Gus' Famous Omelet
| Gus' Famous Omelet | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Special Orders board |
| Giver | Gus |
| Time Limit | 14 days |
| Repeatable | Yes |
Gus pins this job to the special orders board when he fancies cooking something far too large for one pan, and it asks the farm for two dozen eggs delivered to the fridge inside the Stardrop Saloon. It is the gentlest order on the board for anyone who already keeps birds, because a stocked coop fills the counter at its own pace with no work asked of the farm. Finishing it the first time brings a Mini-Fridge home by post, which doubles the cold storage beside the kitchen stove and feeds its contents straight into cooking. Gus asks again in later years, and every repeat pays the same gold without handing over the furniture a second time. For a farm with four or more laying hens it is close to free money, and it is worth taking the moment it appears.
The board reads: I've got the urge to make my famous giant omelet... but I'll need two dozen eggs. Any takers?
Requirements
The journal keeps two tallies side by side for this one. The first counts eggs picked up after the order went live, and the second counts eggs dropped into the saloon fridge. Both have to reach two dozen before Gus is satisfied, which is the detail that catches people out. A chest full of eggs saved up beforehand will empty into the fridge quite happily and fill the second tally, yet the first tally sits at nothing until fresh eggs are lifted out of a coop.
Gus is relaxed about what sort of egg arrives. White and brown chicken eggs both count, the larger versions of each count, and eggs laid by ducks or hatched dinosaurs count as well. Quality makes no difference to the tally either. Eggs bought over a counter also register, so a short week can be closed by shopping rather than waiting on the birds.
The pickup has to be a pickup. An egg lifted off the coop floor counts, and so does one taken out of an Auto-Grabber standing inside the coop, since the machine gathers on the farmer's behalf. Eggs moved out of storage and into the bag do nothing for the gathering tally no matter how many times they change hands.
The drop-off point is the fridge in the Stardrop Saloon, which wears a question mark above it while the order is live. Clicking it opens the deposit, and eggs can go in a few at a time across several evenings rather than all at once.
Keeping birds at all is the real prerequisite. A Coop goes up at the Carpenter's Shop for gold, wood and stone and takes a couple of days to build, and chickens come from Marnie's Ranch, which keeps its shutters down at the start of the week. A chick fed and kept warm matures in a few days and then lays once a day, so four hens cover two dozen eggs inside a week and eight hens manage it in three days.
The order asks for every item in this table.
| Item | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 
|
24 |
Rewards
The gold arrives every single time the order is completed, so a coop already in use turns the posting into the steadiest repeat earner Pelican Town offers. Nothing has to be grown, caught or fought for it.
The Mini-Fridge comes by post the morning after the cutscene, and only on the first run. It holds the same number of stacks as an ordinary chest and, far more usefully, its contents are treated as though they were in the kitchen itself when a recipe is cooked. That turns a corner of the farmhouse into a proper larder and removes the shuffling of ingredients in and out of the bag before every cooking session. It can only stand inside the farmhouse, and only once the kitchen has been added by the first house upgrade, so an order finished before that upgrade leaves the furniture waiting. The same item sits on Robin's shelves for a considerable sum, so the order is worth taking early simply to avoid paying for it.
Walking into the saloon after the eggs are in triggers the Giant Omelet scene, which plays once. The collection box by the board yields a Prize Ticket too, and the job counts towards the help wanted achievements just as a Bulletin Board errand would.
Finishing the order pays out all of this.
| Reward | Image |
|---|---|
| 3,000g (each time) | - |
| Mini-Fridge (only the 1st time) | 
|
| "Giant Omelet" cutscene at the Stardrop Saloon (only the 1st time) | 
|
Strategy
Read the board on Monday and take this one straight away, because the fortnight shown on the posting is the most time it will ever offer. A coop with a handful of hens then needs no plan at all: collect each morning, walk the eggs down to the saloon when the bag gets full, and the order closes itself.
A farm without birds can still manage it inside the fortnight, but the shopping has to come first. Build the coop, buy four chickens on a day Marnie is open, feed them daily and let them mature. That leaves roughly a week of laying, which is enough. Buying eggs outright closes any remaining gap on the final days.
Anyone running an Auto-Grabber in the coop can leave the job almost entirely alone, since the machine sweeps up every egg at dawn and the tally rises as soon as the haul is taken out of it. That is the comfortable way to handle the order on a repeat run years later.
The usual failure is a stockpile mistaken for progress. Eggs saved in advance go into the fridge, the deposit tally fills, the order still shows as incomplete, and the farmer spends the last few days confused rather than collecting. Depositing the old stock on day one is the right move, but only if fresh eggs keep coming in behind it. The other failure is a late start: accepted on a Friday, the posting has already burnt most of its fortnight.
Notes
The timer runs from the morning the posting appeared, which means a fortnight spotted on Thursday is really a week and a half of laying. Nothing is lost by taking it at once, since there is no way to hand an order back and it simply has to run its course.
A coop fitted with a Deluxe upgrade and an incubator turns spare eggs into more birds, which makes each repeat of this order easier than the last. Eggs left over after Gus has had his two dozen go into mayonnaise, cooking or the bin as usual, and nothing about the order locks them away.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.