Ginger Island
| Ginger Island | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Location |
| Residents | Leo Birdie Professor Snail Island Trader Mr. Qi Fizz |
Ginger Island is the one island in the Fern Islands archipelago the farmer can land on, and reaching it means repairing the boat in the back room of Willy's Fish Shop. The island runs on Golden Walnuts rather than gold: parrots take walnuts in exchange for clearing paths, rebuilding a farmhouse, raising a resort and opening a fast-travel service, and the walnuts are hidden in puzzles, caves, crates and the sand. Season stops mattering here, exactly as it does in the Greenhouse, so any crop grows on the island farm at any time of year and the fish list never changes. A volcano in the north holds the Forge, and a room in the west holds Mr. Qi's harder work. For most saves the island is where the late game actually happens.
Area
Island South is the landing. The dock, a small beach with the ruins of a building and three paths inland all sit here, and this is where the Island Obelisk and a Warp Totem: Island drop the farmer, which is the only way in when the Fish Shop is shut.
Only the eastern path is open at first, because two large turtles are asleep across the other two. Following Leo into the jungle of Island East and dealing with the parrot in his hut clears the northern turtle, and a Magma Sprite then leads the farmer up to the volcano. The western turtle wakes for ten Golden Walnuts.
Island Southeast opens once the resort is built, which clears the debris east of the dock. It holds a star-shaped tide pool, a rock offshore and a hidden pirate cove reached east of the pool. Island East is jungle, where Fiddlehead Ferns grow, and it holds Leo's hut, a Banana Shrine and a package of Tent Kits.
Island North covers everything up from the dock: the Island Trader's stand, the Dig Site across a repaired bridge, the Island Field Office, the mushroom cave and the volcano itself. Island West is the biggest area, split by a river crossed by three plank bridges, with the farm, the Gourmand Frog, the Parrot Express and a shipwreck on the east bank, and the pond, Birdie's Shack, the whack-a-mole, Qi's Walnut Room, the Tiger Slime Grove and the crystal puzzle on the west.
The island keeps its own weather, which has nothing to do with the forecast in the valley. Once the farmer has visited once, the television starts reporting the island's weather separately.
Shops
Gus runs a bar on the resort days he visits, selling a Piña Colada, Beer, Pale Ale, Mead, Cranberry Candy, Mango Wine and the recipe for Tropical Curry, which is the only shop in the game that opens and closes with a holiday rota.
The Island Trader is a bluebird with a stand in Island North. His parrot appears once the Island Farmhouse is built, and trading opens for ten Golden Walnuts. He barters rather than taking money, and most of his prices are paid in forage gathered on the island itself. His rotating stock is where the island-themed furniture lives, along with the Galaxy Soul.
Qi's Walnut Room, which needs a hundred Golden Walnuts to enter, has a vending machine that sells for Qi Gems, a Special Order Board of its own and the Perfection Tracker.
Fizz keeps shop in the mushroom cave at the Dig Site and sells perfection waivers, which is the game's own escape hatch for a completion run that has gone wrong.
Residents
Leo lives in the hut in Island East with a talking parrot, and he is the reason the north opens at all. Birdie lives in a shack on the west beach and hands over The Pirate's Wife quest the first time the farmer meets her, after which she simply talks. Professor Snail is trapped behind a boulder in the mushroom cave until a bomb frees him, and he then staffs the Island Field Office, where fossils are donated and the Island Survey answered.
Mr. Qi waits in the Walnut Room, and pirates visit the cove in the southeast after eight in the evening on dry, even-numbered days.
Fishing
The island's fish list ignores the season entirely, which makes it the simplest water in the game to learn. Island North's freshwater holds the Blue Discus, Midnight Carp and Tilapia. Island South and Southeast hold Flounder, Lionfish, Super Cucumber, Tuna and, on sunny days, Pufferfish.
Island West has both kinds of water, and the southernmost plank bridge marks the boundary: ocean to the west and south, freshwater in the pond and the river north of that bridge. The ocean side adds Octopus to the southern list, and the freshwater side matches Island North.
The Pirate Cove is the only place in the game to catch a Stingray, and casting there can also pull up a Gourmand Statue, which arrives looking like a wrapped present. Fishing in the Forge at the bottom of the volcano brings up Lava Eels at any hour, and one particular painting.
Notes
Walnuts come from everywhere, and the puzzles are the most memorable sources. On a rainy day a Mermaid appears on the rock off the southeast shore, and playing her song on Flute Blocks tuned to the stones on the beach pays five walnuts; the whole thing can be done with a single block by moving and retuning it between notes. On rainy days a Gem Bird also appears in one of the four island regions, drops a gem when approached, and putting the right gem on the matching pedestal at the hidden shrine in the jungle completes a compass puzzle worth five more. The gems do not have to be the ones the birds dropped, and the birds do not even have to be approached, so the puzzle can be brute-forced.
The rest of the island is a list of small jobs. A cave northeast of the Tiger Slime Grove runs a game of Simon Says with coloured crystals, paying three walnuts for a clean run and getting easier every time it is failed. A green Duggy pops between holes in the west and can be whacked with a watering can, or cornered by blocking three of its holes. The shipwreck below the farm holds one walnut, the mussel rocks on the southeast beach hide five, and pirates in the cove pay out for the first three games of darts they lose.
The island farm is the real prize. It starts buried under logs and stones like the valley farm did, and sprinklers, fruit trees and crops all work on it. Crows never come here, so scarecrows can be left at home. Parrots repair the farmhouse for twenty walnuts, giving a four-room house with a kitchen, a Tropical Bed for each farmer on the save and a shipping bin; a mailbox costs five more and a Farm Obelisk twenty after that, which also hands over a Warp Totem: Island. Once the farmhouse is up, a cave in the northeast corner holds the Gourmand Frog, who asks for a Melon, then Wheat, then Garlic, each grown on the island farm and shown to him unharvested, and pays five walnuts a time.
The Volcano Dungeon in the north runs ten levels, with a shop on the fifth and the Forge at the bottom, where Cinder Shards upgrade tools and weapons. A watering can is needed to cut a path through the lava, and the path resets every day until a parrot is paid five walnuts for a permanent bridge. Following the lava river left in the starting area leads to a hidden exit out to the river north of the Dig Site, with two walnuts along the way.
The Beach Resort is the island's social feature. Rebuilding the ruins for twenty walnuts brings a rotating group of Pelican Town villagers over at eleven in the morning on dry, non-festival days, and they leave at six. A toggle between the changing room doors opens and closes the resort, and it stays closed until the farmer reopens it, which matters because a closed resort keeps villagers on their normal schedules at home.
Getting home is free. Stepping onto the boat on the southern beach returns the farmer to the Fish Shop, or to the Bus Stop on festival days when the path home is blocked, or to the bridge south of Pelican Town when the festival is on the Beach itself.
All Locations
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
