Marriage
| Marriage | |
|---|---|
| Type | Mechanic |
Marriage turns one of the valley's twelve single villagers into a permanent resident of the farmhouse, and it is the longest courtship the game asks for. Friendship has to be built to eight hearts, where it stops dead until a bouquet from Pierre makes the relationship official, and then pushed to ten before a proposal is possible at all. The proposal itself is a Mermaid's Pendant, sold by an old man who only stands in the tide pools when it rains. After the wedding the spouse moves in, brings their own room with them, helps with chores, and raises their heart meter from ten to fourteen, with a Stardrop waiting partway up. The whole arrangement can be undone at the Mayor's Manor for a large fee, and even that can be undone again at a shrine in the Witch's Hut.
Overview
Only a villager marked as single in the Social tab can be courted. Six bachelors live in and around Pelican Town, Alex, Elliott, Harvey, Sam, Sebastian and Shane, and six bachelorettes, Abigail, Emily, Haley, Leah, Maru and Penny. Gender places no restriction on any of it.
Friendship with any of the twelve climbs normally to eight hearts and then freezes. The morning after that happens, Pierre writes to explain that romance needs one of his bouquets, and he starts stocking them. Handing one over unfreezes the last two hearts and changes the villager's status to boyfriend or girlfriend. A bouquet can be given to more than one candidate at a time with no friendship penalty from the others, though dating all six of either group triggers a group scene that leaves every one of them cold for a week. A Wilted Bouquet ends a relationship on the spot and drops that villager's friendship back to five hearts.
Two things have to be in place alongside the hearts. The farmhouse needs its first upgrade from Robin, and the tide pools on the east side of the Beach have to be reachable, which means either repairing the bridge with three hundred pieces of wood or buying the second community upgrade. The day after ten hearts are reached, Mayor Lewis writes to explain the local custom, and the Old Mariner appears in the tide pools on rainy days with a Mermaid's Pendant for five thousand gold. In Winter he only turns up if a Rain Totem is used. He also checks the conditions before selling, so a farmhouse that has never been upgraded gets nothing from him.
Giving the pendant starts an engagement, and the calendar marks the wedding day with a pendant icon. The ceremony happens three mornings later, the moment the farmer wakes, and the couple appear on the farmhouse porch afterwards. Weddings refuse to share a day with a town event or with Green Rain, so either of those pushes the date back. The sky is always clear on the day whatever the forecast promised, and the weather icon by the clock becomes a heart.
Married life changes the daily routine. The spouse lives in the farmhouse, their heart meter extends to fourteen, and a happy one helps around the place: watering the whole farm in the growing seasons, feeding every animal, filling the Pet Bowl, mending broken fences and leaving breakfast or dinner out as a gift. They also redecorate without asking, swapping wallpaper or flooring or adding a piece of furniture now and then. Speaking to a spouse with nothing left to say produces an embrace instead, and the first kiss of the day clears exhaustion off the energy bar, which is worth remembering before a long day underground.
Friendship with a spouse decays faster than it does with anyone else, losing ground every day without contact, so the morning conversation is a chore like any other. At twelve and a half hearts the spouse hands over a Stardrop, one of the permanent energy upgrades, and only one such Stardrop exists per save. Marriage also lifts the usual limit of two gifts per villager per week, though the one gift per day rule stays.
Every spouse brings a room of their own, built to the right of the bedroom and themed around their life. Abigail's has a games console, a drum kit and a sword on the wall. Alex's is floored in green with Gridball wallpaper and a weights bench. Elliott's is brown and lined with books around a model ship. Emily's has a sewing table and the bird from her early scene. Haley's has a camera and a photo board. Harvey's has model aeroplanes. Leah's has a canvas and paint pots. Maru's has a telescope and star charts. Penny's has bookshelves. Sam's has a guitar, a keyboard and a computer. Sebastian's has the table used for Solarian Chronicles and a work computer. Shane's is strewn with beer cans. The rooms cannot be demolished and their built-in furniture cannot be moved, but anything added afterwards can be taken out again.
Each spouse also claims a small patch outside, north-east of where the house started, and spends time there. Abigail plays her flute, Alex lifts weights, Emily meditates among crystals, Haley takes photographs between palm trees, Leah sculpts, Maru tinkers with a gadget, Sam skateboards on a half-pipe, Sebastian works on his bike, Shane stands by a hutch holding his chicken Charlie, and Elliott, Harvey and Penny each read in a potted garden.
Children need the second farmhouse upgrade, which adds the nursery. After that a spouse occasionally asks at bedtime whether the household should grow, and the answer can be no without any friendship cost, since they will ask again later. Opposite-sex couples have babies and same-sex couples adopt, and either way the child arrives a fortnight after the agreement.
Divorce is handled by a small book inside the Mayor's Manor and costs fifty thousand gold. The filing can be cancelled the same day until Lewis locks up at ten, and otherwise the spouse, their room and their outdoor patch are gone by morning with friendship reset to nothing and the word ex under their name. They move home, refuse gifts, speak bitterly about the failed marriage, and stop treating the farmer normally at festivals. Any children stay on the farm, and anything left in the old room is gathered into a chest the following day. The Witch's Hut holds the escape clause: a shrine there wipes every ex-spouse's memory for thirty thousand gold, which allows the whole courtship to run again, although the heart events themselves only ever play once per save.
Notes
Jealousy is the one trap in a settled marriage. Giving a gift to another candidate of the same gender as the spouse risks an angry reaction, but only if that candidate has already accepted a bouquet. Whether the gift is loved or merely liked makes no difference, a birthday gift is the only safe exception, and delivery quests do not count. The odds sit somewhere between a fifth and two fifths depending on the day's fortune, and the cost is a friendship penalty plus a pointed remark the next time they speak.
A spouse notices the state of the house. Clutter blocking their path through the rooms draws a complaint about wading through junk, and clutter blocking the kitchen means no dinner that evening. Monsters loose indoors get a bemused question, and a missing bed produces a run of remarks about sleeping on the floor. An unhappy spouse turns away from a kiss and may spend the day in bed instead of helping.
The Witch's Hut also offers a darker option, turning children into doves in exchange for a Prismatic Shard. It removes them permanently, after which an Ancient Doll attacks on every visit to the hut.
Krobus is the one companion who is not a marriage candidate. He can move into the farmhouse as a roommate instead, which gives the household arrangement without the romance, and the memory shrine wipes his recollection too if that arrangement ends.
All Mechanics
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
