Egg Festival
| Egg Festival | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Festival |
The Egg Festival is the first celebration of a new farm's year, and it matters far more than a village party should. Pierre sets up a booth in Pelican Town Square selling Strawberry Seeds, which are not available anywhere else at that point in the game, and a packet planted the same afternoon will pay for itself several times over before Summer arrives. The second half of the day is the Egg Hunt, a frantic fifty seconds of grabbing painted eggs out of hedges and crates while Abigail does the same. Beating her earns a Straw Hat the first time and a Prize Ticket every year after. The festival is also the first chance to talk to the whole village at once, which is worth a morning of friendship on its own.
Event
The festival takes place on the thirteenth of every Spring in Pelican Town Square, and the way in is simply to walk into the town between nine in the morning and two in the afternoon. The town is sealed before nine, with a message about the event still being set up, so there is no getting an early look. Leaving, or finishing the Egg Hunt, ends the day and returns the farmer to the farm at ten at night.
The day runs in two halves. The villagers gather in the square first, and that is the social part: everyone is out, nobody is at work, and a round of conversation touches a dozen relationships in a few minutes. Pierre's booth is open throughout this half.
Talking to Mayor Lewis starts the Egg Hunt, and that is a one-way door. Once the hunt is over nothing can be bought and nobody can be spoken to, so the shopping and the chatting both have to happen first.
The hunt itself gives fifty seconds to find small coloured eggs hidden around the town, and the number needed to win depends on how many farmers are playing. A lone farmer needs nine, two need six each, three need five and a group of four or more needs four. Fall short and Abigail takes the prize. The eggs are scattered across the main part of the town and never outside its boundaries, so the trick is a route that sweeps the square, the alleys and the open crates without doubling back. There are plenty of eggs to find, well over the nine required, which means a tidy route wins comfortably rather than by a whisker.
Winning the first time earns a Straw Hat. Winning again in a later year earns a Prize Ticket instead, which can be traded at the prize machine in the Mayor's house. In a multiplayer game, if more than one farmer finds enough eggs, only the one with the most gets the prize, and genuine ties are all paid.
The layout changes on alternate years. The booth, the villagers and the egg positions are arranged one way in odd years and another in even ones, so a route memorised in a first Spring will not work in the second.
Shop
Pierre's booth is the reason to come even for a farmer who has no interest in the hunt. Nothing can be sold to him during the festival, so it is a buying trip only.
Strawberry Seeds at 100g apiece are the headline. Strawberries take eight days to mature and then keep producing, so seeds bought and planted on the thirteenth of Spring have time for two harvests before the season turns. Buying as many as the wallet allows, and selling the first harvest to buy more, is the standard opening-year money engine.
The rest of the stock is decoration. A Lawn Flamingo costs 400g and goes outdoors on the farm. A Plush Bunny costs 2,000g and is exactly what its description promises. Seasonal Plants are 350g each and change their look with the season without ever needing watering. The Colorful Set is 500g, and a Pastel Banner and a Decorative Pitchfork are 1,000g each, all three for indoors only.
Reaching Pierre's booth is oddly fiddly in odd-numbered years, where the way to him is round the back of Pierre's General Store. In even years he can be approached from the right of the booth as normal.
Notes
The seeds are the whole argument for prioritising this festival in a first year. A farm that spends its first thirteen days of Spring on parsnips and then puts everything into strawberries is in a different financial position by Summer than one that does not, and the seeds cannot be bought again until the following Spring.
The Straw Hat is purely cosmetic, so a farmer who already owns one loses nothing by finishing second. The Prize Ticket given for later wins is the more useful reward of the two, which makes the hunt worth playing properly every year rather than only once.
All Festivals
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
