Community Cleanup
| Community Cleanup | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Special Orders board |
| Giver | Linus |
| Time Limit | 7 days |
| Repeatable | No |
Linus notices how much rubbish has settled into the valley's water and asks for twenty pieces of it to be fished out and dropped in the bin on the train platform. It is the cheapest order on the board to fill, because the junk it wants is the stuff most farms throw away on sight, and a week is ample once a few crab pots are in the water. The gold is small, but the recipe that comes with it is not: a bed of Fiber Seeds produces Fiber on unwatered ground in any month of the year, which turns scarecrows and grass starters from a chore into a crop. The friendship Linus gains is worth as much again, since it lifts him most of the way towards the scenes that tell his story. Linus asks only once, so the week it appears is the week to take it.
The board reads: I have an idea. There's a lot of trash in the water. Why don't we fish some out to make the valley more beautiful? -Linus
Requirements
The counter wants the ordinary river and sea junk: plain Trash, Driftwood, Broken CDs, Broken Glasses and Soggy Newspapers all register. Joja Cola is turned away, which stings a little since it is the one piece of litter that can be bought, and Rotten Plant from a spoiled Seed Maker is refused as well.
Where the junk comes from is unusually generous. A hook that snags rubbish instead of a fish counts, a Crab Pot pulled up with litter in it counts, and the bins dotted around Pelican Town count too. That last route is the fastest in a dry week, since the town's bins can be searched in one morning walk.
Everything has to be picked up while the order is live. Driftwood already stacked in a chest can be carried to the platform and dropped in the bin, but the tally only moves for junk fished, trapped or scavenged after the posting was accepted.
The bin itself sits on the train platform at the Railroad, up the path from the Mountain, and it is only reachable once the Railroad has opened. Dumping the junk there is the whole of the delivery.
Two habits work directly against this order. The Mariner profession, chosen at the top of the fishing skill, stops crab pots catching rubbish at all, which is excellent on any other week and useless on this one. A high fishing level does something similar with the rod, since skilled casts snag junk less often. Low luck days push the odds the other way and are the best days to be out with a line.
The order asks for this much, and the counter is kept while it runs.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Trash items | 20 |
Rewards
The gold is modest and will not change a farm's fortunes. The recipe is the reason to take the order. Fiber Seeds are made from a single Mixed Seed, a handful of Sap and a lump of Clay, and each craft yields enough seeds to cover a few tiles. They sprout in a week, need no water at all, and grow in any season including Winter, which makes them the only reliable way to grow Fiber rather than hunt for it. Each patch harvested hands back a decent pile of Fiber, and Fiber feeds Grass Starter for keeping animals fed through Winter and Scarecrows for protecting a large field. A corner of unwatered ground given over to them removes a long-running supply problem.
Linus warms to the farmer by a full heart in one stroke, which is the same lift a whole heart's worth of daily chatter and gifts would take weeks to manage, and his own scenes wait on exactly that. Walking up to the Mountain Lake during the day afterwards plays the Community Cleanup scene, and it is one of the warmer moments the board hands out.
Finishing the job also leaves a Prize Ticket waiting in the collection box next to the board.
Finishing the order pays out all of this.
| Reward | Image |
|---|---|
| 500g | - |
| 250 Friendship points with Linus | - |
| Fiber Seeds recipe | 
|
| "Community Cleanup" cutscene at the Mountain Lake | - |
Strategy
Set a row of crab pots along the Farm Pond or the beach before the week starts and bait them each morning. Rubbish is a common catch, so a line of pots harvested daily gathers most of the twenty without a single cast. The farm's own pond is a good spot for this, since quiet water gives up more junk than fish.
Fill the rest in with the town's bins on a single walk through Pelican Town, ideally while the farmer is already in town for something else. Linus is the one villager who will not mind being seen at it.
The order's one real trap is destroying the evidence. Trash, driftwood and the rest are useful raw material: a Recycling Machine turns them into ore, cloth, coal and wood, and a Wood Chipper turns driftwood into a pile of planks. Feeding the haul into either machine before it reaches the platform leaves the gathering tally full and the bin empty, with nothing to deposit. Keep the twenty pieces whole until they are in the bin, and recycle afterwards on a normal week.
The other way the week slips away is the Mariner problem. A farm whose pots are trash-free has to do all of the work with a rod and the bins instead, and that is worth knowing before the pots are counted on.
Notes
A posting's week is measured from its own appearance on the board and not from the moment a farmer agrees to it, so a board read on Thursday leaves half a week. Nothing can be handed back once taken. Junk already dumped on the platform is not lost either, since Lewis keeps a lost and found box for exactly that.
This is a one-time posting, so once it has been completed Linus does not ask again. The Fiber Seeds recipe arrives by post from him the following morning rather than appearing the instant the bin is filled.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.