press and hold it until the white grid disappears.
• This is needed to plant seeds.
• Plant seeds by equipping seeds and pressing A while on a plowed field.
• Equip a watering can to water seeds and plants growing on a plowed filled.
• You can water crops twice a day to make them grow faster.
• Press A to harvest crops when they are ripe.
• You need to equip and use a sickle to harvest some crops.

Stamina and Health

Your stamina and health is very important to keep up your farm.

• Hearts display how much stamina you have left. You’ll pass out if your stamina reaches 0 and have to go to the doctor.
• Your health is shown by a face to the left of your stamina.
• You can get sick by staying up too late or not eating.

Trading

People come from other countries in the game to trade with your town. As you increase trade with them and progress through the game, more countries will trade with you.

This is how you get your money and the prices on items change.

• Check the “Recommended Shipping” at the entrance to the trading post to see the prices on things so you know when to sell.

Please visit my How to Unlock Every trade Depot Vendor guide for full details on this section.

Swimming

You can dive from docks into the water and swim. This is very important because you can dive when you see an ! point.

• Diving gives items. You can even get iron and other rare things like gems that sell for a high price.
• Getting iron early on helps you build things like a kitchen and pitchfork.
• There are 3 places to dive, near Eda’s house, south of Fritz, and in the middle near the mountain trail.
• You can only get a certain amount of items each day, so don’t forget to always go swimming.

Blueprints

Blueprints allow you to build things on your farm. They are very important in growing and progressing through the game.

• When the tutorial is over, be sure to collect 15 small stones and 15 small lumber to upgrade your house.
• Use an axe on twigs and a hammer on pebbles to get the ingredients.
• You can get these as soon as you get your own place after the tutorial, so don’t wait!
• You’ll need to get more blueprints from shops and the trading post.
• As soon as you get enough money, buy the kitchen and refrigerator blueprints from Silk Country.
• This allows you to cook and stores cooking ingredients.
• You can also get “Combos” by putting certain items together in the same area.
• These give different bonuses depending on the combo, so be sure to try different ones.

Townsfolk

There are multiple residents and they all are helpful. Some people run shops like the general store or the restaurant, while others are bachelors and bachelorettes. These are people who you can become romantic with.

• Increase your relationship with people by talking to them anfgiving them gifts.
• Participating in festivals and winning contests also increases relationship levels.

Check out my guides on How to Get Married, Bachelors, and Bachelorettes for full details.

Livestock and Pets

There are multiple pets and livestock you can have on your farm and they have purposes.

Livestock

• Cows – Produce milk when fully grown.
• Chickens – Lay eggs when fully grown.
• Sheep – You can shear the wool when fully grown.
• Alpacas – You can also shear their wool when fully grown.
• Angora Rabbits – They shed their fur for you to collect.

Make sure you get a brush and feed for your livestock. Each type of livestock has their own type of feed.

You need a barn for all pets except chickens. For chickens, you need coops.

Pets

• Dogs – They can help graze your animals.
• Cats – Can bring you items.
• Horses – You can use them to travel to places more quickly.

Dogs and Cats have a relationship meter as well.

• You can walk a dog or cat by using a leash on them. Talk to them when you want to walk to end.
• This lowers their stress.
• You can also lower pet stress by playing with them.
• Stressed pets become obese and don’t help as much, so be sure to keep their stress low.

You can only ride horses by calling them at a horseback riding area.

Guild

There are several public fields, owned by the Guild, you can use in Story of Seasons. To use these, you must issue challenges called Conquests.

• Conquests are judged in several categories and if you win, you get access to that field.
• Some fields are better suited at growing certain crops and some allow you to grow crops that you cannot grow at your own farm.
• You can only rent for a certain time, so you’ll need to do another conquest to gain access to the field again.

Bees and Mushrooms

There are fields you can rent to keeps bees.

• Put up a hive box and put a bee inside to start making honey.

Mushrooms can also be grown in a rented field.

• You spread the seeds of mushrooms on mushroom logs.
• Mushrooms can regrow up to 3 times.

Safari Park

This is a special place you get later in the game to keep wild and exotic animals.

• The more friendly you get with the animals there, the more animals you can unlock for the park.
• There are multiple areas, and some areas are the only places to find certain animals.
• Expanding gives more animals and areas to go to. Expand enough and you can invite people to go on a wild safari.
• There are also mining and harvest spots in the Safari Park once you’ve expanded enough.