Pans
| Pans | |
|---|---|
| Type | Tool |
The Pan pulls ore and treasure out of the water, which makes it the one mining tool that works without going underground. Shimmering lights appear at the edge of a lake, river or pond, and a click on them with the Pan in hand brings up a handful of ore and often something better. Copper, Iron and Gold Ore are the bread and butter, with a thin chance of Iridium Ore, while the bonus rolls can turn up Omni Geodes, gems, a Mystery Box, an artifact or even a Lucky Ring. Panning costs no energy at all, so a circuit of the valley's water on a lucky day is pure profit. It can also be worn as a hat, which is the game's neatest answer to a full backpack.
Use
Willy hands over a Copper Pan after the Glittering Boulder west of the mine entrance is cleared away. That happens either by completing the Fish Tank bundles in the Community Center or by buying Panning from the Joja Community Development Form. Walking into the mountain area afterwards triggers a short scene: Willy stands by the newly revealed stream, points out the lights carrying ore down from the mountains, and digs a spare pan out of his backpack. After that his Fish Shop stocks them.
Using it is a matter of watching and listening. A splash plays and lights shimmer on the surface, and a click while standing in reach collects whatever is there. Both the spot and its contents are decided when the day begins, so the same lights give the same haul no matter when they are reached. Lights turn up in any lake, pond or river, along the Beach during the Night Market, and all over Ginger Island.
Each ore collected adds a point of Mining experience, so a season of casual panning slowly fills the skill bar while the Pickaxe stays in the bag.
The Tracker profession makes a circuit far easier, putting a small green arrow on screen when lights appear off to the side. The arrow only works inside the current region, so it helps on a sweep of the mountain or the forest rather than across the whole valley.
Moving the Pan into the hat slot wears it on the head, and it still works as a tool once it goes back into the bag. For a trip to Skull Cavern where every slot counts, that is a free slot.
Upgrades
The Copper Pan is the entry point rather than the end of the line. Clint upgrades it with five bars and a payment in gold, climbing through Iron Bars, Gold Bars and finally Iridium Bars.
Each tier raises both halves of the reward. The ore haul grows by a few pieces per tier, and more importantly the cap on bonus items rises, from a single extra item with copper up to four with iridium. The higher pans also start spawning fresh panning spots after a successful dig, and the iridium version does so often, which turns one set of lights into a short chain.
The bonus rolls are where a good pan earns its cost. Each roll has a reasonable chance of succeeding, and success triggers another roll, so the number of extras is open-ended rather than fixed. Pan tier, a Luck buff and the day's luck all push that chance up. Coal and Omni Geodes dominate the table, with the gemstones, Fire Quartz, Earth Crystal and Frozen Tear filling in the rest and Diamond at the top.
Enchanting at the Forge costs a Prismatic Shard and twenty Cinder Shards and gives one random result. Generous raises the cap on bonus items by two, which stacks on top of an iridium pan for a genuinely greedy haul. Archaeologist multiplies the chances of artifacts, Artifact Troves and Bone Fragments several times over, which makes it the best tool in the game for filling the Museum. Fisher adds a chance of pulling a season-appropriate fish out of the water. Any enchantment at all also nudges the bonus roll chance upward.
Notes
Daily luck matters more here than almost anywhere else. A perfect day raises the Diamond chance and the odds of a furniture or clothing drop, and it is the only condition under which a Lucky Ring can come out of the water at all. Luck buffs from food stack on top, so a Lucky Lunch before a panning circuit is time well spent.
The Archaeologist enchantment changes the shape of the loot table rather than just improving it. It doubles Bone Fragment frequency at the cost of the other ore types, Iridium Ore excepted, and lifts the Artifact Trove chance four times over. A farm chasing the Museum collection should keep one enchanted pan aside for that purpose alone.
Ginger Island has two finds of its own. The river at the Dig Site gives up a Fossilized Tail with a fair chance, and panning anywhere else on the island turns up Taro Tubers instead, which saves buying seed for the island farm.
A pan worn as a hat cannot be transferred straight onto a Mannequin. Wearing it and then swapping clothes with the Mannequin gets around that.
The Pan is one of the few tools that can be thrown away or dropped, so some care is needed around the inventory screen. A replacement is always available at the Fish Shop.
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 | - | - |