Shears
| Shears | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tool |
| Sold By | Marnie's Ranch |
| Cost | 1000g |
Shears exist for one job: taking Wool off a sheep. A sheep grows its coat back on a schedule and then holds it until somebody comes with the blades, so nothing arrives in the Barn by itself. Marnie keeps them on her shelf at the Ranch, and one pair covers any number of sheep. Shearing costs a little energy and pays back Farming experience along with the Wool, which is why a Barn of sheep quietly levels the skill. Wool goes straight into the Loom to become Cloth, and Cloth is both a tailoring staple and a good earner, so the blades pay for themselves inside a season.
The in-game description reads: Use this to collect wool from sheep.
Use
A grown sheep with a full coat gives Wool the moment the Shears are used on it. A sheep that has just been sheared shows a bare coat and has to grow it back before there is anything to take.
The regrowth schedule rewards good care. A fed, contented sheep grows a new coat every third day, which sets the schedule for a sheep Barn. The Shepherd profession takes a day off that, and a sheep at four and a half hearts or better takes off another, so a well-loved flock under the right profession can be sheared every single day.
Happiness matters as much as time. A sheep needs to be fed and reasonably content to grow its coat on schedule, so an animal left outside overnight or short of Hay slows the whole cycle down.
Each shearing draws a small amount of energy and returns Farming experience. Petting and shearing both raise the animal's friendship, and friendship is what pushes Wool up into the higher qualities.
The Shears answer only to sheep. Cows and goats need the Milk Pail, and the birds in a Coop drop their produce on the floor to be picked up.
Upgrades
There is nothing above the basic pair. The Shears have no tiers and the Blacksmith does not handle them, so the same pair bought in the first year serves for the rest of the save.
Automation is the real upgrade. Once Farming reaches level ten, Marnie sells the Auto-Grabber, and one of those placed inside a Barn shears every sheep in the building each morning. It holds the Wool like a chest until it is emptied, and several can be bought for several buildings.
What the machine costs is the relationship. Wool taken automatically earns no friendship points and no Farming experience, so a flock that has not reached full hearts stops climbing, and animals nobody touches drift back down. Adding an Auto-Petter to the same Barn cancels the drift, which is why the pair is a late-game set rather than two separate purchases.
The usual advice is to shear by hand until the flock sits at full hearts, then hand the job to a machine. The hearts are what decide Wool quality, and once they are banked the daily visit stops earning anything.
Notes
Wool is worth processing rather than selling raw. A Loom turns it into Cloth, which sells for considerably more and is also what the tailoring side of the game runs on, so a Barn of sheep plus a Loom is one of the tidier small businesses on a farm.
A Deluxe Barn is what sheep need before Marnie will sell them at all, so the Shears tend to be bought at the same time as a sizeable building project.
The Shears cannot be dropped or thrown away, so there is no risk of losing them in the Mines and no reason to own a spare pair.
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 | - | - |