Heater
| Heater | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tool |
| Sold By | Marnie's Ranch |
| Cost | 2000g |
The Heater is a small box that sits on the floor of a Barn or Coop and keeps the animals inside content through Winter. Cold weather is the one season when animals cannot go out to graze on Grass, and a building without a Heater lets their mood drift down through the long evenings. Mood is what the game looks at when it decides what the morning's produce will be, so a cold Winter shows up as thinner milk and plainer eggs rather than anything dramatic. Marnie sells them at her Ranch, and the Fodder Bundle on the Bulletin Board hands one over as its reward. One box covers a whole building, which makes it one of the cheapest fixes on an animal farm.
Use
Dropping a Heater anywhere on the floor of a Barn or Coop is the entire job. It needs no fuel, no maintenance and no attention through the season.
The effect is narrow and precise. It works only in Winter, only for an animal that is actually inside the building, and only after six in the evening. The animal also has to be in reasonably good spirits already for the Heater to lift it further. Under those conditions mood climbs steadily through the evening until the farmer goes to bed or the animal reaches the top of the scale.
Getting the animals in is therefore half the point. An animal shut out overnight gains nothing from a Heater standing warm indoors, so the door has to be open enough for them to wander back in before evening.
One box per building is all that is wanted. A second Heater in the same Barn adds nothing on top of the first, so the gold is better spent on a box for the Coop next door.
Mood is separate from friendship, and the two behave differently. Petting, feeding and daily attention build friendship over weeks, while mood swings up and down day to day with weather, feeding and shelter. The Heater works purely on the second one.
Upgrades
There is a single model with no tiers, and the Blacksmith has nothing to do with it. A Heater bought in the first Winter is the same box as one bought in the fifth.
The Fodder Bundle is the cheaper route to the first one. That bundle sits on the Bulletin Board at the Community Center and asks for Wheat, Hay and Apples, all of which a farm with animals tends to have anyway, and the reward is a Heater. Completing it before the first Winter means not paying Marnie at all.
Notes
The effect is worth keeping in perspective. Animals do not come to harm without a Heater, and a Winter spent without one costs production rather than lives, so it is an optimisation rather than a necessity.
Hay is the other half of Winter preparation. Grass dies off entirely in the cold and does not grow back until the season turns, so a full Silo matters at least as much as a warm Barn. Cutting everything standing in late Fall is the habit that covers both.
A Deluxe Barn or Deluxe Coop takes the feeding chore off the list by moving Hay to the trough automatically, which pairs neatly with a Heater and an Auto-Petter to make a building that needs no Winter visits at all.
The Heater is one of the few tools that can be picked up and moved freely or thrown away, so it travels between buildings easily if only one has been bought.
All Tools
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Iridium Rod | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Grabber | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Petter | 
|
50000g |
| Axes | - | - |
| Bamboo Pole | 
|
500g |
| Fiberglass Rod | 
|
1800g |
| Golden Scythe | 
|
- |
| Hay Hopper | 
|
- |
| Heater | 
|
2000g |
| Hoes | - | - |
| Incubator | 
|
- |
| Iridium Rod | 
|
7500g |
| Iridium Scythe | 
|
- |
| Milk Pail | 
|
1000g |
| Pans | - | - |
| Pickaxes | - | - |
| Scythe | 
|
- |
| Shears | 
|
1000g |
| Training Rod | 
|
25g |
| Trash Cans | - | - |
| Watering Cans | - | - |