Perfection
| Perfection | |
|---|---|
| Type | Collection |
Perfection is the game's own measure of how much of itself has been finished, kept on a statue called the Perfection Tracker in Qi's Walnut Room. It averages a set of weighted goals, from shipping every crop and forage item to befriending every villager and building every obelisk, and it moves slowly because each goal is a long campaign in its own right. Reaching a hundred per cent changes the valley the following morning: Grandpa speaks, the mountain path to the Summit opens, parrots fly over the farm and the tracker hands over a trophy that pays out a Prismatic Shard a day. Nothing in the game is gated behind it, which makes Perfection a goal chosen rather than required, and most farms that get there have run for well over a hundred hours. It is also the only score in the valley that money can be thrown at, since a Joja man named Fizz will sell percentage points for cash.
Overview
The score cannot be seen until Qi's Walnut Room has been opened, and that door wants a hundred Golden Walnuts from Ginger Island. Everything done before then still counts, so the first several years are played without a scoreboard, and the first look at the tracker is often a pleasant surprise rather than a shock.
Shipping carries the heaviest single weight at fifteen per cent, and it is the goal most often spoiled by accident. Only items that pass through a shipping bin are recorded, so anything sold straight to a shopkeeper leaves a gap, and the gaps tend to be awkward things: a Sweet Gem Berry sold to the Traveling Cart, a mushroom handed over in a quest, forage that was eaten rather than shipped. Keeping one of everything back and posting it in the bin is far easier than hunting the missing entries years later.
Friendship is the next heaviest at eleven per cent, and it has a built-in delay. Every villager has to be taken to their highest heart level, which means ten hearts for most of the valley and eight for the bachelors and bachelorettes who have not been married. Kent is away at the start of a save and only returns later, so this goal cannot be finished in the first year no matter how sociable the farmer is. Children do not count towards it.
Six more goals sit at ten per cent each, and they are the body of the work. The Gold Clock has to be standing on the farm. Every monster eradication goal at the Adventurer's Guild has to be signed off. Every Stardrop has to be found, which scatters the work across the Mines, the Fair, the Sewers, Willy's postbag, a spouse, a statue in the woods and the museum. Every cooking recipe has to be cooked at least once, every crafting recipe has to be made at least once, and every fish in the collection has to be caught, legendary fish included. The last two of those are where most runs stall, since a handful of crafting recipes and the legendary catches are easy to put off indefinitely.
The smaller slices are the cheapest wins. Reaching level ten in every skill is worth five per cent and happens largely by itself. Finding all the Golden Walnuts is another five, which is a modest return for a very long hunt. The four obelisks together are worth only four per cent, and they are by far the most expensive thing on the list.
That last imbalance leads to the one genuinely clever piece of Perfection planning. The obelisks and the Gold Clock between them cost millions of gold and return fourteen per cent, while Fizz sells a percentage point for half a million. Buying fourteen points from Fizz therefore costs roughly half as much as building the real thing, and the score does not care which route was taken. Fizz introduces himself by letter the first time the tracker is touched, inviting the farmer to the watery cave on Ginger Island, which is the mushroom cave where Professor Snail is first found. His sales pitch is exactly as sincere as a Joja employee's ought to be, and the letter arrives whether or not Perfection has already been reached.
On a shared farm the score is single and communal. Each category records the best result any one farmer has managed, so one person catching every fish settles fishing for the whole team. Work cannot be pooled inside a category, though: two farmers each finishing half the monster goals leaves that goal unfinished, because no single farmer completed it.
The morning after the score fills is the real reward. A line appears saying that Grandpa is beaming with pride and that the farm's legacy is eternal. A rumbling in the distance clears the boulder on the mountain road, and the first walk up to the Summit plays a scene that most players rate as the game's true ending. The Perfection Tracker then hands over the Statue Of True Perfection, which sits indoors and produces a Prismatic Shard every single day, turning the rarest item in the valley into a routine morning pickup. Golden Eggs become available, and hatching one produces a Golden Chicken. A monkey in the Volcano Caldera trades for a hat with no name. A stone carving of a Stardrop appears above Grandpa's Shrine, and a flock of island parrots passes over the farm.
Notes
Nothing about Perfection is urgent, and chasing it early tends to make a save feel like a checklist. The friendlier approach is to play normally for several years, keep one of everything for the shipping bin, and only open the tracker once the island is finished. The remaining gaps are then usually short and specific rather than overwhelming.
Qi's vending machine also changes once the score is full. A Golden Egg appears in the list of things Qi Gems will buy, and it stays locked until Perfection is reached, which makes it the one purchase in the room that cannot be rushed with walnuts.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
