Biome Balance
| Biome Balance | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Special Orders board |
| Giver | Demetrius |
| Time Limit | 7 days |
| Repeatable | Yes |
Demetrius posts a second fishing notice that works on habitat rather than species: he names a kind of water and wants a sizeable haul out of it. Anything that bites in that water counts, so the order asks for patience at the rod instead of hunting one elusive fish. It pays a fixed fee rather than a share of the catch, which makes it the steadier but smaller of his two requests. Completing it brings the Farm Computer recipe, the same reward his species order carries, so a farm only needs to clear one of the two. For an angler who already fishes most mornings, this is close to free money.
The board reads: For unknown reasons, the local population of [Fish] has grown to an unsustainable level. I need a local angler to help reduce their numbers.
Requirements
Only fish caught while the order runs count, and the tally follows the rod. Rubbish, seaweed and the oddments that come up on a bad cast do nothing, so a poor fishing level makes the haul longer rather than impossible.
The named water decides where the week is spent. The river runs through Pelican Town and on through Cindersap Forest, and the two stretches do not hold quite the same fish, so a river notice sometimes wants both. The lake means the Mountain Lake behind the mine entrance, with the small pond in Cindersap Forest keeping company as fresh standing water. The ocean means the beach south of town, and a farm laid out on the beach map can fish salt water without leaving home.
Several fish are counted under more than one habitat, which is the part that quietly helps. Chub bites in both the Mountain Lake and the forest stretch of the river in every season, and Perch and Lingcod are logged as river and lake fish alike, so a winter notice for either water can be worked from the same bank. Carp fills the lake all through the warmer seasons and is the single most common thing in the water at the Secret Woods pond, which makes a lake haul the easiest of the three to grind out.
The order asks for one of these, and the board picks which.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| River Fish | 20 |
| Ocean Fish | 20 |
| Lake Fish | 20 |
Rewards
The fee is paid flat, so an ocean haul of Anchovy pays the same as an ocean haul of Tuna. That is worth noticing before choosing between the two of Demetrius's notices: his species order pays by value and can beat this one several times over when it names an expensive fish, while this one is the better bet when the alternative is a rare species in bad weather.
The Farm Computer is the lasting prize. It scans whatever map it stands on and saves a walk around the fields. The readout covers planted and ripe crops, anything that went dry overnight, the greenhouse, bare tilled soil, loose forage and finished machines. On the home farm it adds the hay count and the state of the farm cave. An auto-grabber holding produce is counted as a finished machine even though it shows no floating icon above it, which makes the readout a reliable morning check on the coop and the barn.
Since the notice is repeatable, the fee can be collected on later weeks, while the recipe arrives once.
Finishing the order pays out all of this.
| Reward | Image |
|---|---|
| 1,500g | - |
| Farm Computer recipe | 
|
Strategy
Pick the fishing spot for traffic rather than for value. Twenty fish out of the Mountain Lake with ordinary bait takes an afternoon, and the quiet pond in Cindersap Forest does the same job for a lake notice when the lake shore is crowded with trash. For the ocean, the pier at the beach reaches deeper water than the sand does, which lifts the share of real fish.
Bait is the main lever. Any bait halves the wait for a bite, so a Worm Bin or a handful bought at the Fish Shop roughly doubles the catch per hour. A Dressed Spinner or Trap Bobber on top of that turns a long day into a short one. Crab pots set in the named water are worth checking too, since what comes out of them is a catch like any other.
The common failure is leaving it until midweek, because the days run from the Monday the notice was pinned up rather than the day it was taken. The other is fishing the wrong body of water: a notice naming the lake gets nothing from an afternoon on the pier, however full the bucket looks.
Notes
Rain changes the odds in the angler's favour in fresh water, so a wet day on a river or lake notice is a gift rather than a nuisance.
A Farm Pond or a stocked Fish Pond is a poor place to work this order, since both hold a narrow set of fish and the pond on the farm turns up rubbish at a frustrating rate.
Because both of Demetrius's notices lead to the same machine, the second one to appear is purely a gold earner, and that makes it an easy pass on a week when something longer is already running.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.